It's Better on Top

Today started terrible. This morning, I spilled ten ounces of my sixteen ounce iced coffee- in my bike bag. This most likely happened because my boyfriend and I can never seem to leave the apartment in an efficent manner. We'll leave late, and take our bicycles down the hill, but then we'll stop for coffee and have to walk our bicycles. My bus leaves at exactly 8:00 a.m., and I have to be on it. For the rest of the day, I could smell the coffee getting more and more rancid while I tried to get my work done.


But then my day got much better, especially when I bought this for a dollar:



Which will hopefully help my coffee-spilling issues.

The best thing that's happened today, however, also had to do with the hill. I rode all the way up it! For someone who sits on her bum all day, eats a lot of junk food, and can't run from here to there without getting winded. I was actually just searching for a picture to illustrate how steep and impossibly daunting it is, and I found this, in addition to two really great websites.

The first is this painter Elizabeth, who lives here in Portland. Her paintings aren't really my style, and maybe I like them because I've personally been to most of the places depicted. She has a pretty great sense of color, but I wish she'd vary her brush strokes and brush sizes a little bit.

The other is a bunch of pictures of my lovely city, which you can see here.

The Key

I'd say it didn't snap like a twig, it kind of... bent a little, then fell off. Sort of like Laffy Taffy. I'm talking about the key to my boyfriend's 1986 Volvo, which I have full use of until late tomorrow night. The key turned, but the lock stayed.

First, I thought, he's going to kill me. Approximately once a week I come home and say that I've lost my glasses/debit card/keys/wallet. Approximately once a month a pile of dirty laundry accumulates on the floor. Every so often, I neglect to lock the car/bicycle/door. It is a safe assumption that I'm not the most observant or careful person in existence...

Then I thought, I'll call my dad. Who answered. I'm such a bad daughter- he only receives calls about man things, like car problems, lifting and hauling, and anything that could be at all related to a hardware store. Like today. "Hey Dad, you think I'll be able to get a broken key replaced at the hardware store? Yeah, it's in two pieces. No, he doesn't have a spare." He reassures me that I will most likely be able to have it fixed there.

Next, I tell both the coffee shop guy, who is fairly well acquainted with us as a couple, and my frenemy/nemesis who calls before nine am to ask to go to the beach, that I'm in a state of panic.

The hardware store man tells me that I need to go to the Methodist church next door if I really need a miracle. He makes me a key for three dollars.

I try the key out at my apartment over my lunch break. A coworker is kind enough to sacrifice her entire lunch break to make sure my key works. That's what happens when you work at a non-profit; people are really nice.

Hallelujah, the key turns and the ignition starts. I call my boyfriend, who is actually on Coney Island at the time he receives my call, and tells me that he is immensely glad I waited to call him until everything was straightened out. I'm glad that this problem didn't incur any more expenses involving a lock smith, tow truck or Volvo dealership.

The Pretend Single Life

I have a friend who constantly tells everyone in her immediate proximity what she's feeling ("I'm feeling abstract, I'm feeling overwhelmed, I'm feeling indescribable."), which usually just leads to more questions. On that note, tonight, I feel single.

My boyfriend is gone, chaperoning a four day field trip to NYC with a local youth radio group. So, I have the apartment to myself. I have laundry lying in the middle of the bedroom floor, there is food out on the counter. Before I received an unexpectedly tardy call this afternoon, I was geared up to eat leftover pizza in bed while watching Funny Face (starring Audrey Hepburn,) and drinking diet Pepsi and cheap vodka. I have to say, today has been a great day. It's hard not to wonder if all of my days would feel this... liberal... if I didn't move in with my boyfriend. Cohabitation, or "Living in Sin" is pretty great, don't get me wrong, but for the next four days I get to see what I am missing.

My friends are great. Tonight, Alex asked me if I've ever thought about doing stand-up. I love it. Not that I would ever consider it, it's nice to know my friends think I'm funny enough to. At home, most of my jokes are in one ear out the other.

Spirits

I'm on a mailing list for Allrecipes.com. In case I needed more reasons to sit on some patio at two o'clock on a Saturday, I just saw this article. And if I needed more reasons to spend my livable wage on frivolousness, these are their instructions on how to have a well-stocked bar.

Tonight, I find out Who Killed Laura Palmer.

New Specs.

There are people in my life whose seeming only purpose is to some pretty great things which make me feel really special. One of these guys, the one who taught me how to juggle, just moved to the West Coast. Which is a long way from home, I offered to send him a package. He asked if I would fit in a box... Live-in boyfriends don't usually say those sorts of things. It's more of an unrequited-love kind of gesture; it was nice.

I loose things. I break things, I spill on myself constantly, and I'm reasonably disorganized. Most everyone has someone like this in their life. My eyeglasses are used for driving, movies, and seeing things far away. They are long gone. My prescription ran out, as did vision coverage on my health insurance. there has been a lot of squinting in the meantime (that Seinfeld episode, anyone?) It's possible that other people suffer from vision problems, but don't feel like they have enough money to cover the cost. I have the answer. The Eyeglass Factory Outlet. Two pairs of frames, prescription lenses and shipping: $79 dollars. This is what I came up with:

The only downside- you can't try them on. Although there is a 100% return policy, it took over two weeks for them to arrive. Just steer clear of these:

An Introduction.

Good Evening, and welcome.

This is my blog. And an attempt to sort of, engage myself in my life.

I'm 23, in debt, working an uninspiring (but not completely boring) job and living in sin. I am a spend-a-holic.

Hopefully, I'll transcribe bits and pieces of my life from "field recordings" that I'll collect throughout the day. You know how you might have eureka moments out of nowhere, while you're waiting in line for coffee, but by the time your coffee is finished, you've totally forgotten? I am attempting to capture those moments, here. There will also be pictures, music, youtube videos. The usual.