five thousand shades of blue
Tuesday, October 21, 2003
weekend round up
A day late and a dollar short.
Had a wonderful time on Saturday meeting up with Shell, her friend Sara, and Jenn, even though my stupid
train was an hour late pulling into Portland because of three seperate instances of fucking freight trains needing right of way on the tracks. I know Union Pacific owns the rails but honestly, freight doesn't have friends waiting for it at the station or need to make a connecting train filled with unhappy, fidgety other bits of freight. People should take precedence but of course money did instead. The worst part is that we were, at most, three minutes from the station for something like 30, just waiting for this freight train (okay, so this train at least had a better excuse: problems with its air brakes) to get the hell out of the way. I could have gotten out of the train and walked, ferpetessake. (When I saw my roommate on Sunday, she practically did the "Told You So" dance regarding Amtrak, which did not make me feel any better.)
Being on the train itself was very pleasant, I must say. I remembered from last time to bring my headphones because they actually run a movie between Eugene and Portland. The movie was
Alex & Emma, with Luke Wilson (who looks like Nick Stokes from "CSI") and Kate Hudson (who looks more and more like her mom). It was fluff, total brain candy, but funny and enjoyable nonetheless. I also read about half of
Written on the Body by Jeannette Winterson, which, once getting past the strange British (lack of) punctuation, was enthralling. I may need to reread the first part of it.
Back to Portland — the day itself was fun, even if I feel very badly for my friends because they got a parking ticket waiting for me (*hangs head*). We only got to go to Saturday Market, did not have time to do Tao of Tea together. I had a great time, though too short, but very tiring. And some awesomely good Indian chicken (the name of which I am blanking on right now) with peanut sauce (which I'm sure had some sugar in it, but it was a special occasion). They cut a $1 off of the price of the lunch because I didn't get rice or noodles. It was yummy and very filling.
Went back home, and at least the train ride was only delayed by ~5 minutes of so. The movie was a repeat of
Alex & Emma. I read the rest of my book and with about an hour to spare, had nothing else to do. Somehow I forgot to eat my packed dinnersnack, a packet of tuna, but I wasn't hungry. I tried to catch a nap but all I kept thinking about was the book I'd just finished, how it seemed to have permeated my being and somehow woken my senses. Highly recommended.
The train arrived into Eugene and I stepped off to find Andra standing there looking great in deep burgundy velvet. We went off to the AbFab party, which I had kept an open mind about, but once we arrived I felt almost at once like an outsider. Parties are not my natural habitat. It's no one's fault as the party's hostess is better friends with An than with me, but it set the stage for my crabby mood and left me feeling like I'd retreated back into myself. It was the magic of a kamikaze and a shot of melon liquor with half and half that helped to restore me to some semblance of humanity… but not totally.
I'm making it sound so melodramatic. I blame the books I've been reading.
Sunday I started
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood (and every time I see or speak her name I'm reminded of Moxy Früvous' "
My Baby Loves a Bunch of Authors"), and by yesterday morning I was halfway through it. There's a story within the book within the story and somehow, it's not cumbersome or forced, and I'm really enjoying it.
I spent some time on Sunday writing the answers for that university graphic artist job that I plan on applying to, and that made me feel like I'd accomplished something. When I started out, answering those questions sufficiently seemed insurmountable. This was a Real Adult Job and Who Was I Kidding. But, in the end, I built on my strengths — degree in illustration, practical design experience, and web site layout-design-coding since 1995 — and shored up the weak parts (experience with printing agencies, cough, cough) so that the final answers seem, to me anyway, to be strong and make me sound competent. I hope they think so too.
I decided my hair was starting to look way too severe, especially when pulled back, so I combed out a very fine fringe just over my forehead and cut them to chin length. Now they wisp out of a braid in a rakish manner and I don't look so much like Madonna of the rocks.
I was definitely not human yesterday. Tired, cranky, hormonal. Thank goodness for evening primrose. I'm a bit better today but still tired, as I stayed up too late finishing
The Blind Assassin. I expect no pity for that.
is
this just not enough…?
