Read this Blog!

I found this blog and I love it.  Kali is awesome and she shares DIY projects, movie reviews, and critiques songs among other things.  She doesn't have very many readers yet so you should all go read her blog.

one of her fantastic DIYs

And in my own life news, I signed a lease for a bigger room in the same building I'm in now for the next year.  It's only $60 more for a room that's twice the size of my current one, plus a closet, and without the sun shining in and heating it to ridiculous temperatures all day.

That One Time We Nearly Got Attacked by a Crackhead

Words in parentheses are paraphrased because I like this blog to be family-friendly.  On Saturday night, G made a quick trip to the convenience store.  I rode along but planned to just stay in the car because I didn't want to get anything.  G was counting out his change before he went in because he is one of those rare people who likes to use correct change but not waste people's time.  As he was counting out his change, this homeless looking sketchy guy came around to my side of the car and asked G if he could give him 50 cents.  G asked him if it was for beer and the dude said yes.  G told the guy that it's illegal to buy beer for others when you don't know if they're legal drinking age.  The dude gets upset and claims to be a lawyer and says that is (completely ridiculous).  G tells the dude to back off or he'll call the cops.  The dude starts walking away and G gets out his phone and calls the cops.  We're describing what the dude was wearing when he comes back.  He runs at the front of G's car and G thankfully drops his phone to the floor before the dude can see it.  The dude asks G if he called the cops on him.  And he asks this in a very loud and angry tone.  G says no man, we're cool.  And the dude says, good, because if you did I'd break your (fantastic) windshield.  To prove his point he makes a fist right next to G's face.  Then he walks away and G completes his phone call with the cops and tells them what direction the dude walked away in.  I immediately locked all the doors and rolled up all the windows.  We left and went past the dude who was still walking on the same street.  When we got back to G's apartment, I was still shaking so badly that I spilled almost an entire big bag of Reese's Pieces on the table and floor.  Good thing I managed to pick them all up before the 15 second rule was over.

A Geek by Any Other Name Still Has the Same Interests

As you are reading this, I am probably somewhere under Seattle.  I am taking an underground tour today with some of my new friends.

This post is about an issue that is really important to me.  I'm not sure if you have seen Joe Peacock's ridiculous article about "fake" geek girls.   I am not even going to talk about cosplayers at all.  I am just going to talk about the "booth babes" aspect.  Basically Joe Peacock is saying that he doesn't like booth babes being at conventions because they aren't geeks.  The first reason this bothers me is that you can't tell much about a person from just looking at them.  You certainly can't look at a person and automatically know what their likes and dislikes are.  Life isn't Facebook and we don't have profiles listing the stuff we're into that magically float beside us all of the time.  Some "booth babes" probably actually are into some geeky things.  There is no rule that hot girls can't actually like geeky things.  Most people are actually complex and have a variety of interests. 

The main problem I have here is that Joe Peacock's entire article is based on him judging people he doesn't know.  He hasn't bothered to get to know them at all.  He says "And be it known that I am good friends with several stunningly beautiful women who cosplay as stunningly beautiful characters from comics, sci-fi, fantasy and other genres of fandom. They are, each of them, bone fide geeks. They belong with us. Being beautiful is not a crime."  I do appreciate that Joe Peacock isn't saying "Girls cannot be geeks".  I have experienced so many instances of people saying "Girls can't" in my life that I probably couldn't even count them all out on my fingers.  Girls can't: be better than guys at whatever sport, love watching sports, know how to use power tools, be good at video games, listen to metal, headbang, hacky sack.  Those are just a few of the ones I have personally experienced and I've proven them all wrong.  For myself, when I hear someone say "girls can't" whatever, it just makes me want to be awesome at it.  I love the look on guy's faces when they're hacky sacking and I ask to join them and then they ask if I know how.  Then I kick it about 20 times in a row and they are always so surprised.  So I do appreciate Joe Peacock accepting that girls can be geeks.  But his statement makes me wonder, if he saw any of these girls and did not know them, would he look at them and assume they weren't "true geeks"?  I wrote a post about some of the reasons people might classify me as "a nerd" a while ago.  There are so many things that people can be considered "a geek" or "a nerd" for liking.   It's not just science fiction and video games.  Just from some of my favorite blogs, there's beachcombing, mushroom picking, collecting things that others may find strange (like human tooth jewelry), graphic design, and circus tricks.  The specific girls I am thinking of who enjoy these things are all very pretty.  Some of them could definitely be models.  But if Joe Peacock saw them working as a promotional model at a convention, he would probably think that they were just there to make the guys "feel honored to be in their presence" (I am paraphrasing slightly).

There is one other huge thing that I have a problem with, though a little smaller than judging people.  Most people need to make money to survive.  There are the lucky few who were left large inheritances or won the lottery, but many of us have expenses, such as food and rent, that we need to pay.  Speaking as someone who has been searching for a job, unsuccessfully, for about a year now, I can assure you that the longer it takes to find a job, the more desparate a person becomes to make money.  I am to the point where I would happily be a sign spinner, but there aren't any sign spinner jobs on Craigslist right now.  Some girls are willing to stoop to lower levels than others to make money.  Some become prostitutes.  Ones who are considered pretty enough might become strippers.  Some of the pretty ones look through the gigs section of Craigslist and see one of the many ads for promotional models and think, maybe I am pretty enough they would hire me.  Because guess what?  Sex sells.  It is a fact of life.  That is why there are so many magazine ads selling perfume featuring women wearing a jacket without a shirt underneath and short shorts.  It's a marketing scheme.  These jobs exist and people who need money apply for them.  If I were pretty enough, I would definitely apply to be a promotional model.  The pay rate is fantastic without the risk of STDs.  I would still have my same interests, which include science fiction, webcomics, and video games.  They wouldn't go away just because I had a job as a promotional model.  Seriously, if you could get a job that paid you upwards of $100 an hour just to stand around and talk to people, wouldn't you do it?

And the last point that I want to make is that there is really no evaluation system for being a "true geek". Joe Peacock might look at me and think that I'm really a geek because I have acne and wear glasses because I need them to see. If I had perfect skin and perfect vision, he might find it hard to believe that I was a true geek. But really looks have nothing to with whether or not a person is a geek. The hottest girl in the world, whoever that may be, could be completely obsessed with Battlestar Galactica and a girl most people wouldn't look twice at may have never played a single video game in her life. Looks have absolutely nothing to do with it.  Personally I don't care whether or not Joe Peacock, or anyone else for that matter, believes I am a "true geek".  I enjoy the things I enjoy and if others enjoy them too, then great.  If they have never played an RPG and don't even know what it stands for, I would be happy to explain and let them play.  I feel that people who are considered geeks or nerds have experienced a lot of times in their lives when they have been excluded or bullied because of their interests, so we should be the last people to exclude others.  But it still happens and it makes me sad that we can't just be a friendly community who is happy to talk about our interests with anyone who wants to listen.  Instead we point our fingers and say, "You claim to like Star Wars, but you don't understand the "It's a trap" reference. Imposter!"  It's possible to like something and not know everything about it.  Just because I have seen the Star Wars trilogy upwards of 100 times and you have only seen them once, that does not mean that you can't like Star Wars. 

This got a little bit rambly, but my main points are that you can't know someone from just looking at them, people do these jobs to make money,  the jobs wouldn't exist if it didn't work, looks have nothing to do with interests, there is no official criteria for who can and cannot call themself a geek, and labels don't have a lot of meaning.

So I guess I can just sit back and watch the inevitable flame war begin, but that is my opinion.

I Wrote a Thing

You come bursting in, tired of running in circles again.
And under your skin is the only place where I really fit in.
we can never win, so why not just jump in?
And swim away, through all that remains of the day.
We'll be okay, as long as we can get far away.

Why can't we just be?
Happy and free,
maybe that's too easy.
It's you and me,
and these places to go and these people to see.

But everyone sees just a little bit different,
their vision's clouded by their own intent.
And we're never content.

And then I was a Mechanic

A few days ago G's custom grill that he ordered for his car arrived in the mail.  He likes to not have his car be recognizable at all and this was the last step in that.  The car insignia was on the original grill and this one is just plain flat black.  Now his car is much more mysterious.  Of course I helped him install his new grill, because it was a two person job.  I helped him install his new fuel sensor a little bit ago, so I'm basically a mechanic now.  Also worthy of note is the fact that this past weekend, I had to pack only skirts for lower body wear, since all of my shorts needed washed and it was too warm for pants.  So I was pretty much the girliest mechanic ever, getting my hands all greasy in a floral skirt.  The really funny part is what we used to mark where to drill the holes in the grill.  For those of you who aren't familiar with grills, I should inform you that the space behind it, at least on G's kind of car which is a secret, is very small.  First we tried marking it with chalk, but it didn't really fit.  Next we tried my pocketknife, which is really more of a purse knife because I keep it in my purse, but it didn't fit either.  So then we got creative.  First we tried dipping a toothpick in mayonnaise because it was the highest contrast thing we could use that wouldn't destroy the drill.  But it was too greasy and didn't mark well enough.  So next we tried nail polish.  We were at G's mom's house because we had to borrow her drill and the only color she had was pink.  It actually worked perfectly.  We drilled all the holes and attached it and it fit perfectly.  So that's the story of how I worked on a car, while wearing a floral skirt, with mayonnaise and pink nail polish.

Altered

This is an altered book I started when I was in high school. It's still unfinished and there are a lot of pages that I completely hate, but it helped me through a really rough time in my life.  My grandpa died of stomach cancer when I was in 8th grade.  I'm not sure if that's when my depression started or if it was before that.  I wasn't diagnosed with depression until my junior year of high school.  I have no idea how long I had it before that, just that there was a long time in my life where I didn't smile, didn't laugh, and was constantly tired.  When the kids at school would ask if I was okay, I would tell them that I was just tired, but I knew that wasn't true.  I think I started this book as a project in my art class when my fake aunt started to die of cancer.  She was actually a really amazing family friend, but she was like my mom's sister.  She was one of the best people I have ever had the pleasure of knowing.  She always had a genuine smile on her face and knew just the perfect thing to say to everyone to make them feel really good.  Even when she got near the end, she never lost her smile or her optimism.  She had beat cancer once.  It had been in remission for three years and then her husband found a lump on her spine.  Sure enough it was back again.  It metastasized and quickly spread.  She passed away before she could get her bone marrow transplant.

I started this book because I wanted something that could give me even 1/10th of the hope that Aunt Katie did.  I called it Rays of Hope.  It is mostly pictures glued to pages in a book.  I didn't realize that the book would get super thick if I glued something to the front and back of every page.  Some of the pictures are my own art, some are from magazines, and some are just things from the internet that made me smile.  Some of them are blurry, some are pixelated, some are wrinkled.  I think that part of what makes this book so special to me is that it was really the only thing I had control over when I felt like everything in my life was spiraling out of control.  I got to choose every single thing that went in it.  Nothing I didn't want would go on the pages.  I glued sayings that I found inspirational to some of the pages.  It's something that always makes me feel a little better when I'm in a really sad mood.  I really want to finish it and change a lot of it to fit with my life now.  But here are a few pictures, and I will be sharing more on some Tuesdays and Thursdays when I don't normally post.

This is the front cover.  I had to use so many layers of paint to cover
the original cover.  It started as an old book about the Mafia.



This one scanned a little blurry.  The picture is the first watercolor I ever did.
It was the size of a full page, but I cut it up to fit in my book.

When I was feeling super emotional today, I wrote a song/poem thing.  I might share it on here on Thursday.  Maybe.

Where to Eat in Seattle: Broiler Bay Burgers

G and I tried this new (to us) restaurant on Saturday, and it was so good that if I could eat there every single day I would.  But alas, I am poor.  One of G's co-workers gave him a bunch of coupons and one of them was for buy one get one free at Broiler Bay Burgers.  I don't remember if I've mentioned this, but G is a borderline hoarder of coupons.  He always has coupons for various restaurants and rarely uses them before the expiration date.  It turns out that Broiler Bay Burgers has a popular restaurant in Bellevue and opened up a new location in Shoreline, which is much closer to us.  The new location hasn't gotten too popular yet.  Walking in, the restaurant seems like a fast food place: you order at the counter where you pay and seat yourself wherever you want while you wait for your order.  They seemed slightly understaffed (a few of the tables hadn't been wiped off after customers left).  We sat to wait for our order, two 8 inch long Philly Cheesesteaks, G's with fries.  When we picked up our order, it smelled so delicious.  G shared some of his fries and they were so much better than any fast food fries I have ever eaten, maybe one notch below Red Robin fries.  They were not at all greasy, fried to a perfect golden brown, and we couldn't wait until they cooled down to eat them because they were that good.  The Philly Cheesesteaks were easily the best I've ever had, way better than the delicious ones from the Bellevue Art Fair last year.  They were also really filling.  G and I could each only eat half of ours.  I'm having my other half for lunch today.  G had his for dinner that night, but my tummy was being obnoxious with the combination of heat, stress, and hormones, so I only had some broccoli.  The restaurant played quiet classic rock in the background which definitely seals the deal for me.  This restaurant is definitely in my top 5 now.  Right before we left I had to order a milkshake.  I could say it was to write a more complete review, but let's be real here.  Their website said they had hard ice cream milkshakes and had a list of flavors and I am an ice cream-aholic who hasn't had a good, or even mediocre, milkshake in a while, so I had to get one.  I only had room for a few sips right then, but it was so delicious.  I got a small banana shake and they asked me how much banana I wanted, so I said a lot.  I watched the guy scoop out the vanilla ice cream, put in half of an actual banana (none of this flavored syrup nonsense here), pour in some milk, and mix it all up.  It was easily the thickest milkshake I've ever had and so incredibly delicious.  So, in summary, I would definitely recommend this restaurant to everyone who lives in Seattle or plans to visit.  G and I will be going back many many times in the future.


And completely unrelated, I saw this picture on the Seattle Times website in the photo gallery for the Capitol Hill Block Party and I think I would get along great with this girl.  Seriously, a Darth Vader mask, a lightsaber, and Tetris leggings?!  We will be friends.  And her hair looks like it's cool too.

from the Seattle Times photo gallery;
click here to see the other Capitol Hill Block Party fashion

Food Friday: Soup-er Simple Meal Idea

We ate this for dinner the other night and it is so simple to make.  If you're a carnivore like G and I, you can start by browning some ground beef in a skillet.  If you're a vegetarian, just skip that step.  Boil some water and cook the amount of pasta you want to eat until it's al dente.  Drain the water, then put the noodles in the pan with the ground beef once it's done cooking.  If you're a vegetarian drain the water, then put the noodles back in the pot you cooked them in.  Pour in some of any kind of creamy soup as a sauce then stir it until the soup is brought up to a good temperature for eating.  Then you just eat it.  The soup that we used was called Loaded Baked Potato with Bacon.  It sounds like a flavor of chips but I swear it's a soup.  I think it is Progresso brand.  Other good flavors would include: cream of chicken, cream of celery, and cream of mushroom.  You could actually use any kind of soup you wanted, not just creamy soups, but it would be more like a noodle soup than a pasta with sauce then.

Etsy Love: Honeybee Edition

Honeybees are awesome because they make delicious honey.  Also, my own Etsy shop is named Honeybee Alley, so it was only a matter of time before I made an Etsy Love post with honeybee products.  Click the picture to go to the listing on Etsy.

 


I especially love the eyes on this one.



Someday I will own this, because it goes so well with my shop name.

These are really cool.

I think this necklace looks really classy.



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.

Friday Fashion: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Sorry if you were expecting another installment of Friday (the 13th) Fashion.  I don't have enough time for one today because my brand new camera is on the fritz and I have to call Nikon support before I can finish photographing products for my Etsy shop.

The Good: I love this ad.  I love the stuffed animal taxidermy.  But I feel like she would be wearing
sexy heels instead of flip flops.  I am reasonably sure that this company sells flip flops though.

The Bad: I think this was probably supposed to seem zany or something, but I just think it's weird.
I hope she got paid a lot of money to do this.  Or maybe it was just Photoshopped, I don't know.

The Ugly: You are a walking billboard and that entire outfit is crazy boxy and not at all form-fitting.  This "outfit"
makes me think of the things that are covered in logos that celebrities pose in front of at red carpet events.

Tales from the Porch

On Monday I fully intended to go out and get IMPORTANT STUFF done, including finding a flapper dress at Goodwill for G's friend's wedding, which we just found out is 20s themed.  But then social phobia had other plans, so instead I stayed inside and listed jewelry in my Etsy shop all day and talked to exactly no people.  Yesterday, social phobia was gone again and I went out and got IMPORTANT STUFF done, not including flapper dress shopping, but including picking up job applications.  When I got back my room was dreadfully hot so I put my stuff away and went to the breezy shady front porch to do my job applications.  And then there were people on the porch.  It was Old Drunk Guy and Supposedly Anti-social Guy.  I said hi and then tackled my job applications like a boss.  Then I started to eat my peach that I had purchased from Safeway as a refreshing summer treat.  And you guys, it tasted like a bland juiceless apple.  I was so disappointed!  I couldn't even finish half of it before having to throw it away.  I think that Supposedly Anti-social Guy has a crush on me.  For one thing, when he first got to the porch, he was carrying his own chair.  But then he put it down on the other side of the porch and sat in the chair right next to me instead.  He talked to me a lot.  He told lots of really corny jokes, many which I had heard before, but I laughed politely anyway.  Some of them were corny but actually pretty good wordplay so I actually liked them.  He asked me what music I like and he heartily approved.  Then he asked me which authors I enjoy and I told him that Dean Koontz is my favorite.  He said he likes him too and recommended Teri Pratchet (I have no idea if I spelled that right and my laptop is being too slow to Bing it right now), so I'll check her out at some point.  He offered me beer, which I politely declined, then later rum, which I also declined.  He asked me if I had a fake ID because he and some of the other people who live in the building were going to a karaoke thing, but it's 21 and over.  I do not have a fake ID.  I am just 5 months short of 21, but probably could not even remotely pass for 21.  I look closer to 18 or maybe even 16.  Supposedly I will appreciate this when I'm older but right now I do not.  I met some other house people, one of the two other females in the house of about 30 people, who invited me to a movie night she's having in her room soon.  One guy who is nicknamed Captain America.  One guy who Old Drunk Guy was teasing about not having chest hair and then No Chest Hair Dude went on to tell everyone about how he shaves all of his body hair including manscaping.  (Note that he was also not drinking at all.)  So that was a little bit too much information for everyone.  Then we heard about the frat next door having one of their hookahs stolen.  That whole thing got resolved after the frat guy came over and asked to talk to our building manager, who then watched their poor quality security footage of someone climbing over the at least 6 foot tall fence, grabbing the hookah and then climbing back over the fence with it.  It turns out that it wasn't even one of the people in our building.  One of the guys in our building dared his very drunk friend to do it, so he did.  They gave it back with some beers and then the frat guys were happy again.

Today started out with having to call DSHS at 8 because I never received my food stamps this month.  I had to wait on hold for a while, but then they told me that a paper I sent them was never recorded.  They had the paper, so it was an easy fix, and I'll get my food stamps tomorrow.  That was followed by checking my email and finding out that I made my 8th Etsy sale!  That always puts me in a happy mood for the rest of the day at the very least.  Today is my (hopefully last) periodontist follow-up appointment.  From my new place, I don't even have to transfer busses to get there!  So what was once a two hour or longer round-trip, not including the actual check-up time, will now be about an hour.  So that's really exciting.  And then we I get back,  I'll ship the Etsy order and turn in my job applications.  And lastly, since you were so good and read the whole thing, here are some random pictures.

My mother is amazing at plant stuff. Our big old tree died and got cut down,
so she turned the stump into an awesome planter for flowers!

When I was 12, I was in a biker gang.  No, just kidding, my mom's relative visited from Michigan and we took her to this viewpoint
where you can see Mt. St. Helens, and all of these bikers pulled up and parked.  They were headed to a biker rally on the other side of the country and stopped in here to eat and walk around a bit and use the restroom and all that jazz.  This particular bike belonged to an ex-firefighter and he had scenes of 9-11 painted on every single part of his bike.  It was amazing.  And he let me sit on it!
Later that year, we saw him on it in our parade and he recognized me and gave me a hug.

another really cool plant thing, our family friend painted all these flowerpots the same color, then drilled a hole in each flowerpot, then put a big piece of rebar through them all and planted flowers in them. The top one is a birdbath.  I love how whimsical it looks.

It Runs in the Family

When I went home to visit my family, I took the opportunity to photograph the various art and crafts that my mom and I have done over the years.  Try and guess what my mom made and what I did.

And after you guess, check out my Etsy shop's new About page.  Just don't look before you guess because it might give away some of the answers.

Friday Fashion: A Hippy Punk Outfit and Some New Clothes

If I were to describe my personal style, I would say that I like to wear more feminine things with more edgy things, usually things that most people wouldn't put together.  G calls my style "Hippy Punk" and I think that is a pretty accurate term for it.  Before I show you this outfit that a wore a couple of weeks ago, let me inform you that G's reaction was to tell me that it's exactly the sort of thing I would wear, immediately followed by, "You need a new outfit."  Boys.

I didn't edit this picture and that is my right as an American citizen. So deal with it.
Also, that empty soda box was my ex-roommates. This is from before the move.

Look at this photo that was accidentally zoomed in when I thought
it was zoomed out all the way.  I'm so accidentally artsy.

Here you can see my shirt better.  So many instruments on it, but I only
play one of them, unless there's a flute somewhere I didn't see.

And the new flats which make this outfit lean much more to the feminine side.

Another gem of a fashion comment from G, about my new plaid Airwalks in fantastic bright colors: "Those are the cutest ugly shoes I've ever seen."  When I asked him what he meant, he said that he wouldn't wear them.  I said I hoped not because they're clearly girl shoes and even have a some pink stripes in the plaid.  He said it was a light purple stripe.  It's not; it's pink, magenta to be exact.


And here are the lovely new (to me) clothes that I bought when I was visiting my family.

My mom found me this amazing little black lace dress at a yard sale for just $2!  And she bought it for me after I tried it on over my clothes.  And it fits me perfectly!!!  I found this blazer at Salvation army.  I think it also cost me a whole $2, and it's like new.  I found these jeans at a yard sale.  The owner never wore them because they were too long for her, and they were skinny jeans so she couldn't hem them.  They cost me a whole 50 cents.  For brand new jeans.  That have awesome studded details and fit me really well.

Home Sweet Home

So as I mentioned the other day, I'm all moved into my new place now.  My mom doesn't like it because it's right next to some frats and across from some sororities.  Also, she heard a girl on the front steps planning with a couple of guys how much pot they're going to smoke in the park.  I told her that people probably did that in the dorms too. Also, at first she thought that this place was dirty, but later she realized that it's just old and sort of discolored in places.  I met some of the people who live here.  There's Old Drunk Guy, Stand-Up Comic, Ex-Navy Guy, Supposedly Antisocial Guy, Rebel (which is how he introduced himself and I had to clarify if he said Red Bull or Rebel.  He said I can call him either.), and Rebel's Friend Whose Name I Don't Recall.  Those are the only people I've met so far.  I've gotten most of my stuff unpacked.  I took some pictures of stuff in my room.  It's a very small room so every bit of surface space is covered with stuff, but it works.  As an added bonus, none of the mattress springs stab me, unlike at my old apartment.

Some of the stuff that's piled places is really pretty.  I got these lovely teacups for 50 cents each at a
yard sale, and I got this H.G. Wells treasury at a thrift store for 50 cents.  It's 50 years old!

The yard sale where I bought these teacups had so much vintage stuff!  I know of so many Etsy sellers that would have loved those things to sell, or blog people who would have loved those things to have.  But, alas, I am not made of money, far from it.  I just filled out a job application for Jack in the Box, at a really sketchy Jack in the Box location, where what my buildingmates refer to as "wannabe crackheads" hang out in a group of five or more at a time and gawk at passersby.

My parents found me this clothes rack thing at Walmart, because this room has no closet.

I'm actually really liking it here so far.  As you can see from the second picture, my room gets a ton of light.  Everyone I've met has been really nice.  Old Drunk Guy lives on my floor and he likes to come by my room and ask me how my day was.  He always invites me to go hang out on the porch with some of the guys who like to talk and drink PBR around 5 o clock.  I'm not quite ready to be that social yet, but I'm doing pretty well.  I have even left the house at least once every day since I moved.


In other news, I adore Felicia Day in "The Guild" webseries, and I just started watching her vlog called "The Flog" and, unsurprisingly, she's just as awesome as her character in The Guild.  There are only 16 episodes of The Flog so far and I may or may not have watched them all today.  In one of them, she recommended this browser game called Fallen London and I started playing it.  I may or may not be addicted to it now.  It's actually a better game to get addicted to, because you keep on having to wait for all your stuff to refresh after you use it up, for about 8 to 9 minutes.  So during that time, why not do important stuff that you weren't doing while playing the game?!  And then if you do important stuff for about 15 minutes at a time and then play the game as a tiny break, it's actually super efficient and doesn't make you get tired of doing the important stuff.  The storyline for Fallen London is slightly ridiculous and incredibly interesting.  It also lets you choose between lots of different options for things, so everyone's game will end up different.  I think it's pretty wonderful and will definitely keep playing.

So to recap: I like my new place despite it being very very small, Felicia Day is a fantastic role model for females, and Hidden London is a super fun game that also allows you to be productive.


And in other other news, G took me to watch Ted yesterday and it was completely hilarious.  I got an ab workout from all my laughter.  After that we went and cooked dinner at his mom's house, because she has an indoor grill thing to put over the burners.  Protip: Steak tastes really really good if you use a spice rub of salt, pepper, oregano, red pepper, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  And it smells amazing when it's cooking.

I Moved!

My Etsy shop and I are both back from vacation now.  I am all moved into my new room. My mom hates the place but I'm not going to blog about the place until later this week.  Today I had trouble getting wi-fi to work until I finally restarted my laptop.  Today I have to change my mailing address on everything, go sell some old books, go to the bank, drop off my resume at a couple of restaurants, and do some grocery shopping, plus finish unpacking.