the syntax of things

awol

Yup, so I've been AWOL these days.  But only because I've been traveling all over the place.  I should really get better about blogging while I'm traveling since that's a hell of a lot more interesting than not blogging at all.  But more about the traveling later.  Instead, I'm going to cop out and do something I pulled from Ari's blog:

You. Can. Only. Type. One. Word.

Not as easy as you might think.

1. Where is your cell phone? Purse
2. Your boyfriend/girlfriend? Nonexistent
3. Your hair? Overgrown
4. Work? Busy
5. Your father? Frustrating
6. Your favorite thing? Fashion
7. Your dream last night? Unmemorable
8. Your favorite drink? Martini
9. Dream car? Jaguar
10. The room you're in? Quiet
11. Your pet? Imaginary
12. Your fears? Finality
13. What do you want to be in 10 years? Parent
14. Where did you hang out last night? Couch
15. What you're not good at? Patience
16. Eyebrow rings on the preferred sex? Ixnay
17. One of your wish list items? Books
18. Where you grew up? Houston
19. The last thing you did? Sipped
20. What are you wearing? PJs
21. What aren't you wearing? Jewelry
22. The website GoofyAuctions.com (filled with eBay spoofs)? Que?
23. Your computer? Lifeline
24. Your life? Jampacked
25. Your mood? Settled
26. Missing? Family
27. What are you thinking about right now? Boys
28. Your car? Subway
29. Your work? Crazed
30. Your summer? Travel-icious
31. Your relationship status? Choosy
32. Your favorite color? Green
33. When is the last time you laughed? Tonight
34. Last time you cried? June
35. School? AGGIES.

jet lagged

Yes, it's 4 am.  Yes, I'm wide awake.  I got back on Thursday night, arrived home at 7:30 pm, and fell asleep on the couch at 10.  Then I woke up at 4 am and was totally awake.  I watched Wimbledon for a while, and stayed awake until 7 am, then crawled into bed, thinking I'd sleep until noon or so.  Woke up at...3:30 in the afternoon.  Oops.  Thus I have not been able to sleep tonight.  At all.  Mind you, it's 6 pm Saturday night in Sydney, which is about what my body seems to think it is here, even though I slept a ridiculous amount yesterday and it is, in fact, 4 am Saturday morning right now.  Sigh.

So, I'll put my insomnia to use and answer Todd's quiz thingy.  The rules are: each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog. 

one - I am addicted to Chapstick.  Coconut flavored, a brand called Alba that I stumbled on a few years ago.  I also love their lotion, their sunscreen, and their scrubs.

two - I'm somehow allergic to most types of sunscreen.  Luckily I've found a couple that work for me (see above).  I still fear I'll be old and wrinkly since I don't use enough of it and I love the sun.  I think I'm part plant. 

three - Tennis in the summer is one of my favorite sports to watch.  (Wimbledon is on right now, for all you other insomniacs.  It's a replay of the Roddick/Gasquet match.  It's damn good.)

four - Pearls are my favorite kind of jewelry.  I'm slightly obsessed with them; even my mom is like "what's your deal with the pearls?!"  I made myself buy something else (with a single ivory lump of resin rather than the two blue ones) while I was in Sydney, just so I wouldn't own any more pearls. 

five - When I travel, I always try to buy three things on each trip - a thimble (I have a collection of over 300 of them - my mom started it when I was a baby), a Christmas ornament (my tree is a reminder of all the amazing places I've been - it's a memory tree), and a piece of jewelry (again, it's nice to bring up memories when I wear those pieces). 

six - I used to wait tables when I was in college.  I also worked in retail (women's clothing) during the summer after I graduated.  I think these are two jobs every person should be required to have.  They give you a new appreciation for a full water glass and organized racks of clothing. 

seven - I hate doing dishes.  I hate doing dishes so much that I even hate loading the dishwasher.  I hope desperately that I will marry a man who can load a dishwasher properly so I never have to deal with the dishes.  :) 

eight - I have often wondered if men are really worth all the trouble.  I suppose if they will load the dishwasher...

Now I'm going to cheat like Todd and Ari did and only send it to 4 other people.  Mostly because I don't know too many of y'all yet who haven't already been tagged.

1.  Fish.  Because she's also a NY/TX gal. 
2.  Scarlet.  Because she's fun.
3.  Stephanie.  Because she's honest.    
4.  Krissa.  Because I doubt she knows that I read her blog.  And I think she's cool.

There.  Insomnia made useful.   

g'day mate!

Just a little note from down under...today is my last day here and I fly back to the states tomorrow morning (around the time most of you will be watching fireworks on the evening of the 4th!)  It's been a great trip - very productive on the work front, and fun for me besides.  I climbed to the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, which was a crazy fun experience, and I've spent some time out and about seeing the city in some lovely cool weather.  (It's winter here - the temps have been in the 50s.)  Here's a photo of the opera house at sunrise last Saturday - I made it out for a run around the Quay and snapped some pics while I was there:

Totally gorgeous, isn't it?

I have also enjoyed some shopping (fashion down here is different from fashion in NY - lots of tunics, smocks, leggings, slouchy boots, dark colors, layers...) and lots of eating.  I fear I'll come back to the States broke and fat.  :) 

Anyway, g'day from Oz, hope all is well in the US.  Have a beer for me on the 4th since I'll be on a very large plane on my way back to LA. 

drama, as usual

I feel like the past couple of weeks have just flown by, but they have been packed with work, school, nights out, errands, and various other randomness.   Some of which I'll share with you here:

I'm headed to Sydney for work on Tuesday night, and will arrive down under on Thursday morning.  Should be a fun flight.  My saving grace is that I'm flying business, so I'll be much more comfortable than the folks in coach.  I can't imagine being cramped up in a coach seat for 6 hr (to LA) and 14 hr (to Sydney) flight legs...yuck. 

I have been trying to get ready for the trip for the past week or so - I was going to buy new luggage, and then couldn't find anything I wanted that wasn't crazy expensive, so I gave up on that and decided I'll just take my large suitcase (my medium-sized one has a busted zipper on the outside).  I did manage to buy a universal voltage converter, but it says you're not supposed to use it for electronics or battery chargers, so I'm not sure really what it's good for other than my hair dryer...  Anyway, I'm getting excited, but I need to get packed.

I also have my final due tomorrow at school (my last class!) - for that I'm designing a wedding gown.  I also have two grid drawings, a tracing exercise, and a presentation for the loungewear collection I didn't finish earlier this week to do.  I should really get to work soon. 

And the reason why I didn't finish my loungewear collection earlier this week was because I was out until 4 am on Tuesday night instead of at home doing my homework.  :)  See, I randomly met a really nice guy at a bar that night and we stayed out late and then stayed up even later...and he missed his flight home the next morning.  Oops.  :)  Anyway, we've been in touch throughout the week via voicemails, text messages, and email (he doesn't live in NYC), and on Friday, I received a gorgeous vase of ivory roses from him at work.  So sweet!  I was thoroughly distracted for the rest of the day, of course.   And my coworkers are all a-flutter - they all want to know what the story is, and many of them already saw him - I was out with them when I met him.  So...he's very nice, but I am trying to keep a little distance.  I get scared when things pick up really quickly.  If we could ever actually connect via phone (we keep missing each other and leaving voicemails), I'd explain this to him, because I think he's wondering what my deal is.   

Luckily now I have a couple of weeks in Sydney to think, and then a week at home in NY during which he's planning to come visit me.  Gotta see if it really does work, right?   One night can be a lot of fun, but a couple of days together might not be...  And then I'm off to Italy for the rest of the month, and in August we'll see what happens. 

That's me, always with the drama...

shoes fix everything

Because I don't have enough stuff going on these days (ha), I'm taking design classes at Parsons.  I'm in my second class, Design Sketching (I do have a full-time job, so this is slow going - I started the certificate in Fashion Studies in January).  Each week I have two classes for three hours each, on Mon and Wed nights.  We have a live model in class, and we do sketches for most of the class time.  They are timed.  I think the ones in the picture here were five minutes each.  I've never taken art before, so I'm pretty impressed with my progress so far.

What I didn't anticipate is that this class is a TON of work.  Wednesday night's assignments are always fine because I have several days to get them done.  But Tuesday night is downright ridiculous, since I have to do all the assignments from Monday on Tuesday night after work.  I have to race to the fabric store mid-day on Tuesday to get swatches.  And there are assignments other than just the collection (usually some practice sketches and a grid drawing from a magazine).  It all takes way too long.  I'm really enjoying the class, but I've been working my butt off to get things even semi-done for class these days.  I suppose there are only a couple of weeks left...   

Today I went down to school thinking I could set myself up in one of the empty rooms and spread out, rather than sitting on my living room floor surrounded by stuff for hours, killing my back and my knees.  Alas, when I got to the building, the doors were locked.  Apparently the building is closed on Sundays for the summer, starting this very weekend (hours were posted on the second set of doors, the ones I don't actually go through every week.  I was pretty pissed off, so I took myself and my big bag of art supplies and sketchbook and fabric back down the street to DSW and bought some new shoes.  Because that's totally logical.  They are hot, though, aren't they?  Picture is a little dark, I admit.

But I digress.  This weekend I've been working on an evening wear collection.  I picked up swatches of fabric, created an inspiration page, and bought some new markers and pencils, but have yet to put my designs on paper.  I guess that's what the rest of tonight is for.  Minus a few minutes for a trip to Starbucks and an hour for the. last. Sopranos. Episode. Ever.  Of course. 

You know, if I wasn't getting a new season of Big Love, I might be really sad.  Instead, I'm just a little sad.  There are always DVDs and HBO On Demand.  That's how I keep SATC around.  :)  Because a girl needs to get design inspiration from somewhere.  And I dare say Carrie would have trotted off and bought some shoes, had she found herself in the same predicament as me today.  No doubt.

crushing

I'm still daydreaming about Charleston. 

It's rather exciting to think about a place you might be one day.  I used to daydream about New York, too, when I was back in Texas and couldn't quite get the pieces to all line up so that I could actually be here in the big city. Then all those pieces just fell into place, and my life changed. 

Now that I've been in New York for almost seven years, I am worried that the blush is beginning to fade.  New York has been ridiculously good to me, but I am feeling that it may soon be time to move on.  Things at which I never used to bat an eye annoy me these days.  Crowded subways, the hot concrete, the rows and rows of buildings with no green to be seen, tourists swarming the streets, the expectations, the always-connectedness, the constant go-go-go... 

Then again, it might not be New York at all.  It might be that I'm finally realizing, hey, I can do anything I want to do.  I dated someone here for five years, and then it was over.  And I've learned a whole hell of a lot in the last year and a half about myself, and about who I am on my own, and what I can really do, and how far I'm willing to go.   

So I have been thinking about this since I got back from South Carolina.  I'm not sure what's going on.

Then, today, it occurred to me that life in New York is rather like a marriage.  Not that I've been married.  But in general, as I understand it, it might be all exciting and lovely and sexy at first between you.  And then, as time goes by, you get comfortable with each other.  Things start to seem routine, not as exciting, sort of humdrum, just the usual.  And this is when things might go sour.  But a marriage takes commitment. If you want to get on through the rough spots, then maybe you just need to up the ante.  Don't just read the goings on about town in the New Yorker - actually attend some of them.   Stop thinking about having a picnic in the park and just do it.  Learn something you've never done.  Spend more time outside.  Explore more neighborhoods.  Make new friends.  Create something fun and different in your life and see where it takes you. 

Fall in love, again.

I have a crush on Charleston.   But maybe New York and I aren't headed for Splitsville just yet.   

charleston

I fell in love with Charleston over Memorial Day - I spent a long weekend there with friends.  More on the friends later.  But for now, just Charleston. 

As I stepped off the plane, the first sweet blast of humidity and sunshine hit me like an embrace.  All day I soaked in the sky and the streets and the sounds and the light, and I felt like a girl who was waiting for her first kiss.  I wandered the streets in search of that very moment, that moment when you know the best thing is just about to happen, and I found it over and over again.  Each corner had more beauty just around the bend, each beach had more tinglingly delicious waves, each evening had more lovely, lingering breezes...

I felt myself slipping away from New York more each day.

Charleston has stolen my heart, and I'm not quite sure I want it back.

I'm back.

Yes, I'm back.  After almost a year on hiatus.  No good reason I'm back, except that I feel as if I've been bottling up words for ages, letting them shove and stack and push and bloat and fill me up until i feel I might burst.  There's so much to tell.  And I've missed you.