room b01

warning: long & possibly boring journal-style post to follow

TRAVEL

the flight to london was relatively painless, involving much sleep and reading ('lost in austen'). a dinner of sausage and mash kept me sustained, though no alcohol was consumed (sobering up on an international flight is horrific).

INITIAL THOUGHTS

initial thoughts of london? COLD! also, a little rude. perhaps this comes with being in a big city, but people have no problem pushing you around in order to get to where they are going. or completely ignoring you no matter how pitifully lost and/or confused you may look in the tube when attempting to get to heathrow carrying luggage and asking politely. ... not that i'm bitter (because i am).

LODGINGS

the palmer's lodge hostel was quite nice, but this did not make up for the fact that their bathrooms are insanely tiny and smell strongly of stale urine. though our room was in the basement and thankfully quite warm! i feel the end of my hostel days are over. or at least, the days of shared bathrooms and dorm-style rooms. private room? yes, please!

ACTIVITIES

jen and i got in, chucked our stuff in the shed, had some coffee and explored a little of the area around the hostel while waiting to check in.

visited a grocery store, marks & spencer simply food. by the name ("marks & spencer"), the plethora of organic, healthy and fair-trade food items and the gorgeous package design, i really thought this was some kind of gourmet market. WRONG. according to erika & amanda (who are studying in southampton ), this is considered a normal grocery store. america, can we please get with the program?

after checking in and taking a quick nap, we cleaned up all nice & shiny-faced and headed out to the lyceum theatre for some julie taymor lion king action. note: do not take the stairs at the piccadilly station, especially if, as they warn, you have medical problems. take the time to wait for the lift, or get off at a different stop nearby. 193 steps = 15 flights = cramping legs = much huffing for oxygen. more steps (83, to be exact) were taken at the lyceum to get to our seats.

the lion king was wonderful! jen treated me to wine and we loved every minute. except for the non-disney-movie songs, which... kind of sucked and our heads started to nod. the costuming was so incredible, though - like a dream. and we rented the cute little binoculars for 2 pounds (i.e. 5 american dollars).

afterwards we took a long meandering walk around some of london's sights. everything is so much prettier at night, don't you think? so sparkly. perhaps even more so when it's cold. why is this? it can be refreshing (for 20 minutes, after that, it's all downhill until the next frantic race to the nearest cafe).

saturday we met up with erika and amanda and made our way to a christmas craft show, which well... sux'd ballz. super tiny, BUT we got free mini mincemeat pies. which i nibbled and then tossed after i couldn't get the image of sugared ground meat out of my head.

and then off to the british library. really amazing library, immense, with multiple exhibitions. the magna carta, jane austen letters, gutenberg bible, sutras and scrolls... in a word, delicious. i was contemplating taking the tour (by myself, the illiterate scrooges i was with didn't want to go), but after coffee and a snack, time sped up and suddenly i was 30 minutes too late. just as well. stupid $12 tour.

seriously, the american dollar is just so pathetic right now. we'd check out a restaurant's menu and think, oh, 8 pounds for a meal, that's not so bad. until we'd realize it was actually $16 for a veggie dinner. :(

however, a little splurge on a thai meal and free orchids at the blue elephant finished off the evening.

sunday saw us browsing the upmarket, a crafts fair that occurs every sunday. this place was amazing! not to mention filled with a cargo ship's worth of food, much of it on the cheap. jen and i didn't buy much since we were still shell-shocked by the piddly american dollar exchange rate.

jen & i left to head to the erotic arts exhibit i had heard about on npr whilst erika & amanda browsed more expensive handmade goods. rather explicit images and it was surprising to see such work span human existence. makes porn seems kind of... blase. although some of mapplethorpe's photographs were a little... queasiness-inducing (jen: "is that blood??").

we were late in meeting erika & amanda at 4:30 and missed saying our goodbyes. just as well because it turned bitterly cold and blustery this evening. we took the time to remove our cold shaking hands from our pockets long enough for some night-time photos and stopped to eat at wagamama as we walked to the tate.

jen was exceedingly pleased to see maman, which was immense and gorgeous. i love the idea of maman representing the artist's industrious mother; makes spiders seem far more cosy. and spider eggs just aren't as cute in real life. granted, it wasn't a moving sculpture. had it been a large steeled chitinous moving spider, i may have felt differently.

the return

home again, home again.

it is so good to feel warm again and to be clean! i showered last night and took a bath this afternoon.

i'll post photos and the like over the next few days as time permits. my 4 gb card didn't work in my camera! alas. i'm possibly looking to upgrade.

to sum: the trip was effing awesome and i had a superb time with jen and yen!

zero!

current temperature: 75 degrees F

temperature once i leave the plane: 50 degrees F



see you soon!

i'll miss -

• warmth
• sunlight
• anthony
• thomas & yammie

t-minus 1 day

t-minus 1 day!


to clarify, since *some* people get confused easily... ;) i leave on thursday.

one day (wednesday) left. then i leave the next day.


THURSDAY!!




items to note:

• florida is kind enough to prep us for the cold; this morning it was in the 40s!
• the day we fly in, i'm going to see julie taymor's lion king. SO. EXCITING. jen bought my ticket as a christmas gift! i heart you jen!
• overlong, wide-legged pants will keep me warm. until it rains.
• completely thrilled at meeting yen in the rome train station. there's something special about meeting friends in a foreign country.

t-minus 2 days

1 - finish this paper.

2 - do laundry.

3 - brave the florida roaches and get my luggage from the storage room.

t-minus 3 days.

oh, procrastination, you are my constant companion these past 28 years.

i am slowly chipping away away on my paper. the sucky thing is that my keyboard isn't working so well. stupid wireless keyboard. i think the batteries are almost dead. eek!

in any case, i present some adorable lolcats!


moar funny pictures


moar funny pictures


moar funny pictures


moar funny pictures


moar funny pictures


moar funny pictures


moar funny pictures

it's such a sickness.

t-minus 5 days

well, i made a pie last night. a pumpkin pecan pie with homemade pumpkin puree. sounds delicious, no?

except the puree had too much water so my pie never baked fully. :( it looks like, pumpkin pudding. except chunkier.


just close your eyes, it'll taste better.

t-minus 8 days

firstly, hightail it here and name a whale!

the name that's in the lead? mr splashy pants! how awesome is that?

a while back, SMC (the smirking cat) tagged me!

• Each blogger must post these rules.
• Each blogger starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves.
• Bloggers that are tagged need to write on their own blog about their eight things and post these rules. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
• Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they've been tagged and to read your blog.
  

i think i've actually done this tag before, but you can't have too much of a good thing.

big things come in small packages.

and you can kill two birds with one stone, but one in the hand is worth two in the bush. or something. how does that last one go? sounds kinky.

• i was a (marching) band n3rd - played trumpet, french horn, mellophone and flugelhorn. i'm pretty sure you can still see the indent those silly feathered hats left on my forehead. ah, the days of hot sweaty hair plastered to one's forehead. the fragrant reek of damp polyester. burning arm muscles. and sometimes i still walk heel-toe, heel-toe, heel-toe, heel-toe. i love when i hear high school marching bands playing on a hot day, and especially the warm-up sounds of a drum line.
• i've eaten dog.
• i've eaten goose intestines (tastes like noodles!).
• my older brother was in jail for a while in china for trying to cross illegally into hong kong (when it was british). luckily, he wasn't shot, but was in ankle deep sewage.
• my vision is terrible! -7.5 and -5.5, right and left, respectively.
• the flying spaghetti monster is my personal savior.
• i can't count to 8.

t-minus 9 days

london? anyone? erotic art exhibits, julie taymor's 'lion king', super-sized ferris wheels, pints of beer?

italy? gelato? cobbled streets, hot chocolate, pastries, pasta, markets, discos, mosaics?


yes, please.

utterly inconceivable.

i cannot grasp why or how the deli next door makes the most disgusting veggie sandwiches i've ever had in my life.

veggie sandwich - easy, right?

they must use the most bland veggies along w/ cheese and bread that's cusping on mold. (*i literally just gagged*)

the first time i got it on wheat bread and thought maybe it was the bread that wasn't good.

after that i mainly stuck to BLTs on white - not too bad, but get this: they serve your sandwich with HALF a pickle spear. HALF!

so today i tried the veggie again, but on a sub roll. i half expected it to come out on a hotdog bun. but still, the urge to retch came on strongly. i even tried to put italian dressing on it to liven it up and hide the grossness, but to no avail.

note to self: do not frequent this deli again.

blog readability!

according to the blog readability test, you need to be a genius to understand my blog!

not sure how truthful this is, mostly because the code for the image had some sort of... "win a cash advance" blurb in the html. didn't seem very trustworthy.

time

how can i buy myself some more time? preferably 2 years of weekends paid holidays, please. i can easily add them on to my existing weekends. very easily.

the bad is that i'm starting to feel a little... how do you say, overwhelmed?

• schoolwork is about to get messy. i need to buckle down and just do it. only 2 semesters left.
• work is and has been messy. statistics programs are not fun. learning SQL is fun, but can be difficult for one who is not, as a general rule, logical.
• i have so many projects i want to work on!!

these are my immediate projects:

• actively tackle classwork.
• actively plan living arrangements while in europe.
• buy warm clothes and good, sturdy walking shoes.
• not let work get me stressed.
• start baby knitting projects for european trains

these are my long-term projects:

• re-design portfolio website.
• organize and work on organization system for photos.
• get rachel her wedding photos, officially.
• get meaghan her baby photos, officially.
• set up etsy store.
• work on some design projects.
• sewing.
• knitting.
• learn crochet.
• read a lot more.
• use my gocco.

big grins

big grins, originally uploaded by gimchi.

this photo of keoni always made me chuckle.

UGH.

i hereby proclaim my intense dislike of jerry seinfeld.



i never watched his show.


and i will never watch his movie.




thank you.

untitled #503

bleak items of note:

• not getting enough sleep (who does?)
• 15 page paper due on soviet archives in 1.5 weeks
• clenching cramps as your (far too early) morning alarm

rousing items of note

• took a relaxing and jasmine-heady bath last night
• started making little white square felt snowmen ornaments
• made a prototype fabric catch-all
• have an art/craft show coming up on the 17th
• umami espresso o' the morning
• new, fancy schmancy rimless glasses
• deliciously shivery cool weather in the FIFTIES! (even if just at night)

i'm a little iffy on these catch-alls. it's cute, but i want it to be washable. not sure if that's actually feasible, of course. i washed it and it's definitely way less sturdy. does that add to the charm? maybe i'll post pics tonight.

i'll include some silly photos from halloween night; nothing crazy, just some of us girls getting together to dress wacky, pass out candy, drink mulled wine, make crass jokes and play celebrity.

you know you want to

Some places to buy:

etsy
cut + paste
poppytalk handmade
lorena barrezueta (seriously? yum.)
orange button

yam-a-licious

stately yam, originally uploaded by gimchi.

just a little hello.

i thought about doing the nablopomo thing, but i just knew i couldn't keep up. *le sigh*

tomorrow i get to finish another 5 page paper and then a 15 page one after that.

2 more semesters. i carry on.

i also saw the darjeeling limited tonight! so lovely. and a few previews for some other intriguing movies, notably the diving bell and the butterfly. the trailer featured explosions in the sky! i got teary just watching it.

better late than never

i put up some halloweenie decorations over my bed! rather festive, i like it.



things that irk me:

the person who is letting their dog pee in the enclosed foyer area of my apt. seriously...? wtf.


i left a note on the ground that says, "what *@$ moron is letting their dog pee in the @%# hallway?!?! #%^$!"

more explicit frustrations elaborated upon in the actual note. c'mon people - what's your damage? argh!


things that make me trill with happiness:

+ delicious sushi dinner @ toki w/ ant
+ the 2nd katamari game
+ cleaning my room
+ organizing the files on my computer
+ eating dried squid
+ finding out that my last job was raided by the FBI
+ reading
+ visiting my godchild and a yarn store and meaghan and craig and their gravel pile this weekend
+ completing 2 hardcore days of training on our library's database

btw

i lied.

i'm going with goodreads.


that site rocks.

also, i can update my library thing VIA goodreads. nice.



and i believe diigo is winning out over del.icio.us.

golf? no sir, prefer prison flog!

triple date mini-golf action.

ryan won, of course, being the only actual "golfer" of the bunch. ant & i tied for second place. i was able to garner a ton (read: two) of holes in one, but also had a bunch of 5-6 stroke plays.

jen was kind enough to share her fries with us!

and i got to see womb photos of little pickles. seriously, can we say "excited"?

did you feel that? this morning?

when the weather dipped in the 60s and the humidity was non-existent?


incredible. it almost smelled like fall.

i ate my lunch (tasty anthony-prepared vermicelli with parmesan, basil and a little hot pepper) at the picnic benches, knitted a little and read 'canon: a whirligig tour of the beautiful basics of science' by angier. i think i'm in love. she apparently also wrote 'woman: an intimate geography,' which i am just swooning to read next.

life is just ambling along. and by "ambling" i mean "rushing by at a fast and productive pace without a plethora of stomach acid production."

jen and i represented girlfriend sweatshop at the stitch rock show in delray beach, florida. we were exhausted! it was fun, but with only a few hours of sleep for the both of us (less for jen), a heavy breakfast from dunkin donuts, 10-minute hot, breathless, humid, drizzling and sweaty naps in the car during the show and a total of 8 hours driving (poor jen), we weren't in a very good selling mood. still, we enjoyed ourselves and had a great time seeing yen and generally cooing about our trip to italy in december. after the show, the two of us sat at an outdoor table in downtown delray and ate delicious italian pasta cooked perfectly al dente, savored wonderfully sweet tiramisu dusted with bitter cocoa powder and drank house wine and hot coffee. the dinner definitely reinvigorated us for the drive home.

and the next day i wrote a 5 page paper. oof.

more papers are coming up in far too short an order, but i have only 2 semesters left of grad school! i must prevail.

last night's craft meet-up was so much fun. lots of food and wine and a tutorial by jen on making a folio journal! we're trying to do a tutorial at least once a month, something simple, but that will possibly be good for holiday gifts in the near future. man. we r smrt.

a show at kaleisia in mid-november and a possible knit-in one winter evening, replete with hot tea.

a viewing of elizabeth tonight with mulled wine, cookies and/or cupcakes and elizabeth: the golden age on saturday! speaking of needing an estrogen fix... :D

even more heroes and smallville and dexter.

ooOOOo - and seafood dinner on saturday evening with anthony! hello little crab, little hard shelled love of my life, you are so scrumptious!

italy bound!

ladies, ladies, ladies!, originally uploaded by gimchi.

so. it's official. yen has bought her tickets to italy and will be joining us on the Italian Tour of Gelato, Hot Chocolate and Wine.

here's part of our tentative schedule:

11th Arrive in Rome @ 2 pm
Eat gelato and drink wine at 4pm!
Spend day in Rome after checking into hostel (preferably located near Termini train station)
Possible tourist stops include: Piazza Barberini, Villa Borghese, Tivoli, Caracalla baths, nighttime Vatican walk

we definitely have our priorities straight. i can't even tell you how excited i am to be traveling w/ friends out of the country again! and to meet friends in italy, no less! (yen will be meeting us just for italy, no rainy london for her.)

another cute pic of my traveling companions:

this one was from a long time ago, at one of our first shows at sacred grounds coffeeshop.

jen and yen! if only my name rhymed. or was a boy named "ken." and jen will be the minority!

other exciting news:

• i got a bias tape maker and i swoon with happiness; no more rough edges, fretting with linings, or trying to cut 4 layers of fabric with my pinking shears
  
• anthony and i have been watching dexter, heroes and *coughcough* smallville with much enjoyment
• today i got to shelve at a library 5 mins from my house in the morning; this was perfect because i missed rush hour traffic (who spent 1.5 hours in traffic on tuesday? argh!)
• however, i can now say, "vorrei bire del vino. ... adesso. non piu tardi."
• this weekend is the stitch rock craft show in delray beach!
• i'm about to go to sleep!

oops, old forgotten draft

i meant this as an addendum to an older post -


i really don't believe that you should measure life in life tiles. because that's silly.

that game is just a social construct which isn't necessarily what we should follow or even believe.



one should set their own goals, live their own lives. not follow some outline or pre-determined milton-bradley plan.

freak. out.

so. i'm a little stressed about this upcoming craft show and am glad that 1) classes are over for this week and 2)... that it's not 12 am.

this morning i woke up late and am still exhausted. after this, i'm having some sangria whilst i shower and then will drift into slumber with my beautiful yammie.

i had to take some time to upload this photo of her, mostly because she's just so beautiful and cute, the sweetest cat ever. i think someone might have scared her when she was younger w/ a broom, since she doesn't really understand how to "play."

anything, whether broom or toy, that's above her head, causes her to run for cover. the other morning she woke me up by licking my entire palm. (i almost added "with her tongue," but really, what else can she lick me with?)



and here are some aquarium photos from georgia.

web 2.0 is killing me!!!

so.

web 2.0.



i love it.


but it does not love me.

i am overwhelmed by choices.


do i keep track of my books read on facebook?

on librarything?

on goodreads?

amazon wishlists?

ARGHGHGGHGHGHGHGGGHGGGGG!


*gaspgasp* i just spent part of my time on goodreads adding books, but i realize... enough! (sorry sleep goblin!) i can't do it. i must stick w/ library thing. i must stick with one option or i will go insane.

no more keeping books on facebook. i remove that application! I REMOVE THAT APPLICATION!

and i will update my library thing w/ my amazon wishlists. and i will clean out my wishlists.

the game of life

yesterday, i found out a good friend of mine is pregnant!! i am ridiculously excited for her and her little foetal cashew secret. i say secret, because... well, it's still not "public knowledge." but i can't wait to visit her and lay my hands all over her uterus (YEAA!).

how exciting, right??

and of course, it keeps me thinking about life. hmmmmmmm.

1 life tile: own a car
1 life tile: BA
1 (anticipated) life tile: MA

life tiles yet un-obtained:
house
marriage
children

jen's birthday bash!

enough!

things i need to stop doing: checking out too many books to read. i then renew them multiple times, in fact, renewing each of them the allowable two times, causing me to have had the book for a total of 63 days. and still unread.

i have just gotten 'snow flower and the secret fan' and 'after dark' and at home have 'mao', 'the search for the giant squid' and 'down and dirty pictures'. and one of david lynch's books on meditation, a book on 1001 gardens you must see and 'they call me naughty lola'. plus various crafting, sewing, photography and art books. not to mention the dvds.

i am awash in loaned items.

watched the departed w/ anthony the other night. meh. i never felt really involved in this movie. and while the characters themselves were good, i never quite felt their relationships between each other very deeply. the end came out of nowhere and just wasn't satisfying either, just shocking. surprise! *bang*

meh.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

not sure how i didn't mention it, but ikea in atlanta was incredible. amazing. totally worth the 3 run-throughs we made. just a little longer and we'll have one an hour away and one 20 minutes away! glee!

second life

at the requirement of my class, human-computer interaction, i have created a second life avatar.

BEHOLD!!!



frightening, no? it's actually kind of boring if you don't have something specific you want to do. if anyone has any suggestions, let me know, because otherwise, i will end up having a little horde of unicorns.



awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww...

a baby unicorn!! so adorable.

it's very easy to get a baby unicorn. very easy.

*ahem*

*coughcough*

pieces

sleepy this morning. so sleepy. how much is the right amount of sleep? is it 8 hours?

... i get up around 6:00, so that means i need to get to bed at 10:00.

right now, my goal is just to get into bed before 12, which i've been doing. ish.

new goal - in bed before 11. this is good. baby steps.
i like baby steps.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

this morning was the beginning of re-learning italian. my drive to work ranges from 45 minutes to an hour (now that school has started up again) and i feel so unproductive just listening to npr. anthony thinks it's funny; most people would think listening to npr is a lofty enough goal, over that of listening to morning djs or talk radio, but no, not enough for me. i need something more productive than npr.

so some days will be for npr, some for learning italian and some for a book on tape.

my current book on tape is catch-22, which i've never read. it seems to alternate between boredom and hilarity. which is life, i suppose. only on disk 2 of 15, but had to get a new copy from the library since the second disk had pieces of the silver foil stuff scraped clean off. nice.

"'tis just a scratch!" -- the black knight

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

this morning i also saw a cute baby garter snake. maybe about 4 inches long and pretty thin. i moved it to the mulch when i saw how much trouble it was having moving on the sidewalk. perhaps it was newly hatched; hopefully it didn't get into anything poisonous.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

labor day saw anthony and i in atlanta (we're seeing about working things out).

rusan's, paolo's gelateria and the flying biscuit. delicious foodstuffs! $12 sushi buffet! crunchy breakfast biscuits with apple butter! gelato!

a 7 hour drive north will remove much humidty and put a chill in the air in the mornings.

regarding the ga aquarium - i think i talked it up too much! far too much expectation. alas. i guess i thought there would be more. but what it really has is just bigger.

don't get me wrong. the beluga whales and the whale sharks were pretty incredible. ok, really incredible. and very soothing, as anthony noted.

the belugas were very graceful and so powerful. you could see their skin and rippling muscles. and when they talked, their fatty melons changed shape! adorable.

most of any negative feeling i have towards the aquarium came from 1) the immense crush of people who were there and 2) the horrific mascot, deepo. deepo is an blatant "friend/rip-off" of neemo's, not to mention his shark friend looks completely stoned, with huge bags under his eyes. unfortunately, i was unable to find an image online. i compare it to the animation style of dreamworks (as opposed to pixar). and i don't like dreamworks' animation style.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

my new roomie, emily, has also arrived! in a word, she's awesome. her cat molly is adorable. and we both enjoy arrested development, jon stewart, kids in the hall and douglas adams. w00t! i easily got her addicted to lolcats (it's a sickness, truly).

10.40

just a few precious moments to jot a few little notes.

gfss was at kareema's house tonight. she made arepas, hummus and guacamole. the girl is amazing and arepas are delicious. she even has an arepa-maker. think, george foreman grill, venezuelan style.

walking out the car, rachel and i got to enjoy the perfect rain. barely misty drizzling. enough to cool you off and prickle the skin.

and the weekend was amazing as well!


meaghan, erika, moi

8.12.07 - kim changes her godson's diaper for the first time. in fact, kim changes her first diaper, ever. very exciting and not too smelly. AND she didn't gag. this is truly a miracle.



no child is as cute as my godson. no way.


oooooh. this is nice. i like this. this is like... the womb. but bigger.


all day is naptime. what a life.





no gfss is complete without a silly photo shoot:




oops, ignore the bra strap. it's so white trash.


(quite possibly erika will have me killed for posting this)


'please don't look at the gravel pile,' says the beauteous meaghan.

we made a ton of food all weekend, and even got trashed and played celebrity. afterwards, we realized there were a few multiples - hitler, einstein and angelina jolie. who knows where our minds were. riesling, chocolate martinis, frangelico... mmm...


drink up, my pretty...


sunshine/citrus cupcakes with butter icing. note to self: do not let erika be in charge of the icing whilst drunk.


mz jolie. third round of celebrity.


this, too, may incur my death.


martha stewart!


this is not staged. this is real. this is erika, drunk. :D


awwww.... we're kicking butt and taking names, aren't we?


the 'rents!


erika is totally maternal. really.
and isn't owen the most adorable little homunculus? why yes he is, he's the cutest little homunculus ever!

wtf

put band-aid on in the evening.

wore band-aid the next day.

removed band-aid once home from work.

and the adhesive part ripped. skin. from. my. arm.

hot milk

the first time i remember drinking hot milk was in hong kong, around 7 years old. we had gotten it from mcdonald's (mcdonalds! selling hot milk!) and the straw had such a large diameter, i ended up scalding my entire mouth.

now, 21 years later, i'm drinking hot, organic, whole milk in the hopes of sleeping deeply tonight. last night was filled with crazy vivid unpleasant dreams and a few wakings around 3 and 3:30 am.

note to self: must remember to get pictures of the art show from kareema.

this past sunday was a heavenly estrogen day. 11 am meetup at pach's place for some delicious diner brunch with jen, danielle, erika and kareema. i am quite sure that 20 cups of coffee were easily consumed by the group.

then to anthropologie whereupon kim spent, again, too much money. (halp! somebody, stop me!!)

then to my abode for mango and oj mimosas (are they called something else when served w/ mango juice?).

and THEN to the movies for some hot (becoming jane) austen action. lovely.

a little dinner at pei wei and erika running into my car finished up the day. (that last bit is quite true! luckily, my plastic car is sturdy and strong.)

in other news, anthony and i split up this past month. he's moved out and the abode is strangely empty. still making sense of it all and feeling mostly happy with a pinch of lost. we still hang out and talk a lot; 4 years makes people pretty damn close.

looking forward to getting myself in order and taking that trip in december. nothing better when one is feeling a little lost than to run off to europe, eat gelato and drink hot chocolate, take funny pictures and freeze in the winter while wearing a plethora of colorful scarves.

we each wrote what we wanted for this trip, so we'd be on the same page. birds of a feather:

jen's vision: i envision reading books in window sills while holding a glass of wine, carrying heavy groceries up cobbled streets, and late night chats in piazzas. there are things i would like to see, but i'm not going to die if i don't. i'm looking for adventure but not necessarily crazy touristy expensive trip adventure.

kim's vision: gelato. hot chocolate. brioche con panna. dried coconut. sweet frothy cappuccinos while sitting in windowsills. house glasses of wine and walking tipsy through the streets, possibly singing a retarded song. and i like reading books. and taking silly photos. and staying warm in the winter. freaking out about the cold. and drinking more hot chocolate. or a cafe corretto.

i am become thursday, destroyer of free time

i can't believe it's already thursday. where is this week going? not to mention, it's almost the end of the year. eek!

monday and tuesday gfss went out and, following in knitta's footsteps, tagged various areas around tampa. the sucky thing is, jen and danielle spent a lot of time tagging light poles in ybor late at night, and they had taken it down by morning!! *sigh* thanks, tampa. you're the best.

some of the places hit included bayshore, jimmie b keel library, usf library, kaleisia and ybor (jerks).

i have finished up my summer classes and have (mostly) finished the redesign of the girlfriend sweatshop website. it possibly needs a little more tweaking, but so far we're happy with it.

and i am happy to note that i have showered and am finally squeaky clean. yesterday i desperately needed a shower. desperately. did i mention that i needed a shower? i'd been going full-throttle with classwork and this art show that seriously, i could not remember the last time i showered. at least 3, if not 4 days ago. ... that's so gross.

i'm glad i'm not outside, otherwise i'm sure i'd have a cloud of flies around my head a la pigpen (this actually happened to me at the gardens in munich, but that's a story for another time).

anyone in the area who'd like to go... check out the transitions art gallery page for a little more information.

i think in comparison to past shows at the gallery, we've got quite a bit of stuff up. but in comparison to our vision, we're a little lacking. everything looks smaller once you put it up on the walls! if only we weren't such procrastinators... alas.

thorny

"While browsing at the garden store, I saw an item that would be perfect for your current metaphorical needs: rose gloves. They're specially designed to protect you while working with those lush but thorny flowers. They feature padded palms, reinforced fingertips, and extra-long gauntlets that safeguard your flesh up to the elbow. As you play with and care for your own metaphorical version of the paradoxical rose in the coming days, I suggest that you arm yourself with equivalent protective measures."
- free will astrology

on air

exciting news is afoot!

*tiptoe**tiptoe*

girlfriend sweatshop is going to be interviewed on 'art in your ear' on our local community radio station, 88.5 wmnf. hopefully we'll sound fun and silly rather than bumbling and thick-tongued.
:)

i believe we'll be talking about our upcoming art installation at transitions art gallery.

give it an ear, should you find the time!

itinerary in december

• 6th leavin' on a jet plane
• 7th london
• 10th rome
• 18th fly home

question: excited?

answer: yes.

loops

1:33 pm.

awaiting patrons who wish to learn 'online quilting.'

i'm thinking i'm going to end up cancelling this class... only 1 person was at the 10:30 showing. hm.



so i have these recurring themes in my dreams. do many people have recurring themes/dreams? do you?

• under/water themes. swimming. dangers of jellyfish. smacks of jellyfish in the water as i've just jumped and am about to plunge into the electric and soft, now-gelatinous water. being able to breathe oxygen from thick water; in my lungs. hotel pools, sometime suspended in glass 30 floors up; breaking, falling, gushing.
• hotels. huge hotels with many doors. locked doors. being lost. elevators, often of glass. sometimes dorm-like. little mini-bottles. huge rooms of pipes and metal-grid catwalks; the underbelly of the hotel.
• travel. forgetting important items; retainers, plane tickets. airplanes like rocketships or the gravitron. days-long plane rides. cities i've been to that aren't exact representations; hong kong, florence. cobbled streets.

i want to incorporate these themes somehow into my art. i just need to break them down. along with my creative blocks.

ka-zam - biff - pow - kablooie - poof

whoa what, whoa what??

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!



and again, i say:


AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!

The Rules are:

• We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
• Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
• People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
• At the end of your blog post, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
• Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

1) despite outward appearances, i am horrifically out of shape
2) my current dream is to live in italy in a vat of gelato (this probably doesn't help #1...)
3) i like to watch 'predator' at least once a year
4) this year marks my 10 yr high school reunion
5) i have a love/hate relationship with my clutter issues
6) i, too, am gay for transformers
7) i can move my pinkie toes independently of my other toes
8) i totally rocked 'capture the flag' in elementary school

I have tagged the following:


i'm bad at tagging others. though, again, another rockin' game. we should all play more tag.

zombie-fied

+ manic.
i've been feeling so manic as of late. if i can get to bed by 10:30, i'll be happy. my bright jangly plastic nerves will thank me for it. and my raw-numb synapses.

+ owen.
this weekend i had the distinct pleasure of meeting owen gulledge, meaghan and craig's 2 week old son (as of monday!). he's sooooo adorable! *gushgushgush* i kept wanting to ask, "so... when do you have to return him?" it's so unreal that one of my friends has a child. and will continue to have a child. will always have this child. we'll have a girlfriend sweatshop weekend in july where we will witness the wonders of the "pump & dump." and a girlfriend sweatshop weekend in 5 years where we will witness classroom macaroni fridge art and sippy cups (is 5 too old for sippy cups?!). i am in awe of meaghan's body. she's a domestic goddess super woman who had a 6 hr natural childbirth.

+ suck it off.
oh, i can't quite remember this story exactly! ...but suffice it to say that meaghan confused this phrase with "finish it off" when talking to her dad (i believe in reference to a drink with a straw). i am probably going to start using this phrase a lot more.
in reference to an unfinished drink: "are you done with that? can i suck it off?"

+ john jacob.
amazingly enough, i was able to see john TWICE in one weekend, where i had not seen him in, quite possibly, 3 years. it was so nice to see him and hear about his travels and life and pictures of the ukraine. and hear that he had been to see the museum of croatian naive art in zagreb. i am intensely jealous as naive art is so stark and beautiful.


+ i have a work cell phone. o.o

+ and am getting a fancy 4 gb thumb drive

+ and have the option of having an external hard drive.

+ in addition to my 24 inch lcd monitor.

+ (techies get first dibs!)

sharing

from madge, i have learned to use google reader to keep my plethora of blogs in order.

should you wish, here i shall keep items that have intrigued me. a running blog of blogs. a meta-blog. a list of items i shall tuck away and possibly never look at again.

today is a lovely, rainy, florida at-home kind of day. with tea and a book and ibprofen and a kidney massage. naps. and movies. and cats.

in reality, it is an at-work day. at work at 7:30 am. though with delicious coffee (with real creamer, not powdered) and slightly stale animal crackers. a day of monotonous item deletions. and then class. and home at 9:00 pm.

i have been so tired lately! ugh. what a downer.

pressure

105/65


mayhaps a little low.

had to run to wal-mart (eck) for toothpaste - we were woefully short. peppermint-y fresh!



driving down to ft myers to visit family tomorrow. i should... probably get some sleep.

*sigh*

and i feel crampy.


kidneys! massage thine.selves!

in absentia

wonk.

away i've been, quite. i've been busy and lazy and full of thoughts i can't seem to set down in straight lines and lists. and i do love lists. i shall be righted. sooner rather than later. i hope.

i'm also hoping to get back into crafting and doing some artistic things. soon. partly because gfss may have a site installation at transitions art gallery (in july, eek!!) and partly because i think we're going to apply to get into the renegade craft fair! this actually gives my heart a little thrill, indeed, a trill. it's expensive, but even if we don't get in, we're planning on going and celebrating jen's birthday (on the 13th).

and i can finally make it to the shedd aquarium!

so that's where i am. work, school, drift. find sleep and bathe. and to right myself.

oh! hm! outside! now!


journal? check.
glass of water? check.
conte? check.
barefoot? check.

wonk'd

i feel as though i’ve been a whirly-gig these last few weeks. the wedding month is over and i have a lovely 4 day weekend coming up in which to relax, possibly pool/ocean side, and work on photographs from the weddings attended.

really, though. i have nothing new to note. nothing crazy-exciting going on. maybe it's the mind-fog talking.

some things going through my mind as of late:

+ sleep eludes me, my eyes are forever gritty.

+ vietnamese powdered coffee makes my breath smell, which i have not realized until late in the day.

+ humans are such paper-thin delicate bags of skin and water. i passed an accident yesterday where i saw a mangled motorbike being loaded onto a tow truck and a solitary white sneaker in the gutter.

+ “mawwage”

+ really thick arches watercolor paper. charcoal. conte.

+ i take perverse pleasure in getting dirty. i kind of like tromping on the backs of my long pants when i walk. running through large ankle deep puddles of rainwater in the parking lot. not using gloves when gardening. dragging my pant legs through the sand and water at the beach. as long as there’s a shower in the near future, not much phases me.

+ this morning was really quite beautiful. i hate having to resist my urges to go sit by the water near the river for a couple of hours. or days. ... wouldn’t a travel hammock (with a stand, in case trees weren’t around) be amazing?

addled. utterly.

+ came in at 8:30 to work today when i didn't have to be in until 10
+ walked fully halfway into a bathroom before i realized it was already in use by a guy
+ exhausted. mentally. physically.
+ passed my apt complex on the way home
+ confused the months, believing it was still march
+ thought that black shoes would be ok with an ivory dress
+ spent $51 on a haircut

- from rachel & laurie's wedding shower bbq on saturday. anthony is in tyical form. : ) my eyes are uber glassy from the half-bottle of eyedrops emptied into them not 10 minutes prior. shortly after this picture was taken, contacts were duly tossed, possibly never to return.

vibrate

ok. what i said before about murakami's short stories? and possibly liking his novels better? i lied. i really enjoy his short stories a lot. some of them feel so amazing. emotionally visceral? i don't know. i find that they're either really incredible and poignant, or "eh."

so anyways. i only rode the school bus a few times in elementary school. after that, i was able to get my mom to drive me. i blame my tendency to get extremely motion sick very easily (i.e. on treadmills), but i am sure it also had to do with my intense shyness as a child. i remember the way my eardrums would tickle when i'd lean my head on the window as the bus drove along. that rattling bumpiness of the glass on my temple. and then i'd rub the tickle out and do it again.

this is exactly how i felt last night listening to mono at the social in orlando. they're a post-rock band from japan. apparently, they weren't as loud as they had been in the past. david described them as being "blisteringly loud." even with earplugs, my eardrums were tickled! i could feel my ribcage and the fabric of my pants vibrating with noise. thank you, earplugs! the female bassist had amazing hair. what's up with boys and female bassists? actually, all the band members had amazing hair.

they played w/ the grails, who were also excellent, and world's end girlfriend, who had moments of good, punctuated with overlong intervals of experimental noise. i can't do experimental noise. i just can't.

trucker

combined, my driving commute to work is almost 2 hours. the sun is either rising or setting as i drive though the cattle runs of the highway.

and i realize i am developing a trucker tan on my left arm.



....

unacceptable!!


options:
- wear a shawl
- wear sunscreen (??)
- wear my bikini

though, really, only the first two solve my unbalanced tan problem.

sweet as candy

this is strangely... sexy and gross, all at the same time.

it's wick

in celebration of earth day, but also for my newfound love of parks (as madge notes, the weather has been insanely nice in florida), anthony and i visited lettuce lake for a snack and a walk. the light was so lovely with the late afternoon sun. as for wildlife, we got to see a crazy grasshopper, a cardinal and some finches!




way off to the right, there's an observation deck.


note: do not use spanish moss to decorate your home. chiggers reside within.


cypress knees!



i'm also going to post some photos of my plants (just for you, scott!). i dare not call it a garden, mostly i just try to keep the plants alive. my dad can grow acres and acres of amazing asian fruit, but i can barely keep my jade plants alive.


these are my newest succulents. i thrifted the 2 white vases and put crushed rocks at the bottoms. *roar* i even crushed the rocks myself with a hammer and a dishcloth.
final score: kim - 1. dishcloth - 0.
apparently, hammering rocks on fabric = holes.


(sorry for the poor pictures, i used my baby digital this time.)
in the first corner... from the left, we have a basil plant, jasmine, thai pepper plant (pillaged by aphids and then by my scissors) and mint (culled from meaghan's garden - thanks craig!). behind the thai pepper is a small sage plant. after brutally killing the sage plant (a word loosely used, for it only had 4 leaves) i had been growing from seed for the past 6 months, i gave up and bought one at the botanical garden show at usf.


and in the second corner... from the front, we have flapjack, jade, more flapjack, lemongrass, jade, tomato and another ravaged pepper plant. seriously, what's up with aphids and pepper plants?! this one is hanging on for dear life. *sigh* those little twig arms are just so sad.


we don't actually "harvest" much from our garden, but here are some tomatoes! mostly we use the basil for pesto, pizzas or other such italian sauces.


this however, makes me very happy. thomas killed my beautiful and huge jade plant and destroyed it into many small bits (cats apparently like to play in the dirt). finally, it is looking a little bit like its former self.

note: kim is the only gardener in the house! anthony is manual labor for bringing dirt into the house if needed. he doesn't like to play in the dirt. ;)