Saturday, June 20, 2009

anonymous

You're unbelievable (and psychotic). Thank you for doing me that favor. Saved me a lot of time. Take care of yourself, because they obviously won't.

Friday, June 12, 2009

Why I love my mother

I sent the following to my mom, along with two photos of tattoos:

"Hey mom,
What do you think of a mix between these two tattoos?
Love ya!"


To which she replied:

"OK, I'm not saying that I like the idea for you at all BUT....IF...you were to go in this direction, I like the first one...more of an outline. Once color is introduced, it becomes fake and ugly...in my opinion. However, IF you use color, please think about keeping it simple...not all colored in and BE SURE of the artist you hire. Faces can get distorted and I know you like women. The face on this colored photo looks unpleasant.
Love you Baby!
Mom xoxo"


hah, "and I know you like women"...too funny

summer travels

You know the feeling you get when things are going really well, and you think it couldn't get any better...and then it does? It's a damn good feeling.

Life has been going really well for me lately. My job at the PUC ends in a few days and a summer nannying job just fell into my lap. I met the 10 month old girl last night and she's adorable. And! she weighs less than the 5 month old I've been taking care of for the last couple months. The forces above, if they do indeed exist, surely have my back (both figuratively and literally).

Monday morning I awoke from a dream in which I was visiting Jenna in Argentina. Jenna's one of my best friends and she's been studying abroad in Buenos Aires since late January. Though the time has been flying by due to my busy schedule, I miss that lady! So anyways, in this dream I go to visit her but have to leave the day after I arrive because of some obligation back in SF. I had this excited feeling in the dream because I was in another country for vacation! I was kicking myself because I didn't want to leave and regretted spending all that money on a plane ticket just for one day. When I awoke I said out loud, "I'm going to Argentina." I messaged Jenna, told her I was going to come for a visit, and made an appointment for vaccinations and my passport. Tuesday I got my birth certificate and passport, and vaccinations come next week. Jenna wants to travel to Bolivia, so that's what we're going to do. My travel book on Bolivia makes it sound so magical and the photos are gorgeous! I'll be down there for the better part of July, missing 4th of July (Sorry Andrea). But hey, I think anyone would miss a holiday for a trip like this. I've only been outside of the country to visit Mexico, and that was a few times when I was much younger. Definitely looking forward to this trip as an adult, on my own. Here's a list of things I need to do before I leave:

book flight
buy Cat Power tickets
vaccinations
get passport in the mail
spend time with friends and family
buy clothing/items I need
pack


Yes, I did include Cat Power tickets in that list. And here's where things just get even better. I woke up this morning, checked my e-mail, and found an alert for a Cat Power show in my area. It said she's playing a show in Saratoga with The Pretenders on a US tour. I get to work, check the Matador website for her other tour dates, and find out SHE'S PLAYING IN BUENOS AIRES on JULY 16TH!!! AND!!! I'm going to be in Argentina on JULY 16TH!!! So basically, my July trip will include seeing Jenna, visiting Argentina and Bolivia, AND seeing my favorite artist of all-time for the second time (and in a foreign country). So so so stoked.

My summer =


SF Pride Parade

+


Argentina

+


Bolivia

+


Cat Power

+


my birthday

+


family reunion

+


visit Dustin and Aunti Georgina in San Diego

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Amanda Wachob

I came across the tattoos and paintings done by the talented artist Amanda Wachob. She features '50s and '60s women in her paintings, and I'm loving it! She was a guest artist at Ghostprint Gallery & Tattoo in Richmond, Virginia for a while, and during her stay she did this amazing tattoo:


PS - Thea Duskin, one of the tattoo artists at Ghostprint, does spectacular Alphonse Mucha tattoos. She makes me want to travel all the way to Virginia for some ink.

Here are a few of her paintings. I wish she would have a gallery showing in SF soon.





Tuesday, June 2, 2009

one year, and onward!

As of yesterday, I have been living in San Francisco for one year!

This is the first time I've been on my own in my own place. Save all the money I was paying by myself, I don't consider my quarter-term stint at UC San Diego to be truly living on my own. I wasn't cleaning my home, making my own food, or directly paying specific bills. But now I'm doing my own dishes, sweeping my own hardwood floors, paying my own bills, and, well, you get the point.

I feel proud of myself for having successfully lived my first year here. I've made so many lovely friends and look forward to meeting more. I'm always discovering something new in this rad city, like the Howard Langton Community Garden Montgomery and I came across after finding a charcoaled turd in the SOMA. In a large city you get the good, the bad, and the ugly all wrapped up in one place. In San Francisco, though, it's so easy to see all that goodness. I'm smirking right now, just thinking about how fortunate I am to be living here, amidst all the creativity, love, and spirit of SF.

One day I hope to be living in New York, exploring all that it has to offer. I can see a late 20's Allyson thriving there. But for now, I'm happy living in SF and have so much more to explore.

Monday, June 1, 2009

June honey-do list

Now that it's summer and I theoretically have more free time on my hands, I've decided to make a Six-Month Resolution list. Here goes...
only Pyrex & cute dresses at thrift stores
pay more thought to tattoo design
majority of dinners are salads
one item of sweets a week
3x exercise a week
design apron
sew dress
fondant
Kafka
jam

summer reading

Finished Lolita a couple weeks ago, now on to that Kafka reader. I'd like to return it as soon as possible. Also, fiction readers don't keep my interest like full novels.

oh that damn grass

That damn grass is always greener. I find myself dating people who are more sensitive (people to whom my heart is attracted), and this ends in disaster. Moody and depressed they find themselves and I can't stand it. Then, in the odd chance I find someone more logical and less driven by their emotions (people to whom my brain is attracted), I'm not happy because they're so out of tune with their emotions that they sure as hell can't read mine. Dating is a process where the relationship misfits are weeded out and the good ones are left, but when will these supposed good fits surface? I enjoy being alone, not having to answer to anyone, doing my own thing. Then loneliness sets in and I crave touch, comfort. That's what this is. This was. Who knows anymore. Didn't think you'd turn into one grade A goon. But I have a hunch you're just as confused as I.

Sausalito

It felt as if yesterday were the length of two days. I woke up at 10am and was out the door by 11am. For a Sunday, this is usually unheard of. During the week I have to wake up so early that I value my lazy weekend mornings. This Sunday was different.

My roommates Luke, Chris, and I biked to Sausalito and back! Considering how out of shape I am, it was a pretty rough ride but definitely not as brutal as I had expected. We locked up our bikes and headed into a toy store. There I found a deck of playing cards with 3D cats on them! Luke noticed a parade going on outside the shop, so we walked out to see what was going on. I'm not sure if it was a real Catholic holiday or if the local religious-social groups of Sausalito wanted an excuse to wear furry robes and carry crosses, but there was a full band and everything. This quickly got boring, so I went back into the store to purchase my cards. Later we grabbed sandwiches at a little delicatessen and ate on the rocks along the shore. It was a little breezy, so I donned my blinding neon green wind breaker which considerably helped. Sorry Chris, next time you should wear sunglasses. When we finally made it back home, we cracked open some beers and relaxed on the front stoop. So earned.

Later we made mint chocolate chip ice cream using Luke's ice cream maker. We'd been talking about doing this for a while and finally got around to it. I must say, I never thought something could be too minty until I tasted our ice cream. Wonderfully creamy with chocolate shavings, the texture was perfect. However, the next time we make it we'll definitely need to cut the amount of mint leaves in half. It tasted as though you'd just eaten a full mint leaf with each bite of ice cream. Rather disappointing. What was also disappointing was our attemp at making waffle cones, which turned out looking a lot like pancakes. Pretty damn tasty though. Must find waffle iron if making these again.

In between checking on our ice cream mixture, we watched Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. I hadn't seen these movies since I was a little kid, so it was exciting for me (and them) because I barely remembered anything about episodes IV, V and VI. I recall this episode being my favorite because of the cute little Ewoks, namely Wicket, who help to befriend the good guys and help destroy the Death Star. I cuddled up on Chris's couch with beer stein in hand and kitty on shoulders, and thoroughly enjoyed the third episode of the better half of the Star Wars saga.