resolutions

no clever names or fancy taglines for this blog.

as i've gotten older... my resolutions have changed. i try to keep most of them.. more important... i try to make them reasonable. i looked back on my myspace blog (where i finally learned not to post anymore) to find my resolutions blog.

here it is... comments on the old resolutions are in red.

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"there’d be no distance that could hold us back..."

"so this is the new year, i have no resolutions." -death cab for cutie

i still listen to this song on new years eve :)

here i am. alone at home on new years eve. steve is in new jersey. erin's family is sick, and it ended up being too far to travel to western MA (thanks petsmart). so i'm here alone with the kitty cats. just as erin said, the news years has snuck up on me once again. although for me this isn't a new occurance. every year it seems like the 31st gets stealthier. i'm never really where i wanted to be in life and i always feel like there is more to be done.

unlike death cab, i do have some resolutions and this year they are more grown up.

1. get healthier. i've already started this (much to steve's protest) by shopping at whole foods and stocking our kitchen with fresh veggies and more organic meats. instead of picking up a bad of chips or cookies, i've switched to fruit and nuts. less processed junk. olive oil or canola instead of vegetable. i'm trying to get steve to join in, but since there is a bit of a higher cost to shopping healthy he likes to gripe about it. i say oh well, and just kind of drag him along with me. he seems to complain less when i visit the antipasto bar for the fancy olives he likes.

another part of this resolution lies in my acutal healthcare. i finally have insurance and it happens to be the insurance that my moms doctor carries. sure, she may be in western MA, but she's put my mom back together so many times and is familiar with our screwy set of genes that the trip is well worth it.

i totally managed to maintain this. i may not have time find fresh veggies for every meal... but if they aren't fresh, then they are frozen... which is still much healthier than canned. meats are also still high quality. i still also resist buying sugary snacks and junk food. although... sometimes during the summer JP licks is too hard to resist :) the only thing i kind of failed at was maintaining my health care. when you lose insurance... that part can get a little tricky.

2. get artsy. sure, one book may be out there for consideration, but it needs to get better. i've gotten a taste for illustration and i want to keep it moving. investing in some artist postcards and a guide about publishers and agents is what i am shooting for. work on getting more shows for my paintings. things like that.

this one was easy. i branched out to etsy and i continue to illustrate and seek out new contracts... i also really want to start trying to create some stories of my own to illustrate. trying to draw at least a little bit every day is important.

3. be a better friend and sister. i am the absolute worst at keeping up with people. i have 4 new sisters and i'm not keeping up! i have kristen, nichele, and eric, who i love dearly and i never call them to tell them so. erin, rain, sara, randi, and many others are so close to where i live... yet i still spend my free time alone. i can't even get into the camp gals. i miss them so much... but i never write or call. it needs to change.

i think i did fairly well with this one. i text them alot... and tlaking to kristen and nichy as much as possible is important to me. i spend as much time with my sisters and text them often.

4. school. work on finding a way to go back again.

still a work in progress. oy.

all in all i think those 4 resolutions are enough to keep me busy. i'm sure i could find more to work on... but then everything would get more complicated, and really. who needs that?

i am looking forward to steve coming home tomorrow. i don't like when he goes away. things feel odd and empty when he's not around.

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looking back on the resolutions i made last year... i can honestly say that i made good all except for one.. which is the school one. while i am still going... it's sporadic and needs to be more consistant.

so.. my resolutions for this year are as follows...

1. continue going to the gym. not specifically to trim down, but to continue the health resolution i made last year. i see the health issues my mom has, and i don't want to go down that road. i want to feel good, i want to have kids, i want to be active and have a long life. i don't want to finish a hike at camp and feel like collapsing. i mean... yes.. i would love to look trimmer... but it's really not the objective at this stage in my life. i just want to have my health.

2. grow as an artist. along with constantly practicing and honing my skills, i want to learn new ones. i want to make myself the best possible artist i can be. i would love to make it a full time job, and not have to worry about having part time jobs and crafting. i like being busy and having places to go... but i want my art to be my career. i would like to continue to build on my writing skills and maybe venture into both writing children's books and maybe writing short essays similar to two of my favorite writers dan zevin ("the day i turned uncool: confessions of a reluctant grown-up") and dave barry ("homes and other black holes" just to name one..). it's a tall order... but it's one to just keep working on.

3. hone my fine art skills. it's not all just about whay types of cute cuddly creatures i can create. but thanks to my two professors kyle and jeff... i've learned that perspective and figures are important too. i want to experiment more with pencil and charcoal drawing and also try to fit some typical buildings and fruit drawings in there. it's important to keep your skills sharp.

all of these kind of fall into the career direction that i am trying to steer myself in. my ultimate goal is to eventually end up teaching high school art of some sort. i love high school kids and i love art. my time spent in the art studio at putnam are some of my findest high school memories. i still talk to ms. holda to this day. i'd love to be part of creating those memories for kids (corny but true)

hopefully... i can keep these moving just like i did last years.

2 more days until i get to come home to good ol' massachusetts.. i miss my kitties and bunnies like whoa.

and boredom was her name-o

it's not that i'm specifically bored... but damn. there really is nothing to do for me right now. every year, steve and his college buddies get together in south jersey at one of their houses. they spend about a week playing video games, D&D, LARP's (live action role playing games), board games. they call it nerdcon. i came. i did it mostly for him. now i'm down here... after a 7 hour car ride (i'm not terribly fond of long car trips), and i pretty much have nothing to do. sure, i brought knitting and drawing... but after about a day, it gets a little old. i would try to play some of the games and join in, but i never get the rules right and all it does is slow them down and aggravate them.

sleeping arrangements are a little less than ideal. it's like camping except i have to share an air mattress with steve. if i sleep on one side, he pokes at me because i am making the mattress "displaced" and if i sleep on my other side, then i'm breathing on him.. which he doesn't like.. so in turn he tries to smother me with my own blanket in an effort to block my breathing on him. i don't sleep on my back.. and with an air mattress trying to sleep on my stomach is like being folded in half the wrong way. so last night we spent the time either poking each other to move over or roll over or i was trying to quietly bitch to him to stop smothering me... all while trying not to wake up the other 2 guys that were sleeping on the couches in the living room with us. i have a feeling this is going to be a very sleep deprived week. i can't wait to get back home to my own bed... or better yet, to camp where i don't have to sleep with him at all.

as for the folks here, they are really nice. our hosts, josh and jill recent;y had twins... they are really cute, and it's interesting to watch all of the guys tiptoe around the babies. the best thing about this week so far is hanging with the babies.

tomorrow, i might venture off to the cape may wetlands reserve... i remember visiting it a couple of years ago on our road trip from hell (i.e the time we drove all the way down here for josh and jill's wedding and missed it completely by a day.) .. it was nice then... might be even nicer under good circumstances.

i'll have a very bunny christmas

it's been awhile since i blogged... so this might be long.

i've discovered that somerville... after it's covered in snow, is a very peaceful place at about 4 am. this picture does it no justice, but this is a shot from my street. it looked so serene... everything was covered in snow.. the trees almost seemed to be glowing. i loved it.


maggs and sebastien came to visit for 2 days. i didn't realize that they were spending time here for the holidays. they are moving up here soon, and so they wanted to spend a day checking out neighborhoods and what types of living spaces the boston area has to offer. we spent nearly 6 hours checking out somerville, arlington, brookline, watertown, cambridge, medford, and JP (did i miss any maggiesan?) along with driving around playing tourguide (which i love) i got to hang with them for awhile. it was nice to have maggs around. i can't wait till she's up here permanently. part of hanging around meant furry creature adoration... we simply can't help ourselves when it comes to cure furry creatures, and my house is full of them. along with the bunnies, i also have 3 chinchillas. since both species are fairly peaceful, we decided to try an experiment to see if buns and chins get along. as it turns out... furry soft creatures like to cuddle and nap with other furry soft creatures. this is a picture of ophelia sandwiched between hassen and pheffer.... cummulus and sylvester (the chins) are under and behind the bunnies. they stayed there napping and cleaning each others ears until we had to leave for dinner in harvard square.
fast forward to christmas morning. we were headed to the great white north... also known as new hampshire. amber and i plotted a surprize for my two sisters heather and crystal. they had no idea i was coming up to spend christmas day with them. amber also requested that i bring the bunnies... she is also a bunny queen. and so... i did. since the pair of them are so chill, i decided that they would be much more comfortable in my lap, rather than in a carrier in the back seat. it seems as if they love car rides. they spent a good deal of time with their noses to the window, just watching the world go by, and when they weren't... they napped in my lap.


at some point during the ride.. something scared pheffer. i don't know if it was a sound from the radio, or something from surrounding traffic. but she freaked out and ran up the front of me burrying her head in my neck. after a few minutes hiding her furry face she slowly climbed up behind my neck and decided that she would be much happier perched on my shoulder. and thats just where she stayed. hassen stayed streched out in my lap.


the christmas surprize was excellent. they never saw it coming. the day was perfect. i had such a good time hanging out with them.


amber shooting the bunnies:
amber modelling the snowman building kit o got her for christmas:
sean(crystal's hubby) trying on his new oven mits:
sean and crystal:
they got alot of loving.. how can you not cuddle them?!
me, crystal, amber (suffering from serious dust allergies), and heather:



tomorrow... off to new jersey for nerdcon. god save me.

day 15 as an emotional hostage

women reading right now... you will understand.

men reading right now... you won't understand. sorry.

i watched the movie "P.S. i love you" tonight. it was about 1 hour into the movie, after i had been laughing at one scene and bawling my eyes out at another that i realized it. i'm starting to feel the emotional effects of yaz... and i don't like it one bit.

for most of the time... i'm pretty emotionally stable. but, i have serious issues with certain birth control meds. (see men? this is where it gets sticky.)

i've discussed it with my dr. and other than to keep switching around and experimenting with new BC meds.. there's not much else i can do. it's something i've had to deal with since i was a teenager. it's never easy. i hate running the complete gamut of emotions in one evening. once i realized that i was bawling my eyes out at a movie (which was a real emotional jerker to begin with...) i started thinking back over the rest of my day. i spent most of the day at work being melancholy and cynical... i came home in a terrible mood. lurking around the house wanting to assault someone.. then i started feeling depressed... then i went back to being crabby... and then after that, i was restless and anxious. i was happy as a clam after dinner... then i started watching dark shadows, and slipped into another odd mood that i can't even describe. it was then that i started watching the movie where i was having the extreme ups and downs of crying and laughing that it hit me what was going on. i finished the movie, and now it's nearing 4am. i am exhausted, my eyes really burn and my sinuses are swollen and hurt from all the crying.

steve has taken up residence on the couch. i feel kind of bad about it.

we'll see how the next month or so goes. from now until then friends... if i seem a little bit crazier... well.. it's what it is.

i found out the 3rd piece to the puzzle.

mary carols mother passed away. :(

they say crap news comes in 3's

once a month, my mom has to come to boston to see one of her dr's. she always comes on the 3rd tuesday of the month, and i always go to meet her. i usually arrive at her dr.s office before she does. today, i went there thinking business as usual. while i was sitting there, the receptionist answered the phone... she sounded concerned. then she covered the speaker and looked at me, and asked if i was deb's daughter. as it turns out, my mom fell in the garage and was waiting for the paramedics to come and take her to the ER.

now, i'm not really the athletic type, but i sprinted out of that office nearly knocking over some little old asian ladies. of course, the garage is on the other side of tufts, so it was quite the run. when i got to the third floor of the garage, there was my mom. on the ground next to the caddy. she looked completely cold, embarrassed and miserable. once i talked to audrey (yay me.) i found out that it was her fault my mom was on the ground. apparently, while my mom was on the transfer board moving from the car to her wheelchair, audrey walked away from her to go get her purse from the other side of the car. so, when my mom had problems with the transfer board slipping, there was nobody there to help her. he response "well i told her to stay put". i cannot tell you the restraint i had to use to not punch her in the mouth. it was the type of anger that i hate... the type that makes my chest hurt and my head pound. i'm still super mad about it just typing this up.

getting my mom up was quite a feat. the paramedics ended up shoving a sheet under her and kind of making a hammocky scoopy thing and scooted her up onto a gurney. she went down to the ER and got checked out... and was released this evening. i talked to her tonight, and got the report that she was sore and trying to sleep it off.

the other bit of bad news i got tonight was that last weeks ice storm in western MA has really messed up camp. i can't even bear to think about camp in shambles. damaged buildings and messed up trails. no electricity and wayne living on a generator. it makes me sick. i hope to get out there as much as possible to help put camp back together.

as for the third bit of news... it hasn't happened yet. i hope one of the two before mentioned things is also bad enough to count as the third.

in other (good) news, we also got our christmas tree. and it has a pine cone!
a shot of garcia, being beautiful under a naked tree
pheffer checking out the tree. since then, they've both taken to eating the bottom branches, and stealing the low ornaments off the tree.
the finished tree... all sparkly and gorgeous.

bunny diaries: vol 2

aside from having noticeably different personalities now, hassen and pheffer have started to explore outside of the kitchen. hassen is usually standing at the door of the cage waiting to come out while pheffer takes awhile to get going. once i open the door, she'll watch her sister hop out and then she'll go over to the dish for a snack before following hassen to explore. they've made it all the way into and almost across the middle room.. they're getting close to making it into the living room.

i've also had to wash my comforter twice. it turns out that they aren't old enough just yet to know how to control their bladders. i don't think i'll be cuddling with them and my comforter at the same time for awhile.

their dinner habits are growing. so far they've demolished 3 full dishes of food (since sunday), a whole bag of timothy cubes and almost a full bag of timothy hay. i swear, they've gotten bigger since sunday.

they are still as cute as ever... and i have completely fallen in love with them. they are so wonderful. i still can't believe that they are going to get so big!

it's winter. i'm supposed to be white.

i had my first tanning experience today. it's one i won't be re-living. i was lured into free tanning by my new membership to a gym. that's one of the perks i get with the "black card" membership.

the workout was great. i spent about40 minutes in a fast walk on a treadmill (thank you ipod for the inspiration to keep moving), and then i spent about half hour doing muscle toning reps (is that the lingo?). after that... i decided to give the tanning booth a whirl. not only did i feel like a rotisserie chicken in there, but afterwards it appeared as though my face was striped. it's about an hour since i've been there, and now the stripes are gone. i was afraid it was going to be a like a similar experience i had with self tanning creme where my knees and elbows were a terracotta color while the rest of me was a lemony-orange color. i looked like candy corn. you'd think i'd learn.

bunny diaries: vol 1

i suppose it's not really volume one, but i'm going to make it a small series because i apparently have enough time on my hands to blog about rabbits.

hassen and pheffer are definately starting to show their own personalitites. pheffer is kind of the lazy bum of the pair, while hassen likes to hop around and be nosey. i've already got them litterbox trained. it only took about two hours. the only place that they're been loose in the house yet is the kitchen, and i haven't seen one accident yet (thank god!!!). they have no problem heading right back to their cage to do their buisness. another thing i've noticed that that they eat... boy oh boy can they eat. i fill the corner of their cage up with timothy hay at night, and by the morning, it's completely gone. they also head back to their cage to snack alot. they're close to being completely finished with one bag of timothy berry cubes!

they also like to nudge and nuzzle. i love that. they are so cuddly and loveable. more pictures to come when i charge my camera battery.

it's officially official

the babies have names. hassen and pheffer. our last hopper was named delicious. are you really that surprised we would name the next pair after a german rabbit dinner?

speaking of delicious. seeing these guys as babies makes me miss her like crazy. they run and jump and twist their bodies all at once... i call it the bunny dance of joy. she used to do it all the time. another interesting baby fact. as babies, hassen and pheffer are as big as della was when she was adult.

they are going to be whoppers.

and a pic to remember della... since she was a free roaming (and thankgod, a litter box trained) hopper... she occationally liked to sneak sips of an unattended margarita. i caught her in the act one night. i always loved that one flopped ear. she was so cool.

cutest babies evar.

so. we brought the bunnies home. they are painfully adorable, and complete lap bunnies. they're so chill.

no names yet, but there are photos.

well the fire is so delightful....

it's 1:50am. i am sitting in ludow MA, by BFF has just gone to bed. the camp program is over. it was awesome. instead of the 19 girls we were supposed to have... we had 6. 5 counselors to 6 brownies. it was friggin amazing.

it's snowing now. i'm really hoping that it lets up tomorrow so i can drive home and then drive to middleton to pick out our bunny.

so. the first snow of the year... i wish i could have been up at camp to sit at the window of the leadership lodge and watch it with a cup of tea and a bit of crocheting.

time for sleep.

22lbs?!?

thats the weight that a flemish giant can reach.

we've been toying with the idea of getting another bunny. we miss delicious and greg alot, and i saw an ad on craigslist advertising them... i may not be able to resist. granted del and greg weren't flemish giants... but, christ. a 22lb rabbit? thats bigger than garcia! it's the size of a small dog!

this is te picture from the ad... they're still babies!

and this is what one could look like as an adult. OMGZ!!! soooo much bunny!
not to mention the fact that they are known to be one of the most docile breeds of rabbit around... i think i might be sold.

i dunno mr. lalane....

... your power juicer is clever, and it makes tasty juice... but i don't know if the lure for tasty vitamin rich, sugar-free juice is enough to be worth the hassle of cleaning fruit pulp off of my kitchen cabinets and ceiling.

so. tonight was my first experience with the jack lalane power juicer. mary carol and brad got it as a wedding gift and just weren't interested in having "another kitchen contraption" on their counter. "would you like to take it home?" she asked the kitchen contraption coveter. so...now it's got a home in my kitchen. i bought apples and oranges to try it out. setting it up and cleaning it up were a breeze. no problem. it was the operation that left a little to be desired. i dropped an apple in and smushed it down with the pusher thingy... when i dropped another apple in, it regurgitated some apple pulp right up the side of kitchen cabinets all the way up to the ceiling. i mean, it wasn't alot, but it was enough to make me say "damn". to do oranges, they need to be peeled first since the rinds are bitter.

then after the juice is made... what the hell am i supposed to do with the pulp from the fruit? maybe mr. d will be interested in it for fertilizing his tomatoes..

both juices were really tasty... however i think mr. lalane may be retired to the shelf except for the special occations i get to make breakfast for people. who wouldn't love fresh orange, grapefruit, or apple juice for breakfast?

the mason-dixon line

south of it is where i was for thanksgiving. we split our time between sparks-glencoe MD at his dads house and alexandria VA at his moms. his family is nice, the more i see them, the more comfortable i feel... i kind of miss thanksgivings past with my family in somers and chicopee. i feel like i haven't been together with them for a long long time. it's really beautiful in sparks. his dad has a big old house on the maryland countryside. at night there are lots of deer and during the day i also caught glimpses of foxes, woodpeckers, and blue jays.

we had thanksgiving dinner with mary carol's parents this year, instead of all of stephens uncles.. her mom is getting older, and her health is really starting to go downhill. she was sprung from the hospital from a fall she had just the day before thanksgiving.



when we went down to alexandria, his mom took us to mount vernon where she works. every time we go down for any holiday, we always go to mount vernon. i know more about george washington and the way he lived than i ever thought i would. it's actually pretty cool. every time we go, i learn something new, and see something that i didn't see the last time.

this time, we saw aladdin the baby camel and the process of making chocolate. they had the camel there because apparently back when washington lived there, he rented a camel for 18 shillings (about $75 dollars today) for his guests to see, because they had only ever seen camels in books. the chocolate was bought in the fruit form, dried, then pan roasted. after the beans were roasted, they would peel them and mrs. washington would make the peelings and make tea with them. after that they put them on a heated stone, and ground it into chocolate while adding spices and sugar. all in all the process takes about 2-3 hours.

we ended up driving home on saturday night. we got home at about 5:30 on sunday morning where i slept in super late... all in all... it was a great trip.

if you're colorblind, the new killers album is not for you.

if you are, the cover of the album with probably make you crazy. it's done as an ishihara color test. i'm geeking out about it just a little bit. the actual music is taking me a little time to warm up to, but i like a few of the tracks so far.

i think that the killers have taken the spot as "favorite band" just a little bit. i still listen to alot of sheila divine and i'm still smitten with weezer, but as for bands that keep putting out consistantly good music... the killers are at the top of my list.

not to mention... brandon flowers is completely adorable.

the kitchen continues to transform from macaroni and cheese orange to a happy and soft yellow. it's making me happy. along with the painting, i'm also getting a ridiculous amount of organizing and purging done.

i've also started to re-arrange the room that my christmas tree will be staying in. i decided that this year, i didn't want to have a futon floating around my house that nobody can sit on. i'm arranging the room for maximum tree adoration seating. i also pulled the ornaments out of the basement. i can't wait to get our tree.

other than that... i'm glad to be home. our trip down south was pretty quiet this year. i'll post more about that with some photos later on...

cat house

literally.

things have definately been a little noisy around here. garcia seems to think that he is a whole man again now that kumori has gone into heat.

the thing that makes this whole story all the more hilarious is that garcia's medical backround. he's been neutered since he was about 4 months old, but lost the rest of his manhood a few years ago when his bladder started forming crystals making it impossible for him to pee. so.. garcia is really, kind of, technically.... a tranny. now he seems very confused and not sure what to do with kumori. she is following him around mrrowing at him and doing her little dance. he gets all alpha male on her, then gets confused, and finally swats her, hisses, and walks away. it's really a very sad process as garcia will usually come to find me and jump on my lap where he'll sit and look at me like "what's happening mom?"

i've taken to squirting kumi with a spray bottle when she starts following him.

i've also made the appointment to have her spayed so all of the cat's lives can return to a peaceful existance of catnip mice and tinkle balls to chase.

people who mostly stay at home really should have cats. it's like having a daily soap opera in your house without having to pay for cable.

tufts hospital: a black hole for time

how is it that hospitals seem to suck the time out of a day?

rain and i spent most of the day at tufts hospital with my mom, and unfortunately, audrey. every month, she comes to boston to see dr. luc so they can chat about her med levels and make adjustments to try and keep my moms temporal arthritis at bay. we left the house pretty early and got bagels at park street. we spent a good hour and a half with the dr. then waited around to have her blood drawn. after that, we got soup at au bon pain in the lobby together. i hated every minute of audreys endless yapping. every sentence that came out of my mouth had to be validated by her telling me some stupid story about how she went through something similar or saying "yeah". there were so many times where i just wanted to tell her to shut the fuck up.

mom was pretty disheartened by the news that it would take her 1 to 2 years to get off of prednisone. it's really hitting her hard physically. it's making her want to eat alot, and when that happens her weight goes up (isn't that the story with some of us laramee women?). when her weight goes up, her mobility goes waaaaay down. jack from dr. koppelmans office is working on getting her a physical therapist to visit the house... man i love jack and dr. k. not only do they keep super close tabs on mom, but they also call me every six months to see how i'm doing health wise, even though i have no insurance. she's such an amazing doctor.

after the visits, i helped mom get into the car, which was quite an undertaking. once she was in, i think rain kind of kept audrey occupied so i could have a few minutes to talk with my mom alone. she was crying and really upset about the time frame for the prednisone. she's starting to be more bed bound and depressed. i told her to try and look forward to the fact that she is slowly moving down and that she didn't have to be on it forever.... still. she's pretty down in the dumps.

by the time we said goodbye, it was around 4pm. rain and i wandered back over to the amazing (a local porn and sex toy shop) on stuart street. ever since she worked there, she's had some odd fascination with porn. silly, artistic, strange, movie spoofs.... she loves it all. she scoped out the new movies and tried to get me interested. i mostly just checked out the toys they had to compare prices and variety to what we have at hubba hubba. i need to take more control back over the ordering. alot of denises choices are just boring the customers.

with any hope, i will be able to make more progress on my kitchen repainting. maybe even a few loads of laundry.

maggiesan also may have a lead on a job... which is great news. i'm REALLY excited about the idea of having an "old school" friend in the boston area. i've known maggs for about as long as i've known kristen and nichele. it's gonna be fabulous. while i love the friends i've made in the boston area as an adult, it's somewhat comforting to know that there will be someone near who knew me as a kid. to know someone that long and still be friends... even after rough patches and great distances... it's good stuff. i can't wait to introduce her to sara, erin, and karyl... and to rain... and to have someone to go to concerts with... w00t!

it's almost christmas time, and i have to admit, i've been listening to christmas music on the sly when nobody else is around. i can't wait to get our christmas tree and dig out the ornaments... to make christmas cookies and send out cards...to watch the original "how the grinch stole christmas" on an old grainy VHS tape(the one where the box is in shambles from being so old) ... to anxiously wait to see fun envelopes in my mailbox.. the lights... drinking hot cocoa or tea by a lit tree and to watch the snow outside... also, abbe might come visit, maybe becky too? it could be reminiscent of having family around like going to grammy's in christmases past...... oh i love it. and to possibly spend christmas day with my sisters for the first time?! ever?! magical.

oh man, there are gonna be lots of pictures.... i just can't wait.

it's all downhill after the dress

whoever said that is a fucking liar. what happened today.. i just don't know. maybe the gals at davids bridal were having a bad day or something, but my trip to get the dress was miserable.

to begin with, i never even got a call that it had arrived. i got an email instead. when i called, they told me "oh yeah, that arrived about a week ago. you should have picked it up then." well sure. it's not like i wanted to leave it there. like i want them holding my dress hostage? so i decided to take off for danvers to get it. when i got there, i stood at the counter for about 15 minutes in full view of a consultant helping another girl. there was nobody else in view, i know she saw me. she looked right at me and still ignored me. i wouldn't have minded standing there if she had just at least acknowledged me or said i'll be over in a minute. finally someone else wandered out and got my name to find my dress. when she came back, it was still vacuum sealed into the little bitty bag it came in. i mean really. i just paid you HUNDREDS of dollars for this dress, and they couldn't even put it into the garment bag (that i had to pay for in the first place by the way). it was wrinkled and well... there was just no "magic" to picking it up. the girls were just rude.. like... what, i paid you and you got your commission so... that's it? fuck me for customer service? in the big picture, i'm really glad i went to get it... but the whole experience kind of left me with a sour taste in my mouth.

after that, i decided to heal my emotional wounds with some retail therapy. the christmas tree shops are always good for some cheap interesting things.. i've also been toying with the idea of repainting my kitchen. so i went to home depot and picked up some swatches... so far, a bright sunny yellow is in the lead as far as colors go. i also bought some home things... a photo board... a new rug... picture frames... and some kitchen odds and ends. tomorrow, i will probably go pick up the paint and start the kitchen. to me, the orange it is now makes it feel smaller and darker.. i need something nice and bright to pick it up. i'm also going to re-design my blackboard by framing it and adding in the photo board i picked up. i love home improvements :)

did you vote?

i sure did. in fact, i had a voting date this morning. steve and i walked over as soon as the polls opened, voted, then got some breakfast. it was great. i am so anxious to see which direction our country goes in tonight. i have been glued to the TV (except for the time i was out on my interview and in court with rainy). i have practically been in a nail biting frenzy all day. it didn't help that this weekend i watched a few documentaries on how the machines used for voting can be simply hacked into, or that they keep on referencing our last voting day.

god... i can't wait for tonight to come.

just because i now own a helmet doesn't mean you're allowed to call me special

i was lucky enough to be sitting at my computer when i got the email telling me that i won a skater helmet through ebay. it probably happened about 15 minutes ago, and paid for may be less that 5 minutes after that. hopefully, it will arrive here before friday. it's the last bit to my halloween costume. i'm hoping it will get here by wednesday so i can spray it gold to completely finish the costume. i am going to be a contestant from the 90's nickelodeon gameshow "legends of the hidden temple". i'm kind of stealing it from amber. she did it last year. i chose to go with it because i really hate costumes that get in the way of me moving around and being (somewhat) normal. last year, i went as a vegas showgirl. i had a giant feathered head dress that was about 3 feet off my head, and the heels and the sequined dress i wore while shuffling around and helping people at hubba hubba made me want to cry by the end of the night.

the costume allows me to wear jeans and a t-shirt only adding the out-of-norm knee/elbow pads and a gold helmet. i'm going to be from the green monkey team... i'm jazzed.

in other news tonight, i let my somewhat passive aggressive road rage come out. when i got to my car, i found that someone had parked about 3 inches away from my bumper. inspired by ben's note writing to the folks who had a mount washington sticker on their car, i left a note on the car behind me that read "thank you so much for parking up the ass of my car. i really enjoyed being able to hone my paralell parking and turning skills tonight. jerk." i dunno, i guess i was just really frustrated that they decided to sneak by the "10 feet from the intersection" law that somerville has, by practically forcing me to leave my car in davis square. it took ALOT of turning and reversing to get out of that spot. besides all of that, i was tired and cranky from a loooong day at hubba hubba.

tonight will be forever known as "the night i got stuck in a coffin"

steve took me on an adventure tonight, to abington MA to see barrets haunted mansion. besides the mansion, they also had an attraction called "buried alive". it's a simulated "ride" where you climb into a real coffin, they shut the lid, and it plays a track in your ear and has simulated movements and whatnot. it kind of freaked me out a little once i was in there. it blows cool air in at the foot, and it feels (and sounds) like the coffin is filling with water. all in all, its really cool. what was not cool however was the prank that was pulled on me for my exit of the coffin.

when we got to this place, there was a clown on stilts standing in the doorway. this is the part where i try to express my sheer terror for clowns. i can't explain why, but i get goosebumps, feel nauseous, my mind starts running, and get cold sweats when i see clowns. the stilty clown had a red face with the white frowny lips, black around his eyes and had neon green contacts in.. with an orange wig. he was all dressed in black. while we were waiting in line for the burried ride, i watched him outside tearing across the parking lot chasing people. again... all in stilts. he was freaking me out. there was another pair of clowns around in neon yellow and orange suits. without me knowing. steve told the girl about my clown fear, she took it from there.

now, the room that the ride was in was a little itty bitty room that was made to look like a murder scene, top that off with the fact that there is a coffin in the corner... folks... you have quite a freaky little room. the whole thing was very convincing. if i had wandered into it on my own not knowing it was part of a halloween attraction, i would have been a bit edgy. the ride is over. i am waiting for the gal who happily tucked me into the coffin to open the lid. nope. clown 1 opens the lid, it took me a second for my eyes to adjust to the light, and i then let out a blood curdling scream. at this point i covered my eyes and tried to sit up, but he was leaning over the coffin right in my face making growly noises. so i laid back down and waited to hear him move. i sat up trying to scramble out of the coffin, at the same time, i pulled my scarf up over my eyes so i didn't have to see them. i threw one leg out and twisted around to pull the rest of me out. keep in mind, i still have my scarf practically wrapped around my head. one foot on the floor, and two hands to steady myself, i discovered that my other foot was now tangled in the plastic wrap that was protecting the coffins interior. i tried for about 10 seconds to get myself free, and failed. at this point i could still hear the pair of them growling, one of them right next to my ear. i froze. i was afraid that if i pulled, i was going to knock the coffin over. i was pretty close to panic at this point.

can you imagine me standing there? scarf over my eyes, near tears (seriously), two hands on the rim of a coffin trying to pull the other foot out? i guess that the clowns transformed from fear inducing creeps to two guys who realized that i was stuck and terrified. he reached into the coffin and pulled the plastic off my foot where i then turned around and fled towards the door where i was able to feel my way out. when i got back outside, steve was standing there filming my exit. i pretty much knew thats where he would be, and i came out of the door ready for action. i beat him up a little.

the first video is of one of the clowns entering the room. the little tv screen is actually me in the coffin, but you can't really tell because of the glare from the light.

the second video is from my exit from the room. this is where i attack steve. he had it comin'.

after that, we headed over to the mansion and got some hot chocolate and fried dough to nash on while standing in line. we stood in line for about an hour.. all the while creepers in freaky costumes moved through the line scaring people wherever they got the chance. the mansion itself was neat and scary. i think the room that bothered me the most was a room that you were looking in on.. it was a guy lying on a surgery table, being dismembered or tortured... whatever. but there are people around him and a strobe light is going crazy. the flashing light almost made me lose my shit. in less that 30 seconds i felt like i was either going to pass out or throw up. i moved on to the clown room and wished i was getting sick in the last room. eventually, after we had been screamed at and thoroughly scared, we got outside and decided to get one more hot cocoa to share for the ride home since we were both freezing from our hour wait. while standing in line, the stilt clown decided that he was just going to loom behind me until i noticed. being the mostly oblivious type that i am, i didn't even notice until steve snickered. once i turned, i screamed and bolted for the car.

all in all... we, scratch that, i ended up with the halloween scare that steve was seeking. this sunday... we are going to attempt the corn maze in sterling MA and also get our halloween pumpkin.

lay-to-the-zee

that was my day. lazy. i spent most of my day under the covers watching "six feet under" and cuddling with the cats. kumori is now in the habit of meowing and nosing in the blankets, its her signal for you to open the comforter so she can get under it. she's started this thing where she likes to sleep under the comforter next to me, its a very odd sensation to have a kitty purring under the blanket next to you. it's also sickeningly adorable. i think i am going to keep my little video camera next to me when i'm lounging so i can try to catch her cuteness on tape.

the weekend was spent in needham where i house/dog sat for lucy. we went for a long walk in the woods on both saturday and sunday. it was sooo nice. when i wasn't out in nature, i was hanging out and sketching and drinking tea in what i am calling their "tree room". it's on the second floor of the house, and when you look out onto the deck, it looks like you are just hanging out in the trees. sadly i didn't see any deer.

the rest of this week looks to be busy. i have 2 lunch dates about illustrating. i bought a new portfolio to organize some of my drawings. i also bought a new sweater and some nice jeans so i look like a professional illustrator and not just an art hippy.

3 blog posts 1 day

yes, it seems a little excessive. but i blog alot. mostly because i have nothing else to do, but i digress.

it seems like fall was just dawdleing in, and then WHAM! the past two days fall has taken over. i dunno, it just feels more like fall. i like to sit on my front porch, and today i actually needed to hunt down a sweatshirt. it also seems like the trees on my street have given up and are quickly getting more and more naked. i also think that the sox games are making it feel more like fall.

soon it'll be time to get pumpkins. yay! this year, to light em' up i am going to use one of the zillion glow sticks that came home from camp with me. that way, no anxiety about buring the porch down!

alright... time to get back to the sox... it's close at 7 to 7 in the 9th.

fishnets and ruffly underoos

so tonight was my first night with a burlesque dancing group. it was amazingly fun. i found the group through the guy who runs the boston babydolls, who i met at the boston tattoo convention. tonight it was all yoga pants, but next time we are supposed to bring the fancy schmancy stuff. i found an interesting pair of ruffly underoos and some fishnets and heels. it's going to take some getting used to, i haven't really danced in heels since i taught dancing out in western MA. i'm still on the hunt for a somewhat tasteful top. i definately have a hot pink feather boa though.

i decided to join the group for a couple of reasons. 1. i seriously need to get out of this house. 2. its FABULOUS excersize. my muscles are screaming from all the dance moves. 3. the wardrobe is LOTS of fun. there really isn't alot of room for fishnets in my everyday wardrobe... come to think of it red lipstick or hot pink boas don't really either, but being a somewhat girlie-girl... i love them!

i know that work tomorrow is going to suck... lack of regular sleep, denise, and sore muscles don't generally excite me.

man, i can't wait for next dance group.

*yawn*

i hate days like these. they are the days where i am ridiculously exhausted because i stayed up the night before working.

nothing like a deadline to motivate you, eh?

it's 12:30 in the afternoon and i still haven't been to bed... i'm about to give up and take a few hour nap.

sooooo tired.

tested

it seems like this weekend has tested my patience to the max.

saturday and sunday were fan-fucking-tastic. saturday was very short. rain and i left for western MA around 8:30pm. the meeting of the BFF's happened around 10:30pm. we spent the night at kristens house, playing with her puggy puppy kasey. the next morning we got up and headed for camp bonnie brae to walk around and take video and pictures. the whole day was amazing. i love that krissisan and rain got along so well. it was also fun to hear them talk and joke about M.O.H. dresses. they also had some amazing ideas to decorate camp for the wedding. we got up to camp at about 12:30 and didn't leave until almost 6pm. we also decided to get lunch and have it on the back of big house porch. after CBB, we headed back to ludlow and collect all of our sleeping stuffs.

once we left kris's house we stopped to visit grammy and uncle tom. i got the chance to ask my uncle tom if he would give me away next fall... as i expected, before i got the answer i got his joke.. "i think we're going to need a big box". i told him that the dress acted as a bow. i took all of this to mean "yes".

after that we were off again, this time to springfield to visit tony and joanne, who are both erics parents and the most amazing photographers ever. i remember being at erics house when i was about 13 or 14 and seeing a picture of a groom laying in the grass with the bride behind him... in my mind then, i told myself.. if i ever get married, i hope they will take my pictures. tonight i finally got my chance to ask. they said yes. i told them the story about me remembering the picture which joanne couldn't believe. she thought it was hilarious. i love them so much... they are like second parents.

by this time, it was about 10pm when we had made it to my moms. it was alot later than we had expected to be there. she was a little bent out of shape about it. the plan was to move alot more of my childhood stuff out of the basement. rain and i went down there to start sorting through some boxes. after about 15 minutes, we started to feel itchy.. rain noticed she had a flea on her arm which lead to our immeadiate exit of the basement. from what i understand, audrey had some stray cat in the basement and never bothered to give it a flea bath. the fleas took over the basement and they had to bomb it not once, but twice. apparently twice was not enough. ugh. by this time it was about midnight, and too late to drive home. rain and i found a howard johnsons to spend the night... it was the grossest most ghetto place i have ever slept in. no alarm clock.. the chain on the door had been ripped off the doorframe, a horrifying shower, a missing towel rack and suspicious substance on the comforters. we requested new sheets from housekeeping and tried not to look down when de-fleaing in the shower.

the next morning we headed back to my mom's house to visit and try to collect some more stuff before coming home. one of the things that i've been trying to find for months now is an album that contained my birth certificate, and the bracelets, hat, footprints, and photos from when i was born and in ICU. i believe that album is also the one that contained pictures from grampys boat in it. audrey moved it from the table it was in, and hasn't been able to find it since. i found out today that she threw it away. because i wasn't upset enough about that, i was also on the hunt for a photo from grammy and grampys wedding that should have been in the trunk uncle archie made upstairs. instead of our things in the trunk, i found that alyssa had moved everything out of the trunk and into a suitcase. the photo was gone and so was the gold cross that was at grampy's funeral. where it is i have no idea, but at this point i kind of lost my shit. i didn't yell, but i definately got the point across that i was pissed about everything being moved out of the trunk. i got into it again with audrey about everything that was missing and about things being moved out of the trunk. by the end of my visit, everything was back in the trunk safe(ish) and secure. i think the next time i am out there i am going to get a skeleton key to see if i can try and lock the trunk up.

i just can't express enough how much i hate those people. i always leave the house anxiety ridden and angry. by the time we got back home, i just crawled into bed and slept the rest of the afternoon away.

on the whole, the weekend was pretty great. i secured more wedding details and ended up connecting two of my best friends. i also got to bring home more of my childhood relics... photos and video to come later this week.

MAD!

it's very rare that i get angry. like real angry, not just laugh it off frustrated. today i was VERY angry. like the kind of mad that makes your chest hurt, well, ok... makes my chest hurt. which is another reason i avoid that specific emotion. i don't like it. at all.

today at hubba... now, some back round on denise. i try to be polite when describing people that are hard to describe because they really don't have any qualities that you can talk about and still sound like a nice person. did that make sense? i'm mad and typing fast so, it probably didn't.

denise is an idiot. she is a simple minded, uneducated, rude, sneaky, scheming idiot. talking to her most days gives me a headache. she is rude to customers, me, rain, and she even thinks it's acceptable to yell at our 70 year old boss, suzi. what makes me maddest is that she talks down to people like they are beneath her. it would be one thing if she had any right to say that she was. but honestly.. she isn't.

i hardly think that my asking her to change a CD deserved being brushed off, when i confronted her about it, her attitude only got snottier. by the time i had gotten mad enough to tell her "not to "fucking" speak to me that way". he response was "watch your language, young lady". OMG when i ever heard her say that to me i was so mad and riled up that i wanted to hit her. it takes SO much provocation to make me that angry that i just walked out. she is so INCREDIBLY disrespectful to everyone around her it just makes me absolutely livid.

can you imagine me being so mad that i actually had to leave a work?!

my plan. go have some tea and take a nap.

1...2...3... focus!

i have no idea what switched in the past day or so. but i have become almost obsessively focused on my artwork. i spent a huge chunk of my morning roaming around the financial district taking pictures of buildings. i want to really draw and work on my perspective. when i got home, i pulled out my watercolors and started experimenting and painting pictures of the fish and jellies i saw at the aquarium when doug and linda were here.

ted is now more detailed... and more fuzzy looking. i've had alot of camp pictures printed out and i've started studying my summer sisters and making characters.. including myself. it's fun to cartoon yourself.

camp is officially ours for the wedding. we signed the contract and picked the buildings that we'll need. sunday i will be out there with my girls and we are taking a small roadtrip up the mountain to take alot of pictures and video of camp because people keep asking me "what's it like?". i'm pretty sure most people are picturing pop-tents in the dirt, when in reality there's alot more to it than that.

speaking of obsessions. i am quite embarassed to admit that i have somewhat become interested in the the show "paris hiltons my new BFF". the show is COMPLETELY ridiculous. the girls are catty, the situations are crazy... i just don't understand how i got hooked. thanks to rain, i've also been following "project runway". next week is the season finale... what will i do then? oh.. thats right... watch all the reruns.

art and televison and weddings, oh my!

the thick headed pollock learns a valuble optical lesson today.

my eyes hurt. like.. alot. obviously not enough to stop my blogging, but still. ow.

i spent most of the day in front of the computer researching and getting prices for alot of wedding things like chairs, tables, officiants... blah blah... i also spent a ridiculous amount of time being "detail oriented" in illustrator today. i got so much of the little design work done... i'm very proud of myself. if it weren't for my kick ass speakers and the rock of the killers, i might not be here typing right now.

the part of my day that was not spent in front of the computer was spent in bed making phone calls and taking copius amounts of notes about prices and available times. i originally planned to keep to the desk to keep organized, but my cats thwarted that plan.

how could you resist from cuddling up with these faces?

cats are never good influences for work. i find myself wanting to cuddle up with them in my snuggly ikea sheets. they purr and are excellent nappers. most days i'd rather just stay in bed with the cats.

ugh. still. i feel like i got alot done today. most imortantly, i learned that i should always take the time to find my glasses and wear them so i don't end up wanting to claw my own eyes out.

the snooze button

it's been a fun weekend so far. i'm out in lynn with caity and amelia. today was spent playing games and watching cartoons. we went out for dinner, then i took them to see beverly hills chihuahua. by the time we got to the movie theater after dinner, amelia was completely asleep. she spent the entire movie fast asleep on my lap. in total, she slept from cambridge, to revere, and back to lynn. the only peep i've heard from her since about 8pm was some homesickness that was quickly ended by a snuggle and going to sleep in mum and dad's bed. apparently it's a slumber party here in lynn tonight.

some odd things have happened since my arrival today. i've definately accidentally been called "mommy" a few times. i have no idea how they are making that mistake, but it's definately something new to me. it makes me realize how much i really want children. i know steve is up for kids, but he seems to have this odd timeframe idea about how it should happen. for about a year now i feel like i've been toying with the snooze button on my biological clock. maybe another part of my anxiety is worrying that my mom won't be around to see me have them. i'm desperately hoping she will make it to next september to see me get married... i'm hoping she will keep on foiling illnesses to see me have kids as well.

i don't need this rock n' roll, i just want to crawl back home to you....

the last 2 nights were a bit odd. not odd in the way that i didn't enjoy them, just odd in a way that i can't quite put my finger on. the music was definitely awesome. maybe it was the lack of recognizable faces. bill b, who i've known for years and who gives the best hugs on the planet is gone to the other side of the country. jim c is in NJ. danny... well nobody has seen him in almost 2 years. rob is in NYC. erin never comes out anymore... sara does sometimes.... so many people have just gone missing.

friday night i arrived at tt's just past 11. taxpayer had just gone on. i looked through the club and could only find a few people i recognized, and a bunch that i did but had no interest in talking to. i felt oddly alone and ended up hiding out towards the back wall. eventually i spotted couirey, and kind of paired up with him... derek later joined. those two and alan were really the only people i knew. it was almost a little depressing.

tonight was different. i knew that matty and rachel were going to be there, but i still showed up just before dl went on. when i got there i saw matty instantly and joined he and rachel in the pool room. while it was nice to see them.. again, it was oddly lonely to know only them and a couple of other people.

the other really odd thing was knowing that tonight may have been the last dear leader show. i found out through the few people i did know that the sheila divine is reuniting and recording new stuff next month. the fact that this may have been the last of dl was so anti-climatic that while i'm really excited about the sheila divine... i am also bummed that there is no more dl... i go back and forth in my head and i am a little bit... musically confused.

all in all, both shows were amazing... i have a ringing in my ears that probably won't go away until monday or so. i plan to spend most of tomorrow being quiet to give my ears a rest.

monday, doug and linda arrive. it's going to be a fun week :)

kumori the anniversary kitteh

it's been exactly one year since i brought the little purrball home.

i caught her in my mom's backyard. for her, it was the summer of cats. there were a zillion cats all over her yard. i lured her and a few of her siblings over to me with a can of wet catfood. i was actually aiming for a tiger kitten, but ended up catching her. looking back, i'm glad i did. it had been a rough morning for me. my mom had been out in boston for her birthday, and just that morning, while getting her stuff into the car, i tripped and fell down the stairs outside of my house. the 8 or so... concrete.. wrought iron lined.. stairs. i ended up in the emergency room with 2 cracked ribs, a skinned shoulder, and stitches holding my fingertip on. after all that... i still decided to go kitteh hunting in my mom's backyard. after i caught her, i had to smuggle her onto a peter pan bus, and then take her on the T home. she was a perfect little sleeping ball of fluff the entire ride. a perfect travel companion. by the time i had gotten home, it was late at night. my ideal night would have involved just going to sleep from there, but being a wild little kitteh, i knew she had fleas that needed to be taken care of. she was definately not crazy about getting wet, and in her struggle, she leaned her head back to cry and ended up getting a lungful of water from the bath tub tap.

so.. in one night, let's recap... i terrified the kitteh by catching and taking her from her mom, took her on a bus, took her on a train, then... nearly drowned her. i was not feeling like a good kitteh mom at this point.

the shot i sent steve from my mom's backyard in springfield.


after all of that, she still needed a name. since stephen was the one who said yet to letting me bring her home, i felt like he should pick her name. he picked kumori, which means "shadow" in japanese. she looked almost exactly like a cat that he had when he was a little who had that name. but since shadow is so common, and a little boring, he decided to spice it up with some japanese.

one year later, she is still a little naughty, but cute as the dickens. she will eat just about anything. she has a tail like i've never seen on any cat in my life. it looks like a bouquet of gray and silver feathers. she is so cute and beautiful.

some shots from her first days with us...

kitchen witch

my house is slowly starting to fill with a cinnamon-y, apple-esque, nutty smelling goodness which can only mean one thing. the fall has arrived and i have too many apples in my kitchen again. sunday stephen and i went on our yearly trip to pick apples. this year, we also decided to try something new and pick raspberries. i still have no idea what to do with the berries, but the apples i've got covered, they always get made into apple bread.

along with the apple bread, i also start baking alot of pumpkin and banana nut bread. in the fall i find myself craving it constantly. it's my favorite breakfast item from early september till just after january. that and maybe some gingerbread tea or masala chai... heaven.

besides sunday's trip, which completely exhausted me, i haven't been out of the house in almost a week and a half. for some reason, my autumn allergies (i figured it out that it's allergies, and not a cold) are taking such a toll on me this year. i find myself taking 2+ naps a day and still turning into bed early. if i had a real job i would surely be in alot of trouble. while i'm looking forward to some extra hubba hours, i'm definately not looking forward to feeling so tired.

next week looks to be alot of fun. linda and doug are in Ma from the west coast. i didn't get to make it to their wedding, and before that i don't think i've see doug (a good friend from high school) in years. linda, while i've talked to her a bunch online, i haven't ever officially met. i'm super excited... i love, love, love house guests!

i can see!!!

it's definately no secret that i love eyeglass frames... it's also no secret that i have a very cluttered house(artists are like that)... when you add those variables to the fact that i am somewhat spacey and forgetful... you will usually find that i am always looking for something in my house. screaming through the house that i am looking for my keys and or my cell phone is a daily activity, and i almost always leave the house without my glasses either because i can't find them, i've forgotten about them, or i spent so much time looking for my keys and my cell phone that i don't have time to look for the glasses.

well. tonight in the hunt for the rock band drumkit foot pedal, my sister amber found my most recently purchased pair of glasses. the frames change from tortoise shell to a jade green color in the sun, and the arms are all fancy and twisted. and lets not forget the fact that they are a bit trendy in the fact that they are kind of large, square, and chunky... in short... i love them (just like i love all my frames) and i was beyond giddy to see her pull them out from behind the couch.

yes, from behind the couch.

don't judge... it's my nature.

hungry bento

it's now just about the end of the day. i've spent the bulk of my day curled up in my recliner with garcia, munching on tea and toast when i was consious enough to stagger into the kitchen to make it. i have no idea what the heck this is that i'm dealing with, but i'm sure linda is right when she said that i overdid it this weekend. i'm definately not interested in going to work tomorrow, more specifically, i don't want to deal with suzi and denise. feeling sick will not help me be more patient with denise's stupidity and suzi's antics.

there was a bright spot in my day though. i received a woot shirt in the mail. it was one that i had wished i'd bought the day they released it. it's called "hungry bento". thank goodness to woot for cute and easy to wear t-shirts.

time for some more nyquil, and hopefully enough sleep to propel me through tomorrow.

the coughing, sniffling, achey head, sore throat, how did i end up on the kitchen floor medicine..

tueday night, i was struck down.

whether it's allergies or a cold, i really can't tell. all i know is that i feel like death. i've been keeping myself fairly sane by making sure i sleep through most of whatever this is..... thank you nyquill. when i've been consious, re-runs of project runway and six feet under have been keeping my mind occupied. today i still feel generally terrible, but my body is also super sore from being in bed for 2 days. my goal is to stay as vertical as possible by moving my comforter and pillow out to the living room recliner. and... of course... puttering and wasting time on the internet.

when i'm consious, text messages are also greatly welcome...

boston tattoo convention: day 3 and other randomness

it was a looong weekend. by the time i had gotten home on sunday night, i was so tired. i just went strait to bed. i think that if i hadn't had the experience running around like a crazyperson at skillsusa conferences for so many years, i would have never made it through the tattoo convention. i hung around mostly at the t-shirt table on sunday. when i wasn't doing that, i was walking around with a little girl named brianna. she is the daughter of one of natans friends. she was very cute, and alot of fun to walk around the convention with. i think the funniest parts was when we came past a booth that feature glass pipes. she got really excited and wanted to show them to me. i was horrified and waiting for the "what are those" question. it turned out that she had already been by the booth. the guy running it asked me "aren't my fish tank ornaments beautiful?" i had to work to keep my laughter to a minimum. she also decided to introduce me to the lizardman (erik), not knowing that i had worked with him the day before. we both got our pictures taken with him....

monday i was COMPLETELY lazy. i lounged around the house doing nothing but watching project runway. i never really liked the show before, but rain has gotten me completly hooked on it. i'm officially addicted.

one of the traditions that rain and i used to have when we lived together in jamaica plain was hanging out and making pizza together. last night we decided to bring that tradition back. she had walked through the farmers market on her way home, and she found purple bell pepppers. they have this great light green color on the inside and the outside is this really great grape color. my camera flash does nothing for them, but the lighting in my kitchen would have made them look orange. i've never seen anything like them! they ended up tasting just like normal peppers, just a hint sweeter.

anyway, she brought them home and suggested that they would be fabulous on a pizza. after that we ventured to stop and shop for pizza supplies and other groceries. here is a tip i'm sure everyone knows... never go to the grocery store hungry. while wandering around our pizza went from mozza and peppers to fresh mozza, purple peppers, carmelized onions, and chicken pizza. it was the most delicious thing EVER.

and.. since this blog has gone from plain blog to a photo journal of sorts.. i caught (the now 1 year old kitten), kumori being adorable. i'm so happy i was able to grab my camera before she flew the coop. she apparently likes to hide in my grocery bags...

boston tattoo convention: day 2 and bleu at the "ahts"

today was definately alot more fun than yesterday. today i was kind of in the thick of everything. i got to hang out and assist the lizardman. i was in a little bit of awe thinking... "i've watched you on national geographic... now i'm helping you organize and meet fans... so weird" he's completely nice and down to earth, and of course, very interesting to talk to.

i also got to see the boston babydolls perform. it was another one of those weird moments thinking... "you got that at hubba hubba... that's why you look familiar" they were so amazing and fun to watch. i also loved, loved, loved the music they were dancing to.

i got to see a few of my favorite artists tattoo, and i certainly sold alot of BTC t-shirts.. i cannot wait to stay the whole day tomorrow... it's going to be a long day from 10-10.

at about 3pm, i arrived at the aquarium t-stop to go fing the "get up" choir. we all kind of hubg around at tias drinking until the everyday visuals came on. right after they were done, we were up. it was a great afternoon, the weather was perfect, and the music was fantastic. i managed to get one of the choir members' friends to videotape most of the performance. the taping wasn't great... i think he kept putting his finger over the mic, but below was our song "singin' in tounges". being as tall as i am, i'm always in the back row, and if you keep an eye just to the right of yamil (our choir director) you can spot me by the long red hair kind of bopping around in the back.

i will post more videos and such at some point either tomorrow or monday.. right now.. time for bed!

boston tattoo convention: day 1

this morning was awesome. artists started showing up at the boston center for the arts this morning and i (and a bunch of other volunteers of course) were there to help them unload, because, let's face it.... 125+ artists trying to unload all of their supplies and wares on tremont street is complete chaos.

when i wasn't busy running up and down stairs with various boxes, stools, trunks, lamps and other crazy things, i was busy watching who was arriving. i felt like a giddy little kid who had just met their favorite sports idol. so many amazing artists that i actually recognized were milling around, i had to really work on containing my excitement.

this was only for two hours. i got down there at about 10am, but had to leave for hubba hubba at noon. by the time i got to work, i was sore, tired, and a little cranky. if rain were there she would have told me i needed a "soothing baby bath". she would have been right.

tomorrow, i go back to the convention for 10am again.. i'm only there until 3... after that i need to get to the christopher columbus waterfront park (free show... right near the aquarium stop... you should come!!!) to perform with the get up choir. i'm grateful i didn't have to go to rehearsal tonight because my throat is still super sore from last night.

it's 9:40 now, and i am skipping dinner for some much wanted sleep.... i'm definitely going to need it tomorrow.

....the autumn aughta come, you used to say you liked it... well i still like it...

oh kay hanley... that song is made for the arrival of fall....

it is chilly here. the type of chilly that makes me happy that i have my down comforter. i sleep with it all year round, and in the summer... well sometimes i want to throw it out the window. the last few nights though... oh, it's been so nice to wrap it all around me and just sink into the cozy feathers. i especially love it when garcia comes to join the down cuddle fest. he does his weird cat thing where he nuzzles into the crook of my elbow, and we just go to sleep. i love the crisp air... the way it smells, and the way it feels to fall asleep in it..

september is going to be a busy month. lots of visitors. i've started getting ready for them by pulling out all of the sheets and comforters... i took them down to the laundromat for a good wash and fluff. i've also started giving the house a sort of fall cleaning if you will. my desk is usually a swamp, same thing with my art studio.. nobody wants to hunt for a keyboard at someone elses desk.. ya know?

this weekend is going to be busy as hell. it all starts on friday where i need to be downtown to help alot of the tattoo artists load in and prepare for the boston tattoo convention. i also work at hubba hubba that day. saturday also starts early... i need to be downtown b 10am again to start working the convention.. sometime around 3, i need to get to the christopher columbus waterfront park to start soundcheck and perform with bleu and the get up choir. which, by the way, is a free show... so if you are a bostonian and wondering what you should do saturday early evening... COME SEE US!!we go on about 5:30 and the show is going to be freaking fantastic! saturday night will most likely be spent with the choir having fun and going to a club somewhere.. and then sunday... oh sunday... i'm back at the boston tattoo convention from 10am to 10pm.. hopefully i will have some video to post...

monday... i will be napping most of the day. no calls please :)

i'll be dead in the mornin...

and i'm not just talking about the new song we are singing... i might literally be in rough shape. it was a long block of rehersals chock full of singing, clapping, dancing, and planning. my palms are actually sore from all of the clapping, and my voice is horsey. plenty of minty tea is on the menu for tonight..

i think in this performance, my favorite song will be our last one, "dead in the mornin". it's really energetic and alot of fun. the original plan for our "uniforms" was to wear white t-shirts and jeans.. i've been checking the weather... it may rain.. while it may make us a little more popular with the crowd, white t-shirts may not be the best choice. luckily, my fellow choir members agreed with me... now we're wearing black t-shirts.

it was so nice to see bleu again tonight, he and the choir members are so much fun! i plan on bringing my little video camera with me, i'm hoping that i'll be able to find someone to record the show...