NW YT Gathering fun.

Because I have this car from Ford, I have felt this constant urge to take full advantage of its benefits. In the past month I've driven all around Washington state, to mid-Montana and back, and just this weekend I went down to Portland for 2 days for the 2nd annual NW YouTube Gathering.

Alex and I left reasonably early on Saturday and drove straight down I-5. It took us about 3 hours to cross the bridge into Oregon, and then we had a bit of a parking adventure because I hate trying to park in big cities without spending a ridiculous amount of money. Finally we found a garage on Alder street that promised a flat rate of $10.95 for the whole day, we parked, and used my phone GPS to find the Pioneer Courthouse Square on foot (The GPS didn't really like this very much).

We caught the group just as they were leaving the square, and I was shocked at the number of people that were there. Last years' gathering took place at the Family Fun Center, and had about 25 of us. This year, the entire group, walking together, took up about 2 city blocks. It looked amazing.

We did the standard no one can make a decision because there were too many of us thing, where one person would finally say "okay let's just go!" and we'd walk for a few minutes and then just form another congregation a few feet away once everyone realized we still didn't have a destination. That's always fun.

We fially decided on the mall food court, where I enjoyed half a subway sandwich, some cards tricks courtesy of YouAverageAdam and CadeGoesToCollege, and a piece of Kayley's oreo brownie, and then we went back to a shady park. But not before half the group danced off in a congo line through the mall while the unamused, sarcastic, reluctant ones of the group (including myself, Kayley, Sweetafton23 and a handful of others) walked slowly behind and pretended not to know the rest of them.
Some police officers thought they were a moving protest. xD

The rest of the day was comprised of music in the park, lots of fun chatting, a caravan to Powell's Books (the biggest new and used bookstore in the world) and an unsuccessful trip to Voodoo Donuts which then turned into a successful trip to a nice, roomy, air-conditioned Gelato place.

The last parts of the day included a marathon shopping trip in Buffalo Exchange with Alex, Kayley, Denis, BooShoe37 (Matt) and YourAverageAdam and a game of rock band back in Pioneer Square where the boys got to let out their inner rockstars or whatever it was they were doing. Pretty Fly for a White Guy was pretty rockin'.

Also, when we went back to the parking garage, they only charged us $5! Whoo!

That night Alex and I stayed the night at my Uncle Dale's house and that was nice. I got to chat with him for awhile and then we got to sleep in a free bed and had free breakfast made for us the next day... heck yes.
Also my cousin Ashley came over with her new baby Ava whom I hadn't met yet and I got to hold her and stuff.. she's only 5 months old and she's adorable. :D


The next morning we got to day 2 of the gathering around noon. This day's location was the Oregon Zoo, and I liked this day more because there was one central location and it was easier for everyone to stay together. We saw a bird show where a bald eagle flew dangerously close over our heads while we sat on the grass, we ate some crappy fried food, we watched a seal eat a bunch of dead fish... typical fun day at the zoo.

Later we all met again at this grassy area where what started as a group picture with 5 people all wearing blue shirts turned into a violent and epic game of Red Rover that was, in hindsight, mildly supportive of segregation because we only allowed people with Blue and Red/Pink shirts to play and all the yellows, oranges, greens and browns of the group had to sit out and watch and take pictures. All I have to say about this game, aside from Michael Aranda getting some amazing slow-motion footage, is that nobody won and my arms are very sore today.


We saw bears and beavers and eagles and owls and all sorts of other fun things, but the best part of the day was just getting to spend so much time talking to all the cool people who came to this gathering. I met a girl who also goes to UW, I met a girl from the UK, and I met loads of people whose screen names I recognized from YouTube comments. It was a fun day. Being around so many genuinely nice, fun people just makes for a good weekend.

So thank you, everyone who was there. I can't wait for next year. :D

books/dftba/purple crap

I wasn't really being cryptic... I know I will always remember what I meant when I said Maureen Johnson ruined my life, and at the time I posted that blog, I didn't want to talk about it.

Now I am secure in admitting Maureen read my novel, and while she really liked it, the suggestions she made are leading me to a major redraft that I wasn't anticipating. But after one night of panicking and hating Maureen for being smart and a good writer and someone I know I should listen to... now I've realized she's smart, and a good writer, and someone I should listen to.


So... major redraft of my novel, here I come. I'm still publishing it through DFTBA as I said I was before, but it'll be a little later than I originally thought.




In less frustrating and time-consuming news, I am going to be, as Alan calls it, "the face of DFTBA records". This means that when they open their shiny new tshirt store, you will see MY FACE on the banners and modeling the lovely shirts they have for sale for the bands. I am very excited about this. :D Alan is sending the first tshirt to me early next week.


Also I have 13 submissions already for my video collab and I love my subscribers. I can't stop laughing every time I see people dancing around with purple crap on them. xD I just love that I asked, and within days, people are sending in clips because they're so willing to do this really weird thing for me. You people are amazing.

PS. To Andrew, who commented on my last post, I DO read my comments and plan on entering. Thank you!

annngst

Maureen Johnson ruined my life.



..and then she made it lots, lots better. <3

Video?

I am going to be doing a fun video collab; the first one I have opened up to the public and asked for submissions from anyone interested.

I am not going to put the info out yet, but if you're interested in being in one of my videos and perhaps having stuff on your face, then you should email me at nightowl1287@yahoo.com.


If you're not interested in being in a video, or don't have a camera, or don't want stuff on your face... don't email me. xD


WOO. I hope to hear from a good handful of you. <3

EDIT: SUBMISSION CLOSED. I know that was a really short window of opportunity, but I already have over 100 volunteers. If over half the people who emailed me don't end up doing it, that will still be too many. xD

TEN

Okay.

I went on a really fun trip with Alex, Liz, and Liz's friend Bekah to do a photoshoot in this awesome old ghost town in Montana called Bannack, and there were many, many high points.

However, when we were at the actual town, we were surprised to find literally swarms of mosquitos out in broad daylight. Liz (the photographer) was freaking out and demanding we work quickly, but Bekah and I were in full costume and I couldn't care less at the time. We'd driven 12 hours, we'd curled hair and laced corsets... I wasn't going to let some stupid bugs ruin our trip.

I was the most nanchalant all day about the mosquitos. I remember distinctly saying the sentence, "So I get a few bug bites. I'll deal. At least we'll have great photos."

That being said, I have now come and actually looked myself over after a VERY itchy day of driving (I drove 6-7 hours today). I HAVE TEN MOSQUITO BITES.

TEN.

7 on my legs. 2 on my left arm. AND ONE ON THE TOP OF MY HEAD.

I am not happy. I am now going to put hydrocortisone cream (which I just happened to have, thank goodness) on all of them and make Alex put it on the ones I can't reach. Lucky bastard, I think he only got one bite.

RAWRAWRAWR.

Why I write for kids.

Speaking of blog posts, there is all sorts of discussion going on over on the Wizrocklopedia, but I am tired of talking about that today. So if you care, you can go find the news blog yourself to find out what's being said about my band.


I do want to talk about 1. how much I hate car shows and 2. how much I love writing.

1. Car shows. I actually have no problem with car shows themselves, really. I think old cars are neat, I think the people who drive them are generally fun. My dad used to have an old 1957 Ford Ranchero. My uncle has at least 10 fun old cars. What I do hate is when Car Shows are held on the main street outside the theatre I work at, and therefor they have to close the street on the busiest day of the week and I have to spend my whole work shift calling EVERY SINGLE PERSON scheduled to come to the show that day to warn them that they'll need to take alternate routes. This, this I hate.

2. Writing. Alex and I are both working on close-to-final edits of our books and I really enjoy that we're doing it together. Writing is lovely and I've been doing it my whole life, but it's so much more enjoyable when you have other people writing with you. I have never been able to finish anything novel-length until nanowrimo, because the act of writing with friends just makes it such a more enjoyable experience. The point is, I'm really happy and excited to be sharing a release date with Alex for our books. We have been inspiring and motivating each other since before these drafts were even begun with our stupid bets and competitive teasing... and now that we're dating and helping each other with editing we just feel really emotionally invested in each other's books. Well, I don't know about Alex but that's how it feels to me.

Anyway, we're both really excited and a little nervous about the idea of releasing our books to the public. We've both made countless videos and released albums and everything you've already seen us do, but I definitely believe this feels a lot more personal. It's scary and exciting. :)

I didn't mean for that to get all sappy. What I was actually going to say regarding writing was how I came to the realization why I feel so much more comfortable writing characters that are under the age 18. First of all, I feel like a good writer will try to contribute to the world 1. what they themself would like to read but more importantly 2. what the world is missing or lacking.

I read a lot of teen lit. A lot. And a problem I see in a lot of books is that adults write them, and what can happen sometimes is that they only kind of remember what it was like to be a teenager or kid, so a lot of books become overly cheesy or even (more tragically) a caricature of what real kids/teens are like. This happens frequently in teen movies as well, where it's even worse.

I'm 21 years old, but I still feel like a teenager. I was a teenager recently. I remember vividly the things I did as a kid because it wasn't that long ago. I was a very normal kid, who played with her neighbors in the streets in the summer, who dripped ice cream down to her elbows, who fought with her parents and thought a mysterious stranger would come and tell her she was actually a princess and who tried hard in school and got nervous before math tests and did all the normal things a kid did. I could write things about those years of my life and anyone that age could probably relate because many of them shared my experiences.

BUT. Then I graduated highschool, I found wizard rock, I went to conferences, I started doing youtube, I toured, I did interviews, and basically started living a very strange, different, unconventional life. I have NO IDEA what it's like to be a regular college student. I have no idea what the college experience is. I don't know what regular 19-25 year olds do for fun. I would have no idea how to relate to that audience at all.

This, this is why I subconsciously always write books for the 8-12 or 11-15 age range. I was a normal kid then. xD

EDIT: I remembered what else I wanted to say. Clearly by the comments on my last blog entry, the internet can't take a joke. Like I would start a collab-love-channel with Alex. Not only is that way more work than either of us lazy people are willing to put in, but we'd prefer to keep our relationship as private as we possibly can, given the situation. xD For crying out loud, someone felt it necessary to warn Becky that Alex was starting a new nerdfighterlike with me. Really? Did someone really think that's what was happening? SIGH.

LOVEVLOGGERS

Today Alex and I were sitting on my bed, just chatting about how much of a fail 5AGirls 2.0 is and how long it's been since 5AGuys existed, and I turned to him with this serious look on my face.

"Hey Alex, I have an idea," I said.
"Yes, Kristina?"
"Okay, now, tell me if you don't like it, but I was thinking. What if we were to make a YouTube channel, like, together. We could both post videos on it for a certain amount of time. Maybe make some rules?"
At this point Alex could see where this was going and was rolling his eyes in disgust and trying to climb up off the bed but I grabbed at his arms and said "No, listen! I think it's a really cool and unique idea! We could do something like weekly challenges to keep it exciting. Oooh and maybe roll a die to see what we have to do. And if people like it we could get them involved... give them a name or something. I think it'd be fun. Oh and - if we break rules, we could give each other punishments!"
I think Alex was ready to throw himself out the window but then I got to the good part; suggesting names. "Two awesome lovers? No, no I've got it. LoveVloggers. Nobody has a name like that! LOVE VLOGGERS."

(Bear in mind that two of our good friends currently reside on the popular channel vloglovers).


This is just a tidbit of a normal conversation between Alex and I. xD
Needless to say, LoveVloggers is still available on YouTube and frankly I don't understand Alex's aversion to this idea.


Edit: Alex has just registered the username "lovevloggers". He says it's because he doesn't want some annoying person running around with it, but I know it's because he's secretly warming to the idea. LOVE VLOGGERS 4 LIFE.

Interactive Road Trip

So, last week, Alex and I decided that the next time I had 2 days off in a row we would hop in my fiesta and go on a road trip, not making any plans ahead of time and letting the people who follow us online make all the decisions on what we'd do, where we'd go, what we'd eat, and pretty much any other decisions we'd run into on the course of the trip.

Basically, whether or not we had fun relied on whether the people on blogtv and twitter made good decisions for us. The only rules were that we had to let other people decide what roads we took, we couldn't decide ahead of time where we'd end up, and we tried to avoid major freeways and establishments that were chains (ie. Starbucks, Safeway, Pizza Hut, etc.) We would hold BlogTV shows whenever we stopped at a place with wifi, and we asked twitter everything from whether we'd go north or south to what flavor of SnoCone to get.

What resulted was probablt 2 of the most fun days I've ever had. I'm going to write up everything Alex and I saw and did for my own personal record, but also for those of you who didn't get to follow us on our journeys.

Days: June 12-13.
Total Miles: 485.

DAY 1:
We took off from my house in Seattle and asked BlogTV if we should go East or West. Almost unanimously the room said East, so we looked at our trusty map and asked twitter if we should take I-90 or Highway 2. It was pretty split between these two highways, but a few people said things like "Highway 2 looks less mainstream, you should go off the beaten path." We were convinced, and it was at this point that we decided to avoid major freeways or anything chain or familiar at all, if we could. We set off on highway 2 (via I-5 North and Everett) and immediately loved the decision because literally 5 minutes off I-5 (the major North/South freeway I live by) it was just cute little towns and cows and prarie as far as we could see. And we weren't even far from home yet!

A few miles into Highway 2, we passed the "Reptile Zoo & Museum". Alex and I looked at each other, and turned right around. I told him, "We're not doing this trip right if we're not stopping at Reptile Zoos." It cost $6 to get in, but we were SO GLAD we did. We saw the 10 deadliest snakes, Alex got to take a picture with a Chameleon, we saw a two headed turtle and terrifying tarantulas, and then this girl who worked there who was about our age convinced us to hold a snake. We weren't going to, because we're both wimpy, but she was pretty much like "Yeah, you can't leave here without holding a snake. Children hold snakes."
So we did! Alex and I held two different snakes! It was scary but once I got passed that, it felt really neat feeling its muscles contracting as it curled around my wrist. So awesome.


We left after about 40 minutes or so at the reptile place, and headed back on highway 20. We were starting to get hungry. We could have stopped at any number of places, but we were being really picky about choosing a place. It had to look cute. It had to look fun. It had to be in an adorable town. Eventually we drove past this place called Cascadia that had a big sign advertising its Centennial, and we were so proud of this little town that we stopped in at their diner and had lunch. They miraculously had wifi (even though I barely got a phone signal there) so we went on BlogTV for awhile.

After lunch we took off again. We had a ways to drive before we got anywhere interesting, but Alex and I were really enjoying driving through cute town after cute town. We asked twitter what music we should listen to. Finally we got to Leavenworth. I'd been there before when I was younger and told Alex it was a quaint little German town, but he had no way to anticipate what I meant by that and was shocked when we got there. It's a Bavarian town where everything, even the Starbucks and Subway, look totally old fashioned and straight out of Germany 100 years ago or something. There is a big maypole in the middle of the town and horse carriage rides and they have events year round like Oktoberfest. We walked around for awhile, and went into each sweetshop (3 of them) to find the best icecream. :)

We were reluctant to leave Leavenworth, but we had to keep going. We drove for awhile until we got to Wenatchee, the first large(ish) town we'd passed since Everett. We stopped in at the Walmart parking lot just to look at a map and see what our options were (and take goofy pictures with the 'Welcome to Wenatchee' sign). In the mean time, a small car enthusiast driving a Yaris started taking pictures of my car so I went over to talk to him and let him look at then engine and ask me questions about the fiesta and whatnot. It was kind of fun, showing it off. xD


We then turned to twitter again, because we had two options. We asked if we should go north on highway 97 or south on highway 285, and the people of twitter decided on highway 285, so off we went. It was starting to get dark, so we knew we'd need to find a motel soon. Finally in Quincy, we'd had enough driving, so the first sort of small place we found we pulled into. It was called the Crescent Hotel. We were expecting something kind of sketchy and weird but this place was SWEET. We had a couch and a mini fridge and microwave, and a flatscreen tv! We didn't... use any of that stuff. But it was there. So it was awesome.



DAY 2:
In the morning we had a free continental breakfast where we stuffed ourselves while watching the news and laughing at the fact that the breaking story was a former president skydiving for his 85th birthday. Sigh. Although some kid invented paper waterbottles, which is pretty cool. On the way back to the room, I saw a poster on the wall that said "Summer Events in the Area!" so I checked June 13th to see if anything fun was going on that day. It listed a few softball games and boring stuff, but then it said "Ephrata Sage 'n Sun Parade". I'd remembered seeing on the map and knew it was only about 20 miles away, so Alex and I looked it up online and found the parade was staring in two hours! So we packed our stuff up quickly, broadcast quickly on BlogTV from the lobby to tell the internet our plans, and headed off toward Ephrata.


We parked at a grocery store and walked in the direction of the parade. There were people everywhere, and the parade was adorable. You could definitely tell this was a tiny country town because there were tons of old men in their vintage cars, a marching band, army vehicles, people with bales of hay, horses.. but then there was some cool stuff like the moving float that had gymnasts doing stunts on uneven bars. We had a good time watching, and afterwards they had a street fair and all sorts of fun vendors and things. We were going to ride the giant purple slide but it cost money so we skipped it. Then we shared a SnoCone (Alex had never had one before) and let twitter pick the flavor (CherryLime).


The we went to their library where they were having a book sale, and we collectively bought 7 books, for which they charged us a dollar. A dollar! :D We stopped in at a guitar shop, where I drooled over this awesome pink guitar (the Parselmouths NEED one, am I right?) and then after stopping in for something to drink at a gas station (Alex asked twitter's opinion on his flavor of iced tea) we get back in the car and for the first time started heading back in the direction I live.


We had to hop on I-90 West briefly to get to I-82 South which would take us back to the fun sorts of smaller highways we'd been using for the trip. From here we had another choice of highways, so we asked twitter if we should take highway 12 or 410. By an alarming 18 vote lead, we headed off on highway 410 back toward Western Washington.

We decided to stop for lunch in Selah simply because we liked the name of the town, parked the car, and decided to find a fun restaurant by foot. We walked down the street, around the corner, and there as if it were a beacon was this dinky little Chinese place called the Golden Bull and without even saying anything, Alex and I both knew it was perfect, as far as living on the edge goes. The place made me a little nervous (a Chinese food place in a dinky country town?) but the lady who owned it was nice and the food was honestly some of the best Chinese food I'd ever had. Alex had sweet and sour chicken and I had General Tsao's (the lady laughed and said that's the two things everyone gets) and we enjoyed a very lovely lunch.


Highway 410 lent us more little towns, and long stretches of desert-y terrain, which was a nice break from the praries and farmland we'd been immersed in the day before. After about an hour we saw a sign that just said "Scenic View", so I said "alright" and pulled off to check it out. It ended up being this pretty amazing lookout area where you could see what was left of the petrified Ginkgo forest and the lake that had formed in the hills that were carved out by a lava flow from a volcano ages ago. It was beautiful.

As the road started to curve north, we were then heading toward the mountains. The drive through the Mt. Rainier national park was the only bit of the trip that wasn't loads of fun. The roads were small and windy and there was all this fog and really steep drop offs that scared me, and my left foot was starting to get really sore from using a clutch and I was just tired of not knowing how much longer we had to drive through the stupid mountains. Although, to be more positive about it, there WAS snow everywhere and waterfalls along the road at every turn, so it was pretty, it was just also an annoying drive.


FINALLY we got through the national park (it was too foggy to see the dumb mountain anyway, so that sucked) and found ourselves with one last option on how to get home... we could go north on highway 164 or 169. Twitter told us to take 169, but then we drove around for a good 25 minutes on a detour that we got lost on, and then eventually it took us back to highway 164, because they were doing construction on the other one. So that was pointless. We took highway 169 until we got to Muckelshoot, which is a town that is on an indian reservation, so we drove by casinos and all sorts of firework stands. We stopped and bought $5 worth of fun things at one of the stands. :)

We were going to drive straight home, but once we got on highway 167, we realized how close we were to the Drive-In theatre again. We had blankets and snacks in the car already, so we decided to stop and see another movie as a last fun event for the trip. We were going to ask twitter what to see, but the only movie playing that looked good was The Hangover, so we got our tickets and pulled in, only about 30 minutes early. The movie was pretty funny but really weird at the same time. We bought hot dogs and popcorn from the concession stand and that was fun.

Finally around midnight the movie ended and we made our way home. The drive home wasn't too exciting, as we just took 67 to 405 North, and from there took I-90 West to I-5 North and then we were hoooome (at about 1 in the morning). Exhausted, but full of memories of a really exciting and random two day road trip. :)


Thank you to everyone who came to BlogTV or @replied me on twitter; the trip was so great because of you guys following along.

Why people are dumb.

This is my life:
(This happened on the phone, by the way)

Me: "Alright, that will be row L, seats 13 and 14."
Patron: "Row O, got it, thanks."
Me: "No, that was Row L, L as in 'love'."
Patron: "O as in 'love', alright."
Me: "........ no. Not O as in love. L. ELL. L as in 'Larry'."
Patron: "...... there's no O in Larry."
Me: "THAT'S BECAUSE IT'S NOT AN O IT'S AN L."
Patron: "Oh. L."

Ahhhhhh.

fortune cookies

When you work a 9.5 hour shift, you really have to appreciate the little things to make the day go faster.

My coworkers and I usually spend the day talking about how annoying the general public is, but sooometimes it's a little more exciting here. Today, for instance, one of my coworkers brought in a bag of fortune cookies. Like, a huge bag. She went to China Town and you can buy these massive bags of rejected fortune cookies that were not sent out to restaurants because they were slightly burnt or squished or whatever. She called them her unfortunate cookies.

So basically I have been eating them all day.

Most of the fortunes sucked and I threw them away, but I saved one. It said, "Your plans will go well tomorrow." I liked that. Holding on to that on.


The last one I had didn't even HAVE a fortune in it. That just makes it a cookie. A boring cookie.

I just opened another one and it was a surprisingly ego-centric cookie. It said "You are the center of every group's attention." Ummm... no I'm not. What about the government? The secret service? What about the coalition for the removal of cherry flavored medicine? What about the people who manufacture fortune cookies? I doubt any of those groups give a crap about me.

I have 8 more hours here. I'm going to get a lot more good fortune I think.


I keep crossing my fingers that the next cookie I open will say "You will get to leave work early."

I think that even my boss would have to abide by fortune cookie mandate.

drive-in movie

Last night Alex and I took the fiesta and we went to see a drive-in movie.

I hadn't seen a drive-in movie in years, so it was really fun. We drove up to the theatre "The Valley 6" and literally felt like we'd gone back in time to the 50's or something. Everything is really old fashioned looking and so different from the regular movie-going experience. We got there way too early (drive-in movie noobs) and my fiesta was the only one in the lot for awhile while the sun was still up.


You had to pull up to one of those weird post things and attach the cable to your antenna so that you could get a good signal on AM station 650... apparently this is a really old school way to run a drive-in theatre, but I like having the whole experience. It was cool.

There was a concession stand with overpriced snacks and old arcade games, and 6 different theatres showing movies! Alex and I saw Star Trek, which was surprisingly really good, albeit a little confusing.

After the movie I was trying to find the exit and was driving all around when this guy stopped us and was like "bathroom or exit?" Sheepishly I said exit and he pointed directly behind me. I then had what was one of the most terrifying experiences of my manual-car-driving life. To get out of the theatre area, you had to drive over one of those things with the spikes where it's fine if you go the correct way, but if you try to go the wrong way over it, it will puncture your tires.

This was all well and good except for the fact that just a few feet past it I had to stop before turning out on the main road, and all of this happened on a rather steep hill. So where I already freak out having to start on a hill for fear of rolling backwards, HERE I was freaking out about having to start on a hill for fear of rolling backwards onto SHARP POINTY SPIKES THAT WOULD POP MY TIRES.


....I made it, eventually. xD

But yeesh. Talk about learning by pressure.



Another picture of my car looking completely futuristic and out of place in the most old-fashioned looking establishment I've ever been.

the tonys and blacking out.

Eia and I are sitting in her room watching the Tonys. I have never really cared about them all that much before, but Brian Yorkey, a playwright from our area who has done a number of productions at our little theatre in Issaquah (Village Theatre) was nominated for loooads of Tonys for "Next To Normal", which actually debuted as an Original show at our theatre, so of course we're watching dilligently for him and for all the fun in between performances from shows.

Next To Normal won best original score and Brian did a shout out to Village and we cheered like dorks. It's been fun. :)

Also, Eia and I were VERY skeptical of whatever this new show "Rock of Ages" is, but as soon as the main guy started flirting with Liza Minelli in the audience and then the entire cast broke out into an insane version of Don't Stop Believin'... well, now we want to see it. Maybe.


In other news, I left work early today (after just 3 hours) because while chatting with a woman at the subscription table, my vision starting clouding and I broke out in a cold sweat and collapsed into the chair behind me before completely blacking out for about 20 seconds. I have no idea why it happened or what's wrong, but nothing like that has ever happened to me before and it was really scary. Liz came and picked me up and took me to get food, and then about an hour later I (very carefully) drove home. I... can't explain it. I hope it doesn't happen again. :(



Lastly, I just love that I can log on to facebook and see things like this on my newsfeed:


:D

Bookmarks.

If I could only convey to the world how many books I own.

I own every Babysitter's Club book.
I own every Goosebumps book.
I own an alarming amount of Sweet Valley books, and other random series I picked up on like Amber Brown, Amelia (those diary books), Georgia Nicolson, and a smattering of novels about Full House. I have books from my asian phase (Chinese Cinderella, Ties that bind, ties that break, Joy Luck Club) books from my phase where I read a lot of books about people dying (Car acccidents, Leukemia, everything), books from my phase where I read books about British girls as opposed to American girls like usual, books from my phase where I read modern adaptations of fairy tales.... AND THEY'RE ALL STILL HERE, IN MY ROOM, IN STACKS AND BOXES.

I just found a copy of the book "The year my life went down the loo" (from the British phase I suppose) and in it was a homemade bookmark that had my name, address, phone number, and a drawing I did of some flowers. The bottom was signed in marker, "Kristina Horner, age 12".


Sometimes I really wish I was more like I was when I was 12. That's adorable.

4th grade Kristina.

I'm a little embarrassed of this....


That's me in 4th grade. So I was... maybe 10 years old? Wow. Um.

Don't judge me. Ha.



Room Status: Under the bed is done and bookshelf is done. I don't want to start the closet. :/

Throwing away childhood.

When I moved to Seattle, I took a lot of my things with me.

However, I have been alive for 21 years, and over that time I acquired A LOT OF THINGS.

Many of my possessions stayed here at home, at my parents' house, where they have been taking up space for 9 months since I left.

Today I am back home, on a Saturday, CLEANING. My mom wants me to consolidate all of those THINGS into a few manageable boxes and get rid of the rest. :/ This is hard.

What I have left in there is:
1. My closet. (O.o)
2. Under my bed. (O.o)
3. 1 bookshelf.


I am trying to power through, but every time I reach for a new stack of things or open a new box, I find a whole plethora of pictures to look at, or notes from old friends to read, or books I once loved, or little containers full of things that look like junk but I remember (or guess, if it's been awhile) that they're secret memories from my life (a weird shaped rock, a piece of cloth, a quarter taped to a piece of paper). How do you go through these things? How do you decide what gets thrown away and what gets held on to for just a little longer?

Also, the biggest thing, is that I keep finding folders of old writing, NOTEBOOKS upon NOTEBOOKS of started and forgotten stories, and tons of old school newspapers I'm published in, and papers I wrote for school. How do I decide which old writing from my childhood is worth keeping and which should be tossed? I HAVE NO IDEA.


I've finished under my bed and I have two tubs to save and one huge box and one huge bag to get rid of or throw away. I'm taking a break before I tackle the closet.


Also, I found a paper my brother wrote in 2002 (he was 9 years old then) and I wanted to share it here for posterity. I have no idea why I had one of my brother's papers in, but it's GOLD, so I'm glad I had it. I probably stole it back then because I knew I'd appreicate it more than he would when I found it again:

"T.V.

I love to watch T.V. There is the remote. It controls the whole T.V. My family fights over it! I get it the most. The screen makes it so you can watch T.V. That is the glass. The channels are the things the shows are on. The numbers. That's all I know about T.V."


Hahaha. He's cute. I just went in his room and read it to him and he turned all red and laughed.


So here I am, covered in dust and memories, trying to decide which parts of my past to throw away. I think the world will be happy to know I threw out seven issues of "Animerica" and a copy of Seventeen magazine from 1996. I also found my abandoned State Quarters collection. I got as far as Vermont. I found my POG collection and my Tenchi Muyo and Ah! My Goddess dvds which I am actually pretty excited about. I found a lot of old drawings (forgot I used to be a little artist) and so many pictures I don't even know what to do with them all. I also found a picture I had taken when I was in 4th grade that was all glamour shot-y, and I look like a freaking movie star. I may have to scan that one in; I didn't even remember having it taken.

Here's to a few more hours of cleaning. Phew.

Car Face Monster!

So today.

I considered calling in sick to work, but then I remembered that work has air conditioning and this horrible oven house will never have air conditioning, so on that account alone, I decided to go after all.

I was hot, I was irritable, and I wanted to have time to get some food, so when I went outside to find my ford fiesta graffitied with taped on pieces of poster-board, I was NOT IMPRESSED.

I scowled at the car, took one picture with my camera phone for evidence/posterity, ripped the pieces off, threw them in the back seat, and drove off to work.

Approximately 5 minutes later, when I had just gotten to the on-ramp for I-5 South, I BURST out laughing. Because whoever graffitied my car wasn't trying to be MALICIOUS.

I mean, look at this:


Funniest thing I have ever seen. Someone went to a LOT of work to take this prank possibly a few steps too far. I love it. I saved the pieces; I may put them back on for a video. You cant really see them, but there are big blue floppy feet on the wheels, too.

I have no idea who did this.
I have no idea WHY they did this.

But god does it make me laugh.


I suppose this is a day in the life of a fiesta agent. LOL.

shaped macaroni

WHY IS IT SO HOT IN THIS STUPID HOUSE.

I know this has been a very blog filled day, but I have NOTHING ELSE TO DO.

I just made myself some dinner (I wasn't very hungry, but I needed to eat food to be able to take my sinus pills) and I was so hot from the steam and the boiling of the water and just moving around in this oven of a house that I took my bowl of mac and cheese and a chair and I ate outside, right in the middle of my yard. It felt so nice. I miss outside.

The act of cooking and chair-carrying tired me out though so now I am back on my sickbed. Melanie Klein wants me to finish writing my paper on her. Siiiigh.

Speaking of chairs, we have those refrigerator magnet poetry words on our fridge downstairs and one caught my eye that made me laugh while I was down there just now. It said "Every chair has soul." I had no idea.



Also, an 8 year old once told me, "I only eat shaped macaroni. They taste better."
I laughed at him for being picky, until I thought about it myself a little later on.
They DO taste better.
I haven't gone back since. Tonight was Spiderman.

6th sense?

I have this friend, Sarah, who was forced to move with her family to Montana when we were 17.

Ever since then we've kept in contact, minimal but always there.


I seem to have this weird 6th sense for knowing when we need to reach each other.

Once I emailed her on the day her cousin hung himself.
Once I emailed her on the day her grandma was in the hospital from a stroke.
Once I texted her the day her dog died.

Last night I had a dream about how I needed to find her phone number to contact her about something, because I actually don't have her number ever since she got a new phone. Then, TODAY, I get this text message from an unknown number, and it says "Hey Tina it's Sarah. This is my new number. I am moving back to Washington on Sunday. Excited? I can't wait to see you."


...WHAT?

Sick day 2.

Things I have accomplished today before noon while being sick:

1. Wrote half my final paper on Melanie Klein.
2. Ate breakfast.
3. Swallowed 5 pills.
4. Showered.
5. Filmed/uploaded a new video.

Compared to yesterday where all I did was go to the doctor, fall asleep watching Alex and Alan's blogtv show, watch a strange Korean movie with subtitles with my housemate Ben, and stare at the ceiling, this is PRODUCTIVE!

Things I have still to do today:

1. Write second half of my final paper.
2. Write a paragraph on two more theorists on psychoanalysis.
3. Compile a list of key terms from my paper.
4. Eat dinner so I can take my other pill later tonight.
5. Write lyrics for a song idea I have floating around in my head.

Why is this day so homework-filled? School is completely over for me (for the year) one week from today. It can't come soon enough. :/


Also, I feel a little badly about my blog yesterday... I was kind of feeling down about everything and definitely didn't put that bit about my album in there as a way to guilt you all, like "hey I'm sick, buy my album". I'm just surprised at the lack of physical copy sales, but I suppose that selling them at LeakyCon in combination with iTunes going up so fast is to blame for that. That's all. Don't feel obligated. I only talk about the things I am working on to let you guys know what I have been up to. I don't feel like everyone who watches my videos or reads my blog needs to buy my albums or my book (when it comes out in September). I just like to talk about them for those of you who ARE interested. :)

Also, I put a lot of work into the things I do and I am proud of these albums, so it's hard NOT to talk about them when I have exciting news.

Anyway, that's all. Back to paper writing.

Edit: I just got a phone call from my ford fiesta PR person and apparently my college newspaper wants to interview me about my involvement in the movement. That's exciting. :)

SICK.

I am having one of the most horrible days of my life.

To recap, yesterday morning I woke up with a tiny sore throat and felt like my nose was getting stuffy again. I said casually to Alex, "Weird, I feel like I am getting sick again. That doesn't happen, does it?" I drove him to the airport, said goodbye, went to Jamba juice, went to work, and within an hour I was so sneezy and miserable that they sent me home.

I was supposed to write a big final paper but the pressure in my nose was so horrible that literally all I could muster up the strength to do was drag myself to Eia's room with my favorite fleece blanket to watch the Harry Potter ABC Family weekend for like 5 hours with her, because she's sick too. Then I finally went to bed around 11, but woke up feeling hot and uncomfortable at 2 AM, and didn't fall back to sleep after that. Around 5 AM I tried to go to the bathroom but made it as far as my bedroom floor. I layed there for about 20 minutes, and then finally crawled back into bed after I got too cold. Around 7 AM I admitted defeat and called my mom, crying. I think it finally hit me that I was REALLY. SICK. and all alone in Seattle with no one to take care of me and just really needed my mom.

Lucky she works at an Ear, Nose and Throat clinic so at 9 she had my Dad pick me up and take me in to see one of the Doctors. They looked in my ears and took my blood pressure and stuck a hot thing in my nose and declared me sick with a pretty bad sinus infection. I've never had one before. They gave me all sorts of pills and sent me home. My dad asked the Doctor if I was going to make it and she said, "She'll make it to the door at least." Witty. <_<

Now I am back home. I'm sweaty. I'm uncomfortable. I had to swallow 5 pills this morning and have to take another one tonight with dinner. I miss Alex. I want food but I am too tired to go downstairs and get it. I got an extension on my paper (tomorrow night) but I have no desire/energy to start it. Maybe tomorrow morning.

Also, today was my last birth class and I had to miss it. :( That's been the worst part of all of this. I love that class. I emailed my teacher and she said not to worry about it at all, and to take care of myself, but I WANTED to be there. Sigh.


This basically sucks. It's the last week of school. I am missing everything. I am not used to being this sick. Alex is gone when I need him. And people aren't really buying hard copies of Spattergroit, and I hope it's not because they've forgotten about us/don't like it. Maybe everyone is using iTunes. I wont know for 3 months.

Bye.