Resolutions!

Tonight, while counting down the hours 'til 2007 with my housemate Vincent, I found a program on TLC called "Resolutionaries" that shows three people each trying to tackle their resolutions with the help of three different coaches, all of whom have very different techniques. So far, I've seen three episodes: organization, quitting smoking and losing weight.

I'm not one for thinking myself worthless if I give up my resolutions too far into the new year, but I do like to make them, if only for tradition.

I have a lot to accomplish before my Bike & Build trip in June, so I'm going to need to be specific with my resolutions in order to prepare myself physically, mentally and financially for this trip.

• Be prompt with thank you notes
• Study every day
• Take a photo every single day -- suggested by Photojojo
• Each week, research a different aspect of the affordable housing crisis
• Take my pills every night
  

January

• Exercise on stationary bike and/or with personal trainer twice a week for 90 minutes or 25 miles
• Research Rhode Island and Connecticut towns en route for can't-miss sights
• Contact regional newspapers about a possible feature on Bike & Build

February

• Exercise on stationary bike (or equivalent exercise) three times a week for 90 minutes or 30 miles
  -AND-
• Explore a new bike trail in the Seattle area once a week
• Research New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio towns near our stops for interesting things to see and do

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

This is the first year that, when my parents asked, I had no idea what I wanted. Since my birthday is relatively close to Christmas (in late November), my parents ask early and often. In October, they start with "feelers" -- you know, the "your birthday's coming up!" and the "have you happened to see anything you'd like for your birthday?"s. Usually that's enough to get me talking. Once my birthday is over, I will end up asking for the things I didn't get.

In November, I asked for (and received) a down comforter; I've always wanted a comforter that didn't come with matching sheets (a la Bed in a Bag). Since I got the only thing I really asked for, I didn't know what to say to the after-birthday questions.

That was, of course, until I got the Bike & Build manual and it's accompanying list of necessities for the trip. After realizing there were no major holidays between Christmas and our start date in June, I frantically searched the list, looking for the most expensive things I was relatively knowledgeable about to ask for.

And today, after being convinced I would need to be purchasing one on my own, I opened up a digital camera and a cute little camera bag that'll fit in a saddle bag for my bike!

In no way am I trying to brag; I am only attempting to set up one of the papers in the camera box, which is an (not so subtle) attempt at marketing camera accessories. I enlarged the center picture in hopes it'd show more detail.

Message to Sony: Seriously...Whomever signed off on this picture needs to be demoted to the mailroom.

Thank God for Pull & Seal Envelopes!

After working on my fundraising letters for Bike & Build for over 7 hours straight (printing, signing, folding and stuffing) mostly by myself, I can finally say I'm finished!

After I finished printing out the letters, I realized that the itinerary that came in the rider manual had us traveling in circles around Iowa and the website had us riding to Missoula, building and riding to Missoula after we'd left Missoula that day. Hmmm. I might need to offer my copy editing skills.

Needing an accurate itinerary to include with my letters, I took an hour and a half detour (hyuck hyuck!) and made a pretty kick-ass one myself.

So there you go. Two shoeboxes full of envelopes, brochures, letters, itineraries and SASEs to Bike & Build. 139 of each, to be exact.

"While You Were Out" SunnTown edition

When I was about 13, my parents let me paint my room any way I wanted, as long as it consisted of pastel-type colours. And nothing, absolutely no colour on the ceiling! I was really a huge fan of the ocean and decided to paint the top half of my walls a light blue, as the sky, and the bottom half three different shades of beige. Yes, I know...how many shades of beige can there be? We actually painted a base color, and we sponge-painted two or three variants on top to make a sand effect. I picked out a seashell border to place between the "sky" and "sand". For an added effect, I glued seashells to the window frame and hung paintings and prints of lighthouses and ocean scenes on the walls. My parents went the extra mile and replaced my hideous carpet with my choice in colour -- teal, or as I liked to pretend, the ocean.

After my brother moved home from Japan and our exchange student went back to Switzerland, I decided to move into the room across the hall, as it's at least 1.5 times the size of my sea room. After the creativity and expenses that went into the other room, I kept my mouth shut about the white walls and ugly brown carpeting in my new room.

This year, though, my mum has gotten into a painting kick and, once my brother got married and moved out, promptly painted his room two dark blues -- something unheard of in my family. My dad had erroneously assumed that it was utterly impossible to paint over dark colours and long ago got us kids to believe that if we painted our rooms black, they'd never be able to put the house back on the market, so this was a big deal. Since completing my brother's room and realizing how little effort and money it takes to make a big difference in the appearance, my mum asked me to pick a couple colours she'd paint my room while I was in Seattle.

So tonight, I arrived home to find my previously bland, white walls painted a lovely pink and brown, which complements the two wall sconces and drapes I bought at Ikea last year! My mum is going to take me shopping on Friday to look for a comforter and some wall decorations to add to the decor.

I'm going to see if I can convince my mum to help me take down the peeling wallpaper in the bathroom at some point while I'm home. Before we do that, though, we're going to have to make at least a couple batches of fudge!

Home for the holidays!

It took me all day to get out of Seattle and a three-hour drive to get home, but with the four Podflix episodes to catch up with made the drive fly by (even though I was driving between 10 and 35 miles slower than usual).

I love the holidays! My parents have the house completely decorated, what with the little villages above the piano and entertainment center, the huge pre-lit tree (that I've finally come to terms with after growing up trekking into the mountains every December to find that special pine to bring home) and the coloured lights everywhere. This year, my dad's really gotten into the spirit of the holidays and hung faux garland on the walls in the living room and even on the banisters. I brought my 4 foot christmas tree home and might set it up in my room. I really like low lighting and leaving it on in my room in the evening will give the room a pretty glow.

I never thought I'd see the day...

when I'd find out someone found my blog by searching for "pet sharks with lasers on their heads". Usually, when I follow the link my tracker gives me, I'll discover my blog link quickly on the particular search engine. Yet I'm on page six of the Google search and still haven't found my blog. I'm confused as to why the blog reader didn't just go to this site.

Other interesting search queries that have led readers to my site:

• pain where my bra snaps on left side in back
• the real truth turbo jam
• how anne are you?
• you pale to (from a Swiss version of Google)
• kill a guy on A TRAmpoline (I'm ranked number three on this search...)
• occupations that involve creative, humanistic, thoughtful, and quiet types of activities
• "perform their job responsibilities in a manner that is supportive"
• cutting edge, informally paced, future-oriented environment

and two instances of "Upstairs Downstairs apartments U district" quite recently. For you two renters, don't bother. The Upstairs Downstairs apartments are really not worth looking at.

I now know another advantage of looking young: I can buy youth tickets for the ferries!

Since today was my first free day from finals, a new friend from two of my classes this quarter invited me to come with her to Vashon Island for the day. Vashon is the site of our last build day on Bike & Build P2S this summer, and since I live so close, I thought it'd be ridiculous to have not been there before riding across the country to get there.

Riding on the ferry was like putting a kid in a candy store. The last time I remember riding on a ferry was when I was like 7 or 8 years old and my family went to Vancouver Island, B.C. That being said, I made Jasmine suffer through many pleas of "ooh, will you take a picture of me here?!" and "Holy crap! We're on a FERRY!" Since she's lived on "the island", the ferry wasn't so exciting for her.

Shortly after we departed from the shore, I called my mum and told her, just as a ferry worker-man walked by. I looked up in time to see him mouth to my friend "Your friend doesn't get out much!" He returned a couple minutes later with a ferry guide, expressing his regrets that they were all out of coloring books.

Riding 26 miles makes me feel like I have mono

On Thursday night, I went to the IMA and rode a bit over 26 miles on a stationary bike. I took a break after an hour to stretch and then hopped back on for the last 8 miles. I've been slowly working my way up in miles over the past couple weeks (in preparation for my Bike & Build trip), but at the end of that ride, I was having trouble keeping my legs from shaking. Thus, this weekend served as a reprieve from exercising. Meaning? I pretty much slept most of yesterday morning and afternoon, as well as most of today.

When I wasn't sleeping, I visited my friend Jacy, who was in town over the weekend. She, her friend Erica and I went downtown to Pike Place Market, where we saw this lovely sign, which had us in giggles throughout the rest of the trip. Erica and I bought cute hats( she bought a beret and I found the cutest wool cloche) at an old-lady store underneath the fish market. Afterwards, we went out to a couple bars for some much-needed girl time.

Oh, on Friday, I got my highly-anticipated packet from Bike & Build! I now have more brochures and envelopes than I know what to do with, but once finals are over next week, I'll be able to put more time into fundraising! Plus, I meet with my new personal trainer on Thursday for our introductory session. I'll probably aim for 15 miles Tuesday night so I don't wear myself out before I meet my PT.

Keepin' It Real!

I spotted this banner on the side of Kane Hall on campus today. The sign reads "Keepin' It Real 4 CHRIST! It's not about religion...it's about RELATIONSHIP!"



I guess they don't know what happens...when Keepin' It Real goes wrong.

Exciting News!

I'm ashamed to say I've been reluctant to come back to the blog after my (significant) time away. "What would be the use?" I thought. "My readers have probably by now all but given up on my never writing another entry again." I thought it might be too late. That I'd shamed my blog and, if I ever desired to write online again, I'd have to start over.

I'm sorry for being horrible to you, blog (and readers). You've been great in allowing me space to adjust to my surroundings.

Being back at UW has really altered my reality. I haven't been able to shake the guilt of writing a blog when I have studying to do...that is, until tonight. In all honesty, I have a paper due on Tuesday that I'm terrified to write, and after spending more than two hours reading columns on salon.com, I decided to confess everything here at my home.

Have you ever applied been anxiously awaiting something that could be life-altering, possibly afraid to bring it up with friends in fear that the something would be "jinxed"? For about three weeks, I'd been contemplating applying to a summer program so exciting I was a bit overwhelmed writing the application essays (yes, there were more than one). It took making an appointment at the Odegaard Writing and Research Center to gain enough confidence for me to attempt penning the essays. Once I sent in the app, I still wanted to keep my mouth shut, in hopes that not talking about it wouldn't spoil anything. I mean, how embarrassing would it be to talk, talk, talk about this program I was planning on participating in, gabbing to my advisor, my therapist, my new aquaintences and lifelong friends and then have to explain that, no, actually it didn't work out?

I got in. So here it is. This summer, I'll be riding my bike from Providence, Rhode Island to Seattle, Washington. I know, it sounds crazy, but as soon as I found out about the organization (Bike & Build), I knew I wanted to do it. I'll probably have to rearrange a few finals at the end of Spring quarter to fly to Providence, but my CHID advisor has assured me that my professors will more than likely be supportive.

Bike & Build has six trips during the summer, each traveling through a different area of the country. Each group of about 30 people aged 18-25 ride across the country and stop at predetermined places along the route to help build affordable housing homes. I chose the Providence to Seattle (P2S) trip; the five other "tours" are Central U.S., Northern U.S., Providence to San Francisco (P2SF), Southern U.S. and North Carolina to San Diego.

I seriously suggest checking out the site. While you're there, check out my bio on the P2S Current Roster. And if you decide to apply, let me know!

And to think, the nebula was actually created in a petri dish

An "Experience" is all I can say about describing the The Fountain, written and directed by Darren Aronofsky (of Pi and Requiem for a Dream) and starring Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz.

I saw a free advanced screening the other night at The Neptune. Amazing. I think I'm actually going to pay to see it again when it is released in theatres (22 November 2006).


Totally worth it, if only for the amazing cinematography. Hugh Jackman blew my socks off.

Recap I

First off, I'd like to apologize for my lack of posts. Once my classes started, I had this incredible guilt thinking of writing a blog instead of writing a paper. Plus, my camera phone wasn't able to send my email any pictures for a couple weeks, so I mainly used that excuse.

So here I am. Week 4 of classes is almost here. Shall we do a quick recap of the highlights?

• Trampoline guy is still at it across the street, though thankfully, he's been keeping it limited to maybe an hour or so a day (maybe more if he's being considerate and jumping mostly while I'm at class). Z has already mentioned his idea of going across the street at 3a and cutting a big hole in the trampoline. Mandy (the former OrthoJew II - she's really not bad at all) wants to do something more destructive, like take springs off of it or something...It's not like I want to kill the guy - I just want to kill his trampoline.
• Kevin (from the main floor) and Z went fishing for apples out the empty room's window. I have pictures to prove it.
• And speaking of, a new guy moved into that empty room on my floor. Surprisingly, he's the guy I met who was looking at the house when I came to sign my lease.
• Also, the other empty room in the basement actually belongs to a guy named Ricky. Apparently, he's losing his eyesight or something. He does that blind person thing of not looking directly at someone when he's talking to them, so I'm not sure where to look when I'm talking to him.
• Tom, one of the three guys in the attic, has been spotted carrying several odd items into the bathroom, namely a big jug of Minute Maid orange juice. I'm not sure I want to know what's going on there.

Crap. I didn't recap any of my classes. More later...I promise.

"I'm just keeeeeding!"

I've been meaning to post for a couple days now, but I wanted to wait until my phone was working properly enough to send pictures to my email to post. (Rereading that sentence is really confusing me, but I don't really care enough to rewrite it.)

On Tuesday, Z and I drove down to Ikea and shopped for a new mattress. As the absolute hilarity of the event has subsided, I will just have to make due with pictures.











Here's Z, doing his best impression of Fred Armisen as the Venezuelen nightclub comedien Fericito.

(This is the only way we could fit the foam, queen-sized mattress into my Dodge Neon. )

Housemates II

For the past week or so, I've done some "investigative research," yet no one in the house could tell me who resided in the room next to mine.

As I mentioned before, there are four rooms on the second floor: Z, me, an open, empty room and a closed door next to mine. I was starting to worry about the possibility of smelling the horrible stench of death permeate the hallways until, to my amazement, yesterday morning I heard the distinct sound of jangling keys closer the Z's room. My door was open, so (I thought) I had a pretty good view of the open area just beyond my door.

After a bit of confusion and a sudden belief and then disbelief of invisibility among humans, I finally met Vincent, the newest addition (to me, at least) in the house. Vincent has apparently lived here for over a year, but was gone for the past two months to be at home in Hong Kong (?). He's a grad student at UW studying Speech & Hearing Sciences.

It makes me slightly curious as to why no one had a clue as to who lived in that room, since he's only been gone two months, though the housemates that have lived here for awhile did recognise him ("oh yeah, Vincent! I remember him!").

He doesn't seem that unforgettable.

Neighbors

Now that I've posted about my housemates, I'd like to say a few words about my neighbors.

To the lovely boys across the street, if you don't stop jumping on that damn trampoline, I'm going to come over and snap your legs in half. I can tolerate the bouncing noises for 15 minutes or so, but don't you think five hours straight is pushing it a bit? How about this: you get ahold of Richard Branson and the three of us will have a little chat about sending you on a one-way ticket to space. That way you can experience anti-gravity all you want.

And you people across the street: if I wanted to listen to death metal on repeat all morning, I'd have already downloaded all of Slipknot's music collection. I'm not saying classical music would be any better, but really, come on now. When my relatives come up to visit, I don't want them asking me with gaping mouths "you live here?!" Could you turn it down a notch? Why don't you use this handy little idea: see that pretty street divider between our houses? You know, the one with all the pretty trees in it? If you stand there and still can hear your music, do us a favor and turn that shit down.

And to whomever was playing techno music twenty minutes ago: play some Paul Oakenfold or something. Even Strongbad's techno was better than that crap you were playing!

Housemates

As I mentioned before, my new house has fourteen rooms and at least eight people so far. For my sake (and possibly yours), let's break it down:

Basement (two rooms, I think):

Alex/Sasha: I still haven't met this guy, but I heard he's Russian.

Chris: long haired, scruffy guy who I thought was homeless and was just wandering around. Apparently he works at Bon Appetit, a restaurant inside Nordstrom downtown.

Main floor (five rooms):

Tony: Have seen him once and his girlfriend, Bianca, much more. He's a construction management major at UW and Bianca goes to Western. She told me they fight a lot but "don't feel uncomfortable! We do it all the time!"

OrthoJew II: From what I heard from Z, she isn't very nice and gets really pissy. I tried to make conversation with her, but she just left after telling me her name.

Robert: Older guy. No idea what he does.

Kevin (?): Asian guy who let me use his filtered water pitcher.

Second floor (four rooms):

Z: Hot Tunisian doctor here to study Public Health at UW. He speaks three languages (french, arabic and english) and last year, was with the group of students studying at the American University of Beirut who were forced to evacuate when the bombing started in Lebanon. He has a thick accent and uses the word "retarded" a lot. His blog is in french, but can be translated with Google.

me

Third floor (three rooms):

J: the tall, skinny one I met first, on my way up the stairs on moving day. He likes rap and rock and specialises in stealing guys' girlfriends.

Tom: Older guy. Like in his forties.

R/D: was convinced his name was Tony until last night. Claims he doesn't do anything, job-wise, and pays his rent by being "blessed".


Looks like there's only one other girl so far, other than Bianca. Hmmm.

Movin' in

This weekend I moved to my new room in a lovely house in the U-District! I've gotten everything set up, with only a few boxes still somewhat full. I have this cute ledge around the corner under the two windows, which is big enough to display my pictures and things. It's even big enough to sit on!

I've met a couple of the people who live here. Surprisingly, a couple of them are older men. I'm trying not to get too creeped out by that, as I do have a lock on my door. Oh, and I found out that the house has fourteen rooms, not eight.

I also started my new job yesterday. Alice, age 2 1/2, is very articulate with her words, making her even cuter once she opens her mouth. We had a fun time coloring and playing ball, and her mum let me use the internet after Alice went to bed.

Looks like things will *hopefully* be working out for me; now, the wait until the 27th.

I always love free stuff!

Remember the post about me loving free stuff?

No? Well, go back and read it.

I'll wait...


From the same company that rewarded my with a year subscription to Budget Travel comes my newest gadget, a digital voice recorder (7500 points). Yeah, I know that the thing costs like $35 at Best Buy and that 75 surveys is a lot to take to get this for free, but I don't have $35 to be spending, k? Plus now I can pretend to be extra important like doctors do!

The last time I had one of these, it had a mini tape and the batteries ended up eroding in the back. I'd never seen anything like it before. I could never get it to work after that...

Much better than any trip to Idaho!

As I mentioned earlier, I got the Labor Day weekend off to attend a "family reunion in Idaho," and on Saturday, headed up to Seattle for a weekend of Bumbershoot! The festival bragged such acts as Kanye West, A Tribe Called Quest and AFI, but what they didn't mention was the lines. Seriously, I thought I had woken up in Disneyland.

At past festival-type shows, A and I have made a detailed plan of action before we even hit the venue and this time was no different. With schedule print-outs and a map of the Seattle Center in hand, we headed out for our first Bumbershoot experience.

We had planned to use our Warped Tour strategy and see whole shows if possible, but at the very least, leave stages early and catch the last of other bands' sets. But oh no. The lines were horrible. We arrived casually late on Saturday (about 2p) and headed over to the Comedy Stage South (Charlotte Martin Theatre) for the 3p Asssscat with Upright Citizens Brigade show. What we found was a line wrapping around the building. A Bumbershoot volunteer told us that the line was now forming for the 4.30p show behind the 3p line.

Discouraged, we decided to leave the line and head over to the other side of the venue to see The Epoxies at 4p. We waited on line for about an hour for a band I'd never heard of, and once the show started, I waited about twenty minutes before telling A that I was going to leave and get in line for the 5.30p north comedy stage. Good thing I left when I did.

The line was already at least a hundred deep when I got there at like 4.30p.


Bumbershoot was awesome, don't get me wrong. I saw my first live comedy show(s) (not including ComedySports in Spokane) and had lots of yummy food. And those reasons alone were worth the price I paid. Especially for buying a ticket for cheap on eBay three days before. But it's almost worth it to buy the "Platinum Pass" just to not wait in lines. Too bad that pass is $200 more than I paid for mine.

Movin' on

Quitting my job has been very anti-climactic. Two weeks ago, I asked for the Labor Day weekend off (Saturday-Monday) to go to a "family reunion in Idaho" and didn't expect to receive the days off. My plan was to come in and pick up my schedule last Tuesday, notice that I was scheduled to work over the weekend, tell them that I had specifically asked for it off and then quit. Because, hello! It's a family reunion! In Idaho! A 7-hour drive!

(Un)fortunately, and quite surprisingly, they scheduled around my shindig. So today is my last day. Since K-12 classes started on Tuesday, our town theatre has reduced the hours of operation and now opens at 3.30p instead of 11.30a. I'll be working by myself for three hours and then will turn in my stuff. Maybe I should shout "I QUIT!" really loudly before I leave and throw my things on the desk. Or, better yet, use a line from Half Baked, turn to my coworkers and point and yell "Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, you're cool, and fuck you, I'm out!"

Eh. We'll see.