Calexico - Hair Like Spanish Moss

I can't sleep. I wish it were raining. The sound of rain on the roof and against the windows always relaxes me.
Then again, I think my sunroof is open, so maybe it's for the best.

Although it may not have been frugal to spend my last Kroger check on visiting Ann in Greenville last weekend, I consider it well worth the gas money. (For one thing, gas was $3.69 there, so I felt like I was saving, though one usually doesn't conserve gas by driving 300 miles.) Anyway, I needed to see her, and so I'm glad it worked out. It's been a summer of slow depression and I appreciated this interruption in the form of chilling with a BFF and buying a book about Milton Glaser and his silly/genius graphic design for $1 at a flea market. What a run-on sentence that was. Oh well.

After that fabulous weekend of magic, I came home to ... two job interviews in a row. Fancy-pants job interviews, too. The first was at a company that, um, delegates concierges? I still don't quite understand what they do, but the important part is that I would work as a concierge at an ~upscale Midtown condo~. That's what it said in the ad, and it sounds pretty classy, so I'll continue referring to it as such until (if) I ever find out the condo's actual name.
In any case, the interview seemed to go pretty well. The experience itself was a little harrowing. I'm debating whether or not to go into what was so stressful about it - the story in my mind is probably more fast-paced and action-packed than others would interpret. I'll be efficient in my description: expensive parking, lack of cash, no knowledge of whereabouts of ATM, unsure whether $20 actually existed in my bank account (it didn't, though the ATM thankfully gave it to me anyway - yaaay overdrafts), ten minutes to totter around trying to find said ATM while wearing tights apparently made for a dwarf and high heels before Mr. Sulu got towed (made it just in time), followed in a creepy manner by parking lot attendant, unsure which building was the right one (distracted by fancy Ritz-Carlton), confusing elevator landscape (?). Impressively, I got to the thirty-third floor just in time for my appointment. This alone should have gotten me the job.
So, all that said, Interview #1 seemed a success. Onto Interview #2.
This one was at Suntrust. Very intimidating because not only is the branch located in the richest area of Atlanta, but the building itself somewhat resembles the White House. However, this interview also seemed to go well, despite my apprehensions; the manager seemed to approve of my responses (though, to be fair, after so many job interviews, everyone sort of knows what will and won't go over well). There was a bit of an awkward moment when I let down my professional guard and said the word "Score!". The manager smiled politely. "'Score'? Is that good or bad?" Yeesh.

So Interview #1 was Tuesday and Interview #2 was Wednesday, and I've heard nothing from either since, which has left me pretty agitated. I've been checking my e-mail every fifteen minutes, which I'm guessing is probably unhealthy. It's gotten to the point where all I can do is constantly imagine these people running a credit check on me, or something, and suddenly seeing that behind the neatly stapled resume lies a very dark and sketchy human being. Maybe they've called one of my past employers and gotten a bad review. I don't know. I just really, really want both of these jobs, because money fucking is awesome, and I don't have any, and that sucks. Fin.

Okay, something on a lighter note: here's a great song by a pretty good band that everyone's probably already heard of but I DON'T CARE because it's fun. (Example #834 of my excellent utilization of grammar.)

Vampire Weekend - Oxford Comma

Somehow they manage to bring together punctuation and Lil Jon, all with a happy African-ish pop beat. Enjoy!

Music post on its way soon. I have a ton of stuff to spread amongst the masses, so get ready for AWESOME LISTENING TIMES.

I went to the beach this past weekend and it was generally lovely (though I did return with an attractive sunburn). Problem is that I spent my time lounging and reading Dishwasher, a (great) book about tooling around the country and flitting from dishwashing job to dishwashing job, which, along with my dad's somewhat questionable advice as well as the prospect of exploring Savannah on Monday rather than working, inspired me to sort of give up on Kroger. Because I'm responsible and reliable.

Oh well.

In other news, I feel like the instrumental bit at the beginning of "I Will Possess Your Heart" is an eerily fitting depiction of my current state of mind.

Things I have found while cleaning my room so far:

- snickers bar
- my ipod (yay!)
- a pin i got from the human rights campaign
- red american eagle t-shirt that fits me a lot better than i remember it doing

Things i have yet to find:

- wine bottle opener
- plastic piece of old camera
- cd case
- scotch tape
- etc.

How awesome my trip to NC was:

- TOO MUCH FOR WORDS

How life has been since the trip:

- mediocre

Today is my birthday, and it's mostly sucked so far, but at least I got Champagne last night and chocolate cake tonight.

Actually, I just found out that I have the same birthday as Klaus Voormann! KLAUS VOORMANN! AJHDFJHFJHG

I set my alarm for 8 this morning so I could work on a drawing due ... last week. Let me rephrase that: so that I could BEGIN (and, ideally, finish) a drawing due last week.

Anyway, as evidenced by this journal entry, I'm not currently drawing. Nope. Instead, I'm alternately staring blankly out of the window into the almost-rain and fretting about a random piece of charcoal smushed into the carpet near my foot.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I've always assumed that once I reached a certain age, I'd learn to impose some amount of discipline onto myself and stop waiting until a stressfully short amount of time remains for me to finish whatever project I'm working on. But tomorrow I'll no longer be a teenager and I'll still be procrastinating on nearly everything that I do. I guess what I'm actually doing is procrastinating on stopping procrastinating.

Ay yi yi.

I am still very sick. Antibiotics, Percocet, ibuprofen, Sudafed: none working. Instead, I'm finding that Sex and the City marathons and coffee-flavored ice cream are proving themselves to be effective, if slightly guilt-inducing, soothers of pain.

This is really bad timing for me to be sick, too. Lyndsey has suggested that I might have tonsillitis or mono, rather than strep throat, since the antibiotics seem not to be working; if I have either, I don't know what I'll do. I'm already in a bad place school-wise. For another thing, I have a seder in Greenville to go to this weekend and a birthday party in Greensboro the next, and I've been looking forward to both for months. (I'm kind of tempted to try for a pun involving the word "green" being in both of those place names, as well as its other usage as a way to describe a sick person, but I got nothin'.) Anyway, having to miss either would pretty much be the ultimate in suckitude.

Not to mention next Tuesday is kind of my birthday. :/

Note to self: find more music by My Brightest Diamond and Elbow. (Note regarding note to self: those are both truly outstanding band names.)

Question aimed at no one in particular: when the hell did it become 4 in the morning? Am I paranoid about and therefore oversensitive to the unknown side effects of Percocet, or am I really somewhat lost in time at the moment?

Awesome thing:

I've been feeling the itch to write in this again lately, and even though I always say this, I really want to be more consistent about it from now on. It's healthier to have an outlet for everyday frustrations, and I've just been keeping my feelings to myself (or dumping an unfair amount of them onto people who don't deserve to bear the weight of my constant complaints).

That said, life since my last entry has been all right. Seeing Lisa in February was wonderful, even though she had to go to classes with me (which, despite her polite objections, must have been pretty boring). Since then I've worked as an artist's assistant/intern for a wonderful artist in Inman Park, who is nice, patient, funny and more than willing to help me learn about the art world. A month ago or so, I built frames for her and (sort of) helped her with a gallery opening, and haven't done anything since then, but may help her again sometime this week, depending. I've been going to school and having kind of a rough time of it since my second quarter began. First quarter was great - I ended up with two A's and a B, and was extremely proud of myself. This time there's the awful possibility that I might have to fail a class, but I don't really want to talk or think about that, haha. On the job front, finding something has been increasingly frustrating, but I might be hired by Kroger, since I had an interview with them on Friday that went very well. To be honest, I don't really want to work there, but I need any job I can find now. Plus, the store is literally five minutes from my house, so that's nice.

As for right now, I'm pretty unhappy because I have a project to finish for tomorrow, but I came down with strep throat as well as some other issues that are probably TMI. Basically, I feel like a pile of poo. I'm also unhappy because in order to finish this project, I have to drive to school, and I can't find my SCAD card, which I won't be let into the school without, and a new one would cost $25, which is money I'd been saving for gas ... argh. Lots of things chipping away at my brain. I hate to whine so much, but I really do feel somewhat hopeless. Of course things could be worse, but I'm generally in a self-pitying mood, I guess.

On a more cheerful note, I finally set up a Deviantart account, in lieu of an actual, professional website. I want to put more stuff up as soon as possible, but for now, I have plenty of photos up, and it's been pretty fun seeing what people have to say about my little hobby. Plus, I haven't given the website enough credibility - there are far more crazytalented artists on Deviantart than I'd ever thought. I'm glad I finally got around to checking it out.

Also: Borders may sell itself to Barnes & Noble, apparently. I'm really not shocked by this. Saddened that a corporate giant is going to grow even more giant, but not surprised by any means. A tiny, evil part of me is even feeling just slightly triumphant.

I LOVE THESE.

FUTURAMA DRINKING GAME.

Take one gulp if:

· Bender drinks
· Bender smokes
· Kif sighs
· ‘Slurm’ sign is seen
· Zapp Brannigan uses the word ‘sex’
· Professor Farnsworth says: “Good news everyone” (or equivalent)
· Dr. Zoidberg makes that escaping noise
· Hermes says “[Something] of [someplace]”
· Planet Express ship takes off
· Planet Express ship lands
· Bender takes something out of his chest
· Zoidberg cries


Take two gulps if:


· Amy is injured/falls down etc
· Planet Express ship crashes
· Planet Express ship is under attack
· Owls are seen
· ‘‘√2 news’ is on TV’
· One of Bender’s body parts is detached
· Professor Farnsworth is naked
· Nibbler eats something

Take three gulps if:

· Leela says ‘aks’
· ‘‘Olde FORTRAN’ malt liquor’ is seen
· One of Fry’s body parts is cut off
· Hermes is limbo dancing
· Zapp Brannigan uses the word ‘velour’
· Bender’s composition is mentioned
· Amy says something in Chinese
· Bender sings a folk song

FROM THIS

I love carrying a camera around because it's like a ticket to a bolder self and a wider world. With this apparatus I can openly admire and capture the beauty around me, and people around me know I'm doing this (or, on the other hand, they're slightly suspicious, like the woman whose cake shop I photographed - with her wary permission). Sometimes it becomes the instigator of an interesting conversation with someone I might otherwise never speak to. This definitely happened in the antique shops I wandered around in. One woman had been working in a particular antique shop for over twenty years, and she was only too happy to release an entire history of the shop (and her life in Marietta since moving there in the sixties) to me as I peered around through the camera. It was like she had been waiting for an appreciate listener for a long time - or maybe not, I don't know. Either way, I happily soaked in her stories. She even let me into a back section of the store not yet open to customers - it had been the workroom of the former landlord, who'd owned the building for many years (since the thirties, I think), and who spent the last years of his life in this workroom tinkering around with wood and stuff.
I get such a rush from knowing the history of a place - even just from knowing a place has history. And I want to keep that history. I don't want people's lives, their years of work and emotions, to be forgotten. I don't want beauty to be missed out on.
Anyway, I guess that's one of the reasons why antique shops are so great, and photography as well, for that matter. They're both ways to kind of hold on to forgotten memories (mine or someone else's, as the case may be). Even if I'm not the best photographer in the world (or the most knowledgeable - I pretty much know nothing about it), I can sort of save these things for myself - and, you know, hopefully other people as well. It's pretty cool.

Anyway, that's a giant preamble to a whole bunch of pictures I took for a school assignment last Saturday. I don't want to post them all at the same time (it would be impossible to load); I'll try to keep this post relatively reasonable.


( OH GOD HOW I LOVE THAT DIGITAL REBEL ♥ )

Okay, that's enough for now. I'll post the rest of them eventually (because people totally care about this).

HEY. Everyone download this song. I can't stop listening to Iron & Wine's (kind of) new album, The Shepherd's Dog, even though I feel as if it's out of season. These songs have a physical impression of sunlight and warm breezes, especially "Lovesong of the Buzzard", which is probably my favorite on the album so far.

Okay, back to what's actually happening in life right now. Which is:
- lots of homework that I haven't done
- confusing school registration business
- no longer working at Borders (there's an unfortunate story behind this that I frankly don't want to talk or think about)
- LISA COMING TO VISIT TOMORROW NIGHT AF9FGILDKLFJDFJHJGFGF.

So that's that. Right now I'm trying to collect myself. I need to organize my thoughts, actions, etc, but organization has never been a strong point of mine (a statement which is sure to shock thousands of people).

Today I rented a Canon Digital Rebel XT from school and, though I should have spent my time using it for purely 2D-Design-project-oriented photography, I mostly just bounced around admiring its shiny lenses and blissfully shooting professional-quality photos of, oh, my foot, or my brother eating peanut butter. Artful things, as such. I got some pretty nifty pictures of my car and the Atlanta skyline.


Mr. Sulu rests atop the parking deck, allowing himself a brief moment to meditate upon urban sprawl.

I have so much to do this weekend. Of course, I didn't really help things by being super-productive tonight, as I'd planned. Instead I just drank wine and watched Across the Universe (which mostly sucked, I'm sorry, except for how explosively awesome the visuals were). And now I'm writing this, just to be even more productive about things. Blah. Oh well. At least I got my room clean today. (As for Mr. Sulu, well, I'll get to cleaning him later. Eventually.) That's all enough for my one day off, right?

( MORE PICTURES )

I need to get back into the habit of updating this regularly. Every time I think about writing, though, I feel like I have so much to say, but no eloquent and coherent way to lay it out in a journal entry. I keep questioning my thought process and the things I linger on the most. I ask myself why should I record these things - what runs through my brain bores (or confuses) me most of the time. And looking through old journals satisfies my need to reminisce, but it mostly just makes me cringe with embarrassment.

Anyway, for now, the most important things that are happening/have happened for me of late are:

- Crappily, my car was hit by some jerk in a shiny new truck who promptly drove off, leaving poor Mr. Sulu (my aforementioned car) with a sadly disfigured headlight. Oh, and I didn't get his license number. Oh, and my insurance won't cover it because I only have liability. HAHhaha. This happened quite a while ago, though. Really, my regrets now about the situation are minimal: it sucks that my car is less attractive now, but at least it still works. I mean, mostly. I don't have a right turn signal anymore.

- MOST importantly, and more happily, I'm now officially a SCAD-Atlanta student, taking Drawing I, Art History, and 2D Design. It's a lot of work, but I'm enjoying these classes more than I've ever enjoyed a class (at least, a college class). I procrastinate on the work, of course, but I still find myself actually enjoying it when I finally get around to doing it. Win.

- Pel and I are still working on a children's book, and I'm enjoying this, too. It's amazing good fortune for me that I have this opportunity to work on what I hope (at this point) to be a great part of my future career. My favorite thing is gathering inspiration from the illustrations I loved as a child - from books of fairy tales, Moss Gown, The Stinky Cheese Man, anything by Kay Nielsen. If anyone's actually reading this, feel free to provide me with more illustrated children's books you loved when you were younger (or, like, still love).

I don't really have any days off at the moment, but I'm not yet feeling the strain of this busy (for me) schedule. I definitely need to cut down on my hours at work, though. Honestly, the deeper I immerse myself in my schoolwork, the more disenchanted I become with my work environment - but I'm not totally jaded. Still a coffee addict; that'll probably keep me going at Seattle's Best for some time more.

(P.S. NEW TORCHWOOD = LOVE, AM I RIGHT?)

(P.P.S. MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL: Lisa is visiting from the 16th to the 24th!!! OMGKJDHJ.)

I want a new digital camera. Trouble is:

a) I don't have a lot of money;

b) I don't know all that much about cameras;

c) I want something that can take beautifully detailed pictures - as professional-quality as possible - without having to buy loads of extra gadgets or spend a whole lot of money in the first place.

ANY SUGGESTIONS????

(I'm already looking at the Canon Digital Rebel and the Powershot. Cons: The former is a tad too expensive and the latter doesn't take good enough pictures, as far as I can see.)

Also, does anybody know what it means when a website says that they're selling a camera with the "body only?" Does that mean I'd have to buy other stuff?

Being called in on your day off every time you have a day off = crap.

However, being able to drive to Greenville tomorrow night to see Ann = not crap! If I can successfully navigate my way there, that is. I'm armed with Mapquest, directions from Ann, and a cell phone, so we'll see what happens.

I bought this coat from Target the other day, and it's absolutely delicious. The only thing is that you have to wear a collared shirt with it, or the edges get all itchy and uncomfortable against your skin. Beyond that, though, I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a good coat.

THEY'RE ROLEPLAYING SHIPS

SHIPS.

"What do you say Herman." Nimble asked, knowing that as a hearse, Herman could sense if the ship was a ghost ship or not.

"Its a living ship." Herman said.

"Well that's a relif." Titanic panted heavily.

Lisa and I have been wondering at this for the past few minutes in a mixture of horror, amusement and morbid curiosity. How does a ship TALK? HOW DOES IT CHUCKLE? Ships' parents are mentioned. WHO ARE ITS PARENTS? HOW DOES A SHIP GIVE BIRTH?!

Anyway, Richie said something really funny today. He was flipping channels and landed on some random football game, while I was in the kitchen reading American Gods. "LAURA," he called, his voice overflowing with excitement and joy, "There's actually a team called the Winnie-pigs!!" Of course, what he didn't realize was that it was a Canadian football game, with teams from Saskatchewan and Winnipeg. I didn't have the heart to explain this to him, though. Come on. The Winniepigs. BEST? I think so.

I got a $10 tip today for a $2 bottle of root beer. Wow.

( HEROES spoilers )

So today I went into work at 8, had an hour break at 1, left for two hours at 5, went back at 7, and got off at 9:15. D: It's a long story. Anyway, after that I still hadn't soaked in enough coffee, so I escaped from my coffee shop by hanging out at my new favorite place to be, the Daily Grind - another coffee shop. But I have an excuse! This one is cozy and calming, while mine is a harrowing train wreck of hours of boredom and too-bright lights, interspersed with stressful rushing as a result of poor scheduling and/or being understaffed. Okay, that's a little bit of an exaggeration, but I don't really spend time there chillaxing on the sofa with a good book and a pumpkin spice latte. I mean, for one thing, we don't even have pumpkin spice syrup.

Ugh. I need new work shoes, but I haven't yet felt like venturing to a shoe store in order to satisfy this desire. Again I find myself with an internal struggle of materialism and laziness. Oh, my life. :(

I LOVE Christmas music. Actually, let me correct myself: I'm ambivalent about Christmas music in the most literal sense of the word; I love some of it and I hate the rest - particularly the music I hear at work every day. "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" sung by Christina Aguilera shocks me in that it doesn't induce everyone who hears it to stab the nearest person in the eye. And I don't even hate Christina Aguilera! I guess it's just that damn song combined with ludicrous over-singing. K, I'm sort of traveling from my original point.

Anyway, to get back on topic: because I've been challenged to write in the old LJ every day for a week, yet, by a tragically ironic twist of fate, I have nothing interesting to say, I'm uploading some fabulous Christmas music. Yay!

Here be Christmas songs, including:
- "Christmas Boy" by the Spongetones
- "Mothman Christmas" by Pet The Pig
- "Parade of the Wooden Soldiers" by the Crystals
- "Christmas at the Zoo" by the Flaming Lips
- "Father Christmas" by the Kinks
- "Cold White Christmas" by Casiotone for the Painfully Alone
- "I Want an Alien for Christmas" by Fountains of Wayne
- "Little Drummer Boy" by the Dandy Warhols
- "Just Like Christmas" by Low
- "Bizarre Christmas Incident" by Ben Folds
- "Spotlight on Christmas" by Rufus Wainwright
- "Donde Esta Santa Claus?" by Guster
- "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" by Death Cab for Cutie
- "Star of Wonder" by Sufjan Stevens
- "Every Day Will Be Like a Holiday" by the Sweet Inspirations

GO HERE for some more awesome Christmasing. I just found it tonight and am marveling in glee at the juxtaposition of Beck, the Crystals, Miles Davis, Chris Isaak and that song about being a misfit from the claymation Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer movie. I wish I could somehow load the entire playlist onto my iPod and listen to it at all times.

I'm so into the Christmas spirit this year. I know it's early, but I just want to live in a Christmas tree and hang out with Burl Ives and drink (alcoholic) egg nog all the time. I even want to go to church (not for religious purposes, of course - I just want to feel EVEN CHRISTMASSIER). Why must I dream such impossible dreams? :(

I failed my driving test. :(