This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Both of Me

I am no longer a current Westmonter. I am no longer a Santa Barbara resident. Holy crap. I am also not yet a Seattle resident. After much cursing and sweating I finished packing my car and drove to Sacramento on Tuesday. It was a long drive after a long day and I was not in a good mood for the majority of the ride. However, singing along with musicals on the way home helped me calm down and become somewhat more pleasant to be around. Since then I've been hanging out with the fam, watching TV and reading (oh, Jane Eyre, so good).

Internally I'm pretty sure that I'll be returning to Santa Barbara as soon as this family visit is over because that's the way it's ALWAYS been done. And by "always" I mean for the past six years. It's hard to believe that this time is different, that this time instead of heading south I'll be heading north. Ack!

Otherwise, nothing much exciting. Just the utter overhaul of my life. How's your summer?

If you need a break, I suggest you watch this: www.drhorrible.com You're welcome.

Putting the "Pro" in Procrastination

So I'm done with my job on July 3rd. Approximately 2 1/2 weeks to go. I have a lot to do to get the office ready for whoever is next and I've done....about none of it. I started a secretary manual several months ago, but haven't worked on it in a long time. But at least this one will be USEFUL, not like the mystery book I found when I arrived: "You will have to organize private lessons." That's nice...HOW? Like a fortune cookie wrote the damn thing. Instead of organizing the files in the drawers I've been letting stuff pile up on my desk. It's hard to motivate yourself to work when no one is in the office all day to keep you accountable. Unfortunately shame is one of my major motivators in life, so if there's no one around to shame me, I'll sit around and read all day (hey, at least I'm literate).

As far as getting out of my apartment I haven't even gotten boxes yet. Which reminds me, I should go recycling dumpster diving this afternoon...Fortunately I only have one room of stuff to pack, not a whole house, so I'll probably be okay. I'm not leaving until July 14th so I have plenty of time...watch me not put it to good use.

I'm having some people over to play games this weekend--I love game night. I'm awesomely nerdy. Of course, I need to go buy at least one game since I currently only own Boggle. However, I fully intend to make people play Pictionary Dictionary (or Telephone Pictionary if you want to call it by the "real" name), a game handed down directly from Mount Olympus. I also intend to make cupcakes.

On another unrelated note, I took my sister to Disneyland for her birthday and we ate at the Blue Bayou, the restaurant inside Pirates of the Caribbean, and the food was excellent. Particularly what I called "Meat Dessert" which they call their Molasass-brined Pork Chops. It was perhaps the most delicious thing I have ever tasted. If you want a life changing taste experience, I highly recommend Meat Dessert.

Book Lust. I Haz It.

Now that it's summer, I can't get away from the feeling that summer is for fun, not for work. Years as a student taught me that is the case. Even if you have a summer job it somehow seems like you have way more time to loaf about with the entertainment of your choice. I find myself actually angry that I have to go to work because it means I can't just plonk myself down in the sun with my book and read for hours (it's so very unsatisfying to read for less than 20 minute stretches...)

Is book lust a deadly sin? Probably in that I'm sure it must be related to greed. That's right, my biggest vice is books. I can't walk away. I can't say no to their smooth covers; their clean pages; that wonderful book smell; the physical feel of a paperback that's soft, but not so floppy that it becomes unwieldy; the hardback with a perfectly neat dust jacket that you can use as a bookmark and the somehow fabulous feeling of holding open a book you're 2/3 of the way through. I have books I bought 2 years ago and still haven't read--not because I don't want to, but because I can't indiscriminately read. I find it very difficult to enjoy a book if I'm not in the mood for it, no matter how good it may be. There are books I have started three times and could never finish, but finally the day came and I read them through and they were BEAUTIFUL (yeah, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close!) And now my book lust continues as When You Are Engulfed in Flames, David Sedaris' new book, arrives on shelves. Technically it came out yesterday, but I was prostrate with illness all day or I most certainly would have gone to Borders immediately. I can't say no to books. I DEFINITELY cannot say no to David Sedaris. He touches my soul.


In honor of my book lust, here are several that you should read in order to become a better person (by my standards, anyway):


Me Talk Pretty One Day and Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim both by Sedaris. Everything he writes is gold, but these are my favorites. 24k gold, one might say. Perhaps, white gold?


Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. If you like random pictures, inventions, tambourines and wonder constantly why beds aren't made with a space for your arm when you're lying on your side, you'll like this one.


How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? by Jane Yolen. One of the best etiquette books for children ever written.


I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean! by Kevin Sherry. Giant squid learns a lesson in humility.


Cowboy & Octopus by Jon Sciezka. Cowboy. Octopus. 'Nuff said.

The Stand. I just love Stephen King. There is no cure. If I survive a global epidemic, I hope I meet Stu Redman. I'm on his team.

There are more. Many more. But start with those. Let me know when you're done.

Okay People

I'm just sad tonight, and tired. Various reasons, but I ended up driving aimlessly for about an hour (sorry gas, sorry bank account). Driving keeps me from thinking. I put on music and just stare at the road. All I have to do is focus on keeping the car in the lane and I can stop my brain from working on other issues. I wish I didn't have anything to do tomorrow, I was sorely tempted to drive until I could drive no more and just stay in a hotel somewhere. In a way, it wouldn't have felt so bad if I could have just called someone up and said, "Can I come over for a while?" But I feel like I don't have anyone like that here anymore. I have friends here, don't get me wrong, but different kinds of friends. You know how you have friends for different occasions? Friends you go to dinner with, friends you're silly with, friends you see certain movies with, drink with, go to church with, are angry with. Or maybe you don't. Maybe I'm just weird, but there are only certain people I want to see in certain situations. The most rare to me are the people I can be sad with. I don't necessarily mean to weep to and spill my guts, though that's part of it. I mean people I can just sit with and it's okay if I don't want to talk and it's okay if I do; people who make me feel okay, people I can not think around, who can be the human equivilant of driving; people who can make me smile; people who don't try to make every minute together be about SOMETHING, be full of activity--they don't mind if I come over just so I can not be at home, they'll keep doing their own thing while giving me someplace to be. I LOVE home, I love being home, I always have. But it's also the place where you hide in your room in the dark, sleep too long, eat too much and wallow in sadness. Sometimes going home just feels like giving up. Tonight was one of those nights. But here I am. Where are my Okay People? I have them, they exist, but they're not here anymore. I hate talking on the phone, it would only make me feel worse. I could write to them, but it would only be a minor relief. I need to be with them physically. I wish I had them back.

IIIIIII Am the Chaaaaaampion....OF THE WOOOORLD!

I have just completed what is perhaps my greatest contribution to the art world yet. What started out as a simple "bon voyage" card to a friend who is headed off to China became a comic strip wherein Mike Mignola's Amazing Screw-On Head fights the zombie of Chairman Mao. I am an artistic and comic genius. Rarely do I impress myself, normally I loath everything I create, but today I set my self-deprecation aside to say "I frickin ROCK."

And if you haven't seen "The Amazing Screw-On Head" you need to go find a copy of the DVD as well as of the comic book. They are profoundly absurd and profoundly life-changing. It's my new test of friendship. If you don't like it, I may just have to sever ties...

WTF, Blog site?

Um, I feel like when you format something it should remain the same when you post it. Not add 50,000 extra spaces.

Do You Want Me To Go Mom Them?

I have returned from choir tour. I have survived choir tour. Well, technically I returned from choir tour on Friday but I'm fighting mental jet lag. I'm done being physically tired (and very close to being sick...NOOOOOO!) but my brain still doesn't know how to think (to those of you who wittily added, "Does it ever?" I say, "Shut up.")

So last year tour was, probably, the worst 10 consecutive days of my life. I was scared out of my mind having it be my first tour planned top to bottom, not knowing what to do while on it, problem solving, every time I ran into a problem I felt horrible (since I hate myself, y'know), I was stressed and freaked out and didn't get much comfort from the fact that I was being ignored by my then boyfriend, it was an all around thrill ride.

This year the tour company did most of the planning, I just went along for the ride and to do random stuff that came up. We were in California for two days. It was fine, nothing special. And then it was time to fly to Guatemala. Guatemala City was....I don't know. It was fine as cities go, there were stores and restaurants and people and hotels and such, but it was so dirty. So much dirt and exhaust in the air, Jessie was basically allergic to the town. We went to the city of Antigua and I loved it:

There was practiacally a church on every block and they were wonderful. Then on to Costa Rica. We were in San Jose, Monteverde, Arenal, heck I can't even remember. I went horseback riding, swam in a waterfall (well, the little pond under the waterfall), went hiking, ziplining, so many things...

I SWAM HERE!

GIANT PLANTS!

The hotels in Monteverde and Arenal were awesome, we went swimming in a pool that had a swim up bar with underwater stools, we did a synchronized swimming routine (that's right!), I went to Mass and got kissed on the cheek by an old man, and I actually remembered to do sketches while I was there (good art major, good girl!). I petted fuzzy catapillars, saw Quetzals and tiny toucans, chased moths out of my room and saw monkeys on the side of the road.

I'd give tour a thumbs up.

That picture was on a wall in Costa Rica. It has nothing to do with anything except hilarity.