All right fine. It is true, two whole months is a long time to go without a post. It’s like I’ve been distracted with facebook or something. Lame excuse, I know. But yeah.

Anyway, I also for a long time felt like nothing truly of interest had happened- er, at least that I want to share with everybody anyway. Been long enough now I am surely able to dredge up some news now, what?

Full disclosure- some of this is gonna be copied and pasted from emails. Sorry mom. I am a lazy blogger.

I am having computer again and facebook messages do not always want to load properly. I think that Egil’s HD is to blame because I can hear it
clicking when it freezes. So that means I’ll have to take it back and
prolly get a new one. At least I am not a total fool and bought the
warranty. I do have back up all my word files and pics first though..
Big pain in my butt. Also these computer problems are totally cramping
my ’stay up late and write’ binges. How am I supposed to get my word
nerd on? Writing it out in my scribbly handwriting on paper is just not
the same.

Been doing it anyway though. And saving on to my flash drive because I am paranoid about losing my word files now.  I’m hittng some scenes that are fairly important to the story- the kind I’ve been thinking about for a long time and am nervous to actually write them. Like no skill I have can possibly do justice to what I got in my head. It’s a scary place to be. But I gotta get it down and out of me or it’ll never go anywhere.

In other news, there’s been some crazy management shakeups at work that have been stressing me out a bit, but they’re supposed to make things better in the end. Like supposedly I’m supposed to have health insurance starting this week. I am very excited about this. It’s a tiny bit of insurance, but a little is a far sight better than the Nothing I got now. Baby needs to see her a doctor. I haven’t even had a checkup in like a decade. Man I kinda cannot wait to do that.

I did get a solid 33 hours scheduled this week, so that’s good. I had previously been operating on 25-30ish and just squeaking by. A few more hours, especially reliable steady hours, is gonna do wonders for my bank account I feel, since the freelance work has dried up so very drastically this year. It’s a bit depressing but at least I am employed. I really hope I did not just jinx myself by saying that… aaaaaa

My roomate just lost his job this week, though he actually seems much less stressed about it than I would be. Maybe coz he’s got some savings and hasn’t been here as long so he also doesn’t have as much stuff. He’s planning to move into the living room though, so we can rent out his bedroom to some unsuspecting soul and make us a bit more cash per month. This may also be good for the ol’ minnick dollar.

We do need to clean out the disaster area that is our kitchen first. We’ve both been sick for the last few weeks and nothing has been done to satisfaction. What it is though is that our counter is so tiny and the room is so small that even managable messes look like we are total hopeless slobs. Which we are not. I hope.

One nice thing about this damned recession is that all my friends are just as poor as me, so at least I don’t feel alone. Nutty artists everywhere be feelin’ the slow heat.. bah.

Also I came home the other day to Grand Jury Summons! Oh boy, Jury Duty!! Haven’t had to go yet, it’ll be my first time. Previously I have always been living out of state. Got no reason not to do it this time though. So I’ll just have to see how it goes.

Well kids, I am tired of writing this so this is all you get. If there’s  anybody even reading anymore….

All right fine. In an endeavor to extinguish these pathetic yet strangely insistent flames of mockery, and also to avoid becoming the most uninteresting man in the world, I shall offer you this missive.

It is August. My least favorite month. It is hot and sticky and LOOONG, and as ever in August, I am Super Poor. This month is cursed.

Since I, as aforementioned, am super poor, I have been doing many small things to allay my budget shortfalls. Gone are the days of eating ten dollar lunches at the deli everyday! Away with my monthly expenditures on stacks of delicious books! No more spontaneous shopping for shiny new shoes and adorable dresses. I can’t really tell you which one of these hurts more.

Wait. Yes I can. It’s the books. I gotta have new things to read on the train or my commute becomes an arduous trudge, instead of a welcome respite in the passage of my working day.

So I’ve been cooking meals at home to take to work, this saves me much money in the food line, especially since my roommate and I share groceries and he eats out a lot. I’ve also worked out this deal where I borrow books from a coworker in exchange for food. Icelandic Chicken in particular is a big hit. So I just make extra when I cook, and receive delicious knowledge for my delicious foods.

It’s a pretty good deal. I’ve been reading a lot of science coz that’s what he brings me. Genomes  and physics and computers, oh my! It’s awesome. The last book was about famous equations and thus had like four whole chapters just on Einstein. I gotta say, reading about Einstein’s gig at the patent office, it make me feel a little better about my boring dayjob.

I painted a mural on another coworker’s bathroom wall last month and was partially paid in massive amounts of acrylic paint. So I got myself some cheap canvases and have been painting again. I did a series on blood moons coz I was in a dark mood for a while. They turned out nice though I think. Now I believe I shall switch to happier subjects. Like Bunnies. Cute adorable bunnies.

I am not kidding. If ever I am in a scuzzy public restroom (which is often as that’s the only kind the likes of me inhabits here), I have oft been known to grace said establishment’s collection of graffiti with my own rabbity contributions. Those bunnies shall spread throughout the hipster enclaves of Brooklyn, and shall also make their marks around St. Marks. That’s in the village if you did not know. Anyway, cue maniacal laugh here.

I am also poor enough that I am considering an attempt to sell some of said paintings. I don’t know that anyone will care about blood moons. But Bunniez, now. Bunniez will sell. People love them.

But enough about rabbits. Back to complaining about being poor!

Since I can’t afford lots of clothes shopping this season, I have continued to sew up a storm. A summer dress storm. Also I have been hemming people’s pants and sewing buttons for pocket change. So that’s good.

I think my next project will be to redye a bunch of my black clothes, because they have faded but are otherwise perfectly good and I don’t want to buy new ones just yet. I’m gonna see if anybody else at work wants their pants redyed too. Might as well be efficient with the dyepot, since it’s such a pain. Specially in this weather..

Gods have I mentioned the weather? I know you folks on the west coast been having it bad, but it is crazy hot and HUMID here and I can’t wait for it to stop. Yucky yucky!

I do have a giant fan that blows right over my bed and that is lovely even if it does dry out my eyes. And I been drinking liquids like I am Thor, God of Thunder. There’s a mythology reference for all you history nerds out there.

Well this has been a nice long post and I am tired of writing it so I am gonna stop. So there. Nyah.

…… but if you were to leave me some nice comments then I would not feel so lonely……

okay let there not be overt mockery!

Well, it is getting on towards summer for reals here. Lots of thunderstorms. They like to occur at 3 am when I can’t enjoy them properly.

My biggest news is that both my roomates are now gone and I have a new one. He is a fellow I used to work with at Bodies, then he moved to Atlanta, but he hated Atlanta so when his job there offered him a promotion to move back here he took it with relish. Now my big empty apartment is less empty.

It is however very clean because I had a lot of time to myself when I was living alone for the past three weeks. I am super excited about this. There’s something so wonderful about the fresh smell of murphy’s oil soap on all my hardwood floors. I also got way too excited about the fact that I bought a new shower curtain. One of my roomies had torn a hole in the old one.

I have been doing lots of writing and sewing for myself. I just finished a new bathrobe at 4 am. Now that I live with a dude again I can’t just be running around nekkid -ALL- the time.. It is green with white ‘crysanthemums’ that I hand dyed myself. Also all the visible stitching is done by hand. I’ll get some pics eventually. I’m super happy with it.

Also been playing a lot of facebook scrabble. Oh, and watching old tv shows on hulu. I love the internet.

Well, here I am again..

Lots has happened which is why I have not blogged. Kelly came to visit me! We ate at many a resturant and spent all our money on shiny things.

Then last week my Mommy came to visit! She spent four days here and I think we spent at least 18 hours of that riding trains or buses.  We went to the Cloisters for one, which is fabulously beautiful and also far far away. We spent another day at the Met, and I really gotta get out there more often because I forget how fabulous it is.

My roommate Kirsten has moved out, and my other roomie Dante is planning to leave early June. I shall swiftly need more roommates. I got a couple of friends moving here late June, so I think what I’ll do is sublet the furnished room for the end of this month and beginning of next to make up the money I won’t otherwise have then. Nothing’s final yet though.

I need a day off to clean..

I am still sewing like mad. Dante commissioned a dress from me that I finished when Mom was here. It is bright orange, red belt, yellow lining. O so bright! I could never wear such colors.. but they look good on some other people I know.

Kelly got me wathing Battlestar Galactica, and now I have nightmares that Cylons are chasing me which is Awesome. No seriously. Awesome.

She also brought me some new music and that is the bestest thing ever. Anybody want to get me a present? It’s easy. Just burn me a CD (or 8) with whatever on it. I guarantee I won’t have heard some of it, probably don’t own most of it, and will in any case love you forever.

Just sayin’.

Well that is my blog post for today and I have thus averted all mockery. Whoohoo!

Hi Everybody!

Well, I have big news, I guess. I got my results from NYU and they were not the ones I wanted, so I am not going to grad school this year after all. But after a weekend of thinking and talking to people about it (not to mention the drinking and boys), I’m actually pretty cool about it now.  It’s another year of freedom! And next year when I try again, I’ll be more prepared to entertain offers outside of New York, so that’ll be another card to play.

And since I really felt the interview went well, I have decided that what they are doing is hoping I’ll come back next year, when they can give me lots more money ‘coz I’ll be a repeat applicant. It’s happened before- my friend Simms got in that way on his second try, so there is precedent.

Anyway, I was sad for a while, but all will be well.

I made a list of things to do this year that are not grad school, and there’s some pretty awesome things on it.

I said not to mention the drinking and the boys.

I am super excited becasue Kelly is coming on Friday! And after she leaves, Mommy! This is gonna be all sorts of fun.

I have to find at least one new roommate this month. I want to do it when I am not so busy because the process is such a pain. Not looking forward to it, trying not to stress about it prematurely. So that’s that.

All of this involves me cleaning my house. It never ends!

I was supposed to have a date tonight but he just cancelled ‘coz he’s stuck at school. Lame. I was already shaved too.

Maybe I will make another pie instead. I wonder what I got in my house?

Oh my lovelies, I have returned!

My computer is still broken and I still have to fix it. But today I did what I’d been thinking about anyway and bought another. It is a tiny little netbook, just for going out and about and writing upon. It was super cheap and I totally walked into the store and out again in15 minutes ‘coz I knew exactly what I wanted. And now I have the internet again, so I can do things like order parts to fix my old one..

Other than having no CD dive, it seems pretty much like it is a mini version of the acer I already have. But it gets 7 hrs of battery life and it weighs less than a hardcover book. Also it is a lovely prussian blue.

I have named it Egil.

My other project for today was to clean my kitchen. Not as exciting, I know, but boy did I feel like I’d accomplished something. I even rubbed the walls down wwith bleachwater. They were filthy. Now they shine.

Tomorrow, the Bathroom! Dun dun dun! Also, laundry. And maybe a pie. Maybe. I did buy blueberries yesterday.

I love it when I have two days off in a row. I get so much more done! If I only have one day off I always end up just sleeping all day.

I am very excited for the impending visitation of one Kelly O’Brien. And then the week after that, my Mommy! I can’t wait. I sense much delicious resturant food in my future..

Stop mocking me! My computer is broken and I haven’t gotten around to fixing it yet. 

Not like there’s a lot of news anyway. I’m still waiting for that call or letter from NYU, and that’s really all.

Been making a lot of pie, I guess that’s news. Last week was sweet potato. It was a big hit at work, but I don’t know that I’d make it for myself ever- little too much world of starch. Tomorrow I got big plans for cherry pie and everybody is excited so they better turn out. I was gonna make ‘em from scratch but the grocery was out of frozen cherries so I just bought canned. It’ll be fine anyway I’m sure.

Waiting waiting waiting. I want mid-April to be here. Stupid March. At least the weather’s getting nicer. I wore a skirt yesterday, and that is a beautiful thing.

Oh and my cat is losing major weight. I thinks she likes the spring too. Also she is on the eat-only-food-you-don’t-like diet and that is the only thing that ever works for her. We had a kibble battle for nearly three days. I won. Yes yes.

All right, I delayed as long as I could, but I must at last succumb to the avalanche of peer pressure and post something..

Man but I do loves me my hyperboles.

Anyway, it is March now and I cannot wait for it to be spring. I am tired of cold and want to wear cute skirts and eat ice cream again. We had a crazy snowstorm to start the month thought, it was like winter was giving us a valiant last stand. It’s mostly melted now. And the temp has been yoyoing like mad, 18 one day and 55 the next. Bah.

But enough boring talk about the weather. What else has been going on?

Well, not much. Lots and lots of waiting. And being really cranky about all the waiting. I guess the disadvantage to having my grad school interview date early is that I get longer to wait.

I turned in my ‘homework’ last week, and I really felt like I’d done all I could do. ‘Course, now that it’s all in I’m having irrational thoughts along the lines of “perhaps I should have annoated my research more throughly!”… But in the end I don’t know that I should have done more. I had lots of primary source pictures, my renderings were some of the best watercolors I’ve ever done, I’d swatched the whole thing down to the collar and cuffs… Man! I even threw down 15 bucks on buttons! They had to be real horn, I felt. And the silly things were 3-4 dollars apiece, so even though I only needed 1 or two of each size to show for samples, it added up. Good thing I’m not really making this suit…

Anyway it’s in and done and I am waiting. Did I mention I was waiting? Arrarrrarrrarrr…

Was really unreasonably cranky all last week, didn’t even have the hormones to blame it on. Then I had two entire days off and wow is my whole world better all the sudden. Apparently I really needed that day of lying around my house naked doing absolutely nothing. The second day I did laundry. ALL of it. Sheets, towels, the handwashed delicates, every thread of laundry I could find.. And oh man does my room smell better. Mmm… detergent..

Oh, and the other day I took some friends to see a show- ‘Garden of Earthly Delights’. It’s based of the Bosch painting, just beautiful. And renewed my LOVE for the Cello. Oh but I do loves me the celloin’. Ahhh… So good! Also, near-naked people fly on harnesses. Way cool. Made me wiggle and cry, somewhat to the distraction of the nearby patrons… I’m the best audience member ever.

My cat is once again on the I-bought-food-you-don’t-like-but-that’s-all-you-get-so-deal-with-it diet. It’s done wonders for her energy level.. After two days now I do seem to be sort of winning the battle of wills, in that she’s begrudingly eating it and I did not buy her anymore of her old brand. I’m gonna stick with it if I can, it’s good to see her run around more even if she is annoying in the morning.

Oh, I’m also waiting to hear about a summer job in Allentown PA that would be working with a fellow I met at NYU. It’s not riches and it means camping out in Allentown for eight weeks, but I’d really love to work with this guy again because last time was really fun, and anyway it might be good for me to get out of the city for awhile. But I’ll hear after the weekend I guess.

And that’s all the news that’s fit to print for now, I suppose. Enough with your mockery!

Good morning, chickens and chickadees!

Well, first off, since everybody and their dog has been harassing me about it, I must make this announcement. I don’t actually know when I find out about my grad school application. They finish the interviews mid-March, and so I suspect the letters get sent out first week of April. The website seems to confirm these suspicions. So then. You’ll find out when I do.

But I’m not gonna freak out about it too much. I did all I could do at the interview, and now I’m gonna concentrate on the homework and see what happens from there. Actually I’m beginning to suspect that they give out the homework in part to give us something to do while we wait…

The homework is going pretty well, I think. I got two more weeks, feels pretty good so far. I found some great pictures of the fellow I want to base my design off of. One Gustave Stresesmann. Was Chancellor of the Weimar Republic a few times (those dudes switched up their cabinet posts more often than the W administration), and won the Nobel Peace prize in, uh, 1929 I think? Anyway, all that is incidental to the fact that he wore the same high-collar-and silk-tie combo from 1910 to ‘round 1939. A man of habit, he.

Now I gotta find a way to document what sorts of fabrics his suit might have been made from, and go do me some swatching. Can’t wait for that, that’s the fun part! Mmmm… wools and linens… yes yes.

Today is my first real day off in like 6-8 weeks, and I am way happy to have it. The super is over fixing my ceiling, and I got big plans to clean my room, maybe even do laundry. I did already take down my Christmas tree… I know, shame on me for leaving it up so long. I’d have taken it down weeks ago, but my roommate really wanted to keep it as long as possible… and as I have mentioned there was that whole thing where I was working all the time. But it came down today. All gone! Now I have packed my little Christmas box, with all my ornaments and lights and my gigantic tree stand. And when I open it up again, it will be Christmas! This is a lovely thing.

Big day today kids!

I had my interview at Tisch this morning and I feel pretty good about it. Susan Hilferty said my drawings were beautiful! Then she gave me homework.

Yup, homework. They want to see me draw more detail, so I have three weeks to learn everything there is to know about 1920s menswear, and redesign a suit for the Duke in my Wiemar Republican Measure for Measure. Buttons and lapels and cufflinks and all, really specific like as if it’s for a movie.

Menswear is terrifying and boys are hard to draw. But I’m pretty excited. I’m sensing some library time in my future.

Of course they asked questions I wasn’t expecting, and didn’t say anything about other things I was expecting questions on, but that’s par for the course for these sorts o’ things I guess.

After that was over I sat through a studio class. They were doing early design presentations on the opera Wozzek, and I got really excited about it. Like I was having a hard time keeping my mouth shut (I did succeed, though. Mostly) . The other interviewees that day left during the break, but I was really interested, so I stayed the whole time, 12-5. Long class. But like I said, I got WAY excited. My fingers were itching! I wanted to throw my ideas out there SO BAD. It was all just really fascinating and I felt like I wanted to be a part of it.

So I dunno. Maybe someone noticed I was chomping at the bit, and maybe that’s a good thing. But I’m more determined than ever now- my backup plans all pale to blank in comparison. I really really want to go there.

I hope they accept me and give me the money I need. I WANT I WANT I WANT!