25 Years Ago????

This picture was taken 25 years ago, in May of 1982. Holy shit, where has the time gone? It was spring break of my senior year of high school and I had been staying at my oldest sister's house after a bit of a row with my mom. All of my friends were in college and somehow I got myself invited along on a road trip to Daytona Beach with seven guys from SLU and Parks College. My boyfriend at the time, who hung out with all these guys, had to go home to New Jersey and couldn't make the trip. I was feeling adventurous, and I'd never been to Florida, so why the hell not? It was a disparate group, but they were all pretty decent guys and not too party crazy.

The picture was taken after our first full day on the beach. I laid in the sun for around eight hours. When I stood up to go back to the hotel room, I fell to my knees and passed out in the sand. At this point I'm sure the boys were lamenting bringing a high school girl along. Anyway, I woke up, they got me a big cup of ice water and we went to sit in that cool, shady underpass where the picture was taken. Beside me is James, one of the most beautiful men I've ever seen, as you can clearly see. He was from Boston, was terribly vain, and said "idear" in the cutest way.

I managed to make it out to dinner that night -- I think we discovered an all-you-can-eat spaghetti place that accomodated our very limited budgets, but after that I was pretty much confined to the hotel room; burnt to a crisp, swollen, and sickly. I was kept company with one of the boys who suffered the same fate as me. At one point I was staring at my swollen, burnt arm and it looked exactly like a hot dog about to split open.

The drive home was pretty miserable as it was my backside that was the most burnt, plus we had some car problems. When I finally got back to my sister's (she knew where I had gone) we decided I needed to go to the hospital. Since for insurance purposes I had to go the hospital that my mom worked at, we had to think of a lie to tell about the circumstances of my sunburn. I said that I had gone to Kansas City with girlfriends and had fallen asleep under a sun lamp. Who knows if the doctor believed me, but I KNEW that if I told the truth, my mom would find out, confidentiality rules be damned. So I was diagnosed with a UTI and first degree burns and sent home to pick layers and layers of skin off my back, arms and legs. My sister had to vacuum daily around me to pick up all the skin. It was pretty gross.

But anyway, that's one of my favorite photos ever. James is posing, as always, dyed black, new wave spiky hair is documented and we look like we're in some exotic third world country, not just mundane Daytona Beach.

Rag...Rug

Out of some sort of nervous energy (job related and I'll get to it in a moment) I got the notion yesterday afternoon that I should make a rag rug. I've never made a rag rug, but I have lots of clothes that can be torn up and it didn't seem hard. And I was originally thinking of braiding strips of fabric and then winding them up, sewing as I went along. Luckily, a quick check of the Intarweb revealed that an even easier rag rug can be made by a simple single crochet pattern. You still start with strips, but you don't have to do anything more complicated to 'em than a single crochet stitch. The mostly mindless process is just exactly what I was looking for as I've become a bit of a nervous wreck over this job business.

First off, let me say that I'm 99.8% certain that I'm going to love my job. Eventually. Right now I'm in the training phase, at a company that takes training really seriously. I'm not good at not immediately knowing everything about everything at a new job. I don't like the learning curve. I don't like being the person who can't do something (at least not the proper, corporate-approved way). So, I've had a rather high anxiety level the last couple of weeks. So high that a couple of fever blisters popped out on my chin. Oh boy! I always get fever blisters when I'm stressed out to my maximum. Funny thing is, I didn't actually feel stressed when I got them last weekend. This week, though, my stress was not taking a back seat. In just a week I really got used to the people at the store I was working at and now the plan is to ship me off to another store full of strangers and I'm freaking out. Then I'm freaking out further because the manager of the store full of strangers hasn't called me to schedule any hours next week and that's just not going to work. Not only do I need to work to continue my training and learn the frakking job, but I need the money! I really hope it will work out. The idea of juggling possibly two part time jobs is going to cause another fever blister to break out on me and I'd just rather not deal with that.

I put down my rag rug for a moment earlier, to pace, to fret, to cry a little and to call my manager to see what's what and today's TM blog star, Olive, decided it was the best bed ever. So far I've used three dresses and one skirt. How big will I make it? I have the fabric to keep going for quite some time...

Yard Sale-ing

Not a fantastic set of yard sales today, but I did find perhaps the Best Frisbee (or Flying Disc to be more generic) Ever. Yes, you are seeing it correctly: this is a rubber chicken-coated flying disc. Add a little dog slobber to this thing and that rubbery skin will feel like the real thing. Foxy Brown loves her Frisbees more than anything else and I can't wait to throw this one around the back yard. In the house she's a little wary of the Chicken, but outside whe was in chicken heaven. She loved it. It was hard at first for her to get hold of it (it's HEAVY), but once she got the trick, she was in love. She even made a couple of airborne saves, which had to hurt.


Some fabric, a tangle of gold and silver chains and a couple of books made up the rest of my small booty today. But isn't that Saki cover fantastic?




Thanks to Olive for serving as my photo backdrop today!

The 19th Day

So, I'm checking the calendar to see if I am at the Everybody Hates Me point in my cycle or if, indeed, everybody does hate me. I am at that point in my cycle, but perhaps I've become less loveable as well? It's certainly a viable argument. A new job takes a lot of my available social energy (and even on a good day I don't have that much of it lately) and I suppose I' have retreated so I shouldn't be surprised that I feel a bit cut off. I probably shouldn't have this internal conversation at this particular point in my cycle, but alas, since I am at this point in my cycle, it's unavoidable as I am often included in the "everybody" of the everybody hates me time. The most important observation is that I have not taken my Maca Root for a week or so because I thought it was upsetting my stomach. When I take the Maca Root I do not have EHM days. I think I'm gonna go take some Maca Root.

Missed photo opportunity of the week: a teeny, tiny baby preying mantis sitting on a brick on the railing of our deck. The cutest wee thing was sadly gone by the time I came back with my camera. I don't remember ever seeing a grown mantis in the yard, but I have seen an egg pouch hatch once; scores of even teenier newborns pouring out of that thing. So scary and cute at the same time.

Last night, she said: "Oh, baby, I feel so down. See, it turns me off, when I feel left out"

I don't even like the Strokes, but that song just popped into my head whilst thinking about a title for this entry. And as far as Strokes songs go, that's not a terrible one.

So, speaking of last night, we had a good time during and after spinning CDs at the Royale. Probably more fun than we've had in a long while, really. It was so nice to be outside on the patio even though a threatened storm scared almost everyone inside for a bit. They could still hear us, we just couldn't see the absolute joy on their faces when we made perfect segues. Ha! Who am I kidding? I think we do a fine job, but we rarely see much reaction from the patrons. I was happy to see the waitresses doing little dances throughout the evening because I am happy most when we entertain the staff.

We had lots of friends around and that always makes it more fun. So thanks to Heather, Dana and Roy, Allison and Matt, and Laurene and Dan for coming and hanging out. We stayed until nearly 12:30a, a rare occasion as of late as we have been ducking out as soon as we're done at 10p. The weather was so gorgeous after the storm passed over that sitting outside was irresistible. And may I suggest that if you are in the company of Allison at an appropriate location, give her a mint julep. Amusements will ensue! Myself, I ushered in the summer with the superb Subcontinentals of the Royale. Best summer drink ever; comprised of freshly juiced cucumber, gin, Cointreau, simple syrup and lime. And perhaps the most beautiful, with it's lovely green hue. When the Royale first opened, I was so taken with the Subcontinental that I went out and bought myself a juicer so that I could have Subcontinentals whenever I pleased, without leaving the house. I remember one night when I had consumed several while sitting at the bar; we had to leave to go to Frederick's but I had just gotten a fresh one; the lovely bartender popped it into a go cup and I happily snuck it into Frederick's (I must say they didn't really care) where I offered everyone I knew a taste. That might have been the same very hot night that I was photographed lovingly hugging a metal pail full of ice. That pail of ice was my best friend.

Today I have to search for practical (but probably ugly) shoes for work.

Movie Idea

I have no ideas for a plot or even a genre, but these three actors should really be in a movie together, playing brothers. Maybe a Farelly style comedy? Or a Coen black-humored drama?

I mean, really, they're practically the same guy. I wonder if they compete for the same roles? And if you don't know, pictured is Mark Valley (Boston Legal), Joel Gretsch (The 4400) and Colin Ferguson (Eureka).

Separated At Birth?

Is it just me, or do Jacqueline McKenzie (of The 4400) and Eric Mabius (Ugly Betty) look like siblings?

I found this photo and I just couldn't resist. Do you suppose it's a still or real life? If it's real life, definitely pre-Ugly Betty.

If it's the First Friday of the Month this Must Be the Royale

Why I can only manage to convert this file to a jpg in greyscale is beyond m computer skills. Sigh.