Okay so there's a lot that's happened.
I moved res buildings. This one is... much better than my old one haha. Not that I won't be happy to be back there in September. Especially after living in the suburbs for July and August. Um so yeah this building is so confusing, but I love to explore, so it's fun.
Work is a-mazing. I love working with kids, seriously. And every time it's gone so well. The kids are good, the workshop works out well, and I get good reviews from the teachers. I worked in my mom's school today, actually. She wasn't there, but the Grade 8 teacher booked me. I was really dreading this particular workshop because a) he was clearly going to report right back to my mom, and b) it's like the most boring, confusing workshop. But it worked out fine! Great even! DESPITE the fact that my materials crate was missing a crucial component. I just made up a replacement part and it went off without a hitch. It was amazing, and even though I'm pretty much burned out from low sleep and early mornings (at work at 6:45 today!), I am just so happy.
Yesterday, I seriously couldn't stop thinking "I think my life is perfect. My life is perfect." And I can feel that even though I know there are things I want but don't have. It doesn't make me too much less happy. I've realized that it isn't not having something that makes one sad, but rather the thought that not having that thing ought to make one sad. When I did that project in Grade 12 on happiness, the one main message was that it's all how you look at things - you make your own meaning and happiness. So like... yeah an outsider wouldn't say my life is perfect, but from the inside it is (I assure you).
Speaking of things I want but can't have, I helped my friend Samurai apply for an instructor position with my camp later in the summer. He wouldn't be working in the same place as me though, which is good because well, straight up, I'm kind of in love with him. Not actually love, mind you, but I don't want to say "like", because it's way too high school. Now if only he'd break up with his boyfriend. Which, objectively, I don't really want, because I think they're much better for each other than he and I would be. So. I'm pretty sure a lot of my annoyingly persistent interest in him is based in the fact that I barely even know any guys, so. Uh not many options. And as I said, I'm pretty content anyway, so I'm not really going to go looking.
Speaking of high school (yeah it's back there), I saw American Teen last night. For free. I'm pretty sure that in some location in the city, at any given time, there is something cool and free to do. And eat. For sure. Um but yeah the movie was really good. Though.. the director was there, and she said that she tried to avoid the sort of typical stereotypes... which she didn't do at all. But yeah it was still really good.
Okay so there's a lot that's happened.
I moved res buildings. This one is... much better than my old one haha. Not that I won't be happy to be back there in September. Especially after living in the suburbs for July and August. Um so yeah this building is so confusing, but I love to explore, so it's fun.
Work is a-mazing. I love working with kids, seriously. And every time it's gone so well. The kids are good, the workshop works out well, and I get good reviews from the teachers. I worked in my mom's school today, actually. She wasn't there, but the Grade 8 teacher booked me. I was really dreading this particular workshop because a) he was clearly going to report right back to my mom, and b) it's like the most boring, confusing workshop. But it worked out fine! Great even! DESPITE the fact that my materials crate was missing a crucial component. I just made up a replacement part and it went off without a hitch. It was amazing, and even though I'm pretty much burned out from low sleep and early mornings (at work at 6:45 today!), I am just so happy.
Yesterday, I seriously couldn't stop thinking "I think my life is perfect. My life is perfect." And I can feel that even though I know there are things I want but don't have. It doesn't make me too much less happy. I've realized that it isn't not having something that makes one sad, but rather the thought that not having that thing ought to make one sad. When I did that project in Grade 12 on happiness, the one main message was that it's all how you look at things - you make your own meaning and happiness. So like... yeah an outsider wouldn't say my life is perfect, but from the inside it is (I assure you).
Speaking of things I want but can't have, I helped my friend Samurai apply for an instructor position with my camp later in the summer. He wouldn't be working in the same place as me though, which is good because well, straight up, I'm kind of in love with him. Not actually love, mind you, but I don't want to say "like", because it's way too high school. Now if only he'd break up with his boyfriend. Which, objectively, I don't really want, because I think they're much better for each other than he and I would be. So. I'm pretty sure a lot of my annoyingly persistent interest in him is based in the fact that I barely even know any guys, so. Uh not many options. And as I said, I'm pretty content anyway, so I'm not really going to go looking.
Speaking of high school (yeah it's back there), I saw American Teen last night. For free. I'm pretty sure that in some location in the city, at any given time, there is something cool and free to do. And eat. For sure. Um but yeah the movie was really good. Though.. the director was there, and she said that she tried to avoid the sort of typical stereotypes... which she didn't do at all. But yeah it was still really good.
Macy's? Job please?
Thank you.
SELF PORTRAIT THURSDAY!
5.15.08
One year ago I took a photo of myself that made it clear to me that I, too, can gain weight. I had thought that my lying around all the time, drinking beer for breakfast (sometimes I just needed to), not getting out, etc. wouldn't have an effect on me, that I wouldn't gain weight.
Anyway, this is me today:
And here are a couple other ones I liked:
Okay, okay, enough chit chat.
I gotta get back to work.
bye.
It turns out that my phone wasn't REALLY lost---it just got left at the AT&T store. So, we had to swing by that store at 9AM before heading to the airport.
This was what the inside of my carry-on bag looked like:
The whole way to the airport I kept thinking not about how much I'd miss my family and Houston but about what makes people shitty. I mean, what makes people so shitty?
I know that I'm not the best person in the world. I've done my share of shitty things (e.g. cracking up at my friend's funeral, that one time I masturbated, the time I told my older sister I hope she dies while giving birth), but I know I'm not a shitty person. Some people just seem like they'll never change---and that's so weird to me! That basically means that someone can go through their entire life not really LEARNING anything.
I mean, yeah, you can learn a new fact or come to know something.
But it seems like some people can be the same person most of their life.
They'll never realize their faults and try to work on them.
But maybe they DO realize their faults but they ignore them...
(Where is this coming from? I have no idea. I'm not even referring to any one person/incident either.)
I hung out with Ben J. in Queens last night before going down to Williamsburg to meet up with Max and Sarah and Meredith S. (my very, very good friend who just moved here on Monday) and this guy Drew Bagels. (We went to the Levee, of course.) Ben asked me if I'd ever seen "Teen Witch".
I haven't.
And then he showed me this scene from the movie:
It's so wiggedy wack.
Wiggity whack.
By the time I left the Levee, I was a bit (really) drunk.
Meredith was going to drive me home, but I didn't know how to get home from where we were. (I don't know the streets too well; I only know the subways. Underground. Subterranean.) And I didn't know how to get to Max and Sarah's place either. (They, including Drew Bagels, had left in a cab.) So, I just had Meredith drop me off at the G train stop kinda near the bar.
But the G train is effed right now during late nights.
And I was pretty drunk and didn't want to bother with trying to find alternate routes to get home.
So, I just went to Ben J.'s again and stayed the night with him.
Here's a photo I took of myself around 4somethingAM on the G train:
I looked gnarly.
(Didn't that word used to mean 'cool' back in the day? Maybe I just thought wrong.)
And HERE are the shoes I'm currently waiting to arrive in the mail:
Let's hope I can pull them off.
I've missed you, pals. This past week has been too easy.
xo
craig-hunter
Show us your mother.
Here she is, in 1960 with my oldest brother, looking remarkably like Amy Winehouse. I normally try and avoid Mothers Day (be it here or in the States) but at the funeral her friends said I had her grace, which wasn't something I'd acknowledged either of us having, but here I think she does. Maybe one day, I will too.
Ordered the hottest little red corset last night:
CAN NOT Wait! I'm trying to put together a concert outfit in honor of Only Ten Ribs*, the performer. I'm thinking white or black blouse under the red cincher, black pencil skirt, thigh high stockings and some killer red or black pumps.
What do you think? Will it be hot?
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*If you can guess who I am talking about, THAT was a really clever moniker on at least two levelsl! Do you know who I mean and why it makes me chuckle?
So Sunday was Momma's Day. I had plans to spend the day - not with my mother who lives 1000 miles away, but cleaning out my closets and weeding the wardrobe. I started the morning with coffee and storage containers full of summer clothes. I always forget what I have in the months between seasons and so it is a little like shopping - without going broke.
So I opened the containers eager to see what I had forgotten. As I laid out each item, covering every surface in my bedroom, I realized I HATE my summer wardrobe. It was depressing to see the explosion of multicolored fabric draped throughout the room and not see anything I was excited about.
Just as I was about to retrieve some lawn and leaf sized garbage bags, the phone rang. It was a very sleepy (and maybe hungover) M, my son, on the other end wanting to have lunch together. So, I left the mess in my room, closed the door on my wardrobe woes and ran off to a little English pub for some mid-afternoon ale* with the son and future daughter-in-law.
We met up at the tiny little pub that was surprisingly packed with thirty-something aparent orphans listening to live music and downing bloody marys where M presented me with a card in which he had written, "To my ultra-chic mother, have a wonderful Mother's Day!" He obviously hadn't seen the contents of my summer closet.
Anyway, the three of us drank up a couple of cocktails and rolled out for some Thai food. We started with some saki, drank some wine, ate some tofu and discussed all sorts of things. Toward the end of our meal, I got on my soapbox about the state of the western meat-and-preservative-laden diet. Of course I discussed this between bites of coconut cake topped with a five year old marischino cherry. Ha!
Then we went down to the river front and sat in the warm sun to discuss our next destination. Just after we sat down, an old tug boat pulled in to dock. The boat was filled with partiers - inebriated partiers - tooting horns, shouting, waving arms and whatnot over the side railings.
As the revelers began to disembark, a 200 year old horse-drawn hearse clicked up and stopped in front of us. The hearse was outfitted with glass, black plumes, a metal cross spire, and a red cadaver bed. Driving the carriage was the grim reaper. The reaper beckoned from his seat to one of the boat people. Evidently, we had an "over-the-hill" party gag unfolding before us.
The birthday boy was loaded into the carriage to lie-in-state as the revelers began to form lines behind the hearse. The whole party then pulled out and ambled down the brick street in a very noisy funeral procession. I wish I had my camera on me as it was quite a to-do.
Watching the whole scene must have made M's fiance, B, nostalgic for horse carriages because she suggested that we take a carriage ride through the city. M was quite opposed to the idea. Although he didn't say it, I know him well-enough to know he was thinking that he would die a thousand deaths if anyone he knew saw him riding in a tourist carriage through the city streets.
After much begging from B, he agreed and we climbed aboard the white carriage and listened to the driver's spiel laced with bits of history, bits of fantasy, and lots of architectual information. The tour guide seemed particularly fascinated with tales of the courting practices and sexual morrays of antebellum society. He tried to pass them off as being so gentile and proper. He pontificated on the rash of teen-pregnacies today and that it was unheard of in those times. I, not being able to resist the temptation to point out the fallacy, pointed out that girls were often married off at 14 and 15 in those days in the South. And that teen pregnancies were in fact quite common. He tried to contradict me - but recognized that I was right and dropped the subject quickly moving on to tales of accepted marital infidelity common among both sexes..
I actually learned alot about the construction and history of my little town. Even the very reluctant M was enthusiastic about the trip after it was over. I thourouly recommend that you play tourist for a day in your city as it really opens your eyes to all the beautiful things you miss as you rocket around the city trying to accomplish the tasks of daily life.
After we left the carriage, we ambled down to a biker bar for a couple of beers and a discussion of the musical genius that is Kid Rock. Yeah yeah yeah - did I mention that we had had a bit to drink by this point?
The last stop of our day ended up being a tiny little hookah joint where we smoked God knows what. Thankfully, the hookah place serves no alcohol. An actress, Sophia Bush I think - or someone Sophia Bush-like, came in and took a hit from our hookah before deciding to have what we were smoking. She seemed very laid back and friendly. Her companions, on the otherhand, were absolute douchebags. While she tried to enjoy the collective conversation, they wanted to turn their noses up at everything and talk about money and how much each had made on this "deal" or that "deal" or who lost how much in Vegas. How tedious for her!
Also in the joint were some rasta kids. They were cleanish and friendly and such wide-eyed innocents. It was quite the eclectic mix of people.
We left well after midnight. And I came home - to my destroyed bedroom and collapsed on top of my bed full of clothes. What a perfect mother's day. Just my speed. Just my style. Perfect.
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*So Sug and I were playing Scattergories the other day. The category was Things found in the refridgerator. The letter was "A." My answer was "ale." Sug thought that was uproariously funny and began taunting me asking, "Who the hell says 'ale' anymore? K! Can you put the ale in the fridge; it is getting warm!" So I just had to prove that "ale" is a word used in modern vernacular - even if I was the one that had to use it.
So... I try not to act like a brat. Especially when somebody is doing something for me and helping me out.
But when my mother takes my phone, goes to the cell phone place to replace my dying (srsly you should see how bad it is) cellphone and ends up losing my cellphone...
Well, I just get a little bit really angry.
I was supposed to see some people tonight that I haven't seen in awhile. It's my last night in Houston.
And it's one person's birthday.
What the fuckin' fuck, man...
I hate that my cell phone means this much to me, but JESUS FUCKIN' CHRIST!
Give me a fucking break.
I'm probably not going to get hired anywhere.....and I get sick every time I come home! Damn cat.....even though I love him, his dander is problematic.
I don't miss classes, but I do miss Carebear.
The end.
