monday-ne

today wasnt a monday-ish as it could have been.
i think work can get better with sarah helping out.
she is so great and im so happy to have her as part of the team.

i still love my job, but my spirit is broken.
maybe that can get better?

good news for the day: i have heat!
glorious glorious heat.
*inside* my apartment no less.

now i just need my arm to stop being all tight and itchy and hurty.
i may have to drug myself to sleep tonight, otherwise ill be up all night when i move my arm.
(did i mention i had a crap sleep last night? well i did)

its after 10 pm
normally id be going to bed now cause i have a circuit training (read:torture) class at 730 in the morning on tues and thurs, but with my arm in healy mode, im skipping it tomorrow.
i should go to bed soon though anyways.
after i dry my hair.

the dishes can wait until tomorrow.

from PAX in seattle a few weeks ago
graham/mario, the amazing wil wheaton and yours truly

poll the viewers (readers)

ok, so.
i want to get a new tattoo.
a friendship tattoo, one could even say.

the issue is, this tattoo needs to be behind the ear.
it just does. trust me.

now, i already have one tattoo behind each ear.
i dont like them much anymore.
but.
they are both also friendship tattoos.

(we are not even going to discuss the circle i am going in here)
(in fact, we wont even acknowledge that anymore)

i am still friends with girls whom i share these tattoos with.
red star outline with jill (hate the star)
skull and crossbones with shauna (haaaate the fact that i have a skull on my head)

so, the question is, is there a way to cover them up and explain away what ive done?
granted, i dont see either very often, but i know they would both be hurt.

its not that i dont love them both to bits anymore, i just dont want those tattoos there.
and we arent that close still anyways.

what do i do??

question me all you want. i need to discuss this...
blarg

dinosaurs!!!!!!!

2.5 more hours
its like i got a whole new tattoo

steve moore rules!

the big brachisaurus is bradley i
the rest dont have names yet..

yeah so...

my house smells when you walk in
it smells of stale, stagnant, sweaty boy.
its the only way i can describe it.
honest.

also
have i mentioned that i hate getting tattooed?
cause i do
this point is trumped by the fact that steve is astounding at what he does
like whoa
ill have pics off my camera tomorrow
right now i need sleep
the nyquil kicked my ass
i saw my friend terry afterwards and hardly remember the conversation
he must have thought i was out to lunch

tomorrow, when i get home, i will post pics of the new dino friends
and also of vegas
before i go back over to siobhan and cohens, cause im cat sitting for a week while they are in new york.

they are really the cutest

i cant take credit for that pic, its siobhans
ill take some of my own though
but for now, good night

finally! arm 2

ok, this took ages to post
and i need to take better pics, but here you go for now.

first three hours done.
still have to outline more dinos and meteors on the back of my arm.

steve is the man.

what more should i say?

steve time

leave the house with one sleeve
come home with two
well, on the way to two anyways

hopefull we can get at least 4-4.5 hours in today.

ill have some pics!

peeling

yep. im peeling. every every every where. its awesome.
ok, maybe more than a little gross too.

i went and got a hat today for my part on friday!
40s/50s hollywood! sad that i couldnt have gotten one of Amalie's hats, but next time!
pictures friday when im all done up.

my friend peter came over today to teach me how to actually use my camera, and understand more photography things about it, instead of just point and click. he worked with my mom at the camera store in calgary, so i guess in theory he is her friend and now mine by default. he stayed around to chat for a couple hours after the camera lesson, so it was nice to just chat with someone. i never do that.

i also put up my christmas tree tonight! i got a few more decorations when i was out today. they are all bought and not crafted, but whatever! so excited!!! ill probably pack it all up before i go anyways. maybe bring some of it to my moms cause i wont be setting up christmas in this country again!













tried out some of the new infos with the camera..









ill try to be artsy... at least i want to be...









this one feels like a super old christmas card...

i dont get it

please explain to me why a girl who cant be more than 16 or 17, needs to wear these over her jeans to a metallica concert. like, i get that she wants to "look good" and "be sexy" but that is not happening with the rumpled jeans that are bursting out of these... and she'll be standing for the concert i imagine.

are you going to meet your next boyfriend there? dreamy.
so many douchebags and bangers outside that show.

dont get me wrong. i love me some old metallica, but ive seen them once, and looking at the crowd that goes here, ill leave it at that.














on an entirely different topic, my shoulder is very tight and ouchie, and hurts when i try to roll over on it. cause im a side sleeper. i cant wait til i can lay on that side of my body again. boo.

philbur is starting to peel/flake. but very very thin light flakes. never had it like this before. seems like a good thing to me so far...

Philbur the Phoenix

meet Philbur.
he is beautiful.

i apologize for any photos that may be lacking. its next to impossible to take decent pictures of your own arm. especially the back! i actually stood on my bad so i could be close to a light source and hoped for the best. so here you go!

his pretty pretty face



















his sexy snake body



















my super gorgeous red winged shoulder



















the back of my arm, where some of the glorious feathers are














more feathers upfront



















and my fat FOREARM. yes the rest of my arm is swollen too, but i didnt even get tattooed down there. yay for popeye arms?














sorry to sound braggy but i am so so so so so so so happy with it!

i loooooooooooove the legs! and the head, but the legs! they were my fav part in the outline too....

so there ya have it! cant wait til its not scaly anymore.
we are going to add one more feather at my elbow in the back where there is a big blank space.. and the feathers beneath is body will be shaded grey and red like the wings.. the back ground will fade from orange around the sunrise to grey and black to make some parts pop more... and the negative space swirly bits will be thickly outlined in a peacock blue.. but left blank.

3 more hours in jan!!!!

sneak peek

the bandages are slowly coming off as i move about. i will take them off and go through the wonderful task of scrubbing it later on this afternoon. im going to go out first, and id rather it stay protected. (hurts less when it gets hit when its wrapped).

but here is a peak at the wing on my shoulder. it sucks to get tattooed on the shoulder, just in passing.


















and yes, this is how fat my arm is. it looks like its all wrap and padding, but its mostly my arm. and it will get bigger when i take that lovely restricing bandage off. woo.

my arm

is hot.

in both the temperature and looks department.

i forgot my camera today, but i will get some shots of it soon. maybe some close ups only while its swollen.

sat 5 hours today. apparently that is his max these days? i could have sat longer..

we figure only one more 3 hours appt is needed, and that is jan 23.

as to the jan 24 appt. i guess he just looked at the book, looked at todays appt mistaking it for jan (???) and so assumed it was taken care of. and then didnt bother to call/email me back to say its sorted. i call bullshit but what can i do? i just have to leave work early on that friday but that is cool.

it will be a work in progress at the convention in austion but whatevs!

i grabbed a pizza on the way home too. someone was talking about pizza dough earlier today... (hope it was good!) and i am not about to cook right now, so this is just as great.

now im going to go 'crumple on the couch' as my friend claire said today. she stopped by to visit. it was nice for conversation, but it also pulled me out of my 'zone' so i felt it more. i was almost asleep for alot of it.

ok bye.

what is normal?

i cant answer that, but what i can tell you is that how i was feeling last night was definately not normal. i would actually describe that feeling as high. stupid cold meds.

i started my day with some cough syrup to stop my dry hack. i then had a hot chocolate. (caffeine!!) oh, and i hadnt eaten anything. so i was super flyin at work and not enjoying the feeling. the rest of the day i stuck to cough drops to stop the coughs..

well when i got home, i decided it was time to hit the syrup one more time cause i was coughing alot. yeah, kept me up til almost 3 am. i was buggin out! it almost made me afraid for how im going to react to and handle the nyquil today. ive had enough of being high on meds.. but at least ill just be laying there today. i hope. maybe sitting up a bit? ack.

oh yeah, and the water from my tap tasted gross last night? i hope its just because of the meds..

i also have to think about food as ill be there for a long time. something more substantial than snacks. i guess i can go across the street for something, but i dont know. i cant remember what ive done for past all day sessions. maybe ill pack a school lunch, with a sandwich, a granola bar and some juice. haha.

i have two hours to figure it out and also eat breakfast, and then i have to start walkin in the rain.

fingers crossed for no weirdness about the jan appointment

tuesday only? already??

i love sneezing. i just had to get that out there. ive been doing alot of it lately too. at least there is something to enjoy about being sick.

i am soooo busy at work still. but, that just means more overtime that i get paid time and a half for, which means more money to save for moving and for my little trips coming up. 4 weeks! well less than that really.. ill be in calgary already in 4 weeks.. cant wait!!!

i just looked at the weather network.. boston and new york are about the same temp as here right now.. florida is about 10+ degrees higher and austin even higher!! yay warm weather! im so glad im ending the trip in the warm instead of the cold..

what else has been going on..

just work. work work work. i went out for noodles with janine and deandra last thursday, and then to the foundation for yummy vegan spicy peanut (the ONLY thing i ever order there. stick with what you know you like) with christine, and then deandra randomly showed up, and claire joined us. it was nice to see friends again! i dont do that anymore. stupid work.

must stay focused on moving. making money and moving. and getting tattooed!

saturday is a 6 hour sit! or a 6 hour appointment anyways. ill be ready to rock, i just hope steve is. he is being wierd and almost flakey lately. he wont email or call me back to confirm an appointment in january that he emailed me about first. we talked about it at my last appointment too, but i didnt know if he wrote it down, so i called on my way home to remind him. no call back. i called and left a message two weeks later, no call back. he emailed me last friday to make sure we were on for this saturday, i replied with yes and btw, did you get my message and can you please let me know about january? (it was worded much nicer and fluffier than that of course) aaaaaand.... no email back! what the heck steve! i dont know if something huge is going on for him right now or what.. but yikes. i need my appointmet. must. finish. arm!

i really want to get on packing up my stuff, but all my bins are full of stuff to sell... hrmmmm. i dont know why i want to pack so bad. i mean, i have six months-ish to go.. but still! maybe it will make me feel more organized? or maybe i will be able to see what else i need to get rid of better. after christmas i will look into starting something. maybe...

ok probably not. but ill talk about it some more!

i was waiting to post pictures of my wrap party that i planned and threw for my team, but the guy with the rest of the (probably) actually good pictures hasnt come around. so here are a couple that i took. i was so busy all night that i didnt even get to take pictures!

smashed cop car that the decorators arranged. super fun for our car game!














im not even sure whats happening here. kristina is drunk and im ... i dont know.
i *think* i wasnt ready for the shot but who knows...














the girl on the far left was someones date to the party, and the one in the middle is a girl from work that i never ever talk to. someone got us to stand together. its kind of a funny awkward picture... oh well.














thats all you get for now. i hope the rest of them come soon and there are better ones..

i think this post ended up being much bigger than i intended. and also a jumble of topics.
im not helping right now either.

A week in review

This past week at work as been a whirlwind. So much to look after, with only two weeks until the wrap party and the big in studio move. Having Halloween come on Friday sure didnt help anything, and I'm sure I'm behind because of it. I did scare a good number of people at work though, even *after* they figured out it was me...

Also! I got my contract extended until Feb 13! So at least I dont have to worry until that time, and we will see what goes down until then! Still dont know what my thoughts/feelings are about leaving soon after being made full time, which will have to happen when this contract ends, as they have rules about being contract for more than a year, and that will have me two weeks over a year!

Came home friday night after work, and marvelled at how many damn fireworks were set off during the course of the evening. For a while there, it was like an entire crate was lined up down my street cause the noise kept going for 7 min solid. And then just big bursts here and there for the next few hours. Thanks for that Vancouver. Calgary certainly does not do fireworks for Halloween....

If you havent seen the post below already, I had my first sit on the top of my arm yesterday with Steve Moore. I havent had just line work done for years, there has always been colour or shading worked in as well, so this is nice. It will all be healed in a few days! But because of this, we only wrapped it in saranwrap. So! At about 530 am, I woke up and was only aware of the crinkle noise of said saran, and was aware that the vaseline-ish stuff on my arm was now going to get on my sheets, as said saran was moving about. I tried to sleep being still, but at 630 am I gave up and had a shower to wash it all off.

After this, I forgot that it was daylight savings time here, so I thought I slept in past a breakfast date with Shauna and her son. Luckily it all worked out and breakfast was had and enjoyed, despite the hag of a woman who kept trying to signal to Shauna to take Brodie outside because he was shrieking every here and there. Sorry lady, its a family restaurant, so deal with it. You try reasoning with a 16 month old. It's not like we were ignoring him and letting him scream. Some people! She probably needs to get laid more...

This afternoon now, has been spent napping. I think laundry is in order, and maybe some vegging out time on the couch. Yes, that sounds nice.

I leave you with a shot of my costume from yesterday. Its not a full shot, so you are missing the sexier part of it, but you get the idea of why everyone was so scared/disturbed!

travels update

So, my trip around the states is somewhat off. Nicole is no longer going to move to Seattle. I had a funny feeling that she would decide that. So, instead, Im going to try to hit New York on or around New Years, fly to Florida to visit said Nicole, as well as Deidra and Paul and their new edition, Mycah, and then fly to Austin, TX to see Tasha.

Turns out that I may be able to get there for the tattoo convention, that a certain reader of mine may also be attending. Perhaps I should make that happen? I guess it will depend on if Tasha wants to take me in for a few days!

Because of this coincidence, I decided to celebrate by spontaneously emailing Nick Baxter to see if he would be tattooing the show and if he had any openings. I havent heard back yet, but I imagine he gets emails like Steve Moore does, so maybe it will take a while. Of course, I should prepare myself to just not hear back as well. Le sigh.

Also, my plans to hit Maui with Danielle and her family are out. They are going in March, and another girl already has the month of March off. The chances of us both being allowed to be away at the same time, even for a week, is very slim. And I need to book now before my travel credit expires at the end of the month. Where the heck will I go? Hrmmm..

I'll have to see if I can book a flight overseas with it for when I move, and then make it so that I can change the date if need be. I wonder...

random rant!

There are two girls from Edmonton who are apparently going down to compete in some Miss Tattoo contest. The one is very pretty, and has rad tattoos/mods. The other is pretty.. but has not great tattoos, and not a ton. I have no idea why she is going or how on earth she thinks she can compete with will most likely be there. She doesnt even stand a chance next to the one she is going down with.

I think *I* have WAY nicer tattoos than her. And more. But I have small boobs and she is much prettier. But its about the tattoos! Right?!?

Ok. That's it for now. Thats been on my mind for a while now... had to get it out.

my feet

And finally, without further ado... my feet by Heather McLean (toes by Mark Ainsworth)














I'll try to get a better shot another time. Hard to get a good one of your own feet...

I got nuthin

I dont know why I dont just update. I mean, I have things to say, but I feel like I have to wait til I get the pictures up that are owed. I guess I can always post the pics later... I'll get this figured out sooner or later.

Work is crazy busy still. And im super sore with my healing implants and whatnot. Slow going but going none the less. Still have to wait to hear about when my contract is being extended until, but my insiders tell me that by the end of next week all will be revealed. Sounds very mystical, but hey, its all I have to go one.

I had a great moment with a coworker today. She has been talking to me about tattoos a bit since I started, and about how she wanted to get one herslf. (And no, not the annoying sort of conversations, actually good ones). She is about my Moms age, so its fun. Anyways, she went and got her little celtic knot thing, and its pretty good. Tasteful. She told me she's been thinking about doing this for about 6-7 years, and after meeting me, it really inspired her to go and do it and she is so happy now. She says it feels right. I like that I can be credited with a part of that.

Anywho, lots more goes on but im tired. oh so tired.

Oh, Nicole pierced my high nostrils when I was in Seattle so I'm healing those too. Good times!!!

home now please?

Convention has been fun-o-rama. Last day today. Hung out a bit, and now Im going to go join some friends at Bushido for the last after party. Met a guy from Montreal who does guest spots in Sweden quite a bit, and also doesnt drink. Nice to find someone else I may run into often in my new end of the world.

Breakfast this morning was good. My grandma looks good for 94, or a least as good as you can look. Then my Mom and I went to see Mamma Mia. Again. And I cried. Again. Fun times. Love that movie. Would love to see the theatre preformance more.

Ok. Im tired. Going out just cause. Driving home all day tomorrow.
I cant wait for my own bed.

small world

So, a few weeks ago, my ex from LA texted me to see if I would have time to show some friends of his around Vancouver. I guess this couple from Sweden was travelling around, and they were coming here and didnt know anyone. Unfortunately, I am so busy with work that I declined, as I can barely keep my own life straight these days, nevermind be responsible for someone else in town.

He just wrote me on myspace, and I guess this couple is the same couple that was interviewing Allen at the Ink and Iron show in Long Beach! He figured it out because my back is in one of the photo montages (sp?) that they did.

So, I guess they wouldnt have been total strangers, though I doubt I would have recognized them to see them again. Would have been funny though. Maybe they'll be at the Calgary show this weekend.

And with that, my two dedicated readers, I ask you this: Will you be in Calgary next weekend?
Amalie, I know you won't be, but you guys should really look into it sometime, not that you are in need of more places to go, but its huge and alot of fun! And Dave, youre only a few hours away... will you be there at all? I know I missed you last year....