Wednesday, June 30, 2010

on favorite colors

Lael's response to James Mulder's post An Orange and an Allegory Walk into a Bar:

This is really nerdy, but I don’t have a favorite color, so much as I have “color combinations that are aesthetically pleasing.” When I see a dark red, deep gold yellow, and forest green schema, I feel happy. Or a bold magenta, teal and eggplant. I appreciate a complementary sampling of the rainbow in three or four colors.  Don't give me the Fisher-Price-children's-toys combo of standard red, yellow, green and blue.  This is not primary school, these are the visual buttresses of creativity and style.  This is important, people.

I’ve always liked, not one particular color, but COLORS!! eee!!! (as a 10 year-old girl would scream when she found the 64-crayon Crayola behemoth box). Instead of stealing one marker and hoarding it from my classmates to practice writing my name, I used to take three or four, then carefully write out my full name in alternating colors.  I’m greedy with them,  my colors. I don’t want one special color for my very own—no, I want ALL of them, and I want all their shades and hues, and I want them now and I want them in rainbow order.

Friday, June 25, 2010

yard work

On rationalizing putting money into my house, even though I'm renting it and will lose all the work when I move away, my mom noted that "it doesn't matter if you're just renting a house; it's good to leave a place nicer than you found it." So we made this garden today.  Where before there was a hard-packed, semi gravel-filled patch of barren nothingness, now there's a nice green space.  And green spaces are good for the soul.

I was motivated my finishing this project, so I took a shovel to my back yard and laid waste to the dandelion population.  After doing yard for for five hours, I had to finally stop, fan my face with some junk mail like a southern lady at church, and contemplate recipes for mint juleps.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Notes on the Stanley Characters, summer 2009

Just as Phil D said, everyone in Stanley has a story. “We’re all broken toys,” he mysteriously explains. Amidst the backdrop of a beautiful, touristy mountain town, there are only about 40-60 people that winter over or live year-round. It would absolutely suck to winter here, and so it only makes sense that the people that do are either a little bit crazy, or running from something.

Big Phil is so named because there's another, smaller Phil that works as a cook at MV as well. More than anything, I feel deep sadness for this man. Phil’s dark story begins with his profession as a town sheriff and ends with a semi-scandalous affair/relationship with a girl here in Stanley. I don’t know all the details, but according to the Stanley rumor mill, one right there was a scuffle involving his girlfriend and the girl’s husband (or ex-husband, I don’t know exactly).

 Phil somehow showed up at the girl’s house in full sheriff uniform (off-duty) and pulled a gun on the guy. This may not have been as big a deal, but Phil was off-duty and dressed up in a uniform and went to a house with no probable cause, without the police being called. So, he was fired from that job, and apparently his demeanor is such that he has been kicked out of every other job besides MV.

Toward the end of my job contract (early August), Phil inexplicably somehow got a bit nicer. I'm not sure how much of it was me getting used to him and how much of it was the fact that a cute 20-year-old Mountain Village hostess from Turkey had a fatty crush on him. Not sure if he figured out or not, but I'm really hoping his sufferable demeanor wasn't because he was getting some. Ewww.

A Snapshot: Wintertime in Hi X

"High Expectations", the high school varsity choir I sang in during my junior and senior year of high school, was a cornerstone of my teenage life (the others were probably Oinkari and the AP Nerds social group).  Hi X could get particularly hectic in the wintertime, since much of the group's tour funds came from singing carols for office holiday parties or private gatherings (often paid for by Boise High parents who knew the group could use the money.)  Ah, yes, my first foray into the entertainment business...

One particular vignette I remember with fondness was a cold morning in December, when a few of us Hi-Xers decorated for Kandor (a home and gift shop in downtown Boise) for Christmastime.  Ashley Dunbar's mom worked there, and we did it as a fundraising opportunity for Hi X. We had to get there really early in the morning (5:30?) and downed several cups of coffee from Kandor's free carafe to help us wake up.  I think Gregg was there, or some other boy I had a crush on because I remember being really excited to go down there, despite the ungodly hour. 

A typical week in December would see us trying to balance a heavy homework load, sometimes sports, and Hi X gigs.  I remember, several times, pulling on black tights as fast as I could while driving a stick shift car, brushing the lint off my Hi X dress, praying to the Gods of Professional Appearance that the dress would be relatively wrinkle-free as I stepped out of my car, and trying to stay on pitch in an a capella group when many of us were battling winter colds.  We somehow always pulled it together, though, even though I would get death glares from the director when I showed up in the nick of time to mouth the opening words of "Fum, Fum, Fum." To her, early was on time, on time was late, and late was unacceptable.

    Wednesday, June 09, 2010

    dappled

    I walked down the driveway of my new house today, and am beginning to think it's maybe what I like most about the house. We're at the back of the lot, so to get to our house from the street you have to drive down about 200 ft of driveway.  I was barefoot, walking to get the mail.  The trees overhanging the driveway made the sunlight show dappled onto the pavement.  I am in the quiet, peaceful, sidewalk-less North end, with horses across the street and a hiking trail up the road.  I'm going to start growing tomato plants tomorrow because the patio and yard outside of my bedroom gets direct, hot southern light all day long.  It is beautiful.

    Thursday, June 03, 2010

    shirt ideas

    Still very rough drafty, but fun!  The shirts are kalimotxo-themed, with the nicknames of our koadrila written on each of the coke bottles (I found a sweet coca cola font online for free). Designed using Adobe Illustrator and the input of the Gavica sisters.

    Wednesday, June 02, 2010

    onward and upward!

    I just finished my last NFRU household today for the Census.  I didn't love the job, but it gave me some good people experience, like how to have doors slammed in your face, how to deal with reluctant respondents, and how to navigate weird neighborhoods.  Plus I had to practice my Spanish, which was really great.  Hopefully there will be more Spanish opportunities ahead.  I'm searchin....

    Tuesday, June 01, 2010

    ahhhh, employment

    In the last few weeks more than ever, I'm wishing that I had a standard 40-hr/week job ONLY because it is so hard to prove my earnings without one.  Because I live hand-to-mouth, or at least that's how it appears on paper, I have to compile several different sources in order to justify my meager earnings.  Questions like "attach a recent pay stub," or "take-home monthly earnings" make me sweat because the answers to those questions for me are so long and complicated!