Suburb of Heaven

Have attended my conference (by turns fascinating and also over my head), have eaten cupcakes, kebab, and lots of Chinese, have photographed many orchids and a few works of art, and am now on my way to Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival with my sister and Bemo, where we will meet up with apis_mellifera, whom I haven't seen in ages. Hopefully I will also find some good crochet yarn for my catsitter.

Here, have a new family photo scan...evidence of my parents horrible mistreatment of me. I'm clearly very, very upset.


Quoth my mom, "You were such a little monkey, I guess it just seemed like the thing to do that day."

Snow in the sculpture garden.

The very strange looking but reportedly delicious Broccoli Romanesco, a member of the brassica family. Working at the co-op introduces me to some interesting vegetables.

I don't know if I mentioned I got my hair chopped off a week ago - and I'm currently too lazy to scroll back through my own journal entries to see if I did - but here's a blurry photo of me with the new cut, new fancy Target clothes, and a necklace borrowed from the museum shop because it looked good and they know when we borrow things they usually end up getting purchased so they encourage it!

Ignore the surly expression, that's just my default "I'm concentrating" look.



Was asked about the necklace - here's a shot where you can see it clearly. It's made of recycled bike tires, and I kind of love it even though I don't know if I'll go ahead and buy it.

I've been wanting to update, but am going through one of those phases where I have things to say but they all seem to be locked up and lacking words. Everyone around me seems to be having a hard time with things. My sister is struggling with stuff. I'm struggling with stuff. Bemo's trip to the lawyer yesterday was not very promising - if we do get his disability through, it won't be for something like a year. In the meantime, he's fretting about his medication (which is being changed out right now) bringing him up to the level where he wouldn't be considered disabled but would still be unable to work. We're both feeling a little scared right now, especially since we're doing our best to commit to paying our student loans back but are not entirely sure if we'll be able to. Hopefully my job at crunchy organic granola coop will help.

Didn't go to aikido this week. Am feeling a little conflicted about it, because it involves various things such as my own desire to go, money (should I skip this month so I don't have to pay for it), general fatigue, Bemo's mental state, and a sort of underlying general crankiness that will probably dissipate once I start going again.

Am trying to get over my knee-jerk fatalism, which doesn't manifest itself in my day-to-day life much (charge ahead, we'll make it work somehow!), but is always lurking like a black spider in the crevices of my brain.

Here, have another nostalgia-laden photo of little me. I wish I could find now some of the peace I see in the face of myself as a kid...but I know that it's all an illusion anyway. Doesn't stop me from pursuing it, though.

Finally got a chance to see Inception, although through an odd route. I bought it for my sister's boyfriend via Amazon, and that apparently meant I got it as a rental myself, so I watched it last night. I'm sure it misses some of the oomph on a small screen, but it was a really fun movie even if it wasn't quite as uniquely clever as I heard people describe it. Great acting all around, a fun concept, lots of twists and turns. I think I'll want to own it eventually, although I'm so lame - I only own a handful of DVDs and I never end up watching them, for no apparent reason. But if something I own shows up on TV, I'll sit and watch it that way, instead.

Spent the day back at the co-op:



and made a complete hash of it when I went to count down my drawer, because I had forgotten my technique. I spent about a half-hour too long frantically adding up little stacks of numbers, convinced I was ten bucks off and oh noes, and it turned out I was fine - maybe a little change off - but I will hope that tomorrow my brain is back online and I can actually do the process I've done several times now without issue. Blah. I had a system. Why couldn't I remember my system?

Trying to get a group of clothes together to sell. I have some random stuff, and a pair of nice dresses that I've only worn once or twice, and I don't just want to put them up on Ebay for a buck. On the other hand, I don't know if they're worth consigning or if people would be interested if I posted them here. Will think about it. I'm not looking to make a killing, but I would like twenty-thirty bucks for the dresses, since I paid about seventy apiece for them.

Want to go to the gym tonight, but am feeling lazy. Will try and push out the door.

Giant ugly lamp in living room has died. Am happy that it's gone, but don't want to pay for a new lamp. Impasse! I am considering several smaller lamps, which give nicer light, except I kind of need a bright light for fussing around with my collage/stamps/jewelry stuff.

and examine this carefully staged piece of portraiture to ascertain my current mindset.