I've had a series of long days

I need to write this shit down. I am going to describe my weekend in detail, because I can't make this shit up.

So over the weekend my friend Lauren came down to see me. I love when my friends come down to see me, but I didn't get to take any time off of work and did not alter my workout routine because it's important to me to be properly trained for the half marathon in March. So this is my Saturday:

I wake up at 8am and head to the gym, where I run a solid eight miles. Saturdays are my long run days. I get in my car (whose check engine light has been on for a while [but really how seriously can you take those stupid lights?!]), and don't even make it out of the parking lot before it dies. A fellow gym member helps me get my car nice and situated safely in a parking spot. For some reason my car always breaks down when Lauren is in town, so she's used to this. I call her repeatedly but she's passed out, dead to the world. Oh well, I think, I'm no stranger to the bus. So in my SCAD hoodie and short running shorts, drenched in sweat, I head to the bus stop. My route lets me out in a "questionable" part of town where crackheads are known to linger. Not expecting to take the bus, I am weaponless. Yes, I usually carry a knife and pepper spray on me, but not today. Naturally, as soon as I get off the bus, some crackhead across the street starts yelling lewd things at me. I know I look extremely attractive in my running shorts and smell really great, but I do not appreciate someone offering to "slap that ass" under any circumstances. I keep my head low and walk fast, thinking he'll fuck off if I just ignore him. He is literally chasing me at this point, and I can hear him getting closer behind me. In this moment I was not afraid, but instead I felt a hot feeling in my stomach and I run through my options. I see some debris on the ground, consider chucking it at him. My friend Tasz lives around the corner, I consider running over to his house, but I'm not sure he's there. I'm thinking, I may actually have to defend myself in a few moments. Ahead of me I see a few mechanics standing outside their garage, so I make it a point to walk in between them even though it's out of the way, just so some other people can witness what is happening to me. Then, a magical angel man pulls his car over and asks me if I'm okay. I said I was fine, just being harassed a little too much is all. He gives me a can of pepper spray and says to be safe. I wave the pepper spray in the direction of the crackhead, so he knows to back down. He continues yelling, but finally recedes. About a hundred feet away from my front door, Lauren calls me. It's not even noon yet.

So after a long, tiring, but fun weekend with Lauren, I finally have to deal with my car situation on Monday morning. So I wake up at 8am once again to call the highest rated garage on yelp.com, they can get me in that afternoon and suggest a towing company. I call the tow truck people and tell them to meet me at my car in forty-five minutes, then I call a cab to come pick me up. It's 8am and my brain doesn't really start working until 11, so I'm trying to quickly get everything I need put into my backpack and cab it to the gym. I figure I'm already up, may as well get a workout in before work. I arrive at my car and am surprised to find out that it actually will turn on, however sputtering and dying every few minutes, but it's enough to get it to the nearest garage and save me the $85 to tow it. I quickly google "car repair" on my phone and find the nearest Auto Zone. That's right, Auto Zone, which as I quickly discover is NOT a garage, but a car parts store. Of course. Like I said, my brain is not awake yet. My car can barely go 15mph and is dying at every light. So naturally a police man pulls me over, to which I have to hastily explain I'm just trying to get to Auto Zone before it dies again. He offers to "escort me," sure whatever. Of course I instantly realize my mistake upon getting to Auto Zone. Frustrated, I park my car (at a downward angle) and try to find the nearest garage. Fortunately there is one around the corner! But now I can't get my car to start due to, that's right, the incline. Frustrated, I get out of my car and have to PUSH IT MYSELF up the small hill onto flatter parking lot ground, and my car finally starts. So finally, after all that, I bring my car, sputtering and dying to Klingemann Auto Repair, who I really need to give mad props to because they took care of me in a timely, professional, and affordable manner. Thanks, guys, really.

Having settled that, I take a cab back to the gym for a much-deserved workout. I hit the showers and quickly realize in my haste to get all my shit together, I had forgotten my towel at home. Oh well, I think, there's no going back now, I have to be ready for work within the hour. So I unload my stupidly expensive shampoo and conditioner in the stall (I'm a hairstylist, shampoo is an investment), and once I'm done, I am trying to dry off like a dog, just shaking water off parts of my body best I can. It didn't work so great. I had to slither into my clothes, everything sticking to me. Possibly one of the grossest feelings in the world. My outfit is...okay. Not the best, but not bad for being thrown together at 8am.

I had spent too much on cab fair already, so I decided to bus it to work. After figuring out what route I needed to take, I calculate I have juuuuuust enough time for breakfast at Taco Cabana. I inhaled my food, thinking if I throw this up it would be almost whole. But I dash out the door and walk hastily to...the wrong fucking bus stop. THE HELL?! I realize my mistake instantly, the stop I need to be at is just down the street, and if I book it, well, I just might make it! But no. It was like a scene from a terribly scripted romantic comedy. I was running, arms flailing, just as the bus pulled away. Frustrated, I call my boyfriend and yell at him for no reason. This proves to solve nothing at all, so I call the cab company for the third time that day (not even noon yet). I was at a weird intersection, apparently, because after fifteen frustrating minutes, the cab has not arrived. I call again, they said they sent a cab but "couldn't find the address" (HELLO, GOOGLE MAPS, COME ON), so they send another cab. Twenty minutes pass. I am getting dangerously close to being late to work. I call the cab company again, and once again they admit their driver could not find my location so they send another cab. I mean come on, how hard is it to find "across the street from the YMCA"?!

So the cab FINALLY shows up, I am only slightly late to work, and a coworker was nice enough to give me a ride home after work. So this weekend my faith in humanity was tested, and it came out positive. Between the man who helped me move my car, the guy who gave me pepper spray, the amazing mechanics of Klingemann, Lauren carting me around, my coworker giving me a ride, hell, even my boyfriend for letting me yell at him and being understanding enough to not hold it against me, all these acts of kindness far outweigh the shit storm that tried to ruin my weekend.

You know what the real kicker is, though? I left my fucking expensive ass shampoo at the gym.

Halloween 2011

October is, hands-down, my favorite month of the year. I love carving pumpkins, using the guts to make pumpkin bread with and toasting the seeds. I love making costumes and dressing up. I have not painted anything new this month because I focused mostly on my costume. Geeky, sure, but what can I say, I love Halloween.

This year I dressed up as a Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton.

Total cost: $18

Last year I was Patty Mayonnaise and I have no pictures to show for it.

Halloween 2009 I was the Smoke Monster from Lost.


See the resemblance?!

This one was expensive. I spent like $50 on supplies.
That is the last time I am a TV character. Especially one so dorky.

Halloween 2008 was the year of Tammy Faye Baker.

Zero dollars. I was surprised and shocked at the amount of people who didn't know who Tammy Fay was, especially considering I was living in the south at the time.

Halloween 2007 was the infamous Rubik's Cube costume:

Zero dollars. This one was a big hit.

2006 I was a wacky flailing arm inflatable tube guy. No pictures.

2005 I was Cindy Lauper and Marla Singer. There are pictures, somewhere, but I have no idea where to find them.

Before that I don't remember. I'm pretty sure I was Catwoman like 5 years in a row as a child.

July is almost over...

...and August is nearly here. The temperatures here are insane, over a hundred degrees on the daily. I'm pretty sure my body temperature has risen just to acclimate. I am slowly becoming flame retardant. At any rate, this week I've done a lot of staying inside and avoiding the heat and working on my paintings. I've recently finished these two which I'm pretty fond of.


Green
24" x 24"


Pink
24" x 24"

Full resolution available on my Flickr account.

These paintings are braced with a four inch depth and are hang-ready. They are heavier than they look. Prints will be available in a few weeks. I was thinking of making some stickers out of them too...or out of certain elements within them. We'll see.

As per usual I have to hand mad props out to my friend Josh Verduzco for taking pictures of my paintings. He is a total pro.

This is funny, but everyone has asked me if these two are "colon-inspired", what with my dad having been recently diagnosed with colon cancer. Oddly enough I have been drawing these things, or some variation of them, for years now. But now that these images have finally come to fruition, time has reappropriated their meaning
into something else. Something beyond doodles in my sketchbook. Does life imitate art or is it the other way around? That's just a fancy way of me saying my doodles look like turds and colons.

Outside.

As you may have figured out, I am a fan of the outdoors.


Photo credit: Eddie Vasquez


Photo credit: Eddie Vasquez


Photo credit: Eddie Vasquez


Photo credit: Eddie Vasquez



So this is on top of Mount Bonnell. Me and a crew of my homies known as the Honey Badgers climbed up it on our bikes last Tuesday. I only had to get off and walk once! ...okay twice.


Another one of my favorite spots around town is Secret Beach.


Photo credit: Jamie Gerhold





You literally have to bike and/or hike to get there. The currant is really strong because it's just south of the dam so we like to plant our stuff down on the beach and walk upstream a ways and jump in and let the river carry us back to our spot. I'd tell you where this is but it's a secret ;)

Then of course there's Barton Springs, or "Bargain Springs" as we like to call the free side:



Call me a snob but I like the pay side better:





And these are my current favorite outdoorsy spots in Austin!

How I've gone soft.

I really think I used to be dead inside. For such a long time I really never cared about anyone but me. I was heartless, and hollow. But I feel alive now, more than ever. Awake, finally. Aware. So much to do, so much to see. There is so much beauty in the world, and inside ourselves. What's the point in being selfish, it takes too much effort anyway.

New Bike High

I think the reason I like biking is because it's all about moving forward, being aware of your surroundings, making your surroundings aware of you, earning your keep as you travel forward, in whatever direction you please. Looking forward, looking around, accepting that sometimes you will swallow a bug, get yelled at by impatient, lead-footed motorists, get sunburnt, exhaust your fuel supply, fall down, hurt yourself. But you always get better, always improve with each pedal forward. Going up a hill, you may curse nature for creating such an obstacle, but your sweat and hard work are rewarded tenfold on the way down, wind in hair, you feel like a demigod floating down to visit mere mortals.



And then, when the roads are flat, you're left to contemplate the issues of today, tomorrow, yesterday...and you feel a profound connection to the world around you, how related we all are. Next thing you know you've traveled twenty, thirty, forty miles, and you've really traveled, you've earned it, and you feel strong. Strong enough to face another day, another mile, another gigantic hill, shaking with the anticipation of gliding down, wind in hair, like a memory of something better than yourself.


Any time I start out on a long ride, the first few miles are filled with doubt and worry. What if I can't make it? What if I'm not strong enough? What if it's too hard? What if I fall? But once my blood gets going, I sweat out all my anxiety and just let go. I just ride. And I remember I can do anything, I am strong enough to overcome any hill, it's all inside and I just have to access it. It gives me the confidence I need to tackle other issues in my life.

Southside walk it out.

There's something about paying bills, doing laundry, cleaning house, cleaning my car out, balancing my checkbook, cooking lunch for the rest of the week, drinking green pomegranate tea with locally grown[?] honey, and getting four new planks of wood in the mail to paint on that makes me feel like I actually have my life together.

I didn't get to cross off everything on my to-do list I made for myself today, but I got the most important things done. Oh, and I made tofu lasagna and harvest salad with raspberry vinaigrette. I am stoked for lunch this week. I also bought some of this:



Seriously, best apple juice ever. It's comforting to look at the ingredients and all it says is "apple juice." YES PLEASE.