mmmm, chocolate eggs.

I once went a week and a day without indulging in any treats lying around the office. But my co-workers bake scones, bring in cookies and there is always the candy jar, two seats down from me, usually overflowing with little treats eager to give me cavities, sweet little things that call out to me right around the time I'm finished with lunch. Recently my favorite candy appeared in the jar, those little chocolate eggs that you can only get around Easter time. Those are my all time favorite Easter candy. Yum. So you can imagine how excited I was when I read Not Martha's post on Canadian chocolate eggs vs. American chocolate eggs. I think this is the most awesome thing I've seen all day. Check it out for yourself here. And if my very lovely Canadian friend is reading, can't we find a way to smuggle some of the good ones into the US? But lets not put them in the candy jar, K?

video killed the radio star.

i've got a new piece up on SFist- with lots of fantastic pictures of video game art.

my monthly poem.

I know just about every month I post some writing here and I talk about how much I adore my writing group that I've been a part of for 4 (?) years now. But really, I can't help it, I love them all so much and I don't know if I'd still be writing if it weren't for them. Our meetings are part therapy, part writing, part critique. Cheese and chocolate are always present and the four of us somehow always manage to have some intimate conversations our mothers would blush at and I always leave feeling completely recharged. The piece below is from Sunday, it's rough and needs some editing, but here you go..

I'm not asking for more of anything and I do not want to be saved.
I have a problem with weakness,
I know this.
Weakness in myself, in others,
in the limbs of plants I want to stretch out and grow strong.
Grow-- I say, without plant food.
You have water, light, heat-- now be strong, spread your purple leaves and Grow.
I like her, can feel her soul trying to grow into something good-- you feel the but coming don't you?
In all fairness we had been drinking.
One glass led to two, just to help us unwind
and when we were unwound we had a third
to keep us in that blissful buzzed state.
That led to her drunk driving, just three blocks.
And then me, thinking it was a good idea to wear flip-flops in the rain since my feet were bound to get wet anyway.
The store keeper looked at me as if I were a drunk, slipping across the linoleum
floor with 2 Sierra Nevadas and a cheap bottle of white in my arms.
I liked her that night
Liked the thought of us as friends
But
There was that moment, that one moment
She picked up the phone, told me she knew just who to call to pick her up
"Barry, come and save me" she spilled into his voice mail, a smile creeping across her face as she looked over at me,
but she said it again, "I need to be saved"-- and my whole body cringed
I like her, she is smart and witty, creative and kind
I understand her insecurities-- and I don't need any more friends, but I could use her in my life
It's just
I wish I never heard that call
It's like a stain on her shirt every time I see her
A window into all her fucked up neurosis I'm not sure I want to be part of yet
I want to give her a walking stick,
a bottle of water, something thick
and strong
a 2 by 4 maybe, I want to hand it over and say "Here--
save yourself. Start now."

where does the good go?

This is a casualty of Grey's Anatomy. I've had this song in my head since Saturday morning. And I kind of like it. I downloaded it off of itunes, and when I finally did get out of bed on Saturday after watching almost 5 hours of that damn show, I burned a CD and this was the first song on it, I hit repeat a lot. Shhh, don’t tell anyone. I don’t really know who Tegan & Sara are except that I've seen a lot of reviews about them, and I'm sure Pitchfork has a lot of snarky things to say about them. But I like this song. Mostly because that damn line has been ringing through my head for over 24 hours, the one that goes-- 'look me in the eye and tell me you don't find me attractive'. And what a great name for a song, 'cause really, where does the Good go? I'm not being cheesy, that's the name of the song. I am a little confused about Tegan & Sara though, are they twins? Or the same person?



Don't even try to tell me that you haven't wanted to say that to someone before.

my dirty netflix addiction.

Don't think it didn't feel like crack, 'cause it did. I won't even try to deny it. As I rushed to wrap the DVD back into the familiar red envelope fast enough to make mail pick-up on a Saturday, I couldn't help but feel a little dirty. I woke up at 8:30am, full of big plans to organize and clean my studio, but it was early on a Saturday morning, I was still groggy, didn't need to be anywhere-- so I popped in the Grey’s Anatomy DVD. I have to confess that I am new to all of this, I've only recently joined netflix, and really, if it weren’t for my roommate I wouldn't even have my own account. I came home to this Grey’s Anatomy DVD last night, and by Saturday morning at 1:34pm I had watched all 5 episodes in a row. After every episode I told myself, "ok, one more and then I'll get out of bed, shower, eat, clean." But for fucks sake it was a Saturday and what did I have to do? For the first time in weeks, nothing-- no work, no craft fairs, no plans with friends. The day was truly mine, so yeah, I decided to spend 4 hours and 42 minutes of it on a TV show. I didn't even pause that shit to pee, well, once or twice between episodes I got up to fill my water glass, because I was a little hung over and dehydrated. But that was it. I'm surprised I don't have bedsores.

And at 2:30pm, as I was stuffing the DVD back in that self-addressed envelope, I felt like such an addict. Oh I have lots to say about the first five episodes of Grey’s Anatomy, I thought about it in the shower. Mostly, I thought about how producers everywhere must sit in rooms now and say things like, "Picture Sex and the City, but in the ER." You probably don't care, but Izzie, Meredith, Christina, and that guy (shit what's his name?) are total carbon copies of the ladies from SATC. I'm watching Grey's Anatomy in real time now, and I don't see the Sex & the City comparison as much- but I swear that must have been their frame work for the first season, complete with McDreamy as Mr.Big. Really- netflix that shit and see what I'm talking about. Or not.

I'm not really sure what this is adding to my life, other than the fantasy that if I ever need surgery, the doctors will all be really good looking and emotional, and one of them will develop an inappropriate crush on me and lock me in one of the supply closets for a little shag right before I'm about to be released from the hospital. We'll have a really tortured relationship and he'll almost lose his job over it, but in the end I'll realize he's more concerned with making Chief Surgeon than raising our babies.

food art.

Apologies, I’ve been a horrible post-er this week. I’ll be better next week, I promise.

Maybe you'll forgive me when I share one of my other favorite SF artists with you, Jason Mecier. Just spend some time on his site and you'll see why I love him so. All of his pieces are created using candy, food, junk, beans, yarn and what ever else he can get his hands on.

Up top is the very first piece I ever saw that he created, it's a portrait of Martha Stewart made out of a veggie platter!!

Here's The Donald:



And Tammy Faye:


Pretty fantastic, no?

Bead it!

I've got a piece on SFist up today all about beading and where to get good beads in SF. Check it out here!

artists i adore.

I had this idea for a theme week on here. I wanted to start on Sunday night, but I can't even believe how busy I've been the last several days. So I'm just starting this now. My next few posts I'll be sharing some artists whose work I love. Maybe you've already heard of them, maybe not.


I interviewed Lisa Congdon for SFist, in December, back when she organized the art auction for the Kim family. My friend turned me onto Lisa's blog, and it's one of my favorite reads. She's a good writer, always has beautiful photos to accompany her posts and I never click away from her blog without feeling a wee bit more inspired than I was before I started reading. It's also just fun to see what new stuff she's working on. From the little e-mailing I've done with her and from reading her blog and seeing the generous work she did for the Kim Family, she seems like not only an amazing artist, but a fantastic person as well. Of course she lives and works in the Bay Area! Lisa Congdon recently had an art show in Portland at Reform School, and I think that some of those pieces are still available, she has them all listed on her flickr page. Here are a few of her pieces I just love. Hopefully I'll have one of her beautiful creations on my wall soon.

Marry me.

I know I just posted what I thought would be my last post of the day, but I just fell in love with a new artist. Really, if he reads this and wants to marry me, I'm totally game. My boss gave me a late Valentine's Day card with one of his illustrations, and I've spent a good part of the day cracking up over his hysterical drawings. Here are a few I adore. His name is Jason Sho Green and you can look at his stuff here or here. You can also buy his stuff on those sites, which I will probably be doing. I hope he doesn't mind me posting these here.

tweet tweet.

The rain is scheduled to come back to the bay area on Monday, so get out there now and enjoy this summer weather we're having! And be sure to brag to all your cold friends on the east coast about how warm you are.

new posts.

I've got a new post on SFist today, and I never linked to my interview with Marie Kare that I did last week, check it out here, if you're interested.

all i want ...

I finally made it to the new Daiso in the Serramonte center. Daiso is a Japanese dollar store, and right now there are only three in the US. My head just about exploded at the site of all the fantastic things they had for sale. I settled on $30 worth of stuff I probably don't need, including this little gem, it's a plastic pink case and that's a close up shot of the lid. Really, could you ask for anything more?

Love me little, love me long.

valentine.

i used to see these xeroxed sheets up all over the mission, great thick line drawings with clouds and bikes that would say things like, be your own hero, rescue yourself. i always wondered where they came from and even had a few ideas of people i knew who might have put them there. then one day i saw this kid on 16th and valencia, he had his paintings laid out on the ground, they were on blocks of wood and scrap metal he had found. i saw the original sign i had fallen in love with and ripped off a telephone pole, and he had so many more great ones. he was selling them dirt cheap. later i saw them in galleries around the mission marked up closer to what they were actually worth. my ex bought me the one below when we first encountered them on the street.


the artist seemed like a sweet boy, who obviously was on something. about 8 months ago danny called me and told me he saw some RIP and graffiti up and he was pretty sure it was for the kid that had painted those paintings. i have three of them above my bed and the paper i ripped off the street in my room. i don't know for sure if he's dead, but i haven't seen him since. don't know what his troubles were, but all of his paintings remind me of something i try to never forget, no matter who we have in our lives, we're leaving it alone. i don't mean to be somber and depressing here, it's actually more of an uplifting thought to me- it reminds me to love and respect myself before anyone else. happy day before v-day! ! xoxxo

i'm full of questions this week.

but is it really OK to tweeze your eyebrows on the bus at 8 in the morning? i almost switched seats.

another craft fair.

This weekend I had the pleasure of spending some time with Helen Fawcett, the fabulous woman behind Cookie & the Dude. We shared a booth at the Hamlin School fundraiser. Here's Helen with her headbands:



Here are my wallets en masse, before I packed them up for the fair:



And here they are set up all pretty, Helen did a great job with our booth:



After a day (two for Helen) of loud kids and long waits for food, Helen and I de-stressed with white wine, indian food and a bad sappy movie, which was bad in a good way.

election time.

Does anyone else find this headline from Yahoo more than mildly disturbing?


Barack Obama (60 Minutes)
Barack: 'Black enough?'
Presidential candidate Barack Obama says his barber, cab drivers don't question if he's black.

one hunderd and one posts!

I wanted to do something special for my 100th(!) post. But it ended up being the little RIP I did below for Anna Nicole Smith, I don’t care what you thought of her, that’s some sad shit.

Anyway, I had this plan to make a list of the best searches that led people to my blog, but as I was looking them up I realized site meter only gives me the most recent 5 pages of hits. Damn, from here on out I vow to write the good ones down. Below are ones that were in those last five pages and a few I just couldn’t forget. Enjoy.

Best searches that led people to my blog:

bought me a dildo
what happened to sam
cupcakes just out of the oven
bought a stolen tv
the maggots in the eye of love won't collate
bought stolen phone
should I date an ex-con
night madness

The best (and only) angry comments (complete with typos) left on a post I wrote, my response & then JJ’s:

Anonymous said...
doesnt sound good, if he doesnt date girls who drink and he is long time sober himself, what could he possibly want from/with you as yoy stand there in front of him wasted? and then call him wasted? are you cute/smart/interesting enough for him to be really into you beyond his convictions? cmon..
11:01 PM
Anonymous said...
c'mon what do you have to offer this dude??
2:22 AM
t. said...
First off, I took the quotes out. JJ you know that wasn't directed towards you. And second, well yeah, I do kind of think I am cute/smart/interesting enough. I mean I'm not drunk all the time and it's entirely possible for a person who doesn't drink to date one who does. But I hear you anonymous.
2:23 AM
jj said...
eewww dude... well at least it's not awkward for you to go to your neighborhood bar...
hey anonymous-- chillax! some of us don't demand our romantic partners to hold ALL the same convictions that we ourselves do. for example, i'm a strict vegan (have been for many years) while my fiance is whatever the the total opposite of that is... seriously-- bacon wrapped hot dogs all day long. but we make it work...
i guess the sober thing is diffferent though... but why do you assume she's looking for a life partner anyway? something tells me settling down with a sober guy is just as much against her convictions as settling down with a drinker is for him... but a roll in the hay? now that's a different story. ;)

And here’s the sweetest comment ever left on a post I wrote, which just happened to be yesterday:

Melissa said...
I've just been reading your blog for a week or two, referred here by one of the many craft blogs I follow. This post really moved me, and I wanted to thank you for sharing yourself. Your post makes me believe you are like that--calm and kind and willing to talk to a clumsy girl on the street so she doesn't feel like a complete ass. You made MY day!
7:40 PM

And that’s the end of my self-congratulatory post. I’m glad I made it to 101 posts. Can’t wait to hit 500.

R.I.P

What a sad, tragic life she had.

bruised knees.

Today as I was walking to work, before I had coffee and while I was debating whether to have a bagel or a banana and hard boiled egg for breakfast I missed a step, didn't see the curb, tripped or just forgot to put one foot in front of the other and fell on my face. It was right in front of the huge sea of people walking towards me, all of them also in a zombie like daze. I walk into this sea everyday, and I always think about how I look to them, when I see someone crack a smile as I walk by I wonder, is my fly down? I think about how my bright colored clothing usually clashes with their blues and blacks. I'm wearing a jean skirt and knee high socks today, and so lucky for me my knees got all bloody as they scraped against the pavement. People ducked out of the way, but one very nice woman stopped and made sure I was OK. She had the kindest face and when I started laughing and told her my mind was somewhere else she made some really sweet comment about how she was clumsy too. We walked together until we got to her office. It was no more than a 30 second interaction but after I left her I thought about how I want to be like that, calm and kind and willing to talk to a clumsy girl on the street so she doesn't feel like a complete ass. That made my day.

review.

I posted a review of Bourbon & Branch today on SFist. You can read it here. I just wrote out this long thing about how annoying it is when people leave snarky comments on blogs, like some of the ones left on my review today. But it was sort of a snarky review, and really, in the end, I'm just happy people are leaving comments at all.

That lovely picture was taken by Charles Sommer.

I want one.

Listening to a story on designer dogs tonight reminded me of when I was in Philly, visiting Cathy and Aurora. They're neighbor was walking around with what I thought was a stuffed animal at first, but turned out to be a tiny little Yorkie-Poo. I picked him up and he was the sweetest little thing ever. I think designer dogs are kind of silly, but in an alternate universe I'd have a Yorkie-Poo.

photo from Curtis Perry's flickr page.

Bald guy with hood and hat.

I've been a bit of a lazy poster this week, I'm sort of all consumed with making stuff for the craft fair I have coming up on Friday and Saturday. It's at a private school in Pac Heights, and even though I'm pretty sure it's open to the public, I kind of doubt you want to be around that many loud kids and high class parents, so I won't tell you where it is. I shouldn't bad mouth anyone really, they're all very good, nice people, it's just that kids scare me. Really, I used to want to be a teacher, but I tense up when I walk by the high school near my house these days. Kids are mean, and loud, and little ones (my perfect nephew excluded) are kind of dirty. I did this same fair last year and there were all these kids grabbing at the wallets on my table with sticky ice cream hands and unidentifiable dirt on them, but they loved my stuff so I can't really complain.

Anyway, since I'm too lazy to think of anything really interesting on my own right now I'm sending you over to Overstated, which, just to prove how lazy I really am, I originally saw on SFist. Anyway, Overstated, has made a list of San Francisco neighborhoods and lined up which New York neighborhood they compare to. It's interesting, and not just because I've had thoughts of moving back east since my last visit there.

Does anyone read missed connections anymore? When I told Alison I wanted to post one she told me no one really reads them. And I think I agree with her, but if you saw someone you thought might write one about an interaction you had with them, wouldn't you check them out? I am now. And I'm even thinking of posting one. But the question is, how do you really do it so that people won't know it's you, but the person you want to know it's you knows it's you? Ok, just ignore that last statement.

why does it feel like a Monday?