artist growing

seattle trip

i had so much fun on my trip to seattle. i took the train up on friday. from the train station, i walked over to the ferry and rode to bremerton. it was a day to explore transportation options and i think my favorite one was the ferry. it seems like it'd make your commute so efficient to have 2 hours a day that you can sit and read, work on homework, knit, draw, whatever...  i got to even watch the sun setting into the sound.

jay picked me up from the ferry station and we drove to his coworkers' party. work parties are sometimes fun when the guests are your coworkers, but they take on a strange sociological tone when you only know one person there. it was pretty fun, though. there was lots of delicious food and homemade blackberry hooch...

on saturday jay, katie, and i went to breakfast together and then explored a few antique shops. we were specifically looking for lighting fixtures or anything silver.  then we went to home depot to buy stuff for projects around the house. jay's new house needs a bit more work for it to be liveable. on sunday, burnsie, jay, and i went to salvage shops to locate a lighting fixture for the dining room. the only superbowl i saw was the glimpses on the television in the japanese restaurant where we had dinner.

over the weekend, we installed a light in the dining room, a night light, 4 under-cabinet lights in the kitchen, and  track lighting in the kitchen. we also fixed the toilet. . .

monday, jay and i celebrated the projects being done by having a tourist day through town. we rode the bus to the space needle. then we took the monorail to the pike place market to look at all the beautiful produce. (i miss farmer's market.) then, we walked to the international district to buy ingredients for our northern curry dinner. 

oh, happy day!

today is moving along so swimmingly...

i have a new client for webpages. we were going to have a meeting this morning, but she needed to postpone it. i got to have a leisurely shower and a pleasant writing session in my writing studio. the cat came to visit me...

after breakfast, i spent an hour or so in my painting studio. it was freezing in there. i wore a long sleeve shirt, a turtleneck sweater, a scarf, a fleece pullover and a pair of coveralls and i was just barely warm enough. i wore a pair of cotton gloves, but they weren't warm enough. i got some good work done on a portrait. i think i'm going to head back to the studio for a little while in a bit.

my friend drew called and he picked me up to go on a driving adventure. we ended up having lunch at a mexican restaurant in vancouver, washington. it wasn't terrible, but it wasn't terribly good either. on the way back, we stopped at a gelateria and sampled lots of delicious treats. i settled on a scoop of hazelnut (but it was a little too sweet) instead of my favorite pistachio.

tonight, i'm taking my housemate, amy, out to the opera. when i was temping at the convention center, a guy there told me that he sometimes got complimentary tickets to musical performances in portland, since he was a sound engineer. he called me earlier this week to offer me 2 tickets to Madame Butterfly.  amy'll take me out to dinner before the show. i'm very excited.

on friday, i'm going to take the train to seattle for a few days. i'm going to help my friend jay with his new house. i take the train home on tuesday, which happens to also be mardi gras.

clearing out

i've  been cleaning my writing studio for the last few days. it had gotten so out of hand with clutter that i needed to leave the house to write. i enjoy writing in coffeeshops and libraries, but i'm unemployed and it seemed a cost-saving, sanity-saving measure to clear out that space.  i'm trying to get rid of the things i no longer need while organizing the things that are staying. it is tricky work, but very fun, since i keep discovering things that i forgot about.

everything i touched reminded me of other times. i re-discovered a slew of old photographs of my family and friends. i spent hours looking through the stack, remembering fun hikes and christmas dinners. i found more business cards to add to my collection. there were old letters, sometimes so poignant to re-read given the history that had passed.

even the receipts told stories. i saw a receipt and i remembered buying a slip and undergarments for a specific dress. i found receipts for dinner parties and for new clothes i bought for my temp jobs. i found receipts for green gold paint, for mascara, film, and coffee. there were lots of receipts and itineriaries for airline flights.

i never feel sure of what to throw away and what to keep. the story-mad part of me wants to keep any artifact that tells me my history, but that overwhelms me, too. the practical part of me wants to toss everything that i don't absolutely need, but i almost never listen to that part of me (at least when it comes to this decision). i collected almost 3 grocery bags full of trash. i'm pretty satisfied with that and i'm very satisfied with my pretty, clean, new space.

i can't wait to christen it with writing tomorrow morning.

then a receptionist

yesterday, i got the call from the agency. i was going to be a receptionist. i donned my best costume: a pair of gray slacks and a "mom-purchased" lilac sweater. i applied my makeup and my caramel colored coat and caught the bus downtown.

the receptionist gig was on the 18th floor of a building whose elevators were on strike. i had the choice of hoofing the steps or to wait for the elevator shuttle. the shuttle consisted of a harried building employee who held floor buttons down and used the "doors open" and "doors shut" buttons wisely.

the phone switchboard was more complicated than any that i had worked before. it had about 50 people's extensions on it. they weren't in alphabetical order and i didn't have a list of people's numbers. i just had to find the name on the button. when someone called, i greeted them cheerfully before nestling the phone against my neck while i strained my eyes finding the intendee's name... i got pretty good at the board by the end of the day. too bad it was a one-day shot.