Tuesday, September 23, 2008

What is the world coming to?!!!


This morning when I drove the kid to school, this guy was standing at the main intersection in town.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH HIM?!!!

WHY IS HE NOT USING HIS BRAIN?!!!

He looks to be in his thirties, or maybe early forties. There is absolutely no excuse for a person in that age range to be acting in this manner. NONE! He was gone by the time I came back, maybe somebody ran him off.

And seriously, his sign looks store bought. Couldn't he be bothered to make his own sign?

Put some effort into it, dude.



This guy did.

Turn or burn, baby, turn or burn...

Monday, September 22, 2008

Portland bound!


Tired... going to bed.

Somehow, I'll get through the next two days - well, two and a half.

Than it's down to Portland!!!

I cannot wait - I'll have plenty of time to wander the downtown area and get some good pictures. I'm especially looking forward to Saturday Market, and Powell's Books, and Voodoo Donut! I'll also be hanging about while Michael plays some music with his friend, and I'm sure that will result in much good photography as well.

I love my job, but sometimes I can barely stand to go to work. There are so many other things I'd rather be doing. I'm glad for the days off, but I have to come home Sunday. Michael is staying in Portland for a couple more days to keep playing music. It will be the first time we've been apart overnight since he got here. Could be up to three nights.

That sucks.

I need to make an art car.

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Dive bomb

I sit here, and am dive bombed by insects. Jenny spinners, or crane flies as some might call them.

I call them useless gangly legged creatures!

Maybe not completely useless - the spiderweb outside is full of them. But they don't look like they'd have much in the way of nourishment for a spider!

Our lawn has been full of them for days. They fly up, disturbed any time somebody walks through the grass. They perch on the outside wall of the house, everywhere we look. High, low - everywhere. And they find their way into the house...

Inevitably landing in the sink, where they breathe their last breath and eventually get washed down the drain.

Apparently, they eat mosquitoes. So the aren't completely useless.

December 11, 1981


The money bucket


Another character sketch. I think the good thing is when I go back and read these, they don't make me cringe. In fact, I can imagine them within the pages of a novel written for teens... sort of. I do sort of wonder what my mindset was at the time though. Hmmm...

Grade: 20-20

Vanessa held out her hand.

"Give me the money now, Daddy. You owe me $100 for this month's allowance."

"Vanessa dear, I'm not going to give all of it to you right now. I think you should put some of it into the bank."

"But Daddy," she whined, "I need it to buy a new outfit. I haven't been shopping for a whole week. Please..."

"You know I don't like doing this, but this is the last time I'll do this. And this time I mean it!"

Vanessa's icy blue eyes gleamed in the light. "Thank you Daddy."

She flipped her long black hair and laughed as she walked out of the room. "He falls for it every time," she thought to herself.

Vanessa stopped and looked herself in the full-length mirror. She began practicing modeling poses.

"Oh, you're so wonderful!" she said to her reflection, as she watched her tall slender body strut back and forth in front of the mirror. She held the money over her face.

"You look so well in green, dahling," she cackled at the mirror.

"Vanessa! Are you talking to me?"

"No Daddy, you must be imagining things," she replied sweetly.

Vanessa ran upstairs to her bedroom.

"Gretchen!" she called, "where are you? I'm going shopping and I want you to get some clothes out for me while I take a bath."

"But Miss-"

"Don't 'but Miss' me! I want you to do it now!" Vanessa yelled.

"Yes Miss."

Vanessa took her bath, and then proceeded to get dressed. Once she was all bundled up and ready to go, she went downstairs to get the keys from her father.

"Oh Daddy dear," she cooed, "could I p-leeese have the keys to the Caddy?"

"Is it absolutely necessary? I was thinking about using the car today."

Vanessa held her hands behind her back and looked at the floor. She kicked a piece of lint that floated by.

"Well, I was gonna get your Christmas present for you today," she sniffled.

Her father gave in, as usual.

"I guess it is o.k. But this is the last time."

"Gee Daddy, if we had another car we wouldn't have this problem. Maybe we should get a car for me!" exclaimed Vanessa.

"No, I don't think we need one. We can get along fine with what we have."

"But just think Daddy! If we had another car, you could use the car whenever you wanted to, and so could I!"

"You do have a point there. I suppose tomorrow we can go look for cars."

"Oh thank you Daddy! I want a Corvette!"

"Whatever dear."

Vanessa grabbed the keys and skipped towards the door. She stopped at the mirror and looked at the smirk on her face.

"You're so great!" she said to her reflection, "you burn him every time, you little con artist. But hey - life's tough."

Vanessa walked out the door with huge grin of satisfaction on her face. She thought to herself, "today Vanessa conquers her father - tomorrow she takes over the world!"



Well then. I don't recall having any particular issues with my father when I was younger. I always got pretty much everything I wanted, within reason. There was that one sweater though, that I REALLY wanted and didn't get. It was white, with a wide turquoise stripe across the chest... When my parents decided they would buy it for me, we went back to the store and it was gone. Harumph! I really wanted THAT sweater!

Friday, September 19, 2008

December 8, 1981

This is the first of my writing entries from... 11th grade. Had to calculate on my fingers there for a minute. Funny thing is, I don't even remember taking a creative writing class, but it seems that I did. I got some pretty good grades on most of the stuff, but in my opinion the poetry is pretty bad. I've never read much poetry, and I didn't craft very good poetry either. I may post a couple. But most of the stuff will be other assignments. This one appears to be a character sketch...

Grade: 16-15 (cool, an extra point!)


Glancing over her shoulder, Patsy Paranoia spotted a man rounding the corner from which she had just come. He was following her, and he had been for the last three blocks. She just knew it. She pulled on the hood of her grey wool coat and quickened her pace. As she got to the corner and waited for the light to change, her grey eyes darted quickly in every direction. All those people - every single one was looking at her. Patsy looked down to see if something was wrong with her clothing. Her grey loafers looked fine, and she couldn't find a wrinkle in her grey cotton dress. She pulled her pocket-mirror out of her grey leather purse. She looked, only to find that her face was slightly paler than usual, and a few strands of her mousy brown hair were sticking out from under her hood. It seemed like forever before the light turned green. She hurriedly crossed the street. Only one block left, but she still had that dreadful alley to pass. She looked behind her once again and the man was gone. Good. But yards away - a gun! There was somebody in the alley with a gun. She began to run. Patsy was sure she could hear footsteps running after her as she reached the steps leading to the door of her apartment building. She prayed nobody would reach up through the steps and grab her feet - please, not today. Finally, she was inside the building, and running towards the stairs to her second story flat. She was too scared to look behind her, so she just kept running up, up the steps and down the hall towards her flat. She fumbled through her purse, trying to find her key. She just knew her pursuer was almost to the top of the steps. At last she found her key, opened the door, and slammed it behind her. She bolted the lock quickly and breathed a sigh of relief. The only sound she could hear was the sound of her heart pumping in her chest. Patsy had made it home safely once again, and nobody had gotten her this time.


Stairs

Well then...

A lot has happened since I sort of ditched this blog in March.

Many stories to tell, and do not worry, they will come.

However, you will have to put up with some of my old writing first. Today I was cleaning out another box of things after our move (I had A LOT of boxes, but only a few left) and found a collection of things I must have written for a creative writing unit in english class in high school - 1981. Heh. Before I chuck it all into the recycle bin, I'm going to post a few selections here - for posterity's sake.

Ha. My first inclination was to write for "posterior's" sake...

That may be more appropriate. We'll see.

Also - when I post a medium size photo here from my flickr account, it slops over the side of the alloted blog post area. Too bad. They don't look as good small, and I can't be bothered to track them all down in whatever long lost folder they might be hidden in on my hard drive... or external hard drive. I have "a few" photos.

Ahem.


The scientist at work

Oh hello!


I'd sort of forgotten about this blog...

Maybe I should write here more. You see - certain people don't know about it, and I can write about all the totally crazy things I do.

Like have margaritas from time to time, and pretend that I'm falling down drunk when in all actuality I'm just laying on the ground taking a photo of the pretty little flowers.

And I can curse if I want to! Bwa ha ha hahahahahaaaaaa.

Though most of the time, I don't want to.

Shit.

Hee hee.


I'm glad to have the day off today. I love my job, but I can't stand going to work! Hmmmm, that could be a problem. Oh well - I'll just enjoy the time I am off. Speaking of, I've got things to do today, dammit!