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...

i shared it on facebook, why not here too

this is a small commentary video about the baby mice that i brought home from camp. i've had lots of requests about how they are doing...

DAMMITT!!!!!!!

fuck you hanna!!!!!





last night, after the girls were asleep, the wind and the rain picked up. i remember hearing a loud crash outside wondering... "WTF was that?"

this is what it was.

i came out of the house, belted the girls into the car.. once i got in myself i sat there in stunned silence wondering... what is that on the windshield?

i have to go back to lynn tomorrow while the mobile windshield guys come and fix it... somewhere between 12 and 5.

however. there is a sunny side to this. back in high school (yes, minivan and i have been together that long) i had a pair of earrings that i loved. i had set them on the dashboard, and soon after that i had to stomp on the brakes. the earrings went flying forward and were lost in the very front of the windshield. that and probably like $10 in change.. tomorrow, i get it all back.

hello hanna, goodbye weekend

tropical depression hanna is here. its making my weekend a little more challenging out here in lynn. the girls, caitlan (7) and amelia (3), are going a little stir crazy. they are also protesting the smell of the ocean in the rain and the air that the storm has dragged in.

it's been a busy day out here.. we've made bead necklaces, pom-pom critters, pipecleaner... things. there was drawing and boardgames, also a few movies. they've annoyed each other to the point of a few tears too. tonight after dinner, we decorate sugar cookies, and watch probably another movie.

this morning, i had a pleasantly adorable wake up call. while sleeping on my stomach, i awoke to find amelia sitting on my shoulder and lightly touching my cheek saying "ellie?" it actually sounded like "ewwie" though. so cute. i love them to bits.

tomorrow morning, i'm hoping to find that hanna has left. caitlan has her first soccer game, and i really would feel bad it it got rained out. going from real children back to my furry cat children tomorrow night is going to be weird.

the "d" is for dork

today was a very busy, busy day. not only did i run around the city from about 10am till almost 9:30pm, but i also made interesting revelations about some personality traits.

mark got to my apartment at about 10ish, we hung around in davis till almost 11, then we ventured to the boston common via beacon hill. we sat and chit chatted while people watching till about 12:30. after that, we walked back through beacon hill to the charles MGH T stop. we waited to meet up with ho yin... and eventually all 3 of us ended up at anna's taqueria (one of my absolute faves!!!). we got there around 1:30 and didn't leave until a little past 5. we sat there talking about life and what we've been up to since last spring.

we are usually together for 3 events during the year... fall state leadership conference in november, the community service holiday party in december, and the state leadership and skills conference in april/may. during these skillsUSA events (what is skillsUSA you ask? too long to explain... educate yourself here www.MAskillsUSA.org and the alumni... www.MAskillsUSAalumni.org ) we are usually working our tookuses off running around, running workshops, doing security, or any other of the 7,398,563 jobs that need to be done so that the kids that come to our conferences and workshops get the most out of it. sleep is a rarity. we wear really dorky gold windbreakers. we carry walkie talkies and usually wear the earbuds and microphones that go with them. we rock out and get nostalgic to neil diamond at the opening ceremony video.... shoot, i was even elected as the vice chair of the MA skillsUSA alumni association. oh. i'm also a fucking pro at TQM. skillsUSA conferences are really quite an experience. we also call it a cult.

in the rare times we do get together, conversation almost always eventually reverts back to skillsUSA . we get nostalgic and talk about the "old days" revel at how long we've been involved (this is my 13th year... for serious.) we talk about how small the alumni association used to be and how young the "new recruits" are. we geek about about picking music and photos for the year in review videos. we also dream up new ideas as to how we can make the alumni association both better, and how we can better fundraise for our costs. those 4 hours flew by, i believe that if ho yin didn't have class, we would have sat there longer.

i love the people i volunteer with. i fully consider them to be family. if it weren't for them, then donating the time wouldn't seem completely fully worth it. i've been asked a million times "why do you still do it? thats alot of work for no pay." my answer: "because someone did it for me, and it made all the difference."

the other big organization in my life is the girl scouts. 4 years i've been staff out at bonnie brae. the women i've met and worked with have made such an impression on my life. not only is camp beautiful and my absolute favorite place on earth, but i will always consider it to be another form of home. this past summer made the biggest impression so far. in the past 3 years i've never made such a connection as i did this summer. there was not only an amazing friend connection, but i had so many artistic connections with so many people... i remember one night, it was the night before the banquet, and we were making the staffbooks. some gals came back from a night out, duckie popped up behind me and gave me a huge hug, she said "i love the sheila divine too!", she had seen the bumper sticker on my van in the parking field.... honest to goodness i started giggling and shreiking like a crazy person. i spent 3 years trying to get some of the other gals to just give them a listen... nope. this year... casper is playing local boston stuff and other awesome indie music... i'm making all sorts of plans to trade music with duckie.. we were listening to the killers and loving it... so many unexpected connections!!! i miss them all so much!

its making this fall really hard. i find myself somewhere in the city.. i'll see something or hear a song that reminds me of someone at camp and it makes me want to cry. it was so easy to talk to someone when my mom got sick again, or when my aunt died. now i just kind of feel alone and stressed out. there isn't that support system there and with my mom in the hospital again this week, it's hitting me harder than usual.

back to the busy day.. after 5 i headed back to davis square for a "pre-housewarming party" bbq with some scouts. i spent most of the evening drinking margaritas. we were so silly we all ended up putting flowers in each others hair. it was cute, silly, and a little drunk all at the same time.

all of this time spent with skillsUSA people and girl scouts...i've kind of come to a realization. i'm a bit of a dork, but.. so are most of the people i care about. while i love living in boston, and i love the friends i have here... i don't really think there alot of people who have seen that weird, silly, dorky side of me... at least.. not to its full extent.

isn't that odd?


whis weekend looks to be awesome. tomorrow, i head for lynn to sit for my little cousins kaitlan and amelia, while my cousins head for a wedding. saturday looks like it might be a wash in terms of weather... some tropical depression may be making a debut in MA... it may be a "make cookies, pom-pom critters, play games, and watch movies sort of day. sunday, kaity has her first soccer game of the year... i'm super excited to take her too it. i'm going to attempt to video some of it for carrie and corey.. if i can find my little digital recorder.

knit one, perl one, knit one...

it's that time of year again. the summer has seeminly disapeared. school is over. camp is over. all of the international camp girls have gone back to their countries. my european adventure has come and gone. soon it will be busy bee day at camp, and i'll be there helping to pull the docks out of the water...

my bed is right next to a window.. i start noticing the switch at night while falling asleep.. i can feel the cool breeze that just smells and feels like fall. it starts to put me into a knitting frenzy during the day. i spend most of the year keeping an eye out for bright soft yarn, because my favorite part about the fall and the winter is colorful, soft, warm, home made scarfs. this is about the time of year that i start rooting them out of the closets and from the bottom of my laundry baskets. i take them all down to the laundromat to wash them. i never use the regular laundry detergent. i go and try to find the sweetest, most delicious smells i can find, wash them, and then dry them with way too many dryer sheets. they come out smelling amazing and feeling so, so soft... it's my absolute favorite part about autumn.

yesterday was a wonderful day. i was still kind of tired, but the weather was so nice i decided to make it a beach day with rain and nessa. the weather may have been gorgeous, but nahant beach kind of kicked our asses. the wind was blowing alot of sand, and the ocean was red with seaweed and what looked like little plankton-esque organisms. we ended up sunbathing and making sandcastles... it was great.