toothbrush

medicine wheels

having a tea and touching the magazines

I have about an hour and-a-half until my appointment. Since I came out south to take pictures of Emily in her costume I decided to waste time at Border's instead of spending an extra hour of transit time going home and coming back out here.

I bought Reading Lolita in Tehran, and picked out some fancy magazines to read while I am here. They did not have my favorite magazine, Blindspot, but they have Art in America and Art on Paper and others, so I will be plenty entertained.

It's nice and quiet in here.

prezzies!

texas rest stop

With bathroom wall mosaic.

meditation/yoga/pt room

towel turban

I am so tired after playing at the lake. I swam with the puppies. I'm almost as good at fetch as they are.

my feet are ready to go swimming at lake austin

And so is the rest of me.

laura's new shirt

goat cheese salad

shark punching

bat statue

technical difficulties

wooden buddha

best wine label ever

Tonight I will have dreams about flying bicycles ridden by beautiful naked women. Score.

hey cupcake!

cupcake trailer

loca maria

Maria's Taco Xpress at night. I had an avocado taco, which is just avocados in a tortilla. It was delicious. I also had tacos al pastor. Yum. Austin has the best food.

music

The hot blonde singing is my aunt's friend Megan. She has an amazing voice.

my aunt on a giant flower

My aunt is a physical therapist. She also teaches yoga classes. This is a particularly hilarious flyer for one of her classes.

bouncy balls

totally lame

I'm stuck in retail hell for an hour while Mom, Laura and Kristi are in a yoga class. And what am I doing? Sitting in the car, of course, because I hate shopping. I am about to go into Hastings (the *worst* book/music store, ever) to waste some time. I am an idiot and didn't bring a book, or else I would just go to Starbucks and read. But, alas, I must figure out something else to entertain myself for 45 more minutes.

Blerg. I so don't want to go into Hastings. They put copies of The Advocate behind the counter like it's porn. Fucking uptight Christian fucks. Anyway.

I miss home. I miss Andrea and my friends and my kitties and other things. This is a common thing for me. Halfway through vacation I get tired of it and just want to go home. It's part of me hating vacation and all that nonsense. Although this vacation has been nice and I've gotten to read and nap a lot, just like I wanted to. My weird homesickness is just one of those things I understand and accept about myself, like any of my other bizarre neuroses. 

I think, instead of going into Hastings I will drive back to the yoga studio place and listen to music in the car. That sounds better than any of my other options.

After this we get to go eat awesome food, so it's all good.

sad faces

This is my I'm-tired-and-the-power-just-went-out-for-no-reason face.

backyard

diet coke with buddha's feet

beer cave!

We went to a restaurant in my aunt's neighborhood and it has a refrigerated cave. Of beer! It's like heaven.

dinner

Tilapia tacos with avocado, purple cabbage, tomatillo salsa and creme fraiche with green onion. Jicama salad with mango and melon. Cream cheese brownies with raspberries.

sleepy puppies

lunch

can't decide which book to read

Vacation is so hard!

wheatsville co-op

With my aunt in he cracker aisle.

even the yard sales are cooler in austin

Arrrrrsome.

breakfast!

We snuck out early to go get some breakfast while Mom and Laura are still sleeping. We went to this funky little coffee house, of which there are many all over Austin. The food and coffee was so good. I had a mocha with Mexican chocolate and unhomogenized milk, which is fancy, apparently. I love Austin!

austintimes, naptimes

This is my view from the couch at my aunt's house. That's my photograph above the fireplace. Pretty cool, right? I guess I'm going to try to get a bit of sleep now.

reading materials

Your choices are Louis L'amour or Louis L'amour. Or, if you're feeling frisky, R.A. Salvatore. Seriously though, we stopped at three different places and the only books they had were by Louis L'amour. Gay.

um... what?

Truck stops in B.F.E. Oklahoma don't believe in spelling, apparently.

at the arrivals gate

"Public affection is so exciting it even makes airports ok."

your rocky spine

by the Great Lake Swimmers

I was lost in the lakes
And the shapes that your body makes
That your body makes, that your body makes
That your body makes

The mountains said I could find you here
They whispered the snow and the leaves in my ear
I traced my finger along your trails
Your body was the map, I was lost in it

Floating over your rocky spine
The glaciers made you, and now you're mine
Floating over your rocky spine
The glaciers made you, and now you're mine

I was moving across your frozen veneer
The sky was dark but you were clear
Could you feel my footsteps
And would you shatter, would you shatter, would you

And with your soft fingers between my claws
Like purity against resolve
I could tell, then and there, that we were formed from the clay
And came from the rocks for the earth to display

They told me to be careful up there
Where the wind blows a venomous rage through your hair
They told me to be careful up there
Where the wind rages through your hair

grandpa's day

Happy Father's Day to my grandpa and to Dave.

the passion of joan of arc

 


(French. Silent. 1928. Directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer. Maria Falconetti as Joan. One of the greatest films of all time. Just a clip.)

chipotle!

This is the Chipotle on 15th St. where I will be eating all the time as soon as it opens. I hope it opens in time for my birthday.

street toothbrush

Every day on the way to my car I pass this toothbrush. It is a Reach. It sat there intact for a few days, and now it has finally been broken by car tires. I am interested to see what happens next.

things i am thankful for today

1. Wonkette. I hate politics a lot because it is imbecilic and pointless most of the time. However, this liberal blog makes it hilarious and I absolutely love it.

2. Ellen. TV is bad for you, except for Ellen. I love her. She is my hero.

3. My sister. Love her. She's my best friend.

4. Dave. He's great. And he has taken to wearing a sarong around the house.

5. My friends. They are awesome and smart and hilarious.

6. Kismet. I love my kitty and she is so fat and cute.

7. My mom. She is one of the most amazing people I have ever met, and she puts up with me.

8. Laura. She makes Mom happy. Enough said.

9. My phone. It is fancy and awesome and I can upload pictures and blogs and watch YouTube on it.

10. The HRC. They will bring the hammer down. They've got money and they know people.

11. All six seasons of The L Word. I feel like I do not need to explain this further.

12. Plants vs. Zombies. I'm totally addicted to it.

13. That my happy list is 2.6 times longer than my mad list.

bitch list

Things I am currently cheesed off about and that are completely outside of my sphere of influence:

1. Mexico and the drug war. People are so short-sighted. It is the exact same as abstinence-only sex education, meaning it just doesn't work. People are going to keep doing drugs, no matter what. The drug cartels will outsmart, outresource and outgun the Mexican government at every turn. The only way to eliminate the problem is to make drugs legal. It would destroy the black market and the violence that comes with it.

2. Obama and his lackluster "extension of benefits" for spouses of gay and lesbian federal employees which, of course, does not include health insurance. This is paired with the DOJ's brief supporting the fucking DOMA and associating same-sex marriage with incestuous marriages. Thanks, assholes. The New York Times lambasted the Obama administration for the brief in this editorial, which I find awesome. Thanks, NYT. Why can't you be president?

3. The health insurance issue. Ok. Republicans are a bunch of jerks. For some reason they have it in their little pea-brains that single-payer health insurance equals armageddon. This is obviously true since every country that has implemented universal healthcare has imploded in on itself and disintegrated in a fiery wreck (*ahem* virtually all of Europe). Seriously, though. Single payer health insurance would decrease costs tremendously and increase the life expectancy of Americans. But you just say the word "socialism" and people freak out like the U.S. is going to turn into Communist China or something.

4. Immigration. I really think that the whole border-fence/"illegal alien" freakout is just a very convenient excuse for racists to express their hatred of brown people. And I really don't get why people have so much bile for Mexican immigrants. I have never understood how we have this imaginary (except not really imaginary anymore since we've got the fence now) line in the sand and we care about people on one side but not on the other. Xenophobia is disgusting. The Minutemen are disgusting.

5. Iran. I am not really mad about Iran, just concerned. It's intense, all those young people so angry. I think it's good, but scary at the same time. I hope everything gets sorted out. It's been a long time coming, I think.

That's about it for now. Next is to make a list of things I am thankful for, right? To balance it out.

oh deer

So while Andrea was googling "deer necklace" this afternoon we found the following pictures:



The latter is aptly named "Illustration-Of-A-Deer-With-Antlers-Resembling-Ray-Charles-Wearing-Shades-Playing-A-Piano-And-Singing.jpg." So descriptive. I also love the watermark. I mean, who wouldn't want to steal that image? It's genius.

The first picture is just funny because it looks like the deer is coming out of a vagina.

Oh, deer.

kismet has a pretty bow

Aw.

this is why we all voted for him

forest maintenance party

Watching Dave mow around the ninja-training-camp stumps is kind of mesmerizing.

too early

I went to Coffee McDonald's (not to be confused with actual McDonald's) because Mom was grading care plans on the computer this morning, but I am going to be way too early to work if I go now. So I am sitting in my car listening to Ian Moore. Have I told you that I love my phone?