Monday, July 30, 2007

"Chocolate Rain" made me cross the street the other day!

This time maybe not such a dizzying array.
Here's some Tay Zonday!

This is something like a phenomeon, inspiring many spoofs and memes. Apparently, this guy is getting so famous, via 4chan alone! Weird!
(Holotone, and other savvy readers, forgive my noobness-- I was trying to explain it to less interbutts-familiar folk. I'm cool. I'm cool, right? Eek!)

Annnd, Tay Zonday is so cool, but right now I'm super-psyched about my new favorite Skype use: online SkypeCatan!!! Get down on it! And show full-size and Skype it up!

Saturday, July 28, 2007

Spammimated spliff!

I'm trying to learn how to make an animated gif, since I think they're so fun and... meme-y! So, here goes nothing! If it works, there will be MOAR!!!
gifninja.com

omg, it totally worked! More will appear below!
This is Li'l Smokey! She burned her nose on a coal-hot sausage. She's got a crazy mo-style, too! Haha! Hilarious!
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Katie & Nat= funny gals!
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Friday, July 27, 2007

NOT a jimmy joke about your mama that you might not like.

Hey guys (guy) (girl?) (well anyway, there's probably not more than one or two of you).
So: check this out.
Excitement!!!

Sigh, we have to wait until 2008. But only until January!

part-sun, part-earth, part-daughter, part-son!



I really cannot get enough of this.
I know you know.
But it's just the most beautiful thing.
You have to see this movie, finally. Even Raichile liked it! Jeez!
I wish everything in life rocked so hard.

Michelle P. does rock this hard. Thanks for organizing the cooking class! Have fun in Asheville!

Sunday, July 22, 2007

I guess on days like this, you know who your friends are!

That title's from a Tori Amos song, called "Taxi Ride." It's a great song about when Kevin Aucoin died. He was an artist.

I'm making this post a little shorter! It has been requested of me, by my fan, that I make such a change.

I just want to say, though, I am feeling so good right now. I feel justified, and I'm riding a selfish high that feels like an electric rock falling hundreds of feet down through the ocean.

I know sometimes the choices I make seem, well, hard to handle. I guess that would be a good way to put it. Everybody has their own ideas and expectations. Yours are not mine, probably. But I know one person here that doesn't have any expectations of me, and he helped me a lot, today, just being there and suffering my stuff. So, thank you, EHarmony. I can't wait until our rock and roll wedding one day when we're too old to play around anymore.

I love y'all-- I really do.

Saturday, July 14, 2007

If that ain’t love, then tell me what is! Uh-Huh!

I am cramped.

A good cramped, like being in a nest. I'm in a little nest, yes, flying over basically Wyoming. Big canyons are manila down there, and then there are the greenish snow-capped and blunted peaks.

I just finished a really good book, Rent Girl, by Michelle Tea, illustrated—magically—by Laurenn McCubbin. The book is about a sort of confused charming young punk lesbian girl making her way in a world where the reality and temptation of prostitution are hard to resist. It's a nice book. (I suppose.) (Nicer than Cruddy, I have to say…) The illustrations are gorgeous, and it tells a true story that is a pretty moving portrait of a lifestyle that I have not too much knowledge about, because now I'm an old former trusta-hippy, and not a young tongue dumb dumpy little girl hippy anymore. And it makes me go, "Aw," a little.

Yes, and things are pretty good right now, I have to say, so I was thinking to myself, "Why don't I blog about it?" Let me tell you what's going on right now: I am eating the best chocolate right now (Lavender, by Dagoba—it's organic; Daye Sheridan Stewart Piotrowski likes it too. But you're probably not cool enough to know her!! J). Dagoba chocolates are made in Ashland, Oregon. Oh, yeah, did I mention, I'm on a plane now? Ah. Well, I may have neglected to mention that I am flying on a plane from Portland, OR, having had a really great eight day-long "Spring Break in July" trip to see my girls. Some of them, anyway. I always wish I could be around them all. We are going to have such a fun, sexy nursing home one day. Yes we are. So… I guess I should write a little travelogue accompaniment to my trip, which was so awesome. I'll subject you to that next. Meantime, I want to continue, 'cause there's more: I figured out my camera, and was able to upload a bunch of pics to the net in the airport. Also, I am listening to that totally great Midlake album, "The Trials of Van Occupanther," which K-Lo kicked down to me in such a timely manner. It's real "westy." Pioneer-like. We have all been grooving on it, hardcore. It's nice and cool here. I'm on a Delta flight back, with its plush pleather seats, and an empty middle seat in between me and this nice guy on the aisle, who is also rocking out, via mp3 projector. Oh, yes, they have an airport Powell's Books, so I impulsively picked up YET another sequential novel, Maggie the Mechanic, which has a bunch of the first Locas stories, written by Jaime Hernandez. You may be aware that I love the things that come out of that guy's head and hand.

First thing about the trip, besides how awesome and natural it was, is that I spent what I consider to be an obscene amount of dollars on comics. I don't even know what I bought. I am like, worse than a boner for a comic book store; I am in heat. That town of Portland turns me on so in that way. They make lots of comics money when people like me come to town.

So, the trip: I'm blogging about it, I know, which is kind of Lame, especially since another thing I splurged on at the airport (god—I don't even want to see this upcoming bank statement! Why did I let myself get a credit card? Yikes.) was a really nice fancy Moleskine sketchbook, the big kind, meant to keep my thoughts (as opposed to this mean computer). It was a purchase inspired by a visit with a person named Jeffree, whom I consider to be more a friend than an acquaintance. We are on the level, dude. It stands to reason that I would want to do everything he does, because he pretty much does everything I want to do. Both of Jeffree's past two girlfriends—serious girlfriends—and you won't believe this when I tell you—have my same birthday, and are also left-handed, like me. Wow. The last one, Dionne, just broke up with him a couple days before I came to visit, which was a couple weeks after he'd moved there, over the phone. I understand breaking up with someone so far away: she's in Maine. Apparently, she's scared to make a commitment to him. It's hurting him, but he's doing all right, too. He has a good foundation, and super-good energy, and good friends. Jeffree also makes art, usually paintings, from what I've seen, and I bought one while I was on my trip. It's a colorful illustration that was made while he was talking on the phone to his friend who was going through a divorce. It reminds me of keeping in touch with people, which is, like, totally what I do. He mad another picture when Dionne dumped him, and it is very complicated and fantastic and dark. He's just great. You'll probably meet him one day.

And one thing I did with Jeffree, besides trying to turn him onto all these different comic books at one time, so fast that I believe it overwhelmed his sensibilities, was to go camping with the boy. Me and Jeffree and Meggan and Kelly and Katie and Natalie and Sara all went car camping amid the gorgeous peaks of the Cascade mountain range in Washington, last weekend. It was. Well, it's really hard to describe without sounding cliché. Let me relate to you an observation that Kelly made while we were on a short hike (what were we even doing? Oh yeah, just probably chilling and exploring): this is what you always envision the best-case scenario of camping is like, and it never turns out that way. Camping last weekend turned out exactly as it was dreamed it would. We had a lot a lot of trouble getting it together to leave town: there was this crazy car snafu, involving Meggan going to get a tire changed, and the guys at Les Schwab telling her she better go ahead and get a new set, because she was tempting fate riding on them now (to which I am like, "yeah right. And also, would you quit messing with us, pros?"). So we had to get a new set. Let's wait 30 minutes. Let's wait an hour. Ok, now let's hear the guys telling us that Meggs has to have some kind of VW Jetta key for the tire locks, which she does not have, so let's drive back to the house, fret and freak, tensions running so high, all we want to do is leave town! Then a lightbulb came on in somebody's head, and we were able to go to the friendly neighborhood fix-it guy, who happens to be this really cute sexy mechanic that the girls all have crushes on even though they are almost all gay—that's how cute he is. The cutie lent us a key, we took it to Les, and it worked, and they put our tires on, posthaste. Now, let me ask you this: if you are a tire place, in Portland, Oregon, where everybody and their mother drives a Volkswagen, why would you not keep a stock of those keys available, especially if they are not unique to the individual automobile?

Wow.

So, that was a lot. Then, of course, there are two (sweet) dogs and two (insane) cats living at the house, and something had to be done with them. There were so many logistics involved in going on this trip. Katie had to come a day late; we had to rent her a car, for the dogs and stuff. I had a hypoglycemic episode. Whatev. It was cool. I'm glad the girls took care of the logistics, and I could just sweat it out and eat leftover Tin Shed.

We go on this trip to the mountains, on which I have practically stamped my feet on the ground and insisted we go. We cruised up this long highway, with the full intention of heading into Roslyn, Washington (aka Cicely, Alaska). The girls, Kelly and Meggan, have exasperatedly caved and said they would make this ridiculous eight-hour drive for me, so we can do what I want, since it is so important that we carry out my plan. It got a little ridiculous, I must say. But, it was a beautiful drive, full of so much uncertainty. I felt so much younger. I felt like I did in Asheville. And when we went into the mountains—oh! The trees! So tall and thick, like redwoods! Were they redwoods? And they were everywhere, too. They were amazing. The sky was bluest azure. The water in the rivers was coming from the glaciers (you could see some of the glaciers!), which made it greenish-aqua, like seaglass, and even more so with all those colorful rocks tumbling around beneath the water. We passed Mt. Hood on the way out of town, and then came to Mt. St. Helens, which was a hugely-cratered, amazing, snow-covered hugeness. It was grace; it was grace. We passed all this, and then night began to suggest falling, and it was clear that we needed to find a spot to camp, and fast. One of the reasons it was so imperative that we camp soon was that we had a huge tent, like a circus tent, from the 1970's, meant to accommodate the whole party, to set up. It was either that or throw out the 3-man. I like to be cozy, but three big girls and a dog in a 3-man… well… there's farting and stuff. Let's leave it at that. (Although, as a side note, one of my superhero nicknames is "The Snuggler" now, and I would have been in bliss bliss bliss to be so close to those girls all night, who are among my all-time fave snuggle partners.)

We had no idea where to camp. Fortuitously, we happened upon three travelers along the road, who we stopped and asked if they had us any advice. They didn't really, but they relayed a general rule to us, which we had suspected, but not enough to act on: it's a National Forest; you just turn down one of those roads to the right, and camp wherever there's a spot. We were crafty, after all, see, playing the odds that leaving on a Thursday would give us prime spot-chance, but we really didn't believe in ourselves at that point, so late were we and everything. Meggs drives fast, and maybe has a small amount of difficulty making that last-second sudden right turn (I do not, which is one of the reasons I wasn't driving), so we cruised past a couple of promising forest roads, anxiously. Then we saw mile marker 18, and Meggan says, "This is it." And, you know? It totally was. We got in there, saw the great big spot, the little road that led to the free wood, and by the time the dusklight was friscallating, we had that monster tent off the ground and a fire built, to boot! A good one! I said, cheerily, "I am going to check out that little road that is right next to our campsite!" Then, less than 30 feet later, I came upon the nicest blue-eye swimming hole I ever have seen. It was apparent that we had stumbled upon the best campsite ever: free, free wood, sweet hole, weird green empty box for storing any number of things, mat of hay atop which ¼ of the tent would sit! It was beautiful! We got drunk and stoned and cooked and ate sausages and something else, but I think I was too drunk and stoned to remember what exactly. Leftovers! God, it turned out that someone had built a roofed privy, complete with handholds and convenience-log, and so we were all able to shit comfortably, which we did often. And then the dog, Norman, would eat it, privately, unbeknownst to us. We were right next to a river, which lulled us to sleep. When we woke, because the tent was positioned under the shade of the million gorgeous pines (redwoods?), it was cool and nice. We had a leisurely morning, and then the shit hit the fan.

I don't know if it was the estrogen or the alcohol, or the what-have-you, but we all totally tweaked the next day. We had a cathartic experience, one of the kind you can only have with really good, trusted friends. This experience involved hurt feelings and an impromptu therapeutic communications workshop in the woods! How wonderful! In the end, everything was ironed out to our mutual agreement. We all have our own little quirks when it comes to communicating, getting a point across and such, and they don't always jive with each other. That's the kind of stuff you just have to work out. I remember thinking, "If we were boys, we would have just been like 'fuck you' [which Meggan did say to me, at one point] or fought it out, and it would be forgotten." But, alas, much as some of us, i.e. me, would like to be, we're not boys. And I'm not sure what all friends do, but that's not what my friends do. But we did all cry, at our times, in our ways. We took a lot of breaks on the way to Roslyn, and we ended up not making it there, but we ended up happy, and that was all that mattered to me.

On the way to Roslyn, we drove past some of the prettiest country, and the most beautiful flowers. We passed Mt. Ranier and saw its craggy glory. We even drove out of the Cascades, in Yakima, into the desert, the high desert of Washington, with all its sandstone and stripes and sage. And liquor stores. Roslyn's about an hour from Yakima. We made it halfway up that last stretch and decided it wasn't worth it. We had Magic Campsite to return to before the girls (and Jeffree) came in!

Return we did—it was much faster now that we didn't have to hash out a bunch of communication on the side of the road. Meggan got obsessed with taking a shower (?), and so we stopped at a great many campgrounds on the way home, fruitlessly searching for a bathhouse for her to wash her ass in. The girls got in, and it was great to see them. It was Friday, and everybody was off work. Jeffree was there with his crystals and his good energy. We cooked veg; we drank; I passed out kind of early. Apparently, Katie got wildly drunk. I was sad I missed it! When we awoke in the morning, Natalie tipped us off to the killer little island in the middle of a nearby stream, a place that was full of salamanders and tadpoles and a gemstone collection's-worth of colorful rocks that we were ceaselessly fascinated by. We bathed there—I got naked, too. The water was absolutely frigid. It was bone-numbingly cold. But, I am sor-ry!, I can't resist a mountain stream, especially when there's no one around. (It was funny: I asked Jeffree, "do you care if I get naked for this?" And he was like, "what do you mean, do I care?" I said something like, "well, I just didn't, like, know if you minded." And he was all, "One thing I do not mind is naked girls," or something to that effect. Less sleazy, though. Eh. Guess you had to be there.) But! I got in, dang it! And it was hella refreshing. Man, such a hot day—such cold water! And we just ended up lazing until we could laze no more, and talking, and Jeffree painted, and we walked around some, gathered firewood, built log furniture, and laughed and didn't cry.

Well, that was pretty much our camping trip—we played with the dogs and each other… fun in the sun, for sure! It couldn't have been more beautiful.

The camping trip happened in the dead center of my vacation, though, and I want to tell about some more of it (the vacation).

I came in late at night on July 2nd. Meggan picked me up. We had a beer at Mock Crest Tavern, the Girls' fave neighborhood bar, and were served/tended-to by a woman who really resembled a famous movie star, which was neat. I couldn't remember who it was, but it was the mom in Pleasantville. She's so sweet. Pretty, too, with those sad eyes and that wide red smile. (Actually, we went to "Mock's Crest" after camping, too, and had a few + fish'n'chips—the wind blew our adorable umbrellaed garden table, and all the drinks and food crashed right onto Meggan! Tragicomedy! It's really a nice bier garder they have, though. We got her cleaned up.)

The next day, July 3… hmm. What did we do? I'm leaving a blank here—oh yeah! Me and Meggan worked out logistics all day!... no? Where was Kelly? Did we all just hang out at the house, minus Katie? No! Kelly was at work! Right! Me and Meggs did logistics, ate at the Tin Shed (yum and awesome), took the dog to the vet (cute), had a bunch of couch time (my fave), I think listened to some music… That night we ate at Fratelli. Yeah, I know we ate there last time—that's where we came up with the Table, after all—but I thought it would be really good anyway. It wasn't as good as the first time. Never is… Fratelli had changed, and we all agreed we felt rushed. Then we went to a cocktail bar where we had crazy vegetable cocktails and practiced our "sexy tongue lure," at which I am laughably bad. Here's Kelly's:

gifninja.com Create custom animated gifs at gifninja.com!

I had a cocktail made with BEETS! It was cocktail night—we went to one more spot—cool place, I don't know what it was—it was red—and had a beer and called it a night. For one thing, we had to wake up and go tubing tomorrow!

Oh, the fun! Best July 4th ever, I'd say! We were all really skeptical about going tubing on such a holiday—majorly crowded, we thought, but we shot the works and went anyway. The way it works on the Clackamas River is that you park one car down at the take-out and drive another one up to the put-in. Parking is scarce, so parking is anywhere. We parked on the side of the road, on a dangerous curve, which began a trend (of course), and soon we were in a huge line of what looked like The Cars of Hippy-Redneck Spring Break 2007! And, let me tell you: it was a party! We got on that river that started out so slow amongst about 100 people, and they were trawling coolers and had PA systems and megaphones and huge Party-Barge raft "systems" with tons of people, mainly in the 18-30 range, just hootin' and hollerin' and having a good old time! We were having a blast with them. As you know, when you float down a river, you tend to naturally stay with the same general group of people, and we had cool people around us. One of the parties had a german shorthaired pointer that stood in the boat like a pirate dog. The sun was really beating down, but we screened it up constantly, so we ended up glowing, not burning. Perfect day.

We rode back home and prepared for our cookout. Kelly made the most delicious stuff. There were sausages and chickens on the grill. But, nothing prepared us for the fireworks display that happened right there in the backyard that night! Lo, though we were only armed with sparklers and snakes, the rest of the neighborhood was compared to 'Nam most of the night. It was beautiful (unlike 'Nam). Natalie and Sarah both came over, too. I took lots of pictures of the 'works. They're intense. The inversion rack was out. Lots was drank. Sangria (white). That's about all I remember.

gifninja.com Create custom animated gifs at gifninja.com!

The next day was Thursday, and that's when we went camping.

After the camping trip, everybody had to get reality-checked for school and work. It was a late night, though, for some. I was exhausted and passed out early. Jeffree and Meggan and Katie made a band—Jeffee on guitar, Katie rockin the flute, Meggs drumming. I fell asleep to their songs through the window.

I woke up early and completed a project I had due for school, the Girls went to work, and me and Jeffree had a leisurely day of cleaning and packing, of eating and shopping for comics.

Monday night we all, The Table, went out for Indian food. Mutton was on the menu—special!—and I said what's up. Now I love
mutton! Yay! We had a traditional family-style shared dinner, so I tried Kelly's yellow lentils. Delicious? Yes!

That night, I cried.

Well, we went to Amnesia for a pitcher and met Casey there, then we went home. I was overcome with the feeling of "losing this." Probably, if you're reading this, you know how important these people are to me. It makes me so sad to not be with them. Like, I am so tightly attached. These are my girls, and they have always had my heart. So, I cried. I'm still sad! I don't know when I'll see them again! But I will remember Kelly holding me in her arms that night—last night—and feeling so reassured by her presence. It's worth the feeling sad, that. She's really good at comforting me when I'm down and out. She and Meggan are.

And Now! We're beginning our initial descent into Atlanta. My seat on the wing looks out at the twilight in the southeast part of the USA. I have had a very good trip. Additionally, I am a very lucky girl. Yay!

(Hopefully, if you didn't TL:DR this, you'll have read it and will want to go to Oregon, too! I know you do!)

-- Lydia Fahs, July 11, 2007