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.

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.

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."

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.

Bike Rides, Skipping Class

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

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.

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.

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.

I have awesome pigtails.

SO very bored today. Listening to Guster and the Pale on repeat, trying to do economics and accounting homework. Oh God. It's so dull and repetitive. Thinking of doing another rum 'n coke 'n porch night, although also considering how to make hot rum toddies seeing as the weather has been progressively colder in just the last 4 days. Guess it depends if Dan ever calls back, might just get drunk with Irene and forgo any pretentions to class.

Sad thing is, I've only been up for 6 hours. Sleeping in that late is gross. Time to set an alarm for the weekends, too.

Please, Baby Please

Ohh my lord. This night has to be reported. I have officially found the coolest underground Bellingham hippie connection. It's called Sushi Night. The most hippy of the hippies get together once a week to make amazing sushi, then sit around and drink beers, smoke pot, play the drums and flutes and guitars and dance. Shoeless Dave led is all in a round of Cohen's "Hallelujah". This awesome guy Clay with dreds stood in the middle of the lawn and did some sort of fire dance, where you swing two flaming balls on chains around. His pants caught on fire and he didn't stop for a second.

Now, naturally, I was too awed and shy to really meet anybody, but if Irene and Tiana are making a ritual of this, I'll be sure to invite myself along. -- They have Om nights when they sit in a circle, hold hands, and tell each other about their feelings and thoughts and theories, then they join each other in a loud "om". God I wish I still believed I could be a hippy.

Awesome!

Home internet is up and running!!

Now we just have to get the hot water back, and everything's gravy.

I Just Don't Think I'll Ever Get Over You

I feel like talking.
Without you here,
There is less to say.

Oh Garden State soundtrack. I thought I'd lost it, and was pleasantly surprised when one of the songs came on through shuffle. So here I am, practicing Zen while waiting for my next class (1.5 hours from now.) I really do love my new mp3 player; I always get a confused look when I refer to is as my Zen, and it's nice to have a moment before admitting I've embraced consumerism. (I just saw my husband walk through the library. He didn't even look at me. I'm going to complain to Prof. Hugo about it.)

Elaina's been bragging about her new true-hippy music tastes, and nagging me about how I didn't introduce them to her. Sweetie, the mellow stuff that I've embraced came after an overdose of Marley and Zeppelin and the Stones while I was in high school. Good people, though, and I'm glad you're so excited about them.

Which reminds me. I need to look up Reverend Horton Heat, I've been hearing him mentioned and seeing reminders in ads and websites for the last 2 months.

Anyway, must talk to Jessica on the phone now and tell her how fishing went last night. (I went fishing last night!)

Brought to you by a laptop and a retro couch

It's so rare that I log in to Blogger from a different computer that it takes at least 5 tries before I get the right password. Today, I got it on the second try. Go me!

Was visiting BoingBoing today, and came across this. Figured I had to share it. Related yet unrelated, I'm thinking of going to Chile instead of Spain. Hell, if I want to move there, shouldn't I go and visit first? Of course, if I go to Spain, I can stay on for the summer and travel around Europe.

Also, I've been staring at the cover of Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood for a while, and I've decided that I want to be a full-blooded japanese beauty, with angled features and wide eyes. Although, seeing as the plastic surgery for this would cost more than I'll earn in my lifetime, I'll settle for being immortalized as an anime character.

Well, shit. I knew the Dead Sea Scrolls were coming to Seattle soon, but it turns out they just arrived yesterday. That was sooner than I thought. Since they go away in December, I might just have to borrow Brent's car for a day and go down to see them. Also, Femke Hiemstra is having a show in Seattle in the spring. Orrr in Vancouver - MARCH 8 & 9, 2007: 'Ladies only' art show, visual art by intermational female artists at the Tart Gallery, #C8-238 E. 10th Ave, Vancouver, Canada www.thetartgallery.com. Jessica, where are you?? I know you'd be up to these road trips at the drop of a hat. Goal for the year: Find unabashed lover of all things wonderful with too much free time, and maybe a car.

Anyway, as you can probably tell, I'm killing time. Three hours from now I'll head to the train station, 7 hours from now Brent will pick me up and take me home. From there, who knows? But right now I'm going mad with boredom, drinking too much Diet Coke, and trying to be patient with my oh-so-tiny music selection.

Hurrah!

Someone called my mom this evening. I guess she didn't like what they had to say. She came out of the computer room muttering, "What a stupid bitch..." This marks a new holiday, folks! First time I've ever heard my mom swear!

But I'm leaving in 3 days!

Early yesterday afternoon I noticed that our garage had a faint skunk odor. I like the smell of skunks (in small doses), so I was fine with it. Well. It looks like Mr. Skunk decided to take up residence under my window, because all night I long dreamt of the smell. Then around 3 am I woke up to realize that the smell was everywhere in my room. I shut my window, but the damage has been done. My room/the whole house reeks and there's no way to air it out. Ugh. Stupid skunk.

I've been saying "yar" in my head a lot lately.

five more days can barely wait it's so exciting! can't wait to see irene and seth again, can't wait to play raquetball with ben, can't wait to take beautiful photos of nick by the ocean.

Wishing I'd bought that Thievery Corporation poster

While wandering the house and thinking of different topics I'd want to write about, I came to a realization. Late-night posts are not healthy. Every idea that popped into my head was one of self-analysis coupled with self-pity. Not wanting to get into that kind of rut, I've decided that tonight's post will (hopefully) be the last of the latenight variety.

I'm Totally Not Down With Rob's Alien

Once again, it's getting super late (early?) and I have to work in 5 hours.

So this evening my dad took me down to Tacoma to the shooting range. We both shot my grandpa's revolver at a blue target, taking turns to get groupings in a specific body part. I did best while aiming for the stomach, while he showed me up with almost perfect aim every time. I'm hanging the target on my door at school as a memento. I'm hoping I can get him to take me out and use the rifle before I go. Considering I have a little more than a week left, though... Who knows?

GOD, this week seems like it's going to take forever. Made an appointment with the doctor to check out the bump on my foot. Baked snickerdoodles and ate a pineapple. Watched a 5-hour movie. Reading books and cleaning room and in general just trying to find a way to pass the time, now that my hours have been cut back at work and my parents like to steal the van from me. Why did everyone have to go back to school already? Why does Western start at the END of September? I'm going to fade away into a mist of boredom and depression, everyone will forget I ever existed, and I'll just float about the South Sound for all eternity, searching for some excitement.

On another note, Bumbershoot was absolutely fantastic and I think it's just the jolt from OHSOMUCH to absolutelynothing that's got me into this cabin-fever craze.

listening to Rilo Kiley without hearing words

Note to self: Steer clear of petfinder.com for a few years, otherwise may end up with an adorable puppy and no time to take care of it.

Not sure what to do today. Considering sticking up the library to find address of person holding my books hostage (ie, got there first and checked them out). Mom's sick and doesn't want to go to Seattle. Disappointed. Maybe I'll spend more money and go buy the Collector's Edition of BBC's Pride and Prejudice. Which reminds me, I was going to google images of Jennifer Ehle. ... Googled Jennifer Ehle, and I'm disappointed. Maybe I should leave actresses I've never heard of in their movie-roles, as seeing them out of character ruins the whole effect. Although this also increases my urge to buy previously mentioned movie.

'Course, driving away means I'd have to wax the van first. Do you have any idea how big that thing is?? I guess I'm willing to do it. Maybe I could get a couple bucks for the job, too.

First things first. Put clothes on, dry hair.

Shut Up Already

To all of you getting the wrong impression: I'm sorry.

All my posts seem to be about how unhappy and stressed I am. Truth is, while this summer has been eventless to the point of being completely immemorable, I'm loving it. Today I drove to Jessica's bookstore in Tacoma and bought 6 books for $30. The place looks small-ish on the outside, then you walk in and it's like that bookstore across the street from Michael's in Bellingham. (Why is it that I can't remember the name of the bookstore I worship, but can vividly recall the name of the bookstore I disdain?) Except Tacoma Books is way more packed, the shelves so close together that taking a step back to read the top shelves places you firmly pressed against the shelf behind you.

The drive, too, was fantastic. I'm going to miss having a car terribly, seeing as my moments of zen come from driving with the window down and music blasting at all hours of the morning/afternoon/night.

My last day of swim lessons was today. Received a $25 gift card to Safeway that I would have felt lackluster about last year. I hugged both the kids with joy, because now, I can go grocery shopping! $25 is like 7 boxes of cereal! Or 6 12-packs of Diet Coke! Or a bunch of pineapples! I am so excited to use it.

Papa Erola called around noon and told me he wants to push back my moving day to Sunday, the 17th. Even one more day seems like an eternity. The 14th is my last day at work, and I'd planned it so I'd only have enough time to furiously pack, and I'd be in Bellingham before I'd know what happened. Oh well. I suppose my grandma's more important. Maybe I can get her to help me pack.