La bouche

Linguistic brain fart.

Foto-Flash Mob

Taking a break from preparing my German presentation for tonight. It's a really short presentation and there really is no reason to feel pressured, but my brain is on fire. German is hard. Mleeeh.

Anyway, this was a few weeks ago. G and I had just met up at a station when some guy came up to us offering us tulips ("For your girlfriend!"). We thought he was just trying to sell it to us but he offered them to persistently that we eventually took them. And then we look up to see a few people with cameras (SLRs with tripods) taking photos of us. I kind of stood there dumbfounded while G tried to pull us away to the other end of the platform. They continued to take photos of us from afar. I guess we should have asked what they were doing instead of running away...but yes. If you see photos of us somewhere, let us know. Ha. Watch our photo be used for some stupid dating website...or contraceptive pills...or something. Uh.

Ok. Back to trying to explain conceptual art in German. Unngh.

Pork Paranoia

Monday! I'm feeling better, loaded with brand new antibiotics, and back to business. 

An oldish anecdote from last month:

So yes. I visited Z and M in Turkey last month, and as planned, I'd taken a crap load of pork with me (ham, sausages, bacon bits) as a souvenir. I'd had some trouble getting through passport control in Germany (my stupid fault), so I was already a bit on edge. I eventually made it to Istanbul, but then I was suddenly struck by huge paranoia about how the customs officials were going to bust me for the 5+ kilos of pork I had in my backpack. I started imaging drug-sniffer dogs reacting to my meat by mistake (they're dogs, after all) and then me being hauled over to the examination room and being questioned and searched, and then eventually getting in trouble for bringing meat into the country.

But yes. In the end, nothing happened, and Turkey was awesome. End of story.

Anticheese

So I just finished my five-day's worth of antibiotics, and I'm off to the doctor's tomorrow morning for some more. When I went to the pharmacist to get my medicine on Wednesday, I was told not to take my antibiotics with dairy products...and of course, when you're told not to have them, you want them even more. I've had major cheese cravings during dinner last night, but I have to take my antibiotics during meals so I couldn't have any.

Cheeeeeese!

Cheeeeese!

Happy Postsecret day!

The Mama Series

The Mama Series

ps.
Happy Birthday Rico!

Donuts

I watched Wordplay yesterday. It made me want to play crosswords again, so I got out my New York Times Tuesday puzzle book full of half-finished puzzles. I could still only get about half done. Eh.

Anyway. No hugely exciting news today. Spent a good part of the morning making calls (auf Deutsch!) to arrange appointments and whatnot for my mom. They've finally begun tearing down the old Mensa across the street from our house. I busted out my watercolour set. That's about it.

I'm a big Tom Waits fan, and ever since I heard "9th and Hennepin," I've wanted to illustrate the first two lines of the song: "Well, it's 9th and Hennepin. All the donuts have names that sound like prostitutes..." 

This is what I imagine the Dunkin' Donuts equivalent at 9th and Hennepin to be like.

I love Tom Waits because he can really paint a picture in your mind. And because he's possibly the coolest man alive. 

My mom just refers to him as the "grumbly old man" (だみ声親父).

Weddings and Babies

Feeling much better after antibiotics and painkillers. Ah, modern medicine. I guess it will be a day of catching up on some drawing.

I had a really weird and slightly depressing dream last night. I had made an appointment with some important art professors to get feedback on my portfolio, so I had to take a taxi to Roppongi (central Tokyo). But when I got there, I found that I was on some tropical beach. I had to spread out my artwork on a beach towel. Everyone said the portfolio wasn't good enough. My friend A.Roy was there, consoling me. And then we all decided to go to a costume party by the beach. I can't remember what I was wearing, but someone was dressed up as one of the little GI Joe soldiers from Toy Story. And then a different friend A took me down to meet another artist, but the only way to get to his atelier was down a chute with wooden chairs nailed to the sides as footing. The guy was supertall and friendly. He took us to a gallery where they were selling a feather--a single, normal, possibly even pigeon feather--for 6,500 dollars. He kept saying that it was the best conceptual art piece he'd ever seen and how much he wanted to buy it. My friend and I just kind of looked at each other.

And then I woke up. Mostly, I was sad that they didn't like my stuff.

Anyway.

I've been trying to stay away from Facebook lately. I know I can't really do without it so I won't cancel my account, but I'm trying to keep myself from posting too much on it. But I do check out photos regularly and I realized that in the last year or two, the amount of wedding/engagement/baby photos have practically tripled. And I do enjoy looking at them because people generally look happy in them! And I enjoy photos of funny-looking (I mean adorable!) babies.

Hm, I apparently can't draw straight lines. Or cane chairs. It looks like I have a beaver tail. Meh.

Kitteh?

So I'm sick, but actually I'm sicker than I initially presumed. I finally went to the doctor's this morning after lying in bed with a 39C fever yesterday, and as it turns out, I have a kidney infection. Again. Ugh. At least I'm on antibiotics now and the fever has gone down significantly, but it's no fun. Boooo! It's house arrest for me this week, but at least now I can sit up and draw.

These are the times when I wish I had a cat to cuddle. Although really, I'm kind of warm and sick and sweaty and gross right now so they probably wouldn't want to cuddle with me.

Once I decide to stay put in one place, I am definitely getting a cat.

Rhabarber

I'm sick. Again. This is the third time I've been sick this year. Somehow, my immune system had gone to shits in the last couple of months; I never used to get sick! Blergh. I was actually starting to feel slightly better and helping my mom make rhubarb crumble (so delicious!) when I began feeling feverish again. So pathetic! Hence my blogging from bed. Urgh.

Anyway. This is a recap from something I mentioned in a previous entry . . . but I think this is true for a lot of people.

Gee, what's up with all the Asian joke cartoons these days? Um...yeah. Rhubarb!

Yum.

ps. Happy 5 months to Bonsai!

Priorities and Dishes

Oh crap! I have to leave the house in about 20 minutes to my art class and then to my German class, but I haven't even put on make-up yet. Blegh. I spent all morning accompanying my mom at the doctor's office and then we briefly checked out the Agathe Snow exhibition at the Deutsche Guggenheim. 20 minutes to get ready! Gah! But somehow, updating my blog takes precedence over prettying myself. Meh.

Anyway. I just wanted to say, Iris, you are totally right about this---unless it's just us. Something about not doing the dishes makes me feel guilty.

Bah. I have to be off, Internets. Bis morgen!