Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Sitting in the VU

It's official. Spain next spring, stay on for summer. Not only will Sharron be in the area, but I'll be able to hit Tomatina and Encierro. I wish I weren't American. Our holidays are so boring.

Note to self:

Gael García Bernal is pretty.

Must watch Babel, Dreaming of Julia, Amores Perros, and Y tu mamá también.

Monday, October 30, 2006

This took 2 hours for my distracted self to write

If Katamari Damacy taught me anything, it's that the world is full of things. Here are some things I like:

tea
peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwiches
listening to music while walking through a blustery wind
bike riding at 5 am
shopping cart rides
my front porch, and the people I sit with
when the Western Men Against Violence brave the middle of Red Square at 9 am in the freezing shadows just to hold their signs
pictures of other people
this dog
teaching swimming lessons

And just for some perspective, here are some things I don't like:

not being able to find free music on the internet
pickles
when Firefox shuts down and I lose what I've written here
being too lazy to clean my room
rolling over and waking up at 2 am every day for the last 3 weeks
missing friends in far away places

There are a few people in my life right now that I'd like to tell you about. They are all incredibly unique people who, by merely knowing them, are able to make life better.

Ben and Nick are two folks who, if anything, have improved with age.

Ben was my RA last year. He was attentive and supportive to a complete stranger going through an almost year-long bout of homesickness (in a sense). Through knowing him I realized that some people look perfectly normal, act perfectly normal, and come from perfectly normal backgrounds. Then there are the people who look normal, act normal, and it's a miracle that they've managed to pull it off. Ben isn't an RA anymore. He has a girlfriend that he likes to go on hikes with, he's learning to swim (again), plays raquetball, and gets very defensive about what math "is".

I liked Nick for maybe 30 days total last year. The rest of the time I hated him. He was argumentative about everything, arrogant, and basically a complete tool. But when we drank together! Oh, he was my best friend ever. We had some great times, sober ones too. We played X-Men and ate together regularly (even when we were hating each other), we argued about music and argued about books.
Now Nick has a girlfriend and I'm single. I'm attributing our new change in attitude toward each other to these two facts. Both of us are more mellowed out in our current states. We argue less; we're more excited to share new information than to prove the other person wrong. I don't get to see Nick as often as I'd like. When we're together, we both become giddy and excitable, even when talking about how miserable life is. Nick likes to say he's part of the Dead Parrots Society, but I haven't seen any proof yet. He wears indie glasses, dresses indie, and listens to indie music. He has a blog, too, but uses it to hone his writing skills rather than indulge in selfish pleasures (and I envy him for it).

Josh and Alex are two of my neighbors. They, too, are extremely fantastic people.

Alex cooks as if he were born with a skillet in his hand. He probably was, since both his parents are cooks. I hear he's also been around the world and back. My factual knowledge of Alex ends there. Mostly he's just the guy I walk back from my brother's house with. We have fantastic drunken conversations and usually eat some kind of excellent food. He and Josh are both mind-bogglingly active people. Every day there is a new soccer/basketball game to be had, another bike ride to go on, caves to explore and walls to climb and I don't even know what else they do. Alex claims he'll show me these Mt. Baker hot springs, maybe even invite me along on one of those crazy excursions to the bat caves, but until then I'm satisfied with being drunken party friends.

Josh is a vegetarian hip hop artist. Actually, everyone in that house across the street are up-and-coming hip hop artists. They have a myspace page, even. Josh is a hat model about to break into the big-time modeling world. He juggles and wants to learn to knit (though from what I've seen, his juggling coordination skills don't help the fact that he's a boy, and boys have big clumsy hands that don't knit very well. Oh well. He'll get better.) Josh accompanied me on a grocery shopping trip last night. I figure he'll be my new best friend.

Then there's Sharron. I met Sharron in our American Lit class last year. We rode the shuttle together and shared a mild curiosity in our professor's sexuality. I don't think Sharron and I will ever be close, but that's okay. She's slightly crazy and so am I; that's enough. Every couple weeks she says I should join the water polo team, but I'm resisting admirably. These days I like to watch Lost at her place on Wednesdays and watch her surf the internet after class on T/R.

Brent is my only Bellingham relative left. He's my older brother by about 3 years and I'm hard pressed to think of any flaw in his personality. He is sincere, patient, honest, and intelligent. I've heard some people say he's an asshole. That's because he doesn't put up with willful ignorance. To enjoy life is one thing; to not consider how our actions might effect us later is another. Brent is a pool shark. Don't play against him unless you are, too. Brent always has a goofy look on his face, but it's deceiving. He understands more about people and what motivates them better than anyone else I know. Also, he doesn't like being teased. At all.

I'm done writing about people now. I think I'll take a nap.

Sunday, October 29, 2006

Pray if you want, there's no way out

I am loving this extra hour of sleep. Put it down on paper - my vote has officially been cast to make this a weekly occurance. Who cares if the whole point is to conserve daylight? I need to conserve sleep.

By the way. Dried apple chips are not the best food to eat first thing in the morning. Wheat Thins, however, are good at any time of day. They're mildly salty and the grainy-gooey texture once you get a good chew into them is just fantastic.

Yesterday was Brent's birthday. We headed out down home around noon and hung out with the family for a good 4 or 5 hours. And you know what? No one tried to kill each other. Scott has bronchitis, so he can't talk very well. I think that had a lot to do with it. Rather than hold the conversation in thrall of how amazing his life is, we all got a chance to steer the topics where we wanted. We got my mom to cry from laughter. Every last one of us ate all the food we ordered (yup, even me. Shock!) It was the kind of family dinner that I've never believed could actually occur.

It's probably been going on this way for years, but I'm finally in a place where I can recognize it.

10:30 am update: Next time I decide it's a good idea to take a spoon and eat Nutella straight from the jar, someone, anyone, please stop me.

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Jack and Jack on a summer day

COLE IS BACK.

That's right. My long-term buddy from Christian camp is back in town. He's got a condo, no bed, and a job that takes him out to sea a couple days a week. We only got to visit for about an hour. I suck like that. Planning too much in one day to accomplish (especially when I require 10+ hours of sleep to even function.) He's still rocking the shaggy hair, callused hands, and constant high that I remember. Aw, man, I love this kid so much. He disappeared for about 6 months and I figured he'd moved to Alaska or something.

Can you tell? I'm so excited I can't even put together normal sentences.

ALSO:

From Exit 230 on Interstate 5, near past Mount Vernon, go east on State Highway 20 (North Cascades Highway). Just beyond the little town of Hamilton, but before reaching Concrete, turn left on the Baker Lake Road. Follow that road to baker Lake Resort, about twenty miles. Turn Left on Forest Service Road No. 1144 (gravel and usually snow covered during the winter) which goes about three miles to a widened parking area. (It's by scenic outlook and you will come upon it by surprise.) The trail, only about a quarter of a mile long, begins from the west side of the parking area (opposite the view point). The trail is unmarked, but take the left route from the parking lot. You will soon find yourself on some planked walkway, assuring you that the hot springs is a short distance away.

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Broken Beads


There's several points in the above song by New Pornographers where they just make different drunk pirate noises. It makes me happy and I like to listen to it over and over again.

Rabies is downstairs spinning away on his wheel. It makes this horrible squealing sound, but whenever I go down to just watch him run, he stops and hides in his box. Feral hamsters suck as pets.

Neighbor came across the street today and knitted (knat?) with me. It was pretty cool. Irene called us gay after he left, but she's got no ground to stand on. If we want to knit, let us knit. Life's too fun to mock.

Tomorrow, Ben and I take each other on in another game of raquetball. It's been about 2 weeks since I've played and I'm sure to fall on my ass laughing more than actually chasing the ball. (Not a single one of our games has gone differently.) He puts up with me and I love him for it.

Sunday, October 22, 2006

I only want it to begin

Every future Sunday is now officially reserved for reading A Book That Makes Me Cry. Not only does it give me a distraction from being sick, but I just don't read enough.

Today, I compromised between my love for watching the cars go by our house, and the fact that I didn't want to go outside. I sat in my windowsill, feet on the roof, Sobe in hand.

Saturday, October 21, 2006

Self-Delusional

In the course of the last month, I've convinced myself I know how to knit. I don't, really, but I've got two scarves under my belt and now I'm attempting to make a gift scarf. It's a joke, really. They're all sloppy and tilty, but hey. Knitting is cool. And if I ever actually figure out what I'm doing, I'll soon have a plethora of hats and scarves in all assorments and colors. And never again will I buy another Christmas present.

Friday, October 20, 2006

Epiphany

Shaving my legs in the Green House Shower is more acrobatically challenging than having sex in the dorm showers.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Give me your eyes, I need the sunshine.

I got to scoot around Bellingham again today. Hurrah! Irene is seriously, seriously fantastic to let me just run off with her vehicle.

But I didn't accomplish anything academically today. Sigh.

Thinking about studying abroad this coming Fall. Screw UW. I want me some Spain.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Russians know how to do coats.

Any time I start feeling too serious, I turn to Whitey and Derek. Just a few hours with those boys has me telling fart jokes and making fun of women. Tonight we watched a 3.5 hour russian movie (Dr. Zhivago, whooo!) and followed it up with a trip to Taco Bell. If the evening ends with everyone standing around in a circle scarfing down food, you know you've succeeded.

Sunday, October 15, 2006

The Frames are growing on me.

I had chili for dinner. It was lovely. All bean-y and meat-y and half cheese because that's how I like my chili. Two hours later and my stomach still hasn't quite forgiven me. It's not gurgling. It's not trying to claw its way out. It's not even making me all gassy (that's a lie.) No, it's more like all the cheese inside the chili somehow turned into cement, leaving this giant ball of chili to just hang out and slowly get harder and harder as the night goes by. It's like a chili baby. I was sitting in bed and realized that my stomach is more distended now, two hours later, than it was shortly after I consumed the whole thing.

Ohhh chili. You were lovely.

I think I'm getting a job soon. Yayyy money! With my very first paycheck I plan on going downtown and finding myself one kickass scooter with which I will scoot all over Bellingham.

I watched the last half of Amelie today. That movie is just as kickass as the last time I watched it.

10:36 pm: Read about a month's worth of old posts from Sniffing Glue. I miss those days, when there wasn't much difference between what went online and what went on paper.

Saturday, October 14, 2006

Uncool, Bee, Uncool

I've been under the misled impression that bike riding is a pretty mild activity. My childhood was simple and happy. I'd spend my afternoons pedalling around the two couldesacs in our neighborhood, waving to friends and their parents and knowing that all cars would stop and get out of my way.

Flash forward about 10 years. I rode my bike every now and then during that time, but usually on a bike trail with my parents or down the road to Fred Meyer. Nothing too dangerous.

It turns out that bike riding is not safe. At all. There are some who embrace this challenge, like the good folks of London who race among traffic (Bumbershoot has excellent free movies). There are others who ride fixies, bomb to and from parties on their bicycles (drunk riding is very intense, I hear), and even those who form the notorious "Bike Gangs" of Bellingham. I make it sound like these wild, adrenaline-filled rides are for those who choose them. I'm sorry for misleading you. The truth is, anyone who places their feet on those pedals is begging to be initiated into the death-defying world of two wheels, mediocre breaks, unclear traffic laws, and little to no personal protection.

Take my own sad history with this transportation of terror. Two summers ago I was hit by a car while riding on the sidewalk. Fortunately, I was only flung across the hood of their car and landed on my back, which was stuffed full of towells. Today, I was innocently riding across campus to swim at the rec center, when I got stung in the throat by a hell-bent bee. Fortunately, I'm not allergic to bees, else I'd be dead right now.

So take warning, all you would-be bike riders. It is not for the light of heart. Even if you expect to take it easy, avoid risks, and stay out of the way, life-threatening situations will find you. I just hope you're lucky.

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Norwegian Wood

"Like, suppose you whisked me somewhere far, far away, I'd make lots of babies for you as tough as little bulls, And we'd all live happily ever after, rolling on the floor."

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

La Belle et le Bad Boy

(from the CD: Cinquieme As: Fifth Ace)

Yeahhh, I've made a new mission for myself: Find above CD and LOVE IT. The song was playing in the coffeehouse about 10 minutes ago and I sat completely still, straining to hear every bit, trying to remember where I knew it from. And then I remembered. It's one of the main reasons I like to watch the Sex and the City series finale as often as I do. There's a scene where it flashed between Miranda running in the streets after New York and Carrie running in the streets of Paris. Above song is playing. I always make a mental note to myself to figure what the hell that song is because it is FANTASTIC, and then, true to my nature, I forget about it 5 minutes later.

Today I had this big plan where I was going to read my textbooks and do my homework and catch up on all that stuff I suck at doing while sitting on a laptop in the coffeehouse. I've got the laptop and coffeehouse thing down, as you can tell, but I'm failing miserably at the homework. Reason #1: cannot download macromedia flash something, which I need to even see my economics homework. Reason #2: Only have 2 hours with this baby, so reading Chapter 3 online before doing the accounting homework wouldn't work, I'd finish just in time to race to return the laptop. And Reason #3: they don't allow consecutive laptop rentals, so I figure I'm just going to sit here and enjoy it before I take it back. Then I'll camp out in the library and see what can be done.

By the way. My apologies for a ridiculously boring post. Sometimes I just have to sit and write and I just don't give a shit about entertaining whoever reads this anyway.

Monday, October 09, 2006

Bike Rides, Skipping Class

Shopping and hanging out in an Irish Pub in Vancouver? Best way to beat the Mondays.

Friday, October 06, 2006

Beast of Burden Again

Man vows to fight garden gnome arrest threat

When you spend a good portion of your day surfing the internet, you come across pieces of gold. Also included today is:

Rival miners hurl dynamite at each other


Other than that, gorged on indian food and waiting for the call to go out drinking. Walking back to the truck, there was a trio of strings (violin, cello, something else) sitting outside a coffee shop playing classical music. I took a picture and can't wait to tell Jessica. My only regret is that I didn't have someone to slow dance with, like the elderly couple next to us.

Thursday, October 05, 2006

Beast of Burden

Let's give a big hurrah for another day of boredom and idleness beat back through sheer willpower. Last night Ben and I went out for food around, oh, 11? With my sleep schedule and all, that was not cool. But I'd just finished my scarf and Ben was hungry and besides, he's one of my best friends now and it's nice to see him. He decided that I'm finally good enough to meet his girlfriend, so Friday night before I head out to... somewhere... with someone... (I don't actually know what I'm doing Friday night yet, Help!) the three of us are going to go someplace nice to eat and have a good ol' time. I'm excited!

But the whole point of that paragraph was to vaguely explain why I was so damn tired when I woke up this morning. A panic-filled race to beat the bus to the bus stop woke me up nice and good, so classes weren't too intolerable. At 12, met a friend in the VU, and I'm hoping to finally hang out with her off campus this weekend. We're thinking of checking out the Catholic church on Cornwall for Sunday morning mass, and if the weather's nice we'll go swimming at Lake Samish. Yayyy. Swimming!

Back to Ben. We went to Applebee's for lunch/dinner today, after I woke up from my food-induced nap. (How's this for a disgusting image. Pizza rolled up burrito-style, and eaten with gusto. Eating healthy? Not my strong point.) My salad was very sad and pathetic, but the good conversation made up for it. Got dropped off on a corner to walk my ass over to Fantasia. The spanish table was... Exciting? Hard? Impressive? Not sure what to describe it as. Hopefully I won't suck and never go back. I enjoyed it and actually spouted off some scrambled spanish a couple times. Hurrah! (Wait. I have to go back, there's no option about it. I have to steal someone's digital camera and take a picture of the photo by the cash register.)

Sooo, here it is, a little bit late, a little bit early, depending on your schedule. I might go sit on the porch and eat a popsicle. I might knit. I might just sit and listen to the Stones "Beast of Burden" on repeat for a good hour or two.

Monday, October 02, 2006

Here Come the Redcoats

Last couple days have been alternating between intolerable and fantastic. Today was better than Sunday, by far, so I'll focus on that instead.

Skip all the boring stuff until 3 pm. Showed up for the tennis club meeting and I was the only beginner in sight. They tolerated me as long as they could, and they tried hard to be excited, but man. There is no way a 19 year old girl who has never had any hand-eye coordination to speak of will ever be able to keep up with 20-something students who have been playing since junior high at least. I said I'd show up again tomorrow, but it's already looking doubtful.

So, walking home, decided to call Ben and see what he was up to. Seeing as he was just getting back from raquetball, our sports connection decided that we should hang out. I met his kickass friend named Sam, a super-blonde Ukrainian (think David Saunders) who lives on Lummi Island with his clan of relatives that steal cheap liquor from each other. Random quotes from the evening flew thick like wildfire, this guy is completely hilarious and had Ben and I in tears of laughter while we ate at Boundary Bay. (That's right! I finally went! And got myself a beautiful maroon sweatshirt to go with it. Just need one more beer-related piece of clothing, and I can leave Western with a clear conscience.)

Finally, came home and made a few phone calls. While this all may not sound super-exciting, it's added up to me = very happy. And tired.

It's a sad day when I decide to go to bed around 9 pm, but hey, that's how I roll.