Fort Casey

On Saturday Tyler and I took a trip to Fort Casey. Here are the highlights for all the pictures see this flickr photoset.

It was really foggy while we were on the ferry.

Defending the US.

2009

I've been putting off the New Year post since New Year's day, now I realized that if I don't just f-ing post something, it will never get done and then it will be far to late to proclaim resolutions... or whatever.

First, a look back. My resolution last year was to get my transdermal implants out, and boy do I wish I had gone through with it. I don't know if it's my lifestyle or diet or astrological sign, but this last year has been transdermal hell. TMI warning! They have been been bloodier, crustier, and more swollen then any other time since I had them put in. I wake up with goo stuck to my chest, and when I gently remove it the damn things bleed. I have to sleep in a sports bra otherwise the irritation gets so bad that they hurt all the time, and swell up, and bleed more, and crust more, and look like crap. I can endure the blood, crust, and pain, but the looking like crap is getting to me. I like to wear low-ish cut shirts but this last year I've had to retool my wardrobe, because I didn't want people commenting on the bloody metal sticking out of my cleavage. It's frustrating because I want them to be there but I also want them to be maintenance free. I'm under the impression that this type of body modification isn't common, and I like being a rarity. I've decided to suck it up and have them taken out on my terms, because otherwise I'm afraid they're going to have to come out on not friendly terms.

Enough about (what I didn't do) last year. This year is setting up to be fantastic (if you ignore the general state of the economy). Here are my resolutions: 1) Work my butt off till my trip to Japan in April, so I'll have maximum funds. 2) Attend my closest knitting group (Purly Girls) at least twice a month (everyone is so nice, I think I'll be there every Monday I can). 3) Finish this ESL certificate and decide if I want to go to grad school for ESL or Adult Education or Linguistics. If school isn't in my future figure out if I actually want to be a teacher. 4) More friend time. 5) Knitting/Spinning/etc. 6) Get back up to an acceptable level of fitness.

and seven is the big one: 7) Get a drivers license, swallow my pride about the environment, acquire a car, and have at least 2 more hours of free time a day.

All in 2009, I think it's doable and I'm excited.

Spider Head!

I failed at National Blog Posting Month, so here's a picture of a spider on my desk.



The little person was brought in by my coworker, she says it's looks just like me. So I guess there is a spider on my head! Ew... but I don't want to deal with putting it outside.

Guh...

We will return to our normally scheduled blogging when I feel less like crap.

Yes We Can?

Holy crap! We totally did!

*happy dance*

XD

Election Day and Back to Work

I can't be enthusiastic about this election because I keep thinking back to 2000 and 2004. In 2004 I was at school, and pretty much everyone went to watch the polls close on the huge TV in the community center. When bush won, everyone started crying. It was one of the most depressing sights ever. Thus, I refuse to get my hopes up about Obama winning. Republicans have proven that they will only stop short of murder to eliminate the opposition (ok, fine, that might be a little dramatic). My only prediction about this election is, if Obama and McCain enter into another crazy recount stolen election BS thing, there will be unrest and possibly violence.

In other news, I'm back at work, and still blogging! I have to admit, that not working (but still being supported) is very tempting. I wouldn't mind cleaning the house and cooking dinner every night if I didn't have to work 40 hours a week. There are too many trips to Japan scheduled for me to go off the clock. Now it's back to "dealing" with stuff. :)

First day!

It's the first day of National Blog Posting Month, and I almost forgot to post. -.-

I wish I had more substance to kick things off with, but today has been a super lazy day, and my life is boring. Tyler and I had some people over Halloween, and we only got one group of kids! I thought we didn't have enough candy, and now we have too much.

I have a digital camera coming in the mail so you can expect some fancy pictures in the near future. I plan on doing a little profile on what I do at work and maybe a felting tutorial. I've been obsessed with felting recently and I don't use the washing machine so I thought it would be a good subject. I was going to go to the yarn store and get some stuff for spinning, but they all close at five. I need to get out of bed earlier.

Ok, yeah boring post, and not how I wanted to kick off NaBloPoMo.

3 Things

1) My bangs, fringe, that hair that grows in your face, is getting too long and stabbing me in the eye. I want to grow my hair out, but it's going to get really hot, and there's the whole eye stabbing thing. Dilemma.


2)I bought a bag from Gilt Group. It was expensive and a good deal at the same time.


3) I'm obsessed with candy, mostly Leone Pastiglie candies and Pucho Shuwa.

There's Nothing Wrong with Milk Chocolate

I just finished off a pretty good, considering what I paid for it, milk chocolate bar. I'm a bit of a pig, and really love chocolate in all shapes and forms, but this makes me think of all the people I know who wont go near the milky stuff. These are normal liberal people, but when I tell them I like milk chocolate they gasp in horror and start to think I'm either an idiot or missing taste buds. Being thought of as less of a person just because I have different preferences in foods is offensive, and I in turn think these people are idiots because they're so quick to judge a person based on taste in chocolate (or anything else for that matter).

I could go on about intolerance and why I think it's immature, but that's for another post. Instead I'm going to enjoy the lingering taste of smooth, not too sweet, milk chocolate. Yumm.

My life has lulled into boring to blog about.

My roommate seems to have abandoned our apartment for a girl on the other side of the state, so I'm taking this opportunity to spend as much time as possible naked and cleaning. Tyler is of course doing the same. I think I am meant to live alone, or with a maid, because I have such a hard time dealing with the lack of control I have over messes. I think in all roommate relations, there is always "the messy" one, no matter how clean each party is. I happen to be the clean one right now, and it's driving me a little batty. I think when/if my roommate comes back we'll have to have a talk about this.

Finally got my tax refund. Credit card you are so paid off. :D

Tyler and I are going to see Corteo in a couple weeks. My mom has always really been into Cirque Du Soleil, and I've seen a few in Seattle, and one in Vegas. They were all fantastic, and I'm really excited about this one in May.

Keep and eye on me on twitter if you want to know what I'm up to: http://twitter.com/aimeeisdrawing

New Computer

I got a new computer a couple weeks ago, and it's about freaking time. Poor little laptop was lame, and I was thinking about taking it out back and putting it down. That thing really pulled its weight though, and I'd have to say that the 12 inch PowerBook was a quality product.

My new computer is a 24 inch iMac, and I can't tell you how wonderful it is to double your screen space. Though this wasn't my first choice for a computer, I'm really loving it. The hard drive could be a little bigger, and I need another gig of RAM, but those are 1) my only complaints and 2) easily fixed. I haven't had a chance to really push the machine yet, as I don't have Photoshop installed, but I'm confident in this things ability. I installed World of Warcraft on it for Tyler, and the graphics look really nice.

Oh, and it has a built in camera with stupid little effects. The mirror is my favorite.









I'm quite happy, and I'd like to thank my parents for helping me with the purchase.

Here is a picture of me about to eat the biggest taro chip ever.

Yeah...

Caucus Part Deux

I went to the second caucus today, and It was way more organized then the first caucus, but I still wasn't much into it. After standing in line for half an hour I signed in and cast my vote for Obama. Then I sat in the high school's gym for an hour waiting for something to happen. I got a lot of hand outs and post cards from people "running" for delegate. After that hour, I got sick of sitting around, and decided to leave. At this, and most (i think) caucuses, you only have to sign in for your delegate vote to count, so I did my duty. I got out of there and took the bus home, now I'm waiting for Tyler. The process is interesting, but at this point I don't really care what happens, I just don't want McCain to win.

Couple Camera Phone Pictures:




Dog who's voting for Obama.

I fail at posting right now.

I have nothing to post about right now, and I don't even know why I'm bothering to write this. I have a post started about my tip to NY, but I can't get the pictures off my camera right now, so that gets to wait. My life is pretty boring right now. The most exciting thing is building the readymade meat cart bed, but it drops down to zero excitement with no picture. Rolling my eyes.

I'll be gone for a bit.

Tomorrow morning I wake up at 5 and get carted off to the airport. I'll be boarding a plane for New York City where I will be sleeping on my sisters floor. :D Be back monday!

I hope I'm not the only one who forgot it is St. Patricks Day.

I've been so fixated on how early Easter is this year, that I forgot about St. Patrick's Day, and I don't really care. It's Monday! Even if I did like beer I have the good sense not to start the week hung over. So I'll drink water in honor of the man who drove the snakes into the sea... or whatever.

I should probably post some photo evidence of this, but no camera in site. I'm not a complete dumb ass who only cuts her own hair. I got my hair cut over the weekend, and it's a fabulous choppy bob. I absolutely love it, and I think it makes my face look thinner and my neck longer. My hair stylist always does the best job.

Tyler and I were supposed to have gone skiing on Sunday, but my knees have been bothering me. They've been extremely soar, and I'm worried that I may be injuring myself at the gym. I'm going to take a break from the heavy lifting this week and see if it helps.

I've been playing Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings quite a bit. So far I like it, but the real time battle aspect of it is hard to follow in such a small screen.

Skin Update

This is just a short little post, mostly for me, about how my skin is doing. Today is day 7 of the meds! and I'm seeing a difference already. My skin isn't clear by any stretch of the word, but the pimples I am getting are closer to the surface, and less extreme. I've had a few cystic zits, and after a night of Retin-A Micro they get small and less swollen. The oral medication doesn't really seem to be doing much... other then getting rid of all my retained water (I went to the gym today and I've lost 3 pounds of water! Weird!), but I'm going to give it 3 months because I think these hormonal things take time. The only thing I don't like, is how oily my skin is. I used to use all kinds of stuff to keep the oil at bay, but I'm not supposed to use anything with the Retin-A, so I'm a total oil slick. I guess you could call it dewey, but I just think it's gross. :P

The War on Acne!

This post isn't really a war on anything, I just thought the title might drum up some google hits. Before I get to the point! Did you know that my website is getting three or four hits a day off searches for "www.drawing.com". Crazy!

Mmmmk. At 21, a college grad, and financially independent; I am a pizza face. I'm sure I've had acne since I was pubescent, but for some reason it didn't seem that bad. I don't remember my skin in middle school, which makes me think it wasn't that pimply. In high school I got the occasional zit and drug store products were enough. College was me just flat out not caring, I was grumpy and emotionally unstable, and I'm sure people where more fixated on my bad attitude then on my skin. Now that I actually care about my appearance and, you know, want to act my age, my skin is terrible. Two weeks ago I had at least thee gross, painful, and extremely swollen pimples. I'm not sure if cystic is the right term, as ever website seems to have it's own definition, but this was severe. I kept op with my face washing and used the strongest products I could buy, but nothing was working. Finally I said fuck it and did what I knew not to do, which was poke and prod till the zit did something. I consider myself extremely lucky that my skin doesn't scar really badly because I think that could have left big pitted marks in my forehead. Enough grossness! At that point I called my sister's dermatologist and set up an appointment for today.

I think I should point out that I don't have poor hygiene. I wash my face twice a day, I tone, moisturize, etc. I do wear a little makeup, and I think Bare Minerals may have had something to do with my cystic acne (obviously I've stopped using that stuff). I really do my best to stick by this even when I'm at the gym or someone else's house. So this trip to the dermatologist was basically out of frustration. I was doing everything right and I was still getting pizza face.

So this is what the dermatologist told me (and she was really quite nice about it too): The acne I have is most likely hormonal and this could also be the cause of my oily skin. I don't have exceptionally sensitive skin so I have a few options available to me. The most obvious being balancing my hormones, with some kind of medication. OK I'm all for that! So I got a prescription for a diarrhetic that some how binds to the hormone that causes acne and expels it from your system. My other option was switching birth control pills, but the brand suggested doesn't have a generic. She also suggested a topical treatment, Retin-A Micro, which I'm supposed to use at night. I'm not sure how this works, but it's not an antibiotic so I'm down with it. I didn't get the oral prescription filled today and I got some samples of the Retin-A so that all I'm using right now. I'm going to be very disappointed if I don't wake up with dry peely skin tomorrow.

I'm hoping this doesn't turn into a long quest for the perfect acne medicine. So many blogs I've read recently have gone on an on about how the author used x amount of products before seeing any results. Fingers are crossed.

Life update? I think so.

Tyler and I have been spending way too much time at University Village recently. For those of you outside of Seattle, this is an expensive and bloated version of a strip mall. I think the only reason we end up there is because it's close to where Tyler's parents live, and he thinks of it when it comes to shopping. Personally I'm more of a downtown person, but downtown doesn't have free parking. Anyway, I need to stop going there.

Last weekend I went downhill skiing for the first time. Tyler had been threatening to take me since we started dating, and now that I'm finally comfortable being semi athletic (we also live in the same city) things have come to fruit. I didn't really know what to expect, but any time I think of mountains, snow, and falling down, cold and wet is my first assumption. It really wasn't that cold for being in the mountains, and I had lots of water proof cloths so it wasn't wet either. :D I started on a really gentle hill covered with 3 year olds learning to ski, and much to my pleasure, it was really easy. I wasn't carving or anything, but I learned to control my speed and turn. The rope toe was closed, and hiking back up the hill with skis gave me more of a work out then skiing. After lunch we took the chair lift up an intermediate hill, which wasn't that great for a few reasons. First, I hate the chair lift, almost enough to try and hike up the hill next time. Just because you can stand to slide down hill, at say 12 degrees, does not mean you're ready for 45+ degrees. That mountain was way too steep and it completely freaked me out. I was pretty much paralyzed till I realized there was no other way down. Then came the slow decent of screaming, Tyler snow plowing backwards, and falling down. We made it down, and I now understand trust exercises better, for pretty much the entire hill, Tyler skied backwards while holding ski poles in front of him, I held the poles too and tried to follow him. Thinking about it I'm quite impressed that he was able to do that. We're going again next weekend, and I'm hoping something stuck and I'll be able to ski a little better.

I've almost completely transitioned to my new job, and I'm really enjoying it. Most of what I'm learning is color correction, and I think is working the left side of my brain which hasn't been getting much use lately. I'm much happier with this job.

Aimee the Grouch

So I haven't been blogging much because I've been a huge grouch since getting sick. For the last week I've been either incapacitated by phlegm or fighting off the urge to attack someone. Now that I'm feeling better, I'm still fighting urges. I can't talk about it on a public blog, but dear readers, you can assume it's the usual BS that happens when people are locked in the same building for 8 hours a day.

I've been experimenting with makeup a little bit recently. When I was younger, I didn't wear makeup because I didn't see the point, then my skin got all gross and oily and makeup just seemed like a way to aggravate that. My skin really hasn't calmed down much, but I'm learning to cope with it, and eye shadow doesn't normally give you pimples. So that's fun.

My life is boring...

Edit: 2 things!

1) Lunar eclipse was awesome, I only wish I didn't live in the middle of the city so I could have seen it better.
2) Everyone at my work is white, and they're not very sensitive to the Asian in the room. A couple days ago one of my coworkers called me my sisters name, it was weird because Miya worked their for a couple weeks, but didn't really talk to anyone. I laughed and told her that's what my mom does, but another person in the room was like "WTF? Aimee's worked here way longer then Miya ever did." So my coworker explains that her sister in-law/aunt/some kind of relative is both Asian and named Misa. I really couldn't believe it, what kind of rock do you have to live under to associate your one Asian relative with your one Asian coworker. This kind of thing makes me ill, I was too shocked to say anything, but I should probably start calling her the names of all the middle aged white women I know and see how she likes it. I (and Misa) have both been reduced to our race (HALF MY RACE!) and if that isn't racist I don't know what is. Seriously guys... WHAT THE FUCK?! I've been spending a lot of time flipping through Japanese fashion magazines in the last month, and I know for a fact that if you put me in a line up of Asians, I'd stick out like a soar thumb. Of course white people are too wrapped up in their superiority to notice the fact that I actually do have some of my dad's genes, some of THEIR GENES. Ignorance is not an excuse anymore, we live in 2008, in a city full of different races. OPEN YOUR FUCKING EYES!