ghosts are good company

CIMG4072

Originally uploaded by geoffy

i found my missing login information! that’s always a good thing.

i’ve been wandering around the puget sound region lately, sleeping on couches for the last month. currently i’m in des moines, at the kindness of my grandparents. their house is one of my favorite places, it has such a beautiful view of the water - i just wish that it were reasonably public transportationable.

the region is making me antsy, and i’m hoping that opportunities elsewhere pan out soon. for now i’ve been making mini-trips to pretend that i’m going somewhere; last weekend a friend and i explored bainbridge island. it was very very warm.

also last weekend i met up with some of my (now) favorite strangers from the internet, in BALLARD of all places. i got to go to archie mcpheeee where i found a fantastic green dinosaur finger puppet (see photo!) and spent too much money.

ALSO last weekend, the derby liberation front beat the throttle rockets, which was delightful but also sad as it was mommacherry’s last bout with the team. the team, mascots and all, did their introductions in aprons in homage to mommacherry, which amused me since i was wearing an apron that day anyway.

this weekend has, unsurprisingly, been calmer.

oh right, i graduated.

and got those seahorses in the previous post put on my body forever.

i’m antsily waiting to hear if i got a job - things sound promising, but they are taking their sweet time contacting my references. for now i’m (scouring job boards but also) living as if that is what’s going to happen, so i’m planning on couch surfing around seattolympia this summer (much like last summer, except under much lovelier circumstances).

yesterday was oly pride, which was ok - small town pride beats big city pride any day, except for when there’s not enough to do at littlepride and you’ve said hi to all your friends five times and don’t know what to do next.

so i went to a party and there was awesome music and square dancing (my favorite exhousemate was so amazed that i danced!) and babies and amazing gluten free cake, but then there was a “please save me there are no trannies at jake’s” so i went to the bars and the non-square dancing for a while.

saturday was the big gay bout, which was beauuutiful (and vagely offensive, if i want to read it that way), although the defeat of the pegacorns by the ligers was pretty devastating.

friday was solstice, monday the mariners lost to florida, which is just depressing, sunday was father’s day, friday was graduation, thursday i spoke up for washpirg to the board of trustees, tuesday i saw eli clare at u.w. (awesome) and then the sex and the city movie (not awesome), before that i was so swamped with school that i can’t begin to try to remember what was when. and the cosa nostra donnas kicked grave danger’s butt and i was sad.

so, we’re kind of caught up, yeah?

oh oh oh oh oh

yesterday’s cosa nostra donnas vs. derby liberation front bout was… wow. my phone *and* camera died right before, so my photodocumentation is limited, but the number of enthusiastic squeaks i could make is very high. i had to borrow a phone to call and enthuse in jaci’s general direction.

i think i like skateland better than skateworld - the ambiance is much nicer… but we weren’t able to get rinkside seats, so it was hard for me to see well enough to keep score and stuff very well… also the benches we were on hurt my butt… so i worked very heard on my cheering, first sitting on my knees and then standing on the benches.

dlf took the lead early and kept in throughout the first half. this made me very happy. the game was pretty clean, considering… there was an instance where i think an oly roller was almost leap-frogging one of the dlf, but other than that i couldn’t see anything too overwhelming (did i mention that i’m nearsighted?).

the halftime show was great, although the seattle derby brats pretty much whomped the kitsap derby brats… it was my first time seing jr. derby and they certainly did it good. “she just went under the blocker’s legs! is that even allowed?” you don’t see that much… ever… in old person derby!”

oh my goodness the second half. oly came back fierce, ready to take the bout home. they were slowly gaining back points until there were just a few minutes left and olympia was finally up by… a lot. i had thought they had it sewn shut as they went into the last jam, but then - oh then - the seattle jammer (i’m pretty sure it was burnett down?) grand slammed… and then some. she picked the lead back up brought it home for my sweet revolutionaries, laving the mob joint in cinders with a final score of 99-97. hot.

also there was cake.

i’ve been hesitant to post about this here since the last birthday i planned here went not so well, but… am going to anyway!!

this saturday the oly rollers‘ cosa nostra donnas are facing off against the rat city rollergirls‘ derby liberation front (aka my favorite team ever). it will be a challenging thing, me figuring out who i’m going to cheer for, but it will also be an awesome bout. i’m inviting everyone i run into to join me there, with the suggestion that they buy tickets online for $12 than risking it selling out and/or paying $17 at the door.

so! come! afterward there will probably be dinering, if anyone wants to just do that part… it should be a wonderful time at the bout, though!

last night i made a mix cd based on seattle - songs about seattle, not by people in seattle. it’s a little obvious, a little lewd, and a little amusing. do any of you want a copy? maybe we could do a mix cd swap? if you’re interested, leave a comment and we can exchange addresses or whatever by email.

here’s the cover image (shrinkified):

the image is from the pi. a “composite photograph” from 1986. ’shop!

the tracklist, in case anyone’s interested:

The Long Winters - Prom Night At Hater High
Craig Chaquico & Russ Freeman - Seattle Child
Brazen Abbot - Restless in Seattle
Abigail Anderson - Seattle
Bob Rivers - West Seattle Girls
Sir Mix-a-Lot - Posse On Broadway
The Postal Service - This Place Is A Prison
Anti-Flag - Seattle Was A Riot
The Business - Holiday in Seattle
Kimya Dawson - I Will Never Forget
Connie Smith - Seattle
Steve Vai - The Boy From Seattle
Bill Cosby - Seattle

in a different direction, fish with no name is no more. apparently i fail at having a fish. the building i’ve been working in has amaaazing fish in the lobby, but i won’t be working here after tomorrow. i wonder if they’d mind me coming in to see the fish anyway. :D

i’ve somehow managed to become nocturnal again. it’s interesting, rather like the world is hanging upside down. it’s not very good, though, because by the time i’m ready to be productive, it’s late and my mind tells me that i should be going to bed, so then i’m not productive in hopes that i’ll go to bed, but i don’t.

today i made gross scones out of strange mexican pancake mix (it was “tres estrellas” brand; i should have held out for cinco estrellas) and pumpkin. i ate one, but i still have two more sitting there and leering at me.

i also made quiche. i think that quiche is somewhat the perfect food, as it combines lots of different foods and also has protein! which is important and i don’t get enough of. however, my pie crust skills are currently lacking (they used to be good, but have declined for want of materials such as real butter). this is the second quiche i’ve made since getting home from seattle - i bought a dozen eggs and distributed them evenly. hurray quiche.

there are twelve days left to pack up my house, after which i will be moving to san diego. i’m getting panicky because i’m having a very hard time getting started. i’ve been acquiring boxes and i’m pretty sure that i have enough, and most of my stuff is actually already in boxes, but i’m still super-overwhelmed.

i started a savings account for my amsterdam trip. i’m getting 5.27% interest or something, so that’s nice - and also it’s preventing me from giving in and buying these amazingly attractive shoes that happen to be on sale and only available in my size. i love fluevogs and don’t currently have any particularly femme ones - just these boots and these in pink and black. i might still have them in white and black as well, but i wore those out pretty quickly my first few years of college. oh fluevog, you do hold claim to an extensive piece of my shoe-loyalty heart. when you’re on sale. and now you’re working on lovely vegan shoes as well? quite tidy.

that was an extensive shoe-related tangent. i have a lot of shoes. this is a problem that comes with being deeply invested in many gender presentations and having an obsession with shoes. perhaps if i picked just one gender presentation, i would have just as many shoes pertaining to that one as i do now. of course, i could just have more (of course we would, we’d just eat more).

i’ve recently come to adore this comic. usually when online comics release books i manage to convince myself that their online presence will be enough for me, but here… a bit of me aches to hold suspenders and glasses tangibly in my hands. i’m a little bit too much like suspenders. seriously. the author has an art show in san diego that’ll still be running for two or three days that i’m there. maybe i can go.

i have to decide if i want to, on saturday, go to a blythe doll meetup in san jose or to a flashmob dance party at the ferry building or to watch clueless at cubbie’s house. i’ll probably end up at the latter, because (can you have latter if there’s more than two items? if not, final) it’s people i know, but it’s so so weird trying to be his friend.

recap since last entry (if just because that’d be a sad note to end on): i did not go to ground kontrol, instead i went to a store called collage (i think), where i purchased things to make a thank you card for the folks’ at whose house i spent the night. i did go to see the bishop allen show, and it was delightful. i am still obsessed with roller derby, and the san diego derby dolls have their bouts a mile and a half from where i’ll be living. hurray!

i hope you all are doing well. recommend me good podcasts, if you want to.

i’m sitting in a coffeeshop in portland, typing on my macbook. it’s a stereotype i don’t usually fit, but i’ve got four hours still until my train leaves. i should go soon and catch my bus downtown - i might go to ground kontrol and play video games for the rest of the wait, but they don’t open until noon (and that’s just theoretical).

i’ve only been here for a bit - twenty hours in portland, almost as long as my next train ride - but it’s been nice, i was able to visit with a friend and find a place to sleep, which is about all one can ask. next stop sacramento, for even less time than portland, and then i’ll be back in san francisco… at least for a bit.

first thing on the agenda in san francisco is to go see bishop allen when they play live there. i haven’t bought a ticket, but i don’t thiiink it will sell out… a concert alone is going to be weird.

anyhow, those are the travel things. in seattle last week i went to see a rat city rollergirls bout, which made me wish that i had seen the film about them, and also that i could be in seattle for the championships. there’s a special on derby from kbtc up on youtube here, which has just a basic intro to what derby is and stuff. other than how i will describe it, which mostly includes the word “awesome.”

so, yes, now it is later and i should really leave this coffehouse, because my joints are feeling like they would like to moooove.

i’ve decided that if i wait just a little longer without changing the layout, this blog will be in season again.

although truthfully, i’m in a web design class and i need to figure out *something* to design for my final project.

i’ve been in seattle and olympia for the past few weeks, staying with various people and seeing lots of exciting things. it’s dreadfully warm here. so i’ve been knitting, of course. i designed a little mouse finger puppet, which i adore. i gave it to a girl that i have a crush on, but she’s not dating new people right now, apparently. i learned that through observation, not rejection. thank goodness.

there’s a thing about blogging that the longer you spend not doing it, the harder it is to pick it up again because you feel like you need to say something profound to make up for your absence.

cubbie and i broke up a while ago. i get teary a lot, still.

i’ve been busy (haven’t we all?) - with school, of all things! online classes have been doing me pretty well; i’m six weeks in and haven’t screwed anything up as badly as i tend to. my in person class is also going well - last wednesday we went to the glbt history archives. cubbie came along, and we both fell in love with the place. i got to take a tour of the museum of flight’s archives a few years ago, and that was fascinating (and huge), but these… smaller, quaint, and so much things i have worked with and wondered about for the past while. unlike airplanes.

i’ve been going through my music collection, culling out cds that i want to sell (…somewhere). recently, i’ve applied that practice to the music on my computer, deleting about six gigabyte’s worth of files. now i’m listening to all of the songs alphabetically. it’ll take a while. i’m currently listening to “act iii scene ii (shakespeare)” by saul williams. saul is pretty amazing - i got to work the show he played while i was at evergreen. actually, i asked if i could see his hand stamp at the door, and he looked at me and said in a very serious deep voice, “i’m saul.” pretty soon the person across from me doing the same job asked the opener to see her handstamp, so i felt a little less absurd.

speaking of live shows, i’m really looking forward to seeing the mountain goats with cubbie in a couple of weeks. i hope that the show will be as exciting as the one cubbie and i saw last summer, but without the long winters will be playing at the same venue. i miss seattle, and i don’t know if going to that show would help it, or make it worse.

it’s eight in the morning. i think that my neighbors are making stew or something. with pork. huh?
OH! this is the thing i really wanted to tell you about. i just finished reading this book, aaron renier’s spiral bound. i would like to recommend it to everyone, as, i imagine, would the author. it’s a deliciously drawn graphic novel with a fantastic group of characters, and an impeccable storyline. please, please, try to find a copy. especially if you like indie culture, or food, or children, or any combination of all of the above. or vegetables. no, not vegetables, anthropomorphized animals.

yes. once you have made an effort to acquire it, you may go about your regularly scheduled business. go, go!

i’m about to watch the star wars holiday special.  i’m hoping that it will bore me to sleep, but i’m afraid that it will be so bad that i will be riveted with awe.

solstice, christmas…  was crazy.  i had a lovely time christmas eve with cubbie’s family - they seemed to love the quiches and stuffed mushrooms that i brought to the table, and i felt included in all of the celebrations, which was wonderful - especially since it was also ok that i went to lie down in the middle, when i needed a rest.

and then we got here, and i’m afraid that we weren’t, or i wasn’t, quite as supportive of poor little sick cubbie.  he’s sick and my mother is sore, although healing well, and my grands are tired of being such good caretakers and we all just need a nap!

i don’t think i’m ready for this star wars special.  it’s been four minutes and there have been baby wookies eating cookies and that’s nice, but they are kind of annoying, when they’re being scolded in…  wookish.

BORING.

i really missed my seattle family.  it’s been the first holiday in a few years without seeing them, and that’s so odd.  i don’t even know the next time i’ll be able to get up there.  graduation, maybe.

wookies?  boring now.

bye.