a home at the end of the world.

my blog doesn't live here anymore.

it now lives here: noblackink.com.

bershooting the bums.

This past weekend was Bumbershoot. Honestly, it was the best one I've been to in AGES. The musical lineup on Saturday was terrible, so Ahe and I went for all the literary/comedy functions. First up was Lemony Snicket (aka Daniel Handler), who I was very hesitant about. I mean, the guy's a children's author! Oh, how wrong I was. I swear every single joke he made and story he told was for the benefit of people in the audience over the age of 16. It was amazing, we laughed the entire time and Ahe fell in love a little bit more than she already was. Then, we went to a comedy showcase with Jackie Kashain, Howard Kremer, and Demetri Martin. Without getting too much into it, here are the three funniest comments, all taken strictly out of context so no one will get how funny they are, except Ahe and I, but we've been laughing about them privately for 4 days straight so there's no need to stop now:

• Jackie Kashain: It's kinda hard to orgasm when you're poised to flee!
• Howard Kremer: You won't sass me like that when I can summon wolves.
• Demetri Martin: Mary is infatuated with cock. See other arm.

Hilarity and comic hijinks all around. The end of the evening was Smart!, a benefit for 826 Seattle, featuring everybody's favorite band, Death Cab for Cutie. I'm certainly not a fan of Seth Cohen-esque proportions, but they did this cover of "Hungry Like a Wolf," along with M. Doughty and the aforementioned Daniel Handler that was simply. Amazing. My infatuation with Dave Eggers lessened a bit once I heard him speak in public. But still, I got to see him SPEAK IN PUBLIC.

And then Monday was The Decemberists show, during which Ahe and I publicly salivated over Colin Meloy's nerdy genius and she and Ben played a fun game of "Who in the Band is that Guy?" Chris Funk, ever the entertainer, was dubbed Everybody's Drunk Uncle. Probably the best handle. Ben also somehow got the idea to drape a banana peel through Arturo's wallet chain, which he didn't notice for a good half hour. Sitcom shenanigans. The band also played "The Tain," an 18-minute epic which has since cemented itself in my cd player at home. (Thank you, Will.) Afterward, we briefly hit up Flatstock (The Small Stakes were my favorite) and then went on a drawn-out jaunt in search of beer and tater tots. Then, back to the event in hopes of catching a reprise of the comedy show from Saturday, but since my friends were much too enamoured of themselves and Miller Light, we missed out on a spot in line. So back to The Hill we went, to go home. If by home you mean the Cha Cha for one more beer and a shot.

In other news, I also slept through two movies this weekend. In the theater. The phenomenon may or may not have been directly related to the consumption of alcoholic beverages beforehand, both times. The not smoking has been going AWESOME. I'm on day 7 as we speak. Now I need to focus that willpower on the boozing.

september first

is the day that I officially stop smoking. None of this "Only when I drink" bullshit. Cold turkey. Wish me luck.

bloggin' it up.

Last night sitting at the Cha Cha with Ahe I had the worst case of deja vu EVER. And it had to do with the fact that I was talking about my job, looking at this pretty, somewhat new face, and wearing an uber-lowcut shirt and being all self-conscious about it. Like, I seriously had dreamt that situation before.

Anyway.

I spent this last weekend in LA. Eschewed the whole Hollywood "wait too long for overpriced drinks; get wasted and stay out late" routine and just hung out with my rep friends from Seattle who were also down there. I worked a lot and ate even more. Friday night we went for Japanese food, and ordered an assload of stuff:

• yakitori
• edamame
• chicken sausages
• ebi fry
• a whole fried fish (which I ate the tongue out of)
• daikon and fish salad
• cod and daikon in fish broth
• a tiny fish fried so much the texture resembled a potato chip
• so much sashimi
  

Essentially, lots of daikon and fish. So effing good. I love going to eat with those guys because I don't even open the menu, they just spew out all this nonsense at the waitress and then the food starts flowing. Awesome. I also ate my weight in Greek food (mmmmm, bechamel) at this taverna in Malibu that looked exactly like the restaurant I ate at a few times in Greece. Then Brazilian food at the Diesel showroom, which included chicken broquettes (which are the devil incarnate, and by that I mean chicken breast wrapped with bacon served with gorgonzola cream sauce) and a yummy salad with more gorgonzola and prawns. So much food the whole time I was there. I even ate a Six Dollar burger from Carl's Jr. which was AMAZING. Sunday night I ended up at a barbeque being thrown by WE, which is a Swedish clothing line. On two separate occasions, when introducing myself to the Swedes and telling them where I was from, they would exclaim, "Oh! Seattle! Grunge city!" Except, grunge was over like 10 years ago. But it's all these guys kept talking about. The owner of the company also asked me to try to recruit Krist Novoselic as a spokesmodel for the line. You know, 'cause I run into him all the time. Crazy Swedes.

In other news, Red Eye is not a good movie. Ahe can attest. The four shots and six drinks before the movie, on the other hand, made it much more bearable. Tonight we give The Skeleton Key a try.

hottest picture ever.

Aaaah, the block party. After spending a few hours in the sun, basking in the glory of the Crystal Skulls and These Arms Are Snakes (possessors of the sexiest guitarist EVER) we retreated to the cave of the Cha Cha, where we were lucky enough to score dollar Raniers, (pronounced rahn-yay, 'cause we're classy like that), free popsicles, as evidenced by this photo, and one free burrito which was happily shared by the testosterone-fueled part of the group. (Ahe doesn't like tortillas and I like to drink my dinner).

Shortly after this picture was taken I was somehow coerced into demonstrating my, uh, technique on the popsicle because Ben is gross. He proceeded to call me Granny Gums for the rest of the week.

**Note how the best part of this picture is Ben's expression.

you got a four?!?

The owner of the company I work for is one of those investor/entrepreneurial types, with his fingers in everything. His newest endeavor is a spray tanning salon, and the prototype booth has been constructed in our building. The woman in charge took one look at me and decided I, being of such fair skin (seriously, it's almost translucent), would be the perfect guinea pig. I've done it a few times, and the color usually just comes right off of my supple skin, but I just did it again with their UltraMegaDarkness-RossFromFriends spray, and I'm a little afraid of what's going to happen. Like, it's already uber-noticeable, and I only did it 20 minutes ago. Yikes!

In other news, my absolute favorite person in the entire world, Ben the Korean, is in town this week. I met the guy a month ago and hung out with him a total of three times, but I swear to god I could never get tired of him. He's the funniest person I have ever met, and he's a kick in the pants to be around. So I'm excited (he's based out of New York with The Corporation, but we've been lucky enough to get three visits in one month!) .We (Ben, Marcy, Arturo, and I) were thinking of going to Bend, OR this weekend for the Death Cab/Decemberists show, but it has been unanimously decided that a deviantly mischievous weekend in Seattle trumps the show. And the drive. Apparently my friends are pussies. They can't even handle a little Wingdome, let alone a 6 hour drive.

In other, other news, friends of friends are awesome and should stop describing chance internet meetings as "odd" or "off-putting." It's awesome, IMHO.

ohmigosh.

So, all my life, I have looked in the I Saw U's in the stranger. and I know everyone else has, too. we're all hoping that at some point, somewhere, we had such an impression on someone that they felt the need to reach out and find us. (for those of you who don't know, I Saw U's are a personal ad you place, saying "Redheaded girl with dreads at the Alkaline Trio show: I bought you a drink, would like to do it again." or something to that effect). Apparently, criagslist has a section for those, too, called Missed Connections. I had no idea. Marcy texted me the other day, saying "OMG there's a listing for you on craigslist." You can see it here. I have been emailing this fellow back and forth, and apparently I've met him more than once, and he knows how to spell my name, and he knows my last name, and he referenced Cena and Leah in one email, and knows that I recently broke up with someone, and apparently I told him he looked like Harry Potter with tattoos. And not British. The problem is, I have NO IDEA who he is. Do not remember meeting him EVER, let alone more than once. Huh. Weird. I'm kinda creeped out, and kinda intrigued. All at the same time.