Monday, December 29, 2008

Texas Treasures

I was in Texas last week visiting my family. As usual, there were many sights and treasures to behold! First up, some old friends.

A bear bride, a cow my great grandmother made, Woody the Teddy Bear, a bunny with glasses, a bunny princess, and a lioness.


This walrus looks like a buffalo when you look at it upside down.


Molly and some porcelain comrades.


Scott Weaver.

Now for some new-ish friends!

These are some of my dad's mannequins. Yes, he has other mannequins. In fact, he just bought one yesterday, although I don't believe it is a mannequin as much as it is one of those girl-sized Barbies dolls with most of its hair cut off. He found it in a dumpster yesterday. Anyway, the lady-mannequin on the right is dressed in an old school tribal dress that someone we're related to used to wear to traditional tribal weddings in the middle of the last century. It has lots of parts and looks really cool when someone is wearing it and spinning around. The wee guy on the right is...let's take a closer look:

Apparently, back in the day, some Iranian children wore these. This one is really old and not my dad's because he still claims he is 33 years old.

Now for someone we are glad isn't around anymore: Sarah Palin (barffff). So for some reason, this not-spell checked letter came to my dad's house.

Notice anything? Hmmm...let's look closer...

The first word is spelled wrong. Also, why is she even mentioning that she wrote it on Wednesday morning. How is that relevant information? Maybe I am being too elite by just asking that question.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Paper gets heavy.

So I have been going through all my crap for my big move and I have this silly habit of saving everything I find remotely amusing. I've thrown out a lot already (*sniff*). Here are some morsels (click on them for a bigger view):

This is this from some Spanish conversation hour assignment from my senior year at Reed. When I get stressed, I get silly. We were given a Spanish speaking country and expected to make a hand out and talk about it. I got Cuba and had some fun pushing the limits of what MS Word has in terms of desktop publishing.



Translations from the top, counterclockwise: Castro, Hello! I do not age!, The American bourgeoisie enjoy the music of Cuba, The United States gave a great welcome to Elian Gonzolez, and a banana.

Now I will share with you, some children's books my father brought for me during his last trip to Iran. They are all about this folk hero/antagonist/whatever named Mullah Nasruddin. I left my dad's post-its on them because his handwriting is more aesthetically pleasing than the illustrations.

This one is called, Mullah Nasruddin and the Hubris.


Mulla Nasruddin and the Policeman.


Mullah Nasruddin and the Jew.

and of course (drum roll please...).


The Donkey Who Got Married.

This is a picture that Justin drew for me. During the summer of 2007, I bought myself a set of Prismacolor markers in different shades of gray. I was super excited about them. My friends made fun of me, until they used them. This is a portrait of a boyfriend Justin made up for me.


This is a letter I started writing who knows when. I didn't finish it. I didn't even bother to write down who it was for.



This is a picture I saved of Elijah Wood. He is a dream boat.


And lastly, I will share with you a card I got for graduation from my mom and Tom.

I think every blog post on the internet should end with with a picture of a stupid looking cat!

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Letting go of my treasures

So, I am moving across the country soon and I am getting rid of like 70% of my stuff. For example, here is a pile of books. Let me give you some context. This is my pile of give-away books after my friend Rachel took two paper grocery bags full of books home with her.



And since I am a girl, I have a lot of shoes and there are several pairs from my past that are worn out/loved too much and that I have finally decided to give away/toss.

These I got in East Berlin the summer of 2005. It was a critical time in my young adulthood (I am laughing at myself as I type this). I was about to move from Portland to Seattle for a year to gain some perspective on things. I wore them almost everyday. They are my favorite type of sneaker, which is apparently not en vogue anymore: slim and economical. Now all the cool sneakers are bulky.


I got these over winter break my freshman year at Reed. They were always a little too big because the store didn't have my size (the curse of having child-sized feet). I think I like them because Becky liked them so much, but she likes anything with the combination of green and orange.


I got these Vans the summer of 2003, when I decided just to hang out in New York for six weeks instead of going back to Texas, where the only thing I had to entertain myself was watching Degrassi reruns on the N. These are the classic kind of sneaker that looks better as it gets dirtier and starts falling apart and starts to feel like you are wearing a pair of comfortable socks.


When I lived in Seattle, I lived really close to this awesome Value Village. I used to go there every week to buy old lady dresses and canvas shoes for $2 a pair. These were my best find. They right shape and the right color at the right time. Unfortunately, they fell apart.

Monday, December 1, 2008

Happy last day of November

I received another birthday card today. I already got a bunch and I've liked all of them, but I think today's is the best one. My friend Alice, who just moved away after living in and around Portland her entire life, sent it to me.

That's me I'm guessing, going off my clothes and glasses, at age 19. As you can see, I've always been a dork. The inside said this:


I was at Trader Joe's today and I was missing my mom and the Netherlands, so I bought a bag of these:



Yummy, caramely, waffley, stomach-ache inducing, et cetera. In the Netherlands, usually when you order a coffee at at a koffiehaus (not a coffee shop, you go there if you want weed), you get a small cookie for dipping. I like my coffee good and black like God intended it to be, so I would save my cookie for a snack on the train. These were my favorite ones to get.