High Contrast Grey.

I had wanted to make pancakes this morning for breakfast, but lacked the motivation and instead decided to bum about Missoula. Two bakeries and a 50s diner. Cinnamon swirl, tea, and classic (veggie) burger. Still missing Seattle, but still trying my best to push it out of my head. I’ve been watching a lot of the show the Skins which has been making me miss the city life. The bustle of how things work. The buildings looming above blocking out sections of the sky. I think I will continue to fill up this page in my sketchbook with something like the mountains that surround this town. Perhaps find a nice view from one of the buildings on campus looking up at that M on the hill/mountain (not sure which classification it falls under).

Gin in teacup.

I forgot that I had an exam in French today, but only got a minus 4 for trivial accent mistakes. For some odd reason after we were done grading each other and I got my paper back the prof asked how I did and said (in French) that he tips his hat to me for my good job. I’m liking this French class. I made myself a nice dinner of noodles with red sauce for myself tonight. Not too sure why I did it, but I just thought I should have a nice meal. I’ve been eating quite a bit today. Snacking boredom. Painted toenails.

I went out with the new roommate last night to experience the Missoula hipster scene. Not a sea of cowboy hats as I feared and the building was quite nice on the inside. Stamped ceilings, black and white tiled floor, big comfortable chairs. Not a big fan of the contrasts of the disco ball and plastic cups with beer logos on the side, but ignore the plastic. Its nice that the bus system is free for students. Enjoying that fact, but still trying to figure out the system. Walked home a few times now. Jumped fences. I like the aesthetic of bandages wrapped around fingers.

I love to see all the little spots left over after too many cups of tea from a single bag. The beauty of over-steeping. I imagine galaxies. Galaxies of tea. I’m finding myself even more put off than usual with my French homework by the fact that my book still has yet to arrive. I’ve been checking the mailbox like the child waiting to see what his cereal box tops bought him. Meh. I have an interesting assignment for my alternative methods photography class where I need to take five words and put pictures to them. I’m thinking about the word grime.. getting a little homesick as well. I’m at a bit of a loss for the other words though, so far. I have until next Tuesday to come up with ideas though so perhaps this weekend I’ll figure something out. I’m going out to the bar with my new roommate and I think I’ll bring along my camera and perhaps come up with some ideas. $1 mixers. So far my experiences with bars out here have been cowboys and gambling. I’m really not expecting anyth...

Feeling more and more homesick for Seattle. I’ve been trying to push it out of my mind and preoccupy myself, but it’s not working. This cold sliding around everywhere on the ice thing here just isn’t really all too appealing to me. I’ve been trying to find some hole in the wall cafe, but so far no luck. Meh. I’m heading in early tomorrow morning to try and get into the figure drawing class. On an upside I like the shadows that this horrendous ceiling light makes.

Welcome to College. day 2. Somehow I slept until the late late hour of 8am this morning. Maybe I will eventually have to set an alarm clock. Intense dreams last night. Slowly escaping my memory. One of them I was in a desert after the apocalypse and pretending to play dead as everyone I was with was killed by a roving gang. I stopped pretending to be dead after I found a means of threatening someone with a wooden golf club. We then put together more wood golf clubs. I worked on the elaborate putter that was two golf club heads put together. Later I was being a menace to society involving statues. I had beheaded some angel statues and would place them in locations to surprise old ladies. For some reason the police were using me as a detective to find myself and trusted me with the evidence, which I took to go put somewhere else. Except as I was backing out I was cut off my a pickup truck of a hippie mortician. She wrote romance novels that she had praises from a judge fr...

BJ -> next rest 12/10 carved next to urinal at the first rest stop going West from Billings.

All my dangly earrings, sans the one in my right ear. I totally stole this idea from Charlotte. I think that I have too many earrings. I ran out of room for the earrings that don’t dangle, but then again the carousel thing seems to work better for them. Meh. These walls are /so/ boring, perhaps I’ll find another frame and do it again for the not dangly. To add to the boring walls this bed that they gave me is like sleeping on a wooden board wrapped in plastic. Perhaps it is… Its makes that obnoxious noise of plastic every time I touch it and while lying on it I can feel my back rejecting how rigid it is. Another thing to add to the ‘get from Billings’ list. That foam liner. I thought that I could just go out to the store today and get another for $20 or so. +$180 was the reality. Reality bites. So does not knowing what I am going to be doing for money the next few months. Maybe I can finally get into art modeling (not getting my hopes up though).

I finally got my pin cloth back. I think I lost the fornicating fly pin in the moves though.. Still have a few nice tie clips though. I bought this sweater on my last day at the VV. I debated being an awesome brother and bad son with giving it to Taryn, but decided to be selfish. This dorm/apartment is nice, but too new and stark white for me. I’ve been running all about this town trying to find things to hang up on the walls. The thrift stores are full of midwestern crap (I think that working at the VV has broken me) and the antique stores are all full of Persian rugs (go figure) that are out of my price range. I already miss the narrow small room in Ravenna. We are on the main floor, so my bedroom window looks out onto the parking lot.. not a whole lot of fun for my voyeuristic tendencies. Meh. Maybe I’ll make friends with someone who lives on a higher floor and we can use my opera glasses to spy on passerbys. In of course a not creepy way *cough cough* Something about ...

Pearl Harbor. Circa 1994? When I got back to my folk’s place my mum had a small collection of pictures from when we lived in Hawaii on the coffee table in front of the couch that I crash on. I think these were the pictures she referenced one night over the phone asking why I am no longer a happy little kid like when we were living in Hawaii. I think she had had a few glasses of wine at that point. I probably did too. Not a good combination. Neither is me in all that white.

I got back to Billings in time to go with Taryn to get her ear pierced. Amy was still away and I’m not sure if Shane even recognized me. Then again that just seems to be how he is. Mum talked Taryn down into only getting one hole punched through her cartilage, instead of the two Taryn was wanting. Taryn got her ear pierced pretty much in the same spot as the piecing I went out and got with Charlotte, except Taryn got her right ear and mine kept my a-symmetry in the left ear. “Didn’t even hurt at all.” So Taryn said, perhaps coaxing for another. Of course this changed every time she bumped it. I later took Taryn out to see the Post Secret show at the YAM (I mistakenly called the SAM a few times and Taryn begrudgingly corrected me) with Olivia. I think that both Olivia and I thought that things might get awkward with us hanging out, but really it was nice talking with her again. It had been too long. Taryn crashed pretty hard as we were hanging out though. The adrenaline from...

http://assets.tumblr.com/swf/audio_player.swf?audio_file=http://www.tumblr.com/audio_file/351467039/tumblr_kwrwxg0HO41qa6icr&color=FFFFFF As I merged onto I-90 and left Seattle this randomly came up on my Zune. It’s hard leaving that place. Sure there were times I got frustrated with it, but it’s still the closest thing to a home that I felt proper in calling a home for a long while.

We’ll always have Seattle. I left Seattle in the rain.. the weather seemed to match my feelings. I stopped by Whole Foods to say goodbye to Charlotte before I left Seattle. A first and a last for this stay in Seattle. Too short.. Somehow we talked and laughed though her lunch break as we walked about in the rain. A beautiful abandoned building, a piece of rusty metal, a pinky promise to visit. She said that pictures of her never turn out. The other two she blurred in, this one everything but her blurred. Wish I could have captured that smile without a blur.. Is it wrong to wish on space hardware?

Before I left Seattle I thought that I should go by the Can Can and experience one of those amazing things about Seattle. The show was called ‘I See London, I See France’ and I was hoping for an interesting story involving cabaret and London and France, but instead got pretty people in their underwear. No complaint. Interesting tattoos as well. Makes me want to hurry up in finishing up my idea for my Seattle tattoo. In talking with Olivia she was telling me about her ex-fiance’s tattoo that she thought was stupid. A sea otter.. She described it as some clip art from a children’s book, but as she said it I kind of hid my face in my tea and muttered along reassurances. I went to the Can Can with Caleb and Ian. Neither had been, which for Ian I found quite surprising. Caleb and I had a nice French dinner before hand as well from Le Pichet, but we seemed to run into the problem I think I’m going to face once I finally make it to France. The menu was, for the most part, comprise...

I took today off from work as a way of continuing a celebration of my birthday. It was a beautiful day of grey and light rain that as time passed on I felt compelled to wander out into the wet streets of Seattle. Book hunting was my unofficial reason for wandering out, but of course to feel the rain dripping down my face was the actual reason. The 4th of January and a lovely walk though the rain, oh Seattle how you send my heart ‘a flutter.’ I keep looking for a used copy of Down and Out in Paris and London, but for some odd reason I can’t seem to find it at any of the used book stores. I did end up finding some plays by Satre in French today for $3 today though. I thought that reading existential French dialogue would be fun and help with learning more of the language. I was hoping to round out this wander with some Asian food, but the aesthetic of Café on the Ave pulled me in for a sandwich and a trial of the London Fog drink I heard talked down yesterday. I would have to...

Time to make new folders in my art collection on the computer for the new year.. Seattle tattoo design. Based upon the Pacific Northwest art style. The otter represents solitude and curiosity. I would like to get two to represent each year I was living on my own in Seattle. I’m still not feeling that this drawing is to the point where I would be satisfied to have it inked upon me. I’m not sure what it needs though, but I am starting to debate placement. Originally I was thinking that it would be nice wrapped around my left arm right above my elbow, leaving the backside of my arm open for a depiction of the Space Needle, but now I’m thinking that the otters could look nice in the place of the cliché sparrows on the upper chest. Parallel clavicles. I think it would also fit the placement idea better for the Haida.

I had a dream this morning of tattooing the veins of my lower right arm and palm but I was coming across issues dealing with tattooing the veins of my palm. I kept redoing the crease next to my thumb, but the ink wouldn’t keep. Then in trying to get back to tattooing my forearm the skin had moved slightly and the veins were no longer lined up with the tattoo. What strikes me as somewhat interesting in this dream is that I was all of a sudden left handed, but not something that was of any significance and I only noticed upon reflection after the fact.

Another year older and probably the best birthday in the past five years. It started out with riding the bus to PettiRosso with Charlotte and Audrey and being treated to a pleasant breakfast at the table with the lion heads and some Paris blend tea brought in my art bag. A beautiful gentle rain when walking out of the grocery store. Charlotte’s homemade cheese souffle, risotto, and hazelnut roll cake shaped as a log, accompanied with champagne, white wine, Lung Ching green tea, and close friends for interesting conversations. A full stomach of delight and an ear to ear grin. All those things that make me love Seattle and the little niche that I have here.

My father passed this picture of my great grandparents on to me indirectly today. Told me that I look like my great grandfather. By the fact that my great grandmother was born in Switzerland my sis has the ability to get dual citizenship, perhaps. I think that it would be quite amazing, would make traveling to Europe much easier for her. Although I was reading that the Swiss are updating their laws upon citizenship and such.

Taken in nasty changing room at work. I played dress up for lunch at work the other day. Wanted to try rocking the cliché male image, otherwise called the ‘bro’. I had on some size 28 khaki shorts and lucky for me they had a string to tie on the inside (for some reason) that allowed me to cinch them tight enough to keep them on, for a photo they weren’t even in. To take the picture I had to dangle my camera from a clothing hook on the wall and keep it steady it a way that I couldn’t just use the timer function. I got that nasty ‘one arm reaching’ effect going on. Kind of fits the theme though.