In Retrospect:

*Saw Lynda Barry at Comic-Con. Had her sign her new book; when she was through, birds were singing and hearts were shot through with arrows on the page. She is such the sweet thing.
*Also: sat through the second half of a presentation about Japanese Bat Man comics from the 60s. Never thought i would see something like that, and it was highly enjoyable. It helps when the person speaking has unbridled enthusiasm ;)
*Ran into a friend, which is always nice; saw some amazing custom wood Ouija boards; purchased a lovely print of a raven/clock thingamabob; ate some crappy soft pretzels. Oh! And had ketchup squirted all over us as we sat on the floor leafing through the day's schedule- turned out that someone had dropped a packet, and a passerby stepped on it, unknowingly causing major trauma for Nat and i. It was almost like Carrie. (Okay, maybe that's a slight exaggeration.)
*And finally, we got to see the first 20 minutes of Bill Plympton's new feature-length animated film, Idiots and Angels. Wow. It was really something... the fact that Tom Waits collaborated with the music didn't hurt, either! Can't wait to see the whole thing. His short Hot Dog was hilarious, as well, one of the high points of my Comic-Con experience.

*I left for Las Vegas the next day by train/bus, to help my mom work her table at an arts & crafts show. Not as much foot traffic as we'd all hoped, but we got to iron out a lot of kinks in the whole process, and met some truly great people. This is good for my mom, as she needs to make some contacts if she wants to get ahead with her business... I think a lot of people just weren't ready for her type of stuff. Most of the booths consisted of homemade candles, or knitting, or jewelry, and of course the requisite painted boards with sweetie-pie slogans like "Sisters: friends for life" and "Simplify". Not quite my ball of wax, but different strokes for different folks. I don't think people understood that my mom makes everything by hand, not just orders them online or something. So frustrating!
There was a freak lightning/thunderstorm early on Saturday morning that just made my day, though... the rest of the weekend the sky was filled with the most unbelievably stunning cumulus clouds. Beautiful.

*Got to see Io passing over the face of Jupiter, just after going to my very first planetarium show. For all who've never been to one of those: i highly recommend it. What a way to ground yourself, yet open up to the majesty and vastness of the universe all at the same time. Whew.

*The other day we were waiting at the bus stop to head over to Balboa Park. A young Italian tourist couple was sitting next to me, and the girl took one look at my legs and made the most disgusting face, which of course was not lost on me. She then said something in a snide tone to her boyfriend, who was standing up finishing his cigarette; he walked over and tried to casually check out my legs, then grimaced as well. (Look, i'm very pale and i don't shave, OK?) They both began laughing and i felt my heart start to explode in my chest... i am not angry very often, truly. But this was more than i could handle. I looked hard at them over my sunglasses and then remarked loudly to Nat how some people can be extremely rude, and that just because you are speaking a foreign language, there are other ways to interpret somebody's meaning. How stupid did they think i was? Finally a third friend came by, and the whole process was repeated: the guy smiling and telling her, and she offering a none-too-subtle glance down. I couldn't take it any more, and said to him (and thereby them), "What is wrong with you?!!"
They all tried to feign innocence, and mumbled in Italian, but still smiled. I strongly resisted the urge to rub my hairy leg all over the smooth, tanned leg of the girl sitting next to me. I'm sure that wouldn't have solved anything. But man, it would have been fun to see the horror on her face.

For now, i will have to be content with the fantasy.

Vacation.

Back from the Bay Area. Some highlights:

~The amazing Chihuly exhibit at the De Young Museum in Golden Gate Park.
~Seeing (and smelling) "Odoardo", a Titan Arum, in full stinking bloom at the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden.
~Eating at Vik's (aloo tikka cholle!), La Mediterranee (that freakin' potato salad!), Cancun (pumpkin salsa! cascabel! strawberry! chipotle!), and the Thai Temple (khanum krog, my old friend).
~Riding bikes all around Berkeley, and the marina.
~Hitting up the rose garden (always a sight), Tail of the Yak (antique glass-tipped sewing pins!), Lacis (a silver sparrow brooch!), Brennan's for an irish coffee (for my dad), seeing Iron Man (complete silliness) at The Parkway with an old friend, and The Fall (pretty good) with another.
~Procuring new Love and Rockets comics from Comic Relief, and Air and Ratatat albums from Amoeba.
~Wandering through campus on vicodin.
~Finding a place that had orange-cardamom gelato, the new favorite food of my entire life (get it on an old-fashioned cone).

Why, why, why- do we have to live in San Diego? Back home to the disgusting tap water, the sun-fried idiots, the free-flowing beers, the many many damnable freeways. Sometimes it's hard to remind yourself of the good things in life, such as: health, roof over one's head, food on the table, etc.
i suppose it could always be worse. Good thing we at least have Bad Movie Night to look forward to!

p.s.) i am sad about: penguins washing up dead en masse on the shores of Brazil. i am happy about: Comic-Con tomorrow, and the Olympics soon, so soon! Also, listening to Mazzy Star usually manages to iron out any and all kinks i might be tripping over in the fabric of life.

p.p.s.) on Friday i will take a train to L.A., then a bus to Las Vegas, where i'm helping my mom (hopefully) sell some of her stuff at an arts & crafts trade-show type of deal over the weekend. Should be a hoot. Her page, if you are interested in supporting my awesome mom: yay!

Unexpected delights.

Places i never thought i'd go: Legoland, and the exercise/weight room in this building. Turns out they're both pretty fun, at least when you go with a bunch of friends (Penny, Mark, their 15-year-old, Dimitri, and the 6-year-old Solomon).

The weight room came first, the first night our friends were visiting. We'd had a pretty long day already: Nat and i took them out to Crystal Pier, then we lost Solomon for a few minutes on the beachfront. That was scary as hell. He's a wily one. We all headed up to see the seals at the Children's Pool in La Jolla. A low, strange late afternoon fog/mist had rolled right on in, and everything was hazy and bright. We each picked which seal we'd be, then when we could stand the smell no longer, headed down the steps nearby to a small cove for some swimming/wading.
Feet thoroughly exfoliated an hour or so later, we drove home for showers and then decided to eat some Thai food at the place Nat and i frequently visit. The restaurant is definitely decent: not great, and a wee bit expensive, but better than anything else nearby that we've found so far. Not to mention they are the nicest folks you could ask for. It is often empty, which fills me with fear because if that place packs up, we'll never eat out again.
During appetizers, a giant roach suddenly appeared on our table. It fell from the sky. Apparently i was sitting under a sprinkler head, and let's just say that next time i won't be sitting at that particular table. Our hostess handled the situation neatly, and it was all pretty hilarious considering that Mark had told us a rather horrid tale earlier in the day about a giant cockroach somewhere in Mexico. Life has its consistencies, you ever notice?
After dinner, Solomon decided he needed to see the exercise room, so we all swarmed in and took over the stairmasters, weight-lifting machines, and treadmills. I had been fearful of this room, but we had an absolute blast. I never realized before how difficult it was to burn calories; a seven-minute struggle on a stairmaster and all i burned were twelve. Hm! Rather interesting, actually. Perhaps now i'll think twice about all the gods-damn snacks i ingest nightly.

Day two was Legoland. Up early, drive half an hour to Carlsbad (near the lovely Flower Fields), listen to the 15-year-old's awesome CD (made using the Garage Band program for the Mac), meet Mark's "Uncle Paul" at the entrance, pay the $50 to get in, and the rest was basically a joy. Even though we're "adults", there was plenty to do, provided you're not above it all. If you have a childlike sense of wonder remaining anywhere inside of you, you will have fun. Lego Taj Mahal viewed while on a boat ride? Check. Roller coasters? Check. Lego dinosaurs hidden among the greenery? And how. Thrilling water-park area filled with shenanigans to be had? Oh, yes. It was pretty great. And Nat got to have his picture taken while "fighting" Lego Darth Vader with a light saber. I mean, awesomeness!

(Oh, and a bitchin' sunburn on yours truly.)

San Diego is truly emptier now that they are gone. And the wind plays unabashedly in the trees.

"In a mist of mystery"

Last night we went over to Marilena's (visiting grad student from London, although she herself is Italian) apartment up in student housing to watch David Lynch's Inland Empire. Because Nat forgot the directions inside the apartment (twice) and i left my book behind, and because i hesitated right before we were to run across the busy road in front of traffic, thereby saving us from having to wait at the crosswalk, we missed the bus by just a smidge. Just enough that we even began to run for it at the next stop, 2 blocks away, only to realize that the bus was making all the lights and that we were not.
Already late, this left us fuming. We walked back to our original stop, cooling off a tad along the way. i decided we would pass the time by playing the Alphabet Game, and that if one of us missed a letter, that person would have to do the chicken dance; like, really get up and just bust a move in front of all the idling traffic. Nat chose insects as our category, which i must admit i was not expecting. Fruits, vegetables, band names- almost anything else was easier, as it turned out. i didn't get very far before i had to ask him for a hint (1 per game), suddenly very fearful of having to get up and flap my elbows in front of twenty or thirty cars waiting at the red light across the street. We ran along pretty smoothly until N, (probably the fact that we decided 'insects' would include all bugs, worms, spiders, and anything else remotely creepy-crawly), and then the game sort of went to hell. Unfortunately, we were both too cowardly for the chicken dance, instead letting ourselves off the hook with cop-outs like "North American Something-Or-Other" and "Quick-jumping Spider", to name but two.

Once at our destination, Marilena poured us rum and cokes and we all sat down for the film.

Two absolutely bizarre but riveting hours later, we were all on our second drinks and retired to the porch to discuss all of the madness. As we talked about Lynch's symbolism (red lamps, a particular shade of green, lonely letters of the alphabet, and so on), a thick fog began blowing around the sleepy student quarters, causing fat drops of moisture to fall from the trees, tall eucalyptus that leaned in above us in the moonlight. The stars disappeared.
Inside, after the cigarettes, Marilena casually brought up the Salvia Divinorum she had been smoking recently. Nat raised his eyebrows, for he had heard of the sage, a shamanic vision-quest herb. i watched as they both smoked some out of a miniature purple bong. Nat said he felt like a string was attached to him, pulling and jerking him slowly back into the sofa. It seemed pleasant and mild enough, but i still refused. i'd had enough drugs in high school, thanks. Later he sheepishly told me that it was almost like he became one with an inanimate object (the couch).
Around 4 am Marilena drove us home in her roommate's beat-up Volvo. The fog was menacing. As we approached the freeway on-ramp, it was almost like driving through a glass of water with milk in it... we couldn't see more that 15 or 20 feet ahead of us at times. Luckily we were on the road at an ungodly hour, so not a single car passed near us. It was rather frightening, actually. Suddenly the moon came into view, the full glorious moon, and Marilena pointed it out with a start.

The fog lifted!

Suddenly, the road was there. Our surroundings were there. The world was back! A huge relief for all of us, and very strange indeed. Why such a clear line of demarcation? Were we skirting something dangerous?

I remember a long time ago, when my sister and i still lived in our mom's house; we would buy beer and Wyder's Pear Cider (for me) and drive up to Grizzly Peak in the old VW bus. It all started when one night she asked me: Do you want to see The Nothing?
It was a reference to a favorite childhood movie of ours, The Neverending Story. i was so intrigued, of course. So we hopped in the car, and wound up through the misty eucalyptus trees and UC-affiliated laboratories, until suddenly the car pulled over to the side of the road. Someone opened the van's side door for me, and there we were. At The Nothing.

If you walked out a few feet from the car, there was a tree that sort of hung off of the cliff, reaching out into the void, heavy with leaves. The fog was dense, and a bright light somewhere far below us lit up the massive sea of mist, dimming out somewhere just above our heads. i felt charged, and scared, and like i was on a fantastic movie set somewhere. You couldn't see the drop below you, but knew it was there, and that it was great. Kind of like a movie i once saw where a character who was blind visits the Grand Canyon and describes simply feeling the vast expanse of empty space. It was like that. We could have been anywhere. The edge of the world.

Just call me Heather Teavee.

So there are these ads all over the place on TV now, with dire warnings about how you may lose your signal in February 2009, when the Powers That Be all make the switch to digital. They take the issue very seriously, which is extremely comical to me.

Our TV is pretty big, actually, but it is also really dang old, from the early '90s. Okay, i guess that's not actually all that old. But it is showing some wear and tear: There is a melted ring in the black plastic on the top of the thing, from where an old roommate set something hot down. An inch-wide column on the right-hand side of the screen badly skews everything that passes through it (this could be my fault, from keeping it so near my old stereo speakers years ago), and the power button broke off a long time ago. We of course lost the remote within the first few years of owning it, so when the power button broke off, many years later when it lived with me in my first apartment, my roommate and i actually used to turn it on and off with a stick of incense, the wooden end of which was poked through a tiny hole to achieve this feat. I guess we wanted it badly enough to do that. Finally, a thoughtful visitor informed us of the miracle that is the Universal Remote. Woo-hoo! Now we're cookin' with double AA batteries.
I got the TV from my mom, when i moved out of the house at 18 (19?). It was the only one we had, but my mom was so pissed at my brother for doing nothing all day but cut school to watch it and play video games on it, that she agreed to trade me for it. On my end, i had to sacrifice my orchid pictures. We had recently been to Hawaii, where i had had the privilege of visiting a spectacular orchid-growers' greenhouse. I don't think i've ever taken such beautiful pictures, to this day, and i was still a very new photographer back then... I think the subjects really did all the work for me. They were great photos, at any rate. Wonder what happened to them?

Where was i going with all of this? Ah, yes. My TV has served me well, through mid-afternoon nature shows, Saturday morning cartoons, late-night awful TV movies on the couch with Nat (Money To Burn is a memorable one of these), and more serial shows that sucked me in than i care to mention. Yes, TV is evil. Yes, i used to watch it too much. Sometimes i still do. It is comforting to me, almost like a friend. But is this Digital Switch/Death To Analog dealio something i should just embrace? Is this the "out" i've been waiting for? Is this the end of mind-numbing programming, insulting advertisements, and awful volume equalization (here's looking at you, loud-ass commercials)?

Could i really become free?

Upon viewing one network's upcoming summer line-up, i actually went slack-jawed. Dreck. Pure dreck. Certainly would be empowering never to have to witness one of those, or be able to talk about it in a conversation.
At first i was somewhat miffed that this switch was beyond people's control. But somewhat to my amazement, i only really thought about getting a digital TV in a very ethereal, round-the-edges sort of way. For someone who watches as much TV as i do (yeah, i'm not proud of it), you would think it would be an agonizing concern that i might lose transmission. Instead, i find myself smiling at the thought of getting rid of old Telly out there in the living room, and being able to do other, much more worthwhile things with my time. I was just never motivated enough before. Now i practically have someone making the decision for me. And that means i would never again have to watch another slutty Carl's Jr. commercial, or listen to Huell Howser talking, or watch the commercial where the family can barely stand to go camping (you know, what with the mosquitoes and all- ick!) for more than 5 seconds, and the patriarch has to subdue his angry brood with king-sized beds at a motel for the kids and a fucking spa treatment for his wife. People aren't really like that, right?
....Right?
Maybe if i didn't regularly get angry and/or insulted while watching TV it would all be worth it. Unfortunately, based on what i know about marketing executives and "focus groups", that will just never happen.

So yeah- here it is: i give. i give in. That's it. I'm not shopping for a new TV, i'm not getting a converter box, and i'm not hanging on to my old TV just in case something makes it through the airwaves. What a relief!

As Nat points out, we'll lose nature shows. This is about the only thing i'm actually sad about, losing PBS. Pretty good programs, there, for the most part. i guess Nova will just have to blow someone else's mind for awhile.