no one believes you are in California till you post In-N-Out. Fact.

Keep going to this tab and seeing that I haven't written anything and then I go to another tab and then return and STILL no blog. Guess I gotta write something.

Another beautiful sunny day in Santa Cruz! Still wearing shorts. I pressed jerseys and cut some large sorta banners down. Another short day.

I got the two gift exchanges I'm in mailed off. Socks & stickers. I think my socks one is marked as shipped, so that's fun. And my Harry Potter one, which I thought I got stilted on.

Speaking of Harry Potter, I bought the stamps! No Neville Longbottom though. Come on!

feelin' good

Wore shorts to work today! It's shorts week! Everyone was in shorts. Go team shorts.

I taped screens and burned screens and cut a banner and brought in some boxes of stuff. I also folded shirts and boxed them as Ryan stacked them. It was a hot day, but hey! I was in shorts! It didn't bother me.

And it ended up being a short day.

So yay for sun! I made some new paper cutouts for the kitchen window. I did snowflakes for the holidays and hearts for Valentine's Day. Now I have a row of grass with a few flowers.

I finished Gone Girl. Pretty damn good little mystery novel! Really enjoyed it. Neil Patrick Harris is playing the role of Desi, so that'll be great.

I downloaded a ton of book samples onto my Kindle, and bought The Goldfinch because that's been sitting on my to read list.

Now I shall retire to bed! Reading a bit before sleeping has really got me going to bed in better rhythm, and I've been sleeping pretty well recently too.

A lot of anxiety has lifted from my shoulders due to my decision to leave Santa Cruz and travel. I do worry about leaving my job and getting a new job in the future, but a person can't just work and work and live in a place they are unenthusiastic about. My spirit was suffering, and when the spirit suffers what can be done about that?

I'm wearing shorts right now. It's that warm.

Got up and got my crock pot cooking with sloppy joes! Didn't take that long to prep.

Had a really good day at work. It was warm and everyone was positive and we got stuff done. I heat pressed some jerseys and shorts (still waiting on some decals to be cut so I can finish them). Then I caught these patches. Now we are one forth of the way through a massive shirt order! Feels good to print a massive order. It was an early day. It was also a very HOT day.

Got home and stirred my sloppy joe. It was a bit wet. Could have put more meat in it, I think. Or less fluids. Tara made a salad. It was our night to cook for the house meeting. I was facilitating. The sloppy joes turned out a bit more... meat mush. Though I guess that is the point? Oh and I also made a pot of green tea for everyone to enjoy. It was refreshing.

The meeting went really well! Good chats and stuff.

Now I think I'll retire to bed. I'm almost done with Gone Girl!

ankle damage ???

I want Wednesday to get here because the that'll be a day with no errands or obligations. Tomorrow is a house meeting, so I'll be going straight from work to dinner making to meeting. I'll be putting some meat in the slow cooker before work, and Tara says she'll get home at 3 so she can give it some stirs. Going to make sloppy joes with turkey! Here's hoping they turn out. Mmmm.

Work was all right. We ran a repeat job, and a small order of a new job. I broke down the press. I weeded some stuff. I folded shirts. Got tons of heat stuff to do over the next few days. 17 jerseys and 17 shorts!

Tara and I are cooking for the pre house meeting dinner. I..oh I already mentioned the sloppy joes. WELL I went to Trader Joe's and got fixings and Francesca was working the register, so we got to chat a bit.

My ankle is really hurting me these past few days. Maybe too much crazy dancing on hard wood floors? Guess I'll take it easy for a bit.

busy bee weekend & big announcement

Friday:

Camping! I’m in the woods. Big Basin Redwood State Forest Place Thing. Yeah. So I’m writing now and will post this when I get to wifi…later.

Today started pretty well. Woke up to my body clock and relaxed in bed for a while. Got up and had tea and cereal. I itemized my to dos for the day: get gas and add air to tires. Get stickers for sticker gift exchange. Get socks for sock gift exchange. Look at maps. So I went down town, and oh what a lovely day! My room continues to be 10 degrees colder than the rest of Santa Cruz, so I could have gotten away with shorts. I got a Discretion Brewing sticker yesterday, and I picked up two Santa Cruz logo stickers for my exchange. They said they wanted something cool for their laptop, so I got them some options. The sock gift was harder to 100% fulfill. Got them some hippo socks, and they said they liked hippos. They didn’t have any puggle socks, or pumpkin ones. But they had dogs with cones and these fictional animals being abducted, so I figured they’d like them. I got myself some seagull & fries socks. Because duh.

I swung by the Buttery on the way home and got some cupcakes to share with Ma & Pa, as well as a cheese pocket for me and a baguette. Oh ho ho. Baguette. (that is to be read in a French accent).

Mellowed at home, then heard Ma and Pa had arrived at their campsite, so I packed up and headed out. Traffic was bad getting downtown, but I found parking. I got three sandwiches from Zoccoli’s: B.E.L.T., the New Yorker, and the Avocado sammich. Graham Hill Road was familiar, 9 was winding, and 263/264/whichever it was, was very long and winding and near empty. The type of road that makes you hope you are on the right road. I went through Ben Lomond and Boulder Creek and other little cluster towns that have a lot going on for about a quarter mile and then it gives away once again to woods.

I accidentally went down a road to Little Basin, which was a part of this State Park, but not the campground that Ma and Pa were at. But I was back on track soon enough, and as the sun was setting I delivered the sandwiches to campsite 48. Dad and I split the meat sandwiches. Both were very tasty. We sat by the fire and ate cupcakes, once our appetite swung towards sweet. Now we shall pick a movie or a game and relax. It’s good to be in an old familiar place (the motorhome) in a new place (Big Basin).

Saturday:

I stayed up reading Gone Girl. It's really sucked me in! I'm almost done. I felt like I slept in, in the morning. But really I was up at a good hour. Dad made pancakes. We drank tea and planned the day. 

Parking down near the trail heads was tough, but we found some tucked in the back. I got some postcards and a patch. Ma, Pa and I took a ranger guided trail and learned about the trees and stuff. Mom knew all the trees he asked about. Madrona. Douglas Fir. Good mom!

After the tour, Nate showed up! Yay for Nate! We took a bit of a hike in the woods. It was a lovely day to go hiking. No rain, warm, but not too hot. Perfect. Only a section of the trail was hiked, as Nate had some stuff to do later on in the day. We had lunch back at the MoHo. Baguette with cheese and spread, cupcake, and Nathan opened his presents from Ma and Pa! He got a cool mug that Dad previously set on fire. And some jelly cups. And a hiking towel thingy. And Ma and Pa brought down the cool lamps Pa made for Christmas, but were unable to fly.

Nate parted ways at around 3:30. We three finished off the bread and played a couple rounds of Blokus. I won the second game. I got some practice in setting up this tent that was brought down to me. Collecting gear for the road! I got out of there at 5ish. It was a nice ride back. Got some time to relax. Eat some food. Watch some TV and catch up on what I missed by being in the woods (not much). I got to the third part of Gone Girl!

I went to bed at a reasonable hour because I was getting up bright and early to go to San Francisco!

Sunday:

Up oh so early. Even earlier because of daylight savings time. I packed up my car with screens and stuff and swung by McDonald's for lazy breakfast and I was out on the road at a bit before 8 (7am body time). I've been getting some really good traffic lately. As in, not much traffic on the road when I go on the freeway. 

Today was a helping Odd Owl print day, and it ended up that next Sunday will also be that day. I don't mind. I like getting out and hanging out. And I'll get some groovy prints when all is said and done and printed. I got my tea on, and Phil came over to help. I started by coating my screen for later use. We did the first color on the two color deluxe , then the second color & single color shirts. They've got a pretty good set up going on. Lots of inks for lots of potential colors. Phil used the heat gun to do the discharge activation on the tees. Carmen pulled prints like a champ. We listened to The National. Josh made salmon for lunch. Erin & Steven were staying for a bit till it was time for them to move to North Carolina. I'll be sure to visit them, they are neat people. Also Erin's baby is due in July! Baby! Adam & Vanessa had their son Xol. Yay babies...well yay other people's babies.

After lunch I exposed the screen and set that to drying, and we printed more shirts. Some of the shirts came out really boss looking. Just... great! We moved on to paper printing, and the first layer went well but the second will need some adjusting, so we set it aside to do next weekend. Probably won't take long. I left SF at 7:20ish (I stuck around to eat pie and help them fold shirts). 12 hours from leaving to leaving.

♠♣♥♦

SO! I'm leaving Santa Cruz in May. Don't know when in May. Early or late, but May. I'm putting my stuff into storage and I'm hitting the road. Going across the country. Big goal would be every day. Drawing, driving, seeing, eating my way to new places and hopefully old friends.

Santa Cruz has been fun, but it isn't the end all be all for me. I put in notice at work and notice with my landlord and I've told enough people that now I have to do this. Can't get an idea and then shirk from it and be okay with that because I told no one. NOPE.

Annnnd that's my Friday!

Another three day weekend, which is awesome because Ma and Pa are going to be at a Redwoods Park tomorrow and I can go see them! Yay! And I have time to run some errands.

Caught shirts. Reclaimed. Cleaned. Taped. Burned. Coated. Same ol' thing.

Had some more pasta for dinner and tea and talked to Ma and Pa on the phone.

Watched telly. I'm at 53% with Gone Girl now!

crawlin' through the window cuz I left the lights on and locked the doors

Today was good! The weather picked up and it was warm (it's been a bit gray). Reclaimed some screens and later coated them. I counted out shirts, and all shirts were accounted for. I burned some screens and got them taped up. Caught the job. Then broke down the press and cleaned squeegees and floodbars. Nice smooth day.

I made a Target run for more shampoo & conditioner. My current ones are almost out and I don't want to continue with the brand. Also got some Volu-Tiramisu flavor Ben & Jerrys. So good. Tiramisu!

Made some pasta. Settled in for a night of 20 minute comedies (Broad City and Brooklyn Nine-Nine). Now to tuck into bed and read more Gone Girl! Almost to 50% now!!

back in blue

Made a mistake right at the start of the shift. Well it was a mistake I made a month ago but it caught up with me. BUT it ended up not costing us any time, and I got all my stuff done. So really, it wasn't so bad. It didn't prevent me from doing bigger tasks, as I was needed on the floor to do the tertiary prep.

When I came in, Ryan was loading towels on the press and Jeff was catching! Opposite world!

I stayed up last night reading Gone Girl. I'm about 43% of the way through now, and I was at 20% on the weekend. Kindles do it by percentage, not page. Probably because you can change the type scale, so pages are not so solid in Kindle world.

My lasagna is microwaving well. Jeff said it smelt good when I took it out of the microwave. He often compliments the good smellingness of my cooking, so that is nice.

Ryan and I counted out some shirts and sweatshirts. All sorts of things. We are running more work branded merch tomorrow, in a new neat design.

I bought a new MP3 player after work. The exact same brand and model was on clearance! Awesome! Well, it's blue. My old one was red. Still. Nice.

Had potstickers for dinner and set about rebuilding and piecing together my MP3 library.

so not a missus fix it

I broke my MP3 player. :(

It slipped off my belt loop when I was shimmying a bit too much, and it hit the floor in such a way that the internal battery was dislodged, which yanked one of the wires out. Specifically the wire that told the player it had a full battery. I can connect the player to my computer and see whats on it, but it doesn't know it has a full battery and it shuts off. I tried soldering the wire back, and I got it for a second, but then the solder broke and I think I melted parts that shouldn't have been melted. Two years good hard service. It's been bumped quite a bit. Time for a new one. I'll probably get the same kind, I'm pretty stoked on this brand. It's survived a lot of punishment. And since I can still access the old one, I'm not having to rebuild my old track list. Just have to plug the new player in and plop in the old tracks.

I tried to fix it. I failed. But hey, I tried.

Today was the first 9 to 5 day at work! And... I was told to come in at 10:30 because work isn't demanding enough right now and staggering schedules works better. I cleaned a lot. I reclaimed and coated screens. I burned stuff. I cleaned more stuff. We ran some towels. I burned some more things. A full day!

Had some potstickers. Tried to fix my player. Watched stuff. It is what it is.

puffed up & and yay for Steve McQueen

Slept way in. When I woke up I was just so comfy in bed. I had the thought of getting up early, but then I fell back asleep and that thought was gone.

Had several cuppa tea. Made and ate Mac N Cheese. Watched the Oscars. Lupita Nyong'o won, which was awesome! The In Memoriam was really sad this year.

Made a Trader Joe's run. The cashier really liked my Tomer Hanuka bag.

Then I watched Girls and the episode focused on her mother and aunts drama surrounding the death of her grandma and it just felt so familiar in many ways. Now I'm watching True Detective and eating some cheese puffs.

Just kidding!

I'm eating corn puffs.

yet another three day weekend

Friday:

No work! What a light week. I made a lasagna, though the pan was too big so it didn't hold it's shape so well. Couldn't find a smaller pan. But it was edible! So hurray! And Justin ate a big portion, so now I have less to eat. Which is good, because I usually end up getting sick of my big meals when I still have portions left.

I sat on the couch and read Gone Girl on my Kindle for a while. Hung out with Eric and Davina next door and watched Charlie's Angels. Watched the new Hannibal. Reading on the couch was nice. I was wrapped up in my blanket, had some wine. A good time.

Saturday:

Took a walk in the late afternoon/early evening. Revlon rolled out some of their discontinued classic lipstick colors, and there are a few shades that interest me, but I was unable to locate them. But I did get some frames for some art that needs making in the near future. It was raining yesterday, but not so much today. Grilled a PB & J for lunch and heated up some lasagna for dinner.

Now I might cozy up into bed and read some more. Gone Girl is really gripping me, and I want to see what happens!

it's a funny show

I'm watching Broad City and it is great. Very much recommend it.

Work! Worked today! But not a whole day, well not the full 8 hours. But going a bit light is nice. We ran shirts. Fronts, sleeves, backs. Nice and easy.

Weather was good. Sun was out but it wasn't that hot.

Had some edamame and tea for dinner. Watched Broad City.

black and vinyl

Almost worked a full two hours today! It's been light at work. But it'll pick up. Got to get the ball rolling on things.

It was raining pretty heavily all day. Good for the grass. It's been so dry. Supposed to be several days worth of rain, too. I miss hearing it on the roof. I just get the sound of drain pipes.

At home I watched a bunch of episodes of Hannibal. Rewatched. Rewatching the first season (only 13 episodes) before the new one premiers in a few days. A little refresher. Ohhh I can't wait!

I walked to Target in the rain. Well the mall. I bought a prezzie for Nathan, and a Brienne of Tarth vinyl figure for myself (viva la lady character figurines!). And Target provided me with bath salts and ice cream.

I painted my nails black, which I can't remember the last time I had them that color. They look really nice. All shiny and dark.

And I took a really nice long bath. Soaked and relaxed and all was well.

Tomorrow we'll bust some shirts. It'll be rad.

toosdey

A short day! It was warm in the morning, but a chill breeze came in. They say we are going to get a few more days of rain, so yay for that. I burned some screens. I did a poll banner and a regular banner. Weeded some vinyl. Taped screens. Counted shirts.

Got home so early, it through off my whole sense of the evening. I watched Monsters, the movie directed by Gareth Edwards who is directing the new Godzilla movie. It was okay. A bit simple, maybe? But done well for what seemed like a minuscule budget. And I watched telly. And I did two loads of laundry! I'm working on separating my laundry a bit more, so that the heavy stuff goes together and the light stuff goes together. That is probably how it is supposed to be done.

Some some rice and seaweed for dinner. Not exactly vitamins and vegetables, but tasty.

I guess now I'll go to bed early and read on my Kindle.

Love my Kindle.

Gotta plan a party for my big brothers birthday.

mass hysteria!

Ran the front and backs on a design. Taped up some stuff. Dug through the film to find film. Reclaimed screens. Cleaned squeegees and floodbars. It's all sounding so repetitive.

I was really warm early in the day, but then a chill wind came in.

Had some gnocchi and watched Ghostbusters.

blue toilet water

Had a nice lazy start to the day. Tara and I walked to Target, and I got The 10th Kingdom on DVD! It was only five bucks, which is awesome.

It was a lovely day for walking. Nice and warm. Might need to break out the cut offs soon.

I cleaned the bathroom a bit, and washed the shower curtain and changed my sheets.

Just sorta loafed around. Lazy Sunday. Dang, already time to tuck into bed.

Oh, I got a letter telling me that the direct deposit for my refund didn't go through (did I mention this?) so now I'll have to wait on checks, and then send those up north. Boo! I want money NOW!

prepare to die, obviously

Friday:

Solo task day! No printing. I just weeded tons of text for an upcoming Nikki McClure exhibit at the MAH. The vinyl text that goes on the wall, not anything to do with her art. One of the institutions that helped put together the show was PNCA! That took me back, weeding out those old familiar words. I also cut vinyl and stickers and stuff. Listened to podcasts, which was nice.

Went home, had some food. Relaxed.

Later in the evening, I went downtown and met up with Ryan and Anita and Daniel at Rosie McGann's. Anita is leaving her job, and so it was a bit of a goodbye celebration. I didn't know most of the people, but the company was good. Oh, and Crystal was there! Ryan, Crystal, and I got tickets for the midnight showing of Scott Pilgrim vs The World at the Del Mar (everyone else had other plans). We wandered around till it was time to get seated. Such a fun movie! So imaginative and great. I think I've seen it more times in theaters than I have on DVD. I listened to an Edgar Wright interview today and he talked about watching Midnight movies, and now one of his films is one of them, and how that was great. It was a really charming podcast overall. I can't wait for Ant-Man (his next movie).

I dropped Ryan and Crystal off at the Tannery and UCSC respectively. I give lots of little lifts, mainly because Santa Cruz has horrible public transit that stops really early. I'd rather people have fun and I go a little out of my way, than have people leave early due to catching a bus.

Saturday:

Got up for the quarterly yard clean up! I was assigned back patio clean up, wood hauling, pinecone pick up, and sweeping at the end of the clean up. I got the back patio looking nice, and hauled a lot of branches back and forth. Justin cut out a lot of dead wood, so that was good. It was a very intensive clearing, and lots of trees were trimmed back. Now we have a big pile of wood that needs to get ... mulched somehow. Jeff treated us to pizza after, so that was great! It was tasty too, heavy on the garlic.

Then I took a nap.

6ish I swung by the Tannery and picked up Ryan and we went to Daniel and Anita's for another shindig. There was chili and fizzy water and cornbread and chips and cookies. There was also beer, but I was driving so I skipped that. There were... 12 people in total at the shindig but I've forgotten their names. We played card games and laughed and ate more chips. Sorry, not being very descriptive. D & A live down near Natural Bridges, and during the day you can see the ocean from their balcony. Really nice place. I got a slice of cake in good tupperware, so of course I'll be back.

Now I'm sleepy and want full on sleep.

up and awaaaay

Did another major step today! I'll make the big announcement soon, but yaaay I'm feeling good about things! I'm not feeling good about the popcorn I over salted though. Boo. At least popcorn is cheap.

Work was okay. I made a mistake though, which wasn't good. I don't like making mistakes.

We printed posters, which was fun! Only single color. They covered all the flat surfaces in the studio. Lots of me running about finding places to set things and checking to see if I could double stack (they dried fast, so it's all good). Did some stickers. Burned some screens. Taped some screens.

At home, I had a nice talk with Jeff about art and thesis and art making and the way that art changes from mental image to completion. It was a really nice chat.

Things are looking up!

step step taking steps

Today was a big day. I won't put it out there just yet, because there is one more party concerned that I need to talk to about things. But today was BIG. It's a step in a new direction for me! AHhhh!!

My middle 20's are winding down, so gotta go big for the latter chunk of it. Kinda rather exciting, all in all.

Today ended up being rather solo. I did a bunch of reclaiming and coating. Got a few big shirt orders coming in. ... Oh and I did catch some shirts early on! But it was mostly screen cleaning and squeegee cleaning. Talked to boss.

Got home and relaxed and watched Luther. Jeff and Jan had a little bluegrass shindig, so that was nice to listen to, though I didn't sit in the living room and join in/draw. I'm finding it hard to be social, just kinda want to be in my Hobbit Hole of a room.

Anyhoo. Now it's late. And it's Thursday! Already! Daaaang!

pink and lemon and gray

My hoodie and track jacket arrived! I ordered them through wholesale, so they were a third the price. Booyah! My hoodie is brighter than the picture indicates. It makes me so cheery.

We ran the lower print, back prints, and front prints on a job today. Still have 8 windbreakers, but that'll be done tomorrow. It was warm and calm and all went well.

Washed my work shirts. Finished the second series of Call the Midwife and I'm almost done with Luther. But now I wanna go to bed and read! I'm reading Gone Girl and it's grabbed me and now I must read more of it!

Also Guardians of the Galaxy looks boss.