The night Julie Delpy spoke to me, I was bitter, or as I like to call it, realistic. It went like this.

"I was thinking...for me it's better I don't romanticize things as much anymore...It doesn't make me sad, it's just the way it is...I can't deal with the day to day life of a relationship. Yeah, we have, you know, this exciting time together and then he leaves, and I miss him, but at least I'm not dying inside. When someone is always around me, I'm like suffocating!"

"No, wait, you just said that you need to love and be loved..."

"Yeah, but when I do it quickly makes me nauseous! It's a disaster...I mean I'm really happy only when I'm on my own. Even being alone...it's better than...sitting next to a lover and feeling lonely. It's not so easy for me to be all romantic. You start off that way and after you've been screwed over a few times...you...you…you forget about all your delusional ideas and you just take what comes into your life. That's not even true I haven't been...screwed over, I've just had too many blah relationships. They weren't mean, they cared for me, but...there were no real...connection or excitement. At least not from my side...I don't believe in anything that relates to love. I don't feel things for people anymore...Reality and love are almost contradictory for me."

On Friday I ran over an old lady with my bike.

Let me start from the beginning. I don't like to wear helmets because they make me feel like I'm choking and mess up my hair. So, despite an overwhelming feeling that something bad was going to happen to me on my bike, I rode to my internship on Friday morning without a helmet. Got there and all day I barely had enough time to breathe I was so busy. Headed for home after training, and luckily it wasn't raining anymore. Ok so I'm biking up Market, just a few blocks away from my internship, when I pass through a yellow light. Right as I'm approaching the cross walk, an elderly lady steps into the street and begins walking into the cross walk - without looking! There's no time for me to brake or veer out of her way, so I hit her. I hit an old lady.

She falls to the ground and I off my bike. I spring to my feet, unaware of what happened to me, to check on the lady. Get her onto the sidewalk and unfortunately she doesn't speak any English. I try using universal gestures to see how she fared in the accident, but to no avail. Eventually she gestures for me to leave. I hop on my bike only to find my chain has fallen off. After my failed attempt to put it back on, the amazing group of Latino men that came to our rescue put it on for me (which is followed by an offer to wipe off my grease-covered hands onto one of the guy's jackets).

Bike banged up, Ally banged up, I head back home. Once I take off my long sleeve shirt, I realize that I had skinned my elbow. Not too badly, as I've seen my brothers do worse to themselves, but still bad for how much of a daredevil I'm not. To add to the list is a bruised hip, a bruised side, bruised knee, sore shoulders, bruised elbow, and yes, you guessed it, a sore spot on the ol' noggin. Should have worn that helmet after all. From this accident I've taken two lessons: buy a helmet I don't mind wearing and don't try to race the light. It's just not worth it.


On a more positive note, I've been focusing on cooking lately, and healthy meals at that. Here's a sample of some food I've made this past week.




Ok, so the cookies don't exactly count as healthy.


Tofu scramble with mushrooms, carrots, onions, tomatoes, and red bell peppers

There's a woman who I see walking past my window a few times a week. Walked by her once, on the street. Always dressed in black. Black shoes, black pants, black jacket, black hair. Red lipstick and thin, thin. I wonder what she's like.

I would like to claim that all the hours I spend watching B.D. Wong work his magic on Law & Order: SVU is not solely for entertainment value but is in fact teaching me how to be an amazing case manager.

I recently realized that I don't need to title my blogs. I'm happy for I don't like titles much.

My roommate Chris and I have been watching True Blood lately and I'm starting to find vampires a little hot. Ok, really hot. Especially Eric Northman, yowza. Yeah, yeah, I've fallen for 2009's vamp craze. So what? At least I'm not reading Twilight. Gaawwwd.

For Halloween I wanted to be Pam from True Blood and I didn't want to spend too much money on the costume, so I decided I'd make the corset myself. Corsets can be pretty costly (upwards of $60) and being that I don't go around wearing corsets on the daily, this wouldn't be the best way to spend my money. I found this amazing website by Kimberley Pope that gives step-by-step instructions (complete with photos, yay!) of how to take measurements of your body, draw the pattern pieces, and assemble the whole thing. The only time I found it challenging was when my stubborn self came out and I tried following my own directions. Fail. Then I'd re-read her clear directions and it would all make sense. Win.

I headed to Fabric Outlet at 2109 Mission St @ 17th St next to Thrift Town for the supplies. This was my shopping list:

•black vinyl (outer corset)
•red satin (lining)
•boning (structure)
•busk (connect front of corset)
•ribbon (lacing)
•eyelets (structure for lacing holes)
•black bias tape (smooth edging)
•black thread for heavy materials
•dot paper (drawing pattern pieces)

I went into the store without an idea of how much fabric I needed, partly because I hadn't taken my measurements yet and partly because this is the first piece of clothing that I've actually made from scratch. Way to be prepared Ally, way to be prepared. Luckily the staff at Fabric Outlet are very helpful and able to answer pretty much any sewing-related question you throw at them. I ended up spending close to $60 on this whole project, but the experience making my own pattern and garment was well worth it. This is what I have to show for some 20 hours of work:


Kimberley's website provides this printable outline to mark out your measurements. One of the best sewing tutorials I've seen.


Beginning of pattern drafting. Drawing the basic outline.


Second step of pattern drafting. Measuring out the pieces (deducting for waist cinching/form-fitting). I'll eventually learn the correct terms. Just wait.


Pattern pieces refined and labeled. Ready to cut!


It's difficult to see the pieces cut out as I put them back on the same shiny fabric for some reason, but - fabric pieces are cut! My first fabric pieces from a pattern, ever. Preeeetty proud.


Red satin fabric pieces sewn together to make lining. Pinned on my dress form to make sure it was properly constructed. Success, so far. Black thing's a mustache. Alright.


This is the finished corset I wore on Halloween. After sewing the lining together, I got rather engrossed in my work and rushed for time, thus the lack of photos between lining and finished product.


Back of corset. Not sure what's going on in this photo.


Boobz.
The most difficult part of this project was sewing the vinyl to the lining for the boning slots. It turns out the lining wasn't long enough to meet the end of the outer part of the corset and the stitching isn't exactly straight. All in all, it turned out well though. It's fully functional, the boning didn't tear any skin, and it looks hot if I do say so myself. Hoping I'll have more opportunities to wear it in the future.