Jul/090
Its Beach
Just found out the name of the beach near my house — it’s called Its Beach. I always called it the lighthouse beach.
Going here today to get my tan biz on, and to read some books. It’s going to be gorgeous if the sun ever comes out.
Jul/090
Got my Tevas
I got my Tevas (thanks Ma!), somewhat-supportive retro bikini from Delias, and about four gallons of this White Bean and Kale soup that I made from a Gourmet recipe.
I have all the props for friend-making, and I’m chock full of unbridled enthusiasm to boot.
So where the friends at? Come on, Santa Cruz. Don’t make me work so hard at this, desperation is not a good look on a full-busted lady.
I’m going to join every club in town until I am friends with EVERYBODY here just to spite… um, I mean, to be friends with… everybody.
Jul/090
New Haus
My boudoir of mystery and minimalism.
Off to the hills.
Beach is (points) thatawayzies.
Oh hey, beach.
I’m using an old shower curtain as a wall hanging. Resourceful, no? Yes. No? Yes.
My roommate Stephanie read me her whole University of California at Santa Cruz environmental studies graduation speech. She says it was it was written about her.
Here it is, for your enjoyment:
—–
Yeah, it’s a tough town, it’s a tough school, it’s a tough state.
Man, those finals and term papers were brutal, but finally she was done and free – she had earned a treat, so she hopped onto her fixed-gear, carbon nanotube bicycle and headed over to the green kitchen at the Sustainable Living Center for a “Dead Mocha” – patchouli oil, evaporated cane juice, rice milk and carob butter topped with an organic hemp leaf. Yum.
As she walked out through the quarry, she felt eyes upon her; sure enough, a large bird gazed at her as it tore a hapless ground squirrel to bloody ribbons. Hmm, she thought, an eagle, but golden or bald? She whipped out her iPhone and aimed it at the bird, testing a taxonomy application she and her friends had worked on for Breck Tyler’s class…cool, a golden!
The eagle stared at her balefully – the implication was clear: if I was just a bit bigger and you were a bit smaller…
Normally, she’d have been thrilled at the sight of an avian apex predator feeding on a sciurid prey item, but this time it was vaguely unsettling…she was leaving the comfortable, safe home UC Santa Cruz had provided; was she now the ground squirrel and the world out there the eagle? For her whole senior year, the news was all about recession and unemployment; what would happen next?
Back at home, her housemate, Bristlecone Ortega-Smith, suggested she write haikus if she was feeling anxious: “I find they really help me re-balance and tune my energy flows…” She tried it out, but only came up with:
I’d be in-spi-red
To write a few cool haikus
If I had a job
She went to bed early. That night she had a wonderful dream: in it, all her friends – the Kristens, the Connors, the Kates, the Jasmines, the Wills – lined up to congratulate her on her “transformation…” When she asked what they meant, they reminded her of all that had happened, the urban gardens she and local residents had planted here and in Central America and in Africa; all of the water and energy she and her dorm had saved their first year at UCSC, the lyric, soaring prose she had written in Sarah Rabkin’s class (after numerous peer revisions), the internship she had completed at the Environmental Law Institute in Washington…
As her many communities surrounded her, she called back to them, “yes, I have evolved into a new species, Homo sapiens santacruzia, the kind of human that heals the earth and its many inhabitants, fights for just causes with ferocity and love, and carries Santa Cruz in her heart through all her travels!”
She awoke. The morning sun had already pierced the fog. The future was decidedly bright.
Jul/090
Like a Cockroach
http://www.dailyillini.com/diversions/2009/07/01/palin-id-come-out-ahead-in-run-against-obama
“I betcha I’d have more endurance,” she told Runner’s World magazine. “My one claim to fame in my own little internal running circle is a sub-four marathon. What I lacked in physical strength or skill, I made up for in determination and endurance.”
Jul/090
Coldest winter in San Francisco
The loneliest winter I ever spent was summer in fucking Santa Cruz.
Jun/090
Dutch Crunch
Never heard of this, but need to try immediately.
California Eatin’: Dutch Crunch in the Bay Area
“So what is Dutch Crunch? It’s a dense, doughy bread with a moist crumb, generally sold in sandwich-sized rolls or baguette-shaped loaves. But what sets it apart is the crackly top—with crunchy little bits growing from the paler crust underneath.
The bread is coated with a wash of rice flour, butter, sugar, and yeast. In the oven, the top crust splits and browns, giving us that distinctive streaked or spotted crust. Needless to say, the crunch is the best part of the loaf. Sweet and crispy, worth picking off and eating by itself, its only fault is a tendency to scrape the top of your mouth when you’re taking a huge bite. But it’s worth it. “
I just mapped out my evening after my work-out!! Going to San Jose to go to Savers, then driving 2 miles to go get a Dutch Crunch at this place:
Party girl, let’s get thee an intervention.
CRUCIAL UPDATE: Can’t go because I need to make strawberry dumplins at home. Sorry guys. Maybe I’ll go tomorrow. Maybe not. Maybe I just want to keep you guessing.
Jun/092
My new favorite blog
http://www.edithzimmerman.com/blog/
Food art taken to a new level!
Remember these?
These used to be up in a Capitola restaurant, Carpo’s, of course. These super 80s prints of people with vegetable faces.
So naturally, I am really enjoying these ones:
She really reminds me of Amy Sedaris.
She also has useful party tips, like:
1. If you want to meet new people, wear an unusual pin. It’ll be sure to get mouths talking—to you.
2. When you introduce yourself, use a name that you like.
3. If your friend says she’s tired, tell her it’s fine.
4. Call your mom and ask her what she’s doing. She’s not doing anything.
5. For an ice-breaker, tell people about something you saw that day. For instance, if earlier you saw someone in a car accident.
6. If a cute guy talks to you about a subject you don’t like, tell him you can’t hear him.
7. What books have you read recently? Bring them with you.
8. Leave some of your jewelry on the couch, so that after you leave, you can call and say you have to return to the party to find your lost jewelry
Now I’m going to have that thing where I try and copy her writing style/humor for like a week, give up, and return to incessant blather. Yaaay.
Another favorite:
6 Tips for Getting Ready and Having a Fun Night Out
1. Ask a girlfriend if she has any slacks you could borrow.
2. Draw a heart on your cheek with eyeliner and if a cute guy asks, tell him you got it at a parade.
3. Cut up pieces of your old clothing to make new outfits for your dolls.
4. Pretend to sneeze and then see who will say “God bless you.”
5. Let your friend know what your favorite snacks are, in case you sleep at her house.
6. Tear something up, probably no one will notice anyway.
Jun/090
Good writin’
Je suis vraiment desolée que j’ai pas repondu a ton autre mail — j’ai completement oubliée! C’est vraiment cool que tu va aller a Chicago! Quand est-ce que tu seras la-bas? Bon, l’endroit tres cool, c’est “Wicker Park.” C’est plutot les “hipsters” ou en France ils les appellent “hype” ou quelque-chose comme ca. Mais c’est bon pour sortir, mais je pense que si tu n’as pas 21 ans, tu ne peux pas aller en boite (oui, c’est triste). Ils sont pas vraiment les boites. Il ya beacoup de shopping brocantes a Wicker Park. Le bar preferée il s’appelle “Danny’s” http://www.yelp.com/biz/dannys-chicago a Bucktown. C’est un bar dans un vieux maison.
Pendant la journée, Chicago est plein de musées et des choses a faire. Ma musée preferée s’appelle “The Museum of Science and Industry.” Aussi il y a des plages a Chicago (OUI JE SAIS!!) alors apporte un maillot de bain avec toi. Il fait tres, tres chaud. Il ya beaucoup de shopping dans Michigan Avenue et State Street. Le magazin plus bon marché s’appelle Forever 21 et il y a deux dans “Le Loop.” The Loop c’est l’endroit le plus touristique (Michigan Avenue, State Street, Millenium Park)
J’habite en Californie pour le moment parce-que je travaille comme stagiere pour le troisieme fois, mais je retourne pour un petit sejour pour une semaine en Aout (14eme-21eme) mais c’est vraiment plutot pour le travail.
Dites-mois tes nouvelles! Quand est-ce que tu seras aux Etats-Unis??
bisous,
moi
Jun/090
Concerned, want to call ASPCA/Child Protective services
“UGGGGGHHHHH!” Loud shout, followed by the sounds of loud chains whipping against brick, then the sound of a body slam against brick.
Shout is the type of shout characteristic to high school male wrestlers wearing an army of “Pain is Weakness Leaving the Body” t-shirts and basketball shorts. Additional shouts of, “YEAHHH! YEAHHH!”
Loud, yippy barks arise soon there after.
Sounds of children giggling?
Basketball being thrown at a wall.
Repeat.
I cannot for the life of me articulate a story that makes sense from all these sounds.
I think they’re on meth. The parents and the kids. And their little dog, too.
Jun/091
Blair Waldorf style doesn’t fly in Santa Cruz
Ma? I need you to send me my Tevas that Peen and I got from LL Bean. I am not fitting in what with my belief in capitalism and also all my cheap cloth flats from Paris/sweatshops in China are disintegrating before my eyes on my mid-day hikes in biz-cazh.
Great, now I need to start wearing ill-fitting khaki shorts and spaghetti-strapped baby tees with monkey screenprints on them.