Tuesday, May 31, 2005
OK, so I'm going to cheat & back post a few notes to fill ya'll in on my week. So today it's really Sunday 6/5, but we're going to act like it's Tuesday, May 31st... because this is the internet & it's my blogg & I can do what I want! wooohoo!! :::: My weekend was massively productive. And in the last couple weeks, after getting back from my trip, I have successfully set out what
I planned to do:
 | Make working out a habit.
I have been working out almost every day! I missed one day - but technically since I'm posting like it's last Tuesday that day doesn't exist yet. HA! But suffice to say I worked out 7 days in a row and I've been really active and it feels good. Gym/Weights/Cardio & lots of hikes up the hill behind my house. It's been so nice here! |
| Make working hard a habit (again).
And boy did I! I got back into the swing of it last Friday and since I was working on a time sensitive project, I ended up working my tooty off till this last Friday (err, the Friday that doesn't exist yet. Damn, this backdating is hard!). Anyway, it's good stuff & I'm excited to show it off when it's OK to do so. :) |
| Make listening to yourself a habit.
This means not eating all the brownie mix. :) Hand in hand with the working out to get these 10 lbs back *off*. Feeling good, centered, balanced, etc. |
| Make hanging out with friends a habit.
Yes! I am doing this! It's easy for me to hermit up... so it's been an important goal for me to create some more balance, and surround myself with my awesome, loving, supportive friends.
Sunday morning Lyne & I went out to breakfast at yummy Just For You!
Then, later that afternoon I called a fellow Bernal neighbor, Lulu (who also stayed here & watched Kazoobie while I was away! Thanks Lulu!), for an impromptu hike up the hill - and she was down! woohoo! So we had a nice little walk/hike and caught up.
Then Monday, seeing as how I'd worked all weekend and most everyone else was enjoying a 3 day VK, (although, I'm not complaining because I had just enjoyed a ridiculously long VK, so I had my fun!) I decided I would at least stop working at 5pm and have a friend over and CHILL.
So, sweet Lucia came over with her knitting stuff, and we sat out on my deck while the sun set and managed to finish off a bottle of champagne. Oh yes, we're good at celebrating! Then we cracked open what I thought was a bottle of white (someone brought me some time ago, but I'm not much of a white wine drinker so it's been in there awhile) - but it turned out to be a sweet white wine, which turned out to be Lucia's favorite... so she did a great job at taking care of that for me! hehee :) I made myself margaritas & we continued to enjoy the sunset and have great talks about love and life and friendships. I love Lucia!!!
As the night wore on, we obnoxiously yelled to my fun-loving neighbors, I made us a yummy dinner, and we watched Whale Rider. A movie that SO didn't match our buzz... but it was a school night afterall, so it definitely did the trick of sobering us up. It was a much needed nice break to a wonderfully productive weekend. |
Monday, May 30, 2005
Hey guys -
Heather just wrote me an email saying her house was broken into - and she's unable to post to her blog for one reason or another, so here's her message:
"they took my laptop & i can't post right now at all.... so can you post something on our blogg letting our peeps know that if u see hezzie13 on the aim or hezekial13 at yahoo im that its not me! (and that they should give HELL to whoever is logged on as me!!)"
Totally I will Hez :( And I'm so sorry to hear that your house got broken into - that's horrible!!!!!
this is awesome!!
check it out for yourself:
spell with flickr! so. rad!
link from matt
Sunday, May 29, 2005
OK, now that I've received this from 2 people (
Sarah &
Paris), here it goes:
Total Volume Of Music On My External Hard Drive Fatty Gigger:18,845 songs, 82.92 GBs. Yes, it's now become difficult to decide what I will put on my 60GB iPod. I should be so lucky to have such problems! :)
The Last CD I Bought:
Hot Hot Heat's Elevator, however a few other more recent CD's that I've "received", that I'm really excited about, are: The Duke Spirit, Heartless Bastards (Ok, I technically did buy this one via eMusic), The Ladybug Transistor, Architecture in Helsinki, and Feist. I also had the new Spoon & the new Ponys, but I accidently deleted them! Do'h!
Song Playing Right Now:Elements of Withdrawal by The Ex-boyfriends
5 songs I listen to a lot, or that mean a lot to me:Ok, this is a hard one... sorta. I listen to a lot... so uh... OK, I guess I'll do what Paris did & do a list of what I've been listening to a lot lately:
- Hey Boy by The Blow. I love this album. And I love this song. "Why you didn't call me?" hahaa. Love it.
- Black History Month by Death From Above 1979
- So Stay in Love by Kissing Tigers
- One More Night by The Stars
- Save Button by Cathy Davey
Oh my god, that was difficult. I could spend all day on separating the lists into exactly what they mean and when I like listening to them most, etc... but there's a good spattering of 5 songs I've been listening to and like a lot.
OK, now I have to pass this on... So go at it
Jem,
Darren and
Karrie (new blogger!) But don't worry... this isn't like one of those painful chain letters where you'll grow warts or have bad luck or something if you don't do it. That said, give it a shot! :)
omg! I totally want one of
these*! Even though I don't bake (not like this requires baking skills), and I certainly don't need to be eatin cake. But I think that looks cool & now I want one! hahaa
While I was on the plane (Jetblue w/ it's DirectTV in every seat - pretty cool!) I watched this great show on this girl who used to be a clothing/pattern designer for Ralph Lauren (I think it was) and now she bakes these amazing cakes!! And they really are amazing. (
I would link to her but I can't find her online! darnit! Anyone know who I'm talking about? Yay! Karrie knew it:
www.confetticakes.com) I would have her make me one of a Vargas girl. Or a drumset. Or... my powerbook. hahhaa. I'm such a dork, but I would totally love a cake that looked like a powerbook. hahhaa! UPDATE: After looking at her incredible cakes, I would totally do something like that sushi, or have her think of something creative & beautiful. Damn is she GOOD! I love em!
* link from ze oh so funny,
mimismartypants:::
Lastnight I went to a party at my neighbor's house. Because what's the closest thing to never leaving my house? Going right next door. Pretty convenient, eh?
So I workout with one of them now (there are about 6 people total in the house), and she told me they'd be having this big party/BBQ and I should stop by. So, I'm thinkin: Rager! House full of people! Keg! (she did say they were gonna have a keg and they totally didn't! what a liar!) And I was actually looking forward to re-meeting her roommates and their friends. Especially because if I didn't like it I could just walk out their door, take 10 steps & walk right back into my sweet house!
So I go over there, and as it turned out it was just like 15 of them, hangin out, BBQ'in. Cool. I honestly was goin for dinner, cuz Nathan in the house is a superb chef and Emma always raves about it, and I could smell it from over here! So I was looking forward to his cookin, and it did not disappoint. Nathan is so talented it was turning me on. Even though he doesn't meet the height requirement. Cook me amazing meals and tell me the reasons why it affects my palette the way it does. hott.
Ya, so none of the neighbor roomies disappointed. What was odd though is that the other 12 or so people there... their "friends" did not make one effort to meet me or engage me in conversation or introduce themselves or anything. And I even stood near them quietly and did that "I'm not really listening to your conversation, but I'm right here just in case any of you want to stop & include/introduce yourselves to me." But nope. Nothing. So I ate, drank a beer and left. Thanks neighbors!
One of the neighbor girls though, I liked immediately. She's nice and fun and cute AND she has 2 itty bitty kitties!!!!!!!! OH MY GOD!!!!! Seriously it is PAINFUL how frickin cute these kitties are!!!! PAINFUL!!!
I asked her if she's been taking photos of them while they're so itty bitty and she said, "no, we haven't bought a camera yet". HUH!?!? Who doesn't have a camera?! hahaa (who me? a camera snob?) So of course, I
demanded offered to take a complete photo shoot of her cutie kitties for her. :) And she is excited! yay!! I get to go take photos of cutie woootie kitty witties!!!! hahhaa Who better for the job, right?
Oh, and check out their names: fat pants and funny boots. SO CUTE!!!!
Saturday, May 28, 2005
In the spirit of
Lucia's Goals for the Summer, I will also write a list of things I'd like to do, or have been wanting to do and dammit I will do them this summer:
- NEW! Go to Yosemite! Can you believe in all 9 years of living in this city, I've never been there!?!? OMG! This summer I *will* go there!
- Go to Napa or somewhere up north and go wine tasting. Nothing fancy, but I just haven't been up there in FOREVER and that's just silly cuz I live so close, and I really like wine! And there's fun places to sit out & eat a sandwich in the afternoon, and it's usually beautiful weather. Any friends who like road trips & wine are welcome. Or distant friends, maybe you want to come visit and then I can show you wine country? :)
- Go hiking more. Last year I hardly went hiking at all... well unless you count the many times I hiked Bernal Hill behind my house. But it's seriously one of my favorite things to do... and it's in the top 5 as to why I live in this incredible city, because we're a stone's throw from lush redwood forests that want to engulf you in their green arms.
- Go camping (ditto everything above)
- Play frisbee more. This is also one of my favorite sports... Wanna play?
- Sell my Trooper and buy a (hopefully red) VW Golf TDI < Turbodiesel, runs on biodiesel!! I'm really excited to GO GREEN! Speaking of - the World Environment Day is coming up and there's a huge gala event here next weekend that looks amazing. Lyne & I are going to try to hit some of it!
- Take a class on CSS (I picked a zen garden layout that supported my wine country goal :). I use CSS for fonts and simple borders and such... but I need to learn more and get better at full site layout using CSS.
- Repaint tables and re-waterproof furniture. This has been on my list for about a year. I WILL make it happen this summer!
- Redesign this website. And the whole slew of other things I want to do for me... but that's a whole other list! :)
::::
I had an AWESOME workout this morning, and now I'm finishing up a really fun illustration project! Hope you're all enjoying your Saturday!
Friday, May 27, 2005
Somewhere between Lit & Misshapes I dropped my beloved pink iPod sock that I use to protect my camera (it's the perfect camera holder!). And I suppose I could just break down & buy the 4 pack... but there's got to be one of you that has an extra laying around, right? Worth a shot. Let me know if you have an extra you want to give me. Any color! xoxo
:::
Update: I love my friends. I have not one, but TWO on the way! yay! An orange iPod sock from
Joe, which is totally rad because I always wished my pink one was orange. Red & orange are my favorite colors! And the other is actually a long overdue gift from the ever so lovely
Sarah Hatter, who made it for me long before I even got the pink iPod sock, when I was desperately requesting a magical sewjob to protect my shiny hard thing. (Ya, I got perverted on that one on purpose - how can you not with a name like
SewJobs? :) But I think she's even making me a new one with
this cool new baby blue & gray plaid fabric. AWESOME!!!!!
Thanks you two! I'm feeling very loved! yay!
:::
Update #2: Joe DHL'd it to me & it's here today. This kid will be a CEO before he's 30.
Wow, I can't believe today is Friday already! This week has flown by.
I'm feeling better now that I've had a few days home. I was really out of it by the end of my trip. Seriously. I suppose that's what two crazy party weekends in a row (uh, plus about 4 other nights on the town in between), staying in 3 different places in 3 different cities in 12 days will do to you.
Honestly going into to the trip, I thought I was more flexible - and I suppose overall I am... because I made it w/o
totally freaking out... but man, I love being home so much right now. Having my routine here, I feel much more in control of my life, ya know? I can go to my gym every day and eat my Special K Red Berries with soy milk, double shot soy latte's, listen to my music (
bagel radio live show today!), grocery shop & eat yummy meals at home, etc. Uh oh! I'm becoming a creature of habit! hahaa... and boy does it feel good. Habits are good.
Here's my Habit To Do List:
- Make working out a habit.
- Make working hard a habit (again).
- Make listening to yourself a habit.
- Make hanging out with friends a habit.
:::
Lastnight I chased a possum away from some trash I had left out on the porch. He was kinda weird about it though... they're blind, right? He kinda moved away slowly... after first standing there looking at me, almost as if to say, "Hi, my name is Possum and I live downstairs. Would you mind if I dug into your trash & scattered it across your porch?"
At 1:20am, I couldn't grab the camera (and make sure Kazoo didn't go out there to greet him when I opened the door) fast enough.. but here's him hobbling down the stairs:
Since most of you have probably never seen a possum in person, I zoomed in on the little bugger.
Overall it was just so surreal to see a possum on my porch. I've seen a lot of racoons here, but not many possums. They're funny little creatures! It seemed really sweet and cute... which immediately made me think I didn't want to see it not looking so sweet & cute. He is a creature of the wild, and I can imagine he's got a mean side.
Alright. That's about all the excitement happening in my life right now! Back to work. Oh & have a great long weekend everyone!
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
It feels SO good to be home. I hardly recognized the place! And yet all at the same time it gave me an understanding embrace, reminding me of who I am everywhere I look. I love my little home sooo much!!!
It was, of course, absolutely amazing to see my baby kitty again, too. I think this is the longest ever I'd been away from him... and it's so much different than kids, family, lovers, friends - because it's not like I get to call & touch base w/ him and catch up while I'm away. I even had my phone forwarded, so I couldn't even call to leave shmoopy messages on the machine so that he could hear my voice. (yes, I've totally done that before)
Needless to say, we've been having SnuggleFest 2005. Which is DREAMY! At first I had to totally re-adjust to being home. Kazoo had tracked in a bunch of the garden, making the couch look like it'd been sitting out amongst the trees and me continually finding bits stuck in his fur - that probably unless you're his momma he wouldn't let you pick out. So, being the semi-clean freak that I have learned I am occasionally - and being totally stoked to be in my own place where I'm 100% in control of all levels of clean in every nook & cranny - one of the first things I did was vacuum.
Something super shitty that happened however, before my even getting into the comforts of my wee little cottage, was that upon arriving to my parked car - I find that someone thought it'd be cool just to see what it was like to bash out one of my windows. Nothing says
Welcome Home like a $275 broken window, eh!? All I could think of was, "well, thank goodness I didn't go shopping in SOHO after all!" Which is crazy - I didn't go shopping at all while I was in NYC... which I think is considered sacrilegious or something... but obviously it's good I saved up hundreds for senseless window bashers to get their kicks at my expense! AWESOME.
The glass that has to be replaced has to be special ordered because of the year of my car, and the rare tinting. great. So not only do I have to go down there once for a temporary glass, but then go again to swap it out. Everything is just time & money, huh? I'm really trying to let this one go... cuz really - what's done is done. Maybe I'll parade around in some invisible new $150 shoes and an invisible new $125 jacket and act like I really got something great for myself.
Ya, so yesterday I came home, vacuumed, unpacked, and then after trying to do some kind of work and realizing I really just needed to soak in being home... I took off my pants and hung out in my underwear. :) Ahh.... the comforts of being in MY home with just ME and MY stuff all by MYSELF!
I didn't answer the phone (sorry I missed your call Kat!), made dinner and I caught up on all my TiVo'd shows. Well, not all.. mostly I just had a Grey's Anatomy marathon. I love that show!! And I had 3 of em waiting for me... so I was stoked! Kazoobie loves it when I hang out on the couch, too... so I got lots of snuggly visits.
I'm having an urge to check out from life and never talk to anyone again (aka hermitsville). But instead, after a conference call, I will be going down to get replacement window #1 put in - and while they do, get some MUCH NEEDED exercise in, taking a long walk along the Embarcadero. It's gorgeous weather here!!! Then later tonite I have BAM.
I have a TON of work to catch up on, so the whole check out from life deal isn't an option. It never really is, it can just sound all Calgon-take-me-away fantastic. Instead, my plan is to:
1.) Get on a regular workout schedule again. For my sanity (mostly) and to kick these extra lbs. that I've so conveniently put on to pad my wee little heart that's been needing extra spoonfuls of brownie mix to make it feel loved.
2.) Work my bootie off on all my client projects so that I can feel on top of it, caught up & make everyone happy. Plus, clearing up my schedule more for me, me, me. And future projects, of course.
3.) Connect with friends, go to movies, and go visit my brother. It's very tempting to hermit up... but because I will be working, I've learnt these last few months that working + hermiting makes Willo a dull girl. I love my friends and am really excited to have some girls nights, craft nights, BBQ's, movie nights and reconnect w/ my brother who I haven't seen in what feels like forever.
4.) Somewhere in the midst of all of that I need to do laundry, repot my plants (yes, still - it's so bad... they're sick and holding on for me.. but it's got to happen asap), and watch more TiVo :)
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
After 5 days in Toronto, and another 7 in New York... I'm on my way home today. I'm really looking forward to it! :)
Monday, May 23, 2005
We interrupt this stream of ridiculously fun posts for a very important message regarding our screwed up country:
I just signed MoveOn PAC's emergency petition to stop the "nuclear option" the far right wing's plan to seize absolute power to stack our courts -– and I hope you will sign too.
Starting Monday, the petition will be delivered straight to Congress every three hours until the final vote, and many of our comments will be read aloud on the Senate floor.
Please sign right now at:
http://www.moveonpac.org/nuclear (it just takes a second!!)
Why is this an emergency?
This Tuesday, the Senate will vote on Republican Leader Bill Frist's "nuclear option" to break the rules of the Senate and give the Republican Party absolute control over appointing federal judges.
For 200 years the minority's right to filibuster has kept our courts fair, by making sure that federal judges needed to get at least some support from both sides of the aisle before they were given life time appointments.
If Frist eliminates the filibuster, his next step would be to force far right partisan judges onto the powerful U.S. Courts of Appeals. The real targets, however, are the four seats on the Supreme Court likely to become vacant in the next four years.
With that much power on the Supreme Court, the far right could strike down decades of progress on labor rights, environmental protections, reproductive rights, and privacy.
The "nuclear option" will live or die by a final vote, probably on Tuesday, and the vote is still way too close to call. There are at least 6 moderate Republicans still on the fence and only 3 more votes needed to win. If we can get enough of our voices into congress and into the streets in the next 72 hours, we can still save our courts.
Thank you
Sunday, May 22, 2005
Saturday night, Sarah & I went to Brooklyn to celebrate her friend's bday
After many drinks, we headed back into the city to the Beauty Bar
Where we met up with
Benjamin Wagner, a NYC musician (and regular reader of my blog! :) Benjamin got a serious dose of us in rare form Saturday night! Well, maybe not rare - but in full effect lets just say!
Then we went & met up with Eric &
Brian over at Lit. Above is Brian & I, probably shortly after I confessed to him how I was seriously feelin the love for him, since he so graciously showed us a great time in his kick ass city. He's such a nice guy and although I was fairly inebriated every time I saw him, I can safely say this man RULES.
Photo album of
Saturday/Saturday Night's adventures
Sarah & I are headed out for dinner now - but I just spent all day sorting and uploading all my photos, so until I have time to write more about it all, I wanted to at least post a few photos to show you what a ridiculously good time I've been having :)
grabbing a
grilled cheese lunch w/
tania & jem
Me, atop the Belvedere Castle in Central Park!
Here's the full album of photos from
Tuesday through Friday in Brooklyn & NYC
Saturday night we hit the Stellastarr* show at Bowery Ballroom (
photos here)
me & kat, enjoying ourselves immensely!
Brian (boy licking me on the left) showed us the BEST time!! He was the one who turned us onto the Stellastarr* show and then took us to the
Stolen Transmission after party. This man knows how to have a good time and I'm so stoked he invited us along. xoxo
me & marcus (the lead singer of
ambulance ltd)
For all of you who I met that night, I had *such* a great time. xoxo
Check out the
full album of the Friday night madness!
me with
wayne & karrie's cutie kitty maury (short for maureen)
Here's the full album of photos from
Tuesday through Friday in Brooklyn & NYC and a separate album for
Wednesday night's Sights/Mando Diao show w/ Jem:
Friday, May 20, 2005
I'm in NYC and totally feel like I need to be doing a gazillion more things than I'm already doing. For example, I'm eating an Amy's pot pie out of Sarah's freezer, instead of going down to get some tasty NYC slice in the lower east side! I'm a dork - but thing is - I just want food in my belly - and I'm on my 2nd beer - and I'm killing time before heading over the Bowery Ballroom. And my feet are 'resting' cuz I just walked all over the city!
I worked this morning a bit, at a coffee shop around the corner. Sidenote for all of you telling me to go to Katz's Deli... I'm 1 block away!!!! I can literally look out her window & see the sign! :p After working a little (on an illustration, so it's not that bad!) I showered and met
Jem & Tania @ this
Grilled Cheese place around the corner. It was yummy!
Then we hopped on the 6 and headed Uptown... them getting off around 59th or so - and me up to 77th for the
Whitney Museum. Which was great!!!! The Tim Hawkinson exhibit is TOTALLY amazing... way better than I expected and I'm totally impressed with that man. Really incredible.
Afterwards I bought a Slinky bracelet, a hopper mini-journal thingy, and some cards/postcards in the gift shop. I'm pretty excited about the Slinky bracelet... and the Rauchenberg card I bought, I plan to send to myself.
Tonite Kat & I are hitting a *secret* show. Not really so secret if you're on a certain list, or if you're "connected" - which of course since this is WilloToons you're reading! (haha) Ya, so cool
Brian B turned us onto this show where the band is actually performing under a pseudonym: The Ligers.
Yesss!!!!
But it's really Stellastarr*! Yay! Apparently they are playing songs off their new album. I'm seriously stoked. It was hard to decide what to go to tonite... Hot Hot Heat is playing w/ Robbers opening - and for any of you who know me, it's practically INSANE I'm not at that show cuz I'm a gigantic fan of both of those bands! There was also a Butchies show, Andrew Bird AND some other one. There's a TON going on here!! Not to mention all the shows I wished I could see next week... The Wrens are coming! Rilo Kiley! *sigh* Thank god I live in kick ass SF where we get tons of kick ass shows!!!!
OK... I've written a blog post (while sipping my beer and watching the Beavis & Butthead movie w/ Sarah's roomate,
Mike), and rested my feet - and turns out the potpie was nasty - so I'm throwing it away & going to get a New York slice. :) Cheers!
I'm not with my baby today (cuz I'm in NYC, if you're just checking in)... but I got him a brand new scratcher before I left - and hopefully
Lulu, who is graciously campin out and sittin the little fuzzy pants a mi casa this week, will give him one of his favorite mice! :) I love you snuggly birthday boy!
Thursday, May 19, 2005
Life is well here in "working a little, playing a lot on a semi-vacation" land. Yesterday Karrie & I worked at a small little local cafe (uh, I'll have to ask her the name) where she new the guys there & it was really nice. A beautiful day, and fun for Karrie & I to be working on our laptops in a cafe together!
Then lastnight her & Wayne took me out for an incredible dinner at this South African restaurant down the street. It was DELICIOUS! Sangria, incredible salads, entrees and we even shared this delicious desert that is a must have if you go. Some pudding thing, it's amazing. (I'll get names & such later).
This is me and my sweet friend, Karrie, at dinner. Isn't she the cutest!? She has the CUTEST little button nose and freckles. I love her!! I've soooo loved staying with them for a few days. Her honey, Wayne, is SUCH a doll!!! Oh my god, you could never believe how dang cute they are. It's really heartwarming to know my friend who I care so much about is so happy and with such a great guy. yay!
Oh! And recently I did a Custom Illustration project for her that I haven't shown you all yet. She's a photographer and she's starting a line of greeting cards with her photos, called After These Messages. So here's her new business card!
Karrie's so awesome because she's so creative. She's a knitter and a writer and, like me, loves talking about creating your life - and having new experiences to fuel your mind and feed your soul. This morning we were talking about wanting to have more community type salons of sorts in our homes. And I've been thinking about this a lot & even had a big discussion with Kat about it - how I really want to start having bigger get togethers with friends for dinner. And I'm long overdue for scheduling a craft night & a girls night out! June's going to be a busy month :)
:::
After dinner I took the subway into the city to meet
Jem at the Bowery Ballroom for The Sights/Mando Diao show. We were both stoked to be at a new venue - neither of us had been before! She was stoked on seeing the Sights - but I had wanted to hit the Heartless Bastards show at the Mercury Lounge. And, unfortunately after lastnight I really wish I had gone to that show instead. The Sights were pretty good - but Mando Diao wasn't doing it for me. I liked them the first time I saw them at the Bottom of the Hill... but this time I think I realized they are one of those bands I only needed to see once.
I also have to admit I totally wore crappy shoes for the whole adventure. It didn't take me but about 8 minutes into the 10-15 minute walk to the subway station to realize I had a night of pain ahead of me. So much for fancy shoes! I'm SO wearing my comfy shoes the rest of the time here. :)
So anyway - the show was just OK for me... and I dunno.. I just wasn't as high on life as per the usual WilloSpazz. Blah. Go figure.
I feel like I'm in a little bit of a metamorphosis actually. A bit uncomfortable... probably because I'm so used to being in my sweet little home, having uber amounts of 'me-time' :) and being all independent and hermit-ish. And now I'm having to rely on other people for places to stay & how to get from A to B. But it's cool. I think it's good for me to be a little bit out of my comfort zone - and I know for a fact I'm learning a lot from all that my eyes are absorbing in this big locomotion city. I'm excited for the weekend to start and to eat up all the creative goodness in a few museums!!
::::
Today I'm in Tillie's coffee shop, on Vanderbilt & DeKalb. It's busy in here... but I'm drawing away. I brought my wacom with me, as I'm working feverishly on a illustration project for a couple who's... hmm... actually I can't tell you just yet. But I will in a few weeks when it's news for the masses. ;)
Tonite I'm headed over to Sarah's where I'll stay for the next few days & experience the Lower East Side like I have never before! woooohooooo!!!!!!
p.s. there's
a few more photos here.. but I couldn't upload them all cuz the wireless connex in this cafe is slooow. OK BYE!
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
I finished up my 5 day stay in The Big Smoke and it was great! What a cool city!!
I feel so lucky to have had Kat showin me around the town and letting me crash her life for a few days. That woman knows how to have a good time! I met a ton of her friends, all of whom are very cool, and we did a ton of eating, drinking, walking, talking and chillin (much needed and totally luxurious for me!).
Monday I worked a little and then went & had lunch w/
Hyedie, a girl I met on
Illustration Friday. She's a fellow
illustrator/web designer and we enjoyed a yummy lunch at
Fresh on Queen St. She was super sweet & it was fun to talk to her about what we want to do with our illustrations - and where she's at in her Web Design career right now, etc. And of course we talked music. She likes
Feist, too. :)
Monday night Kat & I grabbed our individually chosen dinner cravings (her: sushi, me: pizza) and went back to her place to watch Super Troopers. That movie is ridiculous. In a good way. It's like Reno 911 on crack. Worth watching for sure.
Tuesday I got up, went for coffee, and opened the laptop to see if I could possibly get any work done before I had to start packing & head to the airport. As soon as I did, I noticed a comment that was left by
Justin, a fellow Blogger/Web Designer/Developer (aka Macromedia-geek) and regular reader of my blog who I've emailed with a couple times over this last year or so, who lives in Toronto! I had spaced! I had a sneaking feeling as soon as I left Toronto I would remember a ton of people or places I should have connected with while I was there. And Justin was a near miss of exactly that - but I still had time! So I emailed him quickly (and tried Paris, too - who is a regular reader as well and apparently lives 20 miles north of TO? but I couldn't get ahold of her in time) and set up plans for brunch! yay!
I had actually been craving Eggs Benedict, ever since Kat gave me a full discourse of the beauty of eggs with more egg on top (falling asleep last Thursday night she gave me a play by play on how to make hollandaise). Unfortunately, the place she'd raved about near her wasn't open for breakfast on the weekday, but Justin knew of a breakfast place AND offered to take me to the airport (awesome!! thank you!) and so the plan was set!
It was very cool to meet yet another "internet friend" in person and connect a face w/ a name. (Justin wrote up his POV of the morning
here.) Plus, he's all Freelance now, too, so it was great to chat w/ him about what he's up to. One thing he's doing that's very cool, is that he's curating and producing a Design conference in Toronto:
DesignFest '05 - Check it out!
Lastly, a big congratulations to Justin and Jerrie - who are expecting a baby girl in September!! So if you go to the DesignFest, be sure to ask him if he's gotten any sleep. :)
:::
My flight down to NYC went smoothly... a little snoozin, a little reading (
new book!)... and then I hopped in a cab to
Karrie's house in Brooklyn's beautiful Fort Greene neighborhood. She had already had to take off for her PT job in the city. She's a Freelance writer, but she has this side job where she goes in, watches TV and reviews shows for some internet site. Tough job! hahaa She's such a great writer, and so it's no surprise she's found herself getting paid well to do something funky like that. :)
Anyway - so Karrie was off at work already, but her boyfriend
Wayne was here to welcome me and show me around. He's soooo sweet! They're such a great couple - and actually are just closing on a place here around the corner from their current little home. I'm so excited for them! I want to be a homeowner!!!
I'd made dinner plans with an old friend, so after settling in and meeting their 2 fuzzy wuzzy cutie kitties, Wayne showed me the way to the subway station and I headed into the city to meet Katrina in Union Square.
At Karrie & Waynes recommendation, we ate at Dos Caminos and it was YUM!!! We had a bit of a wait, so by the time we got seated we'd had 2 margaritas each & some guac at the bar - totalling to $65. Welcome to New York! :)
After dinner, Katrina & I said goodbye & I taxi'd over to
Sarah's for a quick beer, while I waited for Karrie to get off work so we could come back to Brooklyn together.
A great night to start my trip here and I'm excited what the next couple days have in store!
Monday, May 16, 2005
hi everyone, i'm kat! (we were shopping for the dinner party where she made some super yummy food!)
kat & I after saturday's brunch
kat made me brownies!! (and yes, I got some yummy brownie batter too!)
me & kat, ready for a night on the town!
snuggly fuzzy kitty!!
mike cringes as kat makes scott thompson laugh
me & scott thompson! (yes, scott from
kids in the hall! super sweet guy)
jeremy & me at the cadillac bar
beautiful adrienne & I at some random party
willo in toronto!
for all these photos & more, view my
toronto photo album!
add
this one to the
list of festivals I wish I had nothing better to do than travel around & hit!
Friday, May 13, 2005
Yesterday could not have gone smoother getting here. I did a long term parking deal at a BART station in the east bay (which saved me a good $20-$50 from the airport's long term parking), and it was easy as pie to hop on the shuttle from there to the airport, getting me there in plenty of time to wait in the ridiculously long security line (Oakland airport always seems a little out of control in that dept).
I was SUPER glad to have a 3 hour layover at JFK, because it was JUST enough time to go to baggage claim to get my suitcase from the first flight, take the airtrain to a diff terminal, check-in for my next flight and even grab a bite to eat. However, I must say here - what is up with JFK? Man, that place is crazy! I thought they'd have it more together there.. it's like a twilight zone! But no big deal, besides the piling us all on a third-world bus to drive us to our puddle jumper plane, it all worked out.
That flight left a tad late, but got in at the same time - and there was Kat! United at last! haha! I was afraid I wouldn't recognize her, but all I had to look out for was a girl who looked like someone I'd hang out with - and so as soon as I saw her striding towards me, I knew it was her... and she's awesome!
So we cabbed back to her place, chatting away (which is good, because you think - shit, what if I don't get along with this girl at all? Ya, *no* problems there!) and us already getting into a good stream of "wait, where was I?" and then helping each other back to our train of thoughts that spiral in 10 different directions, a mile a minute. We drop my stuff off, check out her place, I meet her Australian roomate, Cass, and Kat & I head out for dinner.
kat, showing me the sights of toronto
If any of you are familiar w/ Toronto, she lives near the Kensington Market, which is Chinatown/Little Italy area... very cool and eclectic, like our Mission (and our Chinatown I suppose, but not as crowded?). Lastnight we walked down College Ave. to a sushi place and then afterwards to her sweet local record shop, Soundscapes. Great little store, and nice people. Kat bought some records and we chatted w/ Marco, who works there. In fact, I just ran into Marco while getting coffee this morning. It's already feelin like a small town where I run into people who say "hey willo!" while I'm walking down the street - haha, how cool is that?
Kat got the new Guided by Voices, The Duke Spirit* and the new Spoon! Nice! I wanted to pick up the new Pony's, but didn't. I might have to go back for that. I also can't wait to get Feist (Jem, do you have that yet?).
*We picked up The Duke Spirit after I asked Marco if he'd heard of The Heartless Bastards yet... he said he'd heard some ppl ask about them, and it was in their listening stack so he popped it in. After hearing it he said it reminded him of the voice in The Duke Spirit, and so he popped that in & he was right - really similar. Except The Duke Spirit isn't as hard edged, it's more flowy and we liked it! So she picked it up. woohoo! Kat & I are stoked to swap some music this weekend.
Oh also when I mentioned Heartless Bastards, some guy said he just saw them live & they were really good - which is great to hear because I hate it when I start loving some band and find out they suck live... so I can't wait to check them out myself sometime!
It's pretty funny to hear how close knit the music scene is here. She's got stories about seeing, knowing and hanging out with everyone from Metric, Broken Social Scene, Arcade Fire, and Constantines. Where they work around town, who play where on random open mic nights, etc.
So ya, lastnight Kat & I met in person for the first time and holy shit, she was right. We are SO cut from the same cloth. She's rad. Lastnight was super fun, and the weekend is only beginning! Tonite she's having a dinner party so I get to meet her boyfriend and a couple of her friends, which will be very cool. Plus, apparently she's a crazy good cook! yay! I love it when people are good cooks AND they cook for me! So I'm so happy she's having this dinner party while I'm here. What she's making sounds amazing! woohoo!
So ya, today I'm finally up on the internut, after a slight delay - but I'm connected now! And listening to
Bagel Radio's live show (you should tune in toO!). Alright... best see if I can get some work in today since this weekend there will be no working and tons of playing! yay!!!
Thursday, May 12, 2005
You know you're about to have a great time when you get several warnings from people, i.e. stay out of trouble, be careful, etc. :) aww yaaa
zazz girl! bring it ON!
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
anyone got an extra
15" powerbook battery they could lend me? It'd be handy to have on my long string of flights I have coming up! SF peeps only need apply, as I've only got 24 hours to nab one. Worth a shot though as it'd be sweet! Thanks
Monday, May 09, 2005
Awww yaaaa,
Darren! ;)
Lyne joined me for a night on the town Saturday night. Around 10pm I went & got her (she already had a few
Zeitgeist beers in her which for Lightweight Lyne is hilarious) & we headed down to
Swig for Kevin's going away party. Swig (
yelp review) is a bar we normally wouldn't have gone to - who goes to bars downtown? :) But anything for Kev! (he actually got the hookup through a friend of a friend for a private party room upstairs - and for the record, I'm sure there's probably some very nice bars downtown. I just mostly frequent bars that have live music and/or people dressed in nothing fancier than t-shirts & jeans. :)
Kevin has been my main contact at
TicketWeb (TW is one of my main clients - but how would you all know since I haven't updated my portfolio in 1.5 years!? *raises fist at self* :p), and he has been absolutely STELLAR to work with. So on top of it, and a super nice guy to boot. We've enjoyed a few years of TW Christmas parties together (such a great group there) and last December we even left the main holiday party & closed down the bars in the Mission (
photo). Such good times... and, as I said but I cannot stress enough, he's been totally awesome to work with. I am very sorry to see him go - but I'm stoked for him because he's bought a round the world ticket & is traveling his pants off for the unforseeable future!
Luuuuuuuuucky!
So, loverboy Darren up there (boykani) is actually how I got the TW gig. (Yes, I will now be your best friend forever and ever, D) Kevin, Frasier (another TW guy I've worked with cuz he engineers all the HTML and images I deliver them!) and him used to work together. So it was great that he was down at Swig to swig with us as well!
We took
a ton of snaphappy photos that night - some of them
absolutely hilarious (LOL!) - and had a grand time. :) Oh, and here's
Kevin's photos from the night, too.
::::
I also posted
photos from last week's BAMboozled meeting (Jake, my Co-Facilitator/Editor's
last meeting with us who I will miss SO bad!!!) where we played a game & ate cake - and took a group photo! So you can see the teens I work with! They're awesome. :)
Sunday, May 08, 2005
I have this feeling like I'm right on the edge of the rest of my life.
My life is a blank canvas. Before me stretches: the Summer of 2005. Anything Can Happen.
I love my life, where I live, and the opportunities that lie in front of me: The Adventures.
mwah! I kiss you, LIFE. xoxoxoxoxoxo
Saturday, May 07, 2005
You should most definitely try to get to a Comic store today for a
free comic book, but if you're trapped and glued to your computer like me, I *highly* recommend you discover the awesome genious of these online comics:
Questionable Content RULES! My favorite is his
indie-cred battle comic, and
this one cracks me up (awesoemPC1998!! hahaa) The guy's a huge
music fan, which makes these comics right up my alley! I highly recommend just going to the very first one & starting from the beginning. Then bookmark where you left off if you have to do something else... that's what I'm doing. :)
He also recently started
IndieTits - which is funny cuz it's just birds talking, always the same template.
This one cracks me up. And
this one is for my sexy bass players,
Hez &
Misty. :)
I also just found this guy's comics,
The Perry Bible Fellowship (ha), most of which are hilarious and creative. Check out
his movies, too.
And I absolutely love
Matt Clark's art,
Robot the Robot. Wow, he is so talented!!
And last, but not least, aaawwww!
bunny suicides!
Wow! An
iPod vending machine! What will they think of next?
- via boingboing:::
Today is
Free Comic Book Day!
Today the
Shooting Gallery SF is having a Live Painting Day! My friend
Eric Joyner is there, and I was really hoping to be able to break away from work here & go, but I don't think I can. I love watching people do their art!
:::
No, I'm not going to
Austin City Limits or
Sasquatch. Believe me, I'd like nothing more than to travel around going to music festival after music festival!! I'd love to hit the
CMJ Music Marathon in September (New York), and the
Voodoo Music Experience in October (New Orleans), too... but with my Toronto/NYC trip next week (STOKED), and wanting to get overseas this fall (crossing my fingers)... I'll just be saving my pennies up for
SXSW06 in Austin next Spring!
Friday, May 06, 2005
I am getting *so* excited for my upcoming trip!! I'll be in Toronto from May 12-17 (stayin with the
crippler!), then in NYC from the 17-23rd, where I'll be staying with
Sarah and maybe even a little with
Karrie and her beau, if Sarah gets sick of me :) Oh &
Jem & Tania will be in NYC at the same time! woohoo!
Any of you live in Toronto or NYC?! Want to meet up for coffee or a beer? Illustrators, designers, bloggers, music lovers?
I'm bummed I'll be just missing this
Toronto Comic Art Festival! I also gotta start looking at the lineups in each city to plan some shows!!
Thursday, May 05, 2005
Twice in the last 6 months I've had people ask me what 'xo' means. haha! What are you, an alien from another country!? (no offense, H) It just cracks me up.. who doesn't know what xo means!? Well, apparently a couple people. Understandably the first person actually was, albeit not an alien, from another country... so OK... I'll let that slide :) But someone who grew up in America asked me today and I just thought it was so cute.
So in case I have the opportunity to school more people on the glory that is the 'x' and 'o':
they're kisses & hugs, sillies! x is a kiss, o is a hug... so when you reaaaaally love someone, it looks like this:
xoxoxooxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxo (and sometimes I throw in a 'to infinity' to really drive it home :p)
ok bye!
xoxo
w
p.s. Steve (of the famed
Sneeze!) just relayed a hilarious bit the late, great Mitch Hedberg had done regarding the 'x'...
"Xylophone is spelled with an X. It's like X didn't have enough to do sothey had to promise it more. "Okay, you won't start alot of words, but you will have a co-staring role in Tic-Tac-Toe. And you will be aquainted with hugs and kisses. and you will make writing christmas easier. and you will mark the spot. and you will incedentaly start Xylophone. Are you happy now, you f*cking X?"here's some more
great lines from that genius.
p.s.s. since we're on the topic of people blowing me away with things I thought were common knowledge.. let me throw another one out that I was dumbfounded my friends didn't know:
When you eat asparagus, your pee smells funny afterwards!
I mean, hello!? doesn't everyone know that!? :)
Hey! For those of you living in San Francisco - you know that new "Java Detour" place on Van Ness & Division? Well I've passed by it a gazillion times (it's unfortunately on the wrong side of the street for my normal route past there, so it makes it really inconvenient to get to most every time I really want to go), and finally went today! I really like the idea of drive up coffee places... and was hoping this new place was doing well and didn't go out of business before I got to try it! (like kosmo.com & webvan.com)
So this afternoon I was finally going in the [more convenient] direction to pop in there, and thought I'd get myself a decaf soy latte & check it out. And great news!! They don't have just coffee!! This place is cool! They've got smoothies, tea, chai, pastries and more! Check out their
menu!
I'm totally more excited about it now that I know I can get a drive through SMOOTHIE! Which is exactly what I got today... and it was GOOD! And the dude at the window was super nice & he said they're doing pretty well! And they're even
open late - which most coffee shops close early. Pretty Cool! Now if they'd just open one up across the street! hahaa
:::
Speaking of drive up things... I wish there were drive up drop mailboxes!
AWESOME! 5 is my favorite number! I'm going to have to see if Lyne wants to go for dinner - even though I'll have to come back here & work afterwards, at least I can celebrate a little! And a girls gotta eat! :)
::::
I'm having a big dilemma over my illustration today... I have worked a lot in Flash, and then recently even used Fireworks (since I'm so familiar w/ it's bezier and how it manages it's vector shapes etc) & then importing that into Photoshop to convert it to 300DPI & CMYK for a print job.... and now I'm trying
Expression, and I *really* like the lines that it creates - but when exported into Illustrator or Flash there's a gazillion points. :/ It's great to play and try different things, but I sure wish I could just feel good about sticking with one - that I feel like will be: 1.) able to maintain my style 2.) Be vector for ease of color changes and symbol usage for potential flash projects down the line, editing, etc & 3.) good for print projects. OY! Lots to think about. Illustrator is the obvious choice, in away - althought it doesn't do some of the cool things Expression does. Anyway - that's my world today. I posted about it in more detail on the
illustration friday forum if any of you want to pick up the conversation with me there.
::::
Lastnight we had to say goodbye to Jake, our wonderful editor (and my co-facilitator) at
Bamboozled. So we had a party, played Taboo & ate cake to ward off the tears. Jake is an incredible person that I feel so grateful to have known for the last couple years. He's creative, funny, humble, kind, and an extremely talented writer &
musician (also in
BLAMMOS). I'm going to miss him so much... *sniff*
So now I have to find a new editor/co-facilitator... and I can only pray I find someone as awesome as him. He was so great with the youth and I feel like we were such a great team. Changes like this are so tough. Jake's moving on to move back to Vermont with his fiance where they both have great jobs lined up and their family is there, etc. And yet it's been hard for him (and us) to say goodbye. As Jake says... it's times like make life beautiful and horrible all at the same time. I hear that!
:::
oh - eek! I have to run to a meeting - cya!
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
FYI this post has been updated! Scroll down to read more details!
This year was awesome! Perfect weather, lots of friends, INCREDIBLE bands.... and the best part is that it was a total vacation for me! No email or work for 4 whole days! oh my!!! I needed that!
My rest & relaxation of course had LOTS of walking and standing in the heat, but it was truly worth it because we had a great time! Saturday I layed out in the sun & went swimming in the pool - and over the weekend I even managed to completely finished the book I'd started reading last week:
The Kite Runner... sooo good! I was teary eyed more than once. It really is a moving story.. I recommend it! And not only did I finish my book, but I read my latest
BUST that's been neglected, and part of my
HOW mag that has been sitting in the plastic wrap for about a month. Oh maaaan was it good to relax and just read and hang out - really, really excellent!
We got home tonite (Monday) around 7 or so & although I'd prepped myself for work, it made more sense to unpack, eat dinner, sort through my 90+ emails (oy!) and start sorting & uploading all my photos, because I knew if I didn't tackle all that tonite it would sit undone in the flurry of my upcoming week. So, that's done & the photos are uploading & now I am off to bed to get fully charged for a big day tomorrow!
Once the photos are uploaded I'll come back to this post & recap some of my highlights of the trip... but I will tell you now - my absolute favorite set hands down was M.I.A. Holy SH*T! Ask anyone who was there (in the front 1/2 of the crowd anyway) it was incredible!!!!!! Ok, more tomorrow.... :)
::::
OK!
Photos are posted!
Here's how the weekend went down:
SATURDAY
- Woke up, got coffee, had breakfast, layed by the pool with a magazine, took a swim, got ready & hit the show. We had to wait in line for about 45 minutes to get in & it was hot!
- Finally in we hit Ambulance, Ltd. first (great as always), then...
- listened to Eisely while grabbing a bite to eat
- Went over to Snow Patrol
- While they all went to see the Kills, I stopped off to watch Moses' show (Bicycle Rodeo/Cyclecide)
- Then we all met up & watched Keane and then
- Rilo Kiley! (who I love) and Pedro from Napoleon Dynamite was on stage! Vote for Pedro!
- I listened to Wilco a bit on the way to the beer garden and then...
- Weezer! so fun to see them live! finally!
- Bloc Party - was packed! But what I saw of it was excellent
- I tried to hit the beer garden while some peeps watched Coldplay, but they closed it at like 11 - what's up with that!?
- Spoon closed the night! Fun to see him w/ a full band again... but I wished he'd played a few other songs I was hoping for :)
SUNDAY
- Woke up, got coffee, had breakfast, got ready & hit the show.
- Hubert & I went over to Dave's RV/Tailgating party for a few beers. Dave's a regular reader of my blog who I just met in person for the first time! Very nice sharing a few beers w/ you ddc!
- Hubert & I went in, line not too long the 2nd day, and first hit Gram Rabbit and they were great! Really fun to dance to, I'd see them again for sure.
- Then we headed over to Subtle, where we thought we might find Jem & Tania
- then to Autolux, where I finally met up with Chris, Ted & Misty! Jem even found us for a bit before taking off for another show
- At this point the line up was crazy - sooo many great shows packed into about 2 hours!
- After a bit of Autolux (who was incredible as always), Hubert & I hit the beer garden where we met up with Misty, Kate, Natalie & Craig and more...
- I hit Kasabian for about 2 songs (who sounded better than I thought they would and was pretty entertaining to watch the dorky lead singer), and then...
- Went over to M.I.A. by myself, got up close and danced my ass off!!! Oh my god it was AMAZING! Ran into Kat Hunter's friend Christian right as we were all cheering like mad to have M.I.A. come out for an encore - which NEVER happens at Coachella! But we were all *so* fired up from an INCREDIBLE set... and so much the shagrin of the event coordinators (since they only have so long to prepare for the next set) the crowd wouldn't leave until
