slim love

i picked up my copy of the book last night. it's only an advance copy - the rest are coming by ship from asia, and will be here around the first week of september.

but it's mine, it's heavy and shiny and is number 2 (the sale books will be paper, but they printed 500 numbered limited edition hardcovers, and i got number 2).

that is all. i'll probably send out an email or something when they're really, legitimately released. although i think you can pre-order on amazon.

so apparently i forgot to mention that lyn and i ate cool whip straight out of the carton! i know, our decadent hedonism is hardly believable.

also, somehow i managed to forget that i saw sandman the other night, and it was awesome as usual. i bought an authentic north dakota cowboy hat.

well, it seems i haven't posted anything of substance in like 2 months. let's see if i can recount everything that happened:

thanksgiving with part of my family in fresno. succeeded in not killing my grandmother.

weekend in davis, which included a haircut and drunken simpsons clue, althought thankfully not at the same time. also cookies. lots of cookies.

numerous holiday parties - the fancy work dinner (good wine, hilarious karaoke), the annual heyday bash, a couple others. fudge-making generally successful, although the orange one really didn't work.

weekend at home with my mom, helping to pack up her storage room as she prepared to move to south carolina for good. younger brother being total ass. older brother being amazingly helpful and reasonable, all things considered. found huge amount of previously forgotten crap. hauled an entire carload up here, then had to make room for it. still have some furniture down south.

xmas with the bay area "family." christmas eve baking and moving furniture with aaron. christmas day roaming the city, eating bagels and chinese food with aaron and sandy. dinner later with the boys and sandy, then chilling at home. spent the next day cleaning, then had a flat on the way to target. in the rain. and the growing dark. i called a towtruck to come change the flat for me. 

then lyn was here! we had a slumber party, complete with terrible, terrible movies (teen witch, center stage), vodka-based drinks, pumpkin pie, kraft dinner, makeup and nailpolish, and gossip about boys. as the weekend progressed, there was more movies, more drinking, hanging out with the new neighbor boys (chad's old neighbor boys), waffles, and some serious new year's eve partying. 

then there was the serious new year's day recovery.

and now things are back to normal: work, stress about bills, work, attempting to find cheap amusements.

and now you know everything.

rstevens over at dieselsweeties.com has come up with this idea. you can go read about it yourself if you want. but basically, i say something nice enough or naughty enough, i could win a prize! 

and i like prizes.

but even more, i like the dumbrella crew, and it's nice to be able to sing their praises without that whole "randomly emailing and seeming like a complete freak/staulker/creepy noun of choice" feeling.  and that might be BETTER than a prize.

of all the dumbrella boys, i am most fond of rstevens and jeff rowland, mostly because i am most fond of their comics, and the people who come up with that stuff cannot possibly be bad. who among us has NOT had a day when staying in bed and watching Homicide: Life on the Street has seemed like the wisest course of action? who among us has not lusted after the newest colors and styles of sharpies? who has not made jokes about sex and tetris (ps - i assume you're familiar with the game "sextris"?). who doesn't think canadians and polish people are awesome? 

but wait! there's more: yarn core! red robots! robots dating porn stars! robots dating goth girls! zoidberg tattoos! metal steve! hell, i have a whole playlist of indie music called "indie rock pete." i have known several people alarmingly similar to weedmaster p.

so, i guess that whole "not seeming like a freak" thing has just been blown out of the water. i'll admit it: i think northampton, mass might just be the coolest place around. don't start researching restraining orders though; no way am i moving somewhere with that much snow. 

to sum up: thanks, guys, for being awesome. my zany (but charming, no?) enthusiasm aside, i genuinely love your comics.

it's raining here. i forgot my umbrella (as well as my glasses and my nice shoes) today, so i walked a mile home from the bart station in the rain. first drenching of the season, hooray! 

we're still at that stage of late fall/early winter where i feel very holiday-centric, and i think that the dark and the cold and the damp and the pretty lights are very lovely and urban in a sort of 1940s kind of way. like everyone should be taking the trolley to the department store and picking out christmas presents. this will last through christmas. by january, i'll think it's very gloomy and depressing.

in other news, the downpour convinced me to actually go ask the manager how to turn on my heater. turns out i'm not crazy, there really isn't a thermostat. you have to open the little door on the front of the heater and manually turn it on. tres strange. i need a space heater for the bedroom.

in other other news, i spent the weekend down south, enjoying the company of one lmp. there was also a brief side trip to lompoc, where i saw some people i hadn't seen in forever and a day. 

i am possessed by the desire to buy lots of cheap, cheesy xmas decorations at walgreens.

oh, my dear friends, i don't even remember the last time i posted or what it was about, and i'm too lazy to go find out. so here's a breakdown of the past two weeks, which have been pretty damned eventful.

first, last last weekend!
friday: get miserably turned around during the drive to the bart station and squander my head start. realize i don't have enough cash for parking; it turns out i can pay afterward for an extra $1.50. work all day at my temp job that might be ok if it was permanent (and i've indicated i can be retained on a permanent basis). bart back to oakland and go home to check on the cat. bart back to the city to meet up with one LMP. indulge in booze, awesome birthday presents, sweet photography, and cool people. lyn shoved money in my cleavage. enough to cab downtown so i could bart home. 

saturday: fuck about all day. clean the house but manage to avoid actually getting my freelance work done. head to davis for robyn and lisa's party (last year it was robyn's and my party, if you recall it). get pleasantly drunk and stoned, and then get hit on by super drunk, amusingly creepy and annoying guy with a fiancee (me: "aren't you engaged?" him: "yes, well, these things happen.")  ewww.

sunday: roll my hungover ass off of robyn's couch, have breakfast with jeff and katie, and then drive home to oakland. meet up with lyn and chad and take them to the merritt cafe for chicken, waffles, kitsch, and politicians (that last part was unplanned but hilarious nonetheless. god bless elections). cruise through the east bay to the pub; drink and play trivial pursuit. lyn and chad went off to SF and i went to sleep for a while.

and now last weekend!
saturday: roll out of bed early in order to get to the post office and collect a package before meeting robyn, kallista, david, ryan, and tim at the bart station. we got there like 40 minutes before tim did. once in SF, spend 20 minutes trying to figure out the muni light rail and acquiring the proper change and tickets. ride the crowded train out to golden gate park. immediately run into alison and brian. then immediately witness a dog fight (no one was hurt, but one woman was screaming bloody murder). take in laurie lewin and then head over to catch the end of todd snider. david passed around the first round of olympia (some fine beer, that). hang out for the songwriter's circle with guy clark and steve earle. david passed around the second round. pick up fair food. run into alison and brian again. head over to another stage to catch gillian welch and then steve earle. david returns from a beer run with a 12 pack of pabst, which we finish off during steve earle's set, which was fucking fantabulous. he played all my favorites (ben mcculloch! the mountain! jerusalem! john walker's blues! until the day i die! dixieland!). david tells me to hit robyn; i demur. then robyn says i should hit her, so i punch her arm. except i kind of miss and end up punching her boob instead. david found this HILARIOUS and kept thanking me. eat some thai food on geary, then catch the 38 downtown. it was packed, and like an idiot i left my wallet in an outside pocket of my backpack. result: stolen wallet. FUN. i got to call around at 11pm to cancel all my cards. fortunately i still have my state ID, and i'm going to the DMV tomorrow for a new drivers licensce. sadly, i think my old berkeley ID card (from 1998!) was in my wallet. finally arrive home; tim and ryan depart for their respective homes. kallista passes out. david, robyn, and i drank more beer and played trivial pursuit. at one point, when robyn trapped herself in the bathroom (seriously!), we stole one of her pie pieces. she didn't notice for 30 minutes. i eventually won, although robyn probably should have. 

sunday: get up, futz around, have coffee and listen to music while everyone gets cleaned up and back on public transport for day 2. vanessa replaced tim. bart was packed because oakland was playing the 49ers, but only the usual number of sunday trains were running (lame!). finally get to the park. beautiful weather. drink more pbr. way more people on sunday than saturday. watch (hear) iris dement and part of alejandro escovedo and the end of freakwater. get really good seats for the drive-by truckers. they played a great set. wander off to go check the crowd for del mccoury, decide it's too much and head back for the north mississippi all-stars. pass half of the DBT on the road. robyn points them out; i stare (seriously, like 5 feet from us!!!). after they pass, i giggle (as i do), and david is further amused. i later debate trying to catch up to them and say something, but robyn wisely talks me out of it. decide we don't want to hang around for a jam band or battle the crowds anymore, so head back downtown. get home around 7, but then need to go beg some money off the boys, as i am broke until tuesday, when i can go to the bank (it being closed for columbus day. i must say, i have never hated that man more).

other interesting things of note: i work with a girl from paso robles, a girl who worked at blue heaven and owns a house in templeton, and an amusingly snarky guy who lives next door to where i used to live in berkeley.

or rather, i'm alive and posting. yay for me.

overheard at work: "that's like saying 'roll with it, sisyphus.'"

my cat just got her head stuck in an empty diet coke 12 pack case. it was hilarious. 

last night i went to the city and hung out with the lynner. she took some really amazingly awesome photos of me, which will hopefully be forthcoming. also, i received AWESOME presents from her, including a canadian ashtray and some random old photos. then i got really tired and went home, but i shall see her again tomorrow.

tonight is a party in davis! the 2nd annual back to school/birthday/first year orientation party at robyn's (formerly my) house. woohoo! i am excited. before then, i get to clean my house, do some laundry, and research. oooh. yay. 

temping sucks. that's all i have to say. 

i'm getting better at driving. i can parallel park my car now. also, i can go days without stalling. sometimes also without peeling out. it's a good thing.

and that's all the news that's fit to print.

you know what burns my ass?

birthday weekend update!

friday: hang with sandy, drink some wine, watch some movies. her friend waylon came over, and actually wanted to hear all about my research (weird!).

saturday: watch cal get their asses handed to them by tennessee. dinner at la rose with sandy and the boys. it was very good, one waiter was cute, one had muttonchops. hit smitty's with tim and kristine, was the recipient of several free drinks. got hit on by skeezy middle-aged black guy who asked me if i wanted to be appreciated. (fun side note: at a previous dive bar experience, a different skeezy middle-aged black guy told me i looked like i needed a little color in my life, causing me to flee in horror and hilarity.)

sunday: more wine with sandy. see *step up* with patrick (not as bad as you would think). head to the pub to hang with the (ex-)heyday crew. we watched rocky horror, which made everyone who came up to the bar either crack up or ask what the hell this was. had a drink and dessert at fonda, where michael dredged up a candle for my cake. 

other updates:
job: not yet (and yes, it's getting desperate). boy: so wie immer. car: coming along. family: still crazy.  

another little survey, since i know you guys love them so. do you have a favorite birthday?

mine, i think, was my 18th. i'd only been at berkeley a couple weeks, and i was the grand recipient of a snickers bar and a votive candle, and the fucking bunnies sang to me. and then we saw an indie film with parker posey that i still don't understand (i think it was called henry fool?). 

two days later, lindsley and lyn came down from humboldt, i got my navel pierced, and bella got her nose pierced.

dudes, seriously. i need some ideas about what to do for my birthday next weekend.

so i haven't posted in a while. things have been happening - parties, back injuries, boys (singular, really), job interviews, lots of television. i just don't feel like blogging about it, you know? maybe soon. in the meantime, here's something silly.

IF YOUR LIFE WAS A MOVIE, WHAT WOULD THE SOUNDTRACK BE?

So, here's how it works:

1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, etc).
2. Put it on shuffle.
3. Press play.
4. For every question type the song that's playing.
5. When you go to a new question press the next button.
Ready? GO!

Opening Credits:
Gnarls Barkley - Feng Shui

Waking Up:
Irish Tenors - Scotland the Brave

Falling In Love:
Tori Amos - Professional Widow (live Merry Widow version)

Fight Sequence:
DJ Shadow - What Does Your Soul Look Like, Part 1

Breaking Up:
Christian Kiefer - Candy Man Blues

Making up:
Cajun Playboys - Lafayette Breakdown

Life's Okay:
Steve Earle - I'm Looking Through You

Mental Breakdown:
Jeff Buckley - New Year's Prayer

Driving:
Ween - Take Me Away

Flashbacks:
Steve Earle - Angel is the Devil

Happy Dance:
The Decemberists - Legionnaire's Lament

Regretting:
Wilco - I Must Be High

Final Battle:
Ween - Gabrielle

Death Scene:
Willie Nelson & Leon Russell - Don't Fence Me In

Closing Credits:
The Chieftains with Diana Krall - Danny Boy

so due to my previously mentioned illness, i have virtually no voice. so if you call me in the next couple of days and i don't answer, it's because it would be fairly pointless. message me or email me instead.

i returned home from half moon bay this morning the proud possessor of a medium sunburn, 2 brand new blisters on my feet, a mild hangover, and a cold that has progressed to the "barely able to speak" stage of congestion.

needless to say, the wedding was fun. half moon bay is cool, and the wedding started at 2, during prime "in between fog banks" time on the coast. i made pleasant conversation with older relatives (almost no swearing!), drank a bunch of wine, hung out with the stanford people a bit (including drunken barefoot croquet on the lawn), and generally just had a great time. of course, all this drinking and standing in a crowded bar (after party) was decidedly not good for my cold, and i sounded like ass when i got up this morning. but i'm already feeling better. 

sadly, i did not get laid. oh well. you win some, you lose some.

robyn took a picture of me with my "boyfriend," a tree stump on the sidewalk, which just may become a myspace picture in the future. watch for it!

well, i'm moved and settled and whatnot. i don't know why i haven't been into updating, since it's not like i'm doing anything else. i'm certainly updating my other blog. it's easier though, to just throw up some brief thing about whatever i'm in love with and just let it go, rather then actually talking about my life. i'm still not really giving a real update.

so, yeah. uhhh...i have a cold, it sucks. i saw "the devil wears prada" last week and "pirates of the caribbean" yesterday. both were only okay. i've been applying places, no real luck yet. i applied to this clerical type position at the oakland museum, and the woman there said i was clearly overqualified but passed my resume on to the history department. hopefully something will come of that. i'm having drinks with my friend gayle tomorrow and going to jeff's wedding on saturday. i have a smashing red dress for the latter occasion. i can't wait for the beginning of august. partly because that's when the x-games are, but mostly because i will be driving down to lompoc, hanging with my most awesome bitches, and retrieving my cat. also seeing my older brother for the first time since the spring of 1999. yeah, seven years. we're not a real close family.

ooh! my mom went to paula deen's restaurant in savannah last week. i find that really fucking cool. she's thinking of moving to colorado now.

ok, i totally had this really great update, because i realized i haven't actually posted anything of depth lately, and then i did that thing where i accidentally click back and lost it all. because i am dumb. then i got pissed and it's taken me a couple days to feel up to tackling ye ol' lj again, and i'm really just going to summarize what i said previously.

school: done. thank god.

work: searching. had a good interview the other day. really want the job. am cautiously hopeful, but also applying for other jobs. 

apt: lease signed, finishing the move on sunday. gotta finish packing up the place.

car: going better, although i still fuck up on a regular basis. got to oakland and back without too much drama. however, i just found out that my insurance is going to take a big hike with the move to oakland. fuckers.

misc: been obsessing over world cup (check the other blog for an update on that). US and netherlands both out, so now i'm cheering for england and ghana. we'll see how far my teams go. after a panicky trip to the dentist this morning, i found out i need to have at least one wisdom tooth pulled. so now i'm waiting to hear back from insurance services with a complete explanation of my benefits so i know exactly what i'm getting into and how much it will cost and whether i can (hopefully) see an oral surgeon in oakland rather than davis. in the meantime, i have antibiotics for the swelling and motrin for the pain. it's awesome. really. i highly recommend the entire experience.

i had a weird dream involving lindsay lohan the other day. also indirectly involved the GFY ladies. very odd.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/06/22/state/n085739D23.DTL

i know it seems morbid and weird, but i cannot tell you how much i miss fire season.

good things: lots of work on my paper today. and i have a job interview at a textbook publisher in sf next monday. go me!

bad: i spend all my time in my office, which is stuffy and hot, and the desk needs a good wipe down but i keep forgetting to bring anything to do it with. also, i'm obsessed with whoppers and several other foodstuffs that are patently bad for me. bad kim.


http://images.blogthings.com/ifyourlifewasamoviewhatgenrewoulditbequiz/cult-classic.jpg
 
Quirky, offbeat, and even a little campy - your life appeals to a select few.
But if someone's obsessed with you, look out!  Your fans are downright freaky.

Your best movie matches: Office Space, Showgirls, The Big Lebowski

mmm, yay

1. How tall are you barefoot?
5'5"

2. Have you ever been unfaithful in a relationship?
no, which isn't that hard if you rarely have relationships. and i have enabled someone to be unfaithful, so i suppose i'm still a bad person

3. Do you own a gun?
No

4. If you had a mental disorder, what would it be?
OCD

5. How many letters are in your crush's name?
11

6. What do you think of hot dogs?
they frighten me, but they go well with baseball

7. What's your favorite Christmas song?
All I Want for Christmas is Youy, X-mas

8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning?
Diet Coke

9. Do you do push-ups?
I went to a class at the gym last month, and I did some then for the first time in years, possibly

10. Have you ever done ecstasy?
yep

11. Do you have a boyfriend/girlfriend?
sadly, no

12. Do you like the rain?
Yes.

15. Do you have A.D.D.?
No.

16. Full initials?
KJH

17. Name 4 thoughts at this exact moment.
1. popcorn is good
2. school is bad
3. motorhead's cover of "stand by your man" is great
4. I wish I could get drunk tonight

18. Name the last 3 things you have bought in the past week.
whoppers, diet coke, water

19. Name five drinks you regularly drink.
1. Diet Coke
2. coffee
3. water
4. more Diet Coke
5. and then more Diet Coke

20. What time did you wake up today?
7:50

21. Can you spell?
yes

22. Current worry?
my impending nervous breakdown

23. Current hate?
school. people who have finished their papers. nice people. those who are not in school. my students.

24. Favorite place to be?
bed (i don't mean that in a dirty way, although yes i love being in bed in that sense too)

25. Least favorite place to be?
financial aid office

26. Where would you like to go?
right now? anywhere but here.

27. Do you own slippers?
2 pairs

28. Where do you think you'll be in 10 yrs?
i have no fucking clue

29. Do you burn or tan?
burn

30. Yellow or blue?
red

31. Would you be a pirate?
mos def

32. Last time your phone rang?
6:30

33. What songs do you sing in the shower?
"Memory" from the musical Cats, miscellaneous church hymns, anything with high notes i can't hit outside of the shower

34. What did you fear was going to get you at night as a child?
rabid dog

35. What's in your pockets right now?
i have no pockets right now

36. Last thing that made you laugh.
laughter is a foreign concept

37. Best bed sheets you had as a child?
white with multi-colored tulips...i still have them

38. Worst injury you've ever had?
fell off the jungle gym at daycare and broke my arm in two places

39. What is your GPA?
3.8 or some such

40. How many TVs do you have in your house?
2

41. Who is your loudest friend?
my older brother, if he counts as a friend

42. Who is your most silent friend?
lindsley

43. Does someone have a crush on you?
god, that would be nice

44. Do you wish on stars?
not lately

45. What is your favorite book?
i can't pick just one

46.) What song did you last hear?
patti page - i don't care if the sun don't shine

48. What song do you want played at your funeral?
Ani DiFranco - Swan Dive

49. What were you doing at 12AM last night?
giving up on schoolwork

50. What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up?
fuck, i'm late

so i've saved up all this money for this summer, right, to live on while i Figure My Life Out. and last night i found myself thinking that i could totally just take that money and go to europe for a month. and today i find santa barbara to be the real lure. i just want to take off. run away. RUN AWAY. as though there was livestock flying straight at my face.