I've been reading the serialization of Cory Doctorow's Makers for a while now but decided to cheat this evening and download the full novel so I could find out what happened. I'm almost done; these lines are from the epilogue and I'm not quite sure why they struck me how they did but they rivet me.

They were like gears that had once emerged from a mill with perfectly precise teeth, gears that could mesh and spin against each other, transferring energy.

They were like gears that had been ill-used in machines, apart from each other, until their precise teeth had chipped and bent, so that they no longer meshed.

They were like gears, connected to one another and mismatched, clunking and skipping, but running still, running still.

I went out tonight for Katie's doctoral inauguration/celebration. I hung out with people from the internet and it was good.

I always knew the 96 pack of crayons I've owned since 2005 would come to a good end. They actually came to an awesome end and I only wish I'd photographed every single page of Katie's "You're Awesome" workbook.

Congratulations to Dr. Katie and huzzah for defenses, crayons, and nice people.

Epic, dance-tastic, fun. Pics when I get home from work. I need a new camera. This no-settings, no-screen business is getting old.

Anyway, SO MUCH FUN. My feet are starting to recover. Haven't listened to electronic music in 24 hours and that's starting to feel weird.

Went to trivia last night directly off the plane and got first place. So that's, like, one more day in a row of doing it right.

I had a FANTASTIC weekend, despite the fact that I spent most of the daylight hours either hungover or sleepy. calmkelp's going-away party was a ton of fun, even if totally bittersweet because it means he's leaving. I got to see a few people I hadn't seen in years and just generally really enjoyed myself. I, of course, completely regretted the level of enjoyment I'd attained come Saturday, and even considered not going to the massive Everyone Was Born On February 10th party that night. I'm glad I forced myself out of the house, though, because that party was also completely awesome. The costumes were incredible! I had no idea so many of my friends owned catsuits! Sean and Nathan's pimp suits were amazing, and Jack's Hunter S. was fucking perfect. I had been kind of hating on my dress before I left the house and was pleased that it got a couple of compliments. I insulted a Brit by insinuating he was a kiwi, got hit on by a 21 year old who apparently says he "likes older women", and took pictures of quite a few sweet mustaches. I think I call that a success.

I think this week will be a lot more low-key than last; I'm looking forward to getting hella things done at work and having some time to just hang out at home. Also, it looks like my calendar is empty for the upcoming weekend, and I think I'd like to take advantage of that to go to my parents' house. I miss my family!

I got off work early on Friday, so I had time to do laundry and clean my house before Game Night. I got to Safehouse a little early to give Luke a haircut; I'm glad we planned this and glad I picked up a shaper because it turns out Peter desperately needed a haircut, too. I feel like I did my good deeds for the day there. The electric shock game and the stacking-rocks game were my favorites of the evening, and I know how ridiculous that sounds to anyone who wasn't there. There should be a couple short movies going up on Flickr about the shock game. There was also some We Cheer and silliness and I didn't get quite enough sleep, but it was all hell of worth it.

Saturday I had a date to go to the Lunar New Year festival in the ID, which I was seriously tempted to cancel due to sleep deprivation, but I'm glad I went. We watched the dragons run around, saw lots of fireworks go off, and made some mischief (like stealing traffic cones and boxes of free tote bags to pass out). After some delicious dim sum, we went back to Cap Hill and watched the first 2 episodes of "How I Met Your Mother" which, as it turns out, is awesome.
For the evening, I was supposed to go to the MxPx show at El Corazon but I got canceled on at kind of the last minute. I pretty much knew that was going to happen, but my inner optimist made me buy the tickets anyway. That ended up working out amazingly, though. I got rid of my tickets on Craigslist (for under cost) at the last minute, and I got to go with the Moonrock contingent on their planned evening of awesome. First, we went to see "Milk" at the Egyptian. It's a completely awesome movie, even if it got me a little misty-eyed in a couple places. After that was sushi at Vi Bacchus where we overwhelmed the hell out of the waiter, but tipped handsomely. My negi hana maki was one of the most delicious plates of sushi I've had in my life. YUM. After that (I clearly did kind of a lot on Saturday) we all went dancing at the Baltic Room. I thought Angel Alanis was great but was sort of not into Orlando Voorn. I still enjoyed dancing with everyone, though. We had some pretty mellow after-party time afterward and I went to bed around 5am.

Sunday I ended up waking up for good at nearly 2pm and heading to Snackpalace for Superbowl watching and Superbowl-food eating. We had tons of deliciousness, and I actually enjoyed watching the game itself. There were some incredible plays. It's kind of neat to see the inner superheroes athletes can conjure up when everything's on the line.

Now I'm home and it's late but I've only been up for like 8 hours so I'm worried I won't be able to sleep. I've got a LOT to do at work this week and I'm going to need a lot of focus and a lot of good music to get through it.

Speaking of good music, what have you been listening to? I need upbeat energizing music to help me focus on my mountains of spreadsheets!

How is it possible that my mother doesn't remember me leaving college at the end of my junior year to move home and take care of the house when she had cancer? I was also raising my niece because my sister was only 21 and had no idea what to do with a baby. How is this the sort of thing that, like, passes under the radar?

I went to the Babeland 15th anniversary party with rollersluut tonight. I saw an old coworker of mine from back when I looked like this and she made evident eye contact with me without recognizing me at all. I guess I shouldn't be surprised?

Then we went to the afterparty at the Wildrose. I can't remember the last time I went to the Rose; it was weird! There were so many new faces (and a disconcerting, if relatively small, number of familiar ones) and so many fellas! Goodness. It's nice to take a minute to be out of my element but it felt like going to the house-party of someone I hadn't hung out with in years- intensely familiar but somewhat foreboding and awkward.

Anyway, I smell like fruit now from dancing with Mary.

I'm glad I went, even if it was weird.



Looking forward to the Rock Band 2 party Friday night!

take a picture of yourself right now.
don't change your clothes, don't fix your hair... just take a picture.
post that picture with NO editing.
post these instructions with your picture.

The Last Picnic in the Park for Summer 2k8 was awesome and awesomely ghetto. No one brought disposable dishes or cutlery. The promised guacamole had glass shards stirred in and was therefore absent. The company was grand, the wine was chilled, and we got chased out of Cal Anderson by the cops.

We took the party to Nicole's post-banishment and I didn't realize til we got there that she was both the Nicole of Rendezvous festivities on Friday night and also someone I know. We talked a lot of shit, played a board game, and had a great time.

It was basically a pretty delightful Sunday, the kind of Sunday that makes going back to work seem so insubstantial and poorly thought out.

Hooray for Sundays!

I saw Bad Religion for the first time on June 24, 1995 at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. I went with my mom and dad and my bestie Caitlynn. I was twelve. Pearl Jam was the headliner. My parents didn't realize that Bad Religion would make the crowd so much more thrashy than the headliner and let us go into the midst of it all during their set. It was epic and amazing and unforgettable.

Tonight, I saw them for the second time. Greg Graffin has maintained so much brilliance and perfection in the intervening 13 years.

I'm so incredibly glad I took the time on this Saturday night to see him shout again. The venue was perfect; I was as far back as I could be and he was still right in front of me, proselytizing to the 807 people that filled the sold-out capacity show. I've never sweated so much in my life, and I can't remember the last show that rocked this hard. I'd like to say "I wished they'd played (insert song here)" but they couldn't have done a better job.

I'm absolutely and unspeakably in love with Bad Religion right now.

...like getting a call from your boss saying you should sleep in tomorrow since there's no sense in everyone being there at 8:00am.

Thank you to everyone I hung out with tonight. You guys are all amazing and I'm lucky to call you all friends.

Also, sorry we lost trivia to that table full of cute fellas. But not really :)

So I'm still going a thousand miles an hour now that I'm home but it's been awesome. Trivia was oddly mellow on Tuesday night; I think I was the only shouty fucker there but I'm mostly okay with that. We got, like, 5th place but I know I was a lot more interested in seeing all the people I totally missed than putting any effort whatsoever into winning.

Wednesday does not merit mentioning. Wednesday shall be stricken from the record.

Thursday enth treated me to Built to Spill at the Showbox. They performed "Perfect From Now On" (which is such a great title, by the way) in its entirety. It was lovely.

Friday was HotWired at Noc Noc; it was silly and fun and good and half of BRCCC was there.

Then I lost my phone (it was in Mary's car the whole time, I thought we'd checked there but I was not very good at checking anything by that point), which sort of made getting to my parents' house on Saturday awkward. Mom eventually saw my tweet about the lost phone and then checked her email to figure out the plan. I spent the rest of the weekend there, hanging out in the new gazebo and reading and whatnot. Good times.

This next week looks like it's going to be fairly busy, too. I think my only free night is Wednesday. I like being busy but I'm starting to worry I'll never get the rest of my Burning Man laundry done. My house is starting to look like a hobo squat and that goes in my "cons" column.

They played Randy Described Eternity, I Would Hurt a Fly, and You Were Right. This show was the best thank-you note ever.

Things I enjoyed about burning man:

doing donuts on the ranger cart. stargazing in deep playa the first night. the moonshine tavern. tagging passed out drunks. the love sac. ravers anonymous. shotgunning beers. mary's big wheel. the giant full cartridge bucket. completely ineffectual curtains on the moon shower. the tuna guys actually having tuna. footies. group showers. a stripper pole lesson. not eating tastybites. my spork. whiskey and whores. equilibrium's food surplus. dr. horrible in z dome. opulent temple's dance roof. 4:30 and ketchup. bruises. late-night grilled cheese. whiteouts. my tetanus shot. snuggling. cabbage patch kid hair. losing peripheral vision. secretly listening to indie rock in my tent. things being on fire. dubious sanitation. crucified gizmo. misinformation. megaphones. everyone in camp, especially the people I didn't know. winning.


I might want to go again next year.

While I just have had the most incredible 10 days, I have never been so grateful to be home.

I'll write a little more about my Burning Man shenanigans and whatnot later (and I'll throw up some pictures here when I get a minute).

What I'd really like to know, though, is what did I miss? By the time I have time to go through 10 days of friends list I'll have that many more days piling on...

It has been brought to my attention that if I ask someone to water my geraniums once (maybe twice) over the next week, my babies probably won't be dead when I get home. Fascinating!

So! Are you planning on being near Cap Hill, or more specifically, near Broadway and John once or twice this upcoming week? Would you like to water my geraniums? It's definitely an in-and-out operation.

They and I would be super indebted. Please let me know if you're willing!

I just realized my precious baby geraniums are going to die while I'm out partying in the desert.


:( :( :( :( :(


I've been working really hard to be a good plant-owner to them and they're doing so well. Pinky got 2 new blooms just last week! I'm going to be kind of brokenhearted when I come back and they're dead.

I've been having kind of a really rough week and I'm so glad that some of my pals have my back. I'm, like, having nightmares because I'm so freaked out about going to Burning Man. I'm also full of PMS; these things compounded mean I've spent the past few days wanting to hide under things and cry. It's actually taken a pretty valiant effort to NOT hide under things and cry.

This also mean I'm killing my immune system so my allergies are worse than usual and I have a freakin' rash on my neck.

Yesterday was pretty much the worst day yet for all of it. I was supposed to get a steroid cream prescription from my boss for the rash but we were too busy and she forgot. I did get some extra allergy meds, though, after she told me what I take now sometimes gives girls my age strokes. Not like I was already worried about anything.

I owe the biggest thank-yous in the universe to Kate, Joe, Aaron, and Brian for talking me down from my ledges yesterday. They came through with the hugs and support I really really needed for my no-good very bad day.