New hair color. I ditched the cotton candy pink with blond streaks for an all-over black. I’m also very overdue for a cut, but I’m attempting (for the 598th time) to grow it out. I’d love to rock the longer Victoria Beckam for the winter. I’m also loving the idea of rocking little pigtails while it grows.

We’ll see if I can grow it long enough before I give in and head straight for the hair clippers.

I don’t want to get all cocky and jinx myself here, but I’m tentatively reporting that things appear to be looking up for me these days. I’ve got a few really exciting things that seem to be coming together. **knock on wood** Sadly, one of them involves dyeing my hair back to boring, plain old black, but at least it suits me. And it just might be completely and totally worth it. (Here’s hoping.)

It’s surprisingly sunshiney today, considering we’re into September already, and in celebration of the incredible natural light coming in through the windows I’ve had my camera in hand most of the day. I’ll leave you with one of my favorites from a series I shot with Gir about an hour ago. He has given full publishing permission, but only after I paid him in bites of tuna.

I’ve just spent the last 5 minutes of my life watching Gir try to catch a fly that found it’s way into our house. I watched him gallop from room to room, randomly jumping in mid air, flailing his kitty arms out nowhere near the actual fly. It was quite amusing and I found myself enjoying the show. I noticed Wednesday was also entertained, sitting in a corner of the room doing her best brooding Wednesday Addams impression. (That’s what she does best.)

And that’s when it happened.

All of a sudden as I’m watching Gir fail miserably at fly-catching, Wednesday goes screaming by, launches herself magnificently from the middle of the living room to the top of the computer desk, and CATCHES THE FLY IN MID AIR. Note to self: Wednesday is a freaking NINJA.

Out of nowhere, she had taken the fly out with a single swipe. I couldn’t effing believe it.

And as if that weren’t enough, she put the fly in her mouth, jumped carefully off the desk, pranced over to Gir, and — get this — she set it down in front of him.

Too bad as soon as Gir went for it she grabbed it and gulped it down right in front of him.

The fly has since been reported missing by it’s immediate family members.
Moral of the story: Ninjas can never be trusted.

Obviously I haven’t been writing much lately. I feel bad when days go passing by while my blog sits stagnant. Silence tends to breed more silence, which really doesn’t work at all when my main outlet is text.

It isn’t that I’ve lost the creative urge to write, it’s that lately when I’ve found myself inspired I don’t have time to type it all out. And when I make time, I forget what I was going to write in the first place. It’s quite the paradox.

Note To Self: Start carrying around a notebook to jot things down.
Bonus: I’ll totally look like a journalist.

In other news, I have a secret: I’m creating a new project that I expect to fully develop over the next week or two. I’m super excited to share it with you, but it’s too early in the game to risk someone stealing my awesome idea. Hang tight for now, I promise to end the suspense soon.

On the knitting front, I finally finished my first Central Park Hoodie sleeve — the third freaking time I’ve knit that damn sleeve and it finally appears to be the correct shape and size. Honestly, I’m just fucking glad to be done with it.

Unfortunately, sweaters do require two sleeves so I put my game face on and cast on the second sleeve immediately after binding off the first.

I’m happy to report that I’ve now passed the halfway point and expect to finish this second sleeve sometime this evening — meaning both sleeves will soon be done! As in I’ll never have to knit them again! (At which point I’m definitely going to sit down and enjoy at least 7 glasses of wine. And then 12 shots of whiskey. Followed by 24 fluid ounces of Drano. Because obviously I’m already dead — this sweater has been on the needles for 193 years.)

After I recuperate from dying, I’ll seam the sweater pieces together, knit up the hood, and then the dreaded button band will be the last leg of the never-ending My First Sweater marathon I’ve been running since September 2008.

It seems fitting that I just might finish knitting this sweater in September 2010 — just 2 short years after I started the project.  </sarcasm>

It’s just 10:45 am and the house is already 81 degrees inside. Today’s going to be another scorcher. 90 degree heat makes me an insta-bitch, which means as soon as Sam is home from work today we’re heading straight for the swimming hole.

On my list of things to do this Hump Day:

• Laundry
• One last load of dishes leftover from yesterday
• Drop off my $140 tire that I curbed so bad it punctured a hole in the sidewall, so that they can order a replacement (thankfully Sam bought the Extended Warranty and it won’t cost me a dime except the $14 mounting fee for putting the tire on my rim)
• Try not to die of heat stroke or punch anyone in the face out of heat rage
• Head for the water as soon as Sam gets home

Here’s hoping this damn heat wave ends soon. I’m so ready for cooler Fall weather.

I’m not feeling well today after a long, outrageously busy week. To tide you over, here’s a little of what I’ve been up to lately:

• I spent a day driving along the Oregon coastline with Sam, stopping at various beach fronts all along the way.
• I spent 4 hours painting and laughing with Jeana — our collaboration piece turned out incredible.
• I drove 100 miles to the beautiful town of Olympia, Washington with Kristin to attend my cousin-in-law’s wedding. It was beautiful.
• I learned that the Grandpa in the 90’s cartoon Hey, Arnold has a gigantic cock’n balls on his head.



• Experienced the most horrific, vivid nightmare where I actually died.
• I spent 1 night alone while Sam was camping in Washington for his dual race day. He was only gone for about 30 hours and I missed him the entire time. I’m very happy he’s home. =)
• and I’ve now been feeling horrifically ill off and on since Friday and I’m ready for it to go away.

Life has been unusually busy lately, and every time I’ve found myself with some free time, I’ve been knitting like a mad woman and trying in vain to become interested in the storyline of The Host (so far it’s just not working out for me). I need to just give up and try something else, but I’ve read everything else on my shelf. It takes a certain mood for me to read a book more than once.

I spent 2 and a half days knitting what I was convinced would be the most amazing pair of knit handwear I’d ever created. Unfortunately, what I ended up with is far from practical, and might even be completely and utterly useless. As in completely non-functional as, well, anything. I’m so frustrated with them that I haven’t even sewn the buttons on yet, and there certainly isn’t photographic evidence that they even exist. I’ll let you know how it ends; at this point I’m just not sure.

It looks like this weekend will stay in the 70’s which means no swimming or Oregon coast trip for us. Why do weekends — when Sam actually has the time — always have the shittiest weather while the week days are sweltering??

In rebellion, I’ve decided I’m not shaving my legs today. Take that, Portland Weather.

I just realized that 98% of the TV shows I watch are non-fiction. I’m pretty proud of that fact.

For the past week or two I’ve felt relieved. I thought I’d made a final decision. I was finally giving my lifelong dream of being a licensed Cosmetologist a rightful chance. I was going for it — chasing my dream. That is, until a few days ago.

Let’s start with some back story.

I’ve been THISCLOSE to starting beauty school twice now; a few years ago I even went so far as to pay the admission fee to officially enroll. But in the end, when it came right down to it, Sam and I realized it just wasn’t financially feasible at the time. The week before my first day of class, I called the admissions department at the beauty school I’d chosen and politely retracted my approved application. The whole situation was just stressful.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago and the steady 9-5′r I’ve held for the past 3.5 years suddenly came to an end. After basking in the awesomeness that is not having a job for a few days, I sat down and really started to think about what I want to do with myself in this one life I’m living — was I going to continue working desk jobs for little pay or was I going to progress myself into a position where I both earn and deserve a better living than I was making before?

The choice seemed an obvious one, but the decision-making part has proved quite difficult.

I’m hesitant to make a final decision, and I keep putting it off. I’ve toured countless schools, met with numerous counselors and financial aid advisers, and I even have 2 more schools left to tour, but no one else is going to make my mind up for me. This is my life we’re talking about here; my career; my way of contributing and supporting myself.

And the way I see it, if I’m going to change anything at all, I either change it like WHOA or not change it at ALL. Go big or go home.

And that’s where I feel like I’m at right now — I’m looking straight ahead, but there’s no road in front of me. To the left is the road to beauty, fashion, and a snobby, gossip and money-driven lifestyle that I just don’t quite fit. To the right is the endless possibility of “regular” college - graphics designer, web designer, documentary filmmaker, best-selling author (hey, we can all dream, right?), who knows where I’d end up - all I have to do is make the decision.

In my best Chris Rock voice, “Man, why decisions gotta be so damn hard to make?”