Who Said What?

moustaches, manicures, and massive cameras.

2012-01-13T21:37:00.000-08:00

I HAVE DISCOVERED MANICURES!!!
They are amazing. My ladyfriend Erin offered to treat me to a manicure to thank me for doing her headshots and then I was addicted.
That first time it wasn't so fancy. Sparkly and pretty, not complex.

Then I did my own a couple of times because after that, my nails, they had to be FANCY.

That's my Christmas self-applied manicure. Jesse said it looked 'ghetto'. I disagreed. Shiny red and sparkly silver? That, friends, is FESTIVE.
Today's manicure was the best. I convinced Erin to get her nails done the same way and now the two of us are sporting these babies:

MOUSTACHES!!! THERE ARE MOUSTACHES ON MY FINGERS!!!
I am so happy.

THE OTHER AWESOME THING THAT HAS HAPPENED.
I got a camera in the mail on Wednesday, and not just any camera. This one is a huge, old-fashioned, large-format, very heavy, many pieced Linhof Technika IV. It's a thing of beauty.

That's just the body. I'm supposed to attach half a dozen other bits to that before I can take any pictures. And the pictures I will take? I will have to learn to develop them myself.
As far as I've been able to discover, these large format cameras are primarily to shoot landscapes, like this one by A.C. OlsenThey are gorgeous and landscapes are easier to shoot than people (they don't move quite as much and are less self-conscious) but peoples is my favorite and the ones I've found that are shot with this camera are lovely.
by Doris Markou
This camera is brilliant and terrifying and a whole job unto itself. It was an early wedding gift from Jesse's father and I'm going to have to present him with some awfully nice photos by way of thanks.

Once again, more me.

2011-12-30T17:18:00.000-08:00

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. Erin, Liz, Diana... 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!

2011-12-23T17:31:00.000-08:00

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!

2011-11-05T19:00:00.001-07:00

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

2011-10-20T01:52:00.001-07:00

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!

2011-10-13T03:36:00.001-07:00

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

2011-07-27T18:24:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-28T23:32:00.000-07:00

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....

2011-06-16T19:31:00.000-07:00

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!!

2011-06-12T16:10:00.000-07:00

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?

2011-06-07T21:54:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-03T02:41:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-21T02:22:00.001-07:00

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. . .

2011-05-18T20:40:00.001-07:00

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!

2011-05-13T19:17:00.000-07:00

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?

2011-04-26T02:11:00.000-07:00

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.

2011-04-22T10:55:00.001-07:00

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?

2011-04-22T03:38:00.001-07:00

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!

2011-04-07T12:44:00.001-07:00

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

2011-03-30T02:45:00.001-07:00

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!

2011-02-25T00:06:00.001-08:00

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.

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The things that blow my mind

2011-02-15T18:46:00.001-08:00

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.

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Return to life

2011-02-02T15:04:00.000-08:00

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...

2011-01-28T19:01:00.001-08:00

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

2011-01-20T22:24:00.000-08:00

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.

Once more, with feeling...

2010-12-31T18:53:00.000-08:00

I had sort of talked myself out of doing the annual meme this year, having decided that I'm bored with it and that my answers don't change all that much, anyway but now that I'm face to face with a laptop, I figure I may as well do it. I did it first is 2007, again in 2008, and last year.
I wanted to upload some photos, as well, a few of my favorites this year but Blogspot won't let me so I'll come back to that later.
So here goes, the annual What's Up With Banana meme, version 2010.

1. What did you do in 2010 that you'd never done before?
I asked a celebrity to take a photo with me when I spotted her at the movie theater and I totaled a car. Not at the same time. Also, I got a dog.

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Maybe?

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
No, no one close to me but someone close to my guy did. Does that count? I got to hold the baby.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No, thank God.

5. What countries did you visit?
I didn't leave the US this year. Now I'm sad. .....Stupid question.

6. What would you like to have in 2011 that you lacked in 2010?
Things were good this year. As always, I'd like a little more money in my bank account but generally, I'm blessed to have the things I do and don't really lack for anything.

7. What dates from 2010 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
There were a lot of really great days this year. My favorite was probably my birthday. Everyone dressed up, there was dancing, I was happy. It was a phenomenal birthday.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I am embarrassed to admit that there are no great achievements this year. I did a couple of photo shoots that I'm proud of and I bought a domain name but this year was sort of a slacker-type year and I've got to push myself quite a bit more in 2011.

9. What was your biggest failure?
No failures. One Big Mistake, but no real failures.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
I DID!! I should have added that to the first question! This year was my first ER visit (twice). I had an abscess in my throat and couldn't swallow anything and before that, I was in a car accident and needed to have my neck looked at (it was fine).

11. What was the best thing you bought?
I got a great lens for my camera, a nice 50mm. I love it and am going to marry it. Also some great dresses and shoes.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
A good friend of mine is dealing with some incredibly difficult things with remarkable grace and maturity and I'm so proud of her.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
This year was tougher than most, people-wise. A good friend sort of drifted away and I finally cut the ties, a figure from my past popped up and wreaked havoc in my life, and there was a guy at work making things Very Difficult for me but as of now, all those things are over and I'm good again.

14. Where did most of your money go?
.....Honestly? ......clothes.... .......i am embarrassed.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
The concerts I saw this year - some really great ones, including a few of my very most favorites. Some shoots, the lens I finally got after coveting it for years.

16. What song will always remind you of 2010?
I heard this for the first time early last year and just loved it to bits. Listened to it constantly.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder?
happier
b) thinner or fatter?
fatter, definitely. :(
c) richer or poorer?
about the same.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
I really, really, really need to focus more on building my own business and taking better pictures. I didn't work on that nearly enough this year.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
There was a lot of fighting with people this year. I don't usually do that and I'm sad that it happened at all.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
I spent the holiday with my family. It was lovely.

21. Did you fall in love in 2010?
Sort of - I rediscovered the person I thought I knew, and fell in love all over again.

22. How many one-night stands?
Again, and as usual, not even one.

23. What was your favourite TV program?
30 Rock is still holding strong, recently I've really enjoyed Raising Hope, and I always love Doctor Who.

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
I am a hate-free zone.

25. What was the best book you read?
Oooh.... That one's kind of tough. I can't really think of any books that really blew me away this year. I finally read A Prayer For Owen Meany and I dug it, so that one? Maybe? I'll get back to you....

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Hmmm.... Maybe A Fine Frenzy? I like them. Oh - and Maximum Balloon. They're fun.

27. What did you want and get?
A feeling of contentment.

28. What did you want and not get?
A million dollars? A unicorn?

29. What was your favourite film of this year?
Scott Pilgrim vs The World. Fan-farking-tastic. Kickass was really fun, too.

30. What did you do on your birthday?
There was a big party at the Edison with all my friends dressed up in their Fancy Duds.

31.What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
My year would have been much more satisfying if I'd been less passive about working towards where I'd really like to be.

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2010?
Lots of boots this year. Lots and lots of them (I got my new favorites yesterday). More colored tights.

33. What kept you sane?
The Guy.

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Steve Martin. I've always loved him but the stuff he writes on his Twitter account brought him right back to first place in my shallow little heart.

35. What political issue stirred you the most?
I'm still pretty worked up about this whole Health Care thing.

36. Who did you miss?
Again and again, it's my brother and my grandparents.

37. Who was the best new person you met?
I've made a couple of new friends this year. As to who was the best? I don't know. It's too soon to tell.

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2010:
I'm trying to remember to appreciate the truly wonderful things I already have.

39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year
"So make your siren's call
And sing all you want
I will not hear what you have to say

Cause I need freedom now
And I need to know how
To live my life as it's meant to be"

~The Cave, Mumford & Sons

Precious Snowflake

2010-12-16T14:07:00.001-08:00

My dog has two best friends; one is a much bigger dog and the other is a slightly larger homicidal cat. Playtime is a pitched battle for survival. As a result, my adorably tiny bundle of fluff is the neighborhood bully. He thinks he's playing, the neighborhood pampered pooches are cowering in fear. Their owners glare at me over their shoulders as they pull their precious snowflakes away from my miniature beast. I mumble feeble excuses and apologies. My dog wonders why no one wants to play with him. Everybody loses. Thank goodness he's cute.

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Happy Holidays!

2010-12-14T00:25:00.000-08:00

Christmas is a'coming and for the first time in years, I'm practically almost ready. I've got gifts for the Guy, his Kid, my Mom, the BFF, the slightly lesser FFs, and some co-workers. The only problem giftee (every year) is my Dad. The guy is so quick to purchase anything he wants that I can never beat him to it. His hobbies and interests are so few and specific that it's difficult to avoid buying the same things every year. My inner monologue when shopping for Dad goes like this: "Books about the Civil War! John Wayne movies! Books about the Civil.... Waitaminute...." Every year. Once I become a gazillionaire, I'll buy him a yacht with a Civil War cannon on it, name it The Duke, and consider him gifted for life.

Thanksgiving was fun this year. I went with The Guy and The Kid to see his family in Northern California and once we'd arrived, I ditched my boyfriend for this guy:

And this guy:

(The mustache is not real)

It was a fun long weekend. When I wasn't trying to make friends with the two-year old, I spent most of my time holding the tiny baby or lurking just behind people that were holding the tiny baby, so as to be nearby when they were ready to give him up. The Guy and I spent one baby-free day in San Francisco and that was perfectly lovely. I'll be traveling with him and The Kid again this month, going to see their family in Boston in the week between Christmas and New Years. This is particularly exciting because I've never been to Boston and I understand that it will be Extremely Cold there. I have hats, coats, gloves, and scarves that I never get to wear here in LA that will finally be useful!! Very much looking forward to this.

Wild and crazy Saturday nights

2010-12-05T01:17:00.001-08:00

I am a wild and crazy gal who spends her Saturday nights doing wild and crazy things. Tonight, for example, I spent hours sitting on a couch being Very Very Quiet while a todder slept in the next room. CRAZY, I KNOW! I don't know how I manage to keep up with myself.
I'd stupidly forgotten to bring a book with me so I had to raid the family's shelves and ended up with Into The Wild, by.... That one guy. It's a pretty easy read and I finished it in about two hours. Here's the thing... I'd heard about the kid (you know, the one who took off into the Heart Of Alaska all by his lonesome and then died) but had never seen the film that had been based on this book and so this was the first detailed account I'd heard of his life and death. Now that I've read it, I'm even more confused: The author tried to paint the kid as an unfortunate Spirit of Adventure, a Soul Searching Wiseman when really he was ill-prepared, naive, more than a little arrogant, and ultimately, careless of both his family's concern for him and his own life. Spirit of Adventure, my ass. He was a kid who made stupid decisions and died because of them. I was also annoyed by the two chapters the author used in the middle of the book to tell his own life story. I think it was supposed to prove that he understood the dead kid better than anyone else had up til now because THEY HAD DONE PRACTICALLY THE SAME THINGS. Except, you know, differently. Really annoying.
So that was my Saturday night. Watched a kid, read a book, got really annoyed and ranted about the book, drove the Guy's car home with the headlights turned off, passing THREE cop cars, had a tiny freakout when I parked, turned the headights off and realized what I'd done, walked dogs, and got ready for bed.
No way next weekend's gonna top this one.

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The zoo

2010-12-02T01:37:00.001-08:00

My guy is in Florida for a little while and because his dog hasn't been doing so well, I've moved into his place to care for the dog while the guy is away. My own dog gets along well with China but I didn't want to drive back and forth between our places every day to care for my cat as well as the two dogs so I moved the cat in here, too. It's taken a couple of days for everyone to get used to each other but now it seems good. China the Pit Bull ignores Ferris the Cat, who likes to tackle Dr. Evil the Maltipoo, who enjoys wrestling with China the Pit Bull. Sitting on the couch, I can look down the hallway and watch the animals zip back and forth from room to room, like those old movies. First, there's a quick gray flash (Ferris) moving from the guest room to the master bedroom. Seconds later, a slightly fuzzier flash of white (Dr. Evil) follows. There's a smacking sound, sometimes a muffled yelp, then the fuzzy white flash comes barreling out of the master bedroom, followed closely by the quick gray flash and both disappear into the guest room. There is more smacking and yelping and the gray flash is rushing in and out of the hallway again, the white flash just behind him. This happens over and over and is always hilarious, especially when Dr. Evil tries to make a quick turn and ends up skidding along the hardwood floors and crashing into the walls. China does not play the Hallway Game. She waits in the living room until Dr Evil comes rushing past, all giddy with excitement, and then with one swipe of her massive head, she takes him out. Once he's down, China stands over him as he's lying on his back, limbs in the air, and she sort of gums him to death (she's pretty old) while he bats ineffectually at her with his tiny lamb legs. Again, hilarious.
The house is noisy but it's certainly not lonely.

Dr. Evil got a haircut today and he lost about seven inches of girth. He's got a puff of a tail, a puff of a head, and a stick of a body between. My dog is a Q-Tip. When I picked him up from the groomers, I started laughing as soon as I saw him - I wish I could get a picture that really shows just how ridiculous and adorable he looks - and throughout the day, whether I'm walking him or watching him play with (get mauled by) the other animals, I keep laughing at him. He's gonna end up with a complex.

Numero two.

2010-11-10T14:22:00.000-08:00

I've made it to Day Number Two of the 30 for 30 challenge, which is pretty spectacular for me. I'm not so good with the old self-restraint and don't usually make it past the end of day one. The challenge will be on this shiny new blog, which you should only look at if you really like looking at boring clothes and lots of pictures of my dog. This is my favorite expression of his:
Don't be fooled by his extremely adorable good looks. He's a bully.China, my Guy's dog, is super-sweet and loves loves loves to be loved by the people but the dogs, not so much. She hates other dogs and was growling at Dr. Evil for weeks before his constant, unending need to be right next to her every second of every day finally won her over. Now they're best friends and have bi-hourly wrestling matches. They're surprisingly well-matched. Dr. Evil is tiny and incredibly uncoordinated but China is ancient and extremely stiff. The wrestling usually ends with Dr. Evil having stuffed himself under the couch to get away from an increasingly cranky China while she takes a quick nap so as to regain her strength.

So then I was, all, like, you know...

2010-11-08T19:05:00.000-08:00

Halloween happened and I was a burglar, of the old-fashioned variety, complete with shady mustache.

I'd decided on the costume about two days before Halloween and I was all smug about how prepared I was (long-sleeve black shirt, black pants, black hat, black mask. I have all those things. I am done) only to find while I was getting dressed that morning that I did not, in fact, have half of those things. Pink masks, white masks, tiger masks, those I had but a plain little black one? Nope. Same with the long-sleeve shirt. The only black one I have has yellow seams. Totally unsuitable for burglary. Finally, I ended up cutting the mask out of one of my backdrops and wearing the yellow seamed shirt out the door, studiously ignoring the fifteen or so costumes I already have hanging in the closet. I've already worn those. I got to where I was going and ran into my friend, Anahi. She wasn't in costume but she happened to be wearing a black, long-sleeved shirt and as soon as I saw it, I dragged her into the bathroom, swapped tops, she drew the mustache on my finger, and voila! My burglar costume, it was complete. Then I took a nine-year-old boy trick or treating and I was one of a very small group of adults in costume. This is because I rock.

Another Halloween festivity this year was going to Knott's Scary Farm with the Guy, the BFF, and her guy.

We saw a lot of stuff like this:

It was a lot of fun and I got to try out my new camera lens, a Canon 50mm. I'm kind of in love with this lens. As soon as I figure out how to use it, I'ma take some purdy pictures. This is one that the BFF took of my and the Guy, using the lens.

It's blurry and off-center and I love it. My BFF is a much better photographer than I am.

I also went with Amber, the Guy, and his Kid to a Day of the Dead event at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery but the pictures aren't uploaded yet. I'll get around to that, eventually.

That's it, really. Work is working out, for now. I've got a shoot on Thursday night and I'll get to experiment some more with my new lens.
The dog is much better behaved since he's grown used to me and the apartment. The cat is still trying to kill the dog and I'm afraid that I may have to take my landlord up on his offer to take the cat but I'm holding out for a while longer, hoping that the cat may yet calm down, just a little, and quit with the dogicide.

I read today about a blogger challenge to pick thirty things out of your closet and wear them, and only them, for thirty days. I am intrigued and may give this a shot. The thing is, I'm poor, I have a somewhat problematic addiction to new shoes and dresses, and I love style. With this challenge, I wouldn't be allowed to shop and I'd have to find new ways to wear my favorite things.
I'd probably start up a new blog for this challenge. Definitely intrigued. I may even start tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes.

I am Sparta

2010-10-18T23:15:00.000-07:00

I spent the last two days in the hospital and three doctors and two nurses told me that I "look really good for someone with an abscess".

That, apparently, is "looking really good". Mostly, I was weepy and woozy. I did all my eatin' through a tube in my arm and that, my friends, was not nearly as much fun as other kinds of eating. The first solid food I had in two days was an apple and that crisp, crunchy goodness nearly blew my drugged-out little mind.

The Guy was working at night so ended up spending the last two days without sleeping at all so that he could take care of me.

He did some hand-holding, brought some books and fresh socks, took care of the puppy, and basically proved himself (again) an all-around awesome boyfriend. The hairy growth that seems to be sprouting from his neck? That was me. I was hiding my face because by that point I'd gone about twenty hours without swallowing anything at all and despite the lack of liquid in my body, I'd squeezed surprising amounts of water out of my eyeballs. They were swollen up like basketballs. I'm not sure what that says about me - I was in pain, woozy from dehydration and scared of what was going on but I still had to take a photo and not look hideous - but I'm sure it says something. Probably something not very flattering, in which case I will assume it's jealous and pay no attention.
I've been given jugs and jugs of antibiotics and some painkillers (all the medications are liquid, in case I'm unable to swallow again. Isn't that thoughtful?) and some Dire Warnings about what happens if I don't take the meds on time and sent on my (droopy) way.

I'm home again, my dog is frantic with joy, my cat is outwardly indifferent but inwardly relieved and my plant seems not to have noticed. I'm going to drag myself into bed and stay there for at least twelve hours, or until the puppy needs to pee, whichever comes first.

*I should probably mention that I am currently all drugged up and if this entry makes no sense, I blame the codeine.

2010-10-11T19:42:00.000-07:00

I've got a dog and he has Special Needs. Namely, food, water, and constant attention. It turns out that my adorable "non-needy, quiet, well-behaved" puppy has Separation Anxiety (fancy talk for He Freaks Out And Turns Into A Maniac Whenever He's Left Alone) and worms. The worms I don't mind. A couple of visits to the vet, a couple of pills forced down his throat, we're all set. The Separation Anxiety? That's a whole other can worms (See what I did there? HA!). Since he's relatively quiet when I'm around, I still don't know how obnoxious he really is when I'm at work but my neighbors have been quick to inform me: He's a whining, barking, yelping nightmare, producing brain-bending noises for HOURS at a time. I went outside to type this entry and as the door shut behind me, the yelping started. It's a sort of high-pitched squeak right now, like the world's longest fingernail scratching the world's biggest chalkboard.
The dog is adorable, and sweet, and needs to be trained. I'm not gonna give up on the beast but I've got to figure out how to get him to shut up. If anyone's got any tips, lemme have 'em.

How cute is that guy? How deceptively well-mannered of appearance.

Sigh.

2010-09-22T15:32:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I was confused, heartbroken, feeling lost and hopeless. Maybe my life shoulda taken a left at Albuquerque. I didn't know what was going on or how I'd ended up in such a mess. Today? My new boots have arrived and all is well with the world.
Well, I'm not so shallow as all that. Things had straightened themselves out by the time I'd gone to bed last night but the boots? They only confirm that, yes, things are going to be awesome indeed. How could they not be whilst shod in these?

Steve Madden, you always know how to make a girl feel better.

Getting the ball rolling

2010-09-03T23:37:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week, I decided that I needed to replace my car, get a new computer, buy a new lens, and get a bigger apartment- all this in addition to enlarging my dress and shoe collections. Clearly, I'm going to need another job. I poked around the internet and moaned to anyone who would listen how much I hate waiting tables and I don't want a crazy office job and then I remembered: I take pictures and sometimes, people give me money to do it. Therefore, if I take more pictures and get paid for them, I would make more money and I wouldn't need a second job. I could just keep doing what I already do and be able to afford the things I need.
This was all very exciting and great but I'm pretty terrible with the whole 'not being lazy' thing. I see now that it's going to take a lot of work to get a viable business off the ground, one in which shoot more than just once a month. Still, I need the car, computer, lens, apartment, dresses, and shoes so yesterday, I got cracking. I set up a business page on the facebook, did a fashion shoot, edited and uploaded lots of pictures, agonized over making them public, did it anyway, and generally feel like I am off to a good start.I finished most of the pictures I took of Amber months ago - this is one of my favorites:She's just so happy!

This is one from yesterday:
Absolutely fantastic model. It was a great shoot, lots of fun, she was on her game, knew exactly what she was doing, trusted that I knew what I was doing, and loves having her picture taken - that makes a huge difference, when it comes right down to it. Models that are comfortable in front of the camera are so easy to photograph!

I'll be buying the lens next, then setting up a website. Very exciting stuff.

Other than that, life has been pretty quiet. Quiet is nice right now.

2010-08-27T23:19:00.000-07:00

THIS STAYS BETWEEN YOU AND ME, INTERNET
My laziness has reached epic proportions. Yesterday I moved furniture around my apartment so that I could LIE ON MY COUCH AND SEE MY LAPTOP. I am really that lazy. I moved FURNITURE so as not to have to move a laptop. It was only one piece of furniture, really. Just the couch. It makes a certain kind of sense - I'm dragging around ONE couch instead of unplugging, untangling, moving, and reattaching, like, THREE cables (external hard drive, speakers, mouse). Plus one laptop. That's four (light) things to move instead of just one (incredibly heavy) thing.
I can't believe I'm trying to justify this. I am lazy. I am ashamed. Sort of. Mostly, I'm really comfortable.

ALL THAT COMPLAINING, WASTED.
Now that my work schedule has abruptly gone back to normal, I find that I'm freaking out. I didn't want to work all day every day but I liked having money. I'll still have money, mind you, just not as much. I liked all that much. I was getting used to it. My concern is such that I'm seriously considering getting a (gasp) second job. My job, as it is, pays enough to cover my bills and the rent but SHOES!! All those lovely shoes that I can't buy! Not to mention all those gorgeous summer dresses that are going on sale RIGHT THIS MINUTE! This is why I need a second job. The extremely shallow aspects of my nature are stronger than the very lazy aspects and I'm going to drag myself out of this extremely comfortable, well-positioned if not very decorative couch and get another job. Then I will be able to lie right back down again while wearing the beige Steve Madden platform pumps I have been coveting for months now. I recently got the electric blue ones and they are a dream. Shortly after getting them, I saw photos of Victoria Beckham, my beloved Posh Spice, wearing those very same shoes with three different outfits. It's kismet. We're meant to be besties. I can tell. We have the same taste in shoes.

IT'LL CHANGE YOUR LIFE, I PROMISE
The other thing I've been enjoying lately is 8track. You can make your own playlists and share them. I love anything that lets me force my favorite music down other people's throats and my obsessive love of making lists means that I have playlists about EVERYTHING. This is my playlist that has songs about Paris.

I also have playlists about coffee, breaking up, zombies, shoes, Los Angeles, covers, death, unrequited love, circuses, and photographs. They will all eventually make their way onto that site. I'm having so much fun with it!

This may not work. . .

2010-08-16T22:02:00.000-07:00

this is an experiment. i was going to try and write some bloggy stuff using my keypad on my super nifty smart phone only it is not working out as well as i had hoped. my notsosmart phone will not let me use capital letters or any symbols. it is incredibly annoying and i am aborting the bloggy attempt now.

goodbye.

And then that happened

2010-07-29T13:40:00.000-07:00

Some things are inevitable. I live in LA, I've been driving for over fifteen years, and I drive nearly every day surrounded by wackos. Friday, it happened: I was in an accident that took out not one, not two, but three cars, two of them completely totaled. One of the destroyed vehicles was the car I was driving and it wasn't my car. Good news is I'm ok and the dog that was in the car with me is ok.

That is the dog, being OK. My airbag didn't deploy and my brains are pretty rattled but China, who was in the passenger seat, flew straight in to hers, bounced gracefully off, then slid gently down to the floor of the car. When I could finally come to a stop, I was frantically pushing airbag out of the way to find her confused and happy, hanging out under the dashboard.
I've been in a few accidents, mostly fender-benders here and there and a couple big ones when I was a passenger but this is the first time I've been involved in something like this as a driver and I'm still waiting to find out what I'm going to need to do (pay) and how I do it. It's all very exciting (nerve-wracking).
I'm ok, sustained no permanent damage, just some whiplash and muscle pains. I should be as right as rain in a couple of weeks. And if you're in the LA area and need to go to emergency care, go to Cedars Sinai. I cannot recommend that place highly enough. I was in and out within three hours, everyone was kind and professional and, given the situation, it was a remarkably pleasant experience.

That's it really. That's the big news. Car accident.
I did a photo shoot the week before and I'm pretty happy with how those came out.

The model was a doll, super fun and easy to work with, despite the fact that she was sick. She was a trooper. People like that make me look good. Here's another of my favorites:

She's all super-model styles here.

Some days, I love what I do.

2010-07-07T18:56:00.000-07:00

There have been happenings. Many concerts, some movies, a few parties, a Fourth of July. I saw The Murder City Devils in.... May, I think? Cursive, Sage Francis, Gogol Bordello (Hooray!), some local bands, some friends bands. It's been a good summer for music, so far. There are a few more concerts I'm looking forward to this year, Muse and Crooked Fingers being the most notable - those are my number two and number one favorite bands, in that order, and I've never seen either of them in concert before. My head might explode from the excitement.
I had a little notebook with a couple of notes I'd written for the express purpose of remembering to blog about them and now that I'm sitting all comfycozy, I'm too lazy to reach across the two-and-a-half feet span between me and my purse, which has the notebook. I'm pretty sure I was going to mention something about Facebook but now that I'm sitting here and doing the typing, I'm thinking that the Facebook story is not so much 'funny' as it is 'whiny'. The facebook story will not be told.
The BFF and I spent a day in San Diego a couple of weeks ago and it was fantastic. We took lots of pictures and did lots of talking and I thought about how wonderful it is to have such a great friend to grow with.We started the day at the San Diego County Fair and made a beeline for the food carts. I wanted to try the deep fried butter but when it came right down to it, I chickened out and had deep-fried apples instead. It's the healthier deep-fried alternative. We went on my favorite ride, the Ferris Wheel, looked at some of the vendors booths, ate some more, and left. It was kind of ideal, really. I'm not so big on trudging around in the dust and the heat and Charles, she is exactly the same way. From the fair, we went to a local cemetery, took some pictures, ended up at the beach for dinner (pasta!), took some more pictures, and I went home. We're going to try and do these photo field trips at least a few times a year. It's great practice for both of us and an even greater excuse to hang out.

Another great day was Universal Studios - I hadn't been in years and it was really cool seeing all the changes made to the park. It felt much more Theme Park-y, with the kiosks and booths and themes, less like a working movie studio with a couple of attractions. It was fun but not the kind of place I'd visit regularly. You, Universal, are no Disneyland.

There was this guy, though. That's definitely a point in Universal's favor. Also, margaritas. More points to Universal.

MY CAT IS A JERK
My mattress is pretty hard and until recently, I liked it that way. I was comfortable, sort of, until suddenly I just wasn't. Lying on my back was exactly like sleeping on the hardwood floor, it was impossible to get comfortable on my belly, and my poor hipbone had no idea what to do with itself when I lay on my side. Because I am a Problem Solver, I betook myself to Target and bought a thick, comfy mattress pad. Target being what it is, I also walked out with a shower curtain, bathroom floor mat, a kitty litter box with a lid and swinging door, a couple of dresses, and a book (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. It was good). I got home, cleaned the apartment a little, arranged my purchases around the place, forced the cat in and out of the litter box a few times so he'd know how to use the door, got ready for bed. The mattress pad, it was heaven. Squishy and soft and comfy and I got exactly two hours of slumbering bliss out of it before a horrible smell forced me awake. Startled and completely grossed out, I started to look for the source of the smell and found it almost right away and it was coming from the bed.
The cat, confused by the new litter box, peed in the bed, soaking the sheets, the comforter, and the BRAND NEW MATTRESS PAD. His first accident, ever, and it's on the one item I can't easily clean. I couldn't even get mad at him. He was confused! The door on the litter box defeated his tiny, tiny brain and my lovely mattress pad paid the price.
The smell was foul. Just brain-searingly awful. It's been a couple of days now and I've done everything I can think of to get rid of it, up to and including spraying the mattress pad down with Very Expensive Perfume. Funnily enough, that's what seems to work best. I've been drifting off to sleep lately in a cloud of Chanel and cat urine.

2010-05-28T20:44:00.000-07:00

TWO THINGS THAT ARE UNRELATED BUT I THOUGHT I'D MENTION.
I got the awesome discount at the neighborhood boutique of Doom and now I'm more broke than ever. I will, however, be spending my time at the soup kitchens in some great dresses. Hooray! Also, my head has survived another self-applied haircut. There was a tense couple of hours while I waited for it to dry (I stupidly cut it fresh out of the shower and soaking wet. I sort of forgot that it's not always like that) but much to my simultaneous relief and annoyance, no one even noticed I'd cut it. Three inches, people!! That's not nothin'. Either my hair is so long that no one can tell bits of it are gone or it looks terrible, possibly from an angle I cannot see, like the back of my head, and no one wants to make me feel bad.

*My cat crawled onto my lap while I was typing this and he just gave himself a big ol' languid cat stretch and slipped right off my lap. I find this kind of thing hilarious, despite the leg-clawing I got when he panicked at the beginning of the extremely un-languid fall.
He's back now, dignity and balance intact.

YOU CAN PROBABLY SKIP THIS NEXT PART.
Clementine the Wonder Bug is in the shop again. Looking over this blog, I see that there very many entries where I talk about my car breaking down or catching fire. The latest thing is breaking down while parked on hillsides, for no particular reason. It just doesn't want to drive anymore. It's confusing my super-genius mechanic and he's keeping the car in the shop until he can figure it out. This means that I'm walking a whole lot. Walking to work, walking to the store, walking to the bus stop, walking walking walking. Occasionally biking. Mostly walking. I have discovered that it's much easier to walk up a hill than it is to ride a bicycle up one and because there is a large hill between me and EVERYTHING ELSE, the bike isn't getting as much use as I'd originally thought.

Abrupt ending because I can't think of anything else to talk about.

2010-05-08T17:29:00.000-07:00

THE NEVERENDING 36FAIL
I started another attempt at the 365 - you know, that thing on Flickr where you're supposed to take a picture every day for a year? This was number three for me and I lasted less than a week. This time, though, I'm just gonna pretend that the portraits, they don't have to be in order. I can take them over the course of, say, six years. Or twenty. 365 is just the name of the project, it doesn't really mean anything.

That is the face of Failure.

GOD WANTS ME TO SPEND ALL MY MONEY
There's a gorgeous little neighborhood boutique just down the street and it has been the bane of my existence for years. Every time I walk by, I'll see a dress, or a coat, or a skirt in the window that I just have to have. The owner, Sarah, has nearly the exact same taste in clothing that I do and I can never resist her shop windows. I've spent so much money there that six months ago, I made a deliberate, conscious decision to avoid that store at all costs. I haven't been inside since and I studiously avoid looking in or at the windows, despite the fact that I walk or drive past the storefront nearly every day.
Sadly, I'm not exaggerating at all. Because I have ZERO WILLPOWER, that place was driving me to wreck and ruin.
Sooooo..... Last night I was having dinner at a local eatery when who should happen to sit at the table next to me? Why, Sarah, manager and proprietor of the gorgeous little neighborhood boutique, of course! I have never, ever seen her outside of that store. Not once, until last night. She recognized me, I recognized her, we chatted for a bit and then she said, "You know, you should come into the store sometime this week. I'll give you a great discount!"
A DISCOUNT! I die.
All resolve has been chucked out the window. That was a sign! I'm SUPPOSED to spend all my money there! I even get discounts!

2010-04-29T15:34:00.001-07:00

Erm..... Hello there.
It's been a while.

NEW BLOGGY RESOLUTION:
I am not going to keep this up on a regular basis. Clearly, I am not nearly focused/motivated/mature enough for that. Nor, however, shall I let this blog die. The new bloggy resolution is to blog, you know, whenever.

While I'm always chock-full of great excuses for not keeping up, the one I've got now is a really, really good one - I was at work, all day, every day, ALL THE TIME. The occasional afternoon/day off I had was spent in a heap on my bed, bemoaning the lack of time I had to spend the funds I'd been accruing (thank God for the internet, eh? You can shop from ANYWHERE!). After nearly five months of that, my schedule is going back to normal. I'll have two days of a week and most afternoons to do with whatever I'd like. I'm seeing a lot of sleep in my future, with occasional naps just to shake things up.

I have managed to squeeze in a couple of shoots here and there, one in particular that I'm really proud of. This is Amber:Isn't she purdy? And she's a dream of a model. Our first set-up, after she'd been made up and costumed, I positioned her, she took up a pose, I snapped a shot and suddenly, she was moving all over the place, posing and hair whipping and generally being incredibly awesome and making me look good. I barely directed her at all and as we wandered Elysian Park, she'd spot trees and power converters I'd completely overlooked and suggest shots. I luff her.

In other awesome photography news, I've met a new neighbor who is an incredibly talented professional photographer and who is willing to gang up with me. He's been teaching me great tips and tricks and I'm already seeing improvement in my own work.

So, you know. That's fun.

I AM A GEEK AND THINGS LIKE THIS CANNOT GO UNMENTIONED.

The guy and I went to a BBQ in Echo Park a couple of weeks ago. It was in a small lot behind an art gallery off of Sunset Blvd and while it was sparsely decorated, there was a pretty tree strung up with Christmas lights in the middle of the lot and some vinyl benches scattered around. Nothing special UNTIL I overheard a guy ask the girl who was hosting the event where she'd gotten the benches. Oh so casually, she answered that she was friends with a set decorator and had he ever heard of the show Pushing Daisies? Well, those benches were from the diner set.

THE SET OF PUSHING DAISIES!!! My beloved, canceled, favorite show of ever!! I am such a nerd for that show that in no time at all, I'd commandeered a bench and parked myself there for the rest of the evening.

That expression right there? That is nerdy bliss. Glee, if you will. My behind is part of Pushing Daisies now. And there is photographic evidence.

2010-02-24T22:27:00.000-08:00

Oh, blog.
I keep saying I'll pay more attention to you and then I abandon you for weeks, months, at a time. It's terrible. I mean to write, I really do. It's just... You know.... Stuff happens. Stuff I should be writing about except what with all the stuff happening, I'm just to busy to write. It's a vicious cycle.
Speaking of cycles (HA!! See how I did that? That right there? I'm going to talk about a BICYCLE now!), I have a bicycle now! I'd been pointedly telling everyone I know how much I wanted one, hoping someone would have a spare lying around and it turns out that someone did. My landlord had a gorgeous vintage Raleigh ten-speed rusting away on his porch and almost as soon as I'd launched into my gee-I-really-want-a-bike-speech, he offered the Raleigh to me. It might have been because he has no use for it, it might have been because he likes me, or it might have been to shut me up. I don't know why he gave it to me, but I'm really glad he did. As soon as my guy fixes the brakes, I'll be zipping around the neighborhood and crashing into every tree and parked car between here and my workplace.

The bike is kind of the most exciting thing to happen to me in a while. I've been working really long hours for the last six weeks and haven't had much time for anything else. I saw a great show, Cursive at the House of Blues on the Sunset Strip, went to a co-workers birthday party (THAT'S a whole thing right there - this party was in a fancy-shmancy house in the Hollywood Hills and clearly, I've seen way too many movies and showed up with completely unrealistic expectations. There was not a cocaine mountain in sight. No one jumped fully clothed into the swimming pool. Not a single person was slapped OR shot. It was just another party, albeit chock-full of professional models. Dozens of them, all long-legged and pouty-lipped, casting wistful glances at the buffet table. I know they were glancing at the food because that's where I set up camp. While they milled around, striking poses and talking shop, I was shoving vast amounts of tasty foodstuffs into my mouth.)
One of these people is a six-foot tall model. The other is wearing four-inch heels and spends a lot of time at buffet tables.

Annual Meme

2009-12-31T11:12:00.000-08:00

2009 Meme
This will be the third time I've answered these questions - first in 2007, then again last year. It's very nearly the only New Years tradition I have. First, though, my favorite picture from the series of holiday parties I attended.

Dancing with a friend of the Explosive Neil's at The Family Guy Christmas party. It was absolutely brilliant and I'm so glad the party photographer sent us the pictures. See how giddy I was? That's what dancing does to me.

Onto the questions...
1. What did you do in 2009 that you'd never done before?
I went to Australia! It was fantastic and brilliant and I'm so so happy I went. I also shot a gun for the first time, a Glock, and I was good! Turns out all those video games weren't such a waste of time.

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
As is typical every year, I probably did make a resolution and forgot what it was by February.

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

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Someone who was close to my brother passed away.

5. What countries did you visit?
AUSTRALIA!!

6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
I'm pretty happy with the things I have this year. There's nothing I lack for - but there are things that I'd like more of, please. Namely, clothes, shoes, and money.

7. What dates from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Most of this year was pretty memorable for me. I met a lot of people, did a lot of things. It was a good, eventful year.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I think it would have to be getting my life a little more sorted out. The process started last year but was still pretty unstable, job-wise. I feel much more solid about it going into this new year.

9. What was your biggest failure?
I don't feel as though I failed this year.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
A couple of colds and then, a few weeks ago, a spectacular bump on the head. My brains were scrambled for days.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Being very, very poor, I haven't purchased anything amazing this year but, again, I've gotten some very nice gifts.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Quite a few people really impressed me this year. My friends are brave, brave folks.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
No one's really appalled me but there were a couple of people that got me sad. That's how it crumbles, cookie-wise.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Australia, rent, and keeping Clementine running.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Again, Australia. Seeing Gogol Bordello over the summer. Christmas parties.

16. What song will always remind you of 2009?
I fell in love with this song and listened to it constantly over the summer.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder?
happier
b) thinner or fatter?
fatter -
c) richer or poorer?
about the same.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
I did a lot of living this year. I maybe should have taken more time to be creative but I don't regret the time I spent running around like a maniac.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
I deffo wish I'd spent less time job-hunting/working at terrible places.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
I spent the holiday with my family. It was lovely.

21. Did you fall in love in 2009?
It would have been no fun at all if I hadn't.

22. How many one-night stands?
None, as always. I'm very well-behaved.

23. What was your favourite TV program?
I've become obsessed with 30 Rock. It's genius.

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Nope, still don't hate anyone.

25. What was the best book you read?
Jonathan Saffron Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close blew me away. It's been making the rounds among my friends but as soon as it gets back to me, I'll be reading it again.

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
There were so many discoveries this year! Some of them are bands/singers that have been around for a while and some of them are new but there were at least thirty or forty different musical obsessions this year. A couple of the current obsessions include Florence + The Machine, Mariachi El Bronx, and Amanda Palmer's solo album.

27. What did you want and get?
Lots and lots of fun.

28. What did you want and not get?
There were a couple of disappointments here and there but nothing permanent.

29. What was your favourite film of this year?
This is always a tough one. I have a few favorites: The Brothers Bloom, (500) Days of Summer, and District 9.

30. What did you do on your birthday?
I went to Disneyland with my parents!

31.What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
I think this year might have been a little better if I hadn't spent half of it in a panic because I couldn't get a good job.

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?
It really hasn't changed - a little bit quirky, a little bit retro, a little bit punk, feminine, and this year, lots and lots of red.

33. What kept you sane?
My friends

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Simon Pegg is still the favorite, even though he hadn't done anything memorable this year.

35. What political issue stirred you the most?
Health care.

36. Who did you miss?
It's always the same - my brother and my grandparents.

37. Who was the best new person you met?
So many people this year! The best?... ... ... I don't know. They're all tied for first.

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009:
It's okay to be selfish once in a while. This is the only life I've got and I'm allowed to enjoy it.

39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year
This night is winding down but time means nothing. We're all right where we're supposed to be.

Australia, Part 2

2009-12-14T20:08:00.001-08:00

I bought a Christmas tree last night. It's tiny, scraggly, crooked and I love it very muchly. It's also the first tree I've had in five years. I'm going to decorate it, and the apartment, tonight and then I will be living inside the twinkly Spirit of Christmas.
I've been going to holiday parties and that's always fun. There was the Fox TV Animation Holiday Party! and the Come To My Giant House In The Hills Holiday Party! and both of them were fabulous. The Fox party was a swanky, super-Hollywood affair - Seth McFairlane sang Fly Me To The Moon with the big band, Seth Green was hanging out at the mashed potato bar, THEY HAD A MASHED POTATO BAR, everybody was dressed up and there were open bars and buffet tables spread throughout the massive venue.This is Laura, myself, The Explosive Neil, and (I wanna say Scott? Sam? Angus?) Guy with Gold Tie being super-swanky.

The second party, last weekend, was smaller and just as fun. It was held in a gorgeous house in the hills, killer view of the city, lots of pretty people and good friends.

This is the wall the host insisted everyone pose in front of ("We just tiled it!"). There are lots of photos of people standing in front of this wall and while it is very pretty, I think it looks like everyone was standing in a giant shower stall.

That's it for the recent news: Party, work, party, tree, work.

More Australia!!

This is something I didn't know - the money is made of plastic, with a little clear plastic window built right in. You can wash the money, spill ketchup on it, stir your coffee - DOESN'T MATTER!! The money, it is indestructible. I was hugely impressed.
My friend is a professor of law at the University of Melbourne and I got a little tour. It's the loveliest place. That gorgeous building covered in vines? That's a classroom. The corridor below? That's just one of the passageways. It felt a little like Hogwarts.
I think this was the courthouse... I kinda don't remember anymore. But it looks very courthouse-y, right?

At the Victoria Marketplace I saw rows and rows of stalls selling candies, cheeses, fruit, and yes, fresh kangaroo meat. I really wanted to try some but my friend is a vegetarian and totally against the eating of the kangaroo. Normally, I would have disregarded any and all obstacles between me and the eating of Something Strange but I got the feeling that in this instance, eagerly shoving Adorable Kangaroo into my mouth would have cost me the friendship of the only person I knew in the country. I made do with a meat pie. And it was delicious.

Australia, Part 1

2009-12-08T08:28:00.000-08:00

It's pretty early and my brains aren't really awake yet but I wanted to start writing a little bit about my trip last month.
After about twenty hours in different airports and airplanes, I was in Melbourne. There was only a little bit of walking around that first day - I was pretty wiped out - but one of the first things I noticed about the city was how much street art was everywhere. Very little gang-style tagging (not in the parts I saw, anyway) and lots of really cool paintings and stencils. And lots and lots of old churches.
That was day one - church and graffiti.

Days two and three was more walking around, looking at awesome buildings, taking a squillion pictures, and drinking a squillion Long Blacks, the Aussie version of an Americano. If I didn't have a coffee addiction before the trip, I certainly do now. I had at least one every day, usually two or three. Some of the coffee houses there (most notably, Proud Mary's in Collingwood, the neighborhood I was staying in) had the coffee-making and serving down to a science. They'd give me little cards with information about the type of coffee bean that made up my drink, the growers, how the coffee is made. I was impressed.

That's the view from my friend's office. Gorgeous, no?

Just a quick one

2009-12-03T17:33:00.000-08:00

I still haven't said anything about the trip - it will happen, I swear! Just not right now. Right now, I am full of Smug because my car broke down (again) and I, myself, and me fixed it. All by my lonesome. This is entirely blog-worthy because my car breaks down ALL THE TIME and usually, it takes a team of seven to nine-hundred-and-sixty-three scientists from NASA to fix it. Tonight, I have fixed the car.
I'm not going to go into what exactly was wrong with it because it was so pathetically easy to fix. My Masterful Feat of Engineering Brilliance is that much more impressive when you don't know what it was I did.

Also, I was supposed to babysit tonight but, because of the car, I canceled. An hour after the cancellation, I got a phone call from the mother, asking me to come anyway, she'd pay for a taxi, because her son was really looking forward to seeing me.

Smug and beloved. Ah..... Being me rocks.

Just stuffing, really.

2009-11-26T13:25:00.001-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I'm spending the day with my family, cooking, eating, and sewing. Tomorrow, it's back to LA and trying to figure out how to start my car. Clementine's been really well behaved since January so the most recent break-down was actually a relief. I was going nuts anticipating constantly for the last few months. 'Sides, this was just a little break-down: I parked on a slope and flooded the engine. Once I wrangle some muscle-y friends into helping me push the car, I'll be able to pop the clutch and get Clemmy back home.

Thanksgiving. Right. So, we're having ham and potatoes and cranberry sauce and corn and yams and it's going to be amazing. We're doing what we always do: cook, eat, start wrapping the Christmas presents, and watch lots and lots of movies. It's tradition. Traditions are important.

I hope you have a fantastic day with the ones you love and don't get chased by giant turkeys.

This is Ferris, my carry-on.

2009-11-06T00:02:00.000-08:00

As of two minutes ago, I am able to say that I leave for Australia tomorrow. The passport has been located, the luggage has been packed, the apartment is (mostly) clean, and I think I'm ready to go.
Originally, I was going to fly alone but there's been a change of plan.Ferris will be coming with me after all. I tried to keep him out of the luggage, I really did. He'd hop in, I'd scoop him out, he'd hop in again, I'd scoop, he'd hop... It was ridiculous and there was really no way to keep him out, short of locking him in the bathroom so I developed a system - every time I needed to put something in the case, I'd lift him up with one hand, set the item down with the other, and set him on top of the newly packed item. There was no other way. He was going to hang out in that case if it killed him. After all, there might be ninjas in Australia! Who else is going to protect me? Who else really understands how sneaky those dastardly ninjas are?

Look at that. A face like that will let you get away with anything. Knock over the water glass? It's okay. He's cute. Tear the shower curtain? Aw, so sweet! (He thinks it's coming between us. ) Rip my arm to shreds? No problem. He's just practicing his ninja killing moves.

Thanks to the tireless efforts of my adorably vicious kitten, this apartment is a ninja-free zone and soon, if everything goes according to his tiny-brained plan, Australia will be, too.

counting down...

2009-11-03T22:13:00.000-08:00

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It's only begun to hit me this week. I'm going to Australia. I'll be in Australia this time next week. I'M ACTUALLY GOING TO AUSTRALIA WHICH IS BOTH A COUNTRY AND A CONTINENT AND I WILL BE THERE. Honestly, it's kinda freaking me out a little. I'm prepared. Sort of. While I don't have my passport in hand, I know I've got one. That's important, I think. A start, anyway. Once I find it, I'll have it, and that's one item I can check off the list. Passport? Check (once I've remembered where I've put it). Clothes? Check (as soon as they're laundered). Plane ticket? Check (as soon as I've gone to work and printed it out because I've run out of ink at home). Camera? Check. I could practically run out that door and straight to Australia right now!
Really, it's not so bad as all that. I've got the next two days to sort everything out - I'm not working and I've made no plans for fun stuff. I will find the things I need to find, wash the clothes, clean the apartment, all that necessary-for-travel stuff and by Saturday, I will be heading to the airport knowing that I am Totally Prepared for Anything.

Image via Wikipedia

The Australian friend has given me a mini-itinerary. As far as I'm concerned, most of it is gibberish (I had no idea that Melbourne was in the state of Victoria. I thought Victoria was an island and that I'd be visiting it later in the week, as opposed to being in it the entire time). So far, the plan is to spend the first couple of days in Melbourne, then a couple of days on Prince Philip Island (I am geographically dense about Australia [Victoria's a state! Who knew?!] so I have no idea what it means that I'll be staying there but it sounds awesome. Anything involving royalty is a win for me.) From Prince Philip Island, we'll spend a few days exploring the Great Ocean Road or we'll head to Sydney and play in the city. Hiking or bar-crawling, we'll decide once I get there.
I'm bringing my laptop with me and hopefully I'll be able to update once in a while, with pictures.

And that's it. What my life is all about right now. The job's good, the cat's great, my friends are lots of fun, my family is doing well, and when people ask me what I'm doing this weekend, I very casually shriek into their faces, "I'M GOING TO AUSTRALIA!!!"

Just For Fun

2009-10-27T00:13:00.000-07:00

It's late, the cat's sleeping on my lap, I'm out of new books to read....

For my own enjoyment, I've put together a list of my favorite dance scenes in films and TV shows. I love love love it when dancers are hilariously awkward and those are the clips I started looking for but pretty soon I was watching all my old favorite dance numbers.

Here are my favorite (excluding all those that don't have clips on YouTube, anyway) dances.

AWKWARD DANCES:
The master of dance, Fred Astaire, drunk. From the 1942 movie Holiday Inn.

Thandie Newton and Gerald Butler in Rocknrolla, planning a heist.

From Flight of the Conchords - Brett dances when he's angry and he's very angry now.

This is pretty much exactly the way I dance now. Except, you know, without guys lifting me up. Or rhythm. I don't bother with that stuff. (Mostly because I don't have any.)

Ellen, before she started dancing EVERY SINGLE DAY on her talk show.

Abigail Breslin's dance at the beauty pageant in Little Miss Sunshine.

My brother and I learned this dance from Perfect Strangers and used to do it all the time and every now and then, we'll do it just to keep in practice. The end is my favorite bit. Usually, I'm the one who gets carried but once in a while, we switch things up and as soon as he jumps into my arms, we both end up on the ground.

Another Fred Astaire classic, from Swing Time. His character, a professional dancer, has to pretend he can't dance so he can meet Ginger Rogers' character, a dance instructor.

Later, Astaire shows off what he's learned from Ginger Rogers. Infinitely less awkward.

I had to leave out that epitome of awkward dancers, Napoleon Dynamite because the only clip I could find starts automatically and I think that's obnoxious. If you want to watch it, it's here.

OTHER AWESOME DANCE SCENES:
That moment in The Fisher King when Robin Williams' character spots the love of his life in Grand Central Station.

This clip from The Fifth Element could have gone either way - the Blue Diva has some incredibly lame dance moves but Milla is nothing but awesome.

The Cell Block Tange from Chicago. Sexy, funny, brilliantly choreographed. Really, the entire movie is phenomenal. It's hard to choose just one song.

The always magical Singin' In The Rain. Happiest number ever.

I was torn between this clip and Fred and Ginger dancing to Cheek to Cheek but in the end I chose this one because her dress is prettier.

El Tango de Roxanne from Moulin Rouge. I could (and have) watch this scene over and over. Everything about it is just perfect. This particular clip is different from the film version - it's the entire song but the clip focuses on the dancers, not showing the scenes with Nicole Kidman.

Finally, two clips from my favorite canceled TV show, Pushing Daisies. I cheated a litte here - there's not much dancing but they're still magical musical moments.

Filthy Flashbacks

2009-09-29T00:13:00.000-07:00

Tonight was the night I began my Massive Picture Project. I'm going to be scanning and then saving onto disc all the photos I have on paper. After all, paper may fade but DVD is forever. I started with a pile of pictures that I have floating loose in a box and I was surprised by some of the stuff that turned up. This, for example:

I know what you're thinking. You're, like, "What is she wearing? And why is she happy about it? Why is that guy so dirty? And most importantly, why would she allow herself to be photographed like that?"
Okay, maybe you're not thinking that but I'll explain anyway: I was playing a townie on the short-lived HBO series Carnivale. It was for Acting Purposes. Back in 2002 I did extra work on movies and TV shows and I was working a lot. That was how I supported myself for a year and this picture is one of the very few that I have from that time. I was pretty happy to find it, even if it does require some 'splaining.

Here's another one, from The O.C.

See? I really wasn't homeless.

Throw another shrimp on the.... Eh, whatever.

2009-09-21T17:41:00.000-07:00

I am a very lucky person. Like, super lucky. Like, going-to-Australia-for-ten-days-for-free kind of lucky. That's how lucky I am. An old friend of mine moved to Australia a few years ago, flies all over the world for work, racks up frequent flier miles, generously offered them to me and I generously accepted. I AM GOING TO AUSTRALIA!!!
The idea for the trip came up last year but because of my wacko job situation, I couldn't even consider it. Now things are stable, the job isn't going anywhere, the neighbor can watch the cat, and I can fly half-way round the world practically worry-free. I'll head out of LAX on November 7th and return on the 18th.
Unlike my trip to Paris, I'll have a guide in my friend who's lived in Melbourne for a while and knows about all the cool places to see. Not that wandering blind through Paris wasn't fun - cause it was - but there were moments here and there when I wondered if I'd ever find my way out of whatever alley/airport/train station/neighborhood I happened to be in. More than once, I was convinced that they'd find me and my over-sized backpack twenty years later, hunched over a trash fire in some forgotten corner of the Gare du Nord, roasting pigeons and muttering to myself.
ANYWAY, that's not going to happen in Australia. And if it does, at least I'll have some company.

The Explosive Neil and I are going to The Cat and the Fiddle tonight to say goodbye to a former co-worker. I haven't seen this girl in a while but I'm glad I'll have a chance to see her off. My favorite memory of her was the time I took her out for her birthday. This was a few years ago and she'd only been in LA a couple of months. She didn't know very many people so I invited everyone I knew to meet us at a bar in Hollywood. Half an hour into the party, she was very, very drunk. This was completely my fault. She told me she was done after a couple of drinks and I wouldn't listen. Three drinks after that, we were outside and I was holding her hair back while she threw up all over the sidewalk. After some copious vomiting, she straightened up, looked blearily around, and said, "This is amazing. I feel just like Bukowski. Thank you."
That's what happens when you get literary geeks drunk in Hollywood.

Can I get a refund on this brain? It's not working right...

2009-09-17T01:13:00.001-07:00

Image via Wikipedia

ACTUAL THOUGHT PROCESS WHILE I WAS DRIVING HOME TONIGHT. I was alone:

"La la la, la la la What a nice night. Oooh - smells like popcorn! Where is that coming from? Mnn. Smells delicious. It's really a strong smell.... Where IS it coming from? I should have already passed.... Did someone pour popcorn into my engine? Is the heat making it pop? IS THERE POPCORN IN MY ENGINE? Is my car going to break? That's kind of clever... Wait... What's that smell that people smell right before they have a stroke? Is it popcorn? It's burned something... Toast, maybe. OR MAYBE IT WAS BURNT POPCORN!!! Am I about to have a stroke? Should I pull over? OH GOD, IS IT BURNT POPCORN?!?!?"

And that's how it went for a little while until I realized that it had, in fact, been a little while and the stroke hadn't started yet. Then everything was fine again.

So, erm.... I'm still here....

2009-09-02T15:29:00.000-07:00

Wow - the last entry promised that I would keep up with my blogging and then there's Radio Silence for six weeks. Sorry about that.
It's been a very crazy, very busy, very good six weeks. I've been five weeks into a job that I'm very happy with and about two weeks into living with a kitten that is very slowly learning that people NEED TO SLEEP AT NIGHT.
I don't have any pictures of the job yet, but I can show you a picture of a person that has the same job title as me.That's Joan. She's in Mad Men and while we're both office managers, she has much better clothing than me and it KILLS ME. This is a situation that will be remedied.

That is Ferris. He's named after my favorite carnival ride, not the Bueller. I took this picture the first day he was in my apartment and if you look past the filthiness, you can clearly make out his deep distrust of me. This distrust was justified the next day when I gave him his first bath. It took about a week but we've become friends now. He's still shy and will hide out in my closet whenever anyone comes to visit but when I'm alone, and he's awake, he'll come by for some head scratchies before he gets back to work - systematically destroying everything I own. I don't have any other pictures of him yet but I'll try and get a few that are slightly less demonic.

You'd think that after weeks of silence I'd have so much to say but I don't. Now that I'm sitting here thinking of all the things that have been going on this month, my mind has gone completely blank. I saw some great shows (Jarvis Cocker was amazing!), a few fun movies (I loved 500 Days of Summer), went on a few fantastic dates (I saved one of the targets from the shooting range - turns out I have some skill with a handgun and in the inevitable zombie apocalypse, I will totally save your butt and/or brains), and have spent a lot of time at work, learning the ins and outs of running a successful business.

Puple Rain and organ harvesting

2009-07-19T13:55:00.001-07:00

It's been a few weeks since I've updated - I'm not so good with the blogging, lately. Especially since I do this primarily for my grandmother (Hi, Granma!) and she's joined Facebook, which I update a little more frequently than this blog. I am going to continue blogging, though. I've discovered that I enjoy telling little stories here and I like having good memories of my friends and family so easily accessible to them*

The last three weeks have been mostly about job-hunting, anyway. I've had extrordinarily bad luck when it comes to employment this year and, unfortunately, the last job has not broken the streak. I'm still angry with the whole thing so I'm not going to get into it - you can only rant about the same thing so many times and all my friends have already been subject to my job-related Righteous Indignation. I'm even starting to bore myself and when you're as self-absorbed as I am, that's not an easy thing to do.
Last week was a break for me. The adorable TAFKAM bought me a ticket to fly out and stay a few days with him and I had a wonderful time. We had lots of Good Talks, went to museums and galleries, I helped him make Art, we went drinking with friends, played with a Wii, discovered that we are just as competitive now as we were when we were six, proved that my Wii Fit skills are infinitely superior to his, and visited our favorite cousin. It was a fantastic time. He's offered his apartment to me, should my financial situation not improve soon, and I'm seriously considering it. We get along well, I really like San Francisco, and it would definitely help my personal economic crisis. The thing that keeps me from packing up and shipping out is knowing that in San Francisco, I could never afford to live alone. I love living alone. I love it so much that I'd live alone even if I married. Future Husband will ideally be cool with this.

Back in LA again, I've resumed the hunt for Job, hung out with friends, and last night, attended a Purple Rain party. I'd only been invited the day before and I've never seen the film so instead of dressing like Prince, I wore a purple skirt, black top, tights, heels, and a tiara

Cover of Purple Rain (Two-Disc Special Edition)

. Nothing says 'costume party' like a tiara, I always say. Or, rather, have started saying since last night. My date was a guy I've just started seeing and this was the first time I've met any of his friends (not counting the very drunk rocker dude who happened to be at the same place we were on our first date. Very Drunk Rocker Dude recognized my date while I was in the restroom and, much to my date's dismay, stumbled up to our table for a chat. When I came back to the table, my date was trying to convince him to go away, hissing, I'm on a date. Seriously. I can't talk now. On a date! I liked the VDRD, thought he was funny and, in a strange way, made the date that much more fun.)
Meeting a guys friends for the first time is usually pretty nerve-wracking. Meeting them while they're all dressed as Prince during the Purple Rain era is magical. I had a fantastic time, ate tasty cheese with crackers, and finally got to see something everyone my age seems to have seen a million times. One of the Kids In The Hall was there, too, and because I expect everyone to be my personal performing seal, I was expecting lots of funny stuff from the guy - he's a famous comedian, fercryingoutloud - but he was pretty quiet. Sat in the corner, watched the film with minimal commentary, left with his posse when it was over. Apparently, he saves the good stuff for when the cameras are rolling.

Today, I have no idea what I'm doing. A girl I used to work with that I've barely spoken to in over a year sent me a text message a couple of days ago, asking me to show up at a certain adress at four o'clock today. Wear whatever I want, bring whomever I'd like, and no, she isn't going to tell me what it's all about. Mysterious. I'm fairly certain I won't be kidnapped by white slavers or have my organs removed and sold in the black market but just in case, I've given the address to a few reliable friends. Should they not hear from me by the end of the day, the troops will mobilize.

I'll let you know what happens, assuming, of course, nothing happens to my fingers.

*And me - my feeble brain can only retain so much. It seems six months is about my limit when it comes to Remembering Things. Every now and then, I'll look back over something I've written, say, last year, and be surprised at what I was up to then.

will work for clothes.

2009-06-28T04:24:00.000-07:00

The new job is kind of awesome. It's not what I want to be doing for the rest of my life but it will pay the rent and I'm having a fantastic time while I'm there. Last night, there were three shows, two dance performances and one theater thing, all of them wildly different and all of them amazing. After the final show, and at the end of my shift, I took a picture with terrifying clowns, and another picture with a giant snake around my neck. Both the clowns and the snake were part of the final show.
Tonight, there was a wrap party and because I had an early shift, I was done early and spent the rest of the evening as a guest, schmoozing and dancing. Dancing!
I've had a pretty dismal track record when it comes to employment this past couple of years - I kept stumbling into places that were just awful, awful jobs, working for terrible people. After three of these, I was starting to wonder if maybe the problem was me but nope! Turns out, I was just having a run of really bad luck. It's still pretty early to say (I've only been there a week) but I'm thinking my luck seems to have turned around. I'll be having a fun time with cool people and making decent money while I work on getting my own business off the ground.

In news of the Extremely Shallow, one of my outfits was featured on Weardrobe, a fashion site I joined recently. This is very gratifying. I figured it would take months, maybe years, to be noticed by the style mavens that run the site. As it is, I think I only joined up about a week ago. The site features new clothes every day so I think my picture will only be up there for a few more days before it scrolls right off the page. This means I shall have to continue to wow them with my mad style, so as to be a regular feature. I'm all about winning things. Also, my fashion sense, it is strong.

It's a small world, after all

2009-06-24T05:03:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my last day of unemployment and I woke up not knowing what I'd be doing, but hoping it'd be good. The universe totally delivered.
Parties and clubs are fun and I always have a good time but my favorite thing in the world is spending time with my favorite people, just hanging out at restaurants or in living rooms and laughing and talking for hours. That's my perfect day.
There are lots of people in my world that I enjoy spending time with but there are a few special favorites - five people in particular (and my brother, TAFKAM, who is my very best friend but doesn't count right now because we're related) that I'm much closer to. These five know about each other but a few have never met and none of them are close to any other one.
Today, I'd only planned to see Neil for lunch but because the world is an awesome place, I ended up hanging out with Sooz, Robin, and Talia as well. These are all very busy people who move in different social circles, with me as the only connecting factor so spending time with four out of five of them on the same day? That never happens. Ever.
Except today, I mean. All the stars were lined up and Sooz just happened to be outside when Neil showed up to meet me. Talia happened to be walking past the (favorite) restaurant Neil and I had lunch at. Robin only lives a couple of blocks from the restaurant and always has ice cream so after lunch, Neil and I were knocking at her door, ready for dessert. Because Neil is the most likable guy ON THE PLANET (introducing him to people gets annoyingly predictable because there are never any surprises. Everyone's just going to love him.), he was the perfect bestie to have with me when I was running into all the other besties. Everybody was thrilled to see everybody else and I had an absolutely fantastic day.
I know this isn't very exciting to anyone else - look at me, running into people I know! - but it makes me happy, and it's my blog.

Today, I start training at my latest New Job. I interviewed on Monday and got hired on the spot, which is usually a good sign. These past couple of years have been kind of ridiculous, job-wise. Normally, I get hired someplace and stay there for YEARS but lately? Not so much. This will be the fourth job I've had in two years so I'm hoping it works out better than the last few did. I can't handle all this instability. It makes me nervous.
So shoulders back, head up, smile plastered on, and back into the fray I go.

Winning things is my favorite.

2009-06-19T03:42:00.000-07:00

Image by ipythias via Flickr

It turns out the secret to winning bets while playing pool is to play with someone that isn't very good. I had no idea. Here I was, wasting years of my life trying to hit all the little balls into all the little holes when all I had to do, really, was stand around and wait for my opponent to scratch on the eight-ball.
Last night, a friend of mine and I had a very high-stakes tournament going (the loser cooks a fancy-shmancy dinner for the winner) and I was all serious and aiming and calling and just as I was about to lose (you totally know where this is going), I won. Javier scratched the eight ball. Yay, me! We were playing best three out of five so I went into the next game thinking that I'd totally rock this one, THIS was the game where I'd blow him out of the water and instead, I played even worse than before. And he totally scratched the eight ball. Third game, I didn't even bother. I just sort of walked around the table and tapped haphazardly at striped balls. And then Javier scratched the eight ball. This, as I made sure to inform him repeatedly, made me the winner. I am the winner, Javier is the loser, and the world is a good, good place.
I'm thinking of making a career out of this. If you aren't very good at pool, I will totally play you for money. Call me.
Did I mention that I am a winner? Because I am. I totally win things.

Rock Nerd

2009-06-17T13:42:00.000-07:00

It's been one of those weeks. I keep thinking I should update and then I remember that I've got absolutely nothing to talk about. There hasn't been much going on round these parts, aside from a couple of shows this week and a baby birthday party over the weekend. Hm. So there was some stuff going on. These last couple of days have felt so long that there's no way the weekend was only three days ago.
Let's see... Saturday was a very weirdly rock and roll kind of weekend. Lemme 'splain: One of the kids I babysit has a father, and this father is the frontman of a big rock 'n' roll band. Last Saturday, his parents threw a birthday party for the baby and a whole bunch of their friends/bandmates/fellow rock dudes with wives and small children were there. So I was hanging out with all these rocknrollas, talking about children's television and watching kids trip all over themselves during the mad rush for cake and goodies. It was pretty awesome.
After, I headed to downtown L.A. to see the Battlestar Galactica band (super-nerd!) at the California Plaza. They were playing a free show and since I dig the T.V. series soundtrack, I thought it might be fun to check out. I was expecting a mellow, magical, sort of classical vibe. What I got was mind-blowing military rock. At one point during the show, the composer told the crowd that the next song we'd be hearing was it's live debut. They'd never played it in concert before because, "Well.... I just didn't think it was possible." They launched into it and my head exploded. One of the fiddlers was THISCLOSE to giving himself a heart attack, it was that physically taxing for him to keep up with what was going on all around him on that stage.
Here's a link to the song - Prelude to War
It was an incredible show and I'm so glad I saw it.
I left the plaza on a total music high and promptly got lost. I spent the next twenty minutes wandering through downtown L.A, wondering if I should have made that last right at Hill St. It wasn't too scary, though. Lots of people wandering in and out of clubs, bars and restaurants, lots of valets and doormen to rush to my rescue should anything happen. All the tall buildings were lit up and as I wandered the streets, gawking up at the pretty lights, I nearly fell down the steps of the subway station I'd been looking for. Got home safe and sound.
I forgot what I did Sunday but Monday was pretty great. I spent most of the day hanging out with my neighbors and, that night, went to the Silverlake Lounge to hear a friend of ours play. I'd never heard this particular friend play before and I wasn't sure what to expect. You know how sometimes you have to go and see a friend's band and they aren't very good and then they come up to you afterwards and they're, all, "What did you think?" and you're, like, "Um. I liked that thing you do with your shoe." and they're, like, "What?" and then it's awkward? This wasn't like that at all. Tim was absolutely fantastic. Brilliant musician and a total charmer with the crowd. One of my favorite song introductions: "This next song is kind of a cliché. Everyone writes about Hollywood. This one, though, is from the perspective of a small, drunken Englishman." Tim is absolutely all three of those things. He had a sort of Kentucky hoe-down meets alt rock vibe that I really enjoyed. I'm always surprised when the British peoples play country music.
Anyway, it was a great time and I have a really bad picture.
Tim is the small, drunken Englishman over on the right. Aaron, the guy actually looking (blurrily) at the camera, may be one of the greatest guitar players I have ever seen. I've got to remember to ask Tim about that guy -he's gonna be huge, I tell ya. HUGE.

Fancyland: No children allowed

2009-06-12T18:37:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was surprisingly productive for me. I drove around town submitting applications for most of the day, cleaned up my apartment, met my friend Dan for dinner, made cupcakes, and found the way to Fancyland.You're going to want to head west.

Dan is kind of an amazing guy - we've been friends for nearly twenty years, ever since my freshman year in high school when I fell madly in crush with him and commenced five years of stalking. I finally managed to bully him into dating me in college and we dated for a couple of years before we worked out that we get along much better as friends. Since then, we've drifted in and out of touch, once for nearly six years, but we always manage to reconnect. To me, that's kind of insane. I don't really maintain friendships all that well so it's nuts that someone has managed to stick around for two decades. The only other long-termer, Charles, has been the Best Friend for about eleven years. After that, it's five years or less. My friends are great people, mostly, I just haven't really known them for that long.
Lately, I've been hanging out with another high school friend I've reconnected with through FaceBook and it turns out that this guy, me, and Dan are among the very few who graduated that year (and have accounts on FaceBook) who are unmarried and childless. We like to sit around and talk about how strange it is that nearly all of our classmates are soccer moms, and then celebrate our awesomeness with whiskey.

Dan and I, staying out late because we don't have to worry about paying the babysitter.

Leap of Fail

2009-06-10T13:24:00.000-07:00

Ike's home is a very large birdcage, all wire and lined with newspaper and bedding to protect his paws. The front of the cage has a large door you can pull up to open. There's a way to snap this door into place so that it stays open and that's usually what I do when I lift Ike out of the cage. When we're done hanging out, I lift him through the door and set him down inside. Lately, Ike, instead of waiting for me to place him inside the cage, has taken to jumping from my hands and through the doorway as soon as we get close enough. I'm not too keen on this because a) it startles me every time and 2) he's using his tiny tiny claws to gain purchase on my palms for the leap. Still, what can I do? He's a bunny. He's practicing his bunny skills.
So, just now, I was lifting him towards the cage and, as per usual, Ike performed the Bunny Leap Of Mad Skillz only this time, he totally miscalculated the distance and smashed, head-first, into the wall of the cage just below the door, ending up dazed and confused on the floor with me standing over him, dumbfounded and empty-handed.
He may be the raddest bunny ever but I can't help thinking that he may also be slightly stupid.

Ooops

2009-06-09T12:28:00.000-07:00

Something tells me I haven't been getting enough sleep lately. My first clue was waking up four hours later than I'd intended to. My second clue was when I passed out again, even after realizing I'd already lost four hours and really needed to get up.
I'm typing with a hazy brain and can't really remember why I started typing at all so I'll leave you with my traveling friend and the dudes he's playing with.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Erm... Sorry about that.

2009-06-09T01:37:00.000-07:00

I meant to write a blog post, I really and truly did. First, though, I wanted to dash off a Quick Note to a friend that's far away, just letting him know things were a-okay back here. One thing led to another, the Quick Note turned into a Long and Pointless Ramble, and I've exhausted the part of my brain that I use for writing things.
I'll try again tomorrow.
Bing says goodnight.

Really? Already?

2009-06-06T18:40:00.000-07:00

This is Ike's favorite hang-out spot. He claws his way from my lap to my shoulder every chance he gets. More parrot than rabbit, really.

It turns out that I'm going to have to look for another new job. This last new job isn't working out as well as I'd hoped. I was promised at least four shifts to begin with - I've got two. No bueno. The Hunt For Employment began yesterday and hopefully, I'll have something new by the end of the month. You know, when rent is due.
TAFKAM is flying me out to see him next month. I'm very happy about this. He really is the greatest big brother, like, ever. I was whinging about my money troubles and my relationship woes and just like that, he bought me a ticket for a flight to San Francisco so I could stay with him for a few days. A mini-break with my best bud. Everyone should have a brother like mine.

It has occurred to me that my grandparents both have birthdays right around now and I think I may have missed both of them. Ever since I broke my Palm Pilot, I haven't been able to keep track of people's things and keep getting embarrassed when I find out I've missed a thing. So, Granma and Granpa - because I'm pretty sure that both of your birthdays have passed, I'm sending you my sheepish but heartfelt wishes for a wonderful year and all my love.
Also, once I track down your address, a card.Ike also sends his love.

Art and Steak FTW

2009-06-05T17:52:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Fil and I hit up the LA County Museum of Art. He'd never been and I was all excited about showing him my favorite things in the galleries. There are three pieces, in particular, that make me happy and I couldn't wait to see them again. Sadly for me, two of them are gone now. The Rodin section? Gone. The whole entire thing. Every sculpture in the room was missing and all that was left were a bunch of empty, forlorn pedestals. The super-cool garage thingy in the contemporary art building? Also gone. Annoyingly, I don't know the name of the piece or the artist responsible for it so I can't even look it up. I've been googling descriptions of it but getting no results. I should ask my brother about it. He's a walking, talking Gallery Catalog. He'll know.
I hadn't been to LACMA for years and man, they went nuts while I was gone. It was like visiting a whole new museum. I had a lot of fun exploring the new building and galleries. This thing was pretty cool:
Right? It's like a street lamp forest. I was impressed.
There was some other art, too:
Also cool.

The new stove has finally arrived and in celebration, I'm making a Big Dinner. Very excited about this. Here is my awesome menu: To begin with, a tasty Soccer Mom Dip. I don't know what it's really called but a soccer mom at a BBQ showed me how to make it and it's fabulous. Then, Tasty Salad, followed by Pan Fried Rib Eye Steak with Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Carmelized Carrots. For dessert, Homemade Brownies. I rock at cooking things.

Thunder makes me spacey

2009-06-03T13:37:00.001-07:00

I'm incredibly absent-minded. Like, all the time. I try to play it off and act like it's a sort of charming, ditzy affection but really, I'm just not very good with the old attention span. I will make breakfast and then forget to eat it. Or I'll call someone and as the phone is ringing, suddenly realize that I don't remember who I'm calling, or why. So yesterday, when I left work, I set the alarm but forgot to lock the door. An hour later, I'm getting phone calls from my boss wondering why the police are at her store. Luckily, nothing was robbed. The wind blew the door ajar and set off the alarm.
Strangely, my boss is not angry with me. I suspect it's because she suffers from the same inability to focus that I have. Halfway through the conversation, she got distracted by something and forgot that she was mad at me.

Ike is doing well. I bought a huge birdcage for him, lined it with newspaper and bedding, and that's where he spends his time when I'm away. When I'm here, he runs freely through the apartment. He's adopted me, I think. Every few minutes, wherever the two of us are in the apartment, he'll seek me out and nuzzle up to my ankles for a few minutes before dashing across the floor again, off to seek new things to sniff/chew on. The other super-delightful thing he does is come to me when I call him. He's still so small that occasionally, I overlook him and keep on calling, wondering why he's not coming, assuming he's tunneled his way into The Cranky Neighbor's apartment and is about to be crushed by said Cranky Neighbor. Either that, or he's somehow managed to open the lid of the toilet, fallen in, and drowned. I have a habit of assuming the worst. This is actually a good thing. This means that when the worst does not happen, whatever did happen is always a pleasant surprise, even if it's a bad thing. It couldn't be that bad, you see, because it wasn't the worse thing that I'd already imagined. 'Bad' is always better than 'worst'. Meanwhile, Ike's sniffing at my feet, wondering what all the fuss is about.

There is crazy-scary thunder happening right now. I normally don't mind thunder all that much but knowing that I'm going to have to run errands in a few minutes makes me nervous. Thunder sounds too much like bits of the sky falling. What if something falls on my head? Would I have to change my hairstyle if my head is shaped differently?

Mud Bunnies

2009-05-29T22:36:00.001-07:00

So Ike figured out the jumping thing. I suppose I shouldn't be as surprised as I was, given that he is a rabbit. That sort of thing comes naturally to the species, I think. It's just that he's so small! I thought it would be days, maybe weeks before he could clear a seven inch barrier. I was wrong. A few hours ago, I was lying in bed, sick and feeling sorry for myself when there was an especially loud thump coming from the direction of Ike. Startled, I sat up, turned on the light, and there he was, sprawled out on the floor looking slightly dazed. All of his bones are intact, I checked, but I'm going to have to get a more secure home for him right away. There's no chicken-wire or screens in my apartment (a fact which usually pleases me) so I had to improvise when it came to escape-proofing his current residence. For now, there's a colander upside-down on the tank, weighed down with books. Kind of ghetto, but it works. At least Ike can breathe in there.

I'm missing a mud-wrestling match tonight. My neighbor, Sooz, is one of the wrestlers and I'd been planning for weeks to attend and support but this plague I've got has knocked me out cold. Instead, I lent her my video camera and helped with costuming. Since this is all-girl mud wrestling, we had to assume that there would be wardrobe malfunctions. This meant making sure that all essential lady-parts were covered and secured. The bottom half wasn't a problem - bathing suit bottoms are nearly impossible to tear - but we had to figure out what we were going to do with her nipples, should they decide to make an appearance. The obvious choice is tape - you know, the wide black kind; just make a couple of 'x's and she's ready to go. Unfortunately for us, we have no wide black tape so we used a handful of band-aids, instead. This worked, but the band-aids matched her skin tone exactly and it looked kind of creepy. Inspiration struck. I grabbed the nearest Sharpie and drew big black 'x's on her boobs, over the band-aids. Perfect.
And then it occurred to both of us that she would be mud wrestling. In mud. Thick, sticks to everything, BROWN mud. If her top did get torn, everything from eyebrows to toes would be caked in brown mud anyway. All that effort and brain storming was for nothing. But hey! At least I can say I drew on her chest. We'll always have that little gem of an anecdote.
Sooz is super-excited and I'm kind of sorry that I'm going to miss it. I've never seen mud-wrestling before and while it isn't high on my list of Things To See, I really enjoy my neighbor and it would have been fun to see her having such a blast. At least there will be video.

Cough. Cough. Sniffle.

2009-05-29T12:18:00.001-07:00

I have the plague. It is the sore throat, aching muscles, pounding head, you name it, I'm suffering with it, plague. I blame this entirely on my neighbor. He was snuffly and cranky all last week and yesterday, my throat was suspiciously scratchy. I woke up today feeling like I'd been run over by a truck. In his defense, the neighbor brought over some ibuprofen and made toast for me. He may be the cause of my misery but at least he's trying to help. Unfortunately, the rest of the day is already shot. I'm going to have to lie down,, read some books, drink lots of water, etc., etc., etc. It's a big weekend coming up and I'd like to be well enough to handle it.

Ike the Rabbit seems to be adjusting well. He's in a small aquarium right now, well insulated with paper and hay and stuff. He's got lettuce, carrots and fresh water in there and I'm taking him out and letting him roam when I can watch him. He tried to bust out of the aquarium a few times last night and early this morning - the sounds of paper rustling and frantic paw scrabbling woke me - but until he either grows a couple of inches or learns to jump, the aquarium will hold him. I'm going to buy a proper pen for him next week. He seems pretty happy, though. At least, I think he's happy. It's kind of hard to tell.

My latest BFF

2009-05-28T16:43:00.000-07:00

I have a rabbit. Or, more specifically, a bunny. The local Crazy Cat Lady showed up today with this little boy bunny and made me fall in love with him. Frankly, I'm terrified. I've never had a rabbit and I have no idea what to do with this one. But he is a handsome fellow.
The Explosive Neil just called and when I told him the news, he said, "You know how I feel about rabbits. Didn't you ever see Bunnicula?"

Apparently, that's what I have to look forward to.

Starting all over again

2009-05-28T12:17:00.000-07:00

If you're wondering if this is me, it is. Hello.
I'm leaving LiveJournal for Blogger. It wasn't an easy decision to make. After all, the two of you who actually read this blog (you know who you are!) knew where to find it. Half of you (Hi, Marcelo!) had it scroll up right in your friends list. You didn't even have to try! Now, if you're on LJ and you'd like to know what I've been up to lately, you'll have to come all the way over here to find out. Sorry about that. If it helps any, I can pretty much garuntee you that my life over here will be just as boring as my life over there was.
Honestly, though, Blogger is sort of magical. I don't have to pay a squillion dollars to personalize this thing, change my template or upload photos, and I can add all sorts of cool gadgets to my sidebars. Gadgets, people. Gadgets! Can you blame me for jumping ship?

I'm not going to delete the LiveJournal account - at least, not now - so if anyone is really that curious, or wants to stalk me, the last five years of my Very Boring Life are posted there. Same username. Knock yourself out.