Look! No Hands!

I've been sketching a lot in the past few months. Mainly, I'm doing it for fun - a way to get all my ideas out of my head and onto paper. Problem has been that I'm not a real good artist.

At first, all my drawings looked like square people. The women looked like linebackers and the men looked like fridges. I'm getting better at making people more realistic but I still can't draw arms to save my life. I learning! Its hands maybe. Maybe hands are the hard thing to draw. I don't normally even bother with the hands. Usually my little people are handicapped. Get it??? No hands??? Ohhhhhh. Wow. Pun intended folks. Pun intended.

It will be another hot day here in Manhattan. I'm starting to understand that when people say "August is the worst month to live in New York." what they really mean is "the temperature in August turns NYC into a giant armpit." It's true. The humidity and the temp blend together to make the air sticky and just above body temperature.

Someone is playing the equivalent of Mexican Celine Dion outside my window. It's really loud and smultzy.

I want to give a shout out to Jess Thorsen. Girlfriend told me she reads this shit religiously and I love her for it. Jess, that "no hands" joke was for you. You go girl!

Building a Future

I'm having such a blast building a big, fuzzy, furry suit for Peter Brown. I'm reading "The Artist's Way" right now. It's really changing my views on so many things. In addition to opening my eyes to my own needs, aspirations and future, I'm learning so much about the creative world in general.

One of the things the book talks about is the idea of the universe working with you to achieve your goals. For every inch you walk towards a full creative life, the universe walks a mile towards you. That's been true for me in the last few weeks. I started to design and then I got a phone call from Peter. I've been working on the design for Peter's suit for the last few weeks and have started to build it. Ever since then, the orders have been rolling in. I'm so happy! I'm really enjoying myself and, it's true, if you want something bad enough - you can manifest it.

Hooray for Divine Order!

When to Say "When"

I've been thinking about seeing all my friends at Burning Man a lot lately. So much so that I'm also thinking, "What happens when I get back from vacation? What to do when there are no more escapes from New York to think about?"

All of this begs the even bigger question, "How long do I want to be in New York?"

It gets better everyday here. Once you get a hang of the city - where things are, where to make money, how to get around - life gets more comfortable. I feel like the greatest thing for me so far is the enormous gratefulness I feel. I'm genuinely grateful for little details. I absolutely love that development.

I don't regret coming here - I'll do it again and again if my life guides me in that direction. I wouldn't mind staying in New York either. I'd like to go San Francisco still. I have visions of western beaches and big sunsets.

So we'll see...

The Siren Fest

I love Brian's "Look! It's something exciting!" Face. Brian works with me and reminds me of my good friend Tyler Birch. They both lived in Portland at the same time, I wonder if they know eachother???

I just want to take a moment to point out the guy in back of Brian in the "cyclone" picture. Yeah. That guy.









Ah... The joys of the beach! In New York they come complete with elmo diapers and cigarettes! Watch for needles...






Brian and I trying to look hot.




Brian and I went to Coney Island for the Siren Festival on Saturday night. We saw the Scissor Sisters (my numbero uno musical love) and many other fun and educational things...













Happy again! Twenty minutes in the bathroom line, a horrifying bathroom experience and then? Knowing you won't have to go again for another half hour!






The Wonder Wheel in all it's glory!






The beach....




All in all, the beach may have been gross but it was a really fun night. We had a blast and saw some really wonderful break dancing. I hadn't been to the beach yet and... how could it get better? A free Scissor Sister's concert, the beach, a carnival AND a liter of beer for 4 bucks?!

Holy Al Gore!

There was just a tornado in New York. What tha?

Contact Progress, Awesome God and the Superiority of New Yorkers

AHHHHHHHHHH!! I have one of those weird mouse pads on my laptop that you just touch it instead of clicking? Do you know what I'm saying? It's a little rectangle at the base of the keyboard that does magical things that I don't understand. Sometimes I THINK about touching it and the mouse moves. Or other times, it just erases what I just wrote. I'm afraid of the rectangle. This blog was a lot longer two seconds ago and now I have to start from scratch.

STAY AWAY FROM THE MAGICAL RECTANGLE.

Carey and I had a long long long conversation last night. It was sublime. I felt at home and normal for the first time in a long time. I know it probably ate up most of my minutes but it was totally worth it. She just has a way of saying things that make perfect sense to me. I like the sound of her voice. We're so alike. We're so weird and messed up and completely the same.

We talked a bit about living in San Francisco together some time next year. That just blows my mind. That would be so awesome and wonderful for me. Awesome! Awesome like "Welcome to camp! Our God is an Awesome God!" awesome. A "Senior just asked you to go to prom with him!" Awesome.

Little things make me really happy right now. I think part of the reason people love New York so much is two fold:

1. Sometimes it's so hard that the moments it's good are really sweet.
2. If you make it, you can always say, "I live in New York" and everyone thinks you're cool. Even the people who live here with you.

I had to sleep with my contacts in last night. The drug store near my apartment has weird hours. I believe the hours may be ordained by when people actually feel like working at the drug store. Sort of an, we'll be open from 10 till 2 and then from 4 to 5 cause we need a long lunch. Lazy stupid drug store people are ruining my eyes! I couldn't get my contact solution until this morning (this is coupled with a very long story about really needing toilet paper that can't be told on this blog). But when I got home and took out my contacts and let them go swimming in my new (and very expensive) contact solution.... it felt.... Luxurious.

That story may make you think, "wow. Betsy's really desperate!" but you know what?? It's so wonderful to actually FEEL things. To realize what you have and what you get when you work for it. To be truly grateful. And to get all that out of buying contact solution? Well, that's a pretty sweet situation. That's progress.

On How Life Is... Ramble #4867b

Well, for those of you who haven't figured it out yet: I'm not going to move to San Francisco in September. I was thinking of doing it but the money stuff got gnarly and I just couldn't justify it. I'm generally feeling as though my life has it's own direction right now and I can chose to follow it or not. If I chose not to, it tends to do what it wants anyway.
Besides, I like New York. It's taught me a lot. It's not a place where I want to settle down but it's been great visiting. I might as well stay a little longer. But I DO still feel like I'm visiting here. When I think about Seattle I become homesick. I become homesick for people, of course, but mostly I'm homesick for normalcy. I miss having my own space, driving a car, shopping in a supermarket, ect. It's not the "homesick" where you miss knowing what you'll be doing on a Friday night, miss your boyfriend and your best friends (even though I do). It's more of mourning for normal life.
In exchange for "normalcy" I get a whole lot though. I'm loving that side of it right now. I see famous people on the street - Anthony Kedis almost poked his eye out on my umbrella few weeks ago - amazing views, meeting new people, expanding my horizons. So I'm grateful. I'm eyes-wide-open-big-breath and JUMP! I'm fearless and ecstatic, cautious and curious - I'm brand new and very old all the time. For me, New York is every emotion.

Fourth of July Pictures

Everyone squished to one side of the roof so we could see the fireworks...
Exercising my right to drink beer in public (as long as it's going incognito in a bag).
Vonia looking thrilled when we realized the park bathrooms were closed.
Our barbecue (from the left, Emily, Nathan, Vonia and Anita)
Tim in Prospect Park (Park Slope, Brooklyn)
Making Mr. T angry...
Me and my brand new bling. Thanks to 50 cent and his gorgeous design sense.

Fourth of July in Brooklyn

I had an awesome Fourth of Jahizzle.

I went over to Tim's and cut his hair into a Mohawk once again. I swear, that boy's hair grows like a weed. If my hair grew like that I'd have bangs down to my ass by now. Truly! I really don't think my hair grows like other people's. I rarely cut it. My bangs grow really fast but the rest of my hair just doesn't get past a certain length. How I would LOVE to have hair down my back. Not ON my back but long girl hair. I guess I'll just have to get extensions and have Malibu Barbie Hair for a few weeks.... yet another way to blow 200 dollars.

In exchange for an awesome Mohawk, Tim shaved his beard into a beautiful trucker mustache. His mom is going to hate me. But I thought it was hilarious and perfect for our funny 4th of July. He looked like a friendly, white Mr. T. It was great!! I'll put pictures of it...

Tim's roomy Tonya noticed that I had Tim Hair all over my dress and gave me two new ones! She just walked into the kitchen and said, "Do you want these? My brother sent them to me and they don't fit." Oh my gosh. I haven't been able to go shopping since I got here so it was a big deal to get TWO new dresses. They both fit me perfectly. They are both from India (that's where Tonya is from) and one is silk! Yay! Thank you!

So I put on my new dress. Tim had a bunch of really gaudy bling from the last movie he wrapped. We put it on for fun. It's really horrid stuff. Huge and heavy with lots of fake diamonds. They even spin!

So we set off for the park; me and my new dress and Tim and his new mustache. The bling bought us several funny looks on the way.

There was a rain shower in the middle of the day and it was super hot out. Really tropical. We were all sticky. Prospect Park was filled with families. Water balloons, loads of children, cops and baseball games. There were signs everywhere saying "No fire. No barbecue." But there was literally a barbecue every 50 feet. I asked Vonia and she said that rules are generally ignored if everyone wants to do it. I love that! The people overruled the law! And it sure didn't hurt. All I saw all day were families happily eating chicken of the barbecue. All smiles.

We barbecued for a bit while Tim and Adam beat the 10 year olds at tee ball. They didn't go easy on the kids. It was funny - we were wondering if they were actually threatened by the little ones? Cause they sure were trying hard to beat them and when they did they celebrated!

When the sun began to sink in the sky we headed back through Park Slope to David and Anita's place. We went on the roof and spread out pillows and blanket so we could sit and watch the fireworks. NYC does three shows at once - the same fireworks at the same time in three different parts of the river. So everyone can see and a few lucky people can see them all at once. We all ended up squishing into one corner of the roof so we could see the show. Spreading out all those pillows for nothing.

We did sit for awhile afterwards and tell stories. I met a great director who is leaving to do a show in China next month. We had a great conversation.

Yay!

The Lady Shirt

Early Morning. F Train to Delancy. On my way to work. I'm still sorta waking up. I'm just opening my eyes to the world. Just recognizing things around me - air conditioned car, tiles on wall, sandals, business coats, smells like Chinese food... and then... a grown man in a woman's shirt. A big, hairy chest covered by a tank top that is a LADIES tank. Not "could be, maybe, might have been" a woman's' shirt. NO. Razor back, royal blue (in a lady way). In the front, it has little spaghetti straps that are super short so the front, sort of, bib thingy, came up really high in the front. Do you know what I'm talking about? It's the sort of tank that a little girl usually wears. In fact, that's what this looked like. It looked like a dad had accidentally picked his kid's shirt out of the hamper, put it on and stomped down to the subway without a second look in the mirror. Oh wait. No one in their right mind- gay or straight- would wear this tank top with even ONE look. Except maybe Kimmy Gibbler.
Kay. Moving on. That woke me up a bit though. Little shock to the system. Kay.
Switch trains. Not cause I was really upset and had to leave the tank top premises but cause I needed to get where I was going. If I had time, I would have followed Mr. Lady Shirt to the moon. But it wasn't meant to be. I had to change trains so I could see.....

Eureka! Another man in a girl shirt! This time the culprit was a rather slim, young blond guy. This one is soo good! I wish you could have been there with me! Lady shirts! As far as the eye could see!

This girl shirt was a lovely shade of lilac. Perfect for early summer. It had a delicate V neck and small stitching. Short sleeves and a dainty cut right below the belly button. Just short enough to see his pale stomach. Gorgeous. Rockin the Lady Shirt. It's the new fad! Every man in New York is doing it! He was the crown jewel of the F train. Breathtaking. Bold.

Only in NYC beautiful babies! Well, maybe not but it sure was a gift. A big gift all wrapped up in a lady shirt.