girlfriend sweatshop beach/craft weekend extravaganza super heavy image post!

we meant to leave at 12.

we instead left at 3 (or was it 4?). me, jen, rachel & bekah met up with erika at the hotel. it was lovely. we were greeted with:



and we were soso relaxed and relieved to be there.







this didn't last long of course, once the asti was opened.



out we went to whole foods for some delicious snacky snacks and for me, ibuprofen. 5 girls, 4 of them bleeding, 2 of them sick. i conveniently got the flu and my period on friday - lovely, no? the car was filled with crafts, estrogen and a veritable treasure trove of herbal medicines. and ibuprofen.

so we ate and went to the tavern on the main to meet some other vendors and hang out w/ yen & mike. hurrah! then back to the hotel to craft some more and to PLAY ON THE BEACH AT MIDNIGHT.

check out rachel's awesome pajamas. she needs a smoking jacket. and don't ask what jen's doing to my butt, i have no idea.



must... craft.... cannot..... stop!!



on the way to beach - this is jen & erika's american apparel shot:



the beach was cold and quiet and dark. the sand was freezing! like soft soft sugar. so different from ft myers beaches, which are full of shells. i was able to run about without fear of sharp cuts and stick-a-burrs.



much frolicking ensued:





and then the fun photos began. the cold makes us delirious, not the free beer at the tavern.

so many stars...



and unexplained objects





the dangers came from all sides



fear is the path to the dark side. fear leads to anger. anger leads to hate. hate leads to suffering



and yet, we were able to relax enough for some interpretive dance. there is always time for interpretive dance. we are the ocean.







erika really wanted to go skinny dipping until we realized creepy people were watching. go to bed, man! it's midnight!









anyways, the next day was full of coffee and crafts.

here's the auditorium:



us, pre-show



jen & rachel had this awesome idea for a logo sign!



and, our booth. lovely, no? :)



hopefully you were able to stay with me the duration of my trip down memory lane. i now love the beach and want to go back. so soft!! though, probably imported.

i should.... probably get back to work now. mayhaps i'll have time to write more later.

me without glasses. i can see! i'll definitely be keeping my glasses around for the days when my eyeballs are oxygen-starved, but for now i'm kind of enjoying not having heavy glass rest on the (small) bridge of my nose.

the scarf in the pictures is my latest finished knitting project. it's red mohair w/ blue-ish beads knitted in.

mohair is kind of itchy. : (
and fritz said that cashmere comes from goat stomach! say it ain't so!

B-HAM

birmingham was a pleasure to visit. i stayed w/ my friend michelle and her fiance, scott. we worked it out and realized that i've known michie for about 14 years; we met before 9th grade in band camp. truly a friendship meant to be, despite her belonging to the woodwind camp and i to the brass. we brass just couldn't help being so good, so jealously was obviously understandable. ;)

to use a term madge uses in her blog, i took a few "analog" photographs. in fact, i only took my film camera. which means i have no photos up yet. the plan is to do my finances tonight and figure out how much i can get developed as soon as possible. i should probably start w/ my oldest rolls first, though...

damn, as much as i love my film camera, the convenience of digital is just so alluring and seductive! oh, please me now, instant gratification digital slr camera!
but i do love the heavy *chunk* sound of my nikon shutter. it's yummy.

we ate delicious food and played with her beautiful kittens and knitted and made many many tasteless bodily humor jokes and got me addicted to 'lost.' i'm going to have to get the dvds from the library and download them to satisfy my needs.

speaking of bodily humor jokes... scott introducted me to the "wonder" of ratemypoo.com. i'm not even going to link it. i thought i could handle it, but seriously, as funny as poop is, it's not funny in real life, in color, on your monitor. my gag reflex is rather superb.

thanks scott. no, really. thanks.

man. because, really? poop is GROSS.

i gag when i clean out the kitty litter - what am i going to do if i have kids?

here are some sketches i did whilst in selma; i got to listen to michie's sermon (she's "The Rev. Michelle Freeman," after all) and while she was in her presbytery meeting, i wandered around old alabama.





i wish i could have drawn more, but 1) it was super windy and my contacts were like a desert sand dune and 2) the pastor of the church freaked me out by telling me how a girl was abducted and repeatedly raped somewhat nearby. i ended up waiting for michie's meeting to finish by waiting in the selma library reading and dousing my eyes with visine. that stuff is like eye-crack. i heart me some eye-crack.


OTHER UPDATES

ant's band, red room cinema, got to play the big heatwave concert here in tampa on saturday night. it was crazy full of old hippies and strange drunk middle aged people. it was LOUD. an excellent show, except for that huge huge roach.

rachel got engaged!!

i'm hoping to participate w/ the rest of the girlfriend sweatshop in a little craft show at the sacred grounds coffee shop!

i've been a gardening fool. i tilled half my backyard in preparation for sowing me some grass seed.

and...

i saw the da vinci code.

there is shit in the meat.

my camera is now officially fixed. in case you were wondering - i had totally and completely mangled the shutter leaves. they were practically wrapped around each other.

update: job going well. tentative plans for a family + anthony trip to china in the works. anthony got a new car! deep blue and super shiny - a toyota matrix. faith in humanity sinking to even deeper levels after reading fast food nation.

one would think that reading those types of emotionally incendiary books, one would become super-activist - handing out leaflets, giving speeches, protesting, throwing raw meat... i just seem to get depressed. i mean, deep down, somewhere, nestled in the comfy recesses of my grey matter brain i feel a twinge of action. maybe i should grab hold of it. shake it. shake it hard, real hard. sigh.

canonet reality

got the camera, tried a roll of film, not super happy with the results, but i think the problem are the practically rotting, sticky light seals. ugh. i took my (other) camera to the shop though. it was a little intimidating with the owner checking out my camera trying to hide his (overwhelming) disgust with what had happened to it... haha?