Goodwillingness

Did a clothes purchasing spree today.  A very frugal spending spree.  Kim and I went to goodwill to drop off five bags of clothing and random belongings.  We also needed to find her a super awesome outfit to wear to the Steampunk show we are going to in september.  After several hours of browsing and a jump to the St. Vincent DePaul, we found something workable and discovered that there are very few hats or vests at our goodwills here.

I also got a pretty good haul for under twenty bucks and here are pictures of some of the best bits:

We also grabbed some possible Halloween costumes, just in case I am still around at the end of October ( I hope not!)  and I picked out the ugliest and scariest stuffed animals I could find to give to my dogs.  They love nothing more than destroying fluffy rabbits and cheesy valentine bears.  Tomorrow is the Day of Epic Wonder, to be celebrated with Kim.  I will have tons of pictures and stories to share on sunday!! Now, to dinner and a night of listening to new albums, watching FLCL and drinking some good beer with Kim!

Did I do something wrong?

Jess Jess Jessie McJess... And Ian.

Now that was a good weekend.  Visiting Jess and Ian really makes me miss living on my own and having my own space.  I sometimes feel like I am still a kid living with my parents, but for now it works the best for my situation.

I drove three hours to Platteville, into the setting sun and discovered that the entire town (or al least what felt like the whole town) was under construction.  I needed to call up Jess to figure out how to get to her house without driving fifteen miles out of the way and it turned out that was exactly what I had to do.  Stupid platteville and it's stupid roads that never connect with each other.  When I finally got to her house, I was handed a glass of wine upon entering the door and we spent a few hours talking then passed out, prepared to get up early to go to work.

We woke to delicious coffee and headed out to the writing center for a few hours of work.  We spent to morning looking at clothing online and making wonderful window decorations, Harry Potter themed, of course.  Laura showed up halfway through the day and helped out with the decorations.  They became more and more involved until Laura started on an epic 3-D Hagrid Hut that became an engineering problem and needed to be rethought.

After lunch, Jess and I went to Goodwill and went a little crazy.  I spent my time looking for cardigans and sweaters to pull over my dresses for work.  I also poked around for some clothing I could wear for a steampunk show I am going to later this year.  I found a pretty amazing outfit that has a few repairs and changes needed, but I think they are in the realm of my sewing ability.  I also found an amazing hat which I wore the rest of the weekend.  JEss got some amazing 60's Mod dresses and shoes that made me wish I had her feet.

We made some great pizza for dinner and went out for some drinks with Ian, Laura and Laura's friend Will.  It was a good night of conversation and entertainment followed by passing out early like the old people we are.  The next day, Jess had an interview for a salaried position on campus, one she already was 99% sure she had, and then we went to visit her friends in her home town.  That led to an afternoon spent with the most redneck folk I have been around in awhile  It was a breath of fresh air.  The women sat in the barn next to fans, painting nails and chatting, while the men worked on derby cars and got sweaty and dirty in the sun.  I actually had a good time and it made me miss the old days at the stable.

That night we grilled some chicken and I left bright and early at 8:30 to be home in time to work at African world festival.  I found out I will most likely be working at Mexican Fiesta and Irish Fest as well.  Yay money!  Today I worked for 10 hours and then came home and passed out, then read for awhile.  Ah, the good life.

Two Gorgeous Ladies

Search and Time

I got everything packed, in the number of suitcases I wanted to.  I still need to rearrange some things when I do the final pack but overall I am very pleased with how things turned out.  I even have a little space leftover if I need to add to it with some more stuff.

I got an amazing haircut today.  I wanted to do something that will help me to blend a bit better into the demographic in Korea (not blonde) so I did a bunch of streaks of almost black and fixed up my blunt bangs and I must say it turned out perfect.

After the haircut I bummed around Lastfm.com looking for different Korean bands and listening in on the present music culture.  I also spent a little while looking at modern Korean fashion and I think I will actually blend in pretty well.

I don't really have all that much to talk about today, I just really felt like typing.  Maybe it is the music I am listening to or something.  I really want this Korea thing to work out.  I just want to hear back from them already.  I went from having an offer dropped on me out of the blue that was way to soon, to nothing.  Come on Korea gods!  Accept Me!  Even though it is taking longer and the waiting is killing me, I am kinda glad that it is giving me time to make sure I am really ready for this, and it is letting me mentally prepare myself better.  I am also hoping to be around to harvest my garden.  It has been neglected lately because of work, weather, illness, and my laziness, but I am going to go out there tomorrow and weed it out and clean it up before I head to Platteville to visit Jess.

Oh yeah!  I am going to see Jess tomorrow during my two days off!  Super excited about that.  There will be cooking, drinking, and all around merry making en masse.  I hope this isn't the last time I will get to see her before I leave but if it is, we will have made the best of it.  And if she gets a settlement from her accident, maybe she can come visit me there!  Ha, not likely but a girl can dream right?

Packing, Take 2

I packed everything I needed for Korea and got it all into three suitcases.  Everything I need for a year in a foreign country and it fit in three suitcases.

Then I started to remember all the things I forgot to pack.  Things like a winter coat, and my supplies for school, and some books, and belts, and winter hats.... and so on.  So I am now unpacking and repacking.  I bough a few of those space saver bag things to compress my clothing, and though I haven't tried them yet, I have high hopes that they will solve some of my problems.  I don't really have that many clothes to pack, they just seem to take up a lot of space.  I have also thought of some things I did pack that I no longer feel I need to bring along.  Today, packing part two, commences.

I have been working on Rosetta Stone Korean a little each day and I was shocked yesterday when I realized I am actually starting to remember some of the symbols while I am doing the exercises.  The only problem now is that as soon as I turn of the program, I forget everything I just learned.  I talked to a Tyler about it and he recommended that I watch Korean children's shows.  So I am now on an internet search for some of those suckers.

Other than these little tidbits, I have been working and I was sick the last two days which allowed me to get in some serious reading.  I also started up a diary, personal diary, handwritten, for my trip.  Maybe I can clean I up and publish when I'm back.  Kidding.  Kinda.

Feeling French

I went to the museum with one of my very best friends the other day.  In milwaukee, it is the "Summer of China" and all the local museums have brought in big shows about China.  We went to the Milwaukee Art Museum and man, that place is entertaining.

We drove there from her place and didn't realize how far away we had parked until about halfway through the thirty minute walk through 90 degree weather.  After we got to the museum, we discovered that it was packed!  I have never seen that many people there.  Turns out, there was some kind of live performance by some Chinese musicians and dancers, as well as a dinner afterwards.  So we fled to the upper level to look at the smaller galleries of non-chinese artwork.  I still can not stand minimalism, but they had a few good shows set up besides the minimalist paintings of a black dot on a white canvas.

After we had traveled through the upper level (and suffered several immature moments), we decided to brave the main level and go through the galleries that remain the same, for the most part, at all times.  I saw a few paintings I hadn't seen there before, but overall I was familiar with the work displayed there.  Dana hadn't been there in awhile, so we did spend some time talking about the artists and I got to dig into the knowledge I gathered over years of living with my art teacher mother and share knowledge and fun facts.

Then we moved into the area of the museum that always has my favorite exhibits.  It holds the Infinity Room, what I call the "milwaukee black bean," and many other modern sculpture and other art.  It always has some very interesting and entertaining pieces. One of my favorites this times was the collection of sculptures standing around all in the same laughing pose.  Dana and I took the opportunity to  do some creative poses next to them.

After the museum, we headed back to her car and came upon a couple that we had noticed on the way in, laying on a park bench, most likely drugged up on a serious dose of heroine.  It was super depressing to see.  We felt like we should do something to help out but what could we have done, short of calling the police.  If one of us had had the non-emergency number for the milwaukee police we would have called it in, instead we kept our eyes out for a park ranger or police car.  Sadly we didn't see anyone who could help us out.

After that sobering moment, we felt dinner was in order.  We went to Nessun Dorma, a great little place with a wonderful wine selection, and delicious food.  Our waitress was amazing, and answered all our questions about the olive appetizer with honesty and a great sense of humor.  Dana's boyfriend showed up half way through the meal and spoiled our talk of the trip we are taking to europe on my way home from South Korea.  He also left earlier than we did, which allowed us to have some great one on one girl time.

Overall, it was one of the best days I have had in a long time.  And I can not wait for the Day of Epic Wonder that is coming up.

Oh, I almost forgot.  This morning I woke up at 6 and decided to spend my morning baking.  I made some rye bread, blueberry scones, corn bread, blueberry cornbread, and some Irish soda bread.  After spending the next few hours finishing up packing and writing a list of things I need or don't need, I am going to spend my afternoon cooking.  I think Tofu Pad Thai, Enchiladas, Zucchini rolls with goat cheese, and some coconut-lime Curry are in my future.

Now to my lunch of cornbread and homemade chilled Gazpacho.  Yum.