We're gonna sail through the night sky like a pair of bottle rockets! Wednesday, July 9, 2008

So maybe we had another big old weekend love-in at our apartment for 4th of July. Whatever, these things happen.

This 4th was my first experience with home projectile fireworks. They're pretty cool, turns out. I didn't really understand what all the fuss was about when Rob was buying a small fortune's worth. Now I do. They're big and shiny and go BOOM. That's a good enough reason. On top of home projectile fireworks, we also live in the town that hosts the biggest 4th of July fireworks display west of the Mississippi, and that's pretty cool, too.

Me, Anny and Kate on the bus to the fireworks.

Bored, waiting for the fireworks to start, Anny and Kate decided to play airplane.

WE MADE THAT HAPPEN. ZOMG.

Sweet people Saturday morning.

I did a few haircuts on Saturday. This is Rob's (with a Lizzy).

Zoe's pink Mohawk I made.

Stephen is actually Harry Potter. No joke.

Pretty sparkly things.

Tonight we're going to see Hapa at the zoo, tomorrow we're going down to Corvallis, and then up to Seattle on Saturday to see Eddie Izzard!

Friends Saturday, June 28, 2008

The last several weeks I have been spending an inordinate amount of time with con friends, etc. And it's only going to continue throughout the rest of July, and I'm sure the rest of the summer. I choose to illustrate this through photojournalism!

First of all, Laura graducated on June 13th - Yaaay Laura!

Saturday morning after Laura's graduation we drove up to Seattle to play in Dev's ballpit, picking up Steve and Zoe in Portland. Most people had been there Friday night, so by the time we got there Saturday afternoon, everyone had left to do their own thing. Things picked up pretty quickly, though.

Hee hee. Poopa.

Kate and Dev, proud ballbit owners.

Okay so maybe we sorted the balls.

Miriam and James

Nooooo!
Lazy Sunday.

The next weekend we drove up to Port Townsend to hang out at Rob's parents' house. Kate and Dev and PJ decided to join, just because Port Townsend is that special.

Family portrait?

Kate was seriously ready for breakfast.

Swinging!

Silly, sweet happy people rolling down the hill at the park

Kate found a friend on the beach.

Spider Monkey?

Rob and Kate at the Fort (we were there for a benefit for The Boiler Room, a volunteer led coffee shop in PT that does something amazing for the youth and young adult community - gives them a space to hang out, make art and get work experience. I wish Corvallis had something like that!)

On our way back to Vancouver we stopped on the reservation to pick up fireworks.

Eat your heart out, Oregon! These bitches aren't illegal in Washington!

On Wednesday night of this last week, Rob and I and Steve and Zoe went to McMennamin's for dinner, and then Oaks Park, a crappy amusement park in Portland with about 15 rides (but fairly cheap ride bracelets and no lines on a Wednesday night... so who's complaining?)

On the Scrambler

Suuuper creepy

The slide I refused to go down, because I didn't want to recreate the alpine slide incident... Notice Zoe's posture, and the name of the slide itself. "Big Pink - the ham flavored gum that pinkens your teeth while you chew!" - Futurama.

Zoe and Steve on the tiny train

And now it's the weekend and almost July! And Summer's finally starting! And I got my bike fixed up yesterday! I put road tires on my mountain bike, which was way less of a hassle than selling my mountain bike and buying a used road bike. For serious.

Bumbershoot Thursday, June 26, 2008

Holy crapola, Francesca Lia Block (favorite author in high school) AND Sherman Alexie (favorite author introduced to me in college) are speaking at Bumbershoot. Now I'm basically required to go.

Also summer classes are ending tomorrow and I dyed my hair normal-ish. Maybe now I'll start getting call-backs after interviews. Sigh.

Adventures of the Pedo-grill Friday, June 13, 2008

A few weeks ago our sketchy next door neighbors moved out in a big hurry. Two days later the sheriff's department came by in the morning and asked if we knew the whereabouts of the sketchy husband. Turns out he was wanted in the state of Oregon for his penchant for 12-14 year old girls. Gross. We'd all been friendly with them. The husband fixed Rob's speakers, and we gave him and his wife a table we didn't want. We always said hi when we ran into them. Now it turns out they're seriously sketchy.

In their haste to move out, they left a small shelf beside their door that they'd kept an ashtray on. On one of the lower shelves was a small (maybe 1.5' by 1.5') cheap propane grill. I decided that because of the emotional distress they'd placed on us, I was going to take the grill for myself. Whatever, they were long gone to Colorado by that point.

The grill was nasty. Like, used once a week for a couple years and never cleaned nasty. Used to cook lots of fatty meat nasty. I stuck it on our back porch and promised I'd clean it soon, and once I did we'd have grilled asparagus. But then it sat back there for a couple weeks. Last Sunday I decided it was finally time to clean it. It took me over 2 hours, 2 Scotchbrite pads, and about 8-10 paper towels. I had the sick feeling while I was cleaning it that maybe after all this disgusting travail, it wasn't even going to work.

We'd been planning on having salad and spaghetti for dinner, but after all that we were going to use the goddamn grill. After a quick trip to Freddie's for hot dogs, buns and propane, we were ready.

And oh happy day, the grill worked!

The fruits of my labor:




This weekend it's off to Seattle to play in Dev's ballpit and hang out with UUs... hooray! <3

Brought to you by Morning Edition Wednesday, June 4, 2008

I was truly inspired by the story of Amber Alibhai on Morning Edition today. Check her out, she's doing some pretty amazing things.

Life is good. We're going to the Rose Festival this weekend! And to Corvallis/Seattle the weekend after that! And Port Townsend the weekend after that! And it's worth mentioning that I only have 3 and a half weeks of class left. I'm a little sad, since I'm really loving my classes, but with a gallon of gas at $4.059 in the cheapest gas station in Hazel Dell (along with your standard environmentalist wish to drive less), I'm going to be really pleased to not be commuting a total of almost 38 miles daily.

Good News! (Election Coverage, etc) Tuesday, June 3, 2008

• Dick Cheney is really dumb
• Goats on a TriMet!
• McCain's speech in Kenner, Louisiana (currently being viewed) is a whole lot of negative, anti-Obama, 'vote for me, I'm not Bush' bs and it makes me sad.
• We're having potatoes, chicken and asparagus for dinner.
• Obama made the democratic nomination!

Life is pretty exciting, huh?

Confessions of a futon-revolutionist. Saturday, May 31, 2008

...somewhere love and justice shine.
Cynicism falls asleep.
Tyranny talks to itself.
Sappy slogans all come true.
We forget to feed our fear.
--The Weakerthans


There is a new link on the left, titled "I make stuff". Go there. It is a gallery that will be routinely updated with stuff I make. Hair timeline has also been updated to show new color.

There was a really amazing storm prequel last Sunday night and I took bajillions of pictures. These two are the best, I think. The second one looks tiny, but really you should click on it. That's my apartment complex, as viewed from our balcony. I put the pictures all together in Canon PhotoStitch

I was sick last weekend (still am, actually) so instead of doing anything cool for the holiday weekend, we stayed home, watched movies, made jell-o, played cards and got bored. It was fun.

Devon is moving back to San Fransisco so we had our very last Sushi Takahashi date for the time being. I will miss you, schmev.

Tonight we're having a grad party for me and Rachelle. I also have to write a 4 to 6 page paper about Citizen Kane, and do some Abstract Algebra. All before Tuesday. Oh, I can totally do that.

Addicted. Thursday, May 22, 2008

I am hopelessly addicted to NPR. I don't even see the point of music radio right now.

I added a link to listen to OPB (Oregon Public Broadcasting, affiliated with National Public Radio) news live. DO IT. It's changing my life as we speak!


Summer classes are a little lame, since I'm really just ready to be done... at least they're interesting. Abstract Algebra is coming relatively easy for now, since I've already taken it once before. I even understood the section we're on right now! But soon we'll head into uncharted territory and it will get harder. Film is also cool... hanging out in a windowless room with several other students trying to pick up extra credits with a minimal amount of work for 3 hours a day, 3 days a week is pretty awesome. At least Orson Welles was a bad-ass. Pushing buttons, drinking too much, living larger than life... I had no idea! I'm a week in, so only 5 more to go.

Living in Vancouver is fantastic... it kind of just feels like a long slumber party at the moment.

I still need to post pictures of all of the fantastic things I've been making... another post containing pictures will be forthcoming.

Now it's time to play with rings! The mathematical kind...

The Beanery isn't that great when it's not full of people you know. Saturday, May 17, 2008

When did Corvallis start sucking so hard?

Oh yeah. When the last of my friends left for college and moved away and now when I go to the Beanery on a given Saturday night, I'm surrounded by old people. Woo! I keep thinking to myself "Oh but what about Nicole, she's usually arou... oh wait, she lives in Seattle. How about Tristan he's usually oh wait he lives in Eug. Eva? Probably still at school. The list just keeps going. I guess I usually keep myself entertained by hanging out with Micaela when I'm here, but she doesn't get back from NY until tomorrow. Sigh. Lame boredom. If it weren't for Laura, I'd probably just shrivel up from lack of social stimulation.

Haha, I sound like a whiney teenager. No really, it's not that bad here, and it's not like the city itself isn't still wonderful, I'm just used to having a Rob or a PJ or a Lizzie/y or whatever around. I've basically just been hanging out with family and playing with my new brother. Brother brand sewing machine, that is. I've been altering bunches of t-shirts, and made a tutu yesterday out of some tulle I found on sale at JoAnn's. Whee sewing machine!

Also, in case you weren't aware I kind of graduated a week ago tomorrow.

Sad in the math department during finals.

College graduate-ish with parentals.

Giggles with the nieceling. The yellow sash is a Möbius strip, made by me for 5 of us math majors. The other ribbons are for the Hungarian flag.

The whole family outside Old Spaghetti Factory! This includes parents, step parents, siblings from both sides (including those of the step and in law variety), a couple nieces and a boyfriend.

Lizzie and I toasting our achievements by the flagpole with a warm bottle of cheap champagne.

In other news, I am an adult. I have an apartment, roommates, responsibilities and job interviews. Suck on that! Now I'm going to go home and put on my tutu.

Less than a week now. Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Things are finally blooming!

The final a capella concert was a rollicking success - there will be YouTube links up someday, I promise. I miss SLiD already. Tonight and Sunday night both felt long and like something was missing.

I have one final tomorrow (I guess today, it's after midnight), and two on Thursday... and then graduation on Sunday. Today was my last shift at IT and I didn't even realize it until I was almost out the door. Sad news.


I've been re-reading Still Life With Woodpecker and I have two observations: (1) Tom Robbins is a genius and (2) Tom Robbins is totally on crack.

I need to start listening to music again.