Happenings

I had a fairly lazy, yet eventful and productive weekend.  On Saturday I finished my first custom Etsy order, which was exciting.  I'm already working on my second custom order.  After that I did some more room cleaning/organizing and inventoried my jewelry supplies.  I made enough space in my room for a shelving unit, so my jewelry stuff will be more organized, instead of just all on top of my dresser like it is now.  I haven't bought the shelving unit yet, but I will soon.  Then I went to a gluten free sushi place called Mio Sushi.  It was really good and it was nice to be able to eat anything on the menu (aside from two dishes) without having to ask a million questions first.  Usually at sushi places, I just get nigiri, which is just fish and rice, as opposed to rolls.  So it was nice to be able to eat sushi rolls again, and I also had a lot left over.  I ate some for lunch today.  It was really good sushi and I highly recommend it.  They have locations in Seattle, Vancouver Washington, Camas Washington (which is near my hometown!), Portland Oregon, Bend Oregon, Eugene Oregon, and Changchun China.  I'm not sure if all of the locations are gluten-free but I know that the Greenlake Seattle location I ate at is predominantly gluten-free.

After sushi, I went to the movies and saw This Is the End.  It was a movie that falls into my completely-ridiculous-but-I-love-it category.  It has a star-studded cast and more laughs than you can shake a stick at.  (Sidenote: How did shaking a stick at something ever become a method of quantifying things?!)  This Is the End is basically about celebrities trying to survive the apocalypse.  I don't want to give anything away, since it's still out in theaters.  Besides the big stars, including Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, and James Franco, there are small parts and cameos by lots of other celebrities including, but definitely not limited to, Mindy Kaling, Emma Watson, Rihanna, and Aziz Ansari.  If you enjoyed The Hangover, you'll probably like this movie.  Also for some reason this movie made me have a celebrity crush on Jay Baruchel, so I have my first celebrity crush!  It's weird because I've seen him in a bunch of other movies and felt nothing.  I think it's because I feel like I can relate to him in this movie, the socially awkward one who doesn't know anyone at the party.

And then on Sunday I introduced G to The Office because somehow he's never seen it! (other than maybe two episodes).  He loved it and we marathoned our way through the first season and part of the second.  It's on Netflix.  I didn't want to spoil anything, so I had to be very careful with my response when he said he thought Jim liked Pam, and then again later when he said that Pam likes Jim back, and why is she with that other guy?!  After that I napped and then beat the first two stages of Pandora: Purge of Pride.  (I'll review that game in its own post at some point.  Spoiler alert: I love it!)

And besides that I inadvertently made myself (AKA my Etsy shop but I can wear it for shop promotion, plus I haven't listed it for sale yet) a bracelet that matches my toenail polish, so that happened.  I made the bracelet on purpose, but the matching was unplanned.

Happening Lately

I had a movie night on Friday with my friend who I hadn't been able to hang out with for over a year.  It was tons of fun.  We stopped and got gluten-free pizza and gluten-free pita bread with spinach artichoke dip.  The pita bread tasted better without the dip.  I would eat it all by itself.  The dip was waaaaay too garlicy.  We watched a super old movie called Clan of the Cave Bear and also Whip It.  Then I stayed the night at her house and we went to Goodwill in the morning.  I found a great floral print fedora and the orange Converse (although not actually Converse brand but they look like them) that I have been searching thrift stores for for three years! Score :)  Also on Friday my hula hoop arrived in the mail.  I bought weighted hula hoop on eBay and it came in segments that I had to connect to put it together.  Putting it together was a workout all in itself!  I hula hooped outside while reading my book on Saturday.

my newest hat

Then on Sunday I went to see The Hangover 3, complete with snuck in snacks.  The snacks cost $5 at Safeway and would have cost $20 or more at the theater.  The Hangover 3 was hilarious.  I loved it and laughed almost the whole time.  If you liked the first two, you will like it.  Ignore the negative reviews.  And if you see it, make sure that you stay for the extra part after the end credits start to roll.  It's hilarious and you do not want to miss it.  Trust me.  After the movie I went to Joann Fabrics and finally completed my Buttonquest.  I don't think I shared, but I got a custom Etsy order for three button necklaces with different colored buttons.  (my first custom Etsy order!!!)  I could only find a black button online, but had no luck finding a green one or a purple one.  I tried three or four stores unsuccessfully, then finally found them at Joann Fabrics, which was a huge relief.  I have almost completed all three necklaces now.  I just have to wait for the charms I ordered to arrive in the mail.  Then I went and bought a plastic laundry hamper because I have a fabric one from when I first started college and it's beginning to fall apart.

the two completed custom necklaces

So I've been pretty busy enjoying life and the lovely summery weather.  I hope your weekends were wonderful too.

Let's all Go to the Street Fair!

On Saturday I went to the University District Street Fair with my friend Kelsey.  It was super duper fun.  This is either the third or fourth year I've gone to it.  I've gone every year since I first got to Seattle.  This was the first year that I had money to spend on things.  Kelsey and went to the park to swing on the swings and to a pizza place before the street fair.  I'll tell you about the pizza place in a different post.  After we got pizza we went to the street fair and one of the first booths we saw was the henna tattoo booth.  I have wanted to get a henna tattoo at the street fair every single year, but didn't have money for it until this year, so I finally got one!  And I love it!

This photo is from the day I got it, when the paste was dried on.

This was from the next day when the paste was removed.

The lady took only a minute to do my henna tattoo. I asked her how long she's been doing them and she said 13 years.  She does them free-hand, without using a stencil.  It was only $12 and I had expected it to be around $20, so I was pleased.

Next to the henna tattoo booth was a booth selling monsters and I instantly fell in love with one of them.  I have some seriously awesome stuffed animals, including a Sonic the Hedgehog and a Yoshi, but they are all really small and not great for cuddling.  This monster was big and soft and adorable and only $10, so I bought it immediately.  Also, it was the only one made out of this super soft material, so it was basically fate.

There's a monster in my closet and I couldn't be happier :)

As you may have noticed, my bed is in my closet.  That's just what happens when I have very little space and a closet big enough to fit a bed in.  It's called maximizing space.

My third and final purchase of the day was at a booth with an overwhelming amount of bead strands and cool rocks.  I nearly bought a strand of quartz points but then I saw a box of big colorful smooth stones for $2 each, so I bought five of them.

Future awesome pendants (I'll edit this picture later so you can see the great colors but right now I'm just trying to post this stuff before I go to bed.)

Aside from that, there were a whole lot of amazing creative people including sculptors, jewelers, and artists.  And there was this.  I had to have my picture taken and Kelsey was less than into it but she was the Han Solo to my Chewbacca because that's what friends do.

I couldn't fit my face in properly because of my big hat.

And I also got business cards from all of the coolest booths, because their stuff was unique and wonderful and I have to share it on my blog sometime.  You guys, people are really cool.

And next week I'm going to Northwest Folklife Festival for the first time ever!  I'm excited because people hacky sack there and also because I'm hoping I'll be able to buy a hula hoop there.  Also, there was this guy performing at the street fair who is the best hack sacker I have seen in my entire life.  He can juggle two hacky sacks with one foot.  I put some money in his tip jar and then talked to him for a little bit.  Unfortunately he doesn't live around here or I would hacky sack with him sometime, in the hopes that some of his skills would rub off on me :)  I asked him how long he's been hacky sacking and he said 13 years.  I have been hacky sacking for 10 years, but there was that whole 9 months where I couldn't walk and then I had to relearn everything.  But once the weather gets nice, I'll go hacky sack in the park when I get off work again.  I'm out of practice.

Friday Fashion: Rocker Style

Rocker Style by jaythejedi featuring leather handbags

Tomorrow G and I are going to go to Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle.  I've never been there before but I've wanted to go for awhile.  One of the best parts is that it's completely free!  The weather is supposed to be nice and sunny tomorrow, so it will be great for walking around and taking lots of awesome pictures.  In a perfect world, I would be wearing this outfit, but I only own the jacket portion.  I especially love the black and white bag.  I really really want some camo skinny jeans.  I have camo shorts but that's not the same.  They're at the top of my wishlist, along with a lace dress.

Also make sure you remember to set your clocks forward on Sunday for Daylight Savings time so you aren't late for stuff.

No New Pictures

I had to ship my camera to the camera hospital, aka Nikon Service Center, so there won't be any new photos that I've taken until I get it back.  I'm just as sad about that as you are.  On Friday I made this super cool photo manipulation for a girl on Etsy.  I'm still waiting to hear back from her if she likes it.  Can you guess what famous city's skyline this is?

On Friday night, I was hanging out on the porch and got invited to a "barbecue" thrown by the "Jesus House" down the block.  Almost everyone from the porch was going.  G came to pick me up for the weekend and they invited him too.  So we came back at the time they said they would be walking over, which was 30 minutes after it started.  G brought over some beer for the people who hang out on the porch and then they instantly liked him.  We all ended up going to the party a very fashionable 2 hours late.  It wasn't actually a barbecue.  There were really yummy sandwiches and chips and brownies.  We played board games.  G and I were on a team for Scrabble and we won because we are awesome.  I made some new friends and handed out every single one of my Etsy shop business cards in my business card holder except for two.  It was really fun, but also very tiring for me.  I get tired if I have too much human interaction in one day.  So once we got back to G's house, I went straight to bed.  Then on Saturday we went to the Wedgwood Art Fair, which was walking distance from G's house.  It was way smaller than the Bellevue Art Fair, which we went to last year, but still really fun.  We ended up staying for about an hour.  They gave us each a free reusable bag, since Seattle has banned plastic bags now because we are just soooooo eco-friendly.  There were tons of chicken things and G wanted all of them, but he only bought a few chicken magnets for his fridge, which he actually needed.  Well he needed magnets anyway, not necessarily chicken magnets.  Then yesterday we went on a mission to find his stuff for his best friend's 20s themed wedding (which I just learned is going to be on a beach, so I need to thrift some sandals).  We went to the big Goodwill, Value Village, the small Goodwill, Payless Shoe Source, and Red Light, which is a vintage store right by the small Goodwill.  He ended up finding his suspenders and fedora at Red Light.  He also needed sandals, so he got those at Payless.  Also exciting: G will never wear the fedora except for that one time, so I get it after that : )  And worth noting, G called me a hipster yesterday, so that happened.  Not as an insult or anything, just as a statement.  I don't think I am a hipster, because part of my definition of hipster includes a condescending attitude, which I do not have.  He got back to his place and tried everything on together and decided that he looks like an accordion player.  I thought he looked good, but he thought he looked dorky.  Then we went to Redbox and rented 21 Jump Street with a free code we won from 7-11's summer giveaway thing.  We were too sleepy to watch it that night though, because we had to watch The Simpsons and Family Guy, so we're going to watch it tonight after the Team USA basketball game.  And today I need to find a flapper dress and sandals, because I am an awesome girlfriend and am sparing G from having to wait for me to try on a bunch of stuff.  After that, I have to go to the mall and give my resume to a store that I saw was hiring yesterday.  But first, I need a nap.

Sunny with a Chance of Showers

Yesterday the weather was beautiful, blue skies and not a cloud in sight.  G took me to the beach, which I was surprised to learn in only 20 minutes from my house by car.  It was a ton of fun.  We collected lots of pretty rocks and shells to put in an empty vase he has.  We took a long walk on the beach. (It's a cliche for a reason, because it's really enjoyable.) 

After that, G took me to Best Buy to pick up my new camera which I haven't used yet. I need to put some AAA batteries in it; then I'll photograph at least some of the jewelry I've made to put on Etsy.  After Best Buy, G took me to an early lunch at Red Robin, to celebrate the fact that he got his master's degree and I got a job.  Over lunch, I told him that my boss has been sexually harassing me.  Nothing as bad as rape, but what the law would describe as "unwelcome touches".  My boss has rubbed my upper thighs both front and back, given me back massages where his hands end up going under my shirt, and patted me on the butt, all on more than one occasion.  In fact, it's been happening every day for two weeks now.  The first week of work, he didn't do anything like that but as soon as the second week started, so did the unwelcome touches.  At first, I tried to rationalize it, like maybe he doesn't realize what he's doing.  I would get up and walk away to work intently on some project.  I didn't even write about it on here, because I guess I was sort of in denial.  If I don't tell people about it, I can pretend it's not happening.  I don't know if I actually had the flu last Friday or if the thought of going back to work just made me sick to my stomach, but I puked at least 10 times before I was able to call in sick, then more after I called in sick.  I thought I was finally better when I was about to go to bed for the night, but then I puked some more, and had to stay up a couple more hours.  When I get sick, I get thoughtful, and that's when I decided that minimum wage is not worth feeling so uncomfortable that I feel sick to my stomach, as I had every day before going to work since the touching started.  After I told G what had been going on he told me I'm not going back to work, and I told him I wasn't going to, and that I was quitting.  G wanted to go threaten my (now-ex) boss that G would cut off Bob's testicles if he ever touched me again, but Bob isn't in the shop on weekends.  G later decided not to threaten him, because that will only end in G getting in trouble.  I sent my boss an email that I got a new job and I'm moving to Portland.  I don't want to tell him the real reason why I quit, because then he'll know he had power over me and I am not going to give him that satisfaction.  I didn't even get a good night's sleep last night because I was kept awake thinking about all the things I have to do now that I had to quit my job.  So now I have to find a new job, and either two new roommates or a new place to live, because my roommate informed me that she's moving out at the end of the month.  And now I have to call my mom and tell her what happened.  It sort of feels good though, that I've taken away Bob's power and now I'm safe.  G thinks Bob chose me as a victim because I look young and because I'm shy and quiet around people until I get to know them.  An easy target.  I Facebook messaged one of Bob's former employees to see if Bob had ever done anything like that to her and she said he hadn't but she's sorry that happened to me.  I just feel sorry for the next girl Bob inevitably hires and I hope that she doesn't have to go through what I did. And I'm very lucky that it didn't escalate, because it could have been a lot worse.  And I'm also lucky that G loves me so much. He even bought me muffins that evening, because I had been craving them but didn't feel like baking.  We also watched another Lakers playoff victory last night.  And I made a delicious, if not sort of disjointed, meal of broccoli and salmon and nachos.  G comes up with meal ideas and sometimes chops stuff up and then I actually cook them.  He loved the salmon, which is something that I have never cooked before and he raved over how perfect the texture was, which made me feel good about myself.  I have a busy day/while ahead of me, so that's all for now.

Weekend Recap and Movie Reviews

I spent the weekend with G, like I usually do.  We watched both the Washington Huskies football team and basketball team lose.  But the Seahawks won, which was unexpected, since they've been doing terrible. In other sports news, Stanford's football team remains undefeated, but we didn't watch that game.  Other than watching sports, we watched some movies and played video games.

I got to the next dungeon on Ocarina of Time and learned that my bomb-throwing skills really need some work.  G noticed that my new owl necklace looks like the owl from the game, only mine has fake gemstones.  I made some smoothies that we both thoroughly enjoyed.  I would give you the recipe, but I don't measure.  Peel and cut up a medium sized orange. That is the part that takes the most time.  Then put in about four frozen strawberries per person and some vanilla yogurt.  Then you just blend everything together.  Serve with or without whipped cream on top.  It's actually a super healthy and super tasty thing to make if you're trying to eat healthy.  Just leave off the whipped cream, and if you're really serious about healthy eating, use non-fat yogurt.  It's also really filling, so you can have it as a meal and be completely full after.

On to movies: I watched four, and I'm reviewing them all plus Gremlins 2, which I watched for the first time a while back when I was sick. G fell asleep at the beginning of A Clockwork Orange and slept through the whole thing, as well as Woodshop.  I watched Terminator with G, and then started watching How to be a Serial Killer, and he went to bed a while after I started that one.  I found them all on Netflix. If you haven't heard of A Clockwork Orange, then I'll try to refrain from asking what is wrong with you and instead inform you that it's a classic. It deals with psychological issues. Do not read past the picture if you do not like spoilers.  I would say it is worth watching once, but I, personally, do not want to watch it again.  It is rated R for a reason.  There is nudity and violence, as well as implied rape.  The rape is not shown but the part leading up to it is, and it is made very clear that it happened. Also, if you're easily creeped out, you won't want to look at this guy for an hour and a half.

A Clockwork Orange is a movie by Stanley Kubrick in 1971. He's the same guy who wrote and directed The Shining. A Clockwork Orange is set in a future version of Britain.  At the beginning of the movie, the main character, Alex,  and his friends, or "droogs" as he calls them are at a bar drinking some drugged milk before they go out for some "ultraviolence".  One of the most noticeable things about the bar, which is a theme that continues through the whole movie is how erotic it is.  The tables are shaped like naked women and the milk is also dispensed by what looks like a white plastic naked woman.  One of the most bizarre things about this movie, in my opinion, is how much erotic art is everywhere, which society as a whole seems to be entirely okay with.  At one point a crazy cat lady is murdered with a sculpture she has in her room, which is shaped like a penis.  After the fellows fill up on drugged milk at the bar, they head out on the streets, where they beat an old drunk man mercilessly.  They proceed to where another group of friends is about to rape a young woman.  They taunt the other group of friends as the young lady manages to run away.  Then the two rival groups brawl.  After this they trick an elderly couple into letting them into their house and then beat the old man and rape the woman, while Alex sings "Singin' in the Rain".  The rape itself is not shown but this scene is difficult to watch nonetheless.  We see Alex, a teenage boy, at home in his room listening to Beethoven music.  He claims that he particularly enjoys the 9th symphony. He also has a pet snake, but this factor isn't important to the movie.  The next morning his mother asks him if he's going to school.  He says that he still isn't feeling very well, so he's staying home again.  His mother says that he's missed a whole week of school.  She says to his father something about him working at night, which is apparently the lie he's told them.  Later, Alex is walking around in his underpants and then realizes that his probation officer is in the house.  The doctor and Alex sit on a bed and talk for a while.  After that, Alex goes out and picks up two girls from a music store then takes them home and has a threesome.  Alex and his droogs go out for another night of fun, and this is when Alex ends up murdering the crazy cat lady with her penis sculpture.  He gets arrested and becomes seemingly very spiritual, while actually picturing himself torturing Jesus and sleeping with maidservants.  He is selected as a candidate for aversion therapy and seems eager to be good.   He undergoes the therapy, which consists of wearing a torturous looking device, including metal things holding his eyes open, while being subjected to films depicting various violent things, all set to Beethoven music.  Then he demonstrates to an audience of important people how the desire to fight and rape now make him feel ill to the point of not acting on his desires.  Everyone is very pleased with what appears to be a great success and they release him.  Upon arriving home, Alex finds that his room has been rented out and he has to find somewhere else to stay.  He leaves with his possessions and then the old drunk who he and his droogs attacked earlier recognizes him and brings him to a bunch of homeless people, who beat him up.  Then he gets beat up by two of his former droogs, who are now policemen.  He struggles to get to a house, which he does not realize is the home of the elderly couple he beat and raped earlier.  The old man is now in a wheelchair and the wife is nowhere to be seen.  The man does not recognize Alex and encourages him to clean up and take a bath.  While Alex is in the bathtub, he begins singing "Singin' in the Rain" and the old man hears him from the other room and realizes who he is.  After his bath, the old man and his assistant encourage Alex to eat some food and drink some wine and then the old man tells Alex about what happened to his wife.  She died of pneumonia, but the man thinks she wouldn't have if it hadn't been for the violent rape breaking her spirit.  At some Alex accidentally informs the man that he has been conditioned against Beethoven music, as a side effect of the therapy.  Alex passes out in his spaghetti, from the drugged wine.  He awakens locked in a room upstairs, while the old man blasts Beethoven's 9th downstairs.  Alex shouts at the man to turn off the music, then bangs his head on the floor in an attempt to make it stop.  Then he decides to kill himself, and jumps out of the window.  He awakens in a cast in the hospital.  The government is in trouble for their experiments on Alex.  The Interior Minister visits Alex in the hospital to apologize for their actions.  He promises Alex a good job where he will earn as much money as he wants, in return for Alex helping the government.  Alex agrees and the press photographs the occasion.  The hospital plays him Beethoven's 9th and Alex imagines having sex in the snow and as the movie ends, he quips that he is cured indeed, friends.  The end credits roll to the tune of "Singin' in the Rain".  I am not going to analyze the movie, only review it.  I was equally bored and shocked at the beginning.  I stuck with it and the exploration of the effects of therapy to remove violent tendencies proved to be rather interesting.  I do not plan to watch this movie again, but it was okay to watch once.  I think it was very well-written, and the actors were very good. Some scenes were very disturbing which I know is what Kubrick was going for, but I wouldn't want to see them again. The movie made me think, which I like, so I give it 3 stars out of 5.

I think that this post is long enough already, so I'll end it here and review the other movies later this week.

Read This While I Impart Some Knowledge

On Friday, I was using my laptop like I do.  I was just finishing up my first eBay listing when everything went very wrong.  While everything was being the exact opposite of what it should have been, I would have not been surprised if dead kittens appeared in my bedroom and started shooting lasers out of their eye sockets, and they had sharp teeth too.  Keep in mind that I have a fever right now so my writing might appear anywhere from mildly to severely insane to all you 98.6 degree readers.

There were no kittens, no dead kittens, no undead kittens, no living kittens, no cryogenically frozen kittens, no laser-eyeballed kittens, and no fire-breathing kittens.  There was, however, someone remotely controlling my laptop.  First they deleted my eBay listing as I was just adding the finishing touches.  Then they started opening and closing various programs so rapidly that I could not do anything about it.  I barely managed to open a Microsoft Word document and type that they need to 4-letter-word off.  They seemed to deliberate this suggestion while highlighting and centering the text that I had typed, then adjusting the margins to their liking.  Then they disappeared without a trace.  My assessment was that some merry prankster, probably a teenager, had learned to remote access computers and was having what he or she thought was a bit of fun.  They had left without a trace, so I redid my eBay listing and posted it, then got ready to go to G's.  When I got to his house, I relayed the incident and he had a much different interpretation of events.  He thinks that a hacker accessed my computer and probably has all my passwords now and will soon wreak havoc on what small amount of money I have.  He encouraged me to change all my passwords, which I did without hesitation.  He also told me to look up how people remote access computers when I got home, which I did.  I learned that it is possible to remote access a computer if the user has remote assistance enabled.  This feature allowa a person to call customer support or even a knowledgable friend and then the person helping you can access your computer from their own, without having to travel to wherever you are.  That is its intended purpose.  However, really anyone who knows how can access your computer in this way and do whatever they want to.  To disable this feature, go to "control panel", then click "system", then "remote settings", then uncheck the box that says to allow remote assistance to your computer.  You can thank me later, after your kitten nightmares finally stop.

In other news, we got Little Big Planet 2 and Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 on Saturday.  The Huskies lost the football game, and Stanford continues being undefeated.  On Sunday, we went down by the waterfront to G's school.  He finished writing his presentation, which is the final thing he has to do to earn his master's degree.  I did a lot of reading in a very good book.  We had planned to walk along the waterfront a bit, but didn't end up having time, because we had to pick up our tickets for the Husky basketball game that evening.  We watched the Seahawks game, which by some miracle, they actually won!  Then we went to the Husky basketball game, which they won by 6 points.  They were up by 19 at one point, but became complacent near the end.  It was really fun, and I'm happy that we won.  Then we went home and I made spaghetti for dinner, and we also ate the rest of the chicken soup that I had made earlier in the week.  So my weekend turned out pretty good.  Now I have a fever, but it's a good excuse to eat ice cream for breakfast.  And today I will watch Hulu while finishing listing things on eBay.