WANTED: a friend of my very own

i was thinking today that there is an apparent void in my life, a void that can only be filled with a little buddy.
i am good on paper. i have an amazing boyfriend, adorable pets, a decent apartment filled with increasingly respectable furniture.... and yet, no friends.
its not that i am a social leper, its not that i am not "friend-worthy", its just that all my friends have moved away, and i am not in a position for meeting new people. the few new people that i have met have all seemingly been at a different point in their lives... still in school, still bar hopping, still WAY to "scene" oriented, etc...

so, i know there must be others out there...others as in people in there late twenties, who arnt into going to the bar EVERY night, and therefore, i have no idea how to meet other people their own age...who are smart, and funny, and interesting, but are still without a special buddy.

so ive put together a list... read through it, and if you feel like you obtain a large portion of these characteristics, then message me. dont be "too cool", i promise i wont reject you (immediately)... plus being "cool" is lame anyway....

you should...

be female, and come with awesome, likable, funny, un-douchey boyfriend. (boyfriend should not watch sports, listen to new rock, or read maxim magazine... for that matter, niether should female)
be age 27-30-ish (mature 25 year olds and young 35 year olds will not be disqualified based on age.)
be educated, cultured, and well-read
have a dark, sarcastic sense of humor
be comfortable hanging out with crass tattooed people, but be mannered enough to realize that there is a time and a place for everything (you recognize that yelling about butt sex in a public restaurant, while surrounded by tables of families is inappropriate.)
be interested in art (artist prefered)
be familiar with new, young, artists, and not just the generic family of juxtapoz artists
have an extensive bookmark collection of above mentioned artists, to share with me.... additional knowledge of techiniques, inspirational materials, or cool equipment/facilities a plus
love good movies, in particular, indies, documentaries, and comedies.
have an interest in buddhism and/or yoga

(((basically, you should be a fun, inspiring, person, who can carry on a decent conversation on a variety of topics.)))

should not...

have children... sorry.
be pretentious...
be overly concerned with what the "new buzz band" is or other repulsively trendy crap. spending far too much time scouring the web for the newest, coolest, trend, will be interpretted as a lack of hobbies and a desire to be accepted.
be gossipey. i dont want to be around people who have to be mean in order to make themselves feel better.
blindly hate. racism, sexism, classism, etc. talking shit on people just because they are different is lame.
do drugs or excessively drink (a good time for you is not a good time for your friends)
be psychologically damaged (abused, molested, abandoned, etc.... i know this sounds harsh, but i have tried to heal one too many wounded birds.)
have food issues, complaining about ones weight or ones calorie intake will not be tolerated.
have loose morals.... stealers, liars, and cheaters, need not apply
be judgemental
should not offend easily, particularly by foul language.

(((basically, you shouldnt be a lame, shitty person, with a negative attitude.)))

if this is you, please contact me....so we can be friends....

a.

ugh. my horoscope was crappy this month.... not that i super super support horoscopes or anything, but i generally follow the belief that if the moon can influence something as great as the ocean, why cant it have a little effect on me? Maybe... your karma plants the seeds, and astrology determines when they will sprout??? maybe?
anyway... i read both the libra and virgo horoscopes since i am on the cusp of virgo, and i generally feel that my virgo horoscopes are completely unrelatable.
astrology zone astrology zone offers, by far, the best horoscopes on the interweb.
on the up side it did say something about having creative success, particularly if you work digitally....sweeet.

in other completely unrelated news....

ive been on this whole self-deiscipline kick, inspired mostly by ceasar milan, the dog whisperer.... and i swear, i am a whole new person. I actually googled "self-discipline" a few weeks ago and came across this article....

self-discipline

...and i found it pretty inspiring...esp. the little test. i realized that a big part of my problem is that i lacked self-discipline. I think you see it a lot in people who were raised by single mothers. My theory is that mothers are just not very good disciplinarians, that combined with the fact that I am basically an only child (my brother is ten years my senior), and my mom was always trying to overcompensate for the loss of my stepdad...and i am a big, doughey, piece of crap.... so ive started to change.

some things ive done to become more self-disciplined:

being a better dog owner... talking longer walks with more frequency. playing more games. and training with more regularity.
keeping the dishes clean... this sounds lame, but i would seriously wait until i couldnt get near the sink before i would clean them.
being generally neater and cleaner....making the bed, picking up after myself, organizing lots of things, re-arranging the kitchen.
proactively accomplishing things on my to do list. selling stuff, organizing stuff, bringing stuff to goodwill, completing projects, framing pictures.
making art work, doing research for long term projects, completing work.
getting a big calendar and writting everything down!
becoming vegetarian again... after two years of eating meat, ive remembered that eating meat sucks. it makes you fat and it isnt nice to animals. im hoping that my vegetarianism will slowly move into veganism.

so im pretty excited about "things". i feel like im moving in a positive direction, and hopefully ill slowly be able to get some things in my life back under control....diet, exercise, career, art stuff....

umm in closing.... here is my quote of the day via my "the office" daily calendar...

"im a provider for my workers, ie., family. i give them money... i give them food-not directly, mostly through money. and i heal them. im in charge of picking a great new health care plan... does that make me their doctor? in a way. like a specialist.
-michael

holy moly...i manged to cross SEVEN things off my list of things to do... VERY exciting.

ive been feeling a little down the last couple of days. maybe because i had been moving so quickly for so long and now things are begining to s l o w d o w n

ok. im hungry.

oh yeah.... ive updatedmy flikr and my website.... how awesome am i?

im hungry.

grannies+hypodermic needles=scarey

a little project i started for my favorite little buddah.

ugh. i feel crappy today. im not really sure why... i think the big glass of orange juice mixed with last nights beer and shots, which resulted in some kind of chemical reaction (like foaming drano) and now its burning holes in the lining of my stomach, and all the other squishey stuff inside.

last night was lynns birthday, which was super fun. justin and i danced for the first time EVER. can you believe that? it seems pretty impossible considering dancing is my favorite.... anyway, i discovered just one more thing that makes me absolutely astonished that HE is dating ME. he is the cutest dancer EVER\\\\\\ <---kitty typed that. (she always lays on my desk while i am working.) seriously, how amazing is he? how lucky am i to be completely anamored with him after all this time!?!?!

anyway, i am proving to be the best housewife EVER. i cooked us eggs and turkey for breakfast, and then i packed justins lunch. i am awesome. now i just need to build a robot (or robit, as zoidberg says it) that will go to the store and buy me red bull.

did i announce that i am applying to adcenter?? i think i was keeping it quiet in case i didnt get it.... i am almost completely finished with my portfolio packet, which was insanely extensive. i got almost all of it printed yesterday, and now i just need to do a little proofing and re-print a couple things.... i was SUPER happy with the quality. i am going for a tour on wednesday and hopefully ill be able to turn my packet in then.

umm... okay. that is all.

p's

holy crap... i finally updated my flickr!!!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tinypalpitation/

it has been a million years, i know, but my camera had some really dumb crap wrong with it, so i was having to go through this huge process of uploading my pictures onto justins computer via card reader and then burning them to a disk or emailing them to myself.... just a big pain. long story short, justin fixed my camera.... he is very rarely useful, so this is super exciting.

umm... ive been doing a lot of design work... i mean, A LOT! i really dont think ive been operating too far out of my realm though, which is a bad thing, so i think i need to read some tutorials or something... if anyone knows of any awesome sites for tutorials... pass them along.

ummm.... i had something else to say.... crap.........
oh yeah.... i think im going to start trying to sell some illustrations to stock companies. if anyone knows anything about this it would probably help.... for instance, if you have sold illustrations or photos or whatever and you can recommend some sites or whatever, that would be fantabulous.

i should be updating my website soon... with lots of designs....

p's.
a.

giant SIGH!

The past couple of weeks have been a complete wirlwind. Traveling for the holidays was a complete distaster... however, the several inches of fresh fallen snow we recieved on Thursday made it almost worth it. Justin and I had a really great Christmas. We had an exhausting time playing with my niece and nephew, and we ate FAR TOO MANY deviled eggs... (justin moreso than me.) We got SO many great gifts... To name a few:

A yoga mat with koi on it and matching tote
SO many good books... Jim Henson "The Works", Learning to Love you More, design books... SO MANY...
limited edition USB drives... (i needed this one really bad!! My CD burner is shot!)
Hand screened pug/min pin prints
Lots of DVDs

We made out. Definately.

We ate SO much good food! Home made meatballs, ham dinner, butternut squash, calamari.... clams, shrimp, and scallops, oh my! giant steaks! It was great. We went to dinner at beautiful Maine restaurants that hoovered over the harbour.

Anyway.... I know I have said it a million times, but now I should REALLY be able to post pics.... sooon.

a.

when we think, empires fall

does anyone know why the color on all my design files is off? does the web run on rgb or something. i need to get to the bottom of this.

so the xmas season is in full swing in my house and..... ive been decorating!! this is the first year that i have been to xmas in maine since i was 18 or something.... so im really excited.... the fact that justin will be there to meet all of my family for the first time is just the icing on the cake. ive been spending all my extra money on gifts and i think i need t slow down because i am going to be tight for money the next two weeks.

i got justin to buy me the future farmers "harvest" book... which normally runs $45-50 but i shockingly found it at you work for them for $12.99. its a 184pg hardcover book!! thats crazy.

im unmotivated.

linx:
why have i never heard of this guy???
yet another amazing blog
another thing i like.

ok.bye.

things have been rough lately. ive been insanely stressed out at work.... to the point of tears, on more than one occasion. I came home the other night so worked up that i broke into sobs when i realized that i had forgotten to stop and pick up some frozen corn. its ridiculous.
anyway, im not even going to get into it.... its the weekend and im not going to get myself tense and stressed out.

in very good news, i am in such good holiday spirits. some of my xmas presents have started arriving! i love buying presents for people and this is the first year that i am doing well enough for myself to be able to splurge on everyone.

the convention is this weekend and we rolled down there last night... it was super fun. i got to reunite with some old friends, which is ALWAYS nice, and meet some new people.
Josh and Oshun might come up tonight, which would be awesome. i miss my gloucester people.

anyway... its 2pm and im still in my jammies. im going to do some yoga and clean.

a.

unfortunately i dont think this ad will ever make it to print.... if you want some cheap design work done, let me know.

a.

ha. just previewed this.... the color is all fucked up. click on the image to enlarge and see the correct color.

i took the day off work today. i went in, cleared a few things up, answered my emails, and then decided that i felt entirely too shitty to be there. i didnt sleep at all last night. it started at 7pm when i drank a can of coke. i never drink caffiene at night, and yesterday I had a starbucks and two cans of coke. no bueno.
in bed, a bug bit me, and continued to bite me for over an hour. in different places. i have no idea what kind of bug it was, or why it was taking up residence in my bed, but for the rest of the night i was paranoid. i was itchy. i was imagining bugs on my skin.

i think im going to try to focus more on digital stuff from now....or at least today. im feeling pretty inspired by the challenge of new media and design.

something weird is going on with my camera. when i attach it to my computer it imports old photos... photos i cant even look at on the lcd of the camera. wtf!?!?!?!? i dont know what to do and i am annoyed that i cant get my pictures off said camera.

i want a new camera.... and a G5. thanks.

nifty gifties

The brisk November air has motivated me to shift into homebody mode. plus, with all the running around i did last weekend and all the money ive been spending lately, it seems appropriate for me to lock myself up in my apartment, buckle down and concentrate on some crossing off some long over due things on my to-do list.

so this will be my last post before, gasp slash sob, i reformat my hard drive... and to be honest im terrified. i have everything all backed up, so hopefully by tonight ill be all fresh and clean and running CS2 on my comp.

exciting...

here are some places ill be doing some xmas shopping at this holiday season.....
pearl river

CB2

martha, martha, martha

alright. enjoy. keep your fingers crossed!!!

dog-dammit

these people are bad christians.... and they all probably sodomize eachother.

well. i was going to start the post with a cutesy little ad ive been working on, but alas, the colors are coming out all wrong. it must be because it is saved in spot colors and they must not translate to web colors...(whatever those are), my main artistic focus right now is design...(there is a crazy hmeless person screaming outside my house...nice) anyway... i like doing design because it stresses me out a lot less than regular fine art. fine art is so judge-ey. plus, design work furthers my career. fine art just gives me more crap to hang on my walls... does anyone want to buy some work?? i have a few pieces to get rid of. i hate having stuff laying around collecting dust.

so, i skipped yoga tonight. its the first night i havent gone in six weeks...aside from the first week when i had bronchitis.

i feel overwhelmed with things to do...lets see...

winterize the house.... curtains, weather stripping, putting down the storm windows.

xmas shopping... i will start early this year and avoid nasty holiday crowds.

design work... let me know if you need some freelance stuff done cheap-slash-free or for tradesies??

clean up/reformat harddrive... seeeeeriously.

finish cleaning/organizing studio



umm... i think thats it for now.

if anyone has any god links to design portflio sites/blogs pleawe forward them so i can rip them off....i mean, er, be inspired by them.

and one last thought....

i dont understand people who constantly complain/talk shit about things but absolutely refuse to do anything to try to change them. all they do is bring negative energy into my office. what can i do or say to get them to complain to someone else?

am i really complaining about people complaining??? hilarious.

have a safe happy halloween. i will post pictures of my exciting weekend soon.

so its been a slightly stressful/hectic week... speaking of.... im going to pour myself a glass of wine....

okay. im back.

on a side note... let me just say that i dont drink wine because i think its classy. i drink wine because i enjoy being drunk. tonight i drink my blush wine out of a chinese coffee cup with ice in it. there are SO many things wrong with that sentence from a wine drinking perspective...but i really dont care.

tonight i am drinking pink truck which is apparently "a pink wine you'd be proud to drink" because drinking other pink wine is just embarrassing...but will probably get you drunk. i bought it solely because i enjoyed the bottle.

anyway....i digress.

so i had some drama this week, but everything is fine. im a little bummed about my apartment. my landlord sucks really bad and has a major drinking problem...and now my ceiling is leaking....and since i got into a screaming match with him earlier in the week i now need to document everything that goes wrong with the place and put everything in writting. its really lame, but i have to protect myself and my rights. and you should too

these people prey on the fact that they rent primarily to young naive students who are unfamiliar with their rights, and we allow them to, so its our own damn fault.

breathe.
yoga helps. its changed my outlook on life SO dramatically in just six weeks. my forms are improving too which is super exciting. we added a few new postures to our routine which is very exciting and challenging.
now we are doing downward dog - plank - upward dog - downward dog
versus
downward - modified cobra - downward.
exciting.
Urdvha Mukha Svanasana (upward facing dog) one of my fav poses.

i dont even remember how i metpepe, or even how long ive know him. but i know hes super nice and he makes AMAZING art. i always get insanely excited and giddy when i see people i know making inspiring work.

umm... i know we are all irritated with the weather... especially those of us with little ones. but we need to keep in mind that the rain is vital to us and it is a great blessing from the earth. its kind of funny that we walk around...these giant fluid-filled, flesh-bags, but we hate to get wet.

someone puked on robinson outside of helens last night....luckily the rain washed most of it away....another reason to be greatful!

justin (my friend....not my boyfriend) and i are going on a fabulous trip tomorrow. i am very excited to take a day trip. even if it is just gloucester and hampton.

ok.ko.
im done here.

a.

i am absolutely bonkers over Miranda July, so much so, that she gets her name capitalized.

As of late, I am completely motivated. There is something about having a busy schedule, that makes you realize yu can always do more.

Last week I was a complete and utter bitch. Mercury went into retrograde and things got a little nuts. Luckily, I stayed level headed, managed to avoid any major decision making situations, and things seemed to settle down.

Justin has tattooed me twice in the past two days and my sleeve is getting closer and closer to completion. The one I got tonight may have replaced all others on my favs list.
FYI... the ditch and the elbow hurt as much as everyone says....and the arm pit.

look what i can do!
unfortunately...or fortunately...I cant decide.... I do a limited amount of "real" design...which makes it a whole lot more fun when I get to churn out cheap-o signs for crabcakes.

anyway... justin just got home. i want to take a bath and watch the office on DVD. ill update more tomorrow.

I am on a quest to re-own all the Richard Scarry books I owned as a child. I am dying for this one....busy, busy, world.... however, it goes for over $40 and I just cant justify shelling that out. I settled for "busy, busy, town" and "what do people do all day" each were a few sheckles a piece.
If you come across busy, busy, world or any of the brick books....(the covers are illustrated bricks) I will buy them off you.
awesome.

Anyway, things have been hectic since I started my new job....and after spending 9 hours staring at the computer my eyes and brain need a break....therefore, i havent been getting online as much....resulting in a lack of blog posts.

My new job is pretty amazing. It was initially quite intimidating, but im slowly becoming absorbed into the flow of things.
Yoga is STILL amazing. im getting a lot better which is really exciting. i am ACTUALLY progressing. i definitely didnt think i would catch on so quickly, but i have absolutely fallen in love with it and really push myself in class. Im thinking once my six weeks is up Im going to join another class too....so ill be practicing twice a week!!!
IM STILL NOT SMOKING!!!!!
anyway....
today justin (the other one...not my bf) and i had brunch at helens and went thrifting...the weather is absolutely AMAZING!
i heart jeans and sweaters!

ok. check out my flickr.... new pictures.......

oh yeah.... go out and buy the new miranda july book. its worth the read.

i swear this isnt a porn blog. Masuimi Max is just too cute. She looks kind of like a bobble head.
iamtrouble

so i have been in super-mega-bitch mode as of late. I really need to write some apology notes. I mean, I'm exhausted, thats all. I started my new job this week and its been completely hectic. Basically, I've spent most of my time fixing the last guys mistakes, so new incoming work has been piling up and I've been working late every night. I'm really into it tho... just not yet acclimated to having so many people be so dependent on me. Its a lot of pressure and a lot of responsibilty, I just dont want to let anyone down.
I went out and bought a new Illustrator book for CS3. I'm actually still using CS2 at work, but after looking at some of the new features that CS3 has I think I'm going to try to push for an upgrade. (The panels operate out of a collapsible dock, and you can customize and save your work space.)
Anyway..... between the work stress and having house guests, I guess I've been kind of grumpy....and after working an 11 hour day I really don't feel like coming home and finding an over flowing trash can. nuf said.
I finally recieved my natascha merritt book I had ordered off amazon. I was pretty annoyed to find that it was completely busted. The description said "Like new, slight shelf wear". Bullshit. It was not "like new" it was "like old" it was all busted and had a bunch of weird shit underlined and noted written in it.
Lame. I should report her.
I was going to go spend my west elm gift certificate, but it was too damn hot to be running around outside. I think I'd be better off to wait until payday anyway, as $100 doesn't get you far at the Elm.

alright.
Im out.
Hopefully this weekend will go a little smoother and ill be able to get in some mid-week blogging. i have lots of links and new pics to post.

a.

ps. watch the office and 30 rock on thursdays....both those shows are AMAZING!