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to friends

i’m in a sentimental mood tonight, a nice mellow one that’s all the more pleasant knowing i have zip plans for tomorrow, i.e. i can sleep in till noon if i wish. lovely. anyhow, the sentimentality comes from sweet old friends, friends i’ve broken bread with and laughed with and etc etc. i just plain sigh with happiness at the prospect of hanging out with any and all of them again. even lovelier!

a fantastic high school friend who always had a great head on his shoulders got in touch with me and our subsequent emailing has me very happy, i hung out with an amazingly creative and sweet former co-worker last weeked and talked her ear off, and now i just got a possible job referral from another former co-worker who has always very obviously been a kindred spirit (and gave me that great little swift a while back!) ah, to be so lucky in friends! that makes me feel rich beyond belief. (getting so cheesy, geez!) .. i should throw them all a party. seriously! hm, how many people can i fit in this studio apartment? ...

i wish i had a photo to show what i’m feeling – but for now, words will have to do. here’s hoping we’re all appreciative of such friends – i know right now, i definitely am. yay to all of you!

comment [3]

posted 10 May 06 & filed under more me

twenty-nine

happy birthday to me ~ ~

comment [23]

posted 4 March 06 & filed under more me

spindling

hi there ~ not too thrilled today, but at least there’s interesting things going on, such as the roving i got this past weekend at the spinning guild meeting. it’s dyed by janel, a member and the editor of spindlicity, and isn’t it beautiful?

yarn was created, about 300 yards. considering i don’t do much spindle spinning, i was really happy with how the yarn turned out and it was largely consistent though they were some big old thick and thin bits. as soon as i finished spinning, i wound it into cakes using my new swift and ballwinder (yay) and then immediately cast on for a simple feather and fan scarf. i just finished it this morning but it’s blocking so i’ll post more info and pics of it tomorrow. i’m definitely pleased with it, gotta say.

now, some memes, one passed on to me by heidi and another i lifted from susan. heidi’s is similar to one i’ve done before, so i slightly modified it for fun..

Instructions: Remove the blog in the top spot from the following list and bump everyone up one place. Then add your blog to the bottom slot.

watching me grow
citymama
making (nee stitch marker)
step into my thimble
mellowtrouble

What were you doing 10 years ago?
i was living in italy with my older sister daniella in perugia, a beautiful city near florence. we were going out every night to clubs and dancing our butts off. i was really sad over a boy, but, thanks to my sister, usually too distracted to do anything but sigh now and then. i was getting into italian comic books and cheesy 70s italian music and, though missing home, really loving my life. and my sister! we still talk to each other in italian, and thanks to that time, we’ll always always be super close and just bonded, you know? sigh, love ya, bella!

What were you doing 1 year ago?
hmm, let’s see.. i had just finished my first sweater the day before and that night i would be stuck browsing the internet till late late at night and tomorrow, a year ago, i would be cranky, with unpacked holiday luggage, late library books, and feeling blah. huh, whaddya know, sounds a lot like today. ack.

What were you doing 1 hour ago?
i was re-pinning my scarf – boy lace stratches a llllllott. that’s satisfying. i was also drinking hot cocoa with marshmellows in it. one nice thing about having hot water that can scald you in a second is that you don’t really have to boil water for hot cocoa or tea anymore.

Five creative things you want to achieve this year.
get more flexible and strong (hey, that’s creative for me! swear it.)
dye well and often
be able to spin lots of types of yarn
cook some fantastic meals for friends
grow something besides my aloe and african violets
and, #6, write more.

Five snacks you enjoy
anything with cheese
anything sour and gummy
applesauce
bread dipped in balsamic vinegar and olive oil, yum
crunchy stuff, like trisqits and croutons and frosted sugar flakes

Five things you would do if money were no object
buy a big old farm in vermont or in the mountains of north carolina
go skiing and scuba diving often (i used to do both but haven’t in a long time), and drag my family along
hire physical trainer and nutritionist who would be just the right amounts of not pushy but encouraging, not too touchy-feely but just cool, etc etc
quit all my jobs
give a lot of this no-object money to friends and family, so they could do the same

Five bad habits
biting my nails
latelate night eating (like 2 am!)
accumulating fines, sigh
forgetting/repressing things
a tad flakey, ok, sometimes very very flakey, ugh
see meme #2 below

Five things you like doing
cleaning dishes (but i hate drying them, ugh)
creating things with my hands
making people laugh
taking showers (but i hate the feeling of my wet hair on my shoulders, shudder)
kissing

Three new things from this past year that you’re proud of
spinning!
quitting a job. nerve-wracking but once done, oh the relief!
becoming more social at parties, not just hiding myself with those i’m super-close with. who knows if that’ll last, but lately, it’s been really true.

One thing you really like about yourself
hmm, it’s a sad thing that this was really hard to think of. umm, i guess.. i guess it would be my ability to make a comfy place to live. i’m really good at that, my place rocks. it’s dirty, but nonetheless, hands-down, a great space.

ok, and meme #2..

Five guilty pleasures:

~ solitaire/mindsweeper/tetris on my computer: i remember in college, my roommate was just bewildered by my mindsweeper obsession, but really sometimes i just want to escape escape, and this is a very easy way..

~ cheesy fiction, both of the romance and mystery variety. very very guilty. tied up with my catholic prudishness, i know. but sometimes i just want to feel like those kind of simplistic lives are possible, so escape i go.

~ weird food combos, like rice/parmesan/ketchup all mied together, or cheese on crackers alternated with pudding every other bite. i love texture variations in food, like popcorn and ice cream, yum.

~ cheesy music, especially some 70s pop – like bread and abba – and some disco, etc etc. stop groaning. i can’t help it, my foot starts tapping and i’m a goner.

~ some reality shows, like wifeswap and, especially, all the various nanny shows. “that is unacceptable!”

hmm, no tags here, please take one, or both!, if you want. that’s it for now, happy day to you and yours ~ ~

comment [4]

posted 12 January 06 & filed under iris shawl, more me

wips and memes

funny, both of these words are pretty new to me, about a year or so, all due to these internets. ;) here goes, wips first, most of which you've never seen before.

	project: flenten hat status: decreasing time; had to work on not-me knitting, so this is in limbo at the moment; next time i'll attach the lining using the method mj suggests since i'm not crazy about that horizontal line, though at least it doesn't show when the hat is actually worn
	project: booga bag status: just needs to be thrown in the washer and felted, dried, and then de-fuzzed; this gift my sister-in-law immediately asked for last year when she saw the booga bag i gave my sister - gotta love those who know what they want ;)
	project: besotted scarf status: unclear who exactly for, but loving the cables; definitely my older sister's color, but i don't know if she'll actually wear it, hmm
	project: syno turtleneck shrug status: i love the yarn but the ribbing is making my knitting look horribly uneven and so v. embarassing; this is my third attempt at knitting this shrug - the first was a total disaster, the second was greatgreat until blocking and growing about 7 inches ahem, so third time's a charm, right?
	project: harry potter scarf (a la "prisoner of azkaban") status: finally, the perfect gift for my dad, and a little over halfway done; using knitpicks' andean silk, and i gotta say i love this yarn

i recently got jess hutch's knitted creature book, so if there's time, i'll make one for a lucky nephew and there's enough leftover kureyon to make a mini-booga bag for my oldest niece.

and that's it. see, i do knit still! ;) and to also prove it, this weekend i'm going to a l.a. knit-bloggers get together i was invited to. eek, a bit intimidating, but i'm sure it'll be fun nonetheless. just in case, i'll be brining along some knitting mags to divert attention from my weirdness, if need be. hope it works.

and now, meme-time, via moni of black sheep: "List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now. Post these instructions in your blog along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they’re listening to."

according to itunes, this is what i listened to most recently, some over and over again..

1. the night they drove old dixie down, by bob dylan & the band
2. lather by jefferson airplane
3. give me love (give me peace) by george harrison
4. feel good inc. by gorillaz
5. shake it off by mariah carey
6. 21st century schizoid man by king crimson
7. a plea for tenderness by the modern lovers

i tag the last seven-ish commenters: beth, lolly, the feminist mafia, julia, karen, liz & meow girl. as always, if you don't dig memes, no hard feelings ;)

i'd add "life on mars" by david bowie and "crying in the chapel" by elvis presley too, if i could have a #8 and #9. totally weird mix of old and new and rock and pop, i know, but it's been weeks now and it's usually either this mix or silence. note: i love singing along of course, so the sing-along-i-ness of each song is key. (yes, even and maybe especially king crimson. i can sing along with a guitar, yes i can.)

it's weird how this can't be forced, but i think these songs from here on out will always mean to me this time period, fall and early winter 2005. i like that, but probably that will mean that afterwards i won't listen to these songs very often in fear of diluting the memory. you know what i mean? there's some songs, for example most lesley gore songs (and i don't mean "you don't own me"), that i won't listen to except by accident on the radio every once in a while, so that when i do hear a song by her, i'm just immediately taken back to that time, that feeling i had, when i first really got into her songs. i loved that time period and i never want to forget those feelings i had when i was in it. with some songs, some memories, remembering feels like a bottle of rare perfume and i'm careful to keep the lid on tight.

have a beautiful weekend ~ it's the weekend before the craziness of christmas, enojy it!

comment [10]

posted 16 December 05 & filed under lenten hat, more me

revelation

i’ve come to one, hopefully a big one, at least in regards to this site here: for lack of a better term, being a comment whore is .. well, silly.

what’s a comment whore? simple to determine: if you say yes to two or more of the criteria below, you’re one too.

~ you don’t post more than once or twice a week in hopes of gettting more comments
~ you find yourself muttering/praying/squealing “double digits! double digits!”
~ even though you have a long list of daydream posts (to be defined later if necessary), you still don’t post in hopes of accruing comments on current post
~ you look at your log/flappr/bloglines number a lot
~ you ungraciously feel maligned by those who you know are reading but still do not comment (edited to add: i so don’t mean this as a complaint! shoot, i don’t comment all the time on other’s writings, and i totally don’t expect others to either. rather, it’s an example of my comment-obsesssion. funny, right? ha ha? hm.)

yes, i’ve been guilty of them all. i blame it on a un-commented youth blog-wise. bring out the violins, i know, but really! i didn’t get any comments for a long time (months and months) from anyone when i first started this out (except for amanda, who will always have a special place in my heart as a result ;) ) so now, my appetite is just voracious.

but. revelation, right? right. so, yup, it’s all silly. there’s toooo many posts i have already written out, in my head at least, practiced in my car a dozen times, but i just haven’t posted them.

therefore, i’m determined to break this pattern, starting now with a short video i made a whiiiiile back, enjoy!

caveat: having recognized it as silly does not mean i won’t fall off the wagon every once in a while, but know that as i do, at least i’ll recognize it as such ;)

(the film bit takes about 30 – 40 seconds to load, give it time, ok? and yeah, i know i twist my mouth and crinkle my face a lot when i talk, what can i say.)

[if you can’t see the movie, try clicking here]

(also (can you tell i’m a bit nervous about posting this? ;) ), the weird pauses by me in the beginning were due to sounds of fighting i could hear from my window, sounds i hear way too often sadly. for info’s sake, especially regarding hair!, this video was taken in late september. )

comment [11]

posted 29 November 05 & filed under more me, web-talk

a poll and a tag

first off, thank you for all the sweet comments on my lovely nieces. these two are going to be a handful, i can tell already!

poll: organgina organina! it’s been done for over a month, but i’ve been relucatant to post photos, or even wear it for more than a minute, because it’s just.. well, it’s beautiful! but the fit is.. ok. yup, just ok. really, too loose, too baggy, and i see all these lovely ones out there that are form-fitting and gorgeous. so, my first poll, help me out here!

(for those of you viewing this in bloglines, go here to vote. thanks! )

and now, meme time, brought to you by winnie ;) ..

10 years ago: i was breaking up with my first boyfriend and missing my second one like crazy. yup, i moved fast in those days. i was in italy, hanging out with my sisters, getting ready to spend a year abroad with my older sis. i had long long hair and was really into big clunky shoes.

5 years ago: graduated from college and was driving across the country from maryland to l.a. all alone – top down, music blasting, hair flying, and a speeding ticket in almost every other state. every night, i’d stop at a motel and fall asleep exhausted, the sound of wind at high speeds still in my ears.

1 year ago: knitting! i was trying to grow my hair out, after cutting it uber-short while angry (scissors + hair = not a good idea when in a bad mood), and feeling stir crazy, stuck in los angeles.

yesterday: moody all morning, better by night. stuffed myself sick before going to sleep, realizing i like peanut brittle more than i thought.

today: happy, chatty, following one topic after another on the internet, i.e. browsing like there’s no tomorrow – so fun.

tomorrow: a long day at work, yeehaw.

5 snacks I enjoy: cheese, sour gummies, bruschetta, pizza, ice cream sandwiches

5 bands/singers I like: off the top of my head.. neil young, abba, pet shop boys, stereolab, and black sabbath. ok, not entirely off the top of my head – i’m all over the place, but really any real rock & roll will do, and lots of pop too.

5 bad habits that I have: biting nails, holding face in weird grimaces, not the cleanest of persons, exagerator extraordinaire, too chatty sometimes, especially “random chatty”, you know what i mean?

5 things I like doing: sleeping, reading, cooking, making, laughing

5 things I would never wear: really pointy shoes (i’m definitely a rounded toe kind of person), tapered pants, leather (i’m trying to get rid of what leather stuff i have, all i have left are some shoes..), fur

5 TV shows I like: any nanny shows, gilmore girls, pbs’ re-enactments of olden times (like..), extreme makeover home edition (i get all teary sometimes, especially because paulie is so dang sweet.), and (sometimes) quiz shows like jeopardy, because i like to feel smart or else be really embarassed at how little i know (mood varies)

5 famous people I’d like to meet: nobody. i’d be too shy. oh! ralph nader – he always seems so decent but dresses so shabby and has those sad hooded eyes, i always wonder if he has someone who’s taking care of him, who makes sure he’s ok. kinda weird, but there it is.

5 biggest joys of the moment: my cats (seriously. when everything else is down, i just look around me, and they’re all sitting next to me and purring and i just want to squeeze them, you know?), my family, the potential of the future, the incredible luck i’ve had in meeting some incredible people, knowing that things can change in an instant.

5 favorite toys: my long-lost spinning wheel (sniff), my laptop, my library card (such a dork, but really, i can get all this stuff – satisfy my shopping impulses – for free! movies, books, music, you name it.), and that’s it. only 3. such an adult, huh? tsk tsk.

hope your weekend was delicious! (ha, shows where my mind is – or rather how full my stomach is, yum.)

comment [5]

posted 29 July 05 & filed under more me, orangina

a few friday thoughts

~ it’s friday the thirteenth! makes me feel all jitterly like anything can happen. makes me feel upbeat, like yelling out ‘huzzah!’

~ i recently not only bought fancy nailpolish but actually painted it on in an effort to grow my nails out which, and i’m blaming knitting not my nasty nail-biting habits!, had grown horribly short, painfully short, especially on my thumbs. did you know you can find metallic nailpolish nowadays? i got silver and an aqua blue – they’re fantastic and i feel like a superstah.

~ confession: i knit while driving. now, not high-speed driving, i promise, the needles and project just stay in my lap and keep me company at those times, but l.a. traffic is all what you’ve heard it to be and at those bumper-to-bumper times, the law be damned. tell me i’m not the only one! ..at least i barely read any more while driving – i used to do that alll the time. (though i saw a guy doing that the other day and it was so darn cute.)

~ i’m having my first meetup with a fellow blogger/knitter, winnie, she of the lovely finished lucky sweater and gorgeous hot lava jacket. i’m a bit nervous, it feels like a blind date in a way!, but as there’ll be yarn and phildar mags and needles flying, i’m sure we’ll have an awesome time.

~ liz tagged me for this fun meme – and the first three ladies to comment who want it, take it away!

The Rules: Pick 5 of the following and then complete the sentences. Then pass this little meme on to 3 more of your blog friends! But no tag backs! And be careful…you could be next!

The Premise (pick any 5):

If I could be…

a scientist, a farmer, a musician, a doctor, a painter, a gardener, a missionary, a chef, an architect, a linguist, a psychologist, a librarian, an athlete, a lawyer, an inn-keeper, a professor, a writer, a llama-rider, a bonnie pirate, an astronaut, a world famous blogger, a justice on any one court in the world, married to any current famous political figure…

The answers ….

1) if i could be a musician… i’d play whenever i was feeling sad, to cheeer me up. i wouldn’t be in a band, though maybe i’d play with friends now and then. mostly it would be a selfish thing only shared to those who inspire me. i’d play acoustic guitar, bass, and banjo – all three i love. oh and maybe drumming, just beause it looks so fun and physically satisfying.

2) if i could be an inn-keeper… it’d be this fabulous cozy inn on the coast of oregon, where the forest meets the cliffs of the pacific. i’d only have it open for business specific weeks of every month, the rest of the time it would be a home just for me, with regular visits from my fabulous family and friends. there’d be fireplaces galore and tons of cross-circulating windows. also, many cats and dogs.

3) if i could be a gardener… i’d have dirt under my nails constantly, i’d have a farmer’s tan (rather than the pasty white i am now), and i’d have thighs of steel from squatting all the time. i’d grow everything edible under the sun, and i’d share my seeds, and i’d cackle with delight at growing closer to becoming the wild woman i always wanted to be.

4) if i could be a writer… i’d write one book that made me rich enough i’d never have to have a 9 to 5 job ever again. i’d feel just fine at have only one best-seller and would take years and years before i finally wrote one or two more that were modest sucesses,but for me, were the satisfying results of a good life.

5) if i could be a bonnie pirate… i’d retire and just roam the seas with my boy, my cats, and a good wireless connection. i’d stay bonnie till the end of my days.

comment [3]

posted 13 May 05 & filed under more me

palermo

i’m taking a ton of pictures but haven’t figured out how to get them online yet. to sum up: the wedding was yesterday and was perfect. the bride was beautiful, the groom impatient, the church intimate, the priest friendly, and my dress, well, just too cute. ;) i was relieved to discover that not only is white perfectly acceptable at italian weddings, especially if there’s other color mixed in, but that there were a few other women also in largely-white outfits. surprisingly, most of the other women were dressed in black, entirely in black. hm. so now we know, at italian weddings, at least at sicilian weddings, black and white are fine.

my ten year high school reunion is this summer – and i have no plans of going. however, yesterday’s wedding felt like a mini-ten year reunion of sorts, and one, honestly, that had a bit more meaning that i think 90% of my real high school reunion ever would. i saw so many faces i haven’t seen in, well, over ten years, and it was great. it just completely took me back to when i was 17, all fresh and new, and.. i swear, i was sighing all night and smiling to myself and chattering like crazy and going crazy trying to remember how to conjugate verb into the past tense.

i also felt lonely and a little ‘what if’-y all night. and there were a few who i didn’t get along with then and i still don’t (always drama, huh?) but really it was great fun and tonight and tomorrow night should be somewhat similar. tonight we’re getting together about 30 of us to eat a big old dinner and then tomorrow night we’re going out to see a soccer game (but of course!) and then out to dance maybe.

sorry i haven’t been responding to people’s comments—my email is still sketchy and so i haven’t been able to get to it from here, but i don’t like it in general when people don’t respond to comments so i definitely will as soon as i get back. it’s weird to think it’s 8 pm here whereas all you west coasters are just now waking up!

comment [7]

posted 15 April 05 & filed under more me, vacation paradise

a year ago

in a rush because i’m typing this during my ten minute break of my last (gasp!) archives class for the quarter but i just had to post the link to this great photolog [via etc etc] of same-sex couples that were recently wed in san francisco. the pictures are amazing! it just makes me smile so big to see these fotos..

i’ll definitely write more after class..

ok, i’m back. it’s decided: i am a very moody person. i realize that might not come as a revelation to many who know me, but to me, well surprise surprise! i love being busy but i loathe (and loathe is the right word here) feeling obligated, that i have no option, and/or that my time is not my own. and i hate being interrrupted when reading. i guess i’m still a kid that needs to grow up, because responsibilty = olbigations, doesn’t it?

my life has changed so much in the last year. a year ago, i was in a pretty unhappy (and smallsmall!) supposedly ‘communal’ living situation. i had two small loving cats, whereas a few months before i had had four small loving cats, which still depresses me to think about. i had applied to grad school but had little to no hopes of being accepted (i turned the application in almost a month late and my gpa was, i though, something like 0.8 below what was required). i was working at the archives already, but the situation was really tense and my position was so temporary-feeling that i was preparing myself when i got my paycheck every two weeks, that this paycheck could very well be the last. food-wise and health-wise, i was same as now, that is to say, not very healthy but not too bad either (don’t smoke, don’t drink, what do you do?). i was reading a lot and going to the library and just browsing for hours. i was going a few times every week to the ucla library to use their computers for free surfing the net for hours, with vacya sitting on the stool next to me. i was listening to music on a record player. i was biking around westwood, now and then, which i miss. i didn’t own or watch tv. or movies, except at friend’s homes. i was slowly dropping out of the various activist groups i had been involved in and wasn’t really hanging around activist spaces, meetings, or protests. i was doing a lot of dreaming and worrying a lot about money.

now, a year later? my living situation is pretty perfect and i feel like a dolt for not having done this earlier. i still have those two sweet cats, albeit one’s on a diet and the other is a big ol’ weirdo. ;P i got accepted to ucla and am now almost finished with two quarters of tough but great great! classes. i’m still at the archives and i’m still a temp, but i got a good raise a few months back (thanks to good talks from good friends) and i feel a lot more security depite my lack of official-ness. i don’t read as much as i used to, which about once a month bothers me to no end and i go to the l.a. public library and just freak out and get out like 30 books. i watch entirely too much tv! i’m a reality show nut and my inherently addictive personality (yikes) is going nuts, especially when anyone dares trying to converse with me when the commercial break is ending and the show is back on! ay. i have a super fast and brilliant laptop with a blazing (albeit expensive) dsl. i don’t really listen to records anymore since i haven’t set up the record player yet (my apartment really is just too small since i’m a packrat ( almost wrote ratpack)) and i barely use my cd player since i got my laptop and ipod. the only activism i do nowadays is research, whether online on this site, in papers for school, or in the material i handle at work. i still do a lot of dreaming and i still worry a lot about money.

me, me, me, it’s all about me. kinda boring for most people i bet. but highly instructive for me. i’m less moody now and much more stable and secure then i’ve been since at bryn mawr, say before senior year. but still, man, am i moody. it’s like clockwork: paper due? i’m biitchy. expensive car repair to schedule? i’m listlessly sad. then other times, it’s the little stuff that drive me crazy and sad to no end: insufferable unexplainable unfixable static on my favorite tv station during the final of some idiotic reality show? i’m insanely angry. mama cat meowing for food at 4, 5, then 6 o’clock in the morning, waking me up each time? i’m brattily scowling and muttering at her all night whilst tossing and turning. so. there you have it. i am not a fun person to be around, oh, say a lot of the time. dagnamit. but the other part of the time, i swear, i’m the funniest, most considerate, and super engaging person in the world. call me rollercoaster andrea.

i worked a bit on the bolivia section linked in the upper left-hand nav section. also, to that same nav section, i added movie shorts (can anyone think of a better name?) so that, once i take them off the index page, they’re still easily accessible. sound good?

i like openbrackets. “And you keep rocketing out of sleep in the middle of the night, shaken and dread-filled, and realize that you’ve been having dirty dreams about money.” indeed.

happy weekend,

andrea

p.s. it’s saturday afternoon now, just added some photos showing some stuff i’ve been doing lately..go to gallery

speak

posted 19 March 04 & filed under more me, school

happy birthday to me

a great day! thanks to you sweet ones for the great emails and happy phone calls.

speak

posted 4 March 04 & filed under more me

transition

hello.

had a beautiful weekend so far & it’s only saturday night—i definitely feel i’m in a transition stage & so far it’s extremely peaceful & exciting. the library is soon to close so i don’t want to forget to check out this page of the rant collective page.. also, anarchism in action: methods, tactics, skills, and ideas looks promising.. importantly, i bought a set of tarot cards this weekend & really feel so positive about that decision i can’t quite believe my luck {thanks maria}—spent several hours this morning with my best friend doing readings and am positively in love with this magic. (they’re the the mini motherpeace ones)
busy busy as always—tomorrow work & more work—also, ucla talk i want to go to… ay

bye, andrea

speak

posted 11 February 03 & filed under busy bee, more me

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