Friday, April 29, 2011
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
artsy
Today has been a day of STRESS.
But that's boring, so instead I will beguile you with my arts and crafts.
One thing that I love to do is make charms. I make little creatures/pokemon/items/video game characters/etc. out of clay, bake them, and then paint them with acrylics. I finished painting a little deer and an Eevee a few nights ago (though I haven't glazed them yet).
The little deer
Eevee!
I also have a Pikachu in the works, though yellow is a bitch to work with for some reason. So that awaits a night when I don't have finals, papers, or bird phylogenies to worry about.
You can purchase my charms (or look at other charms I've made) here!
I also painted a picture months ago that I was going to post, but I forgot to take a picture of it. It's of a desert sunset with a cloth owl sitting on top of a cactus silhouette. I like the effect of the cloth on the painting, but the owl I made looks sort of...ugly. So I'm going to try to fix it at some point as well.
The last sort of artsy thing I've done in awhile is draw this picture
It's mini Otter as a pokemon trainer with her shiny vulpix. Have I mentioned that I'm a huge pokemon nerd?
As long as we are talking about ART, let me bring this up.
http://www.arthousecoop.com/
ART HOUSEEEE.
There are two major projects that Art House does, "A Million Little Pictures" and "The Sketchbook Project". The former is a cool program where you sign up with a theme and they send you a custom tailored disposable camera to take 24 pictures that go along with the theme you chose. You then send back the camera and Art House takes everyone's pictures and tours the country with them in a giant photomobile. Cool right? The Sketchbook Project is similar in that they send you a sketchbook and you have to fill out the entire thing according to the theme you chose. Then you send it back and they tour the country with that in a giant library and then the sketchbooks remain at an art library forever more, so anyone could pick up your sketchbook and check it out at any point! One of my 101 in 1001 days is to enter an art show, and this is how I want to do it. I'm going to sign up for The Sketchbook Project as soon as I'm back from field work :)
As an ending to my post
But that's boring, so instead I will beguile you with my arts and crafts.
One thing that I love to do is make charms. I make little creatures/pokemon/items/video game characters/etc. out of clay, bake them, and then paint them with acrylics. I finished painting a little deer and an Eevee a few nights ago (though I haven't glazed them yet).
The little deer
Eevee!
I also have a Pikachu in the works, though yellow is a bitch to work with for some reason. So that awaits a night when I don't have finals, papers, or bird phylogenies to worry about.
You can purchase my charms (or look at other charms I've made) here!
I also painted a picture months ago that I was going to post, but I forgot to take a picture of it. It's of a desert sunset with a cloth owl sitting on top of a cactus silhouette. I like the effect of the cloth on the painting, but the owl I made looks sort of...ugly. So I'm going to try to fix it at some point as well.
The last sort of artsy thing I've done in awhile is draw this picture
It's mini Otter as a pokemon trainer with her shiny vulpix. Have I mentioned that I'm a huge pokemon nerd?
As long as we are talking about ART, let me bring this up.
http://www.arthousecoop.com/
ART HOUSEEEE.
There are two major projects that Art House does, "A Million Little Pictures" and "The Sketchbook Project". The former is a cool program where you sign up with a theme and they send you a custom tailored disposable camera to take 24 pictures that go along with the theme you chose. You then send back the camera and Art House takes everyone's pictures and tours the country with them in a giant photomobile. Cool right? The Sketchbook Project is similar in that they send you a sketchbook and you have to fill out the entire thing according to the theme you chose. Then you send it back and they tour the country with that in a giant library and then the sketchbooks remain at an art library forever more, so anyone could pick up your sketchbook and check it out at any point! One of my 101 in 1001 days is to enter an art show, and this is how I want to do it. I'm going to sign up for The Sketchbook Project as soon as I'm back from field work :)
As an ending to my post
Thursday, April 21, 2011
thinking thursday
Alliteration is one of my favorite things on the planet.
Another thing I'm a fan of is answering questions! Especially weird or thoughtful questions. Another word for this is talking about myself in the form of a survey. I found these when I was cleaning out my documents folder this weekend (which is so much cleaner and organized, by the way) so I'm not sure where it came from, but I'm pretty sure I stole it from my friend's sister's livejournal or something years ago. Pretend this is a form of Wednesday Hodge-Podge (which my aunt is a fan of), except that it's Thursday and no one cares what my answer are going to be.
1. What's your weirdest skill?
I can touch my nose with my tongue. Next question.
2. We all know the Muppets are awesome. But who is the BEST Muppet of all?
Obviously the best Muppet is Beaker. We have much in common: we're scientists, we're spastic, and everything around us goes terribly wrong and we end up with smoking craters where our heads used to be.
3. What's your favorite word?
Juicy! The word itself is a form of onomatopoeia for me because I feel like the word juicy feels juicy in your mouth when you say it. I like it because it describes a lot of things I like, such as melons and books and the ocean.
4. New music is nice, but what's a classic song for you?
Classic means classic rock to me because I'm not nearly classy enough to truly enjoy classical music and realize who is the artist, when it was composed, the subtle nuances of flavor in the song etc. There's a coffee shop that I used to frequent before I discovered Battlestar Nostalgica that plays classical music nonstop. At first it's pleasant and you enjoy the scales of piano and dramatic undertones of the symphony. Then it starts to tear at that dark place in your brain (or maybe just in my brain) that sort of wishes that the classical music would stop or else someone might be getting shanked soon. Then this dark place is torn open by the notes and it spreads across your brain, infected everything with the thought that CLASSICAL MUSIC MEANS EVERYONE MUST DIE.
To answer the question, my favorite classic song would be Hey Bulldog by The Beatles
5. If you had a daemon like in His Dark Materials, what form would it take?
An owltter. An owl/otter hybrid. I'll draw a picture of one tonight so that everyone may know what this is.
6. What's the most frustrating video game minigame you've ever played?
There was this one secret level in Super Mario Sunshine where you had to go down a slide and collect all eight red coins in order to gain a shine sprite. Well that would have been all fine and dandy if the slide had not been IN MIDAIR IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SKY GOD KNOWS WHERE. So I died. A lot. And never did get the shine sprite, which meant that I always got the shitty ending to that game.
7. Be honest, even on these hard-hitters: favorite kind of sandwich?
Salami and provolone with or without tomato. Also Village Inn's grown-up grilled cheese, which I never EVER get sick of eating.
8. What was favorite book when you were in second grade?
The Music of the Dolphins. I thought it was amazing and was so jealous, considering I would have given anything to live at sea with a pod of dolphins when I was in second grade.
And still now, honestly.
9. On the subject of second grade ... what was your biggest childhood fear?
Natural disasters. Every night I prayed that I would survive until morning because I was absolutely sure that torrents of earthquakes, housefires, and asteroids were just waiting until darkness fell to strike my house.
10. Who is a book character you'd just like to punch?
I have no idea. I literally cannot think of an answer to this question. Everyone.
11. Do you have a favorite old beaten-down item of clothing?
I have a jacket that I wore every day in high school. It definitely needs to be trashed because the sleeves are coming un-sewed, are covered in paint, and the jacket body itself is too short for me. But it's just so cuuuute.
12. Have you ever studied another language? If yes, which one--and why did you pick that one? If not, which one would you learn and why?
I studied Spanish in jr. high and high school because it was required to graduate. I actually really liked spanish and I picked it because my mom was fluent in spanish and I wanted to converse with her in the grocery store (which we did a lot, mostly in the fruit section). I also assumed that in my life I was more likely to visit spanish speaking countries since that's where a lot of the rainforests are.
13. Is there something everyone else likes that you hate?
I wouldn't say I hate something that everyone else loves. I don't think Modern Family is as funny as other shows like The Office and 30 Rock (but I still like the show and DO think it's funny). I also don't think cruises are as fun as actually going somewhere and being able to explore, etc.
14. Where's the coolest place you've ever traveled?
Jamaica, where we hiked a river, floated down another river, and drank Red Stripe that was 12% alcohol (rather than the 5% it is in Utah). Livin' the dangerous life.
15. On the subject of difficult fruit, which pays off more: pomegranate, pineapple, or a surprise contender?
Not pineapple, considering I am allergic to it (and dislike it immensely). Honestly though, the payoff from a pomegranate sucks. But I would rather gather those seeds and enjoy eating them rather than core and skin a pineapple that somebody else is going to eat.
16. What is the absolute silliest thing on your iPod/in your music library right now?
Disney songs, Pokemon theme song, Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog, a shit ton of Glee. Pretty much everything in my Itunes library is ridiculous.
17. Do you have any personal superstitions, rituals, or rules that, when not followed, make you nervous?
I knock on wood whenever I say that something is going to happen to me. I'm afraid it really will happen to me if I either don't knock on wood or knock on a wood substitute (everything is plastic around here).
18. Would you rather be a juggler or a contortionist?
Juggler!
19. Do you sing in the shower? If so, what do you sing?
Yes and Disney songs. Mostly either the love ballads or those, "who am I?" types of songs the female leads sing. Maybe I should add some more upbeat songs to my repertoire though, it might be entertaining to sing "One Jump Ahead".
20. Have you made anything you are exceptionally proud of?
I love all of my charms that I make! My favorite charm I ever made was a Flaaffy charm though, that I hung on my gameboy until it broke :( Now it's just an adorable little figurine.
I made it when I was fifteen and then submitted it to DeviantArt, which is why there's a pepto-bismal colored banner surrounding the picture and the picture itself is blurry/not well lit. I really love that charm though.
21. Indiana Jones or Star Wars?
DON'T MAKE ME FUCKING CHOOSE.
Though honestly? ... ... ... Indiana.
22. If you had to do one of these for two hours, which would you choose: watch a 50's B-movie or read a bodice-ripping romance?
50's B-movie! 50's B-movie! MST3K that shit!
23. What skill do you have that surprises people?
I can draw any pokemon that you tell me to draw from memory. It's a nifty party trick I discovered when my friends and I were at a restaurant with a paper tablecloth and crayons. I drew 52 pokemon on that tablecloth.
24. Is there anything you like that it seems nobody else likes?
While we're on the subject, pokemon! Just kidding, other people do like pokemon. Though it seems like no one is actually as huge of a pokemon nerd as I am. It's more like, "Yeah, I pulled out my old red game and played for awhile" instead of "I SPENT TEN HOURS YESTERDAY TRAINING MY POKEMON WHITE TEAM AND I'M TRYING TO FIND A SHINY VENIPEDE". Just kidding, there are people like that too, I'm just not friends with any of them. Sad :(
For realsies though, I really like those new Toms boots that have a shoe base and then gauze you wrap up around your leg. I think they're really cute.
25. Tell me about your all-time favorite shirt.
Right now it's my purple shirts that has Finn and Jake on it from Adventure Time and it says, "Let's do the science dance!" Get it? Because I am both adventurer and SCIENTIST!
26. What was your favorite TV show when you were small?
Ghostwriters. Which was apparently a lot more interesting when I just made up the entire plot line, because the actual premise is...dull.
27. Polka dots or plaid?
Polka dots!
28. It's been a long, crazy, busy day, but now you're home and you're tired and hungry. Do you sleep first, or eat first?
Eat duh. Eat and drink caffeine and then you're set to watch internet TV until you fall asleep!
29. Who is your favorite comedian?
Eddie Izzard
30. After experiencing civilization, Tarzan, King of the Apes, has decided to stick around in the jungle, but has asked you what you think is the one thing from "civilization" he should take back with him. What do you say?
Laptop. But then he'd have no internet so nevermind.
31. What's your favorite kind of climate?
Warm. Heat. HEAT. And not humid. HEAT PLUS DRY. So desert. But with an ocean nearby.
32. They called you mad, but you'll show them all! If you were a mad scientist, what would your experiments be about?
SEWING THREE PEOPLE TOGETHER! ...wait.
33. Do you talk during movies?
It's all I do. I literally talk from start to finish during a movie because I cannot NOT make commentary on what's happening, or what I like about the movie, or what I dislike about the movie, or how stupid the main character is, or how amazingly terrible everything about the movie is, or how amazingly funny it is, etc. People either love it or they hate it. Or I pretend they love it and really they just tolerate me.
34. Who is your favorite cartoon character?
All of them. Just kidding, probably Finn and Jake, Invader Zim, Flapjack, and Sideshow Bob. I love cartoons so much.
35. Tell me about your favorite TV show.
MY FAVORITE TV SHOW hmmmmm. Can I just tell you a list of my favorite TV shows? Because I love TV. Even though I rarely watch it. I love Firefly, Adventure Time, 30 Rock, The Office, The IT Crowd, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, GLEE, Futurama, The Simpsons, South Park, and Invader Zim. Probably more. I'll stop here though.
Stay tuned for pictures of an owltter, pictures of charms I am working on currently, and perhaps a story about my Biourp symposium and how I found my soulmate (just kidding).
Another thing I'm a fan of is answering questions! Especially weird or thoughtful questions. Another word for this is talking about myself in the form of a survey. I found these when I was cleaning out my documents folder this weekend (which is so much cleaner and organized, by the way) so I'm not sure where it came from, but I'm pretty sure I stole it from my friend's sister's livejournal or something years ago. Pretend this is a form of Wednesday Hodge-Podge (which my aunt is a fan of), except that it's Thursday and no one cares what my answer are going to be.
1. What's your weirdest skill?
I can touch my nose with my tongue. Next question.
2. We all know the Muppets are awesome. But who is the BEST Muppet of all?
Obviously the best Muppet is Beaker. We have much in common: we're scientists, we're spastic, and everything around us goes terribly wrong and we end up with smoking craters where our heads used to be.
3. What's your favorite word?
Juicy! The word itself is a form of onomatopoeia for me because I feel like the word juicy feels juicy in your mouth when you say it. I like it because it describes a lot of things I like, such as melons and books and the ocean.
4. New music is nice, but what's a classic song for you?
Classic means classic rock to me because I'm not nearly classy enough to truly enjoy classical music and realize who is the artist, when it was composed, the subtle nuances of flavor in the song etc. There's a coffee shop that I used to frequent before I discovered Battlestar Nostalgica that plays classical music nonstop. At first it's pleasant and you enjoy the scales of piano and dramatic undertones of the symphony. Then it starts to tear at that dark place in your brain (or maybe just in my brain) that sort of wishes that the classical music would stop or else someone might be getting shanked soon. Then this dark place is torn open by the notes and it spreads across your brain, infected everything with the thought that CLASSICAL MUSIC MEANS EVERYONE MUST DIE.
To answer the question, my favorite classic song would be Hey Bulldog by The Beatles
5. If you had a daemon like in His Dark Materials, what form would it take?
An owltter. An owl/otter hybrid. I'll draw a picture of one tonight so that everyone may know what this is.
6. What's the most frustrating video game minigame you've ever played?
There was this one secret level in Super Mario Sunshine where you had to go down a slide and collect all eight red coins in order to gain a shine sprite. Well that would have been all fine and dandy if the slide had not been IN MIDAIR IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SKY GOD KNOWS WHERE. So I died. A lot. And never did get the shine sprite, which meant that I always got the shitty ending to that game.
7. Be honest, even on these hard-hitters: favorite kind of sandwich?
Salami and provolone with or without tomato. Also Village Inn's grown-up grilled cheese, which I never EVER get sick of eating.
8. What was favorite book when you were in second grade?
The Music of the Dolphins. I thought it was amazing and was so jealous, considering I would have given anything to live at sea with a pod of dolphins when I was in second grade.
And still now, honestly.
9. On the subject of second grade ... what was your biggest childhood fear?
Natural disasters. Every night I prayed that I would survive until morning because I was absolutely sure that torrents of earthquakes, housefires, and asteroids were just waiting until darkness fell to strike my house.
10. Who is a book character you'd just like to punch?
I have no idea. I literally cannot think of an answer to this question. Everyone.
11. Do you have a favorite old beaten-down item of clothing?
I have a jacket that I wore every day in high school. It definitely needs to be trashed because the sleeves are coming un-sewed, are covered in paint, and the jacket body itself is too short for me. But it's just so cuuuute.
12. Have you ever studied another language? If yes, which one--and why did you pick that one? If not, which one would you learn and why?
I studied Spanish in jr. high and high school because it was required to graduate. I actually really liked spanish and I picked it because my mom was fluent in spanish and I wanted to converse with her in the grocery store (which we did a lot, mostly in the fruit section). I also assumed that in my life I was more likely to visit spanish speaking countries since that's where a lot of the rainforests are.
13. Is there something everyone else likes that you hate?
I wouldn't say I hate something that everyone else loves. I don't think Modern Family is as funny as other shows like The Office and 30 Rock (but I still like the show and DO think it's funny). I also don't think cruises are as fun as actually going somewhere and being able to explore, etc.
14. Where's the coolest place you've ever traveled?
Jamaica, where we hiked a river, floated down another river, and drank Red Stripe that was 12% alcohol (rather than the 5% it is in Utah). Livin' the dangerous life.
15. On the subject of difficult fruit, which pays off more: pomegranate, pineapple, or a surprise contender?
Not pineapple, considering I am allergic to it (and dislike it immensely). Honestly though, the payoff from a pomegranate sucks. But I would rather gather those seeds and enjoy eating them rather than core and skin a pineapple that somebody else is going to eat.
16. What is the absolute silliest thing on your iPod/in your music library right now?
Disney songs, Pokemon theme song, Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog, a shit ton of Glee. Pretty much everything in my Itunes library is ridiculous.
17. Do you have any personal superstitions, rituals, or rules that, when not followed, make you nervous?
I knock on wood whenever I say that something is going to happen to me. I'm afraid it really will happen to me if I either don't knock on wood or knock on a wood substitute (everything is plastic around here).
18. Would you rather be a juggler or a contortionist?
Juggler!
19. Do you sing in the shower? If so, what do you sing?
Yes and Disney songs. Mostly either the love ballads or those, "who am I?" types of songs the female leads sing. Maybe I should add some more upbeat songs to my repertoire though, it might be entertaining to sing "One Jump Ahead".
20. Have you made anything you are exceptionally proud of?
I love all of my charms that I make! My favorite charm I ever made was a Flaaffy charm though, that I hung on my gameboy until it broke :( Now it's just an adorable little figurine.
I made it when I was fifteen and then submitted it to DeviantArt, which is why there's a pepto-bismal colored banner surrounding the picture and the picture itself is blurry/not well lit. I really love that charm though.
21. Indiana Jones or Star Wars?
DON'T MAKE ME FUCKING CHOOSE.
Though honestly? ... ... ... Indiana.
22. If you had to do one of these for two hours, which would you choose: watch a 50's B-movie or read a bodice-ripping romance?
50's B-movie! 50's B-movie! MST3K that shit!
23. What skill do you have that surprises people?
I can draw any pokemon that you tell me to draw from memory. It's a nifty party trick I discovered when my friends and I were at a restaurant with a paper tablecloth and crayons. I drew 52 pokemon on that tablecloth.
24. Is there anything you like that it seems nobody else likes?
While we're on the subject, pokemon! Just kidding, other people do like pokemon. Though it seems like no one is actually as huge of a pokemon nerd as I am. It's more like, "Yeah, I pulled out my old red game and played for awhile" instead of "I SPENT TEN HOURS YESTERDAY TRAINING MY POKEMON WHITE TEAM AND I'M TRYING TO FIND A SHINY VENIPEDE". Just kidding, there are people like that too, I'm just not friends with any of them. Sad :(
For realsies though, I really like those new Toms boots that have a shoe base and then gauze you wrap up around your leg. I think they're really cute.
25. Tell me about your all-time favorite shirt.
Right now it's my purple shirts that has Finn and Jake on it from Adventure Time and it says, "Let's do the science dance!" Get it? Because I am both adventurer and SCIENTIST!
26. What was your favorite TV show when you were small?
Ghostwriters. Which was apparently a lot more interesting when I just made up the entire plot line, because the actual premise is...dull.
27. Polka dots or plaid?
Polka dots!
28. It's been a long, crazy, busy day, but now you're home and you're tired and hungry. Do you sleep first, or eat first?
Eat duh. Eat and drink caffeine and then you're set to watch internet TV until you fall asleep!
29. Who is your favorite comedian?
Eddie Izzard
30. After experiencing civilization, Tarzan, King of the Apes, has decided to stick around in the jungle, but has asked you what you think is the one thing from "civilization" he should take back with him. What do you say?
Laptop. But then he'd have no internet so nevermind.
31. What's your favorite kind of climate?
Warm. Heat. HEAT. And not humid. HEAT PLUS DRY. So desert. But with an ocean nearby.
32. They called you mad, but you'll show them all! If you were a mad scientist, what would your experiments be about?
SEWING THREE PEOPLE TOGETHER! ...wait.
33. Do you talk during movies?
It's all I do. I literally talk from start to finish during a movie because I cannot NOT make commentary on what's happening, or what I like about the movie, or what I dislike about the movie, or how stupid the main character is, or how amazingly terrible everything about the movie is, or how amazingly funny it is, etc. People either love it or they hate it. Or I pretend they love it and really they just tolerate me.
34. Who is your favorite cartoon character?
All of them. Just kidding, probably Finn and Jake, Invader Zim, Flapjack, and Sideshow Bob. I love cartoons so much.
35. Tell me about your favorite TV show.
MY FAVORITE TV SHOW hmmmmm. Can I just tell you a list of my favorite TV shows? Because I love TV. Even though I rarely watch it. I love Firefly, Adventure Time, 30 Rock, The Office, The IT Crowd, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, GLEE, Futurama, The Simpsons, South Park, and Invader Zim. Probably more. I'll stop here though.
Stay tuned for pictures of an owltter, pictures of charms I am working on currently, and perhaps a story about my Biourp symposium and how I found my soulmate (just kidding).
Monday, April 18, 2011
pictures from yesterday
Also from my walk home from school in the rain.
Crotch shot. aka I'm trying to show off my new shorts
Winston was a little afraid of the camera.
Crotch shot. aka I'm trying to show off my new shorts
Winston was a little afraid of the camera.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
weekend weekend
I had a really great weekend. It was warm and springy with a nice mixture of sunshine and a little bit of rain. I wish I had taken more pictures, I need to get in the habit of carrying my camera around more. I'm one of those obnoxious people who tries to document everything. But how else am I going to convey how amazing everything is with just words? I feel like I'm too jumbled with my words, I should work more on that.
I spent Friday night hanging out with Natalya, where we took Luigi (her roommate's cute dog) for a long walk through the neighborhood and then watched Tangled. We decided that she and I would be Rapunzel and Flynn, Malcolm would be Pascal, and Maeby and Manny would be the Stabington brothers. She also made me a healthy dinner chock full of vegetables and chicken. Then I hung out with Maddie, where we watched the original The Hills Have Eyes (I am a little obsessed with horror films) and then The Gods Must Be Crazy II (that honey badger part killed me, loved it). It was a nice stay-in, comfy cozy Friday night. Saturday was spent hanging out with my mom, who took me shopping for new summer clothes and shoes. I got my very first pair of heels! Pictures will come soon. I also got a pair of black flats, lots of pairs of cute shorts (finally the kinds of shorts I like are back in style), three cute tank tops, and a plethora of lacey underwear. Day well spent, if I do say so myself.
That night we went to Benihana since my cousin had never been there before, which was super fun. My mom and I watched another horror movie called Premonition which was HILARIOUS. I hung out with Maddie again that night and we ended up going to Village Inn for coffee and a delicious grilled cheese sandwich (in my case). Our friend Grace invited us to come to an event being held up at campus called Relay for Life. It's a fundraiser for cancer where teams are sponsored to walk around campus all night long, so we went and joined in. Tents and fire pits were set up all along the front lawn in front of the union (our school's cafeteria), and the smell of the campfire smoke was orgasmic. It made me so excited for camping season, which is just around the corner. Three weeks from now I'll be in Arizona, sitting around a campfire, drinking beer, battling spiders the size of my face, and listening to coyotes in the distance from the coziness of my tent.
WHY AREN'T YOU HERE YET SUMMER?!
Campus at night is really peaceful, Maddie even said, "I like campus a lot better at night. It's probably because, you know, there aren't any PEOPLE!" We took America's Next Top Model shots in front of the giant spotlights around the library and sat down and talked until about four in the morning, which is when I told them I had to work the next morning so I needed to go home and go to bed.
Today was spent trying to figure out a phylogenetic tree of passerines for my independent project, working, doing load after load of laundry, and organizing my documents folder. I'm sad to see this weekend go, especially since tomorrow I have a full day with work and class and then a test in my night class, but I found out that Dirty Dancing is on Instant Play and so I'm happy. Maddie also let me borrow Misery, so I'll end my night of laundry, very little homework, and 80s movies with some Stephen King.
I LOVE YOU PATRICK SUAZE
This has been a really boring post.
Also I just realized I should probably study for the test tomorrow, so probably no reading for me tonight. Ah well.
I spent Friday night hanging out with Natalya, where we took Luigi (her roommate's cute dog) for a long walk through the neighborhood and then watched Tangled. We decided that she and I would be Rapunzel and Flynn, Malcolm would be Pascal, and Maeby and Manny would be the Stabington brothers. She also made me a healthy dinner chock full of vegetables and chicken. Then I hung out with Maddie, where we watched the original The Hills Have Eyes (I am a little obsessed with horror films) and then The Gods Must Be Crazy II (that honey badger part killed me, loved it). It was a nice stay-in, comfy cozy Friday night. Saturday was spent hanging out with my mom, who took me shopping for new summer clothes and shoes. I got my very first pair of heels! Pictures will come soon. I also got a pair of black flats, lots of pairs of cute shorts (finally the kinds of shorts I like are back in style), three cute tank tops, and a plethora of lacey underwear. Day well spent, if I do say so myself.
That night we went to Benihana since my cousin had never been there before, which was super fun. My mom and I watched another horror movie called Premonition which was HILARIOUS. I hung out with Maddie again that night and we ended up going to Village Inn for coffee and a delicious grilled cheese sandwich (in my case). Our friend Grace invited us to come to an event being held up at campus called Relay for Life. It's a fundraiser for cancer where teams are sponsored to walk around campus all night long, so we went and joined in. Tents and fire pits were set up all along the front lawn in front of the union (our school's cafeteria), and the smell of the campfire smoke was orgasmic. It made me so excited for camping season, which is just around the corner. Three weeks from now I'll be in Arizona, sitting around a campfire, drinking beer, battling spiders the size of my face, and listening to coyotes in the distance from the coziness of my tent.
WHY AREN'T YOU HERE YET SUMMER?!
Campus at night is really peaceful, Maddie even said, "I like campus a lot better at night. It's probably because, you know, there aren't any PEOPLE!" We took America's Next Top Model shots in front of the giant spotlights around the library and sat down and talked until about four in the morning, which is when I told them I had to work the next morning so I needed to go home and go to bed.
Today was spent trying to figure out a phylogenetic tree of passerines for my independent project, working, doing load after load of laundry, and organizing my documents folder. I'm sad to see this weekend go, especially since tomorrow I have a full day with work and class and then a test in my night class, but I found out that Dirty Dancing is on Instant Play and so I'm happy. Maddie also let me borrow Misery, so I'll end my night of laundry, very little homework, and 80s movies with some Stephen King.
I LOVE YOU PATRICK SUAZE
This has been a really boring post.
Also I just realized I should probably study for the test tomorrow, so probably no reading for me tonight. Ah well.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
positivity
I've been so busy with school and work lately that it's been hard to be positive. So I decided to make a list of things that are making me smile lately :)
1)
I love this show. It makes me so happy. Maddie introduced it to me about a month and a half ago and ever since then it's been my comfort show. I absolutely adore family sitcoms, and this is the KING of all family sitcoms. Its laugh track, its amazingly kitsch 80s/90s style, the characters' interactions with one another...it just calms me.
My favorite character EVER is Jackie. She is so hilarious.
Cast picture in 2008.
2)
Papa John's cheesesticks! Sooo delicious.
3)
I'm going to Arizona for two weeks after finals to do my own independent project for research credit! I've been before to the same area before on a field course and it's AMAZING! It's a place called Madera Canyon and it's one of the top places to bird in the United States, especially in spring time (which is right when we'll be there). I'm tagging along with the course, so I'll be able to hang out with them and go out by myself to observe bird behavior in the wild. I'm so excited for the hazy Arizona heat, to see the cactus flowers bloom, and to see the rainbow of different birds that migrate through the canyon every spring. I'm so psyched, I'm in love with the tiny field station that we stay in, though I'm not so in love with the spiders...ugggh.
4)
Pokemon, as always. Swoon.
5)
Self-explanatory
6)
TV shows pretty much rule my life, which is why there are two on this list. I LOOOOVE FIREFLY!!! I've been re-watching them on Netflix and recently found out that they were supposed to go for SEVEN SEASONS! Dagger in my heart. I adore Mal's sort of fatherly relationship with Kaylee.
Ahahaha this is so cute!
7)
Owls. Always.
8)
Taking pictures. I love photography.
9)
It's almost springtime! In Utah we have a peculiar spring in that there really is no spring. There are a couple of spring-like days in both April and May, interspersed with blizzards, and then it's full-fledged summer. But I'm okay with that, because there have been warm days, rainy days, and soon there will be days filled with heat and I love that.
10)
My favorite coffee shop where I get to study with my favorite people. Not studying my favorite subjects though.
Now that I'm feeling warm and fuzzy, it's time to study physics. Oh joy!
1)
I love this show. It makes me so happy. Maddie introduced it to me about a month and a half ago and ever since then it's been my comfort show. I absolutely adore family sitcoms, and this is the KING of all family sitcoms. Its laugh track, its amazingly kitsch 80s/90s style, the characters' interactions with one another...it just calms me.
My favorite character EVER is Jackie. She is so hilarious.
Cast picture in 2008.
2)
Papa John's cheesesticks! Sooo delicious.
3)
I'm going to Arizona for two weeks after finals to do my own independent project for research credit! I've been before to the same area before on a field course and it's AMAZING! It's a place called Madera Canyon and it's one of the top places to bird in the United States, especially in spring time (which is right when we'll be there). I'm tagging along with the course, so I'll be able to hang out with them and go out by myself to observe bird behavior in the wild. I'm so excited for the hazy Arizona heat, to see the cactus flowers bloom, and to see the rainbow of different birds that migrate through the canyon every spring. I'm so psyched, I'm in love with the tiny field station that we stay in, though I'm not so in love with the spiders...ugggh.
4)
Pokemon, as always. Swoon.
5)
Self-explanatory
6)
TV shows pretty much rule my life, which is why there are two on this list. I LOOOOVE FIREFLY!!! I've been re-watching them on Netflix and recently found out that they were supposed to go for SEVEN SEASONS! Dagger in my heart. I adore Mal's sort of fatherly relationship with Kaylee.
Ahahaha this is so cute!
7)
Owls. Always.
8)
Taking pictures. I love photography.
9)
It's almost springtime! In Utah we have a peculiar spring in that there really is no spring. There are a couple of spring-like days in both April and May, interspersed with blizzards, and then it's full-fledged summer. But I'm okay with that, because there have been warm days, rainy days, and soon there will be days filled with heat and I love that.
10)
My favorite coffee shop where I get to study with my favorite people. Not studying my favorite subjects though.
Now that I'm feeling warm and fuzzy, it's time to study physics. Oh joy!
Friday, April 8, 2011
spring break beachapalooza ::part 3::
Once again, no comics because I am incredibly lazy and sick right now (excuses, excuses).
Thursday was another recovery day. After the amount of drinking we did on Wednesday night, we all were far too sick/lazy/sore/a number of other things to move. I was especially lethargic because my gimp knee was acting up and I could only hobble around to do extremely important things like go to the bathroom and make myself snacks. Thursday was the day we had planned to go to Montana de Oro, a beautiful national park that offers amazing tide-pooling, hiking, and (my favorite) dune jumping, but my leg was too injured for me to really participate in any of those activities :( I was sad, but also content to sit and watch TV since I was all of the aforementioned things. This was also a very important day in Cobra Squad history because we discovered our new favorite show.
JERSEY SHORE
Luckily for us, there was a marathon going on because the season 3 finale was going to be on later that night, so we were able to watch it ALL DAY LONG. We all decided that we loved Pauly D and Snooki, Pauly D because he's an idiot and Snooki because she is a genius. Obviously. Hours later, I was feeling a little gross about being in California and not even going outside at least once to look at the ocean, so during a lull in the rain we all went outside and sat on the wall surrounding the patio.
We also tried to go on a little walk on the beach, but it was waaaay too cold and it started raining again, so we went back inside and didn't move again until about 6:30, when we decided we should probably get off our lazy asses and go get dinner before the Farmer's Market in San Luis Obispo. The Farmer's Market has always been a crucial part of our beach house visits. There are open-air stalls that sell fruit vegetables, pins, crafts, honey, etc. as well as stalls that sell food items from local restaurants, such as my personal favorite: McLintocks. San Luis Obispo is also a college town, located right next to Cal Poly, so there are a lot of unique stores and places to check out. Plus sometimes they have DDR or Guitar Hero competitions out on the street, as well as live music. Basically it's just an all around partyrific night, and it happens every Thursday.
We went to Sabetta's Pizza again for dinner because Kristen wanted to try it (she didn't go with us the first night) and we all got delicious cheese pizzas and garlic bread again. During dinner, Harmony (an old friend who used to live next door to the beach house), texted me to let me know that the Farmer's Market has been cancelled due to the weather (it had been pouring all day). I was disappointed, but also a bit relieved because I was a gimp and it was raining. Instead, we headed back to the house to watch some more Jersey Shore and (not surprisingly) drink. This was the night where we danced intensely to Lady Gaga during commercial breaks from Jersey Shore. Maddie did The Charleston to Single Ladies by Beyonce. I grooved to Poker Face. It was amazing. (p.s. alcohol dulled the pain in my knee and also made me make poor choices, which is why I danced so much). At one point Maddie tried to teach me a partner dance, but I get too confused even when I'm sober, so I failed. We went out on the porch again to sit in the rain and talk some more while Maddie smoked and I declared that I must not be drunk enough, because I could still do derivatives in my head. Maddie asked me how to do derivatives. Thus, a drunken math session took place where I taught Maddie how to do simple derivatives and she taught me how to do logarithms. We made a list of rules that one must follow in order to party with us, which included things like speaking in a Russian accent, dancing to Lady Gaga during Jersey Shore commercial breaks, and absolutely NO manta rays allowed.
I broke that rule.
At midnight, we all cheered for Maddie because it was her birthday and she was officially 21!!! We all changed into our jim jams and then hung out on my bed. I had brought along Winnie the Pooh as an assignment for my children's literature class, so I read them some of that before proclaiming that I was exhausted and passing out.
The next day was Maddie's BIRTHDAY! Now able to legally drink! We celebrated by drinking, of course. I got up early (aka eleven) so that I could go to lunch with my friend Harmony (previously mentioned). She picked me up and we had an awesome lunch at a place called Flying Dutchman in Morro Bay. It was really nice to see her, I haven't seen her in three years (which is the last time I went to the beach house with family). At one point while we were waiting for food, we saw a mated pair of pigeons feeding each other. Then they started getting it on. It was ridiculous, but I couldn't look away. Our waitress made fun of us for it, she was really funny.
Once I'd arrived back at the beach house, I went to join Maddie and Claire on the beach, where they were playing crab relocation. This involved digging up sand crabs and then placing them in a different area ten feet away. We figured this would save them from their apparent abusive home lives, drinking problems, and various other maladies. After crab relocation, we walked down to the Cayucos Pier and swung on the swings. It was a beautiful sunny day, the only really "beach" day so far, so we sat and swung and talked for about an hour.
It was so much fun, I love swinging. Once we were done, we walked back down the beach and got in an epic water battle. We were pretending to be waterbenders and started kicking, throwing, and splashing water at each other. By the end of it, we were all soaking, so we went back up to the beach house and had nice, warm showers. Then we found out that we could get a weak internet signal if we sat at the kitchen table. It was chaos. I personally frothed at the mouth and began to internet like a wild beast. Internet here being a verb in my world.
This is when some needless drama went down between Harmony and I. Basically there was miscommunication and she wanted to bring her boyfriend to drink with us for Maddie's birthday but I realized that that's awkward and that he would be bored to death and uncomfortable (I'm sure) in a house full of drunken females and I wasn't about to let her invite her other friends over because we weren't having a huge party at my family's beach house. Also it was Maddie's birthday, so it was her day and her party. It ended in a sort of fight where Harmony got super offended and so I stormed out of the house and marched down to the beach with my friends following in a confused huddle behind me. I just needed to release some steam because I was feeling angry about a lot of things and stupid drama was not something I had wanted to occur over spring break. I walked down the beach and found a large rock to sit on top of so that I could look out over the ocean and fume. Claire joined me and we had a long, calming talk while we watched the sun begin to set over the ocean. By the end of our talk, I felt a lot better, so we headed back to where Maddie was playing crab relocation. We joined her for awhile and then headed back up to the beach house.
Since it was so nice and sunny outside, we decided to sit out on the porch and photosynthesize a bit while drinking Mike's Hard Lemonade.
Maddie can show the label because she's 21!
I started getting tipsy after my second Mike's, even though I had drunk them over two hours. I realized that this was because I was super dehydrated from drinking absolutely no water all day. Everyone forced me to drink water before I was allowed to drink anything else.
After porch time, we decided to start playing DRINKING GAMES! We played King's Cup again where there were some amazing solos. One of our rules was to run outside in the rain if someone cussed, which everyone did but me (because I have mad self control skills). Another rule was that we could not speak in Russian accents, which was SO HARD since we'd been doing it the entire trip, and another was to bark before and after drinking. One of my favorite rules was the Deiter Threeter, where we had to take three drinks instead of just one every time we had to drink. However, it really affected Claire, who got the King's Cup and had to chug it like a champion. This combined with the Deiter Threeter drinks made her sick, so she sat on the floor for a little while, sort of digesting her stomach full of beer. After this, we started in on the rest of the whiskey and vodka.
Once we were good and trashed, we went down to the beach. We actually hit it at low tide, so I ran out to meet the waves. I had this intense connection with the water where I crouched down and hovered above it, whispering sweet nothings. Just kidding...sort of. We walked on the beach a little bit, played the jump over the waves game, and when it was time to leave I cried. Legit tears poured from my eyes. Maddie kept telling me that we needed to go and I would yelp, "NO!" and run back out to sea so they had to call me back. Finally I walked up to the stairs with them and the ocean, which was coming in, travelled with us to the stairs. Maddie said that it was saying goodbye and I was like, "IT DOESN'T WANT ME TO LEAVE!"
We went back to the house and started to do some chores, like laundry and cleaning. These chores were ten times more fun while smashed.
Doing laundry
Making beds
As you can see, we were extremely responsible. Many tickle fights ensued while we were folding and putting away sheets. We decided that we were going to wash sheets this night and then just sleep in the living room so that we could leave early the next morning. After chores, we decided to make the lemons bars we had bought five days previous for Maddie's birthday.
They were delicious. At one point, someone asked if we could drink the wine on top of the fridge. The wine was purchased because it says Norman, which was my Papa's name (who died when I was in 10th grade). I immediately started crying again and saying how grateful I was to have him and my Nana, who had died a few days earlier, in my life. They really have done so much for me. We all wrote them drunken limericks to show our appreciation. I was most definitely a happy crier this night.
It was about one in the morning at this point, and we all decided we should go to bed. One suggestion made was that we continue to drink and then just immediately leave once we were done at about three or four, but we thought better of it. Instead, we all settled down in the living room, put on Prom Night II again, and went to sleep. I slept for three hours and woke up boiling hot. I guess it was from my combined drunkenesss and my sunburn from earlier. I decided it would be a good idea to turn the heat down all the way, which caused everyone else to freeze. Once everyone had woken up, we did a lot of last minute drunken chores, gathered the food and our personal items, and headed out. I was very sad :(
I have a word of advice for everyone. Never binge drink for an entire day, get three hours of sleep, and then go on a fourteen hour road trip. I made myself a little sandwich with cheese and immediately regretted it. I felt a little bit sick and had to pee a little bit, but didn't want to ask to stop so soon, since we had only been on the road for forty minutes. We were passing through a town at the time and I decided I would ask to stop at the next town. Little did I know there was no next town.
WE WERE IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE
There was literally NOTHING. I immediately had to pee more than anything at this point and was in physical pain. I felt terrible. Our first hope cropped up when we saw a rest stop about twenty minutes later. However, when we approached it, a worker told us to pass on by because there was no water. FUUUUUUUCK! No other towns or gas stations or rest stops cropped up for the next hour. Another hopeful silhouette rose on the horizon: a gas station loomed in the distance. I almost cried because I was so happy. We approached it and saw that it was broken down and I cried because I had to pee SO MUCH. Plus I was really sick. I decided to hold it a little while longer to see if a town would appear in the next fifteen minutes. Thank God, we rolled through a little migrant town that had a mecca of gas stations at the end of it. I leapt out of the car AS IT WAS MOVING (sort of) and ran like the wind to the bathroom.
I was sick again an hour later, but thankfully we were also nearer to civilization so we were able to stop at a gas station. This gas station was absolutely plastered with booze, which made me sort of want to vomit as I purchased pepto bismol. This is when things started looking up because I felt so much better. The rest of the ride home was fairly uneventful and we got home at a decent hour since we'd left at six. Even though I was sad to leave the beach, it was good to be home. Maddie and I hit up Arby's and then watched Roseanne until I went home and passed out.
Thus ends an amazing spring break.
Thursday was another recovery day. After the amount of drinking we did on Wednesday night, we all were far too sick/lazy/sore/a number of other things to move. I was especially lethargic because my gimp knee was acting up and I could only hobble around to do extremely important things like go to the bathroom and make myself snacks. Thursday was the day we had planned to go to Montana de Oro, a beautiful national park that offers amazing tide-pooling, hiking, and (my favorite) dune jumping, but my leg was too injured for me to really participate in any of those activities :( I was sad, but also content to sit and watch TV since I was all of the aforementioned things. This was also a very important day in Cobra Squad history because we discovered our new favorite show.
JERSEY SHORE
Luckily for us, there was a marathon going on because the season 3 finale was going to be on later that night, so we were able to watch it ALL DAY LONG. We all decided that we loved Pauly D and Snooki, Pauly D because he's an idiot and Snooki because she is a genius. Obviously. Hours later, I was feeling a little gross about being in California and not even going outside at least once to look at the ocean, so during a lull in the rain we all went outside and sat on the wall surrounding the patio.
We also tried to go on a little walk on the beach, but it was waaaay too cold and it started raining again, so we went back inside and didn't move again until about 6:30, when we decided we should probably get off our lazy asses and go get dinner before the Farmer's Market in San Luis Obispo. The Farmer's Market has always been a crucial part of our beach house visits. There are open-air stalls that sell fruit vegetables, pins, crafts, honey, etc. as well as stalls that sell food items from local restaurants, such as my personal favorite: McLintocks. San Luis Obispo is also a college town, located right next to Cal Poly, so there are a lot of unique stores and places to check out. Plus sometimes they have DDR or Guitar Hero competitions out on the street, as well as live music. Basically it's just an all around partyrific night, and it happens every Thursday.
We went to Sabetta's Pizza again for dinner because Kristen wanted to try it (she didn't go with us the first night) and we all got delicious cheese pizzas and garlic bread again. During dinner, Harmony (an old friend who used to live next door to the beach house), texted me to let me know that the Farmer's Market has been cancelled due to the weather (it had been pouring all day). I was disappointed, but also a bit relieved because I was a gimp and it was raining. Instead, we headed back to the house to watch some more Jersey Shore and (not surprisingly) drink. This was the night where we danced intensely to Lady Gaga during commercial breaks from Jersey Shore. Maddie did The Charleston to Single Ladies by Beyonce. I grooved to Poker Face. It was amazing. (p.s. alcohol dulled the pain in my knee and also made me make poor choices, which is why I danced so much). At one point Maddie tried to teach me a partner dance, but I get too confused even when I'm sober, so I failed. We went out on the porch again to sit in the rain and talk some more while Maddie smoked and I declared that I must not be drunk enough, because I could still do derivatives in my head. Maddie asked me how to do derivatives. Thus, a drunken math session took place where I taught Maddie how to do simple derivatives and she taught me how to do logarithms. We made a list of rules that one must follow in order to party with us, which included things like speaking in a Russian accent, dancing to Lady Gaga during Jersey Shore commercial breaks, and absolutely NO manta rays allowed.
I broke that rule.
At midnight, we all cheered for Maddie because it was her birthday and she was officially 21!!! We all changed into our jim jams and then hung out on my bed. I had brought along Winnie the Pooh as an assignment for my children's literature class, so I read them some of that before proclaiming that I was exhausted and passing out.
The next day was Maddie's BIRTHDAY! Now able to legally drink! We celebrated by drinking, of course. I got up early (aka eleven) so that I could go to lunch with my friend Harmony (previously mentioned). She picked me up and we had an awesome lunch at a place called Flying Dutchman in Morro Bay. It was really nice to see her, I haven't seen her in three years (which is the last time I went to the beach house with family). At one point while we were waiting for food, we saw a mated pair of pigeons feeding each other. Then they started getting it on. It was ridiculous, but I couldn't look away. Our waitress made fun of us for it, she was really funny.
Once I'd arrived back at the beach house, I went to join Maddie and Claire on the beach, where they were playing crab relocation. This involved digging up sand crabs and then placing them in a different area ten feet away. We figured this would save them from their apparent abusive home lives, drinking problems, and various other maladies. After crab relocation, we walked down to the Cayucos Pier and swung on the swings. It was a beautiful sunny day, the only really "beach" day so far, so we sat and swung and talked for about an hour.
It was so much fun, I love swinging. Once we were done, we walked back down the beach and got in an epic water battle. We were pretending to be waterbenders and started kicking, throwing, and splashing water at each other. By the end of it, we were all soaking, so we went back up to the beach house and had nice, warm showers. Then we found out that we could get a weak internet signal if we sat at the kitchen table. It was chaos. I personally frothed at the mouth and began to internet like a wild beast. Internet here being a verb in my world.
This is when some needless drama went down between Harmony and I. Basically there was miscommunication and she wanted to bring her boyfriend to drink with us for Maddie's birthday but I realized that that's awkward and that he would be bored to death and uncomfortable (I'm sure) in a house full of drunken females and I wasn't about to let her invite her other friends over because we weren't having a huge party at my family's beach house. Also it was Maddie's birthday, so it was her day and her party. It ended in a sort of fight where Harmony got super offended and so I stormed out of the house and marched down to the beach with my friends following in a confused huddle behind me. I just needed to release some steam because I was feeling angry about a lot of things and stupid drama was not something I had wanted to occur over spring break. I walked down the beach and found a large rock to sit on top of so that I could look out over the ocean and fume. Claire joined me and we had a long, calming talk while we watched the sun begin to set over the ocean. By the end of our talk, I felt a lot better, so we headed back to where Maddie was playing crab relocation. We joined her for awhile and then headed back up to the beach house.
Since it was so nice and sunny outside, we decided to sit out on the porch and photosynthesize a bit while drinking Mike's Hard Lemonade.
Maddie can show the label because she's 21!
I started getting tipsy after my second Mike's, even though I had drunk them over two hours. I realized that this was because I was super dehydrated from drinking absolutely no water all day. Everyone forced me to drink water before I was allowed to drink anything else.
After porch time, we decided to start playing DRINKING GAMES! We played King's Cup again where there were some amazing solos. One of our rules was to run outside in the rain if someone cussed, which everyone did but me (because I have mad self control skills). Another rule was that we could not speak in Russian accents, which was SO HARD since we'd been doing it the entire trip, and another was to bark before and after drinking. One of my favorite rules was the Deiter Threeter, where we had to take three drinks instead of just one every time we had to drink. However, it really affected Claire, who got the King's Cup and had to chug it like a champion. This combined with the Deiter Threeter drinks made her sick, so she sat on the floor for a little while, sort of digesting her stomach full of beer. After this, we started in on the rest of the whiskey and vodka.
Once we were good and trashed, we went down to the beach. We actually hit it at low tide, so I ran out to meet the waves. I had this intense connection with the water where I crouched down and hovered above it, whispering sweet nothings. Just kidding...sort of. We walked on the beach a little bit, played the jump over the waves game, and when it was time to leave I cried. Legit tears poured from my eyes. Maddie kept telling me that we needed to go and I would yelp, "NO!" and run back out to sea so they had to call me back. Finally I walked up to the stairs with them and the ocean, which was coming in, travelled with us to the stairs. Maddie said that it was saying goodbye and I was like, "IT DOESN'T WANT ME TO LEAVE!"
We went back to the house and started to do some chores, like laundry and cleaning. These chores were ten times more fun while smashed.
Doing laundry
Making beds
As you can see, we were extremely responsible. Many tickle fights ensued while we were folding and putting away sheets. We decided that we were going to wash sheets this night and then just sleep in the living room so that we could leave early the next morning. After chores, we decided to make the lemons bars we had bought five days previous for Maddie's birthday.
They were delicious. At one point, someone asked if we could drink the wine on top of the fridge. The wine was purchased because it says Norman, which was my Papa's name (who died when I was in 10th grade). I immediately started crying again and saying how grateful I was to have him and my Nana, who had died a few days earlier, in my life. They really have done so much for me. We all wrote them drunken limericks to show our appreciation. I was most definitely a happy crier this night.
It was about one in the morning at this point, and we all decided we should go to bed. One suggestion made was that we continue to drink and then just immediately leave once we were done at about three or four, but we thought better of it. Instead, we all settled down in the living room, put on Prom Night II again, and went to sleep. I slept for three hours and woke up boiling hot. I guess it was from my combined drunkenesss and my sunburn from earlier. I decided it would be a good idea to turn the heat down all the way, which caused everyone else to freeze. Once everyone had woken up, we did a lot of last minute drunken chores, gathered the food and our personal items, and headed out. I was very sad :(
I have a word of advice for everyone. Never binge drink for an entire day, get three hours of sleep, and then go on a fourteen hour road trip. I made myself a little sandwich with cheese and immediately regretted it. I felt a little bit sick and had to pee a little bit, but didn't want to ask to stop so soon, since we had only been on the road for forty minutes. We were passing through a town at the time and I decided I would ask to stop at the next town. Little did I know there was no next town.
WE WERE IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE
There was literally NOTHING. I immediately had to pee more than anything at this point and was in physical pain. I felt terrible. Our first hope cropped up when we saw a rest stop about twenty minutes later. However, when we approached it, a worker told us to pass on by because there was no water. FUUUUUUUCK! No other towns or gas stations or rest stops cropped up for the next hour. Another hopeful silhouette rose on the horizon: a gas station loomed in the distance. I almost cried because I was so happy. We approached it and saw that it was broken down and I cried because I had to pee SO MUCH. Plus I was really sick. I decided to hold it a little while longer to see if a town would appear in the next fifteen minutes. Thank God, we rolled through a little migrant town that had a mecca of gas stations at the end of it. I leapt out of the car AS IT WAS MOVING (sort of) and ran like the wind to the bathroom.
I was sick again an hour later, but thankfully we were also nearer to civilization so we were able to stop at a gas station. This gas station was absolutely plastered with booze, which made me sort of want to vomit as I purchased pepto bismol. This is when things started looking up because I felt so much better. The rest of the ride home was fairly uneventful and we got home at a decent hour since we'd left at six. Even though I was sad to leave the beach, it was good to be home. Maddie and I hit up Arby's and then watched Roseanne until I went home and passed out.
Thus ends an amazing spring break.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
spring break beachapalooza ::part 2::
Dreams Come True
(I was going to draw little comics again, but I sort of got lazy and decided to just bombard this post with pictures)
Our tale ended previously with our hungover trip to Morro Bay where we played with fellow sea creatures (aka statues of sea creatures) and watched a lot of Animal Cops (because it satiates my thirst for justice).
Morro Rock, a 581 foot tall mass made of hardened magma. I just learned that it serves as a peregrine falcon preserve. The more you know.
That night I was incredibly sick, but the next morning I awoke feeling a little bit better. We got up early and managed to head out by eight so that we could arrive in Monterey bay just as the aquarium was opening. The drive there was truly uneventful, just me driving while everyone else napped a little bit. You have two choices when it comes to leaving Cayucos: you can either take the long way around the hills through Cambria and then reach Highway 46 a full hour later OR you can take Old Creek Road. Old Creek Road is a beautiful but eerie winding road that travels through the forests and hills that separate the rest of California from the central coast. It cuts travel time in half, and would have been the way to get to the beach house that first night if it weren't for the pouring rain and pitch blackness. There are portions of that road that line sheer cliffs, and if you aren't careful, you could seriously jettison yourself off one of these drop-offs and land your car in the reservoir below. So this road is serious business. I've always been awed and afraid of it, especially since the fog that covers most of the surrounding Cayucos area in the morning usually never quite goes away on Old Creek Road, and there are only a few farmhouses. The rest of it is completely isolated. We decided that a good new name for it should be Wolfman Wind, because Old Creek Road is the perfect place for wolfmen to play.
The rest of the ride was basically me willing myself to stay awake and to pay attention to road signs, since this trip was a good experience for me to start trusting road signs and google maps to lead me to my destination. I also learned that I probably should not trust my own instincts on which direction to go, because twice upon leaving Monterey I was convinced that we needed to go in the opposite direction that we needed to go. It was especially obvious when I thought we needed to go east when in fact we wanted to go west, TOWARDS THE OCEAN.
Once we arrived at Monterey Bay, we parked in the all inclusive parking garage that cost us each our first-borne child to park in. We immediately embarked on a mission to find someplace to eat. We found Louie Linguine. It was decent food, we really only ended up getting pizza there because it was one of the first things we stumbled upon and it overlooked the ocean.
So thrilled, so thrilled
Louie Linguine looked like such a charmingly lovely man, I wish I could have met him.
p.s. here is a picture of me looking at sea lions with a telescope
When we were done with lunch, we went to the aquarium. My aunt and uncle both work there, so we got in FO FWEE :D Always a plus. They met us by the otter tank so that my uncle (who is in charge of husbandry) could show us around behind the scenes.
Otters! Baby Kit on the left and Toola on the right. At one point when we were walking past the tank during a show, the trainer said, "Kit is our darkest otter!" which was hilarious to us (since we have that friend who is, you know, named Kit).
My uncle first showed us the octopi. Both aunt and uncle have worked at the aquarium since I was a wee lass, so I have been able to play with the octopi before. Back when they were younger, they would get really animated when visitors showed up, pulsating different colors and wrapping their tentacles around your arms so tightly that sometimes you got sucker hickeys :) They are getting older, however, and were less apt to be interested in us. Just touching an octopus feels so cool though, and is definitely an awesome experience, so we all felt his suckers and stroked his head before he curled up into a tiny ball in his cave. All that sounded really dirty. Scott (uncle) showed us the crabs next door and then took us to see the temporary holding tank for Outer Bay outside the aquarium. Outer Bay is a giant tank that usually houses their sunfish, tuna, sharks (white sharks if they have them at the time), sea turtles, and a variety of other fish. Unfortunately, it was down for repair when we were there :( We did get to see the tuna and full-grown sunfish, however, and their mahi-mahi (which are really beautiful colors). Then we saw their juvenile sunfish, who was...a bit mentally challenged it seemed, and the sea turtles, Sunny and Azul. They are also quite slow (in a mental capacity sort of way). They are so cute though. The aquarium is implementing puffins as well as a lone auklet into their collection of seabirds, so we got to see those cuties for a few minutes. Scott then asked me what else I wanted to see and I could only think of one thing: Makana. Makana is a Laysan Albatross brought to the aquarium because she has a broken wing and thus cannot fly ever again. This makes it impossible for her to live in the wild, so she remains at the aquarium for education purposes. She's the only albatross on display in the world and she is so darling. I love her. Last year I volunteered with aviculture at the Monterey Bay Aquarium and fell in love with Makana, so of course she was the only one I wanted to see. Scott handed us off to Traci (aunt) since he had a meeting to go to and we went to visit Makana. I was so excited to see her and Eric (the head aviculturist) said that I could come up and say hi to her. Just as we made eye contact and I reached out to her, her two favorite people in the world walked through the door opposite of me. She turned around and refused to have anything else to do with me as soon as she caught sight of them :( I was really disappointed since they can see her every day and I haven't seen her for an entire year. Oh well. Traci took us to the jellyfish lab, where they play God and grow different jellies for exhibits. Last year I was obsessed with boxing the moon jellyfish, which is basically where you poke the tops of the jellies and watch them float down, then struggle back to the surface, at which point you poke them down again. This seems cruel, and it probably would be if jellies had brains. Moon jellyfish stingers are also incredibly low-key (unless you're allergic to them), so there's no chance of getting hurt while boxing the jellies. I told everyone else about this, including my aunt (who thought it was funny), and we spent a little bit of time doing it.
At this point, we said goodbye to my aunt, who had to go to a Makana escape drill (called Makanassance). We then set out to explore the rest of the aquarium.
The Black Oystercatcher is my favorite.
Snowy Plovers are most definitely next.
From here on out are Claire's aquarium pictures. I foolishly forgot my camera cable and, since I was taking a lot of videos at the beginning of the trip, my camera ran out of room for more pictures.
There were so many creeper fish that just sat and stared at you from the corner of the tank. One fish was just a few feet in, right at eye level, staring at us open-mouthed. I love fish.
Wolf Eel. We called him the Old Man of the Sea. He probably sits out on his sea-equivalent of a rocking chair and yells at the young'n fish for messing around on his lawn.
Claire was in love with the penguin.
I partied with the penguin.
Once we had seen everything, we browsed the gift shop for awhile and then decided to go home. Before we arrived at the car, however, we saw a shop REVOLVING ENTIRELY AROUND OTTERS!
My brother.
I let Kristen drive us home and we playmaginated all the way home. Our session mostly revolved around Dieter Laser, an actor who I have only seen in the terrible movie The Human Centipede. For some reason, he is hilarious to me, and I imagine him as this lonely loser who everyone shuns because he has this mental illness where he needs everything to be in threes. Cue us making everything into THREECAR or THREEROCK or BURTHREETO! Once we arrived home, we stocked up on some more alcohol and DRANK. We made whiskey sodas, which I hated, but dutifully sucked down. We watched some more Animal Planet, though this time it was a show called Fatal Attraction, which I adored because it was about crazy people who thought they were basically animals and then the animals attack them. Every encounter with a creature from that point on for me was a FATAL ATTRACTION. We went for another night time walk on the beach where we saw shooting stars and the lights from Morro Bay through the fog. The ocean at night is an amazing thing.
The next day was basically just a beachventure day. We got up around late morning and went for a really long walk on the beach. It was cleansing to just be able to walk and walk in the foggy, crisp morning air and feel the waves and splash around in the ocean. I misjudge distances, but I would say we walked for two miles before we turned back. We chased birds, we ran around, we jumped over the waves, and we collected seashells. By the time we'd returned to the stairs, all of my pockets were stuffed full of pretty shells. My favorite we collected were these beautiful butterfly shells that are the shells of tiny mussels, the insides of which are iridescent and rainbow. At this point I asked the others to carry my shells back to the house for me while Maddie and I walked the other way down the beach towards the Cayucos Pier. Our goal was to reach the swings, but the tide came in and cut us off, so we instead dawdled by the cutoff point and then headed back. We seriously failed at timing when high tide was verses low tide (aka I failed).
Once back at the house we showered and changed into comfy clothes so we could watch a barrage of horror movies that Maddie had brought. We watched Carrie and Swimfan, though we stopped in the middle of Swimfan because we had to stock up on some more alcohol and I wanted to make a sandcastle at sunset. I wanted to make a sandcastle and put candles in it, so it looked lit up from inside, but I couldn't open the door to the garage (where all of the sandcastle supplies are) and the only candles we could find were birthday candles. So we went down to the beach and saw that the sunset was gorgeous. Absolutely breathtaking.
So of course we decided to take some pictures.
Waterbenders
After a long while of taking pictures of each other with the glimmering silver ocean as our backdrop, we made a birthday cake/sandcastle. We made an epic moat for it, as well as towers made of sticks and strung with seaweed. Then we put candles in it and tried to light them, but it was far too windy. So then we abandoned this idea and wrote stuff in the sand with sticks. Then we ran around again. Light was fading quickly, and the heavy rains had created makeshift rivers in the sand. As I tried to herd Claire into our "trapdoor" we had created in the sand, I myself fell victim to a real trapdoor. My foot caught a ledge from one of these sand rivers and I face-planted. All of my weight slammed into my right knee, which I have fallen on several times in my life, and one more time does not do it any favors. I started to sob, surprised and feeling almost betrayed by the fact that I had tripped. I immediately ran out to sea to make myself feel better, which greatly confused Claire and Maddie. Once I was done feeling sorry for myself, I limped back up to the beach house and we commenced BURRITO NIGHT!
1000 Ways to Die was on, one of our other favorite shows, which I watched while Maddie and Claire made a Cake Boss video in the kitchen, only with burritos. After burritos, we started drinking again. A lot. I drank a lot of shitty vodka, mixed with both orange juice and Dr. Shasta (which we'd picked up at the grocery store earlier that day and finished up that night). We all got super trashed.
This kind of just explains it all
This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip
I was the gazelle, fleeing from King Leopard
There was a picture of Maddie and I being cows because, at one point on Fatal Attraction, there was a story about how cows killed some man. And we were in awe because cows have no sharp horns or fangs or claws. They have trample power though.
We danced a bit, I fell a lot on my injured knee, we went out on the porch in the rain to talk some more and had more drunken heart to hearts. We texted a lot of people we probably shouldn't have. The funniest thing ever happened. I sent my brother a picture of a sea turtle at midnight that I never remembered sending. Oh good times. We also apparently watched an entire movie that I don't remember for the life of me, and I only know this because I was looking at Claire's camera the next morning. Maddie took a barrage of pictures of herself in a sunhat and the TV screen as it played the movie. All in all, it was an incredibly successful drunken night, complete with cuddling.
The final book in the series (these are seriously turning into novels), SPRING BREAK BEACHAPALOOZA PART THREE! IN WHICH MADDIE TURNS 21 AND I FAIL AT LIFE BECAUSE I'M A GIMP! coming to a store near you!
(I was going to draw little comics again, but I sort of got lazy and decided to just bombard this post with pictures)
Our tale ended previously with our hungover trip to Morro Bay where we played with fellow sea creatures (aka statues of sea creatures) and watched a lot of Animal Cops (because it satiates my thirst for justice).
Morro Rock, a 581 foot tall mass made of hardened magma. I just learned that it serves as a peregrine falcon preserve. The more you know.
That night I was incredibly sick, but the next morning I awoke feeling a little bit better. We got up early and managed to head out by eight so that we could arrive in Monterey bay just as the aquarium was opening. The drive there was truly uneventful, just me driving while everyone else napped a little bit. You have two choices when it comes to leaving Cayucos: you can either take the long way around the hills through Cambria and then reach Highway 46 a full hour later OR you can take Old Creek Road. Old Creek Road is a beautiful but eerie winding road that travels through the forests and hills that separate the rest of California from the central coast. It cuts travel time in half, and would have been the way to get to the beach house that first night if it weren't for the pouring rain and pitch blackness. There are portions of that road that line sheer cliffs, and if you aren't careful, you could seriously jettison yourself off one of these drop-offs and land your car in the reservoir below. So this road is serious business. I've always been awed and afraid of it, especially since the fog that covers most of the surrounding Cayucos area in the morning usually never quite goes away on Old Creek Road, and there are only a few farmhouses. The rest of it is completely isolated. We decided that a good new name for it should be Wolfman Wind, because Old Creek Road is the perfect place for wolfmen to play.
The rest of the ride was basically me willing myself to stay awake and to pay attention to road signs, since this trip was a good experience for me to start trusting road signs and google maps to lead me to my destination. I also learned that I probably should not trust my own instincts on which direction to go, because twice upon leaving Monterey I was convinced that we needed to go in the opposite direction that we needed to go. It was especially obvious when I thought we needed to go east when in fact we wanted to go west, TOWARDS THE OCEAN.
Once we arrived at Monterey Bay, we parked in the all inclusive parking garage that cost us each our first-borne child to park in. We immediately embarked on a mission to find someplace to eat. We found Louie Linguine. It was decent food, we really only ended up getting pizza there because it was one of the first things we stumbled upon and it overlooked the ocean.
So thrilled, so thrilled
Louie Linguine looked like such a charmingly lovely man, I wish I could have met him.
p.s. here is a picture of me looking at sea lions with a telescope
When we were done with lunch, we went to the aquarium. My aunt and uncle both work there, so we got in FO FWEE :D Always a plus. They met us by the otter tank so that my uncle (who is in charge of husbandry) could show us around behind the scenes.
Otters! Baby Kit on the left and Toola on the right. At one point when we were walking past the tank during a show, the trainer said, "Kit is our darkest otter!" which was hilarious to us (since we have that friend who is, you know, named Kit).
My uncle first showed us the octopi. Both aunt and uncle have worked at the aquarium since I was a wee lass, so I have been able to play with the octopi before. Back when they were younger, they would get really animated when visitors showed up, pulsating different colors and wrapping their tentacles around your arms so tightly that sometimes you got sucker hickeys :) They are getting older, however, and were less apt to be interested in us. Just touching an octopus feels so cool though, and is definitely an awesome experience, so we all felt his suckers and stroked his head before he curled up into a tiny ball in his cave. All that sounded really dirty. Scott (uncle) showed us the crabs next door and then took us to see the temporary holding tank for Outer Bay outside the aquarium. Outer Bay is a giant tank that usually houses their sunfish, tuna, sharks (white sharks if they have them at the time), sea turtles, and a variety of other fish. Unfortunately, it was down for repair when we were there :( We did get to see the tuna and full-grown sunfish, however, and their mahi-mahi (which are really beautiful colors). Then we saw their juvenile sunfish, who was...a bit mentally challenged it seemed, and the sea turtles, Sunny and Azul. They are also quite slow (in a mental capacity sort of way). They are so cute though. The aquarium is implementing puffins as well as a lone auklet into their collection of seabirds, so we got to see those cuties for a few minutes. Scott then asked me what else I wanted to see and I could only think of one thing: Makana. Makana is a Laysan Albatross brought to the aquarium because she has a broken wing and thus cannot fly ever again. This makes it impossible for her to live in the wild, so she remains at the aquarium for education purposes. She's the only albatross on display in the world and she is so darling. I love her. Last year I volunteered with aviculture at the Monterey Bay Aquarium and fell in love with Makana, so of course she was the only one I wanted to see. Scott handed us off to Traci (aunt) since he had a meeting to go to and we went to visit Makana. I was so excited to see her and Eric (the head aviculturist) said that I could come up and say hi to her. Just as we made eye contact and I reached out to her, her two favorite people in the world walked through the door opposite of me. She turned around and refused to have anything else to do with me as soon as she caught sight of them :( I was really disappointed since they can see her every day and I haven't seen her for an entire year. Oh well. Traci took us to the jellyfish lab, where they play God and grow different jellies for exhibits. Last year I was obsessed with boxing the moon jellyfish, which is basically where you poke the tops of the jellies and watch them float down, then struggle back to the surface, at which point you poke them down again. This seems cruel, and it probably would be if jellies had brains. Moon jellyfish stingers are also incredibly low-key (unless you're allergic to them), so there's no chance of getting hurt while boxing the jellies. I told everyone else about this, including my aunt (who thought it was funny), and we spent a little bit of time doing it.
At this point, we said goodbye to my aunt, who had to go to a Makana escape drill (called Makanassance). We then set out to explore the rest of the aquarium.
The Black Oystercatcher is my favorite.
Snowy Plovers are most definitely next.
From here on out are Claire's aquarium pictures. I foolishly forgot my camera cable and, since I was taking a lot of videos at the beginning of the trip, my camera ran out of room for more pictures.
There were so many creeper fish that just sat and stared at you from the corner of the tank. One fish was just a few feet in, right at eye level, staring at us open-mouthed. I love fish.
Wolf Eel. We called him the Old Man of the Sea. He probably sits out on his sea-equivalent of a rocking chair and yells at the young'n fish for messing around on his lawn.
Claire was in love with the penguin.
I partied with the penguin.
Once we had seen everything, we browsed the gift shop for awhile and then decided to go home. Before we arrived at the car, however, we saw a shop REVOLVING ENTIRELY AROUND OTTERS!
My brother.
I let Kristen drive us home and we playmaginated all the way home. Our session mostly revolved around Dieter Laser, an actor who I have only seen in the terrible movie The Human Centipede. For some reason, he is hilarious to me, and I imagine him as this lonely loser who everyone shuns because he has this mental illness where he needs everything to be in threes. Cue us making everything into THREECAR or THREEROCK or BURTHREETO! Once we arrived home, we stocked up on some more alcohol and DRANK. We made whiskey sodas, which I hated, but dutifully sucked down. We watched some more Animal Planet, though this time it was a show called Fatal Attraction, which I adored because it was about crazy people who thought they were basically animals and then the animals attack them. Every encounter with a creature from that point on for me was a FATAL ATTRACTION. We went for another night time walk on the beach where we saw shooting stars and the lights from Morro Bay through the fog. The ocean at night is an amazing thing.
The next day was basically just a beachventure day. We got up around late morning and went for a really long walk on the beach. It was cleansing to just be able to walk and walk in the foggy, crisp morning air and feel the waves and splash around in the ocean. I misjudge distances, but I would say we walked for two miles before we turned back. We chased birds, we ran around, we jumped over the waves, and we collected seashells. By the time we'd returned to the stairs, all of my pockets were stuffed full of pretty shells. My favorite we collected were these beautiful butterfly shells that are the shells of tiny mussels, the insides of which are iridescent and rainbow. At this point I asked the others to carry my shells back to the house for me while Maddie and I walked the other way down the beach towards the Cayucos Pier. Our goal was to reach the swings, but the tide came in and cut us off, so we instead dawdled by the cutoff point and then headed back. We seriously failed at timing when high tide was verses low tide (aka I failed).
Once back at the house we showered and changed into comfy clothes so we could watch a barrage of horror movies that Maddie had brought. We watched Carrie and Swimfan, though we stopped in the middle of Swimfan because we had to stock up on some more alcohol and I wanted to make a sandcastle at sunset. I wanted to make a sandcastle and put candles in it, so it looked lit up from inside, but I couldn't open the door to the garage (where all of the sandcastle supplies are) and the only candles we could find were birthday candles. So we went down to the beach and saw that the sunset was gorgeous. Absolutely breathtaking.
So of course we decided to take some pictures.
Waterbenders
After a long while of taking pictures of each other with the glimmering silver ocean as our backdrop, we made a birthday cake/sandcastle. We made an epic moat for it, as well as towers made of sticks and strung with seaweed. Then we put candles in it and tried to light them, but it was far too windy. So then we abandoned this idea and wrote stuff in the sand with sticks. Then we ran around again. Light was fading quickly, and the heavy rains had created makeshift rivers in the sand. As I tried to herd Claire into our "trapdoor" we had created in the sand, I myself fell victim to a real trapdoor. My foot caught a ledge from one of these sand rivers and I face-planted. All of my weight slammed into my right knee, which I have fallen on several times in my life, and one more time does not do it any favors. I started to sob, surprised and feeling almost betrayed by the fact that I had tripped. I immediately ran out to sea to make myself feel better, which greatly confused Claire and Maddie. Once I was done feeling sorry for myself, I limped back up to the beach house and we commenced BURRITO NIGHT!
1000 Ways to Die was on, one of our other favorite shows, which I watched while Maddie and Claire made a Cake Boss video in the kitchen, only with burritos. After burritos, we started drinking again. A lot. I drank a lot of shitty vodka, mixed with both orange juice and Dr. Shasta (which we'd picked up at the grocery store earlier that day and finished up that night). We all got super trashed.
This kind of just explains it all
This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip
I was the gazelle, fleeing from King Leopard
There was a picture of Maddie and I being cows because, at one point on Fatal Attraction, there was a story about how cows killed some man. And we were in awe because cows have no sharp horns or fangs or claws. They have trample power though.
We danced a bit, I fell a lot on my injured knee, we went out on the porch in the rain to talk some more and had more drunken heart to hearts. We texted a lot of people we probably shouldn't have. The funniest thing ever happened. I sent my brother a picture of a sea turtle at midnight that I never remembered sending. Oh good times. We also apparently watched an entire movie that I don't remember for the life of me, and I only know this because I was looking at Claire's camera the next morning. Maddie took a barrage of pictures of herself in a sunhat and the TV screen as it played the movie. All in all, it was an incredibly successful drunken night, complete with cuddling.
The final book in the series (these are seriously turning into novels), SPRING BREAK BEACHAPALOOZA PART THREE! IN WHICH MADDIE TURNS 21 AND I FAIL AT LIFE BECAUSE I'M A GIMP! coming to a store near you!
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