A Birthday Walk pt 2

After visiting Melissa's abode, I ventured off to my furthest destination, Miss Sonja's house. By this time I was getting quite dehydrated and a bit hungry so I decided to stop by Grand Central Bakery to pick out something delectable and portable. With a tiny leek and cheese quiche I munched onward toward my third destination. Being the person that I am I was instantly distracted when I stumbled upon the New Seasons on Division. I went in looking for presents for others but left with a candle, nail scrubber(shaped like a hedgehog!), and mini holiday cookie cutters. Ah, alas one of these years I'll be able contain my excitement for tiny things.

Sonja was getting cozy by the fireplace when I arrived; with tea mugs in hand we chatted, got warm, and reminisced. Our time was cut short due to previous engagements so I continued my journey and she continued on her day. Heading away from her I was stalled by an extremely long train.

 

Instead of waiting for this monstrosity to pass( and to escape the continuous ding), I waited until it slowed to s screeching halt and tromped right over the thing. With traffic and a train behind me I ventured through Ladd's addition towards my final destination. Always loving Ladds I skipped through alley ways and found foragable edibles!

 

Figs!

Look Closely Now.

Those are kiwis! I tried to pick one but they were hard as stone, just like the last time I found a kiwi vine in southeast. Any who, after pocketing some figs I exited Ladd's and got an exciting call that jessir would be at stina's house for my last stop. 

Tea and cupcakes began and ended my venture. On was vegan and the other was from a vegan. Stina, jessir and I talked and laughed at eachother and promised that we would meet latter for even more dessert with those unfortunate souls who couldn't be a part of my magical journey.

All in all, this was one the best birthday ideas I may have ever had. I really do cherish the one on one time I get with those I love and it seems more and more difficult to get that as time goes on and we all get busier. From this birthday walk I have learned to appreciate the serenity and friendship that a single cup of tea can reinforce.

Birthday Walk Part 1

So it was my 24th annual celebration of birth a few weeks ago and I had a brilliant idea to go for a long and contemplative walk to commemorate my gaining a year in age.

This was no ordinary walk, it was one where I visited various good friends and sat down to have a single cup of tea accompanied by a chat. I had no idea how this experiment would actually turn out, especially because a few of mes amis had to work and couldn't benefit from my birthday visit.

The morning started out quite well, aside from the sniffles and snot that lingered from my head cold. It was brisk, but the shining sun gave hope that the day would be brilliant. My first stop was Sage's, where she fed me vegan baked goods, breakfast tea, and a new(for me) sweater! Woot woot, stop one and I had already scored some knit wear.

The next stop on my birthday bus was Melissa and Nolan's house. Now they currently have a house guest soooooo there were four, but only Mel and I were awake. We shared secrets and some green chai tea. Then came out my birthday present, a photo book entitled Images You Should Not Masturbate To. I'll let you guess just what kind of pictures it contains.



(I have to sleep, I'm feeling waaaaaaay too crazy)TBC...

When locked out of the house...

...would you want to be dressed like this? Yeah, me neither. Thankfully I put on a pair of XXL grey sweats moments after taking this spectacular photo of myself. With sweats on I carried a bundle of laundry in my arms and prepared for a day of chores by locking the door behind me.The instant the door knob mechanism locked into place I realized the error of my ways. No keys, no phone, no wallet, and no goshdarned coat. FML. 

In some stroke of luck mi amiga Sage was on her way to  my place so we could gulp down some caffinated substances together. After about a half hour she arrived, gave me her coat, and proceded to buy me coffee. Her generosity was not without a price though. I already felt like a soggy hobo, but she paraded me to wholepaycheck to pick up a few things while i just looked at things I had no money to buy.

It wasn't so bad, I was probably making some sort of cutting edge fashion statement that went somewhere along the lines of an I don't give a shit, just rolled out of bed look. I even got to see Bryce Black from this last season of Project Runway eyeing my ensemble while downing his own caffeinated beverage within the confines of starbucks.

I somehow got downtown(thanks Joel), picked up James' keys, got into our apartment, and peeled off my weathered clothes. I cranked on the heat and then got down to some revitalizing bizniss.

Eat your heart out non-Oregonians, Juanitas chips are the foundation of my happy place and they can only be found here.  Thrown in some MadMen and my lost afternoon took a 180 degree turn in a most excellent direction.

Looking back

One of my least favorite places I visited this past year was Rome. This was partly due to the fact that my travel partner was robbed on our premier voyage on the subway system and that there seemed to be someone peeing around every corner. After having that sour taste put in our mouths(no one peed in our mouths) we had a difficult time tasting the deliciousness that is Rome when there was so much to hate. Now that it has been eight months I can look past the trashy smell and reflect on the beauty of the city.

It also helps that black and white film makes everything look more glamorous and enchanting. Come and revisit Rome with me, smells not included.

 

   

          

 

     

While Rome may be the toilet of Italy, there are places where Mr Clean's touch must have lingered. This particular place was the hilltop residence of the Medicis. I can only speculate at how lavish and beautiful the interior of the castle like dwelling was, but I can speak some truth about the wonderful surrounding gardens and the cute tiny doggies that were everywhere. On this sunny day Rome was magic, even with the poo colored rivers.

The Real Deal

Now that Winter, the real season not my internal season, has kicked in I feel the pressure to share with you the fleeting perfection of this years Fall/Halloween. Just days ago the temperature dropped to 30 degrees and a thick fog enveloped downtown Portland. But before we plunge head first into chilly oblivion let's reflect in the beauty and energy Portland reserved for Fall.

The decorations people put up range from the traditional

To the bizarre

There are also the multitude of pumpkins, their mangeled corpses littering peoples stairs, and homemade decorations.

 

There were plenty of the puking guts pumpkins this year, but I was really hoping for an ICP themed jackolantern. I guess that's my halloween project for next year!

Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of my costume this year, but I still have all the fixins so I'm sure I'll pretend to be Margot again. The night we all went out dressed up was a bust so picture taking wasn't an option. Though I did get a picture of a girl whos shoulder art tops the cake for most ridiculous tattoo I've ever seen.

  On the real Halloween James and I went to the Bodies World exhibit at the OMSI(my first time there), then we saw a planetarium show,  a motion simulator ride, and an IMAX movie. After we went home I made pumpkin pie from scratch! Even though I forgot to add sugar to the filling James and Stina politely ate their servings and after we played a spooky game.

Bones Jenga!

Look at James's new tattoo! He's the most badass Gnome I've ever seen. Also, stina got cute new glasses and dressed up like Simone De Bouvoir. Hopefully November will bring a bookclub meeting, a better raise, and more pretty colors like this:

Halloween Costume

GUEEEEEESSSS what James is going to be this year? Garden Gnome Chomski, teheheheh. Making things from scratch is a bit of a challenge for me, but I dabble. Like cooking, my end result ofen varies from my original intention. This year for Halloween I had two ideas for costumes, but instead of making both for myself to wear on different nights I am making one of them for James! Also, I thought that he would look cute as a button dressed up like a garden gnome.

The first thing I made was this super sweet beard. Originally I was going to cut out a felt shaped beard and then sew on a bunch of threads or cotton balls. After I wandered into a local crafting shop I discovered some cheap mohair and a enthusiastic crafter. Fifteen minutes later I'm equipped with a huge needle and a free demo on felting. 

Two days later and I've created a soft beard, a gnome hat, and the sick nastiest gnome costume ever.

Denial Fall

If life only had four phases then I would consider myself to be leaving my summer and slowly entering into my Fall. Seeing as how Fall is one of my favorite seasons that shouldn't be too bad, right? Wrong. I feel that I should have something to show more than a minimum wage job, a bachelor's degree, and a baby blog. At least I am keeping myself afloat and only hang out at coffee shops when I have a good outfit on!

As you can see I have yet to perfect the ideal self portrait in my apartment, but it's a process to I'm having fun with. To properly reflect my blues of late I have been wearing these ridiculously bright blue pants for seven days straight. Who knows how long this will continue, maybe my coworkers will have an intervention, or maybe James will throw them away when I'm sleeping.

I'm also denying the stupid coldness my only wearing a cardigan, take that mother gia! We all know who the real winner is in this situation....

Back on track, I have also been cooking way too much lately. Some things that have gone in my mouth have been:

Twice baked bacon & broccoli potatoes with white cheddar on top
Thai influenced coconut squash soup (omg I used my new truffle salt on this!!!)
Kale chips
Wedding style appetizers via ingredients+boredom at work
Tahitian Limeade
Zucchini Fritters(good idea em)
Rosemary Bread
Green breakfast smoothies
Split pea soup
Banana Hazelnut French Toast
Parmesan Waffle fries
Buckwheat noodles with smoked salmon
Three day marinated teriyaki beef
Sausage, bean, and kale soup

Boredom leads to cooking, but frugality does as well. Many of the ingredients I've been using have been from the trash bins at work, on sale from wholepaycheck, or bartered for at farmers markets. One of the best example of a cheap fine dining experience at home I have made was steak and veggies. This meal would have cost +50$ for two people at a restaurant, but at home it cost 20$, and that was even with a bottle of wine thrown in!

Want to see some pictures of my extrordinary cooking??

Zucchini Fritters with salvaged parmesan cheese

Banana Hazelnut French Toast(salvaged bread, hazelnuts, and bananas a customer left at work)

Pear, Spinch, and Wheat Germ Smoothie(All salvaged or donated by friends)

Green Split Pea Soup(with bought HotDogs)

At least there's one thing that I can do to please myself, besides the obvious, and that is to cook. Another thing I have gotten really good at is drinking way too much coffee. I always have a jar of cold brew in my fridge these days, and all I want to do on my day off is drink coffee, go for walks, and read/nap. As for bike riding, I need motivation! I no longer have a ride buddy a few blocks away, and my main squeeze's schedule and mine are completely opposite.

As for getting a job within my intended career field, I'm trying! Really, I am. It's all about networking and I'm not so good, but I'm making baby steps. Non-profit career fair next week, yes please!

And I'll leave you with what I'm currently doing.

Halloween

Unlike previous Halloweens I am actually getting started on my costume early. Not to ruin the surprise I will conceal my idea, but the biggest thing I need to do is chop off three inches off my lucious mane! EEECK. Oh well, thats what rogain is for right?


So what does Fall mean for me other than halloween, rain coats, and dead leaves? COOKIES AND TEA. oh yeah and this year it also means RPGs. Yes, RPGs. Like Dungeons and Dragons but lovecraftian. My nerd cred is skyrocketing over the last few months, and I like it!

PS, here's a picture of some ghosts!

Some of Today and Some of Yesterday

Inspired by my dear faraway friend I feel the need to share the outfit that I wore today to go shopping at WholePaycheck.

 

Can you tell that I like purple?

Maybe not though, the colors didn;t turn out so well! Anyways the ourfit breaks down as such: Purple courderoy, a purple striped sweater, blue jacket, and purple toms(yeah I also have a pair, huzzah!).  These pants are deemed as my progress pants, the jacket from a free pile, the sweater is my boo's, and the shoes match a pair of my moms. Contraire to Portland etiquette this outfit is sans hood, but thats a o k because I managed to escape the torrental downpour that ensued after my voyage. Now this trip was all in preparation for a split pea soup I made this afternoon, not just some crazy jaunt to see how I could escape the rain. The soup turned out fantastic, even though it's vegan(!), but what was more amazing was the song I came up with on the way. If I had to come up with a title it would be Split Pea Soup Time, Double Time. I even shared it with the radical feminist cashier, but she wasn't impressed. Though I wouldnt be surpried if I hear it as a new hit single from some local grunge band.

Since this flow of creativity was unleashed from its closed up gates I have been producing a random assortment of edible&non-edible goodies. It hasn't hurt that the Lips has been dead slow and there's quite a few materials at hand for me to use. Here's a picture by picture of a baby flip book that I made using old recipts. The star of the show is one of my old friends named Sheldon, he's an egg, but you'll like him anyways.

As you can see I'm a genius, but I already knew that, and you did too. I'll put up the recipe for split pea soup later, but as for right now there's a Mr Draper here to see me.

Val Kilmer

Now we all have celebrity crushes, I mean it's hard not too when there are naked pictures of everyone dresses up like vampires up all over the place right? Not that that's the type of thing that gets me going, but judging by the current collective fixation I would thank that type of character floats many people's boats.  I digress. The famous people I would roll around the sack with might not be what some may deem attractive any more, and are even more would some would label as old men. The numero uno on this list is my ultimate dream boat lover, Mr Val Kilmer. Now this man is not in the best shape of his life at the current moment, but I still love him so. One of his more recent films is playing at the laurelhurst, and that is where I shall be this weekend. The only tricky part is distracting James from my pure adoration of Val.

I wish I woke up with this at my kitchen table

Europe Trip Film, FINALLY!

My wonderful sister in law has a background in film, and also a semi functioning blackroom. Not wanting to get my eight rolls of film developed and printed at Walgreens I decided to keep it in the family. I still had to get the negatives developed at the good ole wal of greens but the processing of film to a digital format was done by the fam. Our trip went as such:

 

London

Cambridge

 

Edinburgh

 

 Amsterdam

 

Paris

 

Nice

 

Rome

 

Barcelona

 

Figueres

 

 

All these photos were taken with my diana mini+ on her premiere voyage as my camera. The film I used ranged from some cheap walgreens brand to some nicer fuji stuff, but nothing above 500 speed(I think). The diana has an option for the smaller two in one frame rectangular shots or the smaller square shots, hence some of the frames here consist of two images.There are still some b&w films rolls that I haven't done anything with yet, so stay tuned!