Yesterday my good friend Erin was clicking various links on the internets and happened upon a HILARIOUS photo of the two of us on a random person's flickr account. It was a polaroid someone found in a Harlem Globetrotters book in a thrift store (i'm guessing in NYC) it had 'mississippi' written on the back, although the photo itself was taken in Georgia and we were living at the time in Rhode Island. And so it was titled "Mississippi Girls"

Erin and I are holding a sign that says 'goth' and looking all serious. in reality, at the time we were on tour playing (indie pop, not goth) music & having an awesome time. We backtracked and figured out that night it was spring of 2002, and we played the show that night with Green Bean Go, Tami Hart and Sarah Dougher at the now dearly departed Ultramod Compound in Athens, GA.

Erin says it best:

The whole thing is so weird: my obsession with random-internet-photos led me to an incidence of US AS A RANDOM INTERNET PHOTO. Insane. It feels like time travel or something!

We both wonder if we left it in a Harlem Globetrotters book ourselves...that seems like something we would have done.

The photo (now missing from flickr but here's its Google images screenshot)

So weird!!!
Oh, and incidentally when I emailed the person it was credited to & asked how they got ahold of the photo, it turns out I have met this person before when doing a show at giant robot ny, but they didn't recognize it as me in the photo.

In conclusion, the world is pint sized and awesome.
Here's a version of the same photo that I have here in my house & another photo in which Erin's probably holding the original polaroid. Seriously, so strange:

something is screwy. First, i set fire to the microwave two days ago with a bag of microwave popcorn -- i swear, even though i stayed up all night boiling lemons and coffee and washing down every surface in the house, it is STILL all i can smell. also, let me tell you -- the fact that it was 100 calorie kettle corn does NOT make it smell sweetly. it smells like cotton candy from hell. as a result, even the thought of food makes me nauseous, so running on no sleep and no food, somehow i managed to do the following:

a. i re-coded over 250 pages on my shop. i added a banner, changed some of the buttons, reformatted the tables, and most importantly, added this little "or you might like" button that you see on the left there, which allows for easier browsing of the shop. it was all so tedious which is why i wonder: where the heck did the stamina and concentration come from?!!!! didn't you read what i said before about popcorn hell?!

b. i started training again this week. i've been doing physical training for the last 7 months or so, a couple times a week at the YMCA - but had to take a hiatus when i had the broken shoulder. somehow, in my weird empty lifeless state, i trained vigorously day before yesterday and i'm going to do it again today - somehow. um.

c. i'm driving again - yes, for 7 weeks there i was not mobile at speeds greater than 4 mph (maybe 5 if i hustle) so yesterday i had to run an errand. on the way home - what should have taken me 15 minutes to drive took me 90 minutes. why? because i spaced, deep in "thought", and missed my exit by, like, a lot. in rush hour! maybe i better stick to the no car thing....

i'm just wondering when i'm going to crash - i feel like i haven't slept in days. last night around midnight, before i did get ~3 hrs of sleep, michael and i were watching the padres vs cubs game (it's like the battle of cities-i-lived-in) and i started talking about how funny something or another was. after 2 minutes of incoherent babbling i realized i had no idea what i was saying. not like: "oh, i was saying something but i lost my train of thought" -- more like "oh, what i am saying makes no sense whatsoever in any language"

if only i could sleep. but then i wouldn't have gotten all this work done....

ok, ready for the crazy good news?




i am engaged!

fun fact: i never planned to get married, and i thought i didn't care about it, until i saw the look in my boyfriend's eyes as he asked me to marry him and suddenly all my previous ideas kind of went out the window.

fun fact: i am obsessed with my ring. i keep staring at it. i think something's wrong with me. i have never owned a ring before, and never owned a diamond either. (it is conflict free by the way! i love that he did his research..)

fun fact: i knew nothing about weddings, except there seems to usually be a lot of white lace involved. i am looking forward to doing it my way. since getting engaged ~6 days ago, i have read approximately 2.5 books and 925082305825 blogs on the subject. i have clicked every wedding related facebook ad since i changed my 'status' - and i am learning that the more i learn about weddings, the more i want to do it my way. (our way)

fun fact: one such book said the invitation budget should be 2% of your total wedding budget. i'm thinking more like 20%. i'm a designer, come on! we're doing this shit letterpressed, for sure, even though we're anticipating doing something very small - like only our immediate families and our 5 best friends.

i hope i don't become one of those people who finds every opportunity to talk about the wedding she's planning with people who clearly don't care.
BUT right now, i am excited, on a cloud, engaged. crazy.

happy holidays!

last night i had a weird dream about a craft show, it mostly involved getting to the venue moments before the show began, but sitting on my table with some friends (including camilla who i've never met in person!) and talking about life, until one of the craft show organizers got so annoyed with us that they just came around and picked up the table, with four or five people sitting on it (including me!) and moved us to the humiliating center of the room.

then jenny gave me an award for "the biggest eyesore of a booth ever" and asked me never to come back.
then, just like the last craft show i did, my display broke and all my stuff went flying.

then, some french people and i had to give a gift to a fellow crafter for their birthday, and they insisted it be a wilted piece of lettuce, which i didn't think made a proper present but was for some reason unable to express myself.


felt club is nov 16th -- i pray it doesn't go down like this.

- - - -
in other news:


i've been keepin' busy.

still not sure about peechee's prognosis, although his wound is healing, it's healing back into a lump :( i'll keep everybody posted. thanks so much for the well wishes.

last night, we found a wild house finch on our front doorstep. literally, right on the cusp of the welcome mat and our front door. how did he know which house to go to? though i couldn't find any visible injuries and his legs, wings and eyes were responsive, he didn't look well and he obviously wasn't going anywhere. i was able to just pick him up and he perched on my hand. that's not normal. i took him to the wildlife rescue center i volunteer at which were already closed to the public at that hour. i hope he made it through the night. it's funny how these little rescues become so personal.

i had a dream that the vet at PW said 'you need to think about whether or not you want to keep this guy in your house or if you want us to release him' -- hilarious because that would never happen and i wouldn't want it to, but it was nice in my dream.

but seriously, how did he know which house to go to?

the homepage of livejournal suggested i write about my idea of a perfect sandwich, layer by layer. this is the part where i can share a funfact about me and sandwiches: when i was little, maybe 7 years old or so, i only liked to eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. didn't have to be anything special about the bread, pb or jelly, i just really liked pb&j. it was my breakfast, lunch and dinner for years. i wonder if this means that i was vegetarian for longer than just the last 16 years.

enough about that. i've made a bunch of updates to the shop including new handmade pouches, octopus t-shirts and hoodies, "i love dirt" -- an activity book for the outdoors that i illustrated (written by the incredible jennifer ward), and last but not least:

here's what i'm super excited about:

new necklaces!



see?

http://shop.boygirlparty.com

happy sandwich day.

thank you, thank you, thank you to those who came out in the pouring rain for my art show. you were fun and sweet and awesome to talk to and not at all scary. i know that sometime around noon today, it's going to be viewable online: http://www.gr-sf.com/artshows.php

san francisco is a difficult place to visit! you're kind of stuck figuring it out for yourself and it's not a city you can drive (unless you have a death wish) or even really walk in (too large) and the public transportation is like this mystery that only locals hold the key to (although props to bus 22). in the pouring rain and walking up a hill, it was a dead ringer for providence, my love/hate home of many years. people have always told me how much i'd love san francisco, and i think i might have if i were younger, but i'm getting older and boring and like things to be easy, so i don't know.

now i'm back in so cal, and with a cast on my wrist!

my cast is awesome because it's like my bitchy co-pilot angrily whispering at me "you can't do that" anytime i try to lift/write/draw/hold a phone/drive/etc/move my wrist in any way. it sucks for exactly the same reason.

is mercury in retrograde? i feel like everytime my life gets silly or difficult or complicated, it's mercury's fault. can i blame it on mercury this time too, astrolophiles? (just made that word up)

tell me.

i was installing my art show yesterday at giant robot SF with Francois and a bunch of people came through and were asking about what we were doing, when the opening was, etc. which was awesome. on one hand, i'm there to work and it can be distracting, but on the other hand, i start to get really excited about the reception. (up until this moment, in the gallery, i was -- as i always do -- imagine no one will come to my opening and a tumbleweed will roll through the gallery) it's energizing to know people are curious or interested! and, especially if they think i'm just a hired hand helping to install the show (which i guess i am actually), i get the rare opportunity to be a little like a fly on the wall at my own show while i install.

anyway, so we were hanging the show and one woman came in and asked if she could check out the show -- of course, we said and i went back to hammering. she asked for a pricelist and francois explained that we release the pricelist when the opening begins on saturday night. i know some artists don't do this, i know some artists are happy to conduct sales as soon as artwork is on the wall but i just don't think that's fair to everyone coming to the opening so i am kinda firm about not selling before the advertised show start. to which this viewer (who was totally sweet by the way, and i'm sure meant this innocently) responded "well that's annoying, why would i want to go to some big crowded opening?"

in case that question is on anybody elses' mind, and i -- as a claustrophobe and general hermit -- totally get that, i just want to open up discussion about the value of big, crowded receptions (i'm sure mine will be softly attended and not crowded at all, but just to make a point here, i continue.)

here's one reason why art receptions are worth hitting up from my perspective:

artmaking is a very solitary process, and to see my work exist outside of my studio independently and to talk with strangers about it is uncomfortable for me too!! (more uncomfortable for me than a viewer, i'm sure!! seriously, i've had butterflies in my stomach for weeks about it.) but it's also wonderful and entirely the point of a reception. when art silently gets made and then silently goes to peoples' homes, it can feel disconnected for the artist, or like the artwork merely disappeared. the reception is something tangible, a place for some unexpected dialogue to happen, and honestly, where i have met some of my favorite people, patrons, collectors and fellow artists!

(and i drove kind of a really long way to get to the show and meet you.)

i guess when you think about it, the reception is the exact opposite of the concentrated, quiet, introspective world of artmaking. something to celebrate!

today i went to the doctor to get a physical therapy referral for my wrist, and they ended up prescribing a ton of anti-inflammatories and tomorrow i have to get x-rays and begin PT on wednesday and also possibly begin receiving cortizone injections the following week. it is an exciting week for my wrist and the constant pain i am in. at last, a doctor who didn't tell me to "find a new job"

i have these new recycled letterpads in the shop which i designed almost a year ago but have been desperately seeking a printer who would help me produce them in an eco-friendly way. i'm surprised by how many printers don't want to do recycled stuff. i'd think they'd be the first on board. it's so easy!

anyway, this is what the letter pads look like:



i enjoy writing on them more than any of my other stationery items. except maybe the to-do lists. i like crossing things off.

soon, i hope, my to do list will look like this:
agonize over wrist pain