au revoir 2008...

I expect a recap of sorts is in order... so here's a recap of 2008..

January... I was at home for two weeks before going back to Boston in early-mid Jan, then I spent most of the time in Boston feeling alone and sorry for myself because my living situation was crap. February was interesting. Lots of doing things I would never have thought I would do- going out for drinks way too much. In fact, I think I drank more alcohol in February than other times combined- the effects of turning 21. But I also went to New York for my birthday and bought the infamous silver Manolo Blahniks, ate a fantastic cupcake at Magnolia Bakery, and traipsed across the Brooklyn bridge in the rain. I spent more of my own money in one week of February than maybe the rest of the year combined. (manolos, a dress on sale at Anthropologie, dinner in NY, a cupcake, bus boston>NY roundtrip...)
March saw me coming home for Spring Break, and I went to Monterey for a few days. I also turned my life around in late March, health-wise and began my crazy 31 days in a row gym routine. April was the month I returned home to California for good. I also watched the Boston marathon at a block from the finish and had an epiphany that I wanted to be a marathoner. I went to a wedding in Topanga Cyn that weekend at the end of April that it was 105 degrees...
May was mildly interesting. Went on a memorial day weekend adventure with my mother in santa barbara/ventura and it rained nearly the entire time. Started my job back at Peet's. June is when I started my crazy summer class + work routine: work 4:30-9:30 am, class 10:30a-1:pm, lunch, homework, gym, dinner, bed... five days a freaking week.
July... I can't really remember much of July because I was in school doing the crazy routine. But I did start running in July. Which is a stupid time to start running. Got my first realllly nice running shoes. August was nuts. Radiohead concert at the end of the month, working, painting, running... But fucking Radiohead was amaaaazing.
September! I started classes again in September. This is also when my strange vertigo started and never went away. I hung out with friends and all sorts of shite like that. October had really hot weather which sucked. Lots of fires and bad air quality. More school, more homework and hanging out with friends. My parents were out of town and I had the house to myself (which is reeeeally rare as they never go anywhere on vacation ever) so laziness and all that ensued.
November! More running, increasing my mileage and time. Thanksgiving with lots of people over including one who didn't know how the hell to censor himself (Ryan knows who Im talking about lol). Rain!!!
December has been interesting. Busy as all hell. Christmas shopping, a trip to the Getty, GhostHunters marathons on SciFi (lol), a very fun time watching a boat parade though it was extremely cold outside, and Christmas.

I hope 2009 will be a happier year. Also, a more financially stable one. Bush will be gone, and who knows if Obama will be decent or if he's just like every other dirty politician. I'll be going back to Art Center in the fall, which means somehow 16 months after I start the final leg of the journey I might finally be done with college. Will I be single? Probably. But I'm okay with that, because I like my time and independence. My first marathon is in a few months and I'm terrified.

and with that said, I now bid 2008 goodbye.


-kate

nihilism for everyone

music: michael buble 'it had better be tonight (meglia stasera)'

ah, 2008 is almost over. hoping 2009 will be infinitely better and that our economy will get a little better.

also hope my footless tights are the right size.. may have to exchange them.. hmm..

*dance*

huzzah for Bruce Springsteen having a new album coming out!

not much else to say, just wasting time until i go for a run...


am in a right kerfuffle with art stuff that i want to do... have the idea but the execution compositionally is an issue.



kate

it's a right kerfuffle!

Thank you cards to be sent out, gift cards to be used... ah, the bountiful array of gifts I receieved for Christmas makes me happy. Don't get me wrong, I love buying gifts a whole lot, it's not just about my getting things. I think the most exciting thing about opening a gift is not knowing what it is; wondering whether someone got you something atrocious or really fantastic.

With that said, here is the once-a-year gifts received list:

gift cards:
subway
2 Jamba Juice
Sport Chalet
Barnes & Noble
iTunes
peets

clothes:
purple skirt + purple bird print blouse (Gap)
running capris!
running socks!! i love socks
running shirt!
huzzah for clothes!

etc:
frame with print of favorite alma-tadema print
(Borders- return book already have = money for other books!! yay!)
Little Britain Live dvd
see's chocolates


All in all, a very good pile of fun things. Food related gift cards are always fun. Kind of wishing had a Coffee Bean card, as do not want to drive to peets- would much rather drive 2/3 mile to the Bean and buy latte there (despite always having name written on cup as keith. name is not keith. am not a man!) hmm....

Watched my Little Britain Live dvd-- oh, how i love that show. if only they had Are You Being Served? in normal episode sets, not whatever bbc decides are funny episodes to put on a dvd... ;(

getting cold sitting here with blanket and no pants soooo that is all for today. time to put on pants and get on with my day.

-kate
ps: the title is in reference to lou & andy.

more sappy lyrics

currently listening to pink floyd, but here's some lyrics to a good song.

My song is love
Love to the loveless shown
And it goes on
You don't have to be alone

Your heavy heart
Is made of stone
And it's so hard to see clearly
You don't have to be on your own
You don't have to be on your own

And I'm not gonna take it back
And I'm not gonna say I don't mean that
You're the target that I'm aiming at
Got to get that message home

My song is love
My song is love, unknown
But I'm on fire for you, clearly
You don't have to be alone
You don't have to be on your own

And I'm not gonna take it back
And I'm not gonna say I don't mean that
You're the target that I'm aiming at
And I'm nothing on my own
Got to get that message home

And I'm not gonna stand and wait
Not gonna leave it until it's much too late
On a platform I'm gonna stand and sing
That I'm nothing on my own
And I love you, please come home

My song is love, is love unknown
And I've got to get that message home

-coldplay 'a message'

Along with "La Vie en Rose", this is another one of my favorite sappy songs. As it is the holiday season, I'm being overly emotional and all about the love songs. disturbing.

Was getting coffee and saw an adorable basenji (dog breed) and wanted to hug it, though it probably was not the same happy joyful overly excitable dog like my best friend's basenji, Ginger. Ginger is the friendliest, sweetest, most guileless dog I have ever been around. For some reason she seems to be the only dog that actually likes me. She sees me and wags her tail so hard that her entire back is moving to and fro and she almost hits herself in the head with her tail. It's adorable to watch. Plus she sleeps on the top of the couch, curled up like a cat. i heart Ginger.

Can someone please tell me what the hell I should buy for various members of my family for Christmas? Bleh. I'm not feeling very creative about gift giving this year.

-kate

i'm listening to the most non-holiday song ever- Pink Floyd's 'High Hopes'. i WIN.

la vie en rose

Hold me close and hold me fast
The magic spell you cast
This is la vie en rose

When you kiss me heaven sighs
And tho I close my eyes
I see la vie en rose

When you press me to your heart
Im in a world apart
A world where roses bloom

And when you speak...angels sing from above
Everyday words seem...to turn into love songs

Give your heart and soul to me
And life will always be
La vie en rose

The Louis Armstrong version totally wins over the Edith Piaf version. <3 this song.

happy holidays.

-kate

kate wants a 911 turbo cabriolet

It's been unusually cold for LA, even for the fact that it's basically winter. Bah..

Last night I was in Ventura and it was like, below 40, and I was really glad I had my Columbia puffy coat. Reeeally glad. I wore it in the car on my long lonely drive back to Pasadena, with a long sleeved shirt and the heater on my feet. Wanted to wear gloves because my hands are always cold, but could only find one glove so I looked like an insanely stupid person.

My cold tolerance has apparently disappeared since last year's stint in Boston. I was awesome. I got to the point where I was walking around the city when it was 35 wearing jeans and a tshirt with my running shoes. Oh well. I guess cold tolerance goes away when you have to live through 105+ weather.


Also, I reeeeeeealllllly want this car. Nevermind that its around $150,000. We'll just forget that bit. We'll forget that any of the 911 series are mostly more than $90,000.



LOVE AT FIRST SIIIIGHT.

specs:
480 hp
0-60mph in 3.8 seconds
top speed: 193 mph. *giggle*


ohhh porsche how i love thee...


-kate

let the American auto companies just fail

Don't buy an American car. Not that it matters because they're all going the fuck out of business... But don't buy one. As much as I have grown emotionally attached to my not-so trusty little tank of a car, it's kind of made of fail. The latest thing to go wrong with it (in a ridiculously long list for the fact that it's less than 4 years old) is the CD player. The eject button fails to function anymore and apparently now I'll have Blink-182's album 'Take Off Your Pants and Jacket' in the car for all eternity. Because I can't afford to get another thing fixed on this goddamn car.

Screw you, Dodge.


I think I have horrible car luck. Plus the service center I took the car to because it was a mere 3 miles from my house, is TOTAL crap. I hope they all lose their jobs and go out of business because they're the rudest, most unhelpful bunch of assholes.

I know I've made some pretty angry points in this post but... at this point I'm so angry about all the weird shit that's gone wrong with the car vs. the amount of money I've put into the car and the horrible service i've received. This has been going on for almost three and a half years and I'm up to my neck with frustration everytime something random goes wrong because the douchebags at the dealership service center know absolutely nothing and have no work ethic.

Plus, let's please bring up the fact that nobody respects a young blonde girl. FUCK YOU. Just because I'm blonde doesn't mean anything. At least I'm not a fucking tool like you shitbags. I'm surprised you get ANYWHERE in life by the way you treat women, and that you aren't sitting somewhere just slobbering on yourselves.


you FAIL.



.kate.

world-class Kenyan runners for all!

Since I find odd things on both Runnersworld.com and other websites, heres a good weird one. it's embarrassing. embarrasing in a "americans are fucking stupid and degrading in the worst ways possible and i want to hide my head so people from other countries don't think i'm from this atrocity of a nation" way.

This woman gave her husband a Kenyan runner for his 40th birthday.... if that doesn't sound fucked up.....


in the words of the great David Bowie, I'm afraid of Americans.

-kate.


ps: did anyone who reads this blog watch the shrimp video? yeah. they're trying it with lobsters next. beat THAT.

cue Chariots of Fire theme song

holy. shit.

SHRIMP ON A TREADMILL. I especially like when it's put to the music from Chariots of Fire.

*giggles incessantly*

That so wins.

Whether or not it wins more than that video with the lion hugging people while Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" plays in the background.... well... no, because that video made me cry. The shimp video was just way too funny.


Went to the Getty Center with a friend on Thursday. They have an amazing new exhibit up thru early Feb of an illuminated manuscript. What's different about this illuminated manuscript is that they actually took it apart page by page and put them in separate cases. Fantastic stuff. Also, I had forgotten or not ever realized that they had one of my absolute favorite Alma-Tadema paintings (specifically Spring), and when I saw it, I just kind of ran over and stood in front of it staring at it for like 5 minutes. Awesome.


-kate

why is it socially inaccpetable to be single?

I'm perfectly fine with being single, but other people don't seem to be.

The world hates singletons.


If you are single, you receive pity. If you are single, and your friends are not, suddenly you are not always in their lives anymore. You aren't important because you apparently cannot possibly be someone to talk to if you can't talk about your lovey dovey couples moments with other couples.

Also, married people get tax breaks. If you are married and in the military, you get more money.

If you are at a certain age, it somehow becomes abnormal to not be dating or married. For example, I have started getting the question that all singletons dread- "is there someone special in your life?" by various individuals. As if I have lost my merit as a human at twenty-one years old because I am not the cultural/social norm due to my single status.

If you are of a certain age and spend a lot of time with people of either sex, people around you that don't know you will invariably make the assumption that you are a couple. You can't be friends, roommates, or even sisters without people assuming that you're dating someone. My mom and her sister were on a tour of the canyonlands of the US, and people ASSUMED they were a couple even though my mother was wearing her wedding ring and my aunt was not. "Would your friend like some cream and sugar?" The old lady asked my aunt. "You mean my sister?" she replied.

Gift giving:
You may receive a gift on your birthday, or you may not. Depending your religious views, this may be the only time of year you receive gifts if you are single. If you are married then gifts are:
1. wedding shower
2. wedding
3. anniversary
*4. baby shower
*5. baby

It's like that episode of Sex and the City. Carrie goes to a baby shower at someone's house, and her $500 shoes are stolen. When she tells this to the woman whose party/house it was, the woman scoffs at her lifestyle and talks about how 'well i have kids' as if that makes it alright to belittle other peoples lifestyles. Finally, Carrie gets her to pay for the shoes by registering herself at the boutique as marrying herself. So she gets her Manolos.


I could go on and on about this subject but it's too depressing.

namaste
.kate.