Thank you, Jennifer!!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Again – i know it’s not perfect. The cloth in the background makes no sense because the still-life shifted from week to week and by the end i was just guessing at how the light had fallen on it when i did the under-drawing. I’m not very good at imagining that sort of thing, which is why i don’t draw from imagination.

On Friday Nathan and i drove to Chicago to celebrate Valentine’s Day away from home. We stayed at a lovely little B&B in Oak Park called Harvey House and took the L into the city. I did a bit of shopping but didn’t procure much. We had pizza at Gino’s East and Nathan decided that he prefers Felix & Oscar’s pizza here in Des Moines. I’m pretty sure i caught something by not using my hand sanitizer until after my first bite of the baked ravioli appetizer. Zicam is helping me fight it, though. I’m drinking a lot of tea, too, and will probably become addicted to it as a result.

Saturday we went back into the city to see Millennium Park and the Art Institute. It was awesome to see Seurat’s A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, one of Van Gogh’s “Bedroom” paintings, and some really beautiful Monets. But the painting that struck me the most was this one:

Nouvart Dzeron, A Daughter of Armenia by Ralph Elmer Clarkson, 1912

IT LOOKS JUST LIKE ME. WTH? Even my Mama agrees. But she says i’m prettier.

We had a lovely dinner at a little place called Francesca’s Fiore in Forest Park and Nathan made me drink most of the wine since he had to drive back to the B&B. I ended up talking his ear off about Rome, my family and various photographic film formats. Best Valentine’s Day EVER.

On Sunday we visited IKEA and picked up some awesome stuff for the new loft before driving back to DSM. We’ll be moving in nine days!! I began packing yesterday. I know i’ve got a long way to go, but it’ll all be worth it in the end.

So i got this little Target coupon book in the mail yesterday. I guess the former resident of this apartment was on their mailing list for one reason or another, and i’m benefiting from that. It’s two dozen or so pages long, and each spread has three coupons on one side and a portrait on the other, like so:

I needed a bunch of stuff anyway, so i took it with me to Target today. I found a couple of things that i thought were blog-worthy.

I didn’t even need any pasta, per se–or have a coupon for it, for that matter–but this packaging grabbed me. I thought it was lovely, especially compared to all the other bread-and-butter pasta packages.

I checked out the ice cream ’cause i happened to have a coupon for it, and – lo and behold!:

Green tea Haagen Dazs?? Hell-o! I’ve been looking for green tea ice cream for years and all i could find was some dairy-free crap that tasted as bad as it sounds. But now A. i’ve found some, B. it’s freakin’ Haagen Dazs, and C. I saved a dollar on it, which makes it extra-sweet.

I bought a ton of stuff, and when i got home i flipped through the coupon book again to see if there were any coupons left that i might use, and suddenly the design made a whole lot of sense:

How clever!

And the final reason that i love Target is that soon, with the help of my dear friend Kelly who occasionally works at Target and therefore gets an employee discount, i shall acquire a new iPod touch for as much as $57 off the retail price. Hell. Yes.

Made by paddy

Those are all computer-related icons. I looove these! I found them on Etsy, totally worth the money. I feel like a true web geek now.

My sister Amy and her son Harper are visiting from Oregon right now. They arrived on Wednesday and the three of us and Mom had fun shopping around the East Village of Des Moines, going to see WALL-E, reading Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and generally hanging out. Friday evening Uncle Doug and Aunt Vicki had a little BBQ to celebrate, and of course their whole branch of the family was there. Saturday we drove out to Uncle Dave’s and visited with that bunch and Harper had fun playing with his second cousins. It had been a couple years since most of us had seen each other, and it was nice to be able to catch up.

That evening Mom, Amy and I went to see Ani DiFranco at The Capitol Theater in Davenport. I never cease to be amazed by how much she rocks. She was a little less talkative than the last time i saw her over in Iowa City with Emily last summer, but that’s okay.

I wish i’d taken pictures of all this stuff. Next time.

Yesterday Amy & Harps headed for Cedar Rapids and Mom & I came back to DM. On our way we stopped at the Amana colonies for lunch and picked up some blueberry wine. I hadn’t been around there in quite a few years. It’s really well-maintained and cute, but it was so hot that we didn’t stick around for long.

I saw some paintings by this Chicago artist Laura Lee Junge in a little gallery there, and i thought they were really neat:

On an unrelated note, my current goal in life is to decide on an apartment to move to in Des Moines, which is proving to be a major headache. But i got my new camera phone today, so playing with that should relieve some stress for sure.

From the east end of South 5th, around noon on Friday

Behind our apartment buildings (ours is the grey one).

We got our cars out and up to South 4th just in time. I went and knocked on Karl’s door to tell him to move his vehicle and Dan went knocking on all of our neighbor’s doors, because cars were quickly becoming too submerged to drive through the water. He went into the office and suggested that they alert people. “What, you want us to go knock on everyone’s door?” “Uh, YEAH, that’s what i’ve just been DOING.” So he got their asses going. Good work.

Meanwhile, I waded back to our place with my big rubber boots on and quickly packed a bag and grabbed some bananas. I went back to my car, ate a banana and tried to decide whose house i could shower at… There’s a back staircase from S 4th to Nina & Karl’s apartment complex so i called him, took a shower at their place and was able to get out the back door and back to my car though the water had risen to their parking lot by the time i was done.

Dan stuck around and had a ball wading through the brown water with Ryan and making friends with the neighbors while i went to the mall for a bit (where i found THE JACKET!) before my dental appointment and then got out of town. I was on my way to Des Moines when my car suddenly shut off in the middle of the interstate. I was able to pull over onto the shoulder, called mom and then Dan who came with Ryan to rescue me after first grabbing a burger or two. Ryan identified that my fuel line had become disconnected, reconnected it for me and i was on my way. THANK YOU, Ryan!

Some day i’ll tally up all the money that Dan and Ryan have saved me on computer and car repairs and feel guilty, and then take them out to a nice dinner or something. Amazingly, all the bad luck of the day ended up making me feel very fortunate to A: have an apartment that’s on concrete stilts; 2: Have found the perfect jacket finally C: Still have super healthy teeth even after a year and a half away from the dentist; 4: Have friends to rescue me; and E: be close enough to just hop down and visit my family. Never mind that i experienced a flood and car problems on the same day.

I stayed in DM that night and visited with Tim, Angie, Jamie and Mom and perhaps Grandma and Grandpa heard some of what we were saying, having been in the same room for most of the time. I had an interview with Zillow in Seattle which was a little awkward because i had forgotten about the time difference and expected a call at 3:30 rather than 5:30, and the phone connection was rather fuzzy.

Cut to today. Nothing in my email inbox. I feel anxious. Chicago? Seattle? Portland? Chicago? Portland? Seattle? Interviews? Plane rides? Hotels? Nothing at all?? Everyone warns me about Chicago. There is still nothing to speak of in Portland, my top choice. I am still waiting. This will be my first week without pay.

I think i need to re-write my resume and re-think my cover letter strategies. I suspect i just don’t have enough experience to satisfy most employers, which is a major drag.

Anybody know an easy way to print light colors on black paper? Embossing a stamp would be too craft-y, i think. I’d better call some local print shops.

I want to go buy things to console myself. I’m in need of a cute track jacket (i.e. hoodless hoodie with stripes on the sleeves) but can’t ever find one i like. I can’t figure out what the heck happened to the black hoodie i used to have… every once in a while i just LOSE an article of clothing–not just socks, mind you, but bigger things that i like and ought not to just lose track of randomly.

I’m looking forward to playing some Mario Kart tonight. Get my mind off things.