This morning I’m pretty sure I became someone’s story about how young queers are doomed because we have no idea of our history or our circumstances. A guy in the elevator looked me up and down, decided that if I wasn’t a lesbian, I was probably at least on the good side of the issue, and started to talk to me about something Justice Ginsberg said about skim milk. Since this happened during one section of one day of a court case the ruling of which isn’t even expected until June at the earliest, I had no clue what he was talking about. Then he tried to tell me about the differences in legal arguments between the DOMA and Prop 8 cases, and just as my eyes started to glaze over, he said his goodbyes and moved on. So, my apologies to any actual lesbians, I confess I didn’t even know the names of the two ladies who’s inheritance tax issue brought DOMA to the court’s attention. In the future I will endeavor to be better at walking around with short hair.
Blue Crochet Cowl by me, and you can buy it on my Etsy store
Hoodie made by REI
Calvin Klein Dress from Macy’s
Doc Martins from a shop that doesn’t exist anymore
Today’s post was going to be a commentary on rape culture, and the misogyny of treating survivors like broken dolls, but I’m tired and I can’t get anything to come out right.
So I made this hat, and it’s for sale in my store.
Hat made by me, and for sale here
Scarf is from Mervin’s
Shirt from The Gap
Skirt from the thrift store
So today after work, I was finally able to make it to the police station before they closed at 9 only to learn that the police report the lady at the bank told me they could “just print out” would take another week to get to me. When I asked if there was anything else she could give me, I got a number.
Was there some kind of world-wide ineffective bureaucracy meeting out there where they decided that every step of every process has to take “a week to 10 days?” This douche stole my money, and if that number isn’t enough for the bank I’ll have to wait another week to wait another other week to get my fucking money back. I can already see them having some kind of time limit on trying to get it back too. Tomorrow (today as of the posting date) is the last day of February. Rent’s gotta be paid.
Anyway, this outfit looks way better in person. I always get compliments on this dress, but in the photographs I just look like a weather balloon. It must be the repeating pattern. I guess you’ll have to take my word for it, I look hot.
Maroon shirt from the thrift store
Dress was a gift of a friend
Socks are from Target
Dansko clogs are from REI
As you know, I’m working on a couple different ways to make some extra money around the house. So last week, Ben and I went to the park and took some shots to showcase the three main styles of crochet stuffs I’ll be selling on Etsy. I wanted to launch today, but all the pictures I took this morning with my own camera turned out pretty crappy. I thought about it, and I decided that if I have the time and the energy to do it right, I might as well scrap it and retake everything with Ben’s camera, even though that is maddening.
I don’t actually have a lot of time to work on the Etsy site, even though I think about it and talk about it basically constantly. I worry that when we do open everybody’s going to take one look at it and think, ‘all that drama for this?’ I mean, if I just wanted to make money, a minimum wage cashier gig, or a string of housecleaning jobs would have doubled what I’ll make from this store in half the work time. I’m starting this in the same spirit that I started to blog. I don’t really know where this journey will lead, but I’m going to go forward and figure it out along the way. There’s no real rush to open. It’s only my own anxiousness that’s making me want to get to the next step. I’ve been toiling over something nobody but Ben sees for literally months now (a month and 24 days counts as months, right?), and I’m anxious to get it moving. So, instead of this being a launch post, it’ll have to be a sneak preview of sorts. What can I say? Patience is not one of my virtues.
In the meantime, I’ve found a good calendaring solution for my immediate needs:
My “to do” board/office mirror
Hat by me (of course)
Scarf is a hand-me-down from my great grandma
Green tank (under the vest) from The Gap
Vest from Ross
Navy Talbots jacket from the thrift store
Overskirt is a wrap around from Many Hands in Corvallis, Or
Underskirt is from the thrift store
Shoes are Taos from Footwise Corvallis, Or
I’d feel like a bad friend if I didn’t tell you that you can watch the whole thing on youtube here:
Just, you know, if you feel the need to own an obsolete copy of a film you can watch for free anytime you want…
Today’s also the last day of my Clementina van der Walt cup auction. It only has one bidder for $10, so if you ever wanted to pay $10.50 for hand-painted South African cups, now’s your time to shine!
Yesterday was my Liveblog/Livestream of Die Hard 1. Counting myself, my boyfriend and everybody that joined us online, there were four people in attendance. No one stayed for the whole movie, not even me (pee break), but I had a great time and I can’t wait to do it again tomorrow.
Jacket from the thrift store
Red shirt from The Gap
Dress from Ross
Leggings from Target Extraordinary Thigh High Socks from SockDreams.com
PF Flyers were a gift from Ben’s dad
I know I already talked about it, but I am still insanely in love with The Steel Remains. I finished it Wednesday and immediately purchased more audible credits so I could buy the sequel, The Cold Commands. Almost without noticing it, I’ve already listened to over six and a half hours of the seventeen hour book in the ensuing day and a half. Yesterday evening Ben and I were walking the dog and I found myself (for the millionth time) completely geeking out over the characters and how great they are. Then out of nowhere, I basically screamed “I can’t wait for you to read this book, it’s so great!” It scared him. He yelled a little bit.
I think I’m actually going to have to self-impose a break starting tomorrow because this is the kind of book where I ingest it as fast as humanely possible, which basically dehydrates all of it’s raw emotion and shunts it into my brain with a t-shirt cannon, and that is followed by the massive, crippling depression of knowing that the book is over and I can’t have any more until the author writes the third (and last) installment. When the cycle will start all over again.
Unexpectedly, another book I’m really enjoying right now is Richard Branson’s Loosing My Virginity. I had it on my Amazon with list and Ben’s mom sent it to us (along with a ton of other books) for our birthdays. I’d expected it would be like all the other business books I’ve ever read: edifying and sometimes interesting on an abstract level, but ultimately boring and slow. To my incredible surprise and joy, the Virgin Group head gives pretty great, and sometimes almost unbelievable autobiography. I’m only 100 pages in out of something like 600, so I can’t speak to the whole thing, young Branson is only about 21 at this point.
I admit, sometimes the things he and his idle rich family get up to can be annoying. Oh, he had this aunt who had a boyfriend with a biplane and she owned a farm and a marketing firm, but times was so tough his parents could only afford 3 separate boarding schools. Must have been hard. But once you’re over the fact that this is a fairly serious view of the inside of Bristsh landed gentry, a class whose ignorance of reality has been centuries in the making, it’s kind of fun. When the rich don’t know they’re rich, they come up with some mostly hilarious ideas of what roughing it looks like. But they also get up to some grand adventures. And all this class hate isn’t to suggest I don’t think at least some of the lessons he’s learned can be translated downstream. Ignoring the chip on my shoulder, this book is really a good time. After all the brooding and hacking people to pieces in the Ringil Eskiath stories, some wacky seet-of-our-pants entrepreneurial chicanery hits the spot.
Necklace from Macy’s
Maroon shirt from the thrift store
Charter Club Sweater from Macy’s
Charter Club Skirt from Macy’s Extraordinary Thigh High Socks from Sock Dreams
Taos shoes from Footwise in Corvallis, Or
I know I talked about it yesterday, but I am loving The Steel Remains so incredibly hard right now. I’m half way through and I don’t want this book to ever end. Ringil is such an unmitigated bad ass, I wish I were awesome enough to have him as my spirit animal. At a time in my life where I’m feeling like I need to reclaim some of the massive, fire-breathing rage it took me years to learn how to stop from being my first response to things, this character is helping to guide me back to my core.
I notice that there are times when a little blunt force goes a long fucking way, and I have stopped taking advantage of those times. I did so in the interest of being able to live in society and be employed and have friends, but I think I’ve taken the nice girl routine a little too far as of late. For example, I never would have had to wait two weeks with my thumb up my ass in an apartment with a broken toilet, just wishing someone would notice my patient daily calls and pleasant messages before. I mean, they probably would have tried to evict me for the fit I threw and then not fixed my toilet for two weeks out of spite. But that’s why life is about balance. Sometimes it’s just nice to let people know you’re upset. Not get abusive of course, but not continue to be polite past the point of their rudeness.
Anyway, our toilet got fixed today (at long last), and only after I threw a micro-fit on the phone with the management company. But I came home to see some dirty water drips leading from the living room and into the bathroom, which is totally normal, but I also saw them extend about 2 feet into the bedroom, which I am not overly fond of. The plumber also left his sweater here, so I’m going to text him and tell him to a. come and get his shit and b. stay the hell out of my bedroom.
Next time it won’t take two weeks. They’ll wake up with my dick in their mouth if that’s how it has to be between us. It just takes so much more effort to be an asshole about everything.
UPDATE: Ben says that he thinks the spots leading into our bedroom are the dog’s footprints, not the plumbers, which actually makes more sense. So never mind about that bedroom part. Everything else stands. Cultivating rage, etc.
Striped shirt from Target
Maroon Shirt from Target
American Rag shorts from Macy’s
Deanna Cotton Ribbed Tights from Sock Dreams
Leg Warmers from Target
Dansko clogs from REI
After the holidays, I started listening to The Design of Everyday Things on audiobook. Initially I was worried that I wouldn’t understand the visual references, but that wasn’t a concern at all because it turns out I didn’t give a glittery golden shit. The first edition was written in 1988, and supposedly revised since then. The audio was recorded in 2011, but it was the most ancient fucking thing I’d ever heard. He speaks incredibly specifically about technology that was obsolete when he wrote the damn book. It was basically 8 hours of listening to your Great Uncle complain. It could have been boiled down to a half hour for all the usefulness it retains. That said, as a person who does design things from time to time, it’s good to have read it at some point, since designers think this thing’s the fucking bible. But I’m glad to be on the other side of Pop Pop’s Lecture on Those Newfangled Floppy Disk Thingies.
To add insult to injury, after DOET (or Do It in the industry) finished, I decided to reward myself for being good and listening to the boring book with some rousing and interesting no brainer fiction. Scrolling through my library I found Beautiful Creatures, which I must have unwittingly bought at one of Audible’s many 2 for 1 sales, because I can not fathom giving up one of my precious credits for this heap of crap. It’s basically coat-tailing on the recent rash of successful supernatural teen fictions, although in a rare twist it’s actually not a complete exercise in misogyny. For that reason, it has held my interest for 7 of its 17 hours, but I’m wavering. Like I said on twitter, Beautiful Creatures is basically Teen Wolf without the supporting cast. If I wanted to hear about idiot teenagers mooning over each other and acting like the world was ending, I would have gotten a teaching credential like every other English major on the planet. I know I’m not exactly it’s intended audience, so I can’t really blame it for being stupid. I have enjoyed tweeting about how delayed these little jerk-offs are, but I don’t know if that can take me through ten more hours of entitled pouting.
Striped shirt from the thrift store
Turquoise shirt from The Gap
Pleated skirt from the thrift store
Lace skirt from Kate’s sister Sheryl
Maroon leggings are from k-mart, but sewn up the sides so they’d fit my legs
Blue socks from Target
Tennis shoes are Vans
I’m still sick. I took the day off today (Monday) and played Skyrim and slept. So I have nothing exciting or interesting to share except that I feel a little bit better. I’ve noticed that the only way to soothe my sore throat is warm liquids, so I need to find some sort of beer helmet that makes and dispenses tea at regular intervals.
Patent pending
Pepper’s been an excellent sick day companion. Except that she’s sort of a blanket hog.
Oh, and Ben brought home giant cupcakes. Because when bad things happen, we get treats. I’m sure that’s not a habit that will come back to haunt us.
Striped red shirt is from Macy’s
Maroon sweater vest is from Target
Striped skirt is from Target
Tights are from Many Hands Trading Company in Corvallis, OR
Leg warmers are from Target
Dansko clogs are from REI
UPDATE: After I scheduled this to post, Ben made us a delicious chicken and garlic pasta dish for dinner, which I promptly threw the hell up. I do not recommend application of stomach acid to a day long sore throat. It was painful. Needless to say, my cupcake remains uneaten. But, I feel miles better this morning (Tuesday), if a little shaky from having thrown up the majority of the solid food I ate yesterday. Due to my own cooking prowess I had tea and toast for breakfast, and microwave tomato soup for lunch. And I had to make the toast twice because I completely burnt the first round. In my defense, we make our toast in the oven since the toaster is broken. So it’s a lot easier to fuck up than toaster toast.
I only actually slept between the hours of 4:30 and 7:30 this morning, and it’s 10:30 p.m. now, so this is probably going to make less sense then cows on a calculus. But a woman has to try.
I made a commitment to weekdaily posts, and I don’t back down. What’s the difference between a dedicated blogger and a pit bull with lipstick? The pit bull knows when to let go. Also, she takes the time to at least attempt to work on her appearance. Obviously the blogger stopped caring years ago.
Guess who had burgers for dinner and chili cheese fries for desert? Ben. But I helped.
Also, watch this. I already tweeted about it, but 60 whole people read my blog, only 520 people follow me on twitter, so… Wait, for real? It used to be 530. I must have scared them away when I told them to watch this. Whatever, who needs those people. Watch this, you won’t regret it. I laughed until I cried, and that’s not just because my eyes were starting to swell due to over exposure.
Can you tell why my knees are bad at 27? It’s because I stand like a damn double amputee all the fucking time! WHY CAN’T I STAND LIKE A HUMAN INSTEAD OF A MARIONETTE?!
Scarf is from a shop on Main Street in Seal Beach on Main Street. Beyond that, I have no memory of it.
Jacket is from a thrift store
Green long sleeved shirt is from The Gap
Maroon tank is from Target
Wrap-around skirt is from Many Hands in Corvallis, OR
Leg warmers are from Target
Merrell’s are from REI
