One project down, so many more to go

Earlier this month I was rummaging through my mom's sewing stuff and found day-of-the-week towels to embroider. I wanted to take all of them with me but my mom said to take one first and if I finished I could come back for another. I don't have a good track record with projects. They get started but slowly I begin to lose interest. It almost happened with the Lunes towel I took with me that day, but earlier this week I finished it! I felt so accomplished. Sewing helped me relax after a long day, it helped me be less bored on weekend afternoons when there was nothing to do and I'd be all alone.

After week one. This is all I thought about when I was at work.

Saturday afternoons with Bearded Man's mom. She was crocheting a dress and we were listening to Mexican oldies all afternoon.

Embroidering the word "Lunes" was the hardest part and I almost gave up on it.

I neglected my project for a week and decided to pick it up again.

Fucking finally! The embroidery part is done, but then I was reminded that I have to crochet the edges to make it look nicer for the tortillas it will be holding.

But that can wait, because now it's time for me to start working on this bad boy.

When I saw this at a thrift store, I thought "Jeez what an ugly blouse." But after staring at it for a few minutes I convinced myself that I can make it pretty. 

Wish me luck on this project. I'm really liking this whole finishing things that I've started.

End of September songs and other things that are stuck in my head

Today I listened to RVIVR in the morning and I had this song stuck in my head all day long.

Then I listened to them again before lunch, after lunch, in the afternoon, and on my way home. So I declared RVIVR and all their songs my end of September songs and band. It seems to go well with the kind of weather we've been having this week. 

A growing collection

I love my growing t-shirt collection!

Behold the madness. 

Shirts from shows, Goodwill, road trips, family vacations, and rare finds from my days at Crossroads.

Below are just the band shirts and the ones with interesting designs that caught my eye.  

Amusing (only to me) facts about my t-shirts:

Newest: black Exhausted Prayer shirt (September 2011-San Jose)

Oldest: now faded black EZLN shirt I used to wear almost every day in high school (Spring 2003-Mexicali)

Most worn: blue SF skyline (spring 2010), taupe Godspeed (spring 2011), green The Smiths Meat is Murder (summer 2010), black Manifesto Bikes "Welcome to Oakland" (spring 2010)

Least worn: red Subcomandante Ramona (summer 2008)

Shirt I have back in my possession: black RVIVR shirt (summer 2009)

The shirt I got right before I got into a car accident: black Big Kids shirt (July 3, 2010)

Road trip souvenir: black Primate shirt (Winter 2011)

Shirt I have in mind to buy next: a black Neil Young t-shirt

H is for all the horror movies that will be watched in October

For the entire month of October, Bearded Man and I are going to try and watch as many horror movies as we can. A long time ago before Bearded Man and I started dating, I had told him that we would have a horror movie marathon because he isn't much of a horror movie fan as much as I am and I wanted to take his horror movie cherry. This coming October will be different, and we will have this horror movie marathon that we've always talked about but haven't had yet! More doing, less planning!

1. Zombie
2. Zombie Holocaust
3. Cannibal Holocaust
4. Night of the Living Dead
5. Dawn of the Dead
6. Evil Dead
7. Army of Darkness
8. The Thing
9. Toxic Avenger
10. The Stuff
11. The Brood
12. Texas Chainsaw Massacre
13. The Exorcist
14. Demons
15. Suspiria
16. The Sentinel
17. Last House on the Left
18. Hellraiser
19. Rosemary's Baby
20. Black Christmas
21. The Blob
22. The Stepfather
23. Children of the Corn
24. Freaks
25. Blood Feast
26. It
27. Creature from the Black Lagoon
28. Alice, Sweet Alice
29. Tenebre
30. Snuff
31. Halloween (personal favorite)

 More updates by the end of the month, early October.

Old ladies

This will be the only post in which I mention work, and the only reason why I'll talk about it now is because it partly pertains to the story about me and my interesting interactions with old ladies.
The non-smokers in the billing department go on walks around 4 o'clock, because after 7 hours of dealing with flaky doctors and even flakier health insurance companies, a nice long walk around the block really does relax you. Besides lunch, it's the part of my workday that I look forward to the most. Today we took our usual route when we see an old lady with her dog, walking in our direction---and in slow motion, we saw her trip and fall but I CAUGHT HER!!! And there I was, on my afternoon walk with the non-smokers, holding an old lady in my arms.
This is not the first time this happens to me, I always seem to be at the right place, the right time when an old lady just trips and falls and I catch her. I'm not here to pat myself on the back, or give myself a hi-five for helping old ladies, I'd like to figure out why this happens.
Maybe this happens to me because interactions with both my grandmothers is nonexistent (one of them died at a very young age and the other, well, let's just say that she and I have a very hard time trying to see eye to eye), and so by helping these ladies I'm getting the grandmotherly interactions I've always wanted and this is the way it happens.
Or! What if these women helped an old lady who fell in their past and now I'm helping them, and one day some young woman is going to help me when I fall and it all comes full circle?
Whatever it is, I'm really glad that the old lady I caught today didn't get hurt and she's okay.

Birthday Ideas

Next week I will turn the big 2-4 and I'm starting to get a little anxious like I always do around this time of year. I'm a loner with very few friends and enjoy having low-key birthday festivities if I decide to do anything at all. A lot of people come up with great ideas on what to do for their birthdays and sometimes they'll have week-long celebrations, but not me.
Which is why I'm trying to come up with some ideas on what to do for my birthday next Thursday, I'm not going to go out of my way to do things that are clearly things I wouldn't normally do. I wouldn't have a big party, so there's no way in hell that I'd throw a big party. They are me-friendly ideas.

24th birthday ideas

• bike party (go on a bike ride, drink some beers)
• breakfast at Country Way/Baldie's/Ole Waffles
• lunch at Lanesplitters
• make 24 cupcakes, eat 24 cupcakes (just kidding, you can have one)
• go to a flea market
• pedicure
• Beer Revolution

What to do, what to do?

They are called novelas, not soap operas

Today I was hanging out with my in-laws and they were watching a novela. Novelas are great because they're so much better than English soap operas and they never drag on for 60-something years or get canceled because they usually end in a wedding in about 6 months. 
The story lines are always recycled and sometimes they should be called "rich guy, poor girl" stories, but not all of them are like that. There are a few gems out there, and I'm here to list a few of my favorites.

PUEBLO CHICO, INFIERNO GRANDE

Set in the early 1900s, Veronica Castro's character is a rich, middle-aged widow who falls in love with a poor, much younger and very handsome (duh) man who works on her land. No one can learn about their love affair, but the people in her small town learn about it anyway. Long story short, he dies at the end of the novela and she cries and that's why I loved it. It didn't have a happy ending, which is rare in Mexican novelas.

LA MENTIRA

 A betrayal leads to a suicide. There's a mistaken identity, and we see some guy try and ruin the life of the woman he loves all because her jealous cousin made him believe some lie. It ends happily ever after when they find out the truth and the guy stops ruining his girlfriend's life. 

DKDA

I was never really sure what this novela was about. There's a group of middle class teenage kids en el DF and their token poor friend who are in a music group called DKDA and they're all coupled off. One of the girls in the group attempted suicide a few times throughout the novela, and one guy took his sister hostage because she was leaving him behind. Real intense stuff to watch at the tender age of 12.

MUCHACHITAS

I was really into gymnastics as a kid. And they were always doing gymnastics, or at least they were in the intro.

The world would be a better place if there were more women in bands

Just saying.
September 14th, the bearded man and I were supposed to go see Kylesa play at Great American Music Hall. But they ended up canceling their show and now I am pretty bummed because it would've been a great one. Two drummers! Music that really needs its own genre, but just to be safe, let's put in the metal section! And Laura Pleasants!(!!!) Her guitar is loud and she has pretty hair and can probably kick your ass.

When I first heard of the band Kylesa, I think someone told me "there's a girl in the band" and as soon as that was said I was sold. There are very few women in bands in the genres of music that I listen to, I can probably count them all on one hand.

Laura Pleasants, to me, doesn't seem like the token woman in the band playing bass (no offense to anyone who plays bass!), she plays guitar, her voice is loud.

She is someone who I look up to (cause I can still have heroines at the age of 24), and the last time I saw Kylesa play, I just thought to myself: "I wish I could play guitar like Laura Pleasants."
Actually, I wish I could just play guitar and the drums, and maybe bass, but I'll get back to that on another day.
There need to be more girls who are inspired to play instruments and less girls who are inspired to make one-hit wonders and be on whatever the fuck show or tv channel that still plays music, is there such a thing anymore? I could go on and on about how there are very few good role models for girls and women, but I'll  stick to the positive and just say Laura Pleasants from Kylesa is awesome because she inspires me to want to play music and head bang like I'm never going to get whiplash (which I already do, but I will never look as good as when Laura Pleasants does it).
I think I'll go listen to Kylesa for the umpteenth time today and try to be less bummed that I won't be able to see this cool ass band on Tuesday.
Also, if you ever read this Laura Pleasants, I just want you to know that you are my heroine...and please don't be creeped out by that.

Never Too Old

NOTE: This video is by samstryke17 and from April 2011

I'm starting to feel old when I go to shows. I remember not that long ago, I was always near the front of the stage, but now I find myself inching my way to the back to escape the many windmills and kicks. Last night we went to see Sabertooth Zombie at Gilman and it's always at Gilman that I find myself thinking "am I too old for this shit?" and "will I still be coming to shows at Gilman when I'm even older?" The answers are no and yes. As long as there's good music and people that still want to put on shows and folks who enjoy going to shows, then it's still a worthwhile past time. I'm not going to be partaking in the circle pit anymore, but when a band plays a song that is worth jumping into the pit, then I'm sure as hell going to jump in it. You're never too old to rock out. So what if I got a cramp afterward? So what if I feel sore the next day? I'm not too old for this shit.

Check out Sabertooth Zombie, they're an awesome band with a great sense of humor and never boring at all.

The Object of my Obsession and (maybe) Embarrassment

Hello all to my very first post! Whether you like this or hate it, it really doesn't matter to me. I just don't want to be so bored anymore while I watch TV. Anyway, speaking of watching TV, I love watching TV, and I especially love watching reruns. As we all get older, we try to choose our shows wisely lest we want to be judged harshly by our peers. There are certain shows that you mention and everyone seems to be okay with it, and then you mention watching another show and people are up in arms about how shitty that show is. You can never win. Not even with TV.
Which brings me to this, I've become obsessed with watching How I Met Your Mother. It all started when I didn't have cable and it was on three different channels. And now that I have cable, all I watch is this show.

 It's Alyson Hannigan, Jason Segel, and Neil Patrick Harris! They were all in shows I loved before and now they're all in this show, so how could I say no? Yes, at times it can be a very cheesy and when the fuck is that main character going to reveal who the goddamn mom is? Don't you wish you could share a cab with them? Well, no you can't, because they took up all the seats in that cab and they're such a tight-knit group of friends.  No outsiders allowed. As much I weirdly like this show, I wouldn't want to be friends with these people, except for maybe Alyson Hannigan, Jason Segel, and Neil Patrick Harris. They seem like people that I'd like to be friends with, the other two could just tag along when we all go out drinking. 
I wish there was a How I Met Your Mother marathon today. I guess I could just watch this Snapped marathon instead while I wait for the laundry to dry.