madeleine

My cat went missing while I was traveling in California earlier this week! My roommates said they hadn't seen him since I left. Poor Kafka - I hope he comes back! Searching the neighborhood proved to be pretty pointless. He probably knew he was scheduled to be neutered today and made a run for it, balls intact.

This, by the way, was one of the best things I happened to see in San Diego:



It made me really happy, although it led to all sorts of juvenile jokes among my cronies about octopi being our underwater allies.

My week was really rushed, but I'm glad I got the opportunity to hang out with old friends. We've all changed, but our friendships have become closer in the past few years.

It also felt really good to spend time with friends who are going places - one built his own customs business from the ground up, another finished college a year early, is on her way to Korea to teach English, and is launching her own indie fashion line - and realize that they're just as happy for me as I am for them. My friends in my current city of residence have been annoying me with their constant negativity: "Sure, it's great you're going to Smith, but where are you going to live? How are you going to commute? How will you afford everything? You won't know anybody over there." It was all starting to make me nervous, especially since I've been somewhat apprehensive about those niggling little problems anyway.

However, the friends who know me best are not only genuinely excited for me, but fully support me. I'm so glad to know people like this. I'm going to miss them a lot. But we'll always be looking out for each other, no matter how far apart we are.

So...now I'm getting ready for the next few weeks.

I'm going to spend a day in Seattle shooting a new set (yay!) and then I'm heading off to the East Coast to check out things at Smith, look at possible housing situations and touch Granny's butt. I'm also looking forward to meeting the lovely ladies Bailey and Fatality in person. Oh yeah, and hanging out with that entertaining asshole Meros1, who doesn't know what he's in for.

Then, as soon as I get back, my classes begin. I'm not working full-time anywhere this semester, which was a hard decision but which I feel pretty good about now. I'll still be manning the local HoTo, and I have a new job doing body modeling for art classes a few days a week, but mostly I'll just be going to school and living like a poor person. I'm excited, though, to have more time to write for local publications and this chapbook project a poet friend and I have been putting together.

I've also been picking up some stray dollars modeling, and I have a few more trips scheduled for Los Angeles and Portland. I guess I have conflicting emotions regarding modeling; I'm not really into it except for whatever money I can get, but I do like serving as raw material for people who have a specific project or piece of art in mind. I find it funny, though, that the people I model for tell me how demure I look - then cause me to resemble a trailer park stripper or an abused child prositute.

I did just work with the totally awesome Beatrix Danko, who's doing a series of portraits like this:



I'm not a Communist any more than I'm a child whore, though.