sunday night found me in a piercing shop on the ave, doing something rebellious, impulsive and unwise. and yet it was definitely the most responsible move i pulled all weekend.
for some, weekends are a time to relax, stop setting the alarm clock for 6:50 am (enough time for a hot shower from one's efficient condo bathroom facilities, a smart breakfast of trader joe's koshi cereal and an hour commute listening to npr while stuck in traffic on 1-5. on one's way to microsoft, boeing or amazon, of course), and maybe make a trip to such exciting and exotic bars (or watering holes, as the locals might call them!) as the cha cha lounge on "interesting and artsy" capitol hill.
and then there's the rest of us freaks. no nine-to-fivers for us! work doesn't magically stop on friday afternoon. we don't get to go sailing (there is this permanent image of a sort of "inspiration" poster in my mom's old boss' office: it has a smartly dressed, early 90's dude with a neon "salmon" wetsuit and he is happily sailing. the caption reads, "i live for weekends."), or go to those weird farmer's markets that i hear exist. no, not so much. when the belltown condo kids clock out at 5 pm on friday and head to their honda prius(es?) to drive themselves over to kurrent or moe bar, that's when we go to work.
welcome to the restaurant industry.
my work week began on thursday. happily curled up in wallingford at the boy's house, after a night of karaoke and the comfort of not having to be to work until 9:30, i snoozed away. and then my phone rang. it was 6:43am. i saw the number, knew it was my restaurant and KNEW that the fucking schedule had been switched around again and no one remembered to tell me i was opening. shit.
after throwing on clothes and smooching a confused, sleepy boy goodbye, i ran outside, frantic. i was in wallingford. 2 bus rides and an hour away from work. the restaurant was opening its doors in seven minutes, with only one slightly hungover worker present. in mere minutes, the PTA ladies, early morning old man risers and seattle academy kids would come pouring in, demanding breakfast and coffee. only one thing to do (ug); take a cab.
after a not-too-bad cab ride ($12) i made it to work only four minutes late. the day zoomed by, i collected a neat benjamin in tips, and after a drink shift or two i go to hang out with the boy at his coffee shop. soon enough they are closing, so i head home and crash and get ready for the next round of work.
and there began my weekend. by friday afternoon, i was mentally calculating my tips earned thus far, minus what i needed to pay to make the credit card company stop calling, and adding in the cost of rent, electricity and school loans... wow i sound so responsible. i was actually just seeing what was left to drink with. ha. classy. and indeed, i took those dollars and went with the lady roommates to (in the following order) comet (happy hour 4-7pm, $1 cans of pbr/rainier. awesome), bimbos ($5 happy hour pitchers of pbr, equally awesome), presse (again and again), the convenience store (for $2.49 pbr 40's), a house party, dicks (i dont remember why we thoughts this would be a great idea) and finally, the redwood. in that time, much was accomplished. amanda drank her first 40. liz celebrated her new apartment. i met some weird cornish kids. crazy roommate drama was solved (with a bit of buzzed bitching at each other. healthy!) i witnessed a drunk man get into a brawl with the bouncers on the street. all in all, a good night.
but friday night turned into saturday morning, and saturday morning turned into oh-yeah-i-have-to-work-at-nine. shit. waking up, i could barely move and felt the most hungover i had in a while (this record was later broken the following day.) work was crazy busy, i made mega moolah. after work, i rewarded myself with some wine, some chocolate eclairs and a good book. and then onwards i went, to the coffee shop to flirt shamelessly with the boy. i mean, when he leaps over the counter to smooch you in front of all of capitol hill AND his-coworkers, its good.
plans for the night, he asked coyly, kissing me on the cheek. actually, yes, i replied, dreading the reaction. its georgia and kelly's going away party. oh really, he answered, recognizing the couple. where?
gasp.
at the name of the bar at which the aforementioned party was to occur, two of his co-workers audibly gasped and one dropped a cup. they looked to my boy helplessly, as if to say, oh shit. this isn't even our war but we sort of want to build a couple of underground bunkers and go cry in them. lord help us all.
you see, this is the bar that the ex-girlfriend works at. unspoken rule, i don't go there. i don't hang out there, i don't talk to the staff there, and i certainly don't make an appearance with the boy there. and now i was just going to march myself in there and hang out. what was going through everyone's minds as drew picked up the pieces of the broken cup? will they meet? will there be interaction? will they brawl on the countertops and later spill over into the streets as the masses cheer for their favorite? okay, well i think the last one was mostly my main worry. i have built up the possibility of new girlfriend(ish) meeting ex-girlfriend a lot, and i have sort of terrified myself into believing it would be something horrific. yet in the past weeks, i have let myself relax. obviously, she cheated. she had no room to be pissy about her ex dating someone new. also, she might not even know me. or be working!!! lastly, how much drama could there possibly be?
and yet the sigh confirmed the high possibility of drama. as i looked up at the boy, with a face that showed no knowledge of the high chance of a bitch fight going down on first hill later that night, he looked really distressed. i didn't bother asking him if he wanted to go. he mumbled something about having fun and absently said he would call me later. he doesnt have a phone.
and then there was nothing else to do but go face the bitch. and by bitch, i totally mean the awkward situation between two respectful, understanding and forgiving young women. ha. yeah, right. by midnight, i was sloshed from a bit of pre-gaming at my work, while i waited for the rest of the staff to get done with their shift. we headed over to the bar and walked in. and fucking A, there she was, no doubt about it. shorter than me, a bit rounder, as steven would say. not fat at all, just not all awkward angles like me. and she was working like crazy behind the bar, as it was 1 am on a saturday night. she won't see me, i thought.
oh guess again. soon after our group stumbled in, she looked up. her mouth dropped open and she... glared? pouted? i couldn't tell. okay, fear number one, two and three NOT quelled, but rather proved legit. eek. a couple of my co-workers encouraged me NOT to go up to the bar, but to stay away from her. which was probably a good thing. turns out i was doing a few death stares of my own.
the night ended with me avoiding her around the bar. (she bussed out table at one point and took a while trying to stare me down. i pretended that i didnt even see her standing a foot away from my face), wondering a lot about their past relationship and finally (trashy, i know), i answered a phone call from the boy (he found a co-worker and somehow convinced the fellow coffee-shop employee to lend him the phone for the night). everyone had just exited the premises (it being 2:01) but i ducked back in for a second, almost colliding with the ex. i'll see you soon! i gushed loudly, using his name as many times as possible in a forty-five second phone conversation. eek, i am such a bad whore sometimes.
here's what ensued: a funny drunken ride (don't worry friends! the driver had been roused from his sober saturday night and summoned to drive us all to ihop) in a pickup truck with lovely georgia passed out in her leopard print mini-dress, ihop parking lot loitering, eating a cream cheese hot dog in an alleyway by myself (i hate when people watch me devour things like some sort of lioness), and yes, once again, rancho bravo tacos. of course, i managed to secure my boy in that time. he followed me home, leaning happily and excited about diving into a warm bed. we such an old, funny couple who get stoked about sleep. except minus the couple and minus the old.
waking up this morning was hell. i started crying in bed as my alarm went off because i was so, so SO physically miserable. i honestly felt like my insides were exploding and i couldnt stand up. headache, dizzy, dry mouth and off to work. woops, i realized as i attempted to pour a glass of OJ for a table and ended up just pouring OJ on the floor (three feet away the glass sat). im still drunk.
later on the day steph texted me. want to do something impulsive with me? she asked, excited. want to go to deep roots and get the piercings we have always wanted to get? want to go get a piece of metal stuck through your lip in an hour without consideration of if your job allows this or if future jobs with frown upon it?
sounds like the most well-thought out plan anyone has had all weekend. lets do it.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
breaking the routine
i woke up this morning, shivering and attempted to yank some blankets over to my side of the bed. groggy, i looked down on the floor to see a discarded swimsuit top, summer dress, and sandals. i felt my warm, sunburned face and arms and looked outside the a grey sky that seemed to be smirking at me. idiot, it said. this is seattle. didja think it was summer or something? ha!
why is it so fucking cold? the last two days have been marvelous. sunshine, 70 degrees, swimming suits, laying in the park, drinking kombucha and cold beers. well cold beers happen year-round.... but whatever.
back to the cold morning. still confused as to why my feet were icecubes, i try to bury myself under more blankets and wrap my frozen legs around the (always, why are men so... warm-blooded? they are like hot water bottles or something. not complainin' or anything...) warm body snoring next to me. he grumbles and mumbles something about my feet being too cold. i don't listen but just snuggle closer. heck, its not even a romantic thing anymore, having a bed buddy. its like fucking survival mode.
as we both attempt to go back to sleep we are suddenly startled awake by my phone alarm clock. oh yes, once again i have to set my alarm to make sure my boy wakes up for class. why was my phone set, instead of his? oh yeah, my wonderful boy once again is not in procession of his phone. it wasn't a phone malfunction, or that he once again ran his phone over with his bike. oh, no. this time he left his phone on the bus. good lord, what am i going to do with him.
anyways, the phone alarm goes off a few more times before i can finally rouse him. er, well, let's be honest. it took a little something more than an annoying phone alarm (which he snatched out of my hands at one moment, put on silent and hurled across the room into a pile of towels) to get him ... going. ha. after a bit o' morning shenanigans, i reminded him of the time. he yelped, and in one motion threw on some clothes, smooched me goodbye, and yelled something about getting his phone back and he would call me and come visit him at the coffee shop later? or something. i dont know, i was busy tunneling into the now empty bed full of thick blankets. all mine! warmth! survival!
survival. bleh. lately i feel like that word is coming into my vocabulary a lot more often. mostly because i have zero dollars. actually, no, not zero. negative dollars. bling.
last night, after spending a carefree day sunbathing and hanging out with friends, i realized that i had no money for evening time entertainment. not a problem. some boys who came over to hang out at amanda's brought a case. travis bought some liquor and shared. and later, at the crescent, someone bought a pitcher. i merely helped myself. i know, i know. sad and pretty pathetic. but whatever, its the new economy. at al's as i was fishing was the $3 in quarters that i knew i had somewhere, my barista boy patted my shoulder and told me he didnt mind buying me a beer, i kissed him on the cheek and told him i owed him one. his winked at me and said he was sure there was some way i could re-pay. great. now i'm a prostitute.
ah well. its not all that bad. he takes care of my beer and coffee needs and i take care of ... waking him up. and reminding him to take his books. and making sure he doesnt drink too much while on pain medicine for a dislocated shoulder. (!) oh yeah, i forgot about this. last wednesday, i woke up to a text message from him that read, "got in a bike accident." panicked, i called him and demanded to know if he was alright. he thought so. he had just woken up, fully clothed on top of his bed, with his elbow bleeding, his head throbbing and his shoulder immobile. apparently, post-tuesday-night-out-drinking-in-wallingford had gone badly. he was riding his bike when his hat flew off and he tumbled over, hitting his head and shoulder. he walked home, drunk, and passed out. bad idea. upon waking, and sending me the text (and subsequently me yelling at him to go to a doctor), he finally dragged himself to the UW hospital where they put a sling on him and told him not to use his arm for a few weeks. oh, and he had a concussion and shouldn't be alone.
cue the supportive girlfriend role!
i rode my bike over (maybe pushing my luck and the gods of irony) to see how he was doing. swaying a bit, and droopy eyed, i tried to cheer him up. i suggested we go watch the regulars sing karaoke at kate's pub, down the street. even though he was on a strict no-drinking regimen, i allowed him to have one beer. and because it made so much sense, i decided to drink the amount of beers that he would have drank, plus my own. smart! suddenly we had a very loopy boy with an arm in a sling and a very intoxicated, swaying girl standing at the stage while the former sang some ridiculous karaoke song and the latter cheered drunkenly. in the end, he had to help me home and he had to take care of me. some caretaker i am.
c'est la vie. the next few days were a lot of me being overly-worried about him, calling, texting, etc. god, i feel crazy sometimes. i am so overwhelming i think. friday night was a good example of this. my roommate steven was having his video release party, after working for months on a music video for a well-known band. before the party, i was working all day. barista boy texted me, promising me he would visit. i was elated. i love showing of the coffee crush. three hours later, i was not so elated. he hadnt showed up or texted. i got off work soon after and tried to get ahold of him. "forgot class went late! missed text! buses late!" all the excuses came flying over the cell phone air waves, with the force of a paper airplane thrown half-heartedly. i gritted my teeth. well, come hang out tonight, i said. two hours and several shift drinks and no texts later, i left my work and went to the comet to meet afton. a couple of other friends showed up and we started forming a beerimid of happy hour priced olympia cans. buzzed, i texted him again. nothing. we all went home and i started complaining to a co-worker, and next thing i know we are buying cheap wine, cooks champagne and (yes, really) tropicana orange juice. yes, this is my friday night. cooks and tropicana, being buzzed and pissed off at some boy who may or may not be my boyfriend, and then (ta-da!) stumbling over to rancho bravo tacos*. and its only 7pm.
lets just say that by the time party o'clock came around, and all of steven's friends, child-hood friends, friend's parents, family and (eeek) the elite class of friends-of-the-family had arrived, i was DRUNK. and loud. and passing around open bottles of champagne in a sad attempt to try to get someone to be as drunk as i was. no go. i ended up dancing at the late-night dance party (after all the aforementioned groups of people had left and it was just us goblin kids around and no one to be ashamed in front of), or rather, swaying a lot. my roommate's lady friend (who we all sort of dislike extremely) was there and i apparently glared at her like a psycho all night. great. i ended up passing out early, missing the one text i had been waiting all day and night for. FML.
saturday was a funny day, mostly full of comforting a friend-in-crisis. this girl has had it tough. one of her roommates has become increasingly snotty and disrespectful. this roommates accuses my friend of constantly being messy, although doesnt really try to be tidy herself. she blames household problems on my friend and scapegoats her for everything. worst of all, the roommate's boyfriend is always around, lounging in the shared living room, having "intimate" moments in the middle of common living spaces, making my poor friend uncomfortable and just pretty damn annoyed. and so, on saturday afternoon, my friend asked to crash at my house for a bit. i was totally cool with this, and helped her throw some of her stuff in my bedroom before we both went out for different errands and stuff.
part two. i forgot that my friend was staying at my house. i forgot all about all her stuff in my room. i was too focused on, yes, let's be honest, hanging out with the boy on saturday night, drinking beers at the stumbling monk with some of his co-workers and eventually, stumbling home with him. this were getting a bit heated in the bedroom when i heard a noise. thinking it was my cat opening the door, i looked over. no, not a cat. it was my shy, not-very-comfortable-around-boys friend, who had just walked into an extremely awkward scene while looking for her laptop cord. the same friend who couldnt take one more extremely awkward scene and had fled her house and was staying at mine for that very reason. second FML of the weekend.
appendix!
rancho bravo: its a freakin' taco truck... indoors! apparently, the old taco truck in wallingford thought it lucrative to expand to capitol hill. and whats better than an authentic mexican food taco truck? one that you can stand inside and sway in! the brave little taco truck took over what used to be PETA's number one target: the KFC fast food restaurant on 10th & pine. now its delicious, cash-only, post-drinking food. open until 3 am on weekends. genius!
why is it so fucking cold? the last two days have been marvelous. sunshine, 70 degrees, swimming suits, laying in the park, drinking kombucha and cold beers. well cold beers happen year-round.... but whatever.
back to the cold morning. still confused as to why my feet were icecubes, i try to bury myself under more blankets and wrap my frozen legs around the (always, why are men so... warm-blooded? they are like hot water bottles or something. not complainin' or anything...) warm body snoring next to me. he grumbles and mumbles something about my feet being too cold. i don't listen but just snuggle closer. heck, its not even a romantic thing anymore, having a bed buddy. its like fucking survival mode.
as we both attempt to go back to sleep we are suddenly startled awake by my phone alarm clock. oh yes, once again i have to set my alarm to make sure my boy wakes up for class. why was my phone set, instead of his? oh yeah, my wonderful boy once again is not in procession of his phone. it wasn't a phone malfunction, or that he once again ran his phone over with his bike. oh, no. this time he left his phone on the bus. good lord, what am i going to do with him.
anyways, the phone alarm goes off a few more times before i can finally rouse him. er, well, let's be honest. it took a little something more than an annoying phone alarm (which he snatched out of my hands at one moment, put on silent and hurled across the room into a pile of towels) to get him ... going. ha. after a bit o' morning shenanigans, i reminded him of the time. he yelped, and in one motion threw on some clothes, smooched me goodbye, and yelled something about getting his phone back and he would call me and come visit him at the coffee shop later? or something. i dont know, i was busy tunneling into the now empty bed full of thick blankets. all mine! warmth! survival!
survival. bleh. lately i feel like that word is coming into my vocabulary a lot more often. mostly because i have zero dollars. actually, no, not zero. negative dollars. bling.
last night, after spending a carefree day sunbathing and hanging out with friends, i realized that i had no money for evening time entertainment. not a problem. some boys who came over to hang out at amanda's brought a case. travis bought some liquor and shared. and later, at the crescent, someone bought a pitcher. i merely helped myself. i know, i know. sad and pretty pathetic. but whatever, its the new economy. at al's as i was fishing was the $3 in quarters that i knew i had somewhere, my barista boy patted my shoulder and told me he didnt mind buying me a beer, i kissed him on the cheek and told him i owed him one. his winked at me and said he was sure there was some way i could re-pay. great. now i'm a prostitute.
ah well. its not all that bad. he takes care of my beer and coffee needs and i take care of ... waking him up. and reminding him to take his books. and making sure he doesnt drink too much while on pain medicine for a dislocated shoulder. (!) oh yeah, i forgot about this. last wednesday, i woke up to a text message from him that read, "got in a bike accident." panicked, i called him and demanded to know if he was alright. he thought so. he had just woken up, fully clothed on top of his bed, with his elbow bleeding, his head throbbing and his shoulder immobile. apparently, post-tuesday-night-out-drinking-in-wallingford had gone badly. he was riding his bike when his hat flew off and he tumbled over, hitting his head and shoulder. he walked home, drunk, and passed out. bad idea. upon waking, and sending me the text (and subsequently me yelling at him to go to a doctor), he finally dragged himself to the UW hospital where they put a sling on him and told him not to use his arm for a few weeks. oh, and he had a concussion and shouldn't be alone.
cue the supportive girlfriend role!
i rode my bike over (maybe pushing my luck and the gods of irony) to see how he was doing. swaying a bit, and droopy eyed, i tried to cheer him up. i suggested we go watch the regulars sing karaoke at kate's pub, down the street. even though he was on a strict no-drinking regimen, i allowed him to have one beer. and because it made so much sense, i decided to drink the amount of beers that he would have drank, plus my own. smart! suddenly we had a very loopy boy with an arm in a sling and a very intoxicated, swaying girl standing at the stage while the former sang some ridiculous karaoke song and the latter cheered drunkenly. in the end, he had to help me home and he had to take care of me. some caretaker i am.
c'est la vie. the next few days were a lot of me being overly-worried about him, calling, texting, etc. god, i feel crazy sometimes. i am so overwhelming i think. friday night was a good example of this. my roommate steven was having his video release party, after working for months on a music video for a well-known band. before the party, i was working all day. barista boy texted me, promising me he would visit. i was elated. i love showing of the coffee crush. three hours later, i was not so elated. he hadnt showed up or texted. i got off work soon after and tried to get ahold of him. "forgot class went late! missed text! buses late!" all the excuses came flying over the cell phone air waves, with the force of a paper airplane thrown half-heartedly. i gritted my teeth. well, come hang out tonight, i said. two hours and several shift drinks and no texts later, i left my work and went to the comet to meet afton. a couple of other friends showed up and we started forming a beerimid of happy hour priced olympia cans. buzzed, i texted him again. nothing. we all went home and i started complaining to a co-worker, and next thing i know we are buying cheap wine, cooks champagne and (yes, really) tropicana orange juice. yes, this is my friday night. cooks and tropicana, being buzzed and pissed off at some boy who may or may not be my boyfriend, and then (ta-da!) stumbling over to rancho bravo tacos*. and its only 7pm.
lets just say that by the time party o'clock came around, and all of steven's friends, child-hood friends, friend's parents, family and (eeek) the elite class of friends-of-the-family had arrived, i was DRUNK. and loud. and passing around open bottles of champagne in a sad attempt to try to get someone to be as drunk as i was. no go. i ended up dancing at the late-night dance party (after all the aforementioned groups of people had left and it was just us goblin kids around and no one to be ashamed in front of), or rather, swaying a lot. my roommate's lady friend (who we all sort of dislike extremely) was there and i apparently glared at her like a psycho all night. great. i ended up passing out early, missing the one text i had been waiting all day and night for. FML.
saturday was a funny day, mostly full of comforting a friend-in-crisis. this girl has had it tough. one of her roommates has become increasingly snotty and disrespectful. this roommates accuses my friend of constantly being messy, although doesnt really try to be tidy herself. she blames household problems on my friend and scapegoats her for everything. worst of all, the roommate's boyfriend is always around, lounging in the shared living room, having "intimate" moments in the middle of common living spaces, making my poor friend uncomfortable and just pretty damn annoyed. and so, on saturday afternoon, my friend asked to crash at my house for a bit. i was totally cool with this, and helped her throw some of her stuff in my bedroom before we both went out for different errands and stuff.
part two. i forgot that my friend was staying at my house. i forgot all about all her stuff in my room. i was too focused on, yes, let's be honest, hanging out with the boy on saturday night, drinking beers at the stumbling monk with some of his co-workers and eventually, stumbling home with him. this were getting a bit heated in the bedroom when i heard a noise. thinking it was my cat opening the door, i looked over. no, not a cat. it was my shy, not-very-comfortable-around-boys friend, who had just walked into an extremely awkward scene while looking for her laptop cord. the same friend who couldnt take one more extremely awkward scene and had fled her house and was staying at mine for that very reason. second FML of the weekend.
appendix!
rancho bravo: its a freakin' taco truck... indoors! apparently, the old taco truck in wallingford thought it lucrative to expand to capitol hill. and whats better than an authentic mexican food taco truck? one that you can stand inside and sway in! the brave little taco truck took over what used to be PETA's number one target: the KFC fast food restaurant on 10th & pine. now its delicious, cash-only, post-drinking food. open until 3 am on weekends. genius!
Monday, April 13, 2009
the new economy
its still cold here in seattle. which means the kids of capitol hill are still freezing their tushes off at night, living in these big old crappy houses, paying like nothing for rent but wasting the rest of their tiny paychecks on useless space heaters and booze to ward off the feeling of cold feet.
april. what happened to global warming? what happened to spring? the other day i was weighing the pros and cons of my semi-dating slash not dating slash man-friend situation, and we decided on one thing. "its still cold," frey said, shrugging. "might as well keep him around at least until it gets warmer at night."
good point.
speaking of which. in light of The New Economy*, one must consider ways to make money, feed oneself and what to do for entertainment and hobbies. for cheap and/or free. here are a few ideas:
1. as mentioned before, sell your clothing. not stripping. take clothes that you are currently not wearing, preferably semi-fashionable and with no apparent deodorant rings (i learned this the hard way), and walk to (in this order) buffalo exchange, crossroads, red light and then crossroads again. in this cascading order, the pickier stores will buy the best stuff for higher prices, the vintage items will trickle down to red light and crossroads will have a different clothing buyer every eight hours, so who cares. they take anything.
2. collect all the pennies and jars of change in your house and take 'em to coinstar. don't take jars of quarters, people will get mad (i.e. laundry, bus money, etc). but they probably won't notice if you take that creepy, beer-stained glass under the coffee table in the living room full of 43 cents. hey, it all adds up.
3. sell shit on craigslist. that weird bookshelf you found on the street? sell it! the lamp "from pier 1 imports, just bought it but it doesnt match my new paint job"? yep, that's a good story. someone will want the smashed lamp you took from your dorm lounge three years ago. profit!
4. get crafty. my neighbors found beads and feathers somewhere, no they are gluing them to headbands. $10. hey, these things sell at urban for my $20.
5. food bank. i hear they exist. i should look into this, actually.
6. food stamps. i tried to apply. but the application form that came in the mail got lost. oops.
7. cheap medical attention! country doctor, like 18th & republican. you go there for your eye infection, weird cold, refill on thyroid meds, whatever. its only $15 if you're poor.
8. planned parenthood. yes and yes. its free if you're poor! free birth control, free condoms (boys can go too!), free annual exam. better safe than sorry! better late than never! ha!
9. someday we will live in a place that has socialized medicine. well, at least i hope i can move to europe someday... haha bad joke. anyways, more cheap medical stuff, which SHOULD NOT BE A SECRET! quality food center pharmacy. ask about their $10 for 3 months worth of generic meds deal. so legit. fill out a application, show your prescription (which you can get at country doctor or PP, yay!) and you're good to go.
10. busking. find a talent, dress up a bit, go hit up pikes place market on a saturday. might work. or you might get shooed along by police. whatevs.
11. yard sale. my neighbors are about to move to new york, and they are going to sell all their stuff out on the sidewalk. nice!
12. actually, there are a lot of semi- to un-legit ways to make money. selling smuggled drugs and stripping are just two things i have actually, seriously considered. stripping might be a pain because i hate shaving my legs. ...and i'd probably have to shave a lot more than that, now that i think of it. hm. back to selling mescaline.
once you got the money-makin' and money-savin' thing down, its time to move into the money-free entertainment category. how to have fun for free!
1. play at the park. no joke, its sort of fun. i wish it was warm though.
2. watch movies online. and TV shows! yay!
3. get dumpstered snacks and watch aforementioned TV shows.
4. go to a karaoke night at a bar. pre-funk beforehand and maybe they won't notice you're not buying drinks...
5. actually just get a friend who has an actual job to buy a pitcher.
6. sing for your drinks. (have done it)
7. frye art museum. free, i've heard.
8. sort through all your old bus transfers and find the right color for today. ride the bus! its fun!
9. naps.
10. cuddling.
11. making out.
12. sex.
13. actually all those could have gone under one bullet.
14. making cookies out of things you find in your kitchen. aka really old lumpy sugar.
okay enough fuzzy, free ways to have fun. on to other things. frey left, by the way. ridiculously sad, not sure what to do with myself. i pick up my phone like once a day in a mad rush to text out: MUST TALK, PRESSE, NOW, FRITES AND BLOODY MARYS??? but then i remember that our french fry and cocktail traditions are over for the moment. frey packed up her bags, her cat, and left for san francisco a week ago. seems so much longer ago. the night before she left, the goblin kids and i moped around until someone suggested that we grab a coupla six-packs of fat tire. next thing we know, a fat tire night is in full-swing, all of us blasting our favorite songs, sing-along time, laughing at the old stories, shouting across the room when normal indoor voices would have sufficed, and wow, where did all this beer come from?
it was good. just like the night we all met, two years ago. and the next day, her new McBoyfriend arrived at the airport, came to the house to help her load her car, and they drove off. us goblin house kids took a quick snapshot in front of the house, hugged her one-by-one, and then ran alongside her car as it drove off down the street. someone shouted, "just married!" as a joke and i called out to "write the ol' fam a lettah." but it did feel like we were giving one of our daughters away, in some sort of ridiculously backwards, old-timey shotgun wedding. weird.
anyways, frey is gone, hopefully soaking up the sun and her McBoyfriend and new coffee job. the house has been quiet since she left. josh is out, moved over to 20th & union or something. everyone else works a ton it seems. actually. work-wise, i have moved back into the poverty category. and thus the aforementioned list of ways to be poor and survive. i mean, its bad. i overdrew my account twice in the last two weeks, my credit card is basically maxed out and almost bounced a check. plus student loans. bam. one day, feeling the pangs of hunger, i looked through my drawers to see what i could sell. i sold my clothes. for money. to eat. welcome to the new economy.
and so, when a couple of shifts opened up at my A.R.J., i snatched them up. opening shift? no problem! 10 hour shift? yes, please! two doubles in one week? i'll take it. I AM DESPERATE. and have no problem sharing that. yes, working sixteen hours in one day makes me want to die, but when you are begging your roommates to for any random pennies they might want to get rid of so that you can haul a jar of coins to the change machine just to buy yourself a pita and hummus, things start to look a little different.
back to the dilemma of to date or not-to-date? things are... the same. always. i am enamored, i am pissed, i am confused, his phone dies for a week, i am over it, he shows up at my window at 3 in the morning from all the way across town throwing little pebbles and telling me he couldn't stand not seeing me for another second, i am flattered, he is drunk, it doesn't matter anymore. we go on. one day last week he came over, surprised to see a tall, freakish-ly good-looking french man sleeping on my couch. its a traveling couchsurfer*, i explain. he is not comforted, and asks me if he should be worried about "some european guy stealing his girlfriend." i just laugh at his sudden show of jealousy and wonder why he is calling me his girlfriend.
the next day we hung out with some of his friends, running around downtown. the convention center was hosting "sakura-con 09," which is about the most fucked-up shit i have ever encountered. like 10,000 anime fans gathered for a three day event in which apparently there are workshops and anime celebrities or something. oh, and EVERYONE dresses up. i wasn't surprised at the 400 sailor moons i observed. the 200 pokemon characters seemed somewhat appropriate too. there were several thousand obscure anime characters that i did not recognize, but the kids kept running across the place shouting, "OH EM GEE its ka-won-tee from dragon magic riders!" or something. but then there were a few super hero characters, TV personalities (i saw 3 stewies from family guy), and then the line bewteen anime and disney was blurred. at one point all the snow whites of the convention had gathered. cinderella (time two) joined in also. i can see how disney is animated. i was also pretty confused by indiana jones, three nuns and a girl in a green bathing suit. that didn't make sense. but then all was trumped when straight-up jesus came strolling by with a cross. anime? not so much. he had braces too.
anime fest 09. the boy and i strolled around, laughing, sipping vodka out of paper coffee cups and taking pictures. several of his friends joined us and while it was cool to meet them, the title girlfriend was busted out a few more times. weird. the day ended with dinner at pikes place market and a return to the hill. nice.
easter morning was all work, but afterwards i was itching to just curl up and watch movies. what's better than watching movies? watching them with a boy. what's better than cuddling and watching movies with a boy? building a roaring fire and having the whole house to yourselves. ha. well, at least you think the house is empty, and then you walk around in nothing but his tee-shirt and half of his housemates are having a pow-wow in the hallway. ah yes.
appendix!
*The New Economy: its a recession, let's be honest. money is tight, jobs suck, we are all poor, no matter what our conservative republican parents say ("people are just imagining this. things were fine under bush!" no, no they weren't.)
*couchsurfer: i like traveling. i like travelers. i am signed up for couchsurfing.com. i let cool travelers stay on my couch, and when i travel, i crash on their couches. pretty legit.
april. what happened to global warming? what happened to spring? the other day i was weighing the pros and cons of my semi-dating slash not dating slash man-friend situation, and we decided on one thing. "its still cold," frey said, shrugging. "might as well keep him around at least until it gets warmer at night."
good point.
speaking of which. in light of The New Economy*, one must consider ways to make money, feed oneself and what to do for entertainment and hobbies. for cheap and/or free. here are a few ideas:
1. as mentioned before, sell your clothing. not stripping. take clothes that you are currently not wearing, preferably semi-fashionable and with no apparent deodorant rings (i learned this the hard way), and walk to (in this order) buffalo exchange, crossroads, red light and then crossroads again. in this cascading order, the pickier stores will buy the best stuff for higher prices, the vintage items will trickle down to red light and crossroads will have a different clothing buyer every eight hours, so who cares. they take anything.
2. collect all the pennies and jars of change in your house and take 'em to coinstar. don't take jars of quarters, people will get mad (i.e. laundry, bus money, etc). but they probably won't notice if you take that creepy, beer-stained glass under the coffee table in the living room full of 43 cents. hey, it all adds up.
3. sell shit on craigslist. that weird bookshelf you found on the street? sell it! the lamp "from pier 1 imports, just bought it but it doesnt match my new paint job"? yep, that's a good story. someone will want the smashed lamp you took from your dorm lounge three years ago. profit!
4. get crafty. my neighbors found beads and feathers somewhere, no they are gluing them to headbands. $10. hey, these things sell at urban for my $20.
5. food bank. i hear they exist. i should look into this, actually.
6. food stamps. i tried to apply. but the application form that came in the mail got lost. oops.
7. cheap medical attention! country doctor, like 18th & republican. you go there for your eye infection, weird cold, refill on thyroid meds, whatever. its only $15 if you're poor.
8. planned parenthood. yes and yes. its free if you're poor! free birth control, free condoms (boys can go too!), free annual exam. better safe than sorry! better late than never! ha!
9. someday we will live in a place that has socialized medicine. well, at least i hope i can move to europe someday... haha bad joke. anyways, more cheap medical stuff, which SHOULD NOT BE A SECRET! quality food center pharmacy. ask about their $10 for 3 months worth of generic meds deal. so legit. fill out a application, show your prescription (which you can get at country doctor or PP, yay!) and you're good to go.
10. busking. find a talent, dress up a bit, go hit up pikes place market on a saturday. might work. or you might get shooed along by police. whatevs.
11. yard sale. my neighbors are about to move to new york, and they are going to sell all their stuff out on the sidewalk. nice!
12. actually, there are a lot of semi- to un-legit ways to make money. selling smuggled drugs and stripping are just two things i have actually, seriously considered. stripping might be a pain because i hate shaving my legs. ...and i'd probably have to shave a lot more than that, now that i think of it. hm. back to selling mescaline.
once you got the money-makin' and money-savin' thing down, its time to move into the money-free entertainment category. how to have fun for free!
1. play at the park. no joke, its sort of fun. i wish it was warm though.
2. watch movies online. and TV shows! yay!
3. get dumpstered snacks and watch aforementioned TV shows.
4. go to a karaoke night at a bar. pre-funk beforehand and maybe they won't notice you're not buying drinks...
5. actually just get a friend who has an actual job to buy a pitcher.
6. sing for your drinks. (have done it)
7. frye art museum. free, i've heard.
8. sort through all your old bus transfers and find the right color for today. ride the bus! its fun!
9. naps.
10. cuddling.
11. making out.
12. sex.
13. actually all those could have gone under one bullet.
14. making cookies out of things you find in your kitchen. aka really old lumpy sugar.
okay enough fuzzy, free ways to have fun. on to other things. frey left, by the way. ridiculously sad, not sure what to do with myself. i pick up my phone like once a day in a mad rush to text out: MUST TALK, PRESSE, NOW, FRITES AND BLOODY MARYS??? but then i remember that our french fry and cocktail traditions are over for the moment. frey packed up her bags, her cat, and left for san francisco a week ago. seems so much longer ago. the night before she left, the goblin kids and i moped around until someone suggested that we grab a coupla six-packs of fat tire. next thing we know, a fat tire night is in full-swing, all of us blasting our favorite songs, sing-along time, laughing at the old stories, shouting across the room when normal indoor voices would have sufficed, and wow, where did all this beer come from?
it was good. just like the night we all met, two years ago. and the next day, her new McBoyfriend arrived at the airport, came to the house to help her load her car, and they drove off. us goblin house kids took a quick snapshot in front of the house, hugged her one-by-one, and then ran alongside her car as it drove off down the street. someone shouted, "just married!" as a joke and i called out to "write the ol' fam a lettah." but it did feel like we were giving one of our daughters away, in some sort of ridiculously backwards, old-timey shotgun wedding. weird.
anyways, frey is gone, hopefully soaking up the sun and her McBoyfriend and new coffee job. the house has been quiet since she left. josh is out, moved over to 20th & union or something. everyone else works a ton it seems. actually. work-wise, i have moved back into the poverty category. and thus the aforementioned list of ways to be poor and survive. i mean, its bad. i overdrew my account twice in the last two weeks, my credit card is basically maxed out and almost bounced a check. plus student loans. bam. one day, feeling the pangs of hunger, i looked through my drawers to see what i could sell. i sold my clothes. for money. to eat. welcome to the new economy.
and so, when a couple of shifts opened up at my A.R.J., i snatched them up. opening shift? no problem! 10 hour shift? yes, please! two doubles in one week? i'll take it. I AM DESPERATE. and have no problem sharing that. yes, working sixteen hours in one day makes me want to die, but when you are begging your roommates to for any random pennies they might want to get rid of so that you can haul a jar of coins to the change machine just to buy yourself a pita and hummus, things start to look a little different.
back to the dilemma of to date or not-to-date? things are... the same. always. i am enamored, i am pissed, i am confused, his phone dies for a week, i am over it, he shows up at my window at 3 in the morning from all the way across town throwing little pebbles and telling me he couldn't stand not seeing me for another second, i am flattered, he is drunk, it doesn't matter anymore. we go on. one day last week he came over, surprised to see a tall, freakish-ly good-looking french man sleeping on my couch. its a traveling couchsurfer*, i explain. he is not comforted, and asks me if he should be worried about "some european guy stealing his girlfriend." i just laugh at his sudden show of jealousy and wonder why he is calling me his girlfriend.
the next day we hung out with some of his friends, running around downtown. the convention center was hosting "sakura-con 09," which is about the most fucked-up shit i have ever encountered. like 10,000 anime fans gathered for a three day event in which apparently there are workshops and anime celebrities or something. oh, and EVERYONE dresses up. i wasn't surprised at the 400 sailor moons i observed. the 200 pokemon characters seemed somewhat appropriate too. there were several thousand obscure anime characters that i did not recognize, but the kids kept running across the place shouting, "OH EM GEE its ka-won-tee from dragon magic riders!" or something. but then there were a few super hero characters, TV personalities (i saw 3 stewies from family guy), and then the line bewteen anime and disney was blurred. at one point all the snow whites of the convention had gathered. cinderella (time two) joined in also. i can see how disney is animated. i was also pretty confused by indiana jones, three nuns and a girl in a green bathing suit. that didn't make sense. but then all was trumped when straight-up jesus came strolling by with a cross. anime? not so much. he had braces too.
anime fest 09. the boy and i strolled around, laughing, sipping vodka out of paper coffee cups and taking pictures. several of his friends joined us and while it was cool to meet them, the title girlfriend was busted out a few more times. weird. the day ended with dinner at pikes place market and a return to the hill. nice.
easter morning was all work, but afterwards i was itching to just curl up and watch movies. what's better than watching movies? watching them with a boy. what's better than cuddling and watching movies with a boy? building a roaring fire and having the whole house to yourselves. ha. well, at least you think the house is empty, and then you walk around in nothing but his tee-shirt and half of his housemates are having a pow-wow in the hallway. ah yes.
appendix!
*The New Economy: its a recession, let's be honest. money is tight, jobs suck, we are all poor, no matter what our conservative republican parents say ("people are just imagining this. things were fine under bush!" no, no they weren't.)
*couchsurfer: i like traveling. i like travelers. i am signed up for couchsurfing.com. i let cool travelers stay on my couch, and when i travel, i crash on their couches. pretty legit.
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