thanks to all for your lovely words, beautiful phrasing, and incredibly well received compliments on my new set.

and if you haven't seen it yet, check it out!!! it's in the hopefuls, and i'm hoping that we can hope it into live-set-existence. oh yes.

yesterday marked four whole months with new boyfriend. he is still just as handsome, hilarious, charming, and talented as ever. the only thing that has changed so far is that he becomes a little sweeter to me every day. who says you can't melt a frozen heart?

on the bad side, i got in trouble at work again today. that's what i get for being a "loose cannon" as i was once called. at any rate, i feel as if i have just about reached the end of the line as a baker, and i am very much ready to start something new. i got a position at a tutoring agency, but i think i will start looking for other things as well. i would love to have the comfort and safety (not to mention the cash monies) of two jobs. and not being covered in fruit glaze and icing every day would just be an added bonus.

in closing, i will say that things are good. my main man voltaire has it right yet again -- all is well that ends well. and currently, i'm in one of the best of all possible worlds.

(now i will go play my accordion.)
xoxo, etoille.

the internets are awful slow right now, so i'll just say...

my newest set is up in the hopefuls section. check it out.

and. life is wonderful.

xoxo, etoille.

hello, strange world of the internet.

so. much. has. happened.

i moved into a smaller apartment in a cooler part of town, and therefore my rent is roughly 120% of my old rent. this is okay.

work has been very busy. now we're doing cakes. and by "we" i mean "so far, myself exclusively".

music has been exciting! i got kicked out of the french cuffs thanks to an overly crazy exboyfriend/frontman. the only trade-off was that i got to keep the other band, gentle ben. it's pretty much the shit and we've played three shows so far, all of which have gone incredibly well. this is musically the best thing that's ever happened to me, and you'll all be hearing more about it soon.

there's a new man in my life, which is pretty exciting. and by "new" i mean "i've been seeing him for two and a half months". i've also gotten into the habit of partying like a rock star more, which means i can do tequila shots like a champ.

the only downside about moving more central is that it seems that all property managers/landlords around here are completely incompetent. i had heard bad things about plenty of other companies, but nothing about the one i lease from, so i assumed that they would be at. least. reasonable. (wrong.)

before moving in, i noticed that the shower floor was messed up, mostly just some chips in the floor that needed to be cleaned up or fixed. so they replaced the whole shower floor. but they replaced it with the wrong size, so once i moved in and started bathing, my downstairs neighbor noticed a nasty leak. so the landlord waited a few weeks, then called me to set up a time to fix it. assured that it was a two-day job, i set it up for a thursday/friday so i'd be out of the house.

when i came home from dallas friday night around 11pm, my entire apartment was shit. i mean covered in sheet rock dust, construction materials everywhere, giant holes in the floor/wall of my bathroom (which means i could see into the bathrooms of my neighbors!!! fun!) and clearly, the work wasn't done.

so i went and complained on monday. i said i'd need to get a prorated rent since my apartment was unlivable and all, and they said they'd get back to me. then i came home on wednesday to one of my cats missing.

long story short, these stupid jerks working on the apartment "accidentally" sealed my cat in the wall, then took twelve hours to come help me get him the fuck out of the wall. so then i had to call in sick to work while i sat on the plywood floor of my bathroom, waiting for my cat to come within arm's length of the tiny hole in the wall so i could drag him out. when i got him out, he was covered in fleas and other nasty things that lurk between the levels of apartments constructed in the 70's, so i called the vet. he has to get shaved. it'll cost almost $100.

coincidentally, the landlord so graciously offered to knock $100 off of my rent for next month. i drove down to their office to inform them that i will not be paying them any more than $260 of my $600 rent for july, sensing that my rent for the 12 days i haven't been able to live there ($20 a day) and the $100 vet bill will be payed by them. so they said that they'd call the owner and ask. i haven't heard back yet. coincidentally, that figure was figured by the construction worker telling me that they'd be done on monday. but i've seen my apartment, and there's no fucking way it will be done. so hey. i'll just keep knocking my rent down. sure. fine by me.

in the interim, i've been living with my bandmate. it's kind of fun, just drinking all the time, staying up all night, watching movies on the internet, and best of all -- living with a messy boy in a tiny studio apartment. yeah. i want my fucking apartment back.

did i mention that my apartment is our practice space? with all the construction crap around, we can't practice. therefore, i'm going crazy.

aside from that, all is well. still waiting on my set from last summer to get in the queueueueue. but apparently sometime soon i'll be shooting a new one. with a new photographer. exciting! i need to start brainstorming...

hugs & kisses, etoille.

hello world of the internets!

six. days. left. this coming friday @ noon i will finish my last exam & be over & done with my college life. undergrad, at least. i still haven't decided where i'll run away to grad school, but what i have decided...

...is that i really need to be in four bands at once.
cellar door is my longstanding solo project with occasional noise from guest musicians.
gentle bens is a new band with one of my favorite fellow musicians, not to mention that he's got pipes that rival mine, and he's awful pretty.
the french cuffs will be another 3-piece side project. in the next few months, cellar door, gentle bens & the french cuffs will probably all have the same band members, making things nice and interesting.

i've been reading so much kafka. so. much.

mkay. smoke break, then more reading. promises of more interesting updates once i'm doing more than working & reading all the time.

xoxo, etoille

etoille needs to update her blog more.

the boyfriend & i broke up march 16th. since then, things have been getting back to life as normal: work, school, work, school. my alcohol tolerance is increasing due to a new (highly alcoholic) friend. and yes, simply a friend.

april seems to be the month of birthdays. this means that last week, i made the most fabulous cake for a friend's 30th birthday. by "most fabulous", i mean it had four layers (two nine-inch layers, one chocolate, one vanilla. two four-inch layers, one chocolate, one vanilla. like a tiny wedding cake). this cake also had an interesting border : naked. lady. torsos. did i mention the 3-d breasts? why hasn't anyone posted pictures of this cake yet? i can't find them on myspace. what good are these newfangled iphones, anyway?

today, i'm making another cake. it will have a 3-d bear on top and will say "happy birthday daddy". no, it's not for my father. oooooooooh.

the cherry blossom tattoo is progressing nicely. i think that this week's session will bring me colored flowers on the top half of my arm (bottom half are already done) and some sweet, swirly winds. one of these days, i'll post pictures.

i graduate in three weeks. life is more exciting when you realize that you're almost done with the thing that people said you'd never do. and not only are you doing it on time, but you're doing it with honors. up yours, elementary school bullies who said reading was for losers, high school councilors who said i was too poor to go to a private school, and to everyone who thought they knew me personally but not academically. clearly, that's not possible. the life of a philosopher is wound up in books and writing, and the constant musing of what the fuck it means to say that actions speak louder than words.

i'm such a liar.

so things with the new boy have started to go not-so-well. who knows why. there was some talk about me shooting another set, and then there was more talk (ok, so more like yelling) about it -- apparently my having been an sg before our relationship is irrelevant, and now i shouldn't be one anymore. this seems a tad possessive to me. who knows.

my organ is pretty much fixed, or at least i think it is. i haven't been playing it much lately, due to midterms & whatnot, but i'm sure i'll be giving it plenty of love this week because...



so if you're in the austin area & want to check out a show, mine is free. so come.

i've been getting restless at work. i think it has something to do with not having had a day off (combining school and work) in four weeks. also, there's a silly amount of pressure on me to constantly perform at insane levels without me having any actual responsibility or real compensation for it. i think that this is silly.

oh. and i started my sleeve on thursday. i know -- big deal. it's a cherry blossom branch. so think of me every other thursday afternoon, when i'll be suffering through seven layerings of ink to get the perfect look of real wood.

xoxo, etoille

happy valentine's day.

being a pastry chef, it's a busy time in the bakery. this is not exactly the most fun time of year for me, but i'm quite excited to have today off (even though it meant working my ass off for the past several days) so that i can make a delicious mexican feast for the apple of my eye.

short bit about the new boy -- he's fabulous. we play music together. he brings me tacos and flowers on my lunch break at work. he is also throwing a purple rain party tomorrow. i am going to get my purple lamé leggings here in a couple of hours. photos to come, i assure you.

my trip to new york was pretty fun (photos below), albeit very instructive. i learned more about where i don't want to grad school as opposed to where i do. that being said, the new school in nyc was amazing. their graduate program is all in one tiny building with the floors stacked on top of each other like a tall stack of the most academically stimulating pancakes.

i had a show this past tuesday. i got home from school with about an hour and a half to put together my set. i sat down at my organ and turned it on....


GHGHGHSLDKJROLIUGNVLKMSNDTKHHGHGHGHGHGGGTTTTTTTHHHHHHHHH

that's the static noise that came out of the tube amped organ. so sad. my beloved organza had to sit the show out sick. as a result, isobel (my guitar) & i played the show alone.

another short aside: i do have a real band. it consists of two people - myself and the cellist. at the last show, the cellist apparently got very upset all of a sudden when i started to chat up the cute boy with the glasses. evidently, he had been harboring these intense, romantic feelings for me and was convinced that our rehearsals were some kind of intensely intimate moments. this was news to me. i thought that we just played music. so on the way home from the show, cellist told me that the cute boy with glasses was really a huge douchebag and that i should have nothing to do with him.

the cute boy with glasses is now my boyfriend. we're talking about moving in together in june.

so i played the show with just my guitar and it went over remarkably well. i am always surprised at how well i can adapt in a bind.

academically speaking, life is going well. i'm actually going to graduate in may. i'll stay around for another year. maybe record an album and go on tour or something. then i'll head out for grad school to i can get a real job and pretend to be a grown-up.

now on to those new york pictures.

hello friends,

if any of you will be in the austin, tx area next tuesday (january 15th), you should come check out my band (www.myspace.com/thisiscellardoor)! we just added a cello, and it is looking pretty fabulous.

will update soon with news from my trip to new york (i leave wednesday!!!)

i'm the worst about updating. so here's a quick run-down:

i magically became single again. get this: i got dumped because i was planning on leaving for grad school in the fall. now, for completely academic reasons, i decided to defer my applications for a year, meaning that i'm not leaving. somehow, i am still the mayor of dumpsville.

my thesis presentation & defense went really well. my supposedly "nemesis professor" even shook my hand afterward. i am such a nerd that i thought "this is one of the best days of my life."

i want to get a new tattoo soon. cherry blossoms! more specific: a big cherry blossom branch wrapping my right arm. along with this, i'm going to get my organ painted. rather, my brother is painting the back particle board for christmas. happy holidays, here's a picture of a tree.

my old favorite beer was shiner. my current staple beers (something i would drink anywhere, anytime) are stelle & francis kanner. my new favorite beer is a hibernation ale. or a locally brewed one called hop gold. i like light, hoppy beers. generally, i prefer beer as a source of alcohol. i also tend to enjoy beer over (or maybe in the place of) food.

i built a giant gingerbread house. however, we're not allowed to take pictures in the store for outside distribution, so i can't show it to you all. but the dimensions are 1.5 feet by 2.5 feet, and it's 2 feet tall, plus a chimney. the entire thing is coated in chocolate royal icing with a mosaic of chocolatey treats, including bunnies, espresso beans, pecans, etc. the roof is covered in rice-crispy-treat shingles. it took forever.

my band recently inducted some new members: flute, cello & drums. this being said, we will soon be the. best. band. ever. hopefully we'll do some recording before i go back to school in the spring & i will share the results.

i suppose it's about time that i quit putting off my finals and just freaking finish them.

hugs, kisses, & splinter removals,
etoille

the results are in:

560 verbal
750 math
5.0 analytical writing

that's better grades than 75% of GRE test-takers! i am awesome!

then again, i'm taking it again december 11th to try to get my verbal score up more.

so, in short, save up all of your million-dollar-words and telepathically send them to me on that day.

kthnx.
*etoille