et cetera et cetera et cetera

9:56am: i must have this toy. but alas, ballard is sooooooo far away!



avenging narwhal play set

10:43am: hey man, now you're really living
i can't wait to see the eels again next month. lately i've been sort of anti-concerts, but i'm really looking forward to this upcoming show. the man is a genius, and hilarious to boot.

the new useless trinkets b-sides and rarities album is amazing. i love that e's constantly playing his songs in totally different ways. there's a version of the song flower on there that almost makes me tear up everytime i listen to it.

i've been feeling very musical. i have no natural ability to speak of, but i love playing around on my glockenspiel and ukulele and i've been mildly obsessed lately with the idea of buying a musical saw and a piano (not like i have room for a piano, and my neighbors would hate me, and my dad would hate me because i'd need him to help me move it). i'm also endlessly jealous of the melodica that megan just bought.

10:18am:


i always loved garfield as a kid. but this is waaaaay more funny:

http://garfieldminusgarfield.tumblr.com/page/1



thank you nate, for keeping me entertained at work.

4:22pm: i love my friends. example:

me: mikey, i like a boy and he doesn't like me back. will you come beat him up for me?
Michael: yes
me: thanks man
Michael: he's crazy
me: i know!
how could he not like me?
i mean, geez!
Michael: no shit
youre the best ever
me: awwwwwwww
actually, i think he does like me, but is lying about it because we both work at united way
Michael: ohh
well he should just quit
me: i know!
Michael: youre worth it
me: oh well, i don't need him as long as i have you
Michael: touche
no man could be as good as me anyway
me: exactly
so we need to stop dating less than worthy people and hurry up and get married!
Michael: yeah!

i also love my job and my house. now i just need a boy to love and i'll be totally set.

8:15am: fuck you, decemberists.

no, i don't really mean it. i'm just disappointed. i skip out on plenty of things when i'm sick, so i suppose i understand.

4:21pm: reminder.

tomorrow night. 9:00ish. 3052 61st ave sw. be there. with bells on.

10:39pm: i might be one of the greatest people of all time

You're Watership Down!

by Richard Adams

Though many think of you as a bit young, even childish, you're
actually incredibly deep and complex. You show people the need to rethink their
assumptions, and confront them on everything from how they think to where they
build their houses. You might be one of the greatest people of all time. You'd
be recognized as such if you weren't always talking about talking rabbits.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

9:44pm: i need a roommate.

lance kind of flaked out on me at the last minute. i'm trying to get past it and not hold it against him.

so now's your chance. haven't you always wanted to live with me? so if you, or anyone you know, is looking for an awesome place to live, let me know.

9:22pm: i'm dwelling, and it sucks.

things are looking promising for the big move, however finding a place is going to be challenging, seeing as how neither lance nor i currently have employment in seattle. but we're working on it. i'm really excited about living with him, i just hope that he doesn't figure out that i'm totally psycho until after we sign a lease.

the job hunt is lame. i wish i had some idea of what i actually wanted to do. that would probably make looking for jobs a little bit easier. at least if i get that temp job at united way i'll have a few more months to decide what's right for me, aka procrastinate.

11:04pm: it looks like i'm going to be in seattle monday afternoon until wednesday evening. it's a short trip, but i'd love love love to see as many of you who reside in the area as possible. i know there will be at least one meal eaten at araya's. so let me know if you're going to be around and would like to hang out!

10:12pm: do any of you people out there with paid account want to help me and my super cool friend eileen stream a blog into lj?

in other news, has anyone else heard the outback steakhouse commercial that uses an of montreal song? it's complete madness. i thought i was hallucinating at first. go here.

11:14pm: i've been going though a phase where i constantly want new music. does anyone have any fantastic recommendations?

3:45pm: so i'm back.

though i have mixed feelings about it in general, right now things are pretty good. granted, i've been back for a total of three days, but i think that it's important that the first days went well. i was worried that i'd be a mess. i was worried that i would be immediately unhappy to be here and that i would immediately dwell on all the things in france (or far away at least) that i was missing. but i've surprised myself by being very optimistic. the problem is that i kind of feel like i'm on vacation and just visiting, and that soon i'll be leaving and going back to real life. it's hard to convince myself that this is real life.




eileen, if you're reading this, you NEED to stream your blog into livejournal. do it. now.

11:31am: less than a month. i cant believe im leaving in less than a month. it hit me last night while laying in bed, slightly drunk, that i have made this whole life for myself here, my greatest (and only) accomplishment as an adult, and in less than a month its all going to be gone. im just going to get on a plane and leave it all behind and be right back where i started a year ago.

10:01am: i managed to piss off my neighbor again, only this time it was a saturday night at like 2:30 and we werent even being that loud. the music was quiet and we were just talking and laughing. and rather than coming to the door to yell at me like a normal person, he hit my window with a freaking broomstick and scared me half to death! he hates me, and i hate him right back. hopefully i can avoid him for another month. but theres no way im going to stop having people over, especially since meg and mikey are coming! last time was a weeknight, so i understand him being annoyed about that (though he was a lot meaner than he needed to be), but this was a saturday night! i mean, what the hell?

11:41am: the next couple of weeks are going to be nuts!

next week is my last week of teaching and all the teachers freaking out about it and asking me to work extra hours and cram in all sorts of extra activities with their students. ive basically said yes to all their requests because i only have a week and a half left, so why not?

my parents are coming on tuesday, and im nervous as hell. im excited to see them, i miss them a lot, but im ridiculously nervous. i dont even really know why. i guess it must have something to do with this being the first real thing ive done all by myself and i want them to be impressed and whatnot.

meg comes in THIRTEEN DAYS and i could die from excitement every time i think about it.

mikey arrives a couple days after meg, and were going to have a glorious week long fun tuesday reunion. i am thrilled beyond words.

and i need to get as much time in with my friends here because who knows when ill see them again. trips to texas, arizona and canada are totally doable, but scotland, costa rica, germany, bolivia, england and france are going to be a little bit more difficult. itll be even harder if i end up in japan next year. thank god we have facebook to keep us together.

i fly home the 30th of may. luckily eileen is leaving the same day, so were going to spend the night before in paris as a farewell to france and then hang out at the airport together until our flights. its going to be a sad day.

1:03pm: kurt vonnegut died.

so it goes, right?

12:05pm: so i think i may have decided what im doing with my life after this. well, at least for a year. and its a really really great feeling.

the plan right now is japan. id be doing basically the same thing that i do here, just not with beastly little high school kids. ryan thinks he can get me a job in osaka so that i can live with him.

im really excited about this. its all still very up in the air, and i need to be get home and evaluate my life a little before i run off again, but i really want to make this happen. if i can survive in france, then why not japan, right?

i think i might never get a real job and just hop from country to country getting temporary jobs to pay for my adventures.

3:43pm: spain was amazing. madrid, toledo, granada (i want to live there), valencia, and barcelona. i didnt want to ever leave. everything about it was fantastic, even sleeping in the train station in valencia.

then paris was great, or course. staying in a hotel rather than a hostel was devine. seeing the decemberists in paris was a crazy experience, i think every 20-30 year old, indie rock persuasion english speaker in france was there. jenny got some amazing video and pictures that i may post when i get a hold of them.

my travel buddies were perfect. i cant believe my luck. i figure if you can spend two weeks straight with three people and not hate them afterwards, then youre set. were already planning reunion adventures. costa rica is high on the list.

im too lazy to post spain pictures, but if youre curious, there are a bunch of me tagged on facebook.

but its nice to be back in nancy. i missed my french home. although school has sucked ass today, none of the kids want to be here and theyre taking it out on me. laura and i have already decided that this weekend will be a drinking weekend.

12:25pm: my neighbor officially hates me. i kind of hate him back, but more so i just feel like a jerk.

last night i had a little impromptu party after an evening of belgian beer at one of our more frequented bars. we ended up playing taboo, and as you all know, that game really can bring out the competitiveness in people, and with competitiveness comes loud voices and a lot of laughing.

the walls in my apartment building are made of posterboard. drunken chelsey did not take this into account.

despite the fact that i was drunk, i remember vividly my neighbor pounding on the door, then chewing me out for a good five minutes. i only understood about half of what he said. all i could manage to say was that i was really sorry and that we didn't realize how late it was, or how loud we were being. that did not make him feel any better.

i've written a short letter of apology that i'm going to give him if i can find him before i leave. it's a very french thing to do. if it had been a friday night, i wouldn't feel bad. but it is kind of an asshole thing to do to be really loud on a thursday. c'est ma faute.

i am so excited to get out of here on sunday. hello sangria, hello hot spanish boys.

2:47pm: so i was feeling really cool about the fact that i'm going to see the decemberists in paris and all, UNTIL i saw on their site that they're going to play at WESTERN! and i won't be back in time for it!

how lame is that? it's just like how the stupid weakerthans played right before i started going to western. i mean, come on! why didn't any really rad bands play when i was there? there was a three year window! granted, ween did play in bellingham and therefore i should have no right to complain, but they didn't play in the freaking VIKING UNION!




in other news, it's finally snowing here. i was beginning to think we were just going to skip winter this year.

10:58am: espagna
it's offical, i'm going to spain next month for TEN days, then i'm going to spend three days in paris on the way back to see the decemberists! and, i will be accompanied on this adventure by three of my favorite people in france! i am so excited i could puke.

life is good. really good.

12:41pm: today in one of my classes, a student used "walker texas ranger" to explain the meaning of the proverb "it was the last straw that broke the camel's back". he even tried to talk like chuck norris. and for some reason, i thought of kate.

in other news, i got presents in the mail today from meg AND jonika.

wrap up: today has been the BEST DAY EVER.

9:57am:

10:25am: these are for kate, because she requested them. however, there are no french people in these pictures. american, canadian, costa rican, bolivian, and scottish, but no french. i'm still working on it.

( i have friends in france, finally. )