I DID IT!!!!

closer picture when it is fully healed!

#1 is officially checked off of my 25 before 25 list!
It says: Against the Grain
Done at: Lucky's (Downtown San Diego)
Art By: Thor

Overall experience went a little like this: I had been thinking about Against the Grain as you know considering I posted about it a couple of days/maybe a week earlier. I thought and thought and didn't want to wait any longer so I sent a text to a tattooed friend asking for a recommendation on a really good walk in tattoo shop. If I had been getting my hot air balloons or anything else I would not have done a walk in, but this was basic and I trusted my friend's judgement. He told me about Lucky's so I looked them up and found nothing but great reviews on their Yelp page. Then I went to their Myspace page and looked at the examples of artists' work and was again impressed.
After having a semi distressing talk with the guy looking at my car for insurance I gathered my things and drove into a place I call my driving Hell. Oh downtown I don't miss you. Found the shop, parked the car and walked in a very determined manner in.
Talked to the first guy explaining what I wanted, waited for a second for the script guy (as they called him at first) to come back from break. He came in, I told him what I wanted, he asked if he could show what he would like better, I agreed. I leave art to artists when I don't have all the knowledge I need. He drew up a gorgeous piece and I was sold.
Waited while he set up and was a little nervous, not for the feeling but for my future. I get it, everything changes, and while I know I'm going to be tattooed doing the first one was like breaking a seal that I was a tad afraid to break.
He called me over, I sat down and placement began. We found out I am double jointed in my elbows/wrists (not quite sure which part is responsible for the way my arms can turn) and perfected the placement.
Then it began... whoever says a tattoo is completely painless is lying. I'm not saying it was excruciating or anything close but it wasn't a nice soft lover's touch either. It's like bee stings, or tips of really sharp razors catching your skin, or sandpaper continuously rubbing your skin raw.
The part that kind of surprised me was my lack of anxiety about the needle. It might have been because the needle goes too fast up and down to see but either way I now know that part of a tattoo will never be a problem.
Total it took less than an hour to outline, fill and touch up the writing. I left at the same determined pace as I entered and went on with my night.

Like all big decisions in my life I have been going back and forth about how I feel about this piece. I love it but I wondered if I would always love it. Today (3 days later) I can say that I am completely and totally in love with the piece. I no longer want to worry about how it will affect my future because it won't affect it negatively if I don't let it.

YAY!!! I finally accomplished #1 on the list!!!!

Another day, another book, another lady I love.

Ah yes, my not so secret addiction with The Hills and Lauren Conrad. Tonight I read her second book Sweet Little Lies and loved every second of it. There's something about super easy, bubble gum pop reads that I can't stay away from. I think they are my escape. That has to be it. I read these kinds of books when I want life to be a little more simple and happy. I'm in no way implying that I am unhappy, but it seems that many around me are and I'm just trying to find a way to get everything to work out and get my life on some sort of track. I don't want to be scrounging for money like I am now, I want to be content and working for something bigger. 


Anyway, the book was simple and good. By no means winning any high awards but definitely not a waste of my night. Oh man, she's so effing cute with the cute dress and amazing style. 


I've said it before and I'll say it again, I want to be her friend. 


book 7 of 8 Goodness, I've done the additional 8 much faster than I anticipated. I have been reading a lot a lot.

How I Love Chelsea Handler

Tonight I started and finished book 6 of 8. A nice young woman from work loaned me Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang and I wanted to return it as soon as possible and meant to start it last night but instead finished Desperate Housewives Season 2 (phenomenal) as well as came even closer to finishing the baby blanket AND watching (500) Days of Summer. Phew. Lots going on last night so alas I did not start CCBB. I did start it tonight while painting my nails a new red color I bought. I'm happy with it, but not ecstatic. The nail color I mean, not the book. The book was fabulous. After my failed attempts at finding free episodes from season 3 of Desperate Housewives I resigned myself to finishing the already half if not three quarters read book. 

Ms Chelsea Handler never lets me down. I'm definitely glad I didn't purchase this hardcover book considering I finished it in a couple of hours and hardcovers usually run around $20, but I am VERY glad I read it as well as her other books My Horizontal Life and Are You There Vodka, It's Me, Chelsea. At least I'm pretty sure I read Are You There Vodka... almost positive in fact. Oh goodness my memory is failing me. 

Point is, Chelsea has a way with words and I wish I could hang around her every day. I wouldn't even get too mad when she made up stories to trick me and entertain herself. I wouldn't get mad when she made fun of me either because she'd probably word it really well.

I have a couple of friends that tell me from time to time I remind them of the great C.H. and I should have a show called C Not-So-Lately where I discuss topics that happened FOREVER ago (or maybe two weeks because the media is fickle as we know) with the same charm and wit as is seen on Chelsea Lately. I do not think myself as funny as Chelsea but I do appreciate the compliment. 

If you like this lady read the book, read all of them in fact. It won't set you back more than 6-8 hours for all three of them and there are so many laugh out loud moments in the three that it's well worth it.

In closing I will share with you my favorite line from this book: "I've always had a disliking for animal trainers, and this guy cemented my theory that people who chaperone animals for a living have never had a girl sit on their face."

Only 2 more books to go! #8

A way to keep the nightmares at bay (set 7 of 10)

Against my better judgement this fine evening I decided to look up the affects of black widow spider bites. In the beginning I was relieved to read that they are not as bad as they are made out to be but then I decided to check out the brown recluse and how their bites are handled... I became thoroughly disgusted to say the least. And creeped out. My bad to say the least. So I decided I'm make myself a little more happy before I went to bed (looking to keep nightmares at bay) and so I put together 10 more photos. 

These are all instax mini photos. I need to take more, she's been retired to my room for a while lately while I've played with the new Impossible Project color film for the SX-70. I need to keep her around more though.

Heart Shaped Window

Spirits or a Trick of the Light?

My Favorite Half Garage

Better Than a CoWorker

Day at the Beach Self Portrait

I Love Looking Up At the Sky

My Cuddle Buddy

Roadblocks Mean New Paths and Opportunities

On a Steep Hill

I Love the Simplicity

 

And so wraps up yet another set of 10. Turns out I have taken many more pictures that I've liked since March. Exciting definitely but no reason to stop taking pictures. My life has been hectic lately but my digital camera is ALWAYS with me just in case. There are so many missed pictures that I wish I could take but it would mean pulling over on highways and busy streets. There are some projects I need to do before moving however, they are just going to have to take some courage.

p.s. Spiders, if you could stay out of my bed I would appreciate it a lot and will continue to let most of your species live even when I see you around. Thanks.

Prep, The Abstinence Teacher, Watermelon and The Women's Room (books 2-5 of 8)

I was going to do individual posts about each book but I've come to find that I keep putting off the task. My compromise to myself is still writing about each book I've read but keeping it short and simple and clumping books together if I need to.  I've gone through several books in the past few weeks and one I've already talked about (The Women's Room) but want to put in here for the sake of accurate 25 before 25 tracking.

First up is Prep. Pretty good book, didn't ever get bored and definitely saw a life of a child that wants to get away from home a little earlier. I would definitely recommend it for an easy and fun but not completely carefree read.

The Abstinence Teacher I just finished maybe 20 minutes ago and was a little disappointed in the ending. I feel like there is more to the story that I want to know. The story itself was wonderful, I read through it really fast and found it way easier to handle than Little Children. Oh my goodness I almost didn't buy this book because of how much I didn't like the heartache in Little Children. But luckily I did buy it after reading the synopsis. The book definitely hits on subjects close to my life. Christianity and sexual health teaching are two subjects I constantly find myself thinking about. Christianity because I don't understand it and have tried many times to follow but personally don't find the point and sexual health teaching because I feel like kids in America are definitely not getting the education or information that they deserve which creates a lot of our other social problems across gender, nationality, socio economic status and religious groups. I see now that I could write a lot about these subjects but it wouldn't have too much to do with the book. The point is, I recommend it highly. I really liked the dynamic Perrotta set up between the two main characters. 

Watermelon starts out as a really sad tale but written very lightly so it goes by fast and eventually the story becomes happier and somewhat inspiring. I don't know what it is about chick lit that keeps me coming back but there is something that I just love. Maybe the way that the woman usually ends up with he guy at the end or there is promise. Or maybe it's because the main character goes through a hardship and always bounces back and I just want to have those stories to believe in. Either way I love chick lit and this book was a fast read that I enjoyed.

Already wrote about it a bit here.

The woman's room was definitely a tad more dense than the other books read thus far but it was completely and totally worth it. Still fiction but based on true true stories that hurt my heart a bit and threw me back into feminist mode. The tone was definitely angry and while I'm normally really receptive to anger and pick it up fast I couldn't find myself mad at the male gender nearly as much as I use to be when I would read feminist literature. I'm still very much behind woman empowerment and balance between genders/sexes/roles but I don't like being super pessimistic anymore and so I don't want to hate a huge group for the horrible acts a percentage of that group does. Even if it's a large percentage... I'm only looking for one man in the end. Life is too short to have burning hatred consuming the body and mind. 

Despite the anger I love love loved the book. Absolutely loved it, even though I took a break in the middle of it to read lighter books. It was definitely a worthwhile read and made me think a LOT. I love books that remind me of classes I use to love. This one definitely did.

So there wraps up another post about books and 25 before 25... Hopefully in the next week I'll be finishing a blanket for a friend's new baby and putting the finishing touches on my last paint by numbers. 

Now I'm off to one of my new organizing jobs, this one is a doozy. I am helping B organize his whole garage and then selling expensive stuff he doesn't need and my payment is a percentage of the sales as well as a great reference. 

My ocd definitely helps with jobs like this because they are tiring and if I didn't have my compulsive need to keep fixing things until they look perfect I would quit half way through.

Hope everyone is having a great Sunday!

Can't Get Enough (set 6 of 10)

A mixture of instant cameras in this post. Instax 210, SX-70 and the Instax Mini:

Roses

I had a lover

Pretty Pink

close to the sun

They keep coming back

Thought Spot View

Ocean's Collection

The Moat Overtook the Castle

So We're Safe?

When I'm here they think I'm checking the waves to surf

Halfway there with #6!!! (set 5 of 10)

polaroids!

broken down buildings, my fav!

My street! (not really)

Meditation Garden Grandeur

Inspiration's Doorway

pretty bird

Darling Swing

weekend balloon

My favorite orange

hope breaks through

enjoy life. you're rich with it.

And so ends episode 5... episode 6 up next with, you guessed it, moooore polaroids! :)

Pictures pictures pictures (Set 4 of 10)

Welcome ladies and gents, here's another set of photos for the infamous 25 before 25. There will be two more of these this week and then they will come as I take more pictures from there on out.

Muscle Buster

Work Avoidance

Everything Is Going to Work Out (2)

Fruit Left Behind

Palm Springs (2)

Ferris Wheel Love (3)

Here's to 6 months in!

Just in case you haven't noticed I am going to be doing a lot of updating about my 25 before 25 list in the next couple of weeks. September is the 6th month of this ongoing project and so I really need to start figuring out what has and hasn't been done and doing fun posts to remind myself.

Just a list of updates on the list and what is to come post wise:

(refresher)

• 1-4 are not anywhere close to done
• #5: crochet another blanket is really close to finished
• #6 is going to have a lot of posts coming up, I'm at least 50% done with taking 100 flickr worthy pictures (here's post 1)
• #7 is waiting for colder weather and for my 2 blankets I already have planned to be done
• #8 is technically done, I've already read 8 for fun books but I haven't blogged about many so might start that one over, here's the 1st post
• #9: finish two self help books has been done but again I didn't blog about them so I did one post tonight and I might read another s-h book
• 10: cook for someone else at least once a month has lagged for sure and I have no way to post the past, I'm picking it up again this month and I will post this time!
• #11: ride spectrum ferris wheel is still in the works though I've gone twice since March and it's been closed for repairs!
• #12 & 13 are waiting
• #14 make 3 collages is 1/3 done and I combined it with #15: paint a picture (Make Art Your Life)
• #16 Finish both paint by numbers is almost done, I'll do one post for both
• #17 take a road trip DONE! Palm Springs, I'll do a post this month
• #18 Hot Air Balloon ride is going to have to wait for money, and may even have to wait until next year (we shall see)
• #19 get of anxiety meds is being put on hold due to the plans for my future... one of which includes going to Argentina for 6 months... it would be REALLY helpful to have that little back up that is a low dose of meds during that time. The place is crazy different from here and if while I'm there I decide to fully wean off then yay! Until then I've gone down 50% on my meds. Awesome actually.
• #20 Figure out next career goal/move: easy it's PHOTOGRAPHY!!!
• #21-25 are still in the planning stages and will have updates in the 2nd 6 months :)

Yay meeting goals!

#6 10 more pictures (set 3 of 10)

Episode 3 of flickr worthy photos...

Round and round

chance sellers

beef: not my dinner

pop of color

underneath

tools at the gate

falling down

mmmmm

new type of exercise?

where I use to work and play

*all mine!... thanks Canon Powershot