First Etsy Purchase

Bonjour, bonjour!

Here are some pictures from lately.

Mark and I went out for Thai food upon his arrival home. It was fun. We talked about many things. After that, we went to see Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, which. was. amazing. We sat in the theater after everyone left, just kind of leaning into one another. It will move you, oh yes it will.

Tessa bought a new jacket which she jokingly calls her sleeping bag, but really, it IS quite like a sleeping bag. A fashionable one though, come on guys! This was after we went to Lou's and shared nachos and a pitcher of beer with Sofe and Tiff and Lianne and sat on the very cold patio because inside was too loud for us. This was before we played an epic game of Dutch Blitz in the kitchen for Levi's birthday and drank Porn Stars and Blue Lagoons, and had a gay ol' time.

This, my friends, is my very first etsy purchase ever. I selected 20 different small spools of tape. For what purpose? WHO EVEN KNOWS YET? The possibilities are endless. Maybe for wrapping presents? I just love them, so don't question it, okay? On the same day, I also purchased an iPhone cover, which I CAN'T WAIT TO GET but it takes 3-5 weeks to be shipped. WTD. WTD forever. (what the deuce) This is the one I selected. Please don't go on the site and tell me which ones are better, because Society6 has about a billion cool ones and I got overwhelmed and I'm on a bit of an Aztec kick (and when I say Aztec kick, I mean I bought one shirt with an aztec pattern and that's all) so I just picked one! This one!

I find it to be subtle, but oh-so-aztecky all at once.

Mark leaves again for five days gross-early tomorrow morning and so tonight we will continue our somewhat new tradition of having a date night before he leaves. I like this tradition. I also like going on dates right when he gets back, to catch up and whatnot. I also like going on dates to avoid homework, to avoid a dinner I don't like at home, to talk about secret things, and for countless other reasons! Tonight we are playing cards and eating cake, a perfect combination.

I will now attempt to tackle some homework while I wait for him to get home from being a Youth Leader.

Ta-ta.

On Forgetfulness.

I forget things. All the time. I forget whole conversations. Meaningful conversations! I forget not only the words I heard, but the words I said, words I said and truly meant. I forget things I read in school. I can't remember even one idea from a textbook I read over the course of three months. I forget lectures. I do, however, remember reading this passage from 'Everything is Illuminated' years ago:

He lost so many slips of paper over time, and keys, pen, shirts, glasses, watches, silverware. He had lost a shoe, his favorite opal cufflinks (the Sloucher fringes of his sleeves bloomed unruly), three years away from Trachimbrod, millions of ideas he intended to write down (some of them wholly original, some of them deeply meaningful) his hair, his posture, his parents, two babies, a wife, a fortune in pocket change, more chances than could be counted.

- Jonathan Safran Foer

I forget my ideas (some of them wholly original, some of them deeply meaningful) which scares me so much. When Mark asks me if I thought more about what we talked about yesterday, I feel like it is a trick question, and more often than not it is met by me with 'Uhhhh...' followed by a hasty 'Remind me! Remind me!' or 'Give me a hint!' I feel like a dolt in these situations. I feel like my mom, who asks us the same questions a dozen times sometimes in one sitting (sometimes we tell her, sometimes we let it slide). I feel fear because Alzheimer's runs thick in my family's blood. Lately, in an effort to remember I have taken to writing things down more which sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. Often I flip through the pages and can barely remember writing what I did, or am struck with the repetition of my thoughts, as entries months apart are strikingly alike. But sometimes, my words bring back memories or serve as reminders. I also know that I process through writing, so even if it helps me just a little bit to work through conversations and ideas, I think it is worth while.

I will try and remember to keep it up.

I would like this internet space to becomes a memory bank of both pictures and words, helping me to share these things with others and also (and especially) with my ever-forgetful future self.

Here you go self, here are a few more pictures from Jamaica:

I remember walking behind these girls while we were in town, having that strange travel-induced feeling of astonishment that this was just a regular day in these school girls lives, and here I was, a stranger with a camera on vacation taking pictures of them.

The flora. The fauna. The forests. Jamaica was green.

Odettes Beauty Salon.

The sand was so soft! It created little clouds that I was very fascinated with. A couple times I covered my entire body in this sand mixture and scrubbed my skin just because it seemed like a really good idea.

Mark sitting like a king in the gift shop.

We turned our chairs to face the ocean. I love his sleepless state, I can't help but take pictures of him in it.

That is my arm Mark is holding. Trust me.

C'est tout!

I'm cold.

Wishing I could teleport myself back to Jamaica or someplace warm. I was thinking about ol' Jamaica and thought to myself 'HEY SELF, you still haven't posted your Jamaica-pics. Get on it.' Here are a few.

Extended Minor Qualms

Why the frigggggg am I studying French?! I asked myself this over and over as I sat in class not understanding a word, grinding my teeth, shuffling through papers and feeling very small and overwhelmed. Its such a terrible feeling when not only are you behind on all your work... but honestly, you just don't understand it. Not at all. Not even a little bit! And explanations in french only confuse you further. It is a helpless feeling. BUT I have learned bit by bit that it is not completely hopeless. Although right now I want to rip up everything, stop wearing my retainer as I study because it prevents me from grinding my teeth in frustration, be able express myself in my mother language and not fear going to class. All is not lost, I am listening to 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough' from the Remember the Titans soundtrack, so if that doesn't help I really don't know where to turn.

I forgot to wear my retainer in Jamaica and its being a little bitch now. It hurts so bad!

Someday soon I will post Jamaica pictures. Here is a little teaser. Also, it honestly just feels like a dream that I had and not a week spent. It went by so fast and here I am back in the land of falling leaves and impending winter and heaps of schoolwork and bulky scarves... I forget that just a few days ago I was doing this:

The only proof I have is photos and slightly bronzed skin.

I have a cute, slightly drugged looking boyfriend to vent to. He listens to alll ma problems and then hugs me.

Okay. Back to studying 'L'opposition et la concession' for my Advanced French Composition class. Killlll meeeee...

What twenty hours of work looks like.

Why hello there!

This was my first assignment for my painting and drawing class and boy was it a doozie. (The next one is a two-pronged self portrait assignment doomed to fail (My self portraits always do. I'd rather write a paper on the emotional roller coaster of never quite achieving the result your looking for in one. No, I wouldn't. That's a lie.)) Here is a little bit of the process. I was working in the back room of Atangard which meant a friggin' sore back and cold hands, with the upside being frequent input from good ol' Len (Hotel Manager), being able to listen to music as loud as I want and staying set up for a good couple days without being in anyones way. The assignment was to divide a 3' by 3' piece of MDF into 9 squares and paint each group in contrasting values (either dark, light, or only black and white). We had to choose a celebrity and I chose Roald Dahl. Next time though, next time I'll do Quentin Blake (who illustrated most of Roald Dahl's books). The photos are rather dark. I'm sorry. It was rather dark back there.

This last photo is from one of the technical assignments we had to do. It is a copy of one of Albrecht Durer's etchings done with ink pen, presented in an interesting way. Voila!

Now I am going to go watch a movie and eat popcorn with Markie Mark and enjoy the fact that I handed this all in ONE WEEK EARLY. Huzzah!

Stick and Poke, Falling Leaves, and Television Graveyards

Life lately:

1. Our room during the twenty minute span of sunlight it gets per day.

2. Where televisions go to die.

3. Blue tights and orange and yellow leaves.

4. Wearing a dress I forgot I owned.

1. Green nail polish which last exactly 16 hours (Don't take baths or wash dished with nail polish on. It'll kill it preeety quickly)

2. Tiffany studying at school with leaves falling behind her.

3. My first project for Painting & Drawing 1 - its taking many, many hours.

4. Tiff before her exam. Hopeful?

1. Beth says 'Imagine you just saw me wearing this as a necklace?'

We both laugh and take pictures, anything to avoid sorting

through piles of clothes in our room.

2. Tessa getting stick n' poked by Lianne at girls night.

(She got a pair of scissors on one of her fingers.)

3. I put my toast in the toaster and that was how it came out!

I call that magic! Or art. Magical toast art.

4. Sophia Suderman goes platinum blond.

FIN.

Love Interruption.

I am interrupting the somewhat steady flow of journal entries from France to share with everyone the picture taken of Mark and I at the Vancouver Aquarium this past Saturday. We were, in fact, celebrating 1 YEAR of hand holding, ear whispering, laughing, learning, letter writing, picking at each other's skin, flying around the country, and being around one another in general. What better way to do that then to stand in awe in front of a huge jelly fish tank together? Or watch a beluga shake it? The frontal part of his melon head, I mean. There is no better way. No better way ever, so don't even try make suggestions, ok? Since Mark got in for nearly free with his WestJet tags, we opted to splurge for the overpriced photo of us taken in the entry. Please note the invisibility of Mark's jacket. Just one of the many reasons why he is just oh-so-datable. His mustache doesn't hurt either.

(click photo to enlarge, and zoom even further to get a close up of the mustache)

More journal entries to come.