long live the new flesh

Starting to feel the separation and sadness of moving.

Wasn't all that productive today. Got some of the kitchen remnants packed away and the bathroom stuff. Just need to do finishing things. It was a nice day today, well mostly. Doctor Who was good and sort of insane. They do a good job of having it turn out not at all like you expect it to.

So yeah, I packed up stuff and ate a scramble. At 3:50ish I rode off to Rollyn's place to watch some movies and eat some pizza. First we took a walk, as it was a really nice day. Walked down to the waterfront and sat at the fountain for a while. Then we returned, ordered some pizza, and watched Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Surprisingly, even though he owns the movie, my tattoo didn't make sense till the Don't Panic part came up. Ha. Then we watched Videodrome. Very weird. Good ol James Woods. I left earlier than usual and I'm blogging way earlier than usual.

Tomorrow I finalize the packing. Ma and Pa come into town. Hmm.

Todays Portrait Is: Richard Cheese.

miranda with terry and colin

My foot is itchy and I can see that it is just days away from peeling. Ohhh.

Got up at a bit after 11. Did the dishes and had a big breakfast. It was rainy so I waited for it to clear up before I set out on my errands.

My first errand was to take the remaining stuff off the computer at school. I just plopped it onto a thumbdrive instead of burning it. From there I rode down to Floating World Comics. I closed out my comics box, bought the new Mourning Star comic and also picked up a teeshirt so I can always represent FWC where ever I go. Such a great shop. I have a big pile of comics to catch up on.

From there I went to Buffalo Exchange to see if I could get a better pair of flats to wear while my tattoo heals. I only have one pair that works and they are flimsy and suck. After going through plenty of size 8, 9, and 10s I found one pair of size 7 and a halves that were perfect. A lovely tan and brown pair of Palladiums that were super comfy. I wore them out of the shop. Went home, got my stuff together, and went to catch the 77.

It started raining right as I got on the bus and it continued to pour and pour and pour. It was at least a warm rain, though a dismal amount of it. I disembarked from the bus at 74 and Halsey and was soaked in minutes and my poor new (though previously used) shoes were quite sodden. I found Terry and Colin's place and he gave me a towel and loaned me some pajama bottoms.

Dinner was chicken fried steak and rice followed with a dessert of this chocolate covered marshmallow with gum drops treat and then later s'mores. I got chocolate all over me and demanded several times "don't look at me!" I never realize how much of a sloppy eater I can be till I have company. Anyway, we spent the night watching the first season of Miranda. There were only six half hour episodes, so that wasn't THAT impressive of a watching feat. It was awkward but very funny. Had some good laughs. I lost terribly at a game of Bananagrams. Terry drove me home (with my now dry pants back on). I got his address, so I'll send him a card.

I'll finish packing tomorrow. Now I just want to go to sleep. OHH new Doctor Who tomorrow! Can't wait. Ha cha cha!

Todays Portrait Is: Eugene Hutz.

maddy's day

My tattoo is itching. Ahhhg. Just gotta moisturize it and that is the only touching allowed. It is so close to starting to peel.

Anyhoodles. Like I said, Robin stayed over. Had a tea breakfast. And then after she left, I had some rice and seaweed. The rice was basmati, so it wasn't quite sticky enough. Tasty, yeah, it just wasn't like sushi rice. Had a salad later. Drew the rest of May's portraits and watched stuff. Need to get super ahead on them, because I'll be motorhoming for two weeks.

Called Madeline to see what she was up to and she said she was up to nothing so she came and picked me up. We hung out and watched Life on Mars and talked and ate snacks (chocolate, licorice, popcorn). It was a good night. She and her mom Tina badgered me to watch Battlestar Galactica. I already watch too much! And I still feel behind. I'm sad to be parting from one of my numero uno nerd buddies, but we will call and text after every nerd thing and catch up. Nerds are for life!

I need to get back into packing. I stalled.

Todays Portrait Is: Leon Redbone.

surprised!

Ahhhh oh my god, Karen surprised me with a going away party! I thought it was happening Thursday night and it happened tonight instead. Anyway, I'll start at the start.

At 10 I got a call from Robin arranging a lunch time hang out. We agreed to meet at her place at 1pm, go to the East side by max, and then go to her parents house for Lunch. It was a gray sort of cold day, and cold days are ever so much amplified by not being able to wear socks due to a tattoo.

Robin looked adorable and we caught the max over. Her house is AMAZING. Like seriously spectacular. Her mother is a landscape designer so her outside is all designed with paths and plants and chickens and stuff. Really well articulated. Her mother collects and also makes doll furniture, so tucked away in different parts of the house are doll furniture set ups. Like a bathtub and toilet in the bathroom. There is even a doll house in the basement that is beyond well constructed, with little mini etchings decorating the wall. Robin gave me a lovely little tour of her house and her house within a house. She also made me a shrimp, tomato, lettuce, onion sandwich for lunch! Deeeelicious.

We rode out on bikes to Lodekka, but it was closed. So we went to Pix and got a dessert. An amazing chocolatey dessert named Shazaam. It was a caramel chocolate almond cake wrapped up in a soft sheet of chocolate. Mmmm. Yum.

After that we returned to the West side. I thought the plan was for me, Robin, Kristen, Tabitha (who was picking up Cidney) to go enjoy some minigolf later. So Karen rolled up and was all "I accidentally left my ID at Roadside Attraction, we need to swing by and pick it up". I was totally in belief that we were doing minigolf. Karen parked and into Roadside Attraction we went and BAM THERE WAS JON AND DOM AND MELISSA AND MEL AND JIM AND CIDNEY AND BT AND TABITHA AND MADELINE ALL THERE!!! And there to see me and wish me goodbye. I almost cried there, but I kept it together. Lots of hugs! But no minigolf. STILL! OH MY GOD! How amazing. Karen bought me a tea vodka and lemonade drink and I settled in and I got some cards and Jim had a comic to give to me and Melissa made me a drawing and I got some more drawings and cards. Daniel and Heather came and they had a gift of watercolor postcards (with five of them already filled out with their address) and stamps and a travel watercolor set. Ahhhh so cool. I had everyone there fill out their addresses on the remaining cards. I plan to draw during my motorhoming adventures and send it out to my wonderful friends. Wonderful lovely awesome perfect irreplaceable friends who I will miss sorely. Serenity and Beth and Sivonna came. Serenity bought be a drink and that was lovely.

Oh what a great night. Lots of company, lots of good company. Friends for life, no doubt.

Tabitha gave Robin (because her stuff was at my place), Cidney, Kristen and I a lift back. Robin and I snuggled up in bed and watched Doctor Who and then, deciding we were warm and comfortable, promptly went to sleep after.

Todays Portrait Is: Bruno Mars.

bringing another into the fold

Slept in a bit: 10:30am. Weird how my sleep schedule has changed so much since the Rock n Roll Girls Camp Exercisearama.

Today it was sunny and lovely. There is this Fiero outside that hasn't moved in weeks, so I drew some eyes on pieces of paper and put them under its windshield, because it looked silly. They were gone by the end of the day. That person is just letting their crappy car disintegrate unused. If you are not going to drive it, sell it!

Anyway, I made three trips to William Temple House. Comics, clothes, shoes. The last two trips I had Kristen for company. And then after the third I went to Trader Joe's for what might be my final shopping trip. Salad, meat, rice, seaweed, chips, dip. Returned home and went to Beth's potluck.

It was also a sort of going away shindig for Nell and Nick. They are leaving for Saint Louis. Chips and dip were had. As well as bratwursts and cake. Robin brought steak tartar. Fancy. The celebration ended at 5, as there was a meet and greet at school for the thesis show. I opted out of it.

Relaxed at home. At 8ish, Karen picked me up and we went back to their place and I set her on her way to watching Doctor Who. HUZZAH! We watched four episodes of the 9th Doctor; the first two and the Empty Child/Doctor Dances two parter. I think she gets the appeal now. Back at home I watched Glee. Tomorrow I am having lunch with Robin and mini golf with Karen and probably Tabitha. Packing has stalled but I'll pick up on it again.

Also turns out the meet and greet kinda sucked.

Todays Portrait Is: Travie McCoy.

packing it away, almost out of Portland

I just love looking down at my feet. So lovely.

Alarm went off at 8. Hauled myself out of bed without much struggle at 8:40. Showered. Mother and father arrived shortly after to help with packing. I had some tea and made a list of things to do. Sorting out dishes. Sorting out boxes. All that stuff. Ma helped with the dishes. Dad helped haul my stuff up from the basement storage. Got to getting stuff together. So many boxes started assembling. I didn't think I had that much stuff, but it always ends up looking that way when it is all assembled. At least the only furniture I am moving is my bed, and the frame is very minimal. The box spring went down with todays load, and the mattress will go down with next weeks, as well as with me. Disassembled my bed and then it was time to pack. Did a layer of boxes and bins with shelves on either side.

I have such a big haul of stuff to take to William Temple House. Clothes, shoes, cheap comics I can't be bothered to take the time to pass off onto someone else. Part of me wants to part with much more of what I have been holding on to. I like having my magazines on hand, for reference. But do I really need these around? How valuable is the reference and inspiration they provide? I'll hang onto them for now, but...I dunno.

Where ever I move to next, I'll take a lot less with me.

Apparently Mom and Dad have Nathan's Wii now. JEALOUS.

It started to rain right as we draped the tarp. Ma and Pa left and I had lunch. Chili! Put a few more things away. Chilled out.

Lacey came over at 6pm to pick up this piece of hers that I had been holding onto for her. She stuck around and watched the new episode of Doctor Who with me. She left to get some dinner. I packed some more. Slowly, but surely, everything is going into boxes. All my clothes to wear are in a suitcase. It's just getting the tidbits into boxes now. Cleaning the gunk.

Todays Portrait Is: Ricky Wilson.

graduation!

I have a degree! I'm a certified college educated woman!

Got up at 8, showered. Had a small breakfast. Got my clothes on. I went back and forth between pants and a skirt but settled on the pants. The skirt just threw the ensemble off. Put my hair up into heidi braids. Did my makeup. Kristen was looking adorable too. At PNCA, we don't wear cap and gowns. It is as formal as you wish. Some wear tee shirts, others take it as the chance to go all out.

There was a pre-Grad shindig at Mel's, so Kristen and I swung by Fred Meyers and got a bottle of Champagne and some scones and chilled out there with Mel, her family, Melissa, Leah, Leah, Tabitha, BT, Karen, Karen's family... Mel lives a few blocks from the Tiffany Center, where our graduation is being held, so it was convenient. And then 3pm rolled around and the grads strutted their way over to the center.

We all met on the 2nd floor. Damn everyone looked so good! So much fabulous in one room. A few went all out and had on gowns. Many guys were in various suits. Time passed by so quick. Before we knew it, it was time to struggle to get into alphabetical order. 4pm came. And then 4:15. And THEN the line moved and we slowly progressed up to the 4th floor. The Tiffany Center is a great place to graduate. There are seats close in and all around. It isn't a stadium by a long shot. And since my class is like, 120 people strong, with the MFA's, it doesn't need to be big. I got my seat and then the commencement...commenced.

Tom Manly spoke pausingly. The first MFA speech was good and memorable. She talked briefly about her 12 classmates and told the school that it was a fine relationship but they were breaking up. The second MFA speech...I can't even remember it. Some MFA awards were handed out as well. Then the BFA speech. Sohkun had some lovely sentiments about art making and how we seek it. Some BFA awards were handed out. Dominic got the Illustration prize and Liberal Arts prize, Robin GFA, Mel Design. Well deserved. Then came the alumni speech from hell. It was long and rambling and she just read from her artist diary and it went on and on and on and was so pretentious sounding. I mumbled some jokes to Will and Chloe, because there was nothing else to do! Her speech took more time than it did for us to get our diplomas.

One by one we crossed the stage. About 10 names were mispronounced. Which sucks. It just wizzed by. Before I knew it, I was waiting to get my college degree. And then Will went. And then I walked. I waved to the audience a bit and got my degree from Tom Manly. "shake and take" shake his hand and get your degree. When I came off the stage, Dad came out of nowhere and handed me some flowers. Fantastic!

Four years. So much work. And it is over so fast. There have been so many monumental projects that the weight of any one event becomes minimized.

I sat and then the ceremony was over. Several people on drums played us out. The teachers left and slowly but surely, we filed out. High fived Daniel Duford. Hugged Christy, Yoshi, Martin, Annie, Kristin, Morgan. And headed to the second floor. Pa and Ma and Nathan showed up pretty soon. Got pictures and all was good.

We didn't stick around long. First up we went to their hotel room, because it was small and stylish but it had no bathroom and..well it was pretty much just a sink, bed, and lamp. Small, but painted. Then we headed to the Thesis Show, which was having its opening. Walked around and looked at all the wonderful art. So much art. Such great variety. Dad took lots of pictures. We lost Mom for a bit in the studio gallery set ups. Afterwards we walked back to my place, I dropped some stuff off, and we went to Muu Muu for dinner. I got the chicken and brie sandwich, mom got the thai soup, dad and Nate got the Muu Muu burger. And a good time was had.

At 9pm we parted ways. At 10ish Rollyn came over and we hung out and watched the new Game of Thrones episode (he hadn't watched any prior). It was a nice little mini hang out. Just relaxing after a long day with good company.

And now I sleep. For I get up and spend the morning and afternoon packing.

You know that secret errand that I ran yesterday? It was to get a tattoo! Using my Rock n Roll Girls Camp money, I commissioned Olivia Britz of Fortune Tattoo to produce a little "don't panic" tattoo for my footsies. I emailed her late Thursday, and within five total emails I got a time slot at 1pm Saturday. I hopped on the bus over to 17th and Burnside and she presented me several FABULOUS text mock ups. I picked the less flourished one and picked out a filler color. And off we went! She made a little stencil and positioned them on my feet. It hurt, but it felt exactly like what tattooing is: needles stabbing your flesh repeatedly. But it happens so fast you don't have time to say "ouch". The shading hurt the worst. I made sure to keep my flinches in the body parts that were not being inked. And before I knew it, I had something permanent on my body! And man do I love it. In so many ways it is perfect and it represents this brilliant culmination. It was wrapped up, as tattoos have to be for a half day, and off I went. I kept it a bit of a secret because I wanted to show it to the parents in person. They seemed to dig it, as it is nerdy and not, like, on my neck or something. And it is, of course, extremely well done. Olivia, can't sing high enough praises of her.

Todays Portrait Is: Alex Kapranos.

mystery woman

Uhg. Felt icky in the morning. Stomach all queasy and I didn't get that good of a nights sleep. Ate some saltines and bought some 7Up. Ran a secret mystery errand.

On the way back from mystery errand, I swung by Fred Meyer and bought some buckets. Buckets are better than boxes for moving. Got home and watched the new Doctor Who episode. Then I got to packing. Shoving clothes into buckets. Books into boxes. I want to clear out access to the shelves big things. It is getting there. It seems like I have less stuff than last move. A lot of trinkets. My clothing is being widdled down to just enough to last me the week. Also have a whole pile of things to take to William Temple. Clothes mostly.

So I've been doing that for hours. Taking a break to do my nails. I feel really, really tired. Tomorrow is commencement! I get my diploma!

Todays Portrait Is: Mika.

gettin' down with the lithographers

Some people on my street are going "WHOOO" and I totally feel it. It is a whoo kinda night.

Ahhh anyway, what happened today? Well I woke up at 9, and was all "what? I feel totally awake and it isn't 1pm in the afternoon". So I got up. Had some toast and Emergen-C. Did my stuff. Went to school. Met with Martin and Kristin. Strategized my approach with my website and promotional stuff. Then I backed up all the stuff I had on the student drive. Six 700 megabyte discs burned with stuff. Two of them were just thesis files. Then I went to Safeway and bought chili fixings. Then I went to Key Bank and closed my account, because I only had that account because it was somewhere to deposit checks without having to send them home to Seabeck. Also they were going to start charging for account inactivity, and since my account was mostly inactive, I might as well close it. Since the check went through, I thought I would take the cash and run. Ha.

Went home. Got the chili cooking. Did the dishes. Chilled out. Did my nails. Did my hair (Heidi braids). Tonight was Paul and Yoshi's going away party at Christy's house. Daniel and Heather gave me and my chili a ride. Daniel was sick so he didn't stay, but Heather did. I was cold at first in the house, but as I got inebriated and ate some of the potluck food, I was warmed up. Printmakers make for excellent company. DeAnn, Diana, Zachary, Heather, Karen, Leah, JD, BT, Mel, Phil, Robin, Anthony, Allison, Christy, Tom, Paul, Yoshi, Beth, Chelsey, Junko, Nell, Antonia...so many awesome people. And so much food! People are really good cooks. I had two plates of food. I knew to pace myself, I didn't want to stuff myself on deliciousness. Eva came with apple pie, and that is my favorite pie. I also sampled a lot of booze. Printmakers know how to get down. Daniel was giving Heather and I a ride back, so that was nice (in exchange for chili, of course). So I talked and mingled and ate and drank and generally had a fantastic time.

Stopped by Heather and Daniels and filled some tupperware for them. Went back to my place. I have just the right amount left over for me tomorrow. I have big plans for tomorrow. I'll let you know them...all though they are secret.

Yeah.

Good night.

Todays Portrait Is: Owen Clarke (Hot Chip).

pink shoulders

Ohh it was a consistently beautiful day all day. Sun sun sun. And warm! I rolled up my pant legs and put on a tank top and set out. Put my check in my bank account. Rode my bike to the Tiffany Center and locked it up. Today we did our graduation walk practice. About 20 people didn't show...don't know if that will cause any repercussions for them. I'm in the second to last row between Chloe Steinhoff-Smith and Will Schneider-White. Alphabetical! It went pretty fast. The MFAs walk after us, but sit ahead of us.

It was a brilliant day, so Robin, Kristen, Tabitha, Leah, Mel and I went for food. The Thai place wasn't open at that time. So we went for Japanese food. I got a bento box. A big amount of food but it kept me going through the day. In fact I'm not even hungry how. Whee!

Robin and I walked to school. I locked my bike up and we went to the studios. I cleaned the table on which my posters rested, because it was a bit crummy. I had to also defend it a little, because an Ikea table in a studio show sort of stands out amid all these pedestals.

Hung with Heather and Daniel. Met Karen at Rogue, but didn't order. Mel joined us and we three went to Yur's and we sat with Jeremy and Paul. But didn't order anything. Just sat and chilled. Karen got her hair done and it looked so blonde and lovely.

Left for home and now I'm chilling out. Gotta get up early for a meeting with Martin and Kristin and then make chili for Yoshi and Paul's going away potluck/printer celebration. Ohh need to draw some portraits. And start packing. I can start packing while the chili cooks.

Todays Portrait Is: Felix Martin (Hot Chip).

so much got done and I am so very tired

Alarm went off at 8. I rolled out of bed at 9. My new phone has such great alarm settings. I'm done with my new alarm, it was kinda not effective anyway.

Ate scrambled eggs with diced onion and a cuppa tea. Then at 10:30ish I hauled my table down to the studios.

It was a beautiful day and it didn't take as long as I thought it would. Wasn't that painful of a lug and I had Hound of Baskervilles to listen to. Ran into Craig on the way there, chatted a bit. When I got to the studios, a couple people were setting up. I agreed to move my space from a much larger wall to a smaller one next to Kevin and across from Eva. Originally my table had its own wall to rest against and the posters had their own one, but now it is cozier. The straight line of posters wrap around the corner and the table sticks out. I wrote with sharpie on the table "feel free to take one (or some)". I want these posters to be distributed! Hopefully they will be popular at the show. Talked to Nathan a bit on the phone. I was out of there so much earlier than expected. Went to the studios and picked up my screens. Farewell studio, I shant print in you again. For the time being. Swung by the money office and paid my remaining fees. Then I trotted up back home with three screens. Got back at 1pm, which was swell. Gave me time to eat, write up an invoice for my work at the girls camp, and generally relax. My shoulders hurt a lot when I woke up but the pain subsided.

Then at 3:15, I set once once again for the 5+ mile trip to the Rock n Roll Girls Camp. It was warm and lovely. The bridge was up though, but thankfully it came down in a reasonable amount of time. I zoomed up Williams. The distance on Williams from Sacramento to Ainsworth(Allingsworth?) is the one that feels the longest. The straight shot that is mostly gradually uphill that you can't really gauge how far you have to go. Once you turn onto Vanouver it is only about 5 minutes. I got there at 4, perfect! I took down the tees, turned in the invoice so I could get paid (not just volunteer work!!), set up the space, filled the bucket. My helper was...ohh dang I've forgotten her name but she was awesome. We exchanged some cool stories and tricks and stuff.

There were only three bands today: Name, The Minions, and Semi Colon Capital D. The last band was the one who played during the Ladies Rock Camp, and they were so cool. We got into it a little bit late, but some of the bands were ready to go. Name was the first to start cutting out their design, followed by ;D (get it?) and lastly The Minions, who were the last to finish printing. But they had a really cool design, it just had some trouble printing (pressure issues). Name had to flood their screen before printing because the cut out contact paper was really close to the edge. Sometimes I didn't feel totally needed because the girls have done the camp before and knew how to do the stencil, but when it came to problem solving and just being an extra adult to help, my presence was needed. It was fun. I felt a lot more confidant this time around. Clean up took a while, but no hurry. I listened to Name play their song Song, and DAMN THOSE GIRLS ARE AWESOME. So good. I wish I was that awesome when I was a wee one.

Got my lovely check, which I will deposit tomorrow. At 7 I rode home, got home at 7:30. Hydrated. Ate food. Talked to mom. Watched Sherlock. Now I am exhausted so I think I'll go to bed at...WHAT THE, IT IS ELEVEN? That is so early...

Todays Portrait Is: Al Doyle (Hot Chip).

little ladies that are most awesome

Oh man, I'm wiped! What a day with so much bike riding. When I calculated the distance, I was quite proud of myself.

Anyway, started the day with a scramble because I needed the energy. And had a salad later. Karen couldn't assist me. Oh well. Went to Fred Meyer and got some sweets and contact paper (which is needed for this silk screen technique).

At 3 I put on my yoga tights and my yoga shirt and stuffed my stuff into a bag and set out for the 5.7 mile one way bike journey to Rock n Roll Girls Camp. First I brought my posters down to school, because I'll be setting up tomorrow morning (bleh). Then I headed over to the way way north east. I listened to Hound of Baskervilles, so that was nice. And actually I made really goodtime. Like super good time. I got to the camp in like, 40 minutes. I was expecting an hours journey. I was sweaty but not totally worn out. I signed some paper work and found out that I was actually being paid for my work! Graciously paid as well. Booyah.

A nice young lady named Margaret was there to help, so I had her help. Got set up just about in time for all the little ladies to show up. There were some young ones and some teens. Some were hyper and some paid attention, but each had an adult of sorts to keep track of them. And some had done the screen printing method before. I just helped and jumped around. Heather is much better, but I think I did alright. No one maimed themselves. The designs turned out really good too. Maybe we were a bit pressed for time with some of the groups. Need to do better with time management. I was still a bit terrified. But it went well. Got out of there at around 6:20. It was a nice ride back, though the first (up hill) stretch was horrible. Then there was a nice large downhill bit. And it was great weather. Sort of staggered around when I got home. Very tired. Had some pasta. Watched Glee. Raising Hope. Now I'm watching Doctor Who. Time to go to sleep. Get up. Haul my table down to school. Haul my screens home. And do another 11.4 mile bike loop to helps some awesome girls silk screen.

Todays Portrait Is: Joe Goddard (Hot Chip).

work, fun, extra fun

Oi. Man, got up at a reasonable hour. How normal. 9am! AHG! But I actually got to school with time to spare. Got to the studios and got my job: finish up the tape job and then sand sand sand. My hair went a shade lighter with all the spackle dust. It was strenuous, but it only lasted two hours. Still, damn it was a lot of dust. Not fun.

Came back to the computer lab to find an email that rerescheduled my meeting, so I spent a couple hours adding color to the next five portraits! I want to get super far ahead with them again, especially since I'll be heading on a two week vacation come June. I finished five last night, also known as all of the band Hot Chip. So the rest of the week will be Hot Chip Week. Whee!

I went home, had a phone call with mum about stuff. Found out I could activate my phone through my phone, and didn't have to go to a store. So wham bam: my old Samsung from 2005 has now been decommissioned and I've moved onto Dominic's old Samsung, which takes pictures and flips in two different directions! It is really sweet. And not broken! So yup, I've moved on. It takes me a long time to give up a piece of technology, especially if it still barely works.

At 8ish I rode my bike over to Mel's. She was waiting for me on her bike and together we rode to the East Side. I think it was her first bike trip over the bridge. I went at my regular meandering pace, and it was quite a lovely ride. The Lovecraft, a sort of goth bar, was showing the first four episodes of Game of Thrones tonight, We arrived at fifteen till nine, but they didn't start till ten (even though their thingy said 9). So I had a couple brewskies and a salad roll. We chatted and all that fun stuff. We stuck around for two and a third episodes. They really work well in sort of distorted projected resolutions. Mel seemed to like it, despite how weird the show is prone to be.

And we had a nice ride back, all though some guy in a car barked at us. That was startling. Still, we made it home safe and sound. Mel will be a bicyclist yet!

Now I'm going to unwind with an episode of something, get up, and then go teach some kids how to screen print!

Todays Portrait Is: Alexis Taylor (Hot Chip).

breakfast in the afternoon

Oh boy, lots of work done today.

Slept in, because hey its me. I sleep in. Got showered and did a really really quick portrait. Ate a scramble. Tomorrow I will go food shopping, I'm out of just about everything. Especially breakfast food.

Anyway, got to the studios a bit late. Over the next couple days there are three three hour shift blocks a day, and we have to do two of them (two shifts). I am doing the 1-4 today and the 10-1 tomorrow. I arrived and was assigned blue tape duty. Hurrah! No heavy wall lifting or disassembling! There was a studio that hadn't been emptied yet. Booo! But I got it taped off to the best of my ability. Taped the wall outlets and the stairs and the I beams. Helped Dom and Jon with one of the walls. It went fast. Then I was assigned top of the wall cleaning duty. TOP. OF THE. WALLS. CLEANING. While you can see the tops of one half of the studio sections from the second floor, the other half you can't. Still, I got up real high and cleaned and cleaned. It wasn't quite effective because it wasn't paint so much as plaster, and it didn't so much as clean as just...absorb the dirt. Still, I kept with it till my shift ended.

At a bit after 4, I went to Safeway. There was a shindig of sorts at Phil, Karen, and BT's and it was breakfast food themed. So I picked up some orange juice and doughnuts and headed over to the other side. Ohh so much great food. Mel brought fancy jam. There was bacon. Waffles too! Phil's cousin Erika was there and her boyfriend...something. Forget his name. I mostly just chilled. Beth came. Mel showed me how to do macrame, and I made a bracelet! Mel was making herself a new semi-permanent necklace. She wore her last one for three years and was changing it at this sort of...time of change. I think that is pretty neat. Her new one is looking fantastic. Karen donated a bead to my bracelet, one that she said described me, "colorful and funky". I agree. It is a nice little bracelet. A friendship reminder.

We played Scrabble, though we used words that can't be mentioned in this blog. And spelling most heinous. But it was fun. Then we played Apples to Apples and I WON! Whooo!

At 10pm I went home. Queued up my Game of Thrones and The Borgias and knocked out FIVE PORTRAITS! And damn good ones too. I'm going to add digital color tomorrow during the time between my shift and my meeting with Martin and Kristen.

Todays Portrait Is: Santigold.

rock n roll ladies

Oh boy oh boy. Volunteering was a trip!

Got up nice and early, sort of, and got cleaned up and headed out to Heather's. Took me a good 30 minutes to get to her place. Funny how biking doesn't seem to take that long. Anyway, from there she drove us to the Rock N Roll Girls Camp, which is a totally awesome place in a very inconspicuous building. The camp provides a nice space for young girls to rock out and be awesome and learn instruments and generally get girl power. Heather needed some people to fill in for the screen printing section of the camp. Today Leah and I shadowed her while she instructed the Ladies Rock Camp (a three day thing where the money goes to help foster girls get into the program).

The contact sheet method of silk screening is this: you know that clear stuff you stick on stuff to protect it? Well basically you cut a shape out of it, then stick it to the back of your screen, and you can print with it! You don't get the best detail (also the screens we were using were super low thread count mesh) but it is instant, no chemicals, and awesome. So we set up and had some of the lunch they provided for us (awesome tacos, the Ladies Rock Camp is fully catered, hurrah). The first group was three bands of ladies. My group were the G Tornados, I say "my group" I mostly mean that I helped them the most. Their design was super rad. A Saul Bass sort of design. The shirts printed well, as did the test posters. There was also Trunk to Tail and Repeat Offenders. They came up with great shirts that printed quite well. Clean up was a cinch. Then it was about a 30 minute wait and the next group came in. Just two bands: Sauce Box and Stinky Pinkies. Their designs took a bit longer, but all in all it went well. The latter printed a ton of shirts. And the day ended with another delicious meal (lasagna). Damn so freaking good.

A wonderful day spent with babes rocking out and printing and learning new stuff. Now I just gotta teach some little ones how to do it on Tuesday and Wednesday. After I picked up my bike at Heather's, I rode to Karen's and real quick asked her to help on Tuesday, and she agreed. Leah is helping on Wednesday. Whoo! I guess I'm sort of the main instructor for it? It is terrifying and exciting at the same time.

Then I went home to my precious DOCTOR WHO! Oh man, what a phenomenal episode. It was written by the one and only Neil Gaiman, and thus it was just above and beyond wonderful. A lot was packed into that itty bitty episode. Now I'm going to watch it again!

Had some dinner, did my laundry.

What do you think is the minimum allowed time to let someones stuff rest in the dryer before you pull it out and put your stuff in? I say an hour. They left a basket so it wasn't quite so rude. I needed to dry my stuff! It is midnight!

Todays Portrait Is: Philip Ross Jacobsen (Odd Owl).

song in my heart, ringing in my ear

So it seems Blogger is back up. Hurray!

Slept in later than I should have. Did two portraits, went to school. Scanned them in. Burned a disc with the files. Turned in my receipt to prove I earned my degree. And then I got some paint to paint my studio back to white, and that took a long time. A long long time. It seemed to take longer to paint it white than it did to paint it blue. And the ground is probably due for another coat of gray paint. It is pretty well splattered. But that is one less thing to worry about. I think all I have to do now is turn in my keycard, pay my library and printing fines/fees. And then I'm good to go.

It was a very warm warm day so I went home at 4:15pm and changed into shorts. My first shorts day! Winter is gone!

When I got to the end of the year picnic, I had missed all the hot dogs. And I was grummmpy. Small breakfast + no meat + manual labor = grumpy Trillian. Sat with Madeline, Tabitha, Kristen, and crew while I got my nourishment in.

The next five hours went by super fast. I would sit with Heather and Daniel. Then Kristen and Co. Then Karen. Then hop around and talk to Abby and Matthew. Ate Tabitha's hot dog. Drank some beer. Participated in TWO dog piles. I got my hair caught in Sivonna's shoe. Swung on the swing set. The sun went down. It got a bit chilly, but I was fine. It didn't feel sad in the "I'm saying goodbye this is it" way. Besides, we still have to walk and get our diplomas. None of us are GONE yet. It was just a fantastic day.

And it didn't end at 9pm! I went home, changed back into pants, and went to Slabtown, which is a free venue/bar. I knew some people I knew would be there. Vince, one of Jon's friends, was there and so we chatted. Jon, Dom, and Sivonna showed up later. I ended up staying at Slabtown with Vince and his crew, instead of going to Ground Kontrol. It was better to stay reasonably close in, because I would be biking home and couldn't stay out that late. Some bands played, I can't quite separate the music styles but each band was better than the last. It was loud and fun. Vince and I grabbed some cheese fries at The Roxy afterwards. And then we parted ways.

All in all, an excellent of the the school year day. Now to go to bed, get up, and volunteer and do stuff!

Todays Portrait Is: Carmen Caruso (Odd Owl).

*the photo is a picture of Morgan Murphey's 20' x 20' self portrait.

site down, it wasn't me

Last night when I went to blog, Blogger.com was unavailable so that is why I didn't blog. I wanted to, but it just didn't happen.

Wednesday. The day with no obligations, but I actually did a lot. It was a super fun day, except in regards to my thesis paper.

Got to Joan in the library at 1ish and she corrected all my citations. Uhg. That is why I didn't jump the gun and print it on archival paper. So I worked on correcting those and then the servers started to shut down again, thus rendering my access to my work...well inaccessible. So I went home. Did the dishes. Took out the trash. Tidied up.

At 5:30 I met Heather Birdsong at Muu Muu's for a dinner I promised her in thanks for helping edit my thesis paper. Muu Muu's has excellent burgers. We both ordered them, and I as feeling up to the challenge so we had dessert as well. It was one of those nice two and a half hour dinners where you just talk and eat and talk. No stuffing of faces to get out of there early. No hurry. Just good company. And so much food. I was properly stuffed for the rest of the day.

A little bit later Rollyn contacted me for costume help. He was an extra in this thing on Friday and needed to dress a bit hipster. I guess I would be the one who knew what that meant more than he, so I agreed. I ended up loaning him a pair of my pants (they were snug but they fit) my Guggenheim shirt and I had two cheap blazers from the Goodwill Bins that I have NEVER worn so I unloaded those onto him. They were a bit big on me and a bit small on him, but having a blazer laying around is good. He also learned that women's clothes have buttons on different sides than mens. It was fun, and he looked hip. Then we watched an episode of Doctor Who and he went home.

Cidney is in town so I went over to Mel and Melissa's and hung out with those three for a couple hours. Just chilled and played with their feisty kitten ZsaZsa.

Then went home, found blogger to be down, and went to sleep.

Todays Portrait Is: Lily Allen.

more edits

Ohh lovely glorious sleep. I wasn't really without it during the semester, but it is nice to have no worries. Well, next to no worries.

Got up. Watched some Doctor Who. Ate some left overs. Drew Thom Yorke. I need to get ahead on my portraits. Anyway, did that and then went to school to edit my paper. Lots of little edits. A couple larger ones. Had to redo my bibliography to the best of my ability. Took a yoga break. Just Nicolo, Fawn, and myself. We did a lot of hip openers and splits. Then back to editing. I took a food break, because I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast. Got it all finished up. Printed out the first few pages (including the signed page) on the archival paper that Justin and I went halvsies on. Talked to the sewing club. Gave out some zines.

Here is hoping all my edits get approved. I also need to scan my posters. I'll get that done tomorrow as well.

Todays Portrait Is: Thom Yorke.

passed, now on to graduation

So I passed my paper. Huzzah!

Slept substantially in. Had some toast. Did my day's portrait. Went to class. Everyone passed! I passed. One by one, we got our papers back. Joan showed us what the marks we got meant, just so that we would know what we were marking up. While I waited I folded my zines. I was last to go, but that is okay. I'm not in any hurry these days. There was mostly some footnote and capitalization things, though I do need to add a paragraph of relating my chatter about Tumblr back to my thesis. I'll do that stuff...tomorrow.

After class, Mel and I went to Yur's and got lunch and a beer. Well early dinner. I had grilled cheese. We sat and chatted. Leo and Zachary Rau were at the table next to us. I gave them both a thesis zine. It was a nice little time. Then she went to work her last shift in the library. And I cut and stapled all of my thesis zines! 98 of them! Time to begin getting them off my hands and into the hands of others.

I finished the day with a movie double feature at Rollyn's. Hot Shots (ohh young Charlie Sheen, how far you have fallen) and Halloween 4. I started to doze during the latter. It is kinda dull, and since I haven't seen any other Halloween movie, the suspense and danger didn't mean much. It had some good moments though.

Rode back and watched some Doctor Who. Tomorrow I shall edit. Do some yoga. Draw some portraits. Fun stuff.

Todays Portrait Is: Beck.

mummies day

I have this feeling in my toe, like that I want to pop it but it won't pop. Hmmn.

Well I didn't get a call so I can only assume I passed my paper. Hurray!

Slept in. Relaxed. Figured out what size of paper I'll need to get for my thesis zine. It was raining off and on all day. It's spring, so I guess that can be expected. Watched some Doctor Who.

At 5:30 I went to Utrecht and bought a thing of sketch paper that was just the right size. Also got another micron pen. Talked to Heather who works there, then went to school. Scanned in all my sketches. Photocopied them and then organized the layouts. It's weird that this is my last one, and when I look back at them, I tend to add a lot more to each page. There is less empty space. I wonder where that style came from? Anyway. Also designed a little thank you poster for Martin because he has been an awesome mentor and I figured making a little poster in the style of my thesis posters (without the back side text) would be a good final gesture of thanks and appreciation. Or it might be creepy...?

Anyway. Went to the lab. It was crowded with what looked like MFAs. I figured they were MFAs because they knew what they were doing but I had never seen them before. There was this one chick doing this massive silk screen, where it had to be printed in sections. She must have exposed that screen 10 different times, just to fill in three colors. A big task, though I couldn't figure out what was going on in her image. But by the time I got to printing, I got my space to work with. Finished listening to Odd Thomas. I think I was expecting it to be better. It had some good language but it was trying too hard at trying too hard. Went back to Sherlock Holmes. Printed the one side of the silk screen zines. Then printed the two color Martin thanks print. Then printed the other side. Got outta there at 1am, and very hungry. I put up a few of the thanks posters on Martin's office door and went home and made myself a scramble and watched Game of Thrones and then The Borgias. Man I love costume dramas with dynamic actors.

But now I'm all "what if the posters are taken as a weird gesture and not a nice one?" "maybe I shouldn't have put them on his door, and just folded one and put it in his mail box". Too late now. He's been a good teacher and mentor. I think it is just starting to sink in that pretty soon I won't be seeing these people again for a while. I'll leave and who knows when I'll come back and say hello. Who knows if this is the last time for the majority, even? These last little things to hold on. I do want to leave Portland but damn it is going to suck not having some of these wonderful people around me. My friends. My teachers. This community. Maybe someone will magically give me a job by the end of May and I'll stay. These past four years have suddenly just gone by. It doesn't seem that long ago that I was typing away all excited about going to school for the first day and hauling my drawing pad and meeting people and going to Hot Lips. But it also feels so very, very long ago. This past four years have been an exhausting, emotionally trying, spiritual, enlightening, full of change and growth...time. And now they come to a close.

Finally.

Ultimately.

Maybe I should just go to bed, it is late.

Todays Portrait Is: Jay Kay.