ghosts are good company

tho bout was crazy. mad. wonderful. i got to work the door, organizing lines and making people sign waivers… it’s an overwhelming job. i spent the afternoon running up and down lines and bellowing news – we were sold out, we might be able to let a few more people it, we were really truly officially sold out. it was very strange to have interacted with nearly everyone by the time i sat down.

this week is calmer. no more flower job, less social plans. i’m waiting for my outdoor wheels to show up so that i can skate without paying the rink. i asked my grandmother if she wanted to come to skate lessons tonight, but… she didn’t.

my scarf is something like four feet long now, so that’s amazing to look at – knitting is really a place where you can keep an eye on your progress, where there is instant validation, if you will.

i’ve been planning my next few months, year or so, and i’m hopeful. i’m great at plans, and every so often i can make them pan out. this feels like one of those times – trans leadership summit is coming up, then evergreen, then summer. amsterdam. something. i’ve been eying a bunac visa for after amsterdam, i want to take a look at british housing/employment stuff and see if i could actually make it happen.

this is the part where i wiggle with potential.

portland lost (unless there was a sudden twist of fate in the last few minutes). there were three bunnies tonight (i’m just afraid that they’re going to declare them rodents at some point).

one of the things i miss most when i don’t have (access to) a car is the music part of it all. i ran out of this american life podcasts at work tonight (how will i stay awake without you, ira glass?!) and, all alone in my half of the building, danced around to gogol bordello. i’ve stated before and probably will again that they and the decemberists can lift me through most any trial.

it’s interesting. i love both of these bands, but neither of them is My Very Favorite. which might be why it works. kimya tmbg the magnetic fields the mountain goats have followed me up and down through so many times… while so far, the ‘cemberists and gogol help bring the downs up, because they don’t have any (so many, at least) major emotional attachments. never mind bands that have been loved and lost due to their memories, but we all have those (come down now, they’ll say).

gogol bordello is for dancing, standing waiting for the bus and being unable to refrain from moving my feet, in a flurry of cultural love and history. there’s a part of my heart that insists that these are my people, even though none of them actually share my czech culture (…that i know of). it’s an awesome thing to feel, though, because the nordic heritage i grew up with is awesome, but sometimes a bit culturally bland.

the decemberists fall more on that nordic side (of town), though, at least with the nautical emphasis. i’ve always been attracted to storytellers (and accordions), and love a song that i can get lost in. when you combine that with a sing-along-ability and that certain perfect amount of cleverer-than-thou-ness (because you know i was raised to believe it), they’re irresistible.

the hard thing about blasting your songs and speeding all the way home feeling infinite? is that the speeding actually makes the ending come sooner.

the grand canyum

Originally uploaded by capnpuck

seriously, it is a world of cute.

i walked out of work this morning and there were bunnies. bunnies bunnies bunnies bunnies bunnies! the last time i saw bunnies was at the grand canyon. they were pretty much the only thing i could tell people about the grand canyon (other than wondering about how many times people punned the word “grand” there, and what’s with the pun theme lately?), largely because the canyon was so… large. we went on thanksgiving, did you know that the Native retailers around the canyon take thanksgiving off? this fascinates me.

so bunnies, eating grass, being adorable, hopping and fluffy.

you know, originally this post was going to have nothing to do with the grand canyon. it was going to talk about School Plans (evergreen in the spring! can i stay on your couch for two nights in a row, anyone?), and Summer Plans (amsterdam! it might work this time!) and Things Coming Soon:

usd vs. portland

people’s society for knitting and libations

usd vs gonzaga

from fucking to feminism (someone go to this with me? i’ll be drop dead tired from working 6:30 am to 3pm)

and then, and then SAN DIEGO DERBY DOLLS’ FIRST BOUT OF THE SEASON. i am so excited. it is hard corps vs. diego rollers, i think for the only time this season until the championships, and then the derby dolls all stars vs. the blood and thunder training camp team. i’m pretty sure this will be the dolls’ first time playing under wftda rules, which means that it’ll be…. an interesting bout strategically, if nothing else. but come on, how likely is “nothing else?” it’s derby. it’s awesome. it’s at skateworld, for goodness sake.

crap! i wanted to bring this up also, although it does not fit the theme of Awesome Things.

i just want to bring up, evergreen: just like all hippies are not wonderful, not all cops are evil.

oh! and i would like to welcome erica to the greendino family. rawr.

aww.

for my first valentine’s day single in seven years, i worked until 3:30 am. it’s now 4:20 am, i got home and found a precious punny card from my mother – “thumb bunny loves you” (it’s me. and few other people).

later i have lunch with my friend kelly, and then even later i have working again. even though this job is a normal-length shifts, the weird schedule really makes it seem like longer days.

i love a lot of people, i thought i should let you know. if i know you, you’re probably one of them. i just thought i should remind you.

[[are puns de rigueur for valentine's day? my grandparents have informed me that i'm a "tweet-heart."]]

oh, hi blog!

lately i’ve had Too Much Staring At A Computer Syndrome, which i don’t think will go away anytime soon, what with the 35 hours of computer-staring i’m scheduled for next week. ah, well, at least they’re giving me money for it.

they’re also allowing me to knit in between jobs, which is great. i made a baby hat for a baby who is due to arrive a few months from now – the hat looks like this except more baby-sized – and am currently working on a scarf for my unclestephen.

stephen approached me at christmas about making him a checkered scarf and i said “sure, that’ll be easy!” before realizing that frankly, no. that would be confusing. i tried everything i could think of – stranded colorwork in the round, stranded colorwork to be folded over, just making three striped scarfs and then crocheting them together – before heading back to what i had been avoiding all along: double knitting.

i was avoiding it because it seemed harrrrd, and confusing, and (shh) sometimes i forget how to purl. the knittinghelp video on doubleknitting didn’t help much either because “um, i thing i messed up” in the middle doesn’t inspire much confidence, does it?

eventually i found the stitchdiva tutorials and, while i was still confused, decided to give it a go. and now i’m this far! …and excessively proud of myself.

other things going: Plans for school might work out, apparently i could have walked at graduation last year, and i’m excited and nervous about heading up to the bay area next month for the trans leadership summit.

and those are things.

i have a job! it is seasonal and low-paying and ultimately would be unexciting except that 1) it is a job and 2) they offered it to me less than two hours after my interview. which made me feel shiny.

i also have maybe a plan! i’m hoping to do evergreen in the spring (see boat class, below), hopefully walk at graduation, and then do a different, cheaper, nice, amsterdam sexuality program in the summer. i like having plans.

in long-term plans, a friend of mine mentioned dreaming of moving to vermont, and i glomped onto it. spring? next year? i’ll have graduated, need a place to go to. vermont? two amazing people to live with? uh, sounds great thanks.

derby starts again soon, with a double header exhibition bout on the 23rd. … and my work schedule means no skating class for me. damn, must figure that out.

anyhow, job excitement is the moral of this post!