Lisa's Day

The Beginning of July

7/1/08 6:21 pm On the way to Mike's. Well, the computer is dead. We'll see about financing. I got my raise today. And Darla brought in my birthday gift: vodka and lemonade mix!

7/1/08 Sharon suggested Lemon Drops for me. And Lemonhead candies. Messy drg in the car!

7/2/08 We had fun at Mike's. We didn't know today is Rebecca's birthday, as well as Corey's. Rebecca made brownies. We all played Ticket to Ride Europe.

7/2/08 The train game. Mike won. I thought I did well, but even having the longest line didn't help me. Even getting about a dozen wild cards didn't help me. 8:20 pm Rain vodka good.

7/3/08 9:38 pm We got a new computer. More tomorrow.

7/4/08 7:42 pm Fourth of July. We just had a quiet and lazy day. Steve was still downloading updates for the computer. We never did find out what died, but everyone had a different theory - processor, motherboard, whatever.

7/4/08 We went to Circuit City last night. I got approval immediately - for a C.C. credit card. $5000.00! Steve showed me the tower he found the other day, but I thought it was too basic. I opted for one with more memory and a quad processor.

7/4/08 It also happened to come with the video card that Steve has been wanting. They only took an hour and a half to install everything, so we took it home last night. We had to get a new printer. The total was $1680.00.

7/4/08 I did some scanning today. I'm going to scan all our photos. All of them. I should have done that long ago. And I'm backing them up on a jump drive. We made great tacos - ground beef in corn tortillas from W.P. Bobby Flay's idea. [W.P. = Whole Paycheck = Whole Foods]

7/4/08 The other night we broke out the Rain vodka. It's good, but potent. Steve gave me a sip of his shot glass and it made me cough. He called me a pussy! I said, "It has a bite!" He said, "Yeah, but it's a good bite." I made a batch of lemonade with ReaLemon juice and Blue Agave Nectar.

7/4/08 I just subbed the nectar for sugar. It was sweet enough. But wow the vodka packs a kick. Last night I had another Lemon Drop and got buzzed right away. I watched all my TV Tapes and was up till midnight.

7/4/08 We ran out briefly today. To Corridor to get some beer, to Target for my prescriptions - just in time, they were closing the Pharmacy for lunch, but one of them checked me out. Then to Shoppers. A rude cashier argued with a customer. We really don't like it here!

7/4/08 I wanted a pork roast. I want to try making tamales. For some reason, the pork roasts were all sliced. Very odd. But I just realized that's where the odd pork chops came from. It's a slice out of a bone-in shoulder roast. [The odd pork chops from the previous week - see 6/26/08] 

7/4/08

7/5/08 8:50 pm Lazy Saturday at home. It felt like Sunday because I was home yesterday. I made tamales today! They aren't as hard as I thought. I found a website that clearly showed how to roll them. We made them lower fat than usual. Most recipes have a lot of oil.

7/5/08 Or lard, Emeril. Guy Fieri's recipe only had 2 Tbsp butter for 2 C. masa harina. I made a batch w/4 C. masa and about 2 Tbsp olive oil. It doesn't need to be swimming in grease. We topped them with enchilada sauce. Yum.

Don't they look yummy?

They are quite filling - we could each only eat two.

7/5/08 The other day Steve and I were discussing our negativity problem. I said that it always used to be Steve who would tell me things would be all right. He'd say, "Are we better off now than we used to be?" He used to just shrug about things.

7/5/08 Steve hadn't realized how negative he'd become. It's this place and these nasty rude people. And not finding a job in his field yet. He said he'd try to locate the "old Steve." We've both been calmer the past two days. [Maryland is hazardous to our health.]

7/5/08 Tonight, Steve said something... - after I watched the Rothko Power of Art episode. And I said I liked it because it took him over 20 years to find his method of working. (So maybe there's still hope for me.)

7/5/08 Steve said don't measure your life by successes, but by how you get up after you fall. He said we fell hard. And maybe we're just starting to get backup. Too often I fall, and then I just curl up on the couch, lamenting.

7/5/08 Because it's hard to get up so many times. After trying, and failing. Miserably. After making so much art that is just not right. Not "it." But wallowing will get me nowhere.

7/5/08

7/5/08 Interesting. I did that sketch holding the pen overhanded, not like a writing instrument. It's hard to draw my right hand while I'm using it.

7/6/08 3:30 pm On the way home from Janet's. We had a nice visit. Randy made blueberry pancakes and a ham steak. After breakfast I went out back to pick blueberries. Then Steve joined me.

7/6/08 It had just finished pouring rain, and it was nice and cool out. The branches were all dripping wet. Janet gave me a metal bowl to put the berries into. It was so pleasant to be out back, in the cool air. Just picking blueberries.

7/6/08 Randy picked us some fresh herbs and sealed them up in the vacuum sealer. We hung around awhile, then had lunch: pulled pork bbq on buns w/coleslaw. Oh - five minutes after we came in from picking blueberries, the sun came out and it got HOT.

7/6/08 Steamy. Like Memphis hot & steamy. We were sent home with lots of food. We talked to Pat last week and she asked me to take some pictures at Janet's so she can see what it looks like.

7/6/08

Me at the blueberry bushes.

Steve with a cup of coffee!

Me with Janet.

Steve with Janet.

On our way out to the car, I spotted a bumblebee on a flower by the mailbox. I took out the camera, turned it on, hit the button for close-ups, and snapped the picture. I wasn't even sure it came out, but it sure did. I'm rather proud of this photo! At work, they gave me a new huge monitor. Darla and I both got one. They were purchased for others who need two monitors, but they didn't like them, and wanted a smaller square one, so their pickiness is our gain. Wow is the picture sharp. I made this my background, and I can see the fuzz on the bumblebee very clearly. We like bumblebees.

7/6/08 wildflowers [I had an idea while we were driving up, a drawing of us in the car, with the colorful wildflowers they plant in the medians. I made the sketch on the way home so I wouldn't forget.]

7/6/08 No red sky behind Baltimordor this time.

7/7/08 8:37 pm Shit, I'm tired. I'm wasting my life at work.

7/8/08 8:49pm No Mike's tonight. Steve got a small migraine on the way from Greenbelt. We pulled up a road to switch drivers. So I did a long workout this evening: Whew! Wet hair. Nearly time for bed.

7/9/08 8:15 ish am black - yellow (covered w/black) - reddish brown - big leaves - 3 rows petals - thick stalk

7/9/08

7/9/08 7:42 pm I stopped at WP this morning, and the front flower section had huge sunflowers. I stopped to make a sketch for color notes. Then I started a second sketch which I just finished. [Still pondering a garden quilt w/sunflowers.]

7/10/08 7:16 pm I'm really tired. I don't think I slept well last night. My workouts seem to be really tiring me.

7/10/08 Sunday evening I was watching some more Art:21. I watched the segment on Elizabeth Murray. And she said something - that must not have clicked the first time I watched it - so I repeated and repeated - with close-captioning on.

7/10/08 Until I wrote it all down correctly. Here is what she said: "My fantasy was that I would get to a certain point and I would know what I wanted to say and then it was - PSHHT! - you were on this straight and narrow road and you would never swerve, you would just do your work then. And that's not the way it is at all.

7/10/08 You - like - get off the path and then get back on again for awhile and you trip along and then suddenly you stumble and you're back on again and I don't think that process ever ends." (She talks really fast, so I had to replay it like 20 times!) She's on Season 2.

7/10/08 So my fantasy of finding a way to paint, and then just painting, was never going to happen. However, it would be nice to be tripping along while exhibiting, selling work, and making a living as an artist.

7/10/08 I ran out of room, but I kind of like it: [This is an image from Memphis]

7/11/08 8:15ish am

7/11/08 Stopped to sketch some kind of dark purple lily at the Dupont garden. There are some Morningstar Lilies, but they were facing the wrong way. It's cool out this morning. The humidity must be down. And I lost 2 lb.

7/11/08 12:38 pm So, I got out photos of my three MFA Women, to see about cropping the image. And I had to ask myself: Does this interest me? The honest answer is: No. It doesn't. The umbrella sketch from yesterday is far more interesting.

7/11/08 The thing about the Union image is that in the original, there was a certain quality - of me leaning on Steve, and of Steve walking straight, supporting me. In the sketches from Feb. it looks like Steve is leaning into me. I want the quality of the original. [I'm working on Memphis images for larger drawings.]

Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

Here is the Roasted Red Pepper Sauce that we made so much of in Seattle. It's originally from a "Bam Burger" recipe of Emeril's. We didn't bother cooling or peeling the vegetables. This is good on anything - burgers, chicken cooked in the iron skillet, even with chips (corn chips, or any chip).

Bell Peppers (we like red, orange, yellow) - 4 to 6

Red Onion - a whole one

Garlic - whole cloves - we like 4 to 6

Vinegar (regular cider vinegar)

Brown Sugar

Lord Wooster (Worchestershire)

Molasses

Seed and cut peppers. Peel and cut onion. Peel garlic cloves. Put prepped vegetables in a large glass pan with some olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast (uncovered) in the oven at 400 degrees for 45 mins to an hour, till the vegetables are golden brown and roasted goodness.

Put roasted stuff including juices into the blender. Mix with a little vinegar (like a Tablespoon), some brown sugar (1 or 2 Tablespoons), some Lord Wooster (Worchestershire sauce, or, as Emeril says, "What's-This-Here-Sauce) (like 2 Tablespoons), and a Tablespoon of Molasses. Blend (careful if you didn't cool the veggies - hot stuff expands in the blender). Taste and adjust any seasoning if necessary - needs to be sweeter? More tangy?

Enjoy on anything.

Hit a Snag for Seattle

Well, when working on the November 2000 Seattle post, I realized some photos were missing. Remember I got out the Big Box O' Drawings from the back of the closet and took all those photos of artwork? But they were blurry because I didn't use the tripod. Then, when I was home for a week, I did it again, with the tripod. Then I spent an afternoon cropping all those photos. Well, they are gone, a casualty of the computer dying. I have some, but not all, and they are not cropped. Pooey. So, I have to empty the closet. Again. And untape the Big Box O' Drawings. Again. And retake the photos - with tripod! Again. Stay tuned for November and December 2000 in Seattle - it may be a couple of weeks. Pooey!

NOTE TO SELF:  AFTER ANY SCANNING, CROPPING, DOWNLOADING OF PHOTOS, CREATION OF DOCUMENTS - WELL, AFTER ANYTHING: BACK UP ON JUMP DRIVE! I MEAN IT!

October 2000 Seattle

10/6/00 6:55 am [I'm pretty sure this is Mooshie, given the position of her foot.]

I settle into my job. Lots of filing and paperwork. The previous secretary hid a bunch of filing in a drawer because she didn't want to do it.

I see an article in the paper about Art Detour - Seattle artists open up their studio spaces.

10/7/00 1:28 pm Downtown - a block from my old job! Waiting on a bus to go to Ranier* Cold Storage. (Studios) Buses coming --- Remember: kid in wagon, Ostrich. Nope - not my bus. Two strange sights today: woman came out of drugstore in Wallingford pulling a kid in a wagon and downtown girl w/Mom carrying stuffed animal - ostrich. [It's spelled Rainier.]

I figure out how to take the bus to various studios. I see lots of art. Something that sticks in my mind are three pieces of corrugated cardboard with flowers - those sunflowers that are dyed purple. I wasn't sure of the medium, but it reminded me of charcoal and gesso. There were also a few artist studios near home. I talked to some of the artists, but nobody really had anything useful to say - submit work to juried shows, nobody is making a living just off their art, what's an MFA? I go home feeling like: I am Not an Artist. I get some of the dyed sunflowers and start drawing.

I made some notes about family - looks like the beginnings of what will be the Self Esteem Project:

10/9/00 Why couldn't we have all grown up in the same place together? Why couldn't we all have lived in the same place together? Or, why couldn't Mom hold us all together? She didn't. Everyone left home and hardly ever returned. It was never a priority of Mom's & Dad's to get us all together - on any regular basis. Maybe if Mom & Dad had helped out Betty Jean a little more, she wouldn't have relied on Lin, and maybe they wouldn't have such big issues to deal with now. I don't know. I've been spending a lot of time thinking about how I got to this point, and I guess I'm broadening it to include everyone else, too.

10/9/00 My Sweetie

I find a place in Pioneer Square to take a clay class, to make objects for Lin's shadow box, for her 50th birthday in December.

10/16/00 Jami sent me an email that she was at Libby's.  Libby's 13-year-old daughter wanted to go to the store, but Libby was in the middle of something, so Jami offered to take her. She said no, she wanted Mommy to take her. Then she pouted and said she'd walk. Jami said, "You'd rather walk there than have me drive you?" and she said, "Yes." so Jami just left, and was pissed. Libby never even said anything. I can't even imagine what my mother would have done if I'd been rude to one of her friends. When I was 13 if I wanted to go to the store, I'd have rode with Charles Manson.

Marilynn went up to Vancouver for Canadian Thanksgiving, but we didn't go. Lin's been working out and losing weight, so Marilynn helped her go through her wardrobe. She also quit coloring her hair, so there were colors she couldn't wear anymore. I had no idea what my colors were (are). I don't care! When I graduated high school, Mom wanted to pay to have my colors done - I declined (I think she was really disappointed). I didn't care then and I don't care now. Do I want any of Lin's old clothes? No! Do I want help with my wardrobe? No! Marilynn also tells us she volunteered to give a talk at church because they wanted members to talk about the food bank. She was going to talk about how she watches for sales and buys extra for the food bank. She's going to teach them how to shop!

Friday Oct 13, 2000 I email Jami to ask: How many trees does the legal profession kill? She replies: Not to mention souls.

I am flown down to Portland with another new employee for computer training at the home office. How novel - I never traveled for work before. I'm impressed with their art collection in the building.

10/23/00 When I got downstairs, I was surprised that Steve hadn't picked up our paper. Did they deliver late. Then, at SBC, Steve says (as I have the paper all spread out in front of me), "Here's our paper!" I picked up someone else's paper! Someone else finally subscribed!

I'd been working on the pastel gesso drawings. Dirty gesso water also will fix the pastel. Gesso over pastel mutes the colors, but will fix the pastel. I have some gesso that's been sitting around so long it has separated with a clear gel on top. I realize later that this will fix the pastel without muting the colors (no white gesso in it).

I carved a pumpkin with Art's face on it. Don't even know why. He said it might frighten people. He took it home. I carved a Sith Pumpkin for us, with Darth Maul's face on it. Most excellent.

SITH PUMPKIN!

Griffin with Sith Pumpkin

10/29/00 I make a note that I have been reading over July pieces to choose for a sample book. After reading about the trip to Vancouver and the wine bottle thing with Marilynn, I was thinking how complex relationships are. Generally, with people close to us, we can be hurt, we can be irritated, but we can love them despite their flaws. We can accept their flaws. And hope that they accept ours. Marilynn's epilepsy causes her to have memory problems. She came to SBC to have coffee with us, and brought a few things for us. One of them was a cloth-covered box. "I don't have any use for it. It's just collecting dust. I think it used to be Mom's. Do you want it?" I said sure, but it wasn't Mom's - I made it for her, the year I made everyone a box for Christmas, which may have been 1997. She says, "Never mind, I'll take it back home." I changed the topic.

A few days later, we get surgery news: Marilynn's hospital stay will be in December. They are not going to do the surgery right after - they need time to analyze the data. I write that whenever Marilynn tells me anything, I need to activate the Marilynn Filter, because the facts at the end are always different than the start. You'll see this later when the monitoring occurs.

10/31/00 I let Steve take my Sculpey Kenny with the Chewbacca mask to SBC, even though I knew there was a risk of it getting broken. First thing in the morning, the mask was broken. At work, during lunch, I went to Pottery Barn and found a dark wood enclosed shelf thing for Lin's birthday gift. However, when I got back to my building, I went through the revolving door, and this stupid white guy came out and PUSHED the door so hard and fast he forced me forward and I banged the shelf on the door. Luckily it didn't break. I never used the revolving doors again because that wasn't the first time that happened.

September 2000 Seattle

The Big Office Nag is really getting to me. There's the Old Biddy in Accounting, and she's bad enough, but the one who does the property paperwork was the worst, constantly marching over to my desk to loudly proclaim my latest mistakes. She's really rude, everyone in the office knows it, but Jerry kept her on because of the work she did. She had to have surgery on her foot, and Jerry said, "She's having it removed from her mouth!" Jerry tries to explain to me that she is "difficult." Michelle tells him, "I do not want to lose Lisa over this!"

9/9/00 1:40 pm Relaxing & cooling off w/iced tea at SBC. Steve opened. I slept in, then came down for an iced latte & sticky roll. Then I went to the hardware store. They don't sell lumber but said to go straight down to the water and there were several lumber yards. They lied. [I wanted a drawing board. I ended up getting one at an art supply store downtown. Fun bringing that home on the bus.] [Oh, and straight down to the water means down the hill towards Lake Union and Gasworks Park.]

9/9/00 On the way down, a man passed me carrying a sleeping blond toddler in his arms. I walked a ways to the left, then the other direction, practically to Freemont.* I looked up the hill and saw the troll. On the way up to 45th, I saw a fat fluffy watchcat and a squirrel making off with walnuts. Two on a branch in his mouth. [*It's spelled Fremont.]

We have our first Taste of Wallingford - all the restaurants sell tiny versions of their menu items. We discover Blue Star, and the Anaheim Burger.

Pho Saigon becomes one of our favorite places to eat. Incredible summer rolls (rice wrappers) and big bowls of soup.

I have a day where the Big Office Nag was in my face constantly, because Michelle was out. Finally, I took a break, went across the street, and called Shelly at Pacific Law Jobs. (This is way before I had a cell phone.) I could have taken the stress of all the mistakes and the job being so hard to learn, or I could have taken the Office Biddies, but not both. Shelly had a position in mind already. Michelle returns to the office and is she mad that Nag was in my face all day (another coworker told her). She, Jerry and Rude Bitch have to go have coffee. Shelly sets up an interview in a few days. I get back from my morning break and Michelle is seated at her desk with my sales handbook! She says, "I just wanted to be sure I was doing it right."

I interview at a law firm. The job is to assist the paralegal, Gretchen. They have had trouble keeping legal secretaries because they said it wasn't legal enough, since Gretchen did everything, or they didn't want to work under a paralegal. The attorney, Art, was a friend of Shelly's. They're on the 54th floor of Two Union Square. I was really late getting back from lunch, but all I said to the receptionist was, "Sorry! I lost track of the time." I'm sure they knew.

I'd been saying to Steve and Marilynn that working in that office was like working for a dysfunctional family. The Old Accounting Biddy was in Jerry's office with the door shut and I heard him say, "Well, if we were a family, we'd be totally dysfunctional!"

I was offered the job in the law firm. $34K. I only gave a weeks' notice so that when the pay period ended I could just collect my paycheck and go home. Just before Shelly called to tell me I had the job, the Rude Bitch came up and yelled at me for something, because that's how Michelle told me to do it, and not even Michelle knew about the exception; then she realized she'd never done one like it, which is why she didn't think to tell me about it. So, when Steve said, "They need to sit you down and tell you everything you need to know to do your job," that wasn't ever going to happen. Jerry came out of a meeting, so I followed him back to his office and said, "I'm sorry, but I'm leaving - I've found another job." He said, "Well, shit. Does Michelle know?" He tried to persuade me to stay. He said he'd expect it to take five months to learn everything. Like I was going to stick around for that! He said, to be fair, they are such a tiny fraction of the market that most of what they do is exceptions. I determined that they need a victim in that position. Right after, Rude Bitch went in and put in her notice - for the end of December. I said, "Yeah, right." I'm sure she's still there.

Steve and I have a picnic at Gasworks Park, even though it's a Superfund toxic waste site. We had a gorgeous day for a picnic, and brought a whole bottle of Mississippi Moonlight (Cordova Winery in Memphis) in the coffee carafe.

9/23/00 [View from Gasworks Park.]

So, 9/29/00 was my last day, and Monday I started at the law firm. Jerry tells me around 4 pm if I change my mind over the weekend, I can just come on back and they'll forget any of it ever happened. I laugh loudly.

Marilynn was undergoing brain monitoring, to determine if she could have surgery to get rid of her epilepsy. They did some sort of surface monitoring but couldn't really tell anything. They were going to move onto intra-cranial monitoring next. 

The End of June - A Bad Week

6/22/08

6/23/08 7:58 pm George Carlin died today.  : (  So we've been watching his Inside the Actor's Studio. Recently - like in the past few months - Steve has been finding Carlin videos on You Tube. He played his 7 Dirty Words for me a few weeks ago.

6/23/08 He said his Mom had a Carlin record in the 70s and would play it for him. We called Mom tonight because they sent me the funniest b-day card - it plays the Bush "Won't get fooled again" bit. And also there was a $50.00 check falling out of it!

6/23/08 Mom said, "Oh, good, Bob remembered to put that in." Then she said they made a whirlwind trip to Vegas because Michelle and Shawn got married on Saturday! Then they drove home on Sunday. Steve asked for a number for Michelle, so Mom gave him her cell number.

6/23/08 Steve called it and left a message, and Michelle called right back! He only talked to her for a few minutes. She said the Best Man's car blew up and they were in a sleazy repair shop. But she said she'd call back, and try to stay in touch.

6/23/08

6/23/08 9:13 pm I know it's late, but my tea is still cooling. I made ginger spice tea with a bit of fresh ginger (from dinner) and whole cinnamon, cloves and allspice, and honey. It wasn't strong enough, so I added four Sleepytime tea bags.

6/23/08 Dinner was chicken sammiches - chicken cooked in iron skillet with some fresh ginger, then coated in the last of the Pad Thai sauce, on buns with spiced mayo (Steve's Steak Seasoning) and lettuce. In case you were wondering.

6/23/08 Today I left the house with NO J. PIECES! I took my last ones out of my purse over the weekend. Then I tore down some paper. I never restocked my purse. So I made some notes at work on scrap paper. (I was bored.)

6/23/08 (Then Darla left early so I didn't even need to pretend to work.) (Sigh.) I realize that I tend to dwell on specific negative things: STUDENT LOAN! And I've been categorizing my life of the past few years by those negative things.

6/23/08 The credit card debt. The lack of art career. The layoff. The bankruptcy. Living in Misery. Living in Mayhemland. Toiling in Officestan. While I haven't considered the good part - mainly my Sweetie. The fun we have together.

6/23/08 All the huggies. All our time together. I view it so goal-oriented. What have or haven't I done? What happened or didn't happen? vs. How was it? No, it wasn't all good, but it wasn't all bad either.

6/23/08 I need to KNOCK IT OFF. Steve and I used to write in a notebook something good that happened to us that day. We need to do that again. When I'm not happy, I need to remind myself to be happy. HAPPY NOTE: Heron spotted on way home.

6/24/08 5:17 pm On Green train. Very tired today. I didn't sleep well. Not sure why. I kept waking up. Steve said I was tossing. I can't even draw. When I'm tired, I can't draw!

6/24/08 Q.C. Dec 95 [from a photo of me in the Queen Charlotte Islands 1995]

6/24/08 Photo from Memphis

6/24/08 Memphis Photo

6/25/08 4:14 pm It's been like that Beck song: NAUSEA.

6/26/08 8:27 pm Wow - Coldplay on Daily Show! Yeah! Nice surprise! So - yesterday was Hell Day. It started Tuesday night. I was on the computer while Steve cooked dinner. The two odd pork chops from the six-pack.

6/26/08 Four were regular bone-in chops. Two were odd, with cross-cut bones in the center. Suddenly, the computer freezes up, and the monitor says: Going to sleep mode. It wouldn't stop. Steve had to do a system recovery, which wiped everything out.

6/26/08 We both ate dinner quickly to get back to the computer. Maybe we ate too fast. Maybe there was something wrong with those odd pork chops. The next morning I didn't feel like breakfast. In fact, I forgot. I stopped at Starbucks for coffee (iced) and a scone. Oh, yeah, and I took a nerve pain pill.

6/26/08 I felt kind of nauseous. I didn't want what I brought for lunch, so I went to W.P. for yogurt. I felt worse after lunch. Agonizing nausea. The ginger ale I got didn't help. If my Boss wasn't there, I would have gone home early. Darla was in the basement all day.

6/26/08 So she didn't see me writhing in discomfort at my desk. I felt like I needed to belch, but could not. Or throw up, but my body won't do it. Steve didn't fare much better. He was going to an open hearing at the Senate.

6/26/08 He thought he was going to throw up on the train, so he got off and headed back. And went home. And he did throw up. I was not so lucky. Steve went to 7-11 to get me two cans of Coke Classic. I needed ultra carbonation.

6/26/08 I had two Cokes and a cup of tea for dinner. And some Pepto. I went to bed at 8 pm. I felt better today. Except on the way home Steve told me our living room AC is leaking.

6/26/08 Yes, wet carpet again. And in the bedroom, we find when we get home! What is this?! Maintenance guys came by and cleaned out clogged draining trays or something. Crap!

6/26/08 Bah.

6/27/08 -? 6:00ish pm. We are at Asahi for another b-day dinner, since Mom & Bob sent a check. I need to write about being a Fickle Artist Bitch. Or am I just scattered? 8:30 pm So, where am I? Great idea for art - then crap week.

6/27/08 This was the worst week! Back to work after a week off - depressing. Nothing to do - boring. Then the computer has a breakdown. Then we got sick. I've still got fallout from that. You know - Pepto.

6/27/08 Dinner at Asahi was incredibly spicy. I wanted a big hot bowl of stew like Steve got. With tofu. Yeah, all those are hot. Spicy. The waitress did ask me - "You know - it spicy?!" Yeah, sure. Well, DANG. It was good, but DANG.

6/27/08 So - back to my Art Crisis from last week. Oh,crap - I just realized I dated today's pieces the 26th. It's Friday the 27th. Damn it. Anyway. Painting disaster. Again. Need to go back to drg. Again.

6/27/08 Tuesday, before the computer messed up, I was going through Memphis j. pieces on my blog, considering any and all images. I'm back to wanting to do drgs about Memphis - to start. I'm envisioning a body of work for each location. [Each location: Memphis, Seattle, Misery.]

6/27/08 I went through my Memphis photos, too, hence the sketches. I want a big group of images to work from. And I need to write a story about Memphis, and use the j. pieces to illustrate.

6/27/08

6/28/08 11:30 ish? am. At Panera. Out & about. Remember the original book design? Was that backed up? 2-col. table on each page - 81/2 x 11 to be folded. The iced coffee I got at our SBs was way too strong. And we got Top Pot donuts! Pre-low carb.

6/28/08 7:40 pm No, the original book Word files that I worked on last year were not backed up. But I remember how I did it. We went to Panera and split a sandwich because the donuts were not enough. I'd been craving a cake donut, for some reason. Top Pot donuts are from Seattle.

6/28/08 We went to go find them before we left Seattle, after we read about them in the paper. Now they've made a deal with Starbucks and have gone national. That was a really good donut. It's been incredibly humid today. And hot.

6/28/08

6/29/08 7:05 pm Lazy Sunday at home. We didn't go to Shoreline after all. We decided to forego seafood this paycheck and donate $25.00 to the Obama campaign. We played a game of Starcraft. The carpet is still damp. And I went Low Carb. - CARB CRAVINGS! AND MUNCHIES!

6/29/08 Playing Starcraft. Does that even look like anything? I'm tired. It was hot and humid in the apt. all day.

6/30/08 7:50 pm The computer is on the fritz again. We can't call HP or Circuit City without a purchased service plan. Steve called Mike this evening. Given the computer's symptoms, he said it may be dead. He said the USB port may have blown. The keyboard wont even initialize.

6/30/08 Crap.

August 2000 Seattle

8/1/00 1:38 pm We're at Pike Place - down on one end, near the Tully's I went to after the art supply place. There's a little park here, with a great view of the bay! It's a little cloudy in the distance, but we can still see the mountains. Lots of boats about.

Job Search Update: I had a message from the CEO of the investment company. He said, "I have some good news for you." I knew that meant he was going to offer me the job. I called Shelly, who had talked to Suzanne at Deloitte who still didn't know when I'd go before the Tribunal of Admin Assistants. I also wanted to do the second interview at the PR firm. I felt like the ugly nerd invited me to the prom. So, I called the ugly nerd and was offered $30K. I asked if I could think about it. Then I had my interview at the PR firm. I really wanted that job. They said to let them know if I had offers, so I let them know and gave them references. I told Shelly that Suzanne's hesitation to send me before the AAs was confusing, and I was unsure about such a corporate environment. Next day I gave the PR firm till noon. They were just checking my references - on a Friday! I said I didn't think they'd wait that long to check references, and I had a firm offer I was afraid to turn down (and end up back at square one) so I just told them I was withdrawing my application. I called Jerry at the investment company, who said he'd been waiting for my call all day. He said, "Great! You just made my day!" So I was employed.

Steve was settling into his job at SBC. I started taking dinner down on a tray to eat with him on his break. It made his coworkers jealous, so occasionally I brought down some extra servings.

8/6/00 SAVING GRACE WEED RECOMMEND IT   SAVING GRACE IT IS HIGH LARIOUS (on marquee at movie theater) [This is really funny because I didn't get it.]

When we first arrived, this was on the marquee, which I thought was hilarious:

So, I start my job. It's depressing. Not just being back at an Office Crap job, but it's in an old building, all gray walls and carpet. Dingy. Old Office Gals, too. And this is the job that made me feel stupid. I had to process all these forms I didn't understand, making mistakes constantly. I won't even go into it. Every situation seemed to be an exception. Do this. Oh, unless it's one of those, then you do this. Oh, unless it's one of those.

8/9/00 Well, it's almost 5 till. I guess I better go on up. 1:03 pm. At lunch, at the pier where the ferry docks. Walked straight down from my building. I called Steve on my morning break - they were there to run the cable in. [I began drawing this dejected figure in the mornings before I went up to the office.]

8/9/00

I see some paintings of giant pears in an art gallery and think: WHY did I never learn to be a hack?

I took my breaks from work at the Starbucks across the street. At lunch sometimes I walked down to the ferry.

8/18/00 I went to SBC at about 10 till 7 for huggies & kissies & an iced tea. It's 5 till. Time to [drawing]. Work. Ugh.

At SBC, this guy brought in this huge black dog, a beautiful dog. He said he was a pure-bred German Shepherd - they come in black, white and the traditional colors. We never knew that.

We continue to explore the neighborhood - Wallingford Pizza, Chile Pepper, and Mandalay Cafe.

8/22/00

8/22/00 Seagull preening his feathers.

8/23/00 It's 8:00. 8:11 am. I just went down the hall and there was this HUGE seagull standing on a ledge down between the buildings. I didn't know they had webbed feet like a duck. HUGE!

Like all my jobs, I took notes which I typed up into a handbook for my position. After awhile, I titled it the A.F.E. Handbook - Another F*cking Exception!

Mooshie suddenly develops this obsession with my hairties. She chases them, then wanders around with one in her mouth, yowling, like she's just made a kill and is calling to the pride.

We make Emeril's Bam Burger sauce - Roasted Red Pepper sauce. This becomes our go-to sauce for all general purposes. We roast the veggies in the oven and then dump everything into the blender, not even bothering to peel the bell peppers or even let it cool. Yum.

We are Back Online!

Yes, got a new computer.

Well, the Computer is Dead

So, the same thing happened to the computer this week as last week - which you wouldn't know since I haven't posted for last week! This time it was nonresponsive, even the keyboard wouldn't initialize, so there was no refreshing or reinstalling or anything. It's dead. We're going shopping for a new one this weekend. At least I backed up all the scanning I did over the weekend on a jump drive. I have learned my lesson. (I'm posting this at work.)

BUDDY!!!

Some better pictures of Buddy:

MEOW!

(What's he waiting for?!)

Then he spotted me in the window.

Then he just settled down.

What a cutie!