All Hallows Eve Scrooge.

Things have been a little crazy around here. Working at Project Basho has been good: simultaneously wracking my nerves, and building my confidence. I've forgotten to do a few things, or complete them, and have suffered the consequences, but for the most part things are going smoothly. I was also asked to chauffeur around Tsuyoshi and two Japanese professionals from a paper making company. That was Wednesday. At one point driving them to dinner in center city during rush hour, I realized how utterly absurd it was that I was doing this. As though I had been teleported from a year ago, right into the drivers seat of my own car, full of 3 30-something year old Japanese professionals. Quite a turn of events.

Overall things have been good. But being alone for the holidays I suppose is always rough. Especially when the holiday is Halloween. Although I didn't end up going to major parties for Halloween at MICA, I always dressed up and went to the MICA costume party. Seeing hundreds of art students in their best (and worst) may very well have been the highlight of my year. Shortly after Halloween last year I decided that I would be Princess Peach, driving her MarioKart. I have been looking forward to it, but the past few weeks have been too busy for me to make a costume. Aside from that, I would only have worn it tonight, and... to what? I was invited to Baltimore for the weekend, but having work today until 5:30, and work again Sunday at 9:30 seemed to make for a 4 hour drive, and a 24 hour excursion. It was a toss-up, but I declined.

I fear that I am slowly becoming a Scrooge. I'll be the first to admit that weddings are not my thing, and there were many reasons that I did not attend my friend's wedding two weeks ago. But Halloween in Baltimore? Working rather than making a costume? Of course, each time weighing my options and respecting each decision, but I am certainly noticing a trend.

Oh well, Celia and I have a day planned tomorrow: scary movies and Chipotle free "boo-ritos" (dress up as a burrito, get a free burrito). Last week we made sushi and saw Where the Wild Things Are. Personally I thought it was really weird. I thought I liked it, but the more I think about it, I am less certain of that. I thought there were distinctly confusing familial/sexual dynamics between the characters, and I thought that several scenes were much too violent. In addition, I thought the whole theme was much more depressing and upsetting than the care-free, bildungsroman that I loved as a child. Or maybe thats just how I viewed it.

Caramel Bees and Books

Well I hadn't posted because of a shortages of photographs taken, and of course now I have too many images.
Repotted Old Leafy in a lovely yellow pot my grandmother may have accidentally given me. (Thanks!)
Peppers from my roof!

I have been building Hans a scratching post, but he seems to like the boxes I am cutting for it much more, especially when I shoved them together to conserve space:




Crazy cat.
John&Kira's chocolates are sort of a big deal around here. They happen to be at both markets I work at (only since about a month ago) and I help them with their tent sometimes. I offered the girl some bread, and she gave me some "Caramel Bees", I was wondering what the hell that meant, until I cracked open the box!

Adorable!

Well, I guess in other news I finished a really awesome book, Marina Warner's The Image of Female Heroism: Joan of Arc. That link is actually awesome: you can read the first chapter. Its probably the only nonfiction book I have read front to back, and was just loved 97% of it. This book was recommended to me by a professor, and I didn't piece together that actually another book was recommended to me by her, From the Beast to the Blonde, and I realized this connection on Monday, after I finished the book. Joan was much earlier in her career. So of course I love her, and ordered the second one, about Fairy Tales and Their Tellers. I just really love good writing. I started Kierkegaard's The Seducer's Diary today. I miss reading all those crazy Germans. Love.

Steady as She Goes

Well things have been going pretty well. I've been learning everything Anne has to teach. Today was my last day with her, as our schedules conflict until she leaves on Monday, but we both feel confident in my taking over at this point. I even learned enough HTML to update the website and newsletter! Lunch was got at Quince, which is delicious and delightful. (Notice the photograph for their website was taken by Tsuyoshi: we're all tight.)

Afterwards we went out for a drink and ran into Al, another Basho guy. Then we walked through the Piazza and ran into some of Anne's Tyler friends who were there to hang out and watch The Game. We ended up hanging out for quite a bit, playing hand-ball against the building and avoiding playing casually-avoid-cops-while-holding-beer along with the hundreds of other people doing the same thing. Her friends also live in Fishtown. Its strange to think that had I gone to Tyler (it was never really an option for me, but I had checked it out) that these are three people I most likely would have met there.

Tonight makes the second fun-coworker etc night in a week, since last Friday some ESP guys and I went to Toby's show. He emceed a variety show, that was really only worthwhile with some booze in our bellies. But it was pretty good fun, especially in that I did not have the bakery the next day: it was officially my first full-length Friday night with booze, and it was nice to spend it with newly made friends. Add that times two and different friends, pretty cool.

I also went to Abbaye (a Belgian Gastropub, still without a website) with Celia last week, which proved to be pretty delicious, even though there was a definite misprint online about when their restaurant week ended.

I am realizing that I have been to quite a few bars since I moved here:
Johnny Brendas
The Lost Bar: Atlantis
Silk
The Belgian
Jacks Firehouse
The Urban Saloon
North Star
Standard Tap

and probably a few more.

Another thing on my resume, is of course Terror Behind The Walls. I finally went last night with Celia, Ian, and Alli. Ian has some kind of plague, and Alli has pink eye, but the tickets were bought and everyone had a pretty good time. The fast passes made a world of difference and we ended up splitting the cost of the extra tickets, $5 each, MUCH better than $35 a piece on a Saturday, without fast passes... But again considering our appreciation for such complimentary things, we really enjoyed it. I wasn't so much scared, especially knowing how hard the guys worked on it all summer, I was more marveling at how much they had done, and the fact that none of it is permanently installed. It was pretty impressive!

Well I finally have the bakery again tomorrow: I am in sore need of carbs, because the loaves of bread I have in my fridge and freezer aren't doing a good enough job.

Apparent Dinosaur-Sounds Face-Game?

Today was my third tour at Eastern State. Apparently now I'm on a roll.

Tonight was also my first shift shadowing Anne at Basho. We both feel really confident that this will work out: we think shockingly similarly, and even our notebooks with lists and lists and lists, and our similar confusion at computers... this is a piece of pie.

Parsley looks good in the mornin' light.
Amelia, what is this bug: he is very small!

I got home after leaving Hans all day again. I thought I'd try making a video, but of course I have a blue line across the screen from the light in the kitchen. I hope it doesn't take forever to load. Well, even a little of it: you get the picture: Hans is a freaking crazy cat.


I sound much like a weird dinosaur at the end, but he is still weirder than me. Proof. (endnote: this whole game was discovered tonight, and although it was but moments ago, I have no idea what sparked it!)

Alex Kanevsky!

This morning Britany called me, asking if I'd like to go food shopping with her, since she had some gift cards she wanted to spend rather than losing, as she worried she might. This also worked out because her car has been in the shop for a few weeks after a minor collision. So that was really nice, and we finally went to the MilkCrate Cafe by her house. They don't have prepared foods yet, but the blueberry muffin I had with some chai tea was good. Nothing special, but its practically next door to her house.

And then I did go and meet Alex Kanevsky! I felt that it might be inappropriate to photograph him or his studio, but I was not ashamed to photograph his doorbell label! It was really nice, I think I was there for about 25 minutes: he showed me all his work there, and explained a lot of things to me. Apparently he uses a lot of squeegees to get the smoothness, and I was amazed at how thin a lot of the layers were: I guess that helps with the back-front, front-back effect. He also showed me some works he had done in collaboration with a master printmaker. The process involved watercolor on mylar, and then aqua-tinting, printed on handmade japanese paper. He went into great detail about these, about how they were inspired by an X-ray of a broken foot.

His work and personality, and atmosphere (absolutely gorgeous studio!) rather excited me, and I had wanted to grab a model, but instead I started working on a scratching bed for Hans. I googled for it a while ago, and found directions here.
Hans seems to like the boxes I cut up to make it. Its not quite done, but I imagine pretty soon.

I think its time for dinner and painting!!!!!!!!

Much to Report

Friday was notable because I gave my first tour! For some reason Thursday I had thought to make note cards, just to have on hand. I looked over things for an hour or so while doing this. So first thing Friday, Fran asks if I am ready to give my first tour, and I was able to say, without hesitation, "yes!". It went well, but not perfect. This is to be expected. I think it was a perfect first tour.
Friday I finally made eggplant parm for Celia and me. Her mom is allergic to eggplant, and so she has never known the wonders.
I also made a lovely impromptu salad, which was also worth photographing.
Saturday after the bakery I bolted to the Penitentiary where Celia had met up with my grandparents, and were all waiting just inside, ready to go. I gave them a full tour, and they were very impressed. They wanted to see the synagogue, and since it was a weekend, it was open. And of all the ESP staff, who was stationed at synagogue at the end of the day, but Toby. I hadn't seen him at all when we were walking around so by that point I had sort of expected it. I quietly asked Toby to "tell my grandparents about the synagogue" and of course this meant "give a full on performance" but it was very nice of him to do so. They were just about to close, so a bunch of other people were in the room, and it was really quite terrible timing, since everyone paused their headphones to listen. Oy. But it was really nice. They took us to London Grill afterward, and aside from the calamari being much too rubbery, everything there was nice too.
My grandmother gave me some of her VIOLETS (I swear she said they were azaleas, but she corrected me immediately upon reading this post this morning!) and her parsley to take care of while they are in Florida.

Hans likes the parsley, and apparently its good for him too!
Sunday Spinks and Dale came down because I have a bunch of tickets to Terror Behind the Walls and I really just don't want them to go to waste, and I don't want to go more than once. It was a little chaotic, but everything worked out, and they hung out here for a bit afterward. I had made a pear cake while they were out, using the food processor that mom had lent me months ago, and I was fairly certain either didn't work, or had some magical trick: it was the latter. Yum pear cake!

Last night was Basho again, which I am really enjoying. It helps that there is a DD drive through on my way there, where I can grab some food and more importantly, a healthy double dose of coffee.

Today I am finally going to see Alex Kanevsky, and his work. I am also going to get my film processed so that I can use it in a few months when this temp Basho gig is over. I was a little nervous about it, but not so much anymore. Anne and I are both big List people, so she can very easily show me how she gets everything done, with very little getting lost in translation.

Brittani called me this morning, so we are finally going to hang out for a bit today. And Celia found that Abbaye is having a prix fixe all week, so that will have to happen too. They are so new that they don't even have a website yet (what?).

Tim has managed to vanish for the past few days, I wonder when he will show up at my front door. I hope its Saturday, since I don't have the bakery this week!

Eat At Kong

Mom came for her birthday dinner last night. I took her to Kong, a new restaurant in Northern Liberties. Considered "street food", it's more like how Distrito (where I went with Celia months ago) is "modern Mexican" in that they are both totally estranged from Americanized ideas of Chinese, and Mexican food. There was no lo-mein at Kong, nor were there nachos at Distrito. We shared four plates, all of which were delicious. Mom even tried curry squid. We ate a lot of different animals: squid, bass, duck, and even the vegan animal: soy.
The peking duck bun with dipping sauce!I started knitting a new scarf with some yarn Becca spun last year.

I was painting all day, and moved some things around, and Hans found a peat pot he had knocked over and tossed around the apartment several weeks ago.
It is his new adopted baby, and carried it over to a brown paper bag, his new adopted cave.

Promoted at Basho

Haha I forget exactly when this is from, but clearly Hans missed me, and curled up around my arm to take a nap.


Saturday after the bakery, I took some time to look for a spice rack. I have been keeping all my spices on the back of the oven, but that's not so good for them. So, I went to Marshalls, and JCPenny, and Target: nothing! How frustrating! But then I came home and stopped by the thrift store across the street, and found a glorious, perfect spice rack via IKEA:

How lovely!

And how could I forget?: I finally shadowed that tour I was promised to shadow a month ago. However, I still have not given a tour yet.

But it's interesting that almost 5 months of working at Eastern State, with them (intentionally or otherwise), sucking the confidence right out of me, it only took two weeks working at Project Basho to get promoted. Admittedly, it is a temporary job, but: Anne is what I can describe as the Assistant Program Director of Project Basho. She teaches classes, trains monitors, sets up appointments, works on registration for classes including finding professors to teach the classes, and is soon to be updating the website. Anne is also going on vacation for a month, and last night I was asked to fill her position, everything except the teaching of classes. A paid position, roughly 16 hours a week. And coincidentally, it will take the place of my bakery job which ends in a few weeks. So next week she will start training me in these matters, and in another week or so, I'll take over while she is gone. While I realize that I might not be as good as she is, I think I can do what needs to be done. And more importantly, I have the confidence that Anne and Tsuyoshi believe that I can do it. This is entirely different from tactics at ESP. I work pretty well under pressure, but I work even better under expectation: If you expect something of me, I will try very hard to get it done well, right, and on time; If you expect nothing of me, that is exactly what you will get. And it still sort of hurts that ESP really just doesn't expect anything of me. Well, at least other organizations (and one that I am hoping to stay with for a long time!) feel differently.


So, this photograph looks pretty gross. But ignore that: LOOK, at how this avocado pit is GROWING! YEARS of trying to grow one, YEARS of mockery by friends and households! And alas! VICTORY!

Lastly, I got a message on facebook the other day: Tim is coming! German Tim booked a flight to Philadelphia for today. I was all set to pick him up and I happen to have today and tomorrow off, but turns out (as I was informed by his mother this morning), he has to get off at Newark. I think he forgot to send his luggage to Philadelphia. Fool! I'm sure I'll see him sometime.

Mom is coming for birthday dinner tonight. (Tim was fine with entertaining himself for an hour or so).

The only inconvenient thing with this Tim nonsense, is that Alex Kanevsky actually emailed me back recently, and we made an appointment for tomorrow at 2. But I have since informed him of my change in plans. His website is good, but in my opinion a little difficult to navigate. Google images has an awesome amount of his work though. I am very excited to meet him, and to see all his glorious work in person, at his studio. EPIC.

June Pumpkin Planning

Finally got some painting done this weekend! Also, car passed inspection, and laundry is done! I finished season 4 of Lost.

Gosh, how many pairs of Adidas do I have?
Relocated Basils seem to be doing well!
And the funky berry thing too:
I think the scallions are indestructible.
The pepper is doing really well. Well, if I stay here next summer, I know what I should plant (and what won't get stolen at least). I am thinking more herbs.
Mom gave me this tiny Grow-Your-Own-Pumpkin kit like a month ago, but I set it aside since it was still August and no where close to Halloween. But the damn thing says 17 weeks. 17 WEEKS? Who is going to think ahead about pumpkins 17 Weeks? Thats like 5 months. But its true, squash take some planning. So I am planning on June. Haha. June pumpkin planning, that's preposterous.