Playing dress-up and Johnny Slash

This past weekend marked the beginning of my life as a college alumni. Well, technically next weekend will be when I walk, but thats more for my mother than for anything else. The photo students do something a little more unique by organizing our own gallery opening. This year was particularly special because it was the largest graduating photo class (28 students) that the program as ever processed. Now, imagine if you will, 28 students with all of their family, friends, and acquaintances coming to visit the gallery on the closing reception, all at once. Lets just say, I never thought my BFA senior show would be so...sweaty. Ah well, we all sweated together in a collective push towards the end. My professor talked to my mother, thanking her for sending me his way...admittedly I got a little misty-eyed. I never know how to respond to those situations...usually it ends up in me mumbling some kinda response that makes me seem slightly daft.

enough about the awkward points, lets talk about the good!

1. Having my boyfriend fly down from Canada-land to be with me, even if it could only be for 5 days.
2. The dinner with my family at my favorite Thai restaurant. I swear Id bathe in pineapple curry if it were socially acceptable.
3. Showing off my boyfriend to some of my favorite people.
4. Star Trek. heheh

Okay. Enough of that. I NEED SOME WORK DAMMIT. You get your degree and people just start throwing cash at your face. Thats how it works, right? No? Well I have been sorely mislead.
So, while I submit applications and resumes to numerous establishments, my friends and I get gussied up and go out for burgers at the local rootbeer-float joint. We were feeling rather whimsical after watching some Square Pegs and wishing life could be that well written and silly. I light up every time Johnny Slash comes on screen...seems like alot of kids these day try embody that quirky persona, but just come off as a self-absorbed douche canoe. Its funny, I usually don't go for the silly high school programs, but this one is so well done! Every scene has obviously been well thought-out and beautifully shot. Its a treat just from a visual standpoint; I guess thats the thing that draws me in the most...the soft focus and lush yet ever-so-pastel color pallet of the early 80s.

silly things

who knows. where. what. I'll be. two. ten. twenty years from now. somehow. someway. I think i'll know. always have known. that I'll still be with you. under these tiny stars. these tiny sheets. this open sky. wishing for one last bite of your ice cream.

trufax.com

Time for some true facts about yours truly:

1. I need a job like no ones business. This little lala life that has been provided to me is coming to a fast end...someone employ me si vous plais!

2. At any given moment, I think I am hearing my cell phone ring. The damn thing haunts my dreams!

3. My mother taught me to always mind the birds. I know all the different types of song birds, ground birds, raptors, and water fowl in the Texas area. I think there is some small merit in being familiar with your local birds...never know when they might help you out or lend you an ear.

4. When Im stressed out I clean my already-immaculate apartment. I think its years of having to clean up my parents house as a kid. There was always some kind of impending doom if dad came home and the kitchen was a mess...or more like we would have to endure monumental amounts of whining.

5. People always ask me how I manage to look so put together everyday. They think it comes natural, that I just throw something on and it works...no, not the case...I practice all of my outfits. I'll spend a couple hours a week just trying on clothes that I own, finding new ways to wear them. My cat likes to watch, but she is a poor judge of style.

6. Once I was described as "social tofu", in that I tend to adapt and hang out with a very wide range of people. Whether they be punks, preps, hippies, mods and rockers, scenesters, or just your typical jo-blow, I tend to find some common ground amongst them all.

7. I greatly appreciate a beautiful girl. Its like a breath of fresh, cool air when a lovely lady enters the room. I'll think to myself "oohh I want to BE her!" or wish that she and I could be friends. Its weird, I know.

8. I have a hardcore addiction to coffee. Im sure this isn't some great detail, alot of people share this one, but it's an important substance to me. I can have it all ways: black, sweet, light, foamy or on ice. Just as long as it's strong...can't have any of that weak shit.

9. I hate girly movies. Anything that could automatically be deemed as a "chick flick" is off my list. I simply find the stories and connections to be trite and vastly unrealistic. Thats not to say that I can't appreciate fantasy, its just that these characters tend to be either overly dramatic or so far into their own selves that they can't see past their sappy bullshit.

10. Tacos rule.

11. While I often bitch and moan about my body (like most idiot girls my age) I think for the most part Im pretty attractive. I don't have a ton of hang-ups about my frame. Yes, I have hips wide enough for 400 babies to shoot out of and my boobs haven't grown since I first acquired them...but its all good. Im doing good in the leg department and know how to shake it when the occasion calls for it.

12. Im not a fighter, Im a lover. Never really get into arguments with people or friends. Maybe I tend to get a little annoyed or sassy mouthed, but I never really get angry at them.

13. The night time is the right time. Don't really go out during the day so when the sun sinks away, thats when things really start.

I hope this is a sad song

I come home and open the song that I downloaded from my boyfriends MSN account. I hope its a sad one tonight...the song happily obliges. For the very first time I feel as if I come to some great understanding of my best friend's child hood. It took me so long, even before i knew her to realize how sad it is. I know she doesn't need my pity, but that she has my every most ounce of love for her well being and happiness. This all came to me as she showed me the final proof of the photo-book thats she publishing. The gravity of the photo that she has chosen for the cover has finally hit me...Its funny, because I have been aware of this photo for a while, but it has never reached me...I never understood its significants until now. A simple composition of a little bird singing, a clock, an old news clipping, and the faint shadow of a bird cage cast over the scene.

Tonight I came to realize that I have never had a better friend. And it breaks my heart to know that I won't always know her.

One cigarette, six coffees

What I need is just one good evening with a very good friend, about six cups of coffee and my first cigarette in a week. Collete and I met up at the local art-house cafe; she came with every intention to finish some algebra homework, but our boisterous laughter and gossiping shooed away any attempt to study. She tells me how this town falls apart when I leave, that people aren't what they appear to be and they are doing all the things that they shouldn't be doing. I tell her not to worry too much, people are never what you'd expect them to be...leave them alone with their flaws because at some point we have probably disillusioned someone else. We sit outside as the sun drips further down the horizon-line...our clothes covered in cigarette ashes and sunlight. It occurred to me that I love this little place in its entirety. I love the fact that Im a stone's throw away from anyone that I know, that everyone is as broke as I am yet still manages to make the best of their time, the local hang-out joints and petty drama, the wanna be hipsters, the actual hipsters, the maddening wind that doesn't allow you to have nice hair, and the handful of people who miss you when you haven't been around to brighten their day.

My third cup of coffee for the evening...probably not a good idea right before I hit the gym.

Im sorry, thats not for sale.

Lord, how long as it been since I was involved in a yard sale? AGES I tell you, AGES! Early this morning I dragged my lazy ass out of bed and gathered some of my unwanted clothes and accessories to sell in my friend's yard sale. It's got to be the easiest way to make any kind of money (albeit, not much money, but better than nothing). We pretty much just sat on the front steps of Susan's house, and shouted out prices to passerbys. Little Hispanic girls came and cleaned up the collection of jewelry I was offering. I loved how people would slowly roll by in their cars, stick their necks out the window, then speed away if the selection was not up to their yard-sale standards. It was really quite a spectacular sight: four kids sitting out on the lawn, smoking cigarettes, trying to sell a wild assortment of shoes, clown paintings, ill fitting clothes, and anime DVDs. Who WOULDN'T want to join in on the fun? It sounds incredibly dorky, but I felt pretty cool. Hahah.

Let me say this now. This is a world full of the creepsters and swingers that you'd hope you'd never meet, yet find yourself dodging eye contact with. Hoping that they would not want to strike up a random conversation with or offer you a cigarette. I politely decline, but he presses my company. It' alright, everyone I know agrees with my judgement of the man's character. Never-the-less I find myself elbow deep in a conversation with a drunkard from New England or Jersey, can't place the accent. Either way, its equally uninteresting. Let me take this last drag and head out towards the door before the barkeep starts yelling at us again. No, I'm not interested in your party, I just want to go home to my cat and freshly washed sheets. I'll resist every urge to clean my apartment and just get myself to bed.
But before that, let me check the internet one last time....