sometimes i hate people

the people in charge of delivering my cool-ass new sofa called an hour ago saying they couldn't find the place, then after i gave detailed directions said they were 5 minutes away and would i wait outside. after 30 minutes of waiting in front in the 90 heat, i called back to see if the driver was still lost. turns out he "still couldn't find it and moved on to other stops". i live on a major street which the stupid m***********r never even drove down - i know this because i was standing outside watching every car that passed by!

jack and i will be in new orleans this week. our first ever time there together since moving out two years ago. should be bittersweet. also reuniting with some good friends who i haven't seen in a very long time. should be interesting.

i don't think i'm going to see the sofa today...

update: the smiley sofa is here and so cutie - once the wrapping came off...




and these may not look like much, but they are cool simple (and cheap!) spotlights...

on my own

(across the universe, coming september 2007)

i went to the movies yesterday and watched hairspray all by myself. this is the third time in my life i've gone by myself to the movies - the first was finding neverland in new york, second was the lake house in harvard square, and now this in san antonio.

i loved the original hairspray when i was younger, and i much prefer it to the new one. i'm still not sure why john travolta was in this movie; seeing him in drag was only funny for oh about 30 seconds. and although amanda bynes has perfected the art of looking at someone like you want to rip their clothes off, the rest of her performance was pretty blah...

the previews on the other hand were wonderful... lots of new movies i can't wait to see (in this particular order).

best of beauty - my version

i used to buy nail polish like crazy, until i discovered that out of about 50 bottles i had lots of slight variations of essentially these same few colors over and over again:

fushia

really red

deep burgundy

sort of a dusty mauve (which i call granite)

sheer pinkish white

and then the occasional impulse - a bottle of bright orange or teal or something that just didn't fit in.



(incidently, these color swatches are of sephora nail polish, which i haven't tried yet.)

i also maybe finally have an essential makeup list, some of these i have been going back to since high school:

{pressed powder}
clinique super powder in matte neutral
cover girl fresh look in transcelucent light

{lengthening mascara (always in black!)}
revlon luxurious lengths mascara

{any brand matte eye shadow in creams, browns, and purples:}



{foundation}
maybelline instant age rewind in creamy natural light 5

{rosy blush}
cover girl cheekers natural rose

{eyeliner}
clinique quickliner for eyes in dark chocolate, really black and violet

{lipstick}
clinique almost lipstick in black honey
clinique different lipstick in angel red
revlon super lustrous lipgloss in glossy rose
revlon super lustrous lipstick in cherries in the snow (which i love but don't actually leave the house in)

{lip balm}
c.o. bigelow classic rose salve (do they still make this?)
neutrogena lip nutrition honey rescue balm

redrum

cool bottle, no?

i love this ugly dress

much needed shopping. and a cutie-pie haircut. all in all, with the exception of having to give the boys back to their mother, it was a very good weekend.

every single time i've walked through a mall in the last few months there's been this dress in the window of ny&co and every single time i stop and admire it and say to jack i love that dress, always prefaced with i know it's ugly, but or i don't know why, but... saturday he said go try it on. (probably because in banana republic i had just flipped over this fluffy white lace and vintage button-y empire waisted dress which trying on definitely cured me of.)

i tried it on and busted out laughing, it looked like a tent, a very bright geometric tent. i looked 7 months pregnant at least. i walked out to show him, we had a little laugh, but when i went back to take it off i still loved it. i left the store, then finally went back in and bought it.

i am not exagerating the pregnant-ness of the dress, the sales lady even made the comment that it was not a style that not everybody could pull off. but for some crazy reason it makes me so happy and now i own it:






almost forgot to show my new t-shirt (from urban outfitters), isn't it great? i can't wait for the boys to see it, they get such a kick out of "teaching" me about star wars...

permanence

permanence - something i went to bed thinking about. this story (and photo) reminded me.

one of the things i learned through katrina, these things we build, these things we have, just can't be kept. nothing can.

so? makes everything seem kind of worthless, right? what are we struggling for? i mean, i have no idea what it is that i want out of the life, what i want to be left at the end.

enjoy the moment, right? that gets tiring, there must be something more... for jack it's wealth and maybe a little glory, although i don't think he'd realize or agree with that. for me, what is it?

so maybe the only way to last is to become part of the collected consciousness? to affect, and be carried on by, as many as possible? is that what this is about?

books, such books

(from the snapshot book by roger hicks)

the library here is huge. so big it's impossible to browse in one day. and very impossible to carry out all of the books i want to take home with me.

for now i've been going through my amazon wish list and seeing what books they have, and finding a few surprises such as these two wonderful books (which i can't find to link on amazon, so i've just taken a few photos of the book pages...):

the snapshot book by roger hicks
when i read through this i had a revelation of sorts - this is the kind of photography i want to do. this is what i like. sounds stupid i know, but to capture the everyday and the ordinary and the beautiful and traumatic all around me. we are all so capturable, but i can't make the pictures i take look like what inspired me. not even remotely like it. that's what i want to learn.

i really want to own this book, it's from 1982 but the text is so charming and look how timeless even the photos are...



sorry about the flash below, but if you click for the full-size you can read it...


hollywood: the years of innocence by john kobal
people in hollywood were so normal looking back then. it's remarkable that we've changed so much and still so little.




and this one i recently picked up from borders, it's very good, not one of those how to scrapbook kind of books at all:


also i inherited jack's ipod since he got an iphone from his company (can you believe that?)... and have been busy putting pictures, album covers, and all those albums i respectfully left off when it was officially his (kelly clarkson, for example).

be brave

incredible. movie that is. i loved it, i loved her - the movie diane arbus. but not fair for her husband. how/why do people settle into lived that aren't them? i guess we just don't know better, or aren't brave enough not to.

what is a father?

these four stories made me incredibly sad, each in different ways. especially the caregiver above.

cool stuff

i remember marveling a few years back at just how cool a friend of mine's house was. they didn't spend much money, but everything they owned was unique and, well, cool. it occurred to me yesterday that i feel exactly that same way about my own apartment. slowly and unintentionally, i've filled my place with cool ass shit that i love.

(and that's not to say that anyone else would like my stuff like i do, but if you only buy things you like, your place with be filled with stuff you like. (duh.))

and it must be every time you buy (and his definitely includes being given stuff - just say no!) something, no matter how mundane and utilitarian, seek out what you like instead of just buying whatever is cheapest or most available. and don't worry about whether things will match. we just buy whatever colors we like at the time and somehow it all works together, everything looks fun. i've done without a lot, rather than have something i hate to look at.

here are some of the little things that make me happy from around the 'partment:

vintage lamps:



lamp from target (i didn't clean up for the pics, as you can see):


[desk] chair:


chair and planter from eurway:


ooh, and coming soon are this cute little smiley sofa and tv stand, also from eurway:



eurway is kinda like an ikea, but cooler i think. it's pretty darn cheap...

big cities

there was a book, but i can't find it. i was in borders last weekend wasting time and looking at the travel guides: mexico, egypt, carribean... i pulled a huge book from the shelf, it was called "the big cities" and it was an overview with pictures of like 200 of the world's biggest cities. i opened at the beginning and there on the second or third page of the book was a full-page photo of chalmette, the tiniest nothing city. it was quite a shock because it didn't belong at all and there it was: the corner of paris rd and genie street. a corner i've passed a million times in my life. it was, of course, a katrina photo. a man pulling a little boat down the street in front of walgreens and leon's army surplus. it's still so weird, what happened.

baker's edge

is this not cool ass shit?


add it to my kitchen want list. they have some yummy-sounding recipes too.