Hurraher! & Hurrahest!

Sorry. Life is good.

1) ABBA's Voulez-Vous is the perfect 73 degree Friday morning drive to work soundtrack. A-HA! I freakin' love ABBA. So very much. Their Swedish pop genius is a joy to behold. Behear? Eh. Why is there no sincere optimism in pop music anymore? Am I missing something? Tell me. Is there a contemporary equivalent to the sincere refrain of "I believe in angels/Something good in everything I see"?

2) I'm wearing sandals for the first time this year - & they're my lovely gold sparkly cork wedge sandals, to boot. Er, no pun intended.

(Lengthy parenthetical aside revealing my etymological dorkiness & alarming passion for punctuation:

("The boot in [the phrase 'to boot'] is pretty much the only surviving sense of a once prominent word. Some archaic or obsolete senses are 'advantage; profit; use' ('O spare they happy daies, and them apply/To better boot'--Spenser, Faerie Queen); 'something given in a sale or exchange to equalize the value of the exchange' (now only used in dialect, in America found chiefly in the south); and 'deliverance from evil or danger' (often in the phrase boot of bale 'relief from woe').

("The phrase ['to boot'] uses [the word 'boot'], in a sense like 'to the good; to advantage', and hence 'in addition; besides; moreover'. This particular boot is from Old English, and is related to better."

(The above explanation can be found in full, & with fewer parentheses/brackets, here.)

3) On Wednesday I made a decision which makes me molto contenta. I ain't tellin'. The action won't happen until 2011 anyway. Let's just say that I hope in three years the dollar/euro exchange rate is a bit more in my favor.

4) Said decision involved the more immediate decision to look for a part-time job. That same day, I found a listing for a part-time video store job, 12 - 14 hours a week, in NW Portland. I dropped my resume off that night, interviewed yesterday, & start working on Saturday. Yeah, I rock. Y'know, my favorite job ever was at a video store. This new one has the benefit of not being in rural Oregon, which gives me relative confidence that the following exchange is highly unlikely to occur:

Customer returning The Talented Mr. Ripley, which I had recommended to him the night before: I didn't like this movie.
Me: Oh, I'm sorry.
Him: It was about faggots.
Me: Well, yes, I suppose that's true.
Him: That's sick.
Me: Some people think so.
Him: You don't?
Me: No, I don't.
Him: Are you a dyke?

Yes indeedy. You can't make this stuff up, people. So...I'm going to get paid to talk about movies & clean & organize shelves stuffed with movies. It makes my movie-loving, compulsively clean & systematic self well-nigh giddy. Oh, yeah, plus I get free movies. I mean, I could probably get a better-paying part-time job. But the way I look at it, I already have one job for which I don't much care. If I'm gonna have a second job, I better damn well like it. And this is...perfect.

5) Also, this is entirely politically irresponsible of me, because I know absolutely nothing about his governorship, but goddamn. Whenever I remember that we live in a world where Arnold motherfuckin' Schwarzenegger is the GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA, things get just a little more...sparkly. I love it, I do, I confess. I don't think you could dream up something more deliciously absurd. Hee hee! Related: the commentary track for Conan the Barbarian is the single most fantastic commentary I've ever heard. Easily as good as the movie proper. (Governator: "She's so hot. I'm so hot in this scene" John Milius: "She's like a...Valkyrie." Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Surely they were both drunk. Schwarzenegger is a total chauvinist, which I inexplicably love.)

Hurrah!

These are some things that I particularly love today:

1) Peppermint tea

2) The Criterion transfer of Naked. It even looks good on my old TV set.

3) Dinosaur L (I said NO, thank yooouuuu....)

4) Mmmmmangoes!

5) Feelin' like a fourth grader. Yep, in my quest to prove that April Model 1978 is in fact completely obsolete, my newest fascination is book making. See, it occurred to me recently that at present I seem to be drawn toward the tactile. Rather than subvert these fascinations into something more ephemeral, I thought well why not just make things I can touch? I ain't a writer, & my drawing skillz are stuck in stick-figure land (tho' it be a mean stick figure indeed), but I see no reason whatsoever to let that stop me. I made a book last night! With velcro & wiggly eyes & o-rings & junk mail! (I successfully fought the urge to add glitter.) Here's a small detail of one page:


As usual, my grand plans exceed my technical capability by a wide margin. Sheesh. We'll see. You don't know how much I want to catch one of these flitting momentary obsessions & pin it down, already. How is it possible that the older I get, the less attention span I have?

6) Portland Maps. I often bemoan the fact that everybody in my neighborhood looks like me. What do I mean by this? While Buckman ain't quite an army of April clones, it is a 739-acre area with 7,923 people who:

• Are most likely between the ages of 22 & 39 (52%)
• Are whiter than an arctic glacier on a sunny day (81%)
• Have yet to breed &/or are not overly keen on cohabitation (52% one-person households)
• Got no strings to hold them down (84% are not home-owners)
• Stand a solid chance of being male (52%) or female (48%)
  

I am a 29-year-old child-free white girl who lives alone in a rented apartment. Thanks, Portland Maps, for proving me right!

7) Spring. Not this spring, this year, this here. But in general. And SUNSHINE. Glorious rich yellow sunshine that is both absorbed & reflected by the green of the trees & the grass.

8) Making the soundtrack for the wedding I will never have. See, it all started with Kid Creole's version of "If You Want to be Happy". If you don't know the song, click the link. You'll understand. The vision of playing this as the first song at my unwedding made me gigle giggle (no semiconductor, I) madly for endless minutes (the looks on people's faces would be freakin' priceless), so I thought, why stop there? This project is saving me from an increasingly bilious resentment toward other people's weddings; therefore, it makes me happy.

9) And actually, I kind of love everything. Probably in theory - I wouldn't test me with, say, a puddle of puppies or a basket of babies. But I am, how you say, a happy camper.

The End Of Hair (Promise)

So here's what my $60 different-but-not-too-different haircut looks like:



The pics are kinda crap; however, I hate flash & am too damned exhausted to get my tripod & use more suitable settings. If I have time, I'll take some shots in the daylight & replace, but I wanted to document it before I pass out & ruin that fresh-from-the-hairdresser loveliness. Basically, Scott "textured" it (which seems to mean subtle layers), cut it short in the back, started to angle the front, & then did that fringe-y side bang action (which I LOVE). It's not colored...yet...though I may actually skip that for now. I think the style is rather well-suited to my natural color.

I love the salon, I love my hairdresser, I love the cut, although we're gonna grow it out a bit over the next few months. What really sealed the deal, however, was that afterward I was strolling down Hawthorne, rockin' my new hair, when a random cute girl smiled at me & said "You look great!" as we passed each other on the sidewalk. How often does that happen? Unless I've been missing out on a world of strangers haphazardly handing out compliments to each other with no ulterior motive.

And, y'know, it was true. I did look great. The ensemble overall was nicely put together if I do say so myself, but the hair was definitely the buttercream on the genoise.

Proof Pudding

Look! I can win at bowling! At least two games in a row! That makes three games I've won, ever. I think that merits a big ol' w00t!!!1!!1!




*Sniff*. I'm so proud of me. Um, I'm the kraut if you couldn't figure. Thanks to the mick for the pics.

365 Little Days

It has been a tiny bit more than a year since I moved into my apartment with about three pieces of furniture & little else. Although I still feel I've an awfully long way to go, I have to admit I've also come an equally long way. Example:



I'm going to take this also as an occasion to state for the record that, yes, Heather, "if anything happens to me", you can have the Totoro clock (seen to the left of the couch there). As a surprise bonus, I will also leave you my copy of Trouble in Paradise, since you're the first person I've shown it to who thought it as absolutely funny as I.

I'll consider other requests.

April, Er, tiegkopf88, Published Photographer

So this thing called "Schmap" requested permission to use two of my photos for their 4th edition Portland guide...you can see the pics here & here (check the upper right hand corner after clicking on each link).

Sure, I didn't get paid, the pictures are tiny (though if you click on them they take you to my Flickr page) & even though I asked them to credit me using my real name, they used my oh-so-clever webonym...

But still! Somebody who isn't me & doesn't know me thought my pictures were useful/pretty enough to use on a website for a travel guide! I'm happy as a clam. Today, much like the past few days, has been a huge roller coaster of awesome highs & sucky lows, particularly for someone who's become accustomed to riding the Ferris Wheel of life.

True to form, I'm both pleased & annoyed with this change; but this one here is a good thing.

The Maintenance of the Humanoid is Not Cost-Effective

Recently I decided I was going to start taking care of myself, & fuck the cost. By which I mostly mean I decided I was going to go to the dentist & get new glasses. Also get my Oregon driver license. Hey, it's only been a year, right?

So this morning I went to get the license. The secret to the DMV is getting there five minutes before they open. I was #2 in line. To get an ODL, you have to take a written exam (I know, so stupid!). Last night I read the novel-length driver manual to prepare. And I learned some interesting things, actually. The two most relevant ones are:

1) Basically, it is illegal to make a U-turn in Oregon unless there is a sign expressly permitting it. I'm confounded.
2) There are invisible crosswalks! They stretch between the sidewalks at any intersection. Also, there is no such thing as jaywalking in Oregon. The manual just says that if you are
crossing at neither a marked nor unmarked crosswalk, you (the pedestrian) must yield the right of way to oncoming vehicles.

I got a 98%. I also registered to vote. And just made the deadline, since Oregon is a mail ballot-only state. This makes me happy, because as somebody who has no interest in "getting involved" & no discernible political bent beyond the pursuit of my happiness, I always figure that I have an obligation to inform myself of the issues/candidates & vote. As in, it's the least I can do. It marks my contribution to society.

So my (first) dentist appointment was at 11:30. It involved X-rays & a detailed discussion of what needs to happen inside my mouth. Did I ever mention that my least favorite sound in the whole world is the sound of metal scraping against teeth? Apparently, for not having been to the dentist in a long long long time (I'm not telling how long, that's how long) my teeth are in GREAT shape.

And are only going to cost $1,700 to fix.

What? I'm sorry. What? Granted, having the mythical dental insurance beast ensnared means that (hopefully) only about $700 of that is coming out of my pocket. But still. What? And I have to go in twice. My dentist wanted me to make THREE appointments. But I put my foot down on that one. So now in a couple of weeks I go in for my cleaning & to get fillings on the left side, which in keeping with traditional folklore connotations, is the evil side of my mouth. Then a week after that, I get to go in for the fillings on the right side &...bonus!...the extraction of my wisdom teeth. Yessss. Although it seems I have no wisdom teeth in the bottom of my mouth, which strikes me as odd. I've no recollection of ever having them removed. Oh well. (EDIT: After calling my mother last night to bitch about the $700, she not only stole my righteous indignation by telling me that she, my father, & both brothers have each spent WAY MORE at the dentist for things like that, she also told me that I never had any wisdom teeth removed. So apparently I'm just a toothy freak of nature.)

What gets me is, my out-of-pocket cost to get two whole friggin' teeth removed (they call them "erupted teeth" on my cost estimate, which I find disturbing) is $52. Today's X-rays were free. The cleaning is free. Which means that putting crap in my teeth is going to cost...$648? I cry foul.

The "exciting" appointment is my vision exam, which is next week. Look at the place I picked! I picked it for that logo. And its proximity to my apartment. Also, I'd read some good reviews about their frame selection. Which is important, because I've decided that now, for the first time EVER in the history of April, I am going to get whichever frames I want. Not the free ones, unless they're stunning. No insurance discounts considered. I am going in there & I am not looking at the price tag of any pair & I am picking the ones that I like the very best of all. Also, I recently realized that I actually love wearing glasses. So I should love the frames too.

So really, even though spending over $1,000 on myself doesn't thrill me, & the thought of having teeth extracted doesn't either, I feel really, really happy & pleased to actually be taking care of myself. For a change.