Once again, more me.

ANNUAL MEME TIME!!

This will be the fifth year I've done it. I'm amazed it's gone on that long but I shouldn't be since it's all about me and I am, after all, the person I know the most about.
2007, 2008, 2009, 2010


1. What did you do in 2011 that you'd never done before?
I was on the cover of a book! I wrote about it here and this is the book:

Very exciting stuff, no?

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Again, I doubt I made any and if I did, I have no idea if I kept them. If they were kept, it certainly wasn't on purpose.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Not this year.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
I've been lucky to keep those I love around another year.

5. What countries did you visit?
I didn't leave the USA this year BUT I did visit lots of places in the country - New Orleans, Boston, Marthas Vineyard, Las Vegas, San Francisco.... Not so bad.

6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011?
I need to work on being more self-motivated. That's a thing.

7. What dates from 2011 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
I'm terrible with dates. Months, a little better. September was good. I spent a few days with my girlfriends at a glamor campsite and I got engaged.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I was very happy to quit a job that was nothing but stress. I've had time to work on my own business and get a lot done. The groundwork is laid, now I just need to start hustling.

9. What was your biggest failure?
I can't remember any big failures. The most frustrating thing for me this year, though, was my inability to keep people from Getting To Me. I had to work with some incredibly unhappy, frustrating people who, because they were so miserable, loved to make everyone else miserable. I knew what they were, I knew I shouldn't take any of it personally, and I still got upset with them and the things they were doing. Getting upset about it was, in itself, upsetting because I knew I shouldn't be bothered and AAAHHH! I'm so glad I don't have to deal with any of that anymore but it did teach me a valuable lesson. I'm working on the whole "don't let them get to you" thing.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
This year had some bumps and bruises. I crashed my moped and, a few weeks later, fell down and damaged my foot. I'm fine now, just a little scarred.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
I got a new laptop, just yesterday. It won't arrive until next month so it could be considered a purchase for next year but it was paid for yesterday, which makes it 'bought'. Oh - and a moped. It's so much fun to zip around on!

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
A friend of mine has pushed her way through some very tough times and is doing well and my guy is sorting out so much in his life that has been left too long untended and I'm proud of both of them.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
I really don't like this question. It feels too much like an excuse to complain about people and really, if someone makes you appalled and depressed, it's kind of your fault for letting them do that do you, right? (see answer to question #9).

14. Where did most of your money go?
Buying the moped and fixing, fixing, fixing, finally replacing a laptop.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
The trips I've taken this year were really exciting and I've had a wonderful time. (photos here)

16. What song will always remind you of 2011?
I danced all year to LCD Soundsystem's Dance Yrself Clean.



17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder?
happier
b) thinner or fatter?
fatter
c) richer or poorer?
Strangely enough, despite quitting one of my jobs, I'm doing better financially than I was at this time last year.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
I wish I had spent more time cultivating the friendships I have. I let myself get busy with the little things and let some people drift out of my life.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Eating less might have been a good thing. I've struggled more with my weight this year than I think I ever have before. I finally had to give up my stubbornness and start working out. It's been productive.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
I spent Christmas working. Not so much fun this year.

21. Did you fall in love in 2011?
I stayed very happily in love.

22. How many one-night stands?
This question is always one that's wasted on me. Would it be cheating or something to strike it from the list or change it? Hmmm. I shall change it.

22. How many taco stands?
Only two. One near my old job and one on the way to my guy's house.

23. What was your favourite TV program?
This year was the year I discovered Community and I love love love that show. LOVE IT.
Not only is it hilarious and awesome, but it pays homage (regularly) to my OTHER favorite show, Doctor Who.


24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
No one is worth hating. Is that annoying? Sorry. I have a whole list of people that annoy me, if that helps.

25. What was the best book you read?
The Hunger Games was phenomenal and I'm so excited for the movie next year. I also really liked Miranda July's It Chooses You.

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
That's a tough one. No one new really blew me away this year - although I did really dig The Civil Wars.


The Avett Brothers are great:


Hugo's cover of 99 Problems was brilliant, just so much fun, but the entire rest of his album was dismal. I like to pretend he only ever did the one song.



27. What did you want and get?
A vehicle.

28. What did you want and not get?
I'm still working on a couple of things, namely an iPad and a new camera. Next year, I'm hoping.

29. What was your favourite film of this year?
Bridesmaids, Attack The Block, and The Artist were all great movies.

30. What did you do on your birthday?
Jesse took me to a sushi dinner, then bowling. It was fun.

31.What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
A new camera.

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2011?
Feminine and quirky. Always the same. This year with extra quirk.

33. What kept you sane?
My guy and my friends.

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
I still heart Simon Pegg. Did you see Mission Imposable: Ghost Protocol? So funny...

35. What political issue stirred you the most?
There's a lot going on with the government right now that makes me uncomfortable. A large part of it is the fact that very soon, just saying something like that could get me in a lot of trouble. The times, they are a'changing but I'm not certain I like the way our future is going.

36. Who did you miss?
My best friend, who lives far away, my brother, my grandparents. All of them are people I have to make an effort to see more often.

37. Who was the best new person you met?
This year was great for meeting new people and making new friends. There's a whole new posse out there.

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011:
The things that have happened this year are teaching me to be more open and accepting. Not easy things for me to practice but I'm trying.

39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year
"If you are chilly, here take my sweater.
Your head is aching, I'll make it better.
Cause I love the way you call me baby.
And you take me the way I am."



It's cheesy but it's apt. I'm gettin' married, folks, and he's a good'un.

Holiday Happies!

Merry Christmas! I love the ornament reflection photos - this one is of my brother and I in San Francisco. I took it when I went to visit him a couple of weeks ago.

It's been a very busy couple of months - great, fun changes are happening in the Banana life. There's been some wedding planning, some gift shopping, and moving from one apartment to another. None of these things are finished yet. I've still got some family gifts to purchase but as I won't be seeing them until after the holiday, the shopping will be happening then, too.
Charles, the BFF, came up to see me last week and we made a centerpiece for the reception tables, one we think will look great once we've worked out the details. The first attempt was less than ideal.The butterflies were surprisingly easy to cut out and hang - it's what we were trying to hang them from that has become the problem. We'll figure it out eventually.

The actual moving part of the moving is finished. Now there are stacks and stacks of boxes to unpack and all my things to admire and arrange. Very exciting times for me. Six or seven months from now, they'll all be packed up again for our move to the Westside. I've lived in several different neighborhoods in Los Angeles. I shall list them for you: Long Beach (nice) South Central near USC (not nice), Monterey Hills (not nice), Beverly Hills (very nice), Venice Beach (not so nice), Hollywood (nice-ish), Franklin Hills (nice), Los Feliz (nice), Silver Lake (nice), and now, Echo Park (still forming an opinion - so far, nice). The move to Culver City (which is where I'm hoping we'll end up next year) will bring my LA neighborhood list to eleven. I'm planning to settle down when I've reached a baker's dozen.
The dog and the cat have both gotten used to the new place. The Doctor adapted really quickly. He may not have even noticed we'd moved. Ferris, on the other hand, very calmly and deliberately peed on a bed then went into hiding for a week. Cat sightings were rare and exciting things for us. He's only just started to mingle with the group but it doesn't take much to send him back into the closet again. He'll vanish for hours at the slightest provocation. Luckily, he's quit trying to escape out the front door since we survived the Coyote Incident. By the way, coyotes in Echo Park are no joke. Beasts the size of import cars go prancing merrily up the street all night, every night. Soon after we'd moved here, the Doctor and I were outside so that he could get his business taken care of when I noticed one of the coyote monsters standing about fifteen feet from me, just checking us out. The Doctor noticed the coyote just after I did but surprisingly, he didn't bark and I was able to scoop him up into my arms. We all stood like that for a while, just watching each other, and then the coyote decided not to eat us, turned away, and continued his stroll up the street. Once he was out of sight I ran for the front door and no sooner had I opened it than my cat shot past my feet and into the darkness at the end of the driveway. I had a very small heart attack, tossed the dog (gently) into the room, slammed the door shut, turned to run down the driveway after the cat (right into the heart of Freakishly Large Coyote country) and suddenly, the cat, he is running like his tail is on fire back up the driveway and would probably have just torn right through the screen door if I hadn't opened it in time. I don't know what happened down there in the darkness but I'm guessing it was highly educational for Ferris. He used to try to run out the door at least twice a day and since the Coyote Incident, he doesn't even go near it.

SOMETIMES I AM CRAFTY.
I built a Christmas tree and I am extremely proud of it. This was the beginning of the process:

And this was the end result:Isn't that great! I'll be sorry when I have to take it down.

THINGS I HAVE COOKED FROM SCRATCH THIS WEEK:
Clam Chowder. I was told it's the best he's ever had. Success.
Pecan Pie. Not as successful. I couldn't find the right molasses and it was awfully thick and sweet and I threw up later that evening but I'm not sure whether or not that was related to the pie. The other people who ate it were and are fine. And claimed to enjoy the dessert.
Chicken Apple Strata. It took over 24 hours from preparation to pulling it out of the oven and it wasn't amazing. If it's gonna take longer than an hour to make it should be amazing.

And now I have to work.

I've got the annual meme to do so I'll see you soon!

It's here!

132/365, a photo by TinyGlimpses on Flickr.

The book for which I am the coverperson has arrived! I can't wait to read it. :)

The book is Blood Song by Rhiannon Hart and those of you in the States who want to buy it can find it here (lemme warn you -shipping ain't cheap).

Here's the cover in its entirety. I think it looks fantastic. :)

The China

The China, a photo by TinyGlimpses on Flickr.

Good night, China Rose. I hope the angels will kick quarters off their shoes for you to catch. They're going to love you as much as we did and they're more patient, too - you can finally play the quarter game for just as long as you'd like, which is probably forever.
You'll be missed.

Here I am!

I've quit one of my jobs. The idea here is that I'll have more time to focus on building my own business. This is the first week of not-triple-job having and I don't know what to do with myself. I spent two days doing a whole lot of Not Much, then I did some laundry, and today, finally, I began to work on the enormous backlog of photos that built up while I was working three jobs.
There's been some good stuff, too. Fun stuff and exciting stuff and dull stuff. I went with some girlfriends to Joshua Tree and we all became friends with a brilliant, famous photographer who was the nicest, most down-to-earth guy. And he bought me drinks, which makes him extra awesome. Tomorrow, or when I remember to, I will add a couple of photos that he's taken so that all of you can be impressed with my new best friend.
The third thing to mention is my engagement, and eventual wedding. It turns out that planning a wedding is CRAZY. I'm the first of my close friends to do this and lemmetellya, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I'll probably turn my currently defunct 30for30 blog into a wedding blog, should I feel the need to bloggify the ordeal.  So far, I've picked out six color schemes, eight venues, and forty-seven dresses.  Narrowing any of those down to just one breaks my brain.
So here's a picture of my dog, walking his dog!

Enough July to last a decade

July has been fairly eventful for me. Things that have happened this month include: Buying a moped, crashing a moped, glamor camping in Joshua Tree, breaking my latest laptop, taking pictures of a lady who was wearing only her fancy underthings, injuring my foot really badly (not moped-related), a trip to Boston, and kidnap by aliens. I made that last one up.

THE PART WHERE I ELABORATE
The moped is pretty sweet. It's a new Tomos ST, cherry red, only slightly dented and scratched from where it may have hit a wall that I may have driven it into (in my defense, I was run off the road. It didn't help that I had no idea what I was doing and ended up slamming into the wall because I had zero skillz and experience.) I was also slightly dented and scratched.

The glamor camping (glamping) was pretty great - air-conditioned, themed trailers, heated salt-water swimming pool, rooftop hottub, BB gun and archery range... We were really roughing it.

That's the trailer we rented, The Lux, so named for Lux Interior of The Cramps. It was all Cramps themed.

The BFF came up the second day and stayed in the spaceship themed trailer, a photo of which I have not yet uploaded to Flickr because, as always, I'm way behind on my editing/uploading of photos. Here, however, is a photo of the Hicksville Library and Teepee.

Pretty cool, right? If you ever feel the need to commune with nature and look at stars and be one with dirt or whatever, I highly recommend Hicksville. Best camping experience ever.

After a few days in the desert I came home and some of the letter keys on my keyboard stopped working. 'A', for example, stopped happening. That, right there, is two-thirds of my name. So, you know, I gave up on the brilliant novel I was going to write. By the time I got this external keyboard that I'm using, the inspiration and motivation for the novel, it was gone. My recently acquired dreams dashed. No more Great American Novel for me.

Let's see... Then there was the photoshoot and the next day, a flight to Boston but between those two events, there was attempted sabotage. The animals (one cat, two dogs) saw the packed luggage and conspired to Take Me Out. The cat came up with the plan and the dogs executed it perfectly - the small one crouched behind my ankles while the big one barreled into me from the front, knocking me over and injuring my foot so badly it swelled up bigger than my head.

ADVENTURES IN THE UNINSURED
The foot, it did not seem to be getting better and because I have no insurance, I went to a free clinic in Echo Park to have it looked at. Finding a clinic, by the way, was a nightmare. Every one I called (and there are not very many) said that they were not taking new patients or that they were no longer offering low-income rates. Not having insurance in this country really, really, REALLY sucks.
The clinic I finally found cost a little over a hundred dollars. I was asked a couple of questions there and never even unwrapped the bandage on my foot before I was sent to another location in Chinatown for the X-rays. A few hours later, thoroughly irradiated, I got a phone call at home from the doctor in the clinic telling me that there was no fracture but plenty of soft tissue damage and it could take up to six months to heal. That was it. I'm not sure, exactly, how I'm supposed to care for it or whether or not I can continue to work both jobs on it but hey - that's what I get for not being able to afford insurance.

I'M NOT BITTER.

And then I went to Boston, which is beautiful. Such a gorgeous, green, beautiful city and I loved it. I was only there for very short while and I can't wait to go back.

Lucy Vincent Beach on Martha's Vineyard was tiny, and gorgeous, and the place where I touched the Atlantic for the first time. I'd flown over it a few times, even played near it, but until last week, never actually set foot in it.

Note the extra-sexy Ace bandage on my foot. I'll be rocking that look for a while.

Again, I haven't got nearly any of the photos from that trip done but they will be, and on Flickr, soon(ish).

That's all for now. Tomorrow, the Guy, the Kid, the Kid's BFF, my BFF, my other BFF, my other BFF's parents, and me will be going to Disneyland. It will be fun. I will have a cane to help with the walking and possibly rent a wheelchair. This is awesome because we will be sent to the front of ALL THE LINES.
SUCK ON THAT, YOU INSURED, UNBROKEN PEOPLE.

Ways to Kill the Time

and not be doing the Things You're Actually Supposed to be Doing....

I'm editing photos right now. Right this very second, in fact. I am not typing, I am editing. I have not already examined every corner of the internets to see if there's anything I might have missed earlier and I am, in fact, being very productive and catching up on all those pointless photos I've taken.

There's no fooling you, is there? I'm totally not editing photos. What I am doing is staring at unedited photos and being bored, bored, bored. And repairing a co-worker's computer, which is actually a very Useful and Productive thing that I am doing but it's also boring because all I do is press a button every few hours while the machine furiously scans and whirs and repairs itself. Whenever I "fix" computers for people, I don't tell them that I barely did anything at all because it makes me look much smarter if I'm vague and mysterious and mutter things like "malware" and "boot scan". I certainly never tell them that I've figured most of it out by Googling it.


Unlike tonight's happenings, Sunday was pretty great. J treated his kid and I to a day on go-karts to celebrate the beginning of summer vacation. Go Karts, it turns out, are AWESOME!! While I didn't beat the other seven racers, I didn't come in last, either. There were three people left to straggle in behind me and those three were children and I BEAT THEM AT GO KARTS. I BEAT ALL OF THE CHILDREN. BECAUSE I WIN AT THINGS. I was the very last adult to cross the finish line but those kids, they were toast.

Look at that sweet loser face.

The other recent Very Exciting thing to happen was this:

What? You can't tell what that is? Let me tell you: Amber and I went to see a screening of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (themed cocktails! I had the Ramona Flowers and it was delicious. Free manicures!) last night at the W Hotel in Hollywood and after the movie, who should pop up but EDGAR FRICKIN' WRIGHT!!! The director and co-writer of such fantastic movies!!! His personal space was promptly invaded by yours truly, his hand was shaken and this photograph was taken. Then I learned a valuable lesson. Always, ALWAYS check your stupid camera settings before you hand your camera off to someone else because you might run into your favorite director and work up the courage to take a photo of him and the photo? It will suck and no one but you will ever know that you have a picture of yourself standing next to Edgar Wright (and he knows you're there and is willingly being photographed with you. This is key.)

And that was the last two days, presented to you with photographic illustration.

Just some travelin' stuff. You know....

I saw this photo
and got really excited (again) about the trip I'll be taking with this person

in September. I cannot wait to see Paris again and I've never been to Amsterdam - I hear Good Things.

Then I saw this photo

and added Malta to the list of places I really, really need to visit. How awesome is that wall o'windows? I have to see it with my own eyeballs.

Malta, I'm not sure why I've never paid you much attention before but I'm sorry. I'll make it up to you.

I'ma gonna be payin' you a visit.

Exciting News!!

I'm not sick anymore. Not the exciting news, just something I thought I'd mention because I know you were all extremely concerned.
Thank you.

EXCITING NEWS!!
I'm on my very first diet, ever!
This is not exciting, I know, but I thought if I could make it sound really awesome, I'd be less annoyed by the whole thing. Here's the thing: I'm terrible at it. Horrible. I'm only cutting three things out of my diet (alcohol, bread, and sugar) and I'm only doing it for a few weeks to see how it goes. In the last four days, I've already forgotten about it for at least three meals. Pathetic. See, I'm sort of genetically blessed and (until now) have never had to work out or diet to maintain a sort of blobby, not-skinny but not-so-fat figure that still wears the same clothes I had fifteen years ago. Not ideal, no, but lazy, which for me is PERFECT!! Now the blobbby that is me is starting to blob out in all kinds of places that weren't much of a problem before. Turns out that I am going to have to do something that requires actual effort and diligence on my part to keep from having to replace all of my beloved dresses. The horror!!
Hopefully it won't be too difficult. As much as I joke about it, I don't drink alcohol that often, I don't like soda, and I can live without my beloved dessert for a while - I'll eat berries and healthy junk. It's not as limiting as I was afraid it might be, mostly because I still eat dairy and everyone knows that everything's better with butter. And cheese. Fish, meat, veggies, fruits - lots of stuff on the menu that I enjoy. It's really a very lame diet and it will probably take a long time to get any results but it's quite possibly the only one I can stick to for longer than four hours.

It doesn't get more shallow than this, does it? I know that there are lots of things going on in the world for which, if I were a less shallow blogger, I would have all kinds of opinions and condemnations and approbations. I also have other, bigger problems that I could be moaning about but right now, this is it. In these fifteen minutes that I've been staring at the laptop, that's the big thing in my brain.

The lack of sleep is beginning to affect my brainthoughts.


Also, this happened

Really? Again?

Every time I get sick I end up writing a post about it. Well, NOT THIS TIME! I'm not going to waste your time and mine (any more than I already am, anyway) whining about how sick I feel, how I've got the plague, how I'm pretty sure I'm on my deathbed, and how utterly useless my pets are in this very drastic situation. I will also avoid mentioning how I ended up not going to my second job tonight because I thought maybe other people would be appalled and disgusted by the buckets of snot dripping out of my face. Instead of working, I'm woozy from Nyquil, watching Liam Neeson movies and getting ready to play video games (LA Noir - so far, it's kind of awesome). If I've got to be sick and suffering, this is an excellent way to go about it.
Since I didn't talk about how sick I am, this post has been about nothing. What a waste.

Home is hard to do

New Orleans was wonderful - great people, amazing food, gorgeous architecture, amazing food... Everything I ate was soaked in butter and then deep fried and I LOST four pounds. Want to know my diet secret? I'll tell ya: Walk all day every day for four days in sticky, humid, 90 degree weather and sweat your face off. You'll lose weight, guaranteed.
I'm not even going to charge you for that little nugget. Feel free to send me a check if you're really grateful.
Coming home and diving right back into my three jobs was a little depressing but now I've got thoughts of Paris in September to keep me going.

WORDS PEOPLE HAVE USED LATELY TO DESCRIBE ME:
Travel-addict
Defiant (AM NOT!!)
Elfin
I get stuff like 'stubborn' or 'talkative' on the regular. Those other three, those are new. Two of them aren't so complementary, either. And the third one doesn't even make any sense. Elfin? Really? I appreciate that it was an attempted compliment and compliments, attempted or otherwise, are always lovely but Elfin? Do you even know what you're talking about? NERD FAIL.

OTHER AWESOME STUFF
Yesterday a friend and I enjoyed a picnic at Griffith Park. We saw coyotes, Tai Chi, bad plastic surgery, good plastic surgery, tourists, and squirrels, all from the comfort of the picnic table. I wore four-inch heels, we ate fine cheeses and drank wine, and basically became one with nature. You know, really touched our roots. It was awesome.
OK, I'm kidding about the 'one with nature' thing. We looked like jerks but we had a great time and the cheese, it was magic.

(No cheese photos because as soon as it was served, it was attacked and I totally forgot I was taking pictures).


I AM AN ELF!!! Watch as I peer at you elfishly through leaves and such.

One more day

Two fantastic days in New Orleans, one more to go. I'm headed back home on Sunday morning.
Tomorrow, I'll visit the St Louis no 1 cemetery, supposedly one of the most haunted in the world. I'm not bothered by the thought of ghosts - what's really upsetting is having to get up early to see the place. Cemeteries in New Orleans close EARLY. Like, 12pm early. I found this out when I got to the Lafayette Cemetery today at 3:30, only to find they'd already locked their gates.  I lurked for a bit, taking pictures through the fence, and finally ended up wandering through the Garden District, trying to decide which house I'm going to buy when I've got my first squillion dollars.    I'd only be in the place for a few weeks a year, though.  As lovely as those homes are, I don't think I could live here. It isn't summer yet and the humidity is INSANE  - I'm sweaty and shiny and I've got hair that could eat Tokyo. 
The food. . . I could move here for the food.  It is amazing. Rich and spicy and buttery and oh, so wonderful.  I've had some Very Fancy Dinners in some Very Fancy Places but I've never experienced anything like the good food overload that is New Orleans. Pub,  diner, jazz club, or Fancy Pants Restaurant, EVERYTHING is incredible.  I'm eating constantly, just stuffing everything I see into my facehole. It's ridiculous, really.  If I lived here I'd be enormous. You'd be able to spot me (and my humidified hair) from space.
I've taken lots and lots of photos and I can't wait to see if any of them are actually any good. My 365 project is still happening, too, but instead of waiting until I get back to edit and upload a proper photo, I'm sending pictures taken with my cell phone. This way it's uploaded immediately and I don't have to worry about catching up.  EVERYBODY (me) WINS!!

So a girl walks into an airport. . .

And spends the rest of her life there. 
I'm in Dallas right now - specifically, the Dallas airport.  I'm meant to be in New Orleans but that's the thing about making plans: You really shouldn't bother. Our layover here has been extended from 1 hour to 3 hours (and counting).  I'd purchased Tina Fey's Bossypants at the Burbank airport and it was a brilliant way to kill five hours of travel time but now I'm ready for the next thing.  Flooding and thunderstoms, New Orleans, I'm coming for you*!

*eventually.

Photo funsies!

I've started another 365 photo project. Given my previous attempts, it seems destined for failure but NO!! I will finish this one. I'm already very happy with a couple and it's only been a little over a week.
TIME FOR SHARING: I dig this one, from Mother's Day:


and this one, from yesterday:


So, you know. It's good, so far.
One fantastic thing about doing the 365 is because I have my Photoshop open to edit the one photo, the daily pic, I just keep right on editing and the massive, enormous, gigantic backlog of photos I've accumulated over the past year is finally shrinking. It's pretty exciting.

THING I NOTICED JUST RIGHT NOW
I was uploading photos from the trip to Vegas I took in March (catching up!) and wondered if I'd taken any duplicate photos from a trip I'd been on five years ago with my mom - you know, the same building from the same angle, the same Elvis (there's a surprising lack of Elvis in shiny, modern Las Vegas) - and while I found a duplicate, it wasn't exactly what I was looking for. This is from six weeks ago:


This is from five years ago:



I've made the exact same idiotic face when faced with a drink and a camera for at least FIVE YEARS.

say what?

I just found out that a self-portrait* I did years and years ago is going to be on the cover of an vampire novel!! It's being published by a major publishing house in Australia and they've been trying to get a hold of me for weeks to secure my permission. My permission has been gleefully given and I'll upload a picture of the finished work once it's been published in September -I'm not sure I'm supposed to yet. I'll be getting a hard copy (and a check) for my very own.
So basically, now I'm a professional model.

Squeeeeee!

*Technically, it's my photo that's featured but another artist manipulated it and she'll get half the payment for the cover art. She was the one that was contacted by the publishing house initially as the manipulated version of my photo was in her portfolio but since it's my picture, everyone involved had to get my permission to use it. And while it's still recognizably me, it's a very glamorized, vampirized me. So, you know. . . Hooray for us!!!

Inside the egg.

26, a photo by TinyGlimpses on Flickr.

A and I reflected in an egg at LACMA. It's timely because of Easter, see?
And now we're art.

Really? April already?

The weeks just keep on rolling by, don't they? 
Today was kind of mixed bag.
1) Went to the Angels - Red Sox game and Boston won (good)
2) Discovered that at some point in the last two days someone had stolen all the cash out of my wallet (bad) and
3) Celebrated* my dog's first birthday (good).

I'm fairly certain that I've done some other fun stuff in the last couple of weeks but they've been squeezed out of my brain by today's events. My memory retention is very, very limited.
Let's see. . .There were a couple of very nice dinners, one of them at one of my very favorite restaurants in LA, Cafe Figaro. There were a couple of movies, neither of them memorable. A new blouse from a shop in Little Tokyo that ripped across the chest the first time I wore it to work - which reminds me:

THINGS I AM GRATEFUL MY MOTHER TAUGHT ME
How to sew. I hated the learning process, never cared back then about making my own clothes (How was I supposed to make a pair of Jordache Jeans?), was easily frustrated and deeply resentful of my poor mother for subjecting me to such a pointless hobby. Sewing was boring, time consuming, stupid, and, because I'm really clumsy, painful. I hated it and there was no way I was going to do it.  I figured that if I threw enough tantrums my mother would give up the Make Ana Into A Useful Lady project and I'd be free to watch TV and eat tasty snack foods all day. How wrong I was.  I was a stubborn brat but my mother, she'd been stubborn for YEARS before I met her and I didn't stand a chance.  Before I could figure out where my brilliant plan had gone wrong,  I was sitting in front of that stupid sewing machine ALL THE TIME, feeling sorry for myself and making crooked seams. 
My mother is an extraordinary woman and, despite my extreme aversion to learning anything useful, she taught me the basics and set me free.  Twenty years on, I'm grateful for every lesson she gave me and wish I'd paid closer attention. That ripped blouse on Tuesday? Two minutes in the bathroom with a sewing kit from the 99¢ store and my blouse was rescued, my money unwasted, and my decency restored. 
So thank you, Mom. Sorry I was kind of a jerk about the whole sewing thing.

*By 'celebrated', I mean I mentioned it to a couple of people and then gave him an extra treat. He's ONE. It's not like he's gonna feel cheated. Also, he's a dog.

Las Vegas!

Sex and the City machines, a photo by TinyGlimpses on Flickr.

I've been back a week now and still haven't gotten around to uploading the photos. My guy, Captain Timely, uploaded his the next day. This is one of them. The casino here will be featured prominently in my photostream in the near future. It was BEAUTIFUL!!! All fake diamonds and ropes and ..... I don't even know. It was like the very fanciest harem I've ever been in.
Now I'm sitting in J's house while he's out of town, surrounded by animals, my face covered in goop that is supposed to be good for it but is actually scaring me (what if it never comes off? I've always wanted to try a mask, every since I was a little girl watching fifties movie stars pop out of bathrooms with their faces green. Being girly is fun! And scary!), and listening to music I've never heard before. It's good.

I love how hilariously awkward J's pose is. I'd set up the camera with the self-timer and when I walked up to him, he grabbed me around the waist, I made some crack about how prom-photo-y it was, he stiffened up to continue the joke while I relaxed even more to avoid the prom posing and SNAP we look like the couple that couldn't get it together. Or, preferably, the couple where one of us is uptight about picture-taking and the other is fabulously relaxed with awesome shoes.

Minibars and Sky-High Heels

It's the middle of the night in Las Vegas and light is flooding through the crack in the curtains that cover the giant window in my room. Most of the light is coming from the sign advertising the 'sexiest topless revue' in the city.  It's a bold claim: This is a city filled with revues, the majority of them topless.
It's nice to get away from home, even if it's just for a couple of days. I've started working a second job and it's taking a little while to get used to napping instead of sleeping. Lately I'm either cranky or manic and always tired. Tomorrow and tomorrow after that? I sleep as much as I want, lounge by a pool in the Vegas sun, and wear pretty dresses under bright neon lights.

Crayola Girl!

I have comic book hair and I'm thrilled to pieces with it.
Red hair just wasn't doing it for me. I could never get used to it in the mirror and I knew that darker hair suited me better anyway. Back to brown (and purple and green) for me.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.7

The things that blow my mind

I have had a crazy ridiculous no-holds-barred kind of flu these past few days. Shivers, fevers, headaches, and shakes, they've all come to the Banana Party. Well, they are NOT INVITED BACK. I've had it up to my achy swollen eyeballs and I'm not taking anymore. Insane Flu Thing, you had better be gone soon if you know what's good for you. . .
(I find it best to leave threats vague as I've never had to follow up on one and wouldn't know what to do.)


THIS ACTUALLY HAPPENS IN LA
I glanced out the window of my taxi as I was going home tonight and looked directly into a big glass fronted hair salon, a shinyscary ode to Style and Expense and Design. There was only one customer that I could see and one stylist and the stylist, he was wearing sunglasses. It was nighttime and this guy, he is so cool that he is actually impeding his ability to do his job and his customer doesn't even mind. The customer is, like, "This guy is AWESOME. I don't even care what I end up looking like as a man who has essentially blinded himself goes at my head with a pair of scissors."
If he dies, his death will be one of the top ten most stylish in history. Up there with such luminaries as Marie Antoinette and all of the Medici's.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.7

Return to life

The guy with(out) the thumb is fine. I saw him on Monday and the thumb, it has been reattached. Hooray for modern medicine and science!
I, also, am fine. Hooray for NyQuil and long naps!
My dog proved useless in the nursing department. I was constantly dragging myself out of my sickbed to take him on walks and he never, not once, made me soup. I'm only keeping him because I'm sure no one else would ever take him. Useless.His fur growth has reached the optimal cuteness stage. He looks super huge (as huge as a ten pound dog gets, anyway) and fluffy and I'm not sure he can see past the cloud of curls that's hanging over his eyes anymore. ADORABLE!


Is it sad that I've really got nothing to talk about except my dog? Have I become one of those people? I talk about other things, too, I swear I do. I talk about things like shoes. And ships. And sealing wax. And cabbages and kings.
And my cat. He's still alive so, you know, that's good.

So sick, again...

It's happened again. I am sick. I lie around and whine and make my pets fetch and carry for me. CAT, GET ME SOME TEA. DOG, BRING ME COUGH SYRUP. Nothing happens and I lie here and moan. Stupid poorly trained pets.


HOW TO LIVEN UP SOMEONE'S WORK DAY

A couple of days ago I was puttering around my office, having just reached Bored With My Day mode when I heard someone yelling, "Call 911! Please, someone call 911!!" I ran out of the office, as one does when one hears something like that, and there was a guy clutching his hand and yelling that he'd cut him thumb off. I ran back into the office, call 911, sat the guy down, talked with him until the ambulance arrived, and sent him on his way. The whole time, I kept talking myself out of feeling queasy and passing out all over his chopped off thumb.
And then I went back to my boring office.
I don't know who the guy was and I'm not sure how it happened but it was a very exciting point in my day. His, too, I'm sure.

Clemen-bye

Apparently I'm not much better about updating the blog this year than I was last year. Or the last several years, come to think of it. Luckily for everyone, updating the blog more frequently was NOT one of my New Years resolutions. It's just something I know know I should be doing and therefore, feel guilty and slink away from it whenever I do get a chance to update. This is silly because I'm my very favorite person and where else am I going to find Channel Ana, all day, every day, but on this blog? KIDDING. I like blogging and I like keeping the people that care about me informed (hi, Granma!) so I will, once again, try and blog just a tiny bit more frequently.

WHAT'S GOING ON WITH ME

I am a car-free zone. Clementine was sold to someone that has promised to take care of her and while I miss her, I can't say that I'll miss all the times she will break down. Take a trip through bloggerland with me. . . . . Here's the first reference to a disgruntled Clemmy, back in 2006. Mind you, this wasn't the first time she'd broken down. It was the just first time since I started the LiveJournal (ah, LiveJournal. Those were the days...). After that, there are at least two mentions every year. Here's the part where I thought I'd include a few links proving my point but that's not going to happen. I waded through half of 2007 before I got tired of my own inane babble and gave up. Just take it from me, the car, she broke down a lot and I complained about it bloggily every time. Clementine and Anahi, being all model-y and stuff.

Still, I was attached to my car and even more attached to how much easier it was to get around when I had a car (that worked). I'm planning to get a scooter now. Parking in my neighborhood is a nightmare and a scooter would be less expensive and easier to maintain that any car I could afford. And then I could get this for the Doc:He'll look so handsome.