09-30-01
I hate being dissed. And yes, I did get my period, so it's a bad day for me to feel.... whatever it is I'm feeling. I think I dig people or I love people and I expect others to be just as thrilled. Or maybe I'm more excited by friends because I was an only child or my Dad was quiet or I need more attention than most or whatever. I just know that I put HUGE investments into people and relationships and friendships and it's either not fully appreciated or not even recognized, and I end up just exhausted from the time and effort and money and driving around and little special things and trying too hard and after all that I feel .  .  expendable.
Getting forgotten lately. Cried on Sean's shoulder for an hour today.

"Quiet people aren't the only ones who don't say much."  So I guess I'll shut up.

09-29-01
This morning someone drove into my Starbucks. I will post pictures when they get scanned. It was 15 minutes before we opened, thankfully. James and Truly were working - they are fine. The guy says he pulled into the parking lot and that's the last thing he remembers. I can't believe he actually drove right into the whole front of our store. If we have to put those ghetto posts in front of our parking spaces, I'm gonna be pissed.
Had a great time at Shin's BYOE party. The piñata was broken by Brian, our third batter up - so great of a swing that a car alarm (parked on the street in front of the house) went off from a flying piece of whatever - and the piñata was in the back yard!  On the way there, we stopped by the liquor store to load some tiny bottles of booze into the thing as well. That had them scrambling when it was busted open!
I got to Soo's baby shower late, too late to order food, in fact, so I just got tanked instead.

09-28-01
I must be getting my period soon because I'm clingy and grumpy and annoying to be around. More than usual.
The show was decent - I liked the opening band and I had some issues with Automaton, but no matter. I got to see Jason and he gave me some show posters and I was happy again.
Had about seven things to do this afternoon; napped instead. And I'm not too disappointed in that decision.

Earlier today:
I hate when you get a really cool shade of nail polish, only to find out that it's clear, with just the essence of that color, and it takes seventeen layers to obtain the same color as it looks in the bottle. They should have a disclaimer, or some sort of rating system, or.......

Sometimes the female just oozes out of me and other times I want to kick anything that giggles.

09-27-01
Last night we had Kirsten and Heidi over for the season premiere of West Wing. Can you tell I don't pay attention to TV? It starts next week. No matter, we had a lovely dinner.
I have two interviews lined up with Starbucks corporate next week.
Briazz should be calling for Sean any time now. His third "interview" was to meet more people in management and fill out background check forms.
My first Sign Language class is tonight!

09-25-01
This guy at lileks.com is hilarious. It's hard to describe what he does, so just go see his gallery.
Raining and foggy and Seattlish lately.
Shane was here last weekend but didn't even call us until just before Juno played at the I-Spy, and he told us we should come see the show.
1. Hi Shane, how are you this year?
2. Why didn't you tell us you were going to visit Seattle before you got here?
3. Why have you visited us in Seattle only three times (including Joe's wedding) since 1996?
4. Why don't you stay with us for a night? (he doesn't have the cat allergy excuse)
It seems that our family members always say "Why don't you ever visit?" or "Why don't you ever call?" and these are the same people that don't even know our phone number, and they've never visited once. I usually (when Sean & I both have jobs) visit Vancouver at least every few months - I mean, it's only two-and-a-half hours away, and a bunch of our cousins are up there (including Shane). They never come here.
I'm feeling dissed lately.
People we love and never hear from enough: cousin Christa (it's been years), cousin Susan & Cornelius (it's been years), Scott in San D, Justin in Vegas, my cousin Jenny, my brother Todd, my Dad, my aunt Nancy, my friend Susan.    * sigh *

I took this last week from Jon's living room window. He has a great apartment with a great view, but the place really hasn't been his lately. His brother moved to Seattle and he's loafed in Jon's apartment under the guise of getting a job and getting his own place since last February. He's still there - lounging in Jon's living room with this privileged view.

Today Jon and I drove around Tukwila in the rain to get a plastic sample for his project, and we also got the piñata for Shin's party (it's a burro, but we've been calling it an ass so we can make ass jokes). I was downright alarmed at the phallic piñatas available. Crayons, lipsticks, rockets. I think maybe they're intended for Bachelorette (or maybe Divorcette?) parties.
(If you're interested, and I know some of you are now thoroughly piqued, they're at Party City.)
Sean had a good job interview with Aramark today and has a better follow-up interview with Briazz tomorrow!
Mariners won tonight 13-2. That's just dang funny.

09-21-01
Woke up to the new house across the street "landscaping." This meant a giant truck dumping boulders and scraping them around. I like rocks and all, but it's Saturday.
Sean's wicked teriyaki last night was exceptional. Thanks to Truly for the bag full of sweet onions delivered direct from Chris's parents from Walla Walla!
The end of next week is when my social life picks up again: our Sign Language class starts this Thursday and I'm so excited!  The first "full-length" thing I want to learn is how to sign the lyrics to "If Only" by Queens of the Stone Age - which should be quite easy. And I want to be fluent at swearing in sign.
Of course. That's a given.
Friday night is Automaton at Graceland, again, since they canceled their last show a couple of weeks ago due to a death in the family (condolences, you guys). The first time I saw Automaton I bought their CD, which I am very happy with. I look forward to seeing them live again.
Saturday is Soo's Shower followed by Shin's BYOE (Bring Your Own Ethnic food - I'm bringing a piñata) followed by Carissa's Weird & Aveo - also at Graceland (if there's time).
Jason Finn was mentioned in the P-I's special on grunge. He's everywhere! Interesting article, too.

09-20-01
Hey everyone, let's do this.
And here's another freaky cover on this week's Stranger Weekly.

09-18-01
Anyone else a bit weirded out by big-ass commercial airliners flying overhead?  I used to pay them no mind, and now I look up at them and think.... all those people....

09-17-01
Last night at our dinner dealie, Sean fried bananas in butter & creme de cacao, to which I added raspberries and blackberries, drizzled melted chocolate, and a thwap of creme fraise. We also had cookies and plums and Starbucks Anniversary Blend coffee (mmmmm). It was dessert perfection.
So this afternoon I have cut up the last of the bananas and dipped them in the leftover chocolate and put them in the freezer. And I have decided to call them "Nana Chunkletts."  The chocolate was just a handful of chocolate chips and some Crisco in the microwave, by the way. How many minutes till they're frozen?
Shelley of Shelleyness.com fame (and I do mean fame) e-mailed me today! I wish she would come visit Seattle.
I need to make a cast of characters page so you can all keep up. And being that I'm such a groupie, I'll need to link to bands and mp3's too. Hmmm.... I smell a project for this weekend.

Do you think the bananas are done yet?

09-16-01

Josh picks plums Tonight we had friends over for a collective dinner: Josh & Emily, Jon, Kate, Jason. It ended up being a great meal and wine and dessert and candles and conversation.  As Kate stated, it seemed like a Turning Leaf commercial. Josh climbed our plum tree and we had plums, too! Yesterday the three of us went to a softball game - it was all Seattle bands and those involved (managers and Stranger Weekly staff etc.) It was truly entertaining. The umpire smoked and drank Jägermeister, no one knew the rules, all the players had tattoos.... (Jason Finn is a great softball player, by the way!) The final score was Casio Forest 31 to Friendship Village 26? ....I think. The losing team's chant: "Where do we live?" "THE VILLAGE!" What do we have?" "FRIEND-SHIP!" After that was the prom at the Graceland. We went that afternoon to help Jason Lajeunesse with the decorations - streamers and such - but he already had most of them finished. So we went back later that night and took some prom pictures and hung out with Jason for a while but didn't stay too long.

Chris DeLay's flight for Friday is canceled. I will not see him after all.....

There is sensationalism all over the media: multiple views of the towers on fire or collapsing, people clutching pictures of their loved ones, aerial views of the destruction.... most of them notching up our horror threshold one visual blip at a time; but for some reason the simplicity on the cover of this week's Stranger Weekly really took my breath away.
I don't want to be numbed by the blows of watching that plane fly into the tower over and over again. I want it to hurt like it did the first time, because when it doesn't, I will no longer be myself.

09-11-01
Hope everyone is okay out there. News just keeps getting more and more freaky. Worked at 6 a.m. today so I heard about it right away. I woke up Sean & Jon and had them watch the news and keep me posted.
Here's Selina's e-mail from NYC:

Stewart and I made it back to the apartment okay. We spotted the plane, heard the crash and saw the Towers burn as we were walking to the subway this morning.
Thanks for all your calls and email.
Sel

I'm hoping Eric Rosner is fine - he's over at Mtv. (Cyndi later wrote to let us know that Eric is okay.)
And I hope the evil is over.

09-10-01
I missed Cyndi :(
She was here for two days and we were literally a few blocks apart, but we were both very busy. She got me the movie Less Than Zero for my birthday. So I get to watch a movie with Robert Downey Jr. smoking crack until he.... hey, wait a second.....
Jon's Architecture Reunion page is up but not totally finished. I was there, really.
Saturday morning the contractors were working on our yard and I had NO idea the effort that would be made. Two big hauling trucks and a team of five hacked away most of our yard and drove it away. I came home to a new shiny yard.
After jumping for joy over the yard, I watched the Mariners game with the boys, and then Jon & I joined the reunion gang once more at the Barça Lounge.

While at the reunion, Scott and I discussed the next party at our house. I want something macabre to go with decorating my Christmas tree, since my Christmas tree is spray-painted black. We were trying to think of themes. Maybe the Nightmare Before Christmas? Or just a gothic party? Whatever the theme, Sean says he's making an official turkey dinner for it. OH YEAH! Jason is home from his U.S. tour with Juno. We are having him over as soon as he's re-couped. I got this blank journal book from Jon's brother Marc for my birthday, and tonight Jalen jumped up on the desk and I went Hey! Look! And then I took a picture (I'm borrowing Jon's camera this week for yard pictures) to show the similarities. Jalen is usually smiling and he looks just like this cat ("Milton") but when you grab a camera, the cat just stops smiling..... always happens.

09-07-01
So Chris DeLay will be here for his grandfather's funeral next weekend. I'll be happy to see him - he is truly one of the funniest people I know. We worked with Chris at Applebee's in Seattle 1996-1998. We also spent New Years 99-00 with him and his wife on their last visit to Seattle.

Greg's getting married next weekend as well, and I'm bummed that I can't make it. Even with Vegas handouts galore it's still too difficult a trip to make at this time and I just can't believe I'm missing Greg's wedding. We became friends at Hyde Park Jr. High's Magic Mountain trip in 9th grade. NINTH GRADE. So we've been friends 17 years now. GAAAH I'm old. Plus Jonny and Scott and others from our group of friends will be there. I'm sad now.

Cyndi is here from Vegas this weekend and I hope to catch her for at least one get-together. Also this weekend is Jon's 5 year UW Architecture Class Reunion, which is the Six Arms gang, so I'm an honorary graduate.

Gotta get going - it's Jessica's party tonight for LeAnne and Amber, who are both moving away.

Vegas on New Year's Eve