two days of the weekend down, two to go!

Thursday:

Yay! Sleeping in time! I had my breakfast, put on my nice dress, took my time with my makeup. 3ish I headed off across the river to Anita and Dan's. Anita is Ryan's sister. Their place was right across from the Natural Bridges park. Very nice spot, and had a view of the ocean though it was on a street perpindicular to the water. The view wasn't obscured by other houses.

Ryan's Dad was there, and Dan's grandma Connie as well. We snacked. Opened some wine. Chatted. Anita was doing the cooking and she got everything out and warm at the same time! And it was a lovely variety of staples. Beans, yams, gravy, cranberry sauce, turkey... mmmm good stuff. It was a nice meal. Good company, and not totally hectic as maybe a larger one would be. After dinner we played Apples to Apples. Then had pie. Then played some video games. I got home at about noon and promptly went so sleep.

Friday:

And I slept in a whole bunch! I did my laundry, but accidentally washed one of those Trader Joe's lavender satchels in the washer...so there were lots of lavender bits. But those came out in the dryer. I vacuumed and itemized a to do list. At Target I bought card stock to turn into cards. A lot cheaper than the paper I WAS buying. Like... by a whole bunch.

Had some left overs for dinner. Tidied up. I got a lil address book too (super cheap) and I'm putting addresses into it, so that I have a better record. I did have a file on my computer, but that is far from complete.

And since I'm sure you're all eager for it, here was my Thanksgiving makeup:

cute animal wine is what I prefer

We finished this job that wasn't actually fully due for another week! Ah! But great to get it done. Took some work, but we were done for the day with daylight to spare!

When I woke up, some of the power outlets/lights were not working. I figured I would take care of it when I got home. So I got home, the problem hadn't magically fixed itself. Called Jeff, who left me a message about what to do...but then I accidentally deleted the message and lost track of what to do, so I called Dad and said "help me Dad-wan Kenobi!". But I couldn't find the other button... but Jeff came home soon and showed me the thingy I had to press, and boom lights were on!

I went to Trader Joe's and bought some wine for Thanksgiving tomorrow. I went with a "cute illustrated animals on the label" theme with Babble and Tribunal. Both reds. Had some TJ's sushi for dinner. Watched stuff. Took it easy. Nice to have a good amount of time in the evening to relax. Now to sleep in! Wheee!

I wonder how I'll do my makeup for Thanksgiving? Hmmmm.

day before day before

Ryan invited me to his Thanksgiving! With his sister. And other people. And all I have to bring is some red wine. Booyah! I was going to make this two day chicken tikka masala recipe, but I'll save that for the weekend. You marinate it over night, then slow cook it all day. I still need to find some garam masala to fill out the recipe. That and some peppers.

Anyhoo. It was a late night trip to Trader Joe's, after a late day at work. We've got a couple big deadlines, so it was a lot of stuff that needed doing immediately. Jobs to get set up, plenty of screens to burn, screens to coat, stuff to tape up. And so many squeegees cleaned and recleaned. Got some good listening done on Thrilling Adventure Hour.

Long day at work. Got home lateish. But I just gotta work tomorrow, go buy some wine, and then it is four day weekend time! WHeeeeeEE!

super stoked on santa cruz nerds

Just got back from seeing the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special. In 3D! At the theater! It was awesome. There was a line around the block and they were so palpably nerds. There were fezzes and bowties and long scars and sonic screwdrivers and Tardis this and that. Oh it was great. Ryan met me in line (friend Ryan, not coworker Ryan). Got pretty good seats. The audience whooed and cheered and it was a great experience.

Work was full, but not totally strenuous. Burned some screens. Counted out several nightmarish jobs (lots of specific pieces that were in separate boxes that had to be susses out). I trained Ryan in cleaning screens and reclaiming. I like reclaiming. That is solid audio listening time. And I get to use the pressure washer. Oh well. I must train. A good studio can swap everyone around seamlessly. I think new guy Ryan is getting the hang of it.

Mellowed at home a bit. The dishwasher does NOT get all the dishes clean as it ought.

But seriously, where are all these Santa Cruz nerds hiding? There were so many of them!

selfie was word of the year

Uhhggg. I'm so congested! I don't know why! I don't feel otherwise sick and I've done a pretty good job of staying warm. The space heater had my room all kinds of cozy last night.

There was today's makeup look. Fun to run errands while all done up.

I made my pulled pork, though I think I bought the wrong cut of meat or something. Either way, it turned out okay. Edible, sure, but nothing too phenomenal. I was hoping for a little more fancy but ehhh. Oh well. It'll be good for sandwiches in the next few days. Only working three days this week, then it is four day Thanksgiving weekend! Hopefully at the end of it, I'll have all my film drawn up and ready to expose and print in the following week. Have to go to Ikea and buy frames. Thankfully I don't really have to do Christmas shopping. Just Christmas making. I'll probably just have stuff ship to Washington instead of hauling it on the plane.

While the sun was out, I walked to Staples instead of driving. It was warm and I was just in my Hawaiian shirt. Twas nice. I picked up some envelopes, and film to draw on to turn into separations for screen printing. So once I get it drawn, I can buy some paper! And ink. Hmmm. Yay screen printing!

Ohh that Benadryl seems to be kicking in and my face is no longer leaking.

Took a nice bath today as well. Very relaxing.

chocolate oranges are at Trader Joe's. Yaaay!

Today I:

• Trimmed my bangs. They are nice and blunt now! I like my bangs straight across.
• Bought a space heater. My room doesn't stay warm, all the heat just goes right out of it. And when I turn the heat in the house on, the upstairs goes to an uncomfortable 70 and I'm like...not even really cozy. So I bought a space heater to use to heat my little room. At least the space isn't big.
• Bought pulled pork ingredients. I think I bought the right cut of pork for the recipe. So that'll be what I try to achieve tomorrow.
• Did my makeup all pretty like again.
• 
• Watched the Doctor Who 50th anniversary episode, which was awesome! Tennant is so good! I wished the other Doctors had cameos (well the surviving ones). But overall it was super fun to behold. Such great actors!
• Walked around a bit. Well mostly just to Target and back. And then Trader Joe's and back. But still, nice to get out of the house.
• Discovered that the Trader Joe's spring rolls are pretty ... meh. Edible, but nothing special.
• Slept in. It was nice. And my knee isn't hurting. I'm tempted to buy a brace though. Those make it better on those days when it is bad, right?
• Watched some other telly.
• A pretty good Saturday.

trying to learn how to do my eyebrows

Woke up so sore. I slept on half my body wrong and my knee was awful.

I weeded 50 feet worth of vinyl, and a different 25ish feet bit of vinyl too. So much vinyl. I burned and taped screens. Helped catch and box. Cleaned squeegees and floodbars, broke down the press. Having Ryan catch really opened me up to do all this other stuff. If I had to catch, I wouldn't have had the time to do all that other stuff. We need a third in the studio.

At home, I relaxed. Had some pasta. I put makeup on just for funsies. Then Tara was all "you're so pretty!" and I was all "awwww". Totally easily won over by compliments. Anyhoo, Tara, Michael, and I went downtown and had drinks and dessert at Hula's. Hula Hula's? I had soda and a "pot" brownie, which was just a brownie cooked in a flower pot. They had tasty pie and booze. I was designated driving. We chatted, I sketched, we ate tasty treats. Mmmm. It was pretty cold. Very cold by Santa Cruzian standards. Regular November cold by Pacific Northwest standards.

cool people of history

My room is generally cold, but when it is cold in Santa Cruz, woah is it cold in my room! Hard wood floors are a scam.

Worked a long shift at work. I drank some coffee with a cataclysmic amount of non-dairy creamer in it, and it sent me up the hyper wall. WHOAOAAAHHH. At least my coworkers and boss found it funny. I did some heat transfers. I cleared the back table of stuff. I showed Ryan how to count stuff in. Caught a bit. Cleaned a bit. Weeded 42 feet worth of vinyl. So much vinyl.

Some cool people I've learned about via Missed in History podcast (over time, not just recently):

• Elsa Lanchester
• Charley Parkhurst
• Stede Bonnet
• Walter Potter
• Beryl Markham
• Louise Boyd
• Evliya Celebi
• Empress Elisabeth of Austria

And there are so many more interesting people to learn about! I love being able to listen to so many podcasts.

I got back fairly late, and the rest of my night was spent sitting and being cold and stiff and sore from work. I think I'm going to go lay down now. Ooofff.

November chills

I had two junk drawers that were just getting cluttered with stuff, so I organized them. I also tossed a bunch of stuff. Well recycled. But yeah. Nice to organize. I have a bunch of clutter that is obscured because it is in plastic bins. It doesn't LOOK like clutter, but it's just stuff. I don't have much space in this new room, so I have to maximize what I have. I turned one of the junk drawers into a makeup drawer, and set out all that I've accumulated over the years. I have some decent makeup. I want to get back into wearing it, because it was fun to do so during college. I probably won't be getting up early on weekdays to apply it, but it's a fun hobby.

I took a little walk around the neighborhood as well. It was a brisk, clear night. Just cold enough to warrant a scarf, which is exactly how cold I like it to be.

So the new guy was at work today. Ryan is his name. Because of COURSE the new employee will have the same name as someone else I already know in Santa Cruz. He is only a year younger than me, which is a bit funny because Andrew the other coworker is also a year younger than me and is leaving to do his own thing. Interesting how three people can be the same age but be in totally different places in life, but arriving at the same vector point. Many different paths. Some work, some go to school, some work many jobs, some work one for years. Ryan seemed to pick up what we were putting down. Screenprinting is a lot of systems and little things, and you really learn it by doing and seeing. Training someone really makes you appreciate how much knowledge you have, and how much work it took to acquire it.

Outside of training, I burned stuff, I caught, I counted, I cleaned. The day moved pretty fast.

This week is moving pretty fast! Already Wednesday.

today I learned about Empress Cixi and Evliya Celebi

Super convenient living within easy walking distance of Target. Need Cheerios and toilet paper? Boom right there. And.. oops forgot to get something. Well. That is find, because it is right there! Though they haven't been stocking airheads in their dollar bin area. And an Ulta opened up in the mall, and they have a superior skin care selection, though right now I'm working my way through some products and seeing how my skin looks. I'll be needing a new bottle of cleanser in a month or so, so don't know if I'll keep with the same one, got back to Cetaphil, or try something new. It's interesting to read up on skin care, and reading blogs that are not sponsored talk about what is "normal" for skin, compared to what products say they'll deliver. And then you'll get posts that are like "make sure to change your pillowcases regularly and wash your headphones if you use over the ear ones" and it's like... duh. One can take care of their skin as much as they like, but if they just rub their face on an old pillow case, it defeats the purpose!

So many sides to everything.

The new hire didn't start today, but I think he'll be in tomorrow.

Today was relatively short. Burned screens. Coated screens. Activated a new thing of emulsion. Cleaned screens to get ready for reclaiming. Hauled the trash down.

The problem with changing your address at the post office is now I am getting all these spam letters. Come on USPS, don't give my address to THE MAN!

Really need to get drawing on my holiday stuff. I'm making gift lists! So if you want something, drop me a hint.

chemically treated

We are getting a new employee tomorrow, I think. They are going to be trained on the embroidery unit, and the order of shifts and stuff is going to change around. It'll be interesting. I dunno. We have a nice productivity level right now with Jeff and I running shirts and Andrew running excess, but Andrew is working on his own stuff now. Soo yeah. The dynamic shall change, but hopefully for the better.

Jeff and I ran some shirts, but there were oodles of set up things to figure out. I reclaimed some screens at the end of the day. We've got a good thing going right now in terms of keeping ahead of screens piling up. The room is full of screens to be used. Squeegees and floodbars are cleaned. Mmm hmm.

I spilled some gas on my pants at work, when I was filling up the generator, so I promptly washed them when I got home. And I threw in my work shirts and my other jeans. But then I set the washer to hot water.... and now my work shirts are a bit blue. Oops. Oh well. They'll wash out again next time around. Might be time to add another six pack to the rotation, it's been a few months.

I listened to podcasts about Empress Elisabeth of Austria. She has very pretty hair. And about John James Audubon. And Walter Potter's taxidermy. All very interesting stuff!

I also took a bath. Love using scented epsom salts. Now my hair smells all good. Mmm good smelling Trillian is much better than gasoline, dehazer, and blow out fluid smelling Trillian. I wear gloves! And an apron! I try to keep it off my skin, and when it does get on my skin, I wash it off as soon as possible.

indoors

Saturday:

Today I took on my room! I had stuff still in a box from the move and I just had clutter and I needed to decrowd my room. So I listened to podcasts and worked on that. And now my room is much cleaner! Theres more clear space and stuff is put away. And I did some laundry. There was some bonfire hanging out. I watched Exit Through the Gift Shop. Watched other TV. Did my makeup all fancy like. Pretty mellow day.

Sunday:

Today was focused around the house meeting. Justen, Tara, and I went to get the fixings for the communal brunch of hashbrowns, eggs, bacon, fried bananas, and mimosas. Mmmm. Justen did most of the cooking and I did some setting up of plates. I moderated the meeting and it went pretty well. Nothing really had to be sussed out aside from a few bits about dish washer stuff.

Now I'm just relaxing. Watching telly. Ate some noodles. Another week starts! Whooo!

Oh, and there is a Christmas List posted to the right of this blog. Just putting that out there.

friday mild day

Ended up being a shorter day. Burned and cleaned and taped and prepped. And I did a couple banners. Nice note to end the day on.

At home I wandered over to the mall and bought some things. Some unmentionable things. Some mystery action figures in secret boxes things. Some epsom salts for bath things.

Took a bath. Vegged. Painted my fingernails.

Now to look at my budgeting for the rest of the year as I come up to the holidays. Two weeks off is nice, but that is a whole paycheck to be down. Hmmm. But I'll be better off than last year!

viva la pod

Wednesday:

I spent the day cleaning and reclaiming and coating. Gotta get the screens flowing in, because we've got a few multi color jobs coming up. Caught a bit. Listened to stuff. A standard work day. Nothing too traumatic.

At home we (being housmates plus Dylan and Michael for a bit) relaxed around the fire pit and chatted. I went to bed and that was that.

Thursday:

My shoes were delivered this morning! So quick! That is like, what, 3 days since I ordered? And they fit! Though I have yet to do a full wear and really test them out. But they sure are cute and make me very happy. Yay colorful shoes!

We are sponsors for the Santa Cruz Warriors Pod Squad. aka the people who give shirts at the games. We printed the Pod Squad shirts. After that, I worked on reclaiming and cleaning and burning and coating. I cleaned all the squeegees and floodbars because they were getting goopy. We reuse the white floodbars because we frequently run jobs that use white ink. No sense to clean it when it is going to be used for the same purpose in 20 minutes, you know? But over time they do need cleaning.

Got home lateish. Had some carbs for dinner.

My friend Dee sent me a whale shaped tea infuser. It's really awesome. Dee is the best. I sent her the stuff I got her in Hawaii on Wednesday. It's nice to give and receive gifts. I made some tea with the infuser.

Friday tomorrow. This week just went by. Woooooosh! Time goes so fast. Still waiting to hear back about what days I'll have off for Christmas.

Also Kon-Tiki is on Netflix Instant! Yay!

red shoes!

A few days ago, I saw that my dream shoes (red Palladium boots) were available in my size on Zappos. I decided to wait on the purchase. See if I still wanted them in a few days. And I waited...and I still wanted them. So I got them! Hopefully they fit nicely. I should probably Goodwill some of the shoes I haven't worn in a while. I should Goodwill a lot of things. Look at the clothes I moved and have yet to wear. Though because of my job and current social life, I'm not really engaging in the cool part of my wardrobe. Hmmm. But there are some things that I for sure don't see myself wearing any time soon. That should be one of my weekend goals for this coming weekend: thrift shop donation. Clear some clutter!

Also make a holiday card to mail to people! I wonder what would make for a good design. Hmmm. Maybe something with a tropical fish?

I've been listening to the Stuff You Missed in History Class podcast mostly. So many great little topics, and they all inform one another the more you listen. I learned where "Goody" came from, in terms of name titles. It's like Mrs. So Goody Garlick is Mrs. Garlick. Goody is short for Goodwife. I wondered what was up with all those Goody ladies in Shadow of Night.

I caught aprons, I taped screens, I caught a discharge job, I cleaned screens, I taped more screens. I gave Andrew some chocolate. Pretty nice day at work, and it was warm!

back in action

Sunday:

Slept in! Hurray! I walked some errands. Tried to see if Target had small compostable liners but no go. Got good at Trader Joe's. Went home and set about making a bacon risotto, then I swept and vacuumed. Got things tidier. Took it easy. In the evening, Justen set about making a fire in the pit in the back yard, and he, Michael, and Dylan tried to make some hot dogs. It took a lot of figuring out and some lost hot dogs before it came together. Their friend Allie also came over. Beer was drunk. Risotto was eaten. It was nice.

Monday:

Back to work! The first thing that happened was my boss startling me as I was leaving my car. I was parking blocking a van, and he asked me to relocate. So I did so. He picked his box of chocolate and asked if I had fun. The damage of my absence wasn't too bad. There is a not wholly unreasonable amount of screens to clean. Some of the boxes were a bit unorganized. Otherwise, whoooo not burned down! Got right to burning screens and catching and boxing shirts and burning and taping and catching, and then cleaning. A good day! Good to back.

Relaxing at home. Have a bit of a headache. There was something I was thinking of doing but I forgot so...now I'm not doing it. Uhhh.

double feature with a break inbetween

Woke up earlyish, which is good considering the time change. Gave Justen some chocolate in thanks for driving me, and then had breakfast and tea.

I swung by Janet's and left her gift on the stoop. Hope she likes it!

I did my laundry.

I went to the 4:40 showing of 12 Years a Slave, which was amazing. Tragic, horrific, depressive, heart rending, but amazing all the same. One of those powerful dramatic movies that cuts right through you. Chiwetel Ejiofor was absolutely amazing. So talented he is.

I bought pizza for dinner and went home to chill.

Then I came back downtown for the 9:30 showing of Thor 2! I met up with Ryan, Veitta, and Crystal. And later on Rich and Ariel joined us. Ahh very good movie. Villain was a bit eh, but the effects and fights were good and it was funny but poignant. Very enjoyable movie.

I've got my to-do for tomorrow, and then it is back to work!

back home like I was never gone, waaah

A day of travel! Whoo!

Got up 7ish and showered and stuffed the chocolate on top of my packed things. I tucked it in with my towel, and hoped it wouldn't melt. Had some tea and a bit of a pastry, then we were off! We checked out and south we went. We stopped by a National Park so Mom could get her stamp for her book. Rental car was dropped off, we checked in at the airport, and since we were melting in the humidity and warmth, we went into the airport restaurant and got some food and enjoyed the A/C for a while.

Once it got crowded and we didn't have any more food to occupy ourselves with, we went back outside (Kona has a mostly open air airport, which is nice but also horrible when you are dressed to head to colder climates). I was seated behind Ma and Pa. The flight from Kona to Honolulu is a short one, and we were touching down in no time. My plane departed way away from Ma and Pa's so we hugged and I went through the agriculture line. There was the LeSportsac bag shop, and I liked their duffles, but when I store doesn't openly list prices I know it's probably too pricey for me. Just looked up the brand. Yeah, those are three figure bags. No thank you!

I sat at my gate and watched cartoons on my laptop till it was time to board. The plane had a big salmon graphic on the side of it, so that was cool. The plane was far from full, and I had all three seats to myself. No free meal and I was hungry so I bought one. It was good though. I watched more stuff on my computer till the battery ran low, then I listened to podcasts and worked on my crossword puzzles. Pretty effortless flight. We even arrived 20 minutes early, so I texted Nathan and he was on his way.

My luggage came out just fine and all the chocolate was there and in tact. Whoo! Nate picked me up, we grabbed some drive through, and he took me home to Santa Cruz. We talked about the trip, art, movies, all sorts of things. I gave him all the goodies, and he was pretty enthused to get the stuff. He liked the shirt and the munchies. Nice for him to drive me back so late!

I unpacked about 90% of my stuff. Don't have the energy to do it all tonight. Plus it is late. Well late here. I'm on Hawaii time so it's just 10:30 now. Hmmm.

fish poop

Whoo! Snorkel tour day! I was up bright and early. We all were. Grabbed some snacks, packed our bags, grabbed towels and we were out the door bright and early 7:15am!

The meet up place was about an hour south, and from there we would get on a boat and go further south. Before boarding we were set up with masks. I traded in my new and better snorkel. There was plenty of room on board, but still a good crowd of people. Not too many kids. Mostly adults. They served up breakfast of tea, coffee, muffins, egg thingies, fruit, and other stuff. We munched as the boat took us to Captain Cook's Bay of Bay Things.

The sun wasn't all the way out, but that was nice. Nice to not be under its full wrath. It was still warm and the water was nice. We anchored, got a quick run down of dos and don'ts, and then fins and goggles were on and it was snorkel time!

Despite whatever shape I'm in, I can still swim pretty good with fins. My legs are probably in good shape. My arms and belly? Not so much. But being on my feet all day gives some perks. I was diving and going low and up and down and up. Holding my breath. Saw so many lovely colorful awesome fish. I saw a parrot fish. A nice big one. I could hear it munching on the coral. I followed it around for a while, which is a nice way of snorkeling, and I was just starting to think about how nice the scene was when it let loose a big fishy poop. Ruined the moment!

I took a little on boat break and tried out the slide and diving platform. Lunch was served and I ate a hot dog and burger. I let that digest a bit and I was back in the water! This time I stuck with Ma and Pa a bit better. We took the rest of the underwater camera exposures. Hopefully those turn out! Ma pointed out a little fish cleaning station, where tiny fish cleaned bigger fish.

Finally all aboard was called, and we clambered aboard. There was a little video about the fish and it had a clip of a scuba diver getting his teeth cleaned.

I took a nap on the drive home, and a longer nap once we got back to the hotel. All that exercise and early morning stuff really took it out of me!

We caught the Hula show at the hotel plaza, which was awesome. This guy lit his tongue on fire and then lit his fire thingies on fire with his tongue. We all had drinks and then returned to the room and chilled and packed. Then did the necessary chocolate shopping. We had dinner at Lava Lava and my pineapple jasmine fried rice arrived in half a hollowed out pineapple! That was sorta amazing.

Now it is packing time. Oh woe. Back to the mainland I go.

up north again

Today was the designated rest between lots of sun exposure day. It's nice to do a sun day then a shade day. Mom booked a snorkel tour for Thursday, so yay! Hopefully I won't get sunburned. It's a full morning thing.

We checked out the petroglyph field by Kings' Land. It had so many carvings, though some looked a bit modern. Still, nice that it was preserved. Preserved riiiight next to the golf course.

Merriman's Restaurant was our lunch destination. I had pork saimin, mom had beet salad, dad had salad nicoise. Then mom took the initiative and ordered two desserts! A flan thing with jam and cookies, and a chocolate thing with ice cream. Both were amazing.

Further up North (today was a Northern Hawaii trip) Tex provided some malasadas. Mmmmm. So warm and fluffy and tasty.

Akaka Falls was nice. Very lush and jungle-esque. Had some nice waterfalls and the hike wasn't so much a hike as a stroll on the path.

We headed south and stopped in this little six building town where I procured some lovely button up shirts. Awesome! They were second hand and totally my style.

Laupahoehoe Harbor had some nice rough waves. A tidal wave was responsible for many deaths there several decades ago. There is a lot of consistent disasters on Hawaii.

Instead of hitting more beaches, we went back to the hotel early. There was a bit of shopping. I got one final shirt. I should be all shopped out now...except for chocolate covered macadamia nuts. Gotta get fat stacks of those.