bassline

One Way Ride

Hey there, lj, it's been a little while. I've taken a little time away, but I thought I'd bring you up to speed on what's been going on lately.

The holidays went pretty well. My saving grace were the gatherings/parties with friends and E, of course. Another bright spot was getting to meet diepunyhuman in person. She was in the area from Los Angeles and met up with her friend, J, from Florida. I met up with them at my friend, Tet's house for a New Year's party that went well into the night and was an absolute blast.

I spent New Year's Day watching Twilight Zone and Looney Tunes marathons. Unlike last year, I didn't have to spend the whole day in bed nursing one of the worst hangovers I'd ever had :D

I finished up my '365 self portrait project' and pretty much didn't take a photo for almost a week afterwards. I really needed to take something of a break. I couldn't bring myself to shoot anything at all for several days. This past weekend was the first time I really felt like picking up the camera since the project ended. I've been thinking of other possible photo challenges for this year and have a few ideas, but I'm just going to just keep taking pictures until something hits.

In the studio, I'm just chugging along with new works. I've not done many paintings, but I've been doing a lot of works on paper in preparation for the Philly Airport show in March. They've been feeding some new ideas for paintings which I'm hoping to get going this week.

......
( today )

These signs are not new at Daffy's, but they always make me laugh...

I dragged, and I mean dragged myself out to do some clothes shopping today. I don't mind shopping when I'm in the right mindset, but I haven't been in a while. I've been spending most of my time and mental energy working in the studio lately. It's hard switching gears. My mind has been running in a cycle like this: studio, work, studio, studio, eat, sleep, work, studio, etc... Spending the time (and money) get new clothes wasn't part of that equation. The problem is that I needed replace some pants and really needed a new pair of sneakers.

I slept in today and wasn't in the mood to paint, so I decided to deal with the clothes situation. It was cloudy and rainy which didn't make me want to move any faster. I finally got out of the apartment sometime after 3. I couldn't believe how much I wanted to turn around and go back home.

The first place I stopped at didn't have anything I wanted, so I just continued. Found a pair of jeans across the street at Macy's. First glimmer of hope. Walked further into center city and found a pair of sneakers I liked within five minutes. Surprised the hell out of me because I'm picky about sneaker styles. By now, I'm actually glad that I came out. Stopped by a couple more places and by the end, the loot stood at three pairs of jeans, one pair of sneakers, two tops, and a 3-pack of ankle socks. Not bad. It ended up closer to being a '10' kind of day instead of the '2' it started out to be...

The holidays are over and we've survived, lol. Actually, this Christmas was one of the best in years for me. Even without the presents, just having E here was enough.

We worked as a team when buying presents for friends of mine, thank goodness. I'm one of those last-minute shoppers and I'm always drawing a blank when it comes to gifts. It happens every year-Christmas comes, my brain freezes, and there's a last-minute dash to figure out what to give to whom. None of that this year, my friends, E shook the clouds from my mind and actually made Christmas shopping...um...what's the word? FUN! That's it, she made it fun. Not only that, but we were done a whole week before Christmas; everything was bought and wrapped. I know that's late, but for me it's like being done in January for the next holiday lol!

Christmas eve, I worked, but was able to leave early to come home and enjoy a great meal with E. It's a tradition of her's to have a meal with her family on Christmas eve so we just continued the tradition here with bruschetta, asparagus risotto, and a fantastic bread pudding. It was as good as it sounds, trust me. The rest of the evening we just lounged around.

Christmas Day we lounged some more and finally got up to exchange presents sometime close to noon. It was cloudy and rainy and we weren't in a hurry to get out of the warm bed. We wound up having four presents each and had a good laugh when it came to the last one we had for each other. We exchanged the final gifts. I unwrapped mine and stopped short when I saw the by-now familiar blue of a Tiffany's box. I say 'now-familiar' because Tiffany's was one of the first places E wanted to go to when she arrived. She's a big fan of their pieces and has a few bracelets and such to prove it. She's in the habit of treating herself to something new as a reward for various accomplishments and Tiffany jewelry is her drug of choice on those special occasions.

Anyway, saw the box and started laughing to myself. She heard me, gave me this look and said, "What's so funny?", startled at my reaction. I told her that I was just waiting for her to open hers. She did and started laughing with me. I'd gotten her this:
and she gave me:

We even chose the same red ribbon for the box to be wrapped in...too funny...

I actually went out and shopped today. Well, sorta. I purchased some gift cards and certificates from various places for friends. Couldn't really concentrate enough to figure out what to get whom earlier, so this is what I wound up doing. I avoided any real shopping until now because I wasn't into it this year. I didn't feel like dealing with the crowds and I don't like shopping online. I didn't even get cards out into the mail. Well, it's almost over, so I'm not going to worry about the holidays that much.

Well, it's been a craptacular day. It's been raining non-stop, gray, and dark. It wasn't helped by being called out by someone for allegedly not keeping up a 'respectful' friendship with them. Nothing could be further from the truth, but then everyone sees things differently...

I was inside for most of the day, but there were errands to run, so I ventured out anyway. Just picked up a couple of things; some incense, I bought a copy of 'Batman Begins', and some Bushmill's Irish Cream Liqeuer. I usually get Bailey's but the Bushmill's was on sale and I hadn't tried it before. It's pretty good...

......

I spent yesterday looking for some new things to wear for the fall and winter. It's always a little annoying shopping for men's clothing in the winter, because almost everything is black, gray, blue or brown. You might find something that's orange or red but that's it. I made a promise to myself last year to stay away from black, if I could help it, because I have enough of it in my wardrobe already. I found a few tops I liked and for the first time in years, I'm embracing brown as a color choice for clothes.

I've avoided for years because I didn't think it looked good on me. My skin tone is dark brown and my memories of a brown suit my parents bought for me when I was a kid stuck in my head like a bad dream. I always felt that I 'disappeared' when I put on something brown, but I've seen that there are a lot of variations of brown in clothes, and after trying on a couple of things, I'm warming up to it. I wound up buying a nice brown, ribbed pullover sweater from Express. I also bought a gray one. The brown one has a 'half-zipper' front, while the gray one has a full zipper. I also found some beige and tan long sleeved pullover shirts to wear. I'm determined to expand the colors I wear this winter, so it could be an interesting season for me.

The color choices aren't that bad for guys, but they still lag behind what's available for women. The funny twist to this is that, if you're like me and like more cheerful colors to wear during the winter, you just have to be a bit more creative about what you buy. I really like oranges and reds. I'm finding some greens that agree with me, but they are few and far between. It depends on the shade of green, much like browns.

The time I spent looking for something to wear to the wedding was a last minute time-suck. I don't know why I consistently do this to myself, but it happens way too often. I need to change some habits.

Anyway, I spent good chunks of Thursday and Friday searching for something more formal than my usual 'dress casual' look, which meant adding a tie to the mix, along with a new shirt and pants. Originally, I was going to look for a suit to wear, but two days is not nearly enough time to search for a good suit, which I haven't had in years. I generally don't have much use for formal wear in my life since my job doesn't require it. I've always been intimidated by formal wear because I'm simply unfamiliar with many of the 'rules' of formal style. Well, that's not quite true; I know most of the basics, but I've just never really embraced formal wear in general. I don't have anything against it, mind you, but it's never been a huge part of my life, either.

So, with the idea of buying a suit out of the picture, I settled on picking up a new pair of pants, shirt and tie. When I tried on some pants and shirts, the image I saw in the mirror reminded me of how good certain clothes can look on me. It wasn't so much how I looked as how I felt wearing the stuff. I actually felt comfortable in them. I had the whole "You know, this isn't so bad after all" voice running through my head the whole time. I wound up buying two new dress shirts, two ties and a pair of pants. I generally hate the time needed to shop around looking for stuff to wear, but it usually winds up being worth it for me.

I think I may go to one of the better men's stores here and have my measurements done for a suit. It's a huge leap for me, but it's time to embrace and nourish my inner dressed up self.

I actually went shopping for something new to wear to the opening tomorrow. I don't shop for new clothes that often, and when I do, I'm reminded of why I don't shop much: you have to plan on giving up most of a day or at least an afternoon doing it. So, I was looking for something pretty casual, nothing too fussy; just a nice pair of pants, shirt and new shoes. I found a nice, striped shirt with lots of burgundy and reds in it. Really nice. It has reversible cuffs that has a cool rust-orange pattern inside. I'll be wearing the cuffs inside-out. Then, I thought a cool pair of jeans with black shoes would do it for me.

( the rest of the puffery about shopping )

One other note about my shopping time today. I noticed the sign above the entrance to a store on Chestnut St, near the Staples Express on the corner of 15th. Eternity Fashions was what it said. I was on the other side of the street and didn't feel like going over to see what was in the window, but from what I could see of the store, it was probably really cheap (low quality) stuff. I didn't care about that. The thought that popped up in my mind was that the name, Eternity Fashions, evoked a place where people went to pick out the 'last suit they'll ever wear'.