blizzard

just finished getting packed up. i leave for texas tomorrow at 11:55pm. mom is picking me up at 5:45am, isn't she lucky??? it snowed all night and it has been snowing all day, which kind of worries me about flying out tomorrow, but i hear its supposed to clear up. last night a bus got stuck in the ice in front of my apartment and from my bedroom window (where i was often standing just to watch the snow fall) it looked like the bus could ram into our apartment at any second. i cant wait to be home. today i am so anxious it hurts.

snow!

this morning i woke up at 6:00am to take lauren to the airport. when i went to the window i could see that everything was covered in snow. the drive there took forever, but luckily i know a good deal about driving in the ice and snow so we didn't slide around too much. it took me about two hours to get home, but it was relaxing to sit there and watch the snow fall down. i called into work. i may go sledding later with victoria. apparently they close down one of the really hilly roads and people go sledding on it. this weekend will be so strange without lauren, its been a while since we spent this much time apart. i cant wait to be in texas on tuesday!

mostly

sup? we have been having beautiful weather & i can hear my land lady "doing it" above me & thats real gross & less than a month until i'm in texas for a while & saw a queen laser show tonight & hanging out at the funhouse a lot & listening to lots of elo & drinking lots of coffee & eating lots of breakfast & making lots of things & plans. lots of excitement.

these days.

i am very in to taking really weird pictures of my face these days, i think they turn out nicely/busy making crafts and setting up an etsy account/we have someone who is interested in moving into a house with us/i think it would be awesome to live with her/one day i will work for myself/listening to a lot of joni mitchell/can't believe i get to see casey before i go to texas/SO READY to be in texas.

things they are a changin

1. lauren and i are hoping to bring about lots of change soon. we're both pretty tired of working for other people - we just wanna work for ourselves, ya know! so we are working on a business in which we will sell crafts and gently used items that we fix up from thrift stores. it goes: sell on etsy, then fremont sunday market, then real shop.
2. i have lost roughly twenty five pounds since moving here. i feel like a much different person.
3. i am wondering how christmas time will be; will things be different somehow?
4. next week i spend my first thanksgiving alone without family. (well not ALL alone i'll have lauren DUH). we'll be making tofurkey and all the side dishes it should be fun.
5. a new favorite of mine is wearing high waisted mom skirts. mm.

oh and....... CASEY WILL BE HERE SO SOON!!!

well yesterday we went to the seattle aquarium. woweee, check out that jellyfish ring. they had them running in a steady motion around and around like that. i took some pictures should have them on tuesday.

wonderful

today is a wonderful day. it is bright and crisp and i can open my windows and sit on my balcony. i had just got done putting some new flannel sheets i bought yesterday in the washing machine down stairs when i stopped to get the mail on my way back up. usually i have been opening it to find nothing but junk mail or nothing at all. today when i opened it two small little envelopes fell out at the same time. one small white envelope from whitney and one square brown envelope from casey. i haven't stopped crying since, but i swear that they are not tears of sadness. i brought them up and just got done reading them while sitting outside in this amazing weather. this has been a great day! some things i am going to do today are: edit the two or three videos that have been waiting a long time for pathetic prophecies, write some letters, take some pictures around the area that i have been waiting for a sunny day to take, meet up with lauren and her mom and sister to go to the aquarium downtown. its going to be so great. lauren's mom, bonnie sue, asked me out of the blue this morning if i wanted her to make me some toast. i love moms. i wish great days for everyone!

ps. i just washed some towels that wax museums used when they stayed here in august. thats like...three months. OOPS

portland

some things i noticed about portland:
they really like bloody marys and food carts. the train is pretty cool (wish we had one) but no one i was with really knew the bus system. there is a huge statue of paul bunyan which was installed by the boy scouts.

this weekend was just what i needed. i got to hang out with 4 other people from texas and talk about things that were familiar and compare our cities, and talk in fake texan accents. the people were so accommodating, they really wanted us to see things and to enjoy our stay. my heart was so happy. but now i have to go to work, which i don't want to do.

the raincoats

perfectly creep.

fall

i feel blessed to be experiencing seasons. its really great. the only downfall is that when i go to work its still kind of dark, and when i leave work, at 5pm, it is pitch black. OHWELL!

thursday brings this:

great today,

and yet there is hope.

peaches

i'm really into this song. and, uhhh...babe?

its a start,

i wasn't overly impressed with the self portraits i took this weekend, but its a start. i bought red lipstick and i think i'm addicted. i cant stop putting it on for some reason..

)(

tonight i took some self-portraits. i hope they turn out well. this is just a digital shot i took while light metering for my mamiya.

successful telepathy?

i may have had my first successful attempt at dream telepathy. for weeks i have been trying to send lauren thoughts of us riding a whale. i never specified what kind of whale and i usually fell asleep before i could think about it very hard. last night i knew lauren was sleeping, so i thought really hard about a whale. i fell asleep before i could think about us riding it in detail. then this morning lauren told me, very excitedly, that she had had a dream that we saw an orca whale flying. it jumped out of the water, and then started flying. when she expressed her bemusement to me i acted like this sort of thing happened all the time.

coincidence, or telepathy?

moving eye witnesses

"virtually everybody has at least four dream periods a night. they occur at the approximate rate of one every ninety minutes. the dream periods start out as short, about ten minutes or less, and end up in the morning considerably longer and sometimes lasting half an hour or more. this last dream is generally the one we tend to remember in the morning and is liable to be more elaborate than the earlier dreams. of the many variables affecting dreaming, age has perhaps the strongest effect. studies of newborn children have shown that they spend about seventy percent of their sleeping time in REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, while adults dream only about twenty percent of their sleeping time. as old age approaches, this percent diminishes even further."

soon i'll explain REMs in more detail.

part 2: experimental studies

"carington postulated that telepathic interchanges were facilitated by common associations between the two minds. his 'association theory' held that if an idea or word (so-called k-object) were presented to a person who was in telepathic rapport with another person (that is, having a shared consciousness), then the second person would have mental associations with the 'k-object.' tell the first person the word dog and the second person might think of bark, bite, or bone as if the two persons were of a single mind."

finally making new work,

here for more: http://flickr.com/photos/monetrobbins/
more to come soon.

cool facts about lincoln;

- lincoln's formal education consisted of about 18 months of schooling, but he was largely self taught and an avid reader.
- he was a talented local wrestler and and skilled with an axe.
- he avoided fishing and hunting because he did not like killing animals, even for food.
- he began his political career at the age of 23.
- in 1837, he made his first protest against slavery in the illinois house, stating that the institution was "founded on both injustice and bad policy."
-possibly the most notable criminal trial of lincoln's career as a lawyer came in 1858, when he defended william "duff" armstrong, who had been charged with murder. the case became famous for lincoln's use of judicial notice — a rare tactic at that time — to show that an eyewitness had lied on the stand. after the witness testified to having seen the crime by moonlight, lincoln produced a farmers' almanac to show that the moon on that date was at such a low angle that it could not have provided enough illumination to see anything clearly. based almost entirely on this evidence, armstrong was acquitted.
- before being assassinated lincoln related a dream to his bodyguard, ward hill lamon, of his own assassination.
- dude was shot like, point blank in the back of the head but survived for nine hours in a coma before he died.
- lincoln did, even as a boy, largely reject organized religion.

some news.

i don't want to make a big deal out of this, because it might not happen, but by the new year i may be a photographer at work. lauren and i both expect to be promoted early on in 09. they like us a lot there.

introducing honest abe

this is the beginning of my half sleeve. the area around his eyes is going to lighten up upon healing, and there is a lot more detail in his hair than can be seen here. i love it. the detail in the shading is amazing. and I GET TO HANG OUT WITH ABRAHAM LINCOLN FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE!!!!

synchronicity;

"a woman with a very strong power complex, and a "devouring attitude toward people, dreamt of seeing three tigers seated threateningly in front of her. her analyst pointed out the meaning of the dream and through casual arguments tried to make her understand the devouring attitude she thus displayed. later in the day the patient and her friend, while strolling along lake zurich, noticed a crowd gazing at three tigers in a barn - most unusual inhabitants for a swiss barn!

the three tigers were in the barn because a circus was spending the night in town. however, as franz points out, 'the highly improbable coincidence of the inner and outer tigers in this woman's life...inevitably struck her as more than mere chance and somehow as meaningful.' that is, a synchronicity."

aubrey, tx

photo by ashley howell.

as of the census of 2000, there were 1,500 people, 559 households, and 418 families residing in the city. the population density was 720.4 people per square mile. there were 597 housing units at an average density of 286.7/sq mi (110.8/km²). the racial makeup of the city was 92.53% white, 0.47% african american, 0.73% native american, 0.47% asian, 4.73% from other races, and 1.07% from two or more races. hispanic or latino of any race were 6.73% of the population.

aubrey used to be the location of a large peanut factory, which has long since shut down. each year on main street they host a "peanut festival" with a parade (i was in the parade numerous times for drill team, and then later marching in it for marching band). perhaps what i miss most is the cattle-lac, ridiculous right? i also miss the fire roasted corn and kettle corn. okay - those are really the only things i miss about it.

part 1: spontaneous telepathic dreaming

"it is the account of the spontaneous telepathic dream that is seldom printed in journals, yet it does happen - such dreams do occur - to ordinary people in everyday life. a fairly recent experience of one of the authors, alan vaughan, is a case in point. he watched one of his favorite writers, kurt vonnegut, jr., on a television talk show one night, and had a dream about him two nights later. he wrote about the dream to vonnegut on march 13, 1970. '...you appeared in a dream i had this morning. we were in a house full of children. you were planning to leave soon on a trip. then you mentioned that you were moving to an island named jerome. (as far as i know there is no such place, so perhaps the name jerome or initial j has some related meaning.)' vonnegut's answer was dated march 28, 1970. 'not bad. on the night of your dream, i had dinner with jerome b. (an author of children's books), and we talked about a trip i made three days later to an island named england.'"

tiiiight

"over a hundred published studies have shown the real payoff which follows from a strict experimental method in which normal, genuine, real dreams of ordinary human beings are studied with full attention to the rigorous techniques of electrophysiology. in such studies, it is necessary to bring an experimental subject to the laboratory in the evening to become familiar with the setting and with the procedure to be followed. the subject prepares for sleep, and electrodes are fastened to his scalp. he goes to sleep; he dreams-as is shown both by the rapid eye movements and the brain-wave changes which go with the sleeping process. when the records show he has been dreaming, he is awakened. he tells what he dreamed and gives free associations to what he has reported. a distant experimenter, nearly a hundred feet away and beyond three closed doors, has been attempting to guide the course of the sleeper's dream thoughts in accordance with a randomly chosen target, following a procedure which would exclude any possibility of the subject's normal knowledge of what was being beamed to him. later the data are evaluated by comparing the contents of the subject's dream with the contents of the message which was beamed to him. results have demonstrated that the resemblances are significantly greater than would be expected by chance."

and i've only read the forward!!

have you ever seen your cat on fire?

i have.
i'm sitting here at my desk, with a candle burning on my dresser next to me. i watch benny jump up onto the dresser on his way to the window. then i notice he is standing right above said candle. THEN i saw him catch flame. benny was ON FIRE. but don't worry, he is alright. it just smells really bad in here and he has some charred hair on his belly.

in other news, lauren and i went to half priced books yesterday and i got a few new books. "the dreamer's dictionary for the 21st century" to help me decipher what my (and your) dreams are supposed to symbolize in the waking life. and the one i'm most excited about, "dream telepathy: experiments in nocturnal esp" which was written in 1973 and has a really sweet cover. so, expect this blog to be filled with weird excerpts from this book soon.

understanding dreams

i've been reading this book called understanding dreams. i've had it for forever, and have used it numerous times to look up symbolism in my dreams, but it wasn't until recently that i became interested in actually reading it. right now i am in the section that talks about the beliefs in ancient cultures of what dreams are and what they mean. i thought this excerpt was quite interesting:

"presleep rituals: before incubation, the greeks would carry out specific rituals by which they purified and dedicated themselves. for two days before entering the shrine, they had to abstain from sex, avoid eating meat, fish, or fowl, and drink only water. they also had to make a sacrificial offering of animals to the god whom they wished to invoke through a dream. some subjects were taken to a statue of the god so they could be imbued with feelings of awe before sleep. the subject then lay down to sleep on the skin of a sacrificed animal, sometimes beside the statue of the deity."

in other news, this past weekend was amazing. i could not have asked for it to go any differently (except for casey to have felt well). i can not wait to spend two weeks there in december.

and also, does anyone want to buy me this:
i'm going through my well....i don't know bi-monthly tom petty obsession.

attention texans,

mark your calenders. i will be in texas from december 23 until january 4th for a little christmas vacation! which means i'll be there for new years eve!!!!!

i know that things will be getting much better soon.

landon,

i don't remember much from my dream last night, except i vividly recall walking into my parent's house finding you on the couch. upon inquiring further, i find that you are there hanging out with my mom.

zzZ

so, landon's dream blog has left me making it a conscious effort to try and remember my dreams. a couple of nights ago i thought really hard about it right before i went to sleep, hoping that it would somehow trigger something after i fell asleep (i used to do this when i was younger, think really hard about what i wanted to have dreams about, which worked sometimes). this has just been causing me to have really weird dreams which i only remember parts of. like that night i woke up in the middle of the night remembering a dream, but i was still half asleep and could not even begin to figure out where paper and a pen were to write it down, so the only thing i woke up remembering was lauren saying to me "you had better dust your shoes off".

however, last night i had one that i do remember. it was just like we were in denton, except it was here. a bunch of us had decided to go to canada, for a show i think. in my car was me, madison, jason, darcy, and landon, and in lauren's car was jesse, bass, zeigler, and other people who i can not remember. on our way home we stopped at taco bell for a fourth meal, and then hit the road once more. at some point we came across what looked like a terrible accident. i parked, which seemed like the natural thing to do, and got out of the car to see what was going on. on the right shoulder of the road was a pickup truck with a little dog in the back of it just staring down looking sad. then right in front of the passenger side rear tire was a black crow and a hedgehog. everyone seemed to be fearing for the hedgehog's life, and immediately i did too, however, upon my arrival everything seemed fine again and the hedgehog escaped from the crow and started running around in the grass along the highway. all of these little girls were trying to catch him, but he kept narrowly escaping their grabby hands. i thought to myself, i can deal with this, and sat down in the grass. the hedgehog ran straight over to me and i said to him, "you must be hungry". he seemed to agree, at which point i found myself totally blank on what a hedgehog would eat. so i just started feeding him everything, which he didn't really have a problem with. first was the tortilla from whatever taco bell i had eaten, which i found conveniently in my pocket. then i tried a leaf, which he seemed hesitant to eat at first, but eventually went for, and last i fed him a tomato, which happened to be right next to me with a knife to cut it in two. we were best friends, and everyone was amazed. then i woke up.

discovery park

we discovered.

this is the latest i have stayed up in quite some time. since texas for sure. casey and lauren are napping but i cant sleep. we have to leave at 4am to take casey to the airport and i have opted to stay up and wait. i am feeling uneasy.

buttttttt, lauren and i are starting a video blog, and i CANT WAIT. click!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!

today when i got home from work i went into lauren's room and sat down on her bed then eventually worked my way to laying down. she kept asking me questions or making suggestions to provoke me to go into my room. i was just like "damn woman, i just got off werk" and then through the door walks casey. at first thought i was like, oh casey is here. then i remembered where i was and started freaking out. SO YEAH. casey managed to get all the way here without lauren or i finding out. this is the best day of my life.

APT

Ballard Living from Lauren Ruth on Vimeo.

okay, i know that i post a lot...but i just always find something i want to share. i just found this picture, and i love it. daphne, lindsey, and i used to go on long walks last summer, right before we started meeting new people and right as the new occupants of 715 had moved in. as i walk around here i am reminded of these days and how my heart aches for them so.

now i'm off to watch synchronized swimming on the olympics!

ALSO..
this morning i applied for this job i found on craigslist. descrip: "fast-growing e-commerce business that offers a wide range of beads and beading supplies. We are hiring an order picker/product associate for our online warehouse in Seattle. The perfect candidate will have prior bead knowledge and the desire to learn more. This position includes picking orders for our online customers, accuracy verification of the orders prior to shipment, preparing products and restocking the warehouse, quality assurance of the products received from the vendor and shipping to the customer. "

this job comes with full benefits; medical, dental, and vision insurance PLUS vacation benefits.

about an hour after i sent the email a woman called and we had a phone interview. success! i have a real in person interview tomorrow morning at 9:30. sounds fun!

so i got a scanner primarily to be able to scan negatives, however, this function does not work and has not once since i've had the thing. i know of a way that i could have messed it up, but not like it matters because i can not return it. epson sells refurbished scanners for really cheap, and it turns out that the reason they are so affordable is because you can not return them if they do not work properly. oh well, i'll figure something out.

in other news, lauren and i have been going on lots of trips lately. check it out! heres us at yosemite national park.

alright!

i finally got a scanner! wooo! expect new things and new old things. check out these two partyin in the bathroom!

xo

what a day that was.

job search

today i started my job search. so far today i have emailed two resumes to places that i found on craigslist, and i have two others to call tomorrow. i have also gone through the phone book and plan on visiting places on location to see if they are hiring. basically i am trying to find a job that i can enjoy as much as possible. my two choices today were 1. to work for this woman i'm guessing mass producing jewelry which she has designed, and i am hoping that my metals class will come in handy in getting me this job and 2. magic school and sports photography where i would specialize in kids, whether it be photographing individuals, class groups, sports, events, or DANCES! both sound highly entertaining to me. hopefully i hear back soon!

in case you were wondering

this is what the trip here was like.

nervous

about 4 months ago i started emailing photographers in seattle to try to get jobs or at least random assisting opportunities. only three of them told me to get ahold of them when i arrived here. one of them said to contact him sometime in september, so i am waiting to do that, and the other two said to just let them know when i got here. well, i sent them both an email saying that i am here now and that i would like to meet them if they were up for it. one guy responded, he told me to call him on his cell phone and we could meet up for coffee. i've never really "had coffee" with anyone before. i am so nervous to call him (going to do it tomorrow) and i'm even more nervous to meet him in the correct location at the correct time. ahhh! did i mention that i am NERVOUS?! i feel like my stomach is inching up my throat just thinking about it. anywayyy, here is what some of his work looks like.

new beginning

the weather here could not be more perfect. i'm afraid that i am getting spoiled by how beautiful it is. yesterday i went driving around and i looked up at the horizon and saw mountains. it made my heart burst with happiness. what a wonderful feeling! there is this one window in our apartment, more specifically in our kitchen that i could stand and look out forever. i'm waiting to get the perfect picture of that, and i haven't come close yet. someday though.

when i sit at my desk the wind blows in from my windows. i feel purely amazing sitting here. lauren and i have both just felt like we are still visitors here. having jesse and darcy here made it feel more like home, which made for a nice transition. i think about you all in texas all of the time, i am always somehow reminded of you daily.

hello washington

goodbye texas

ouch!

i feel like i've got aliens living in my belly.

mind blowing.

my cats are freaking out because they know something is going on. watching the house empty out has been very strange. as of sunday i will basically be living here by myself. the official leaving day is the 28th of july. we will be having a bbq at my parent's house on the 27th as a farewell. things are so final, its blowing my mind. i wont even realize that it has happened until i am already there.
i did have a great day at the dallas world aquarium today with my family. i am going to miss them so much.

YAY!

as of august 1st you will officially have a place to stay for all of your northwest needs!!! we are the newest residents of the libby manor apartments.

it has a LARGE living room so we will be expecting lots of guests!! you can see puget sound from the street we live on. while we were looking at the place we could hear an ice cream truck happily driving by. we don't NEED central heat and air! we are right down the street from a buddhist temple. there is a bus stop to downtown right out our front door. from the street you will be able to call up to our apartment so we can buzz you on in. ahhhh so many exciting things!!

i expected something different, somehow.

i'll be going to seattle on tuesday. thank god i'll have a chance to get away from the crazy things happening here. my stomach is churning.

but also, i have something to look forward to, a break from the heat! and no signs of rain.

good weekend

i had a great weekend relaxing with whitney. she apparently thought it was boring but i thought it was great. :) i have never had so much one on one whitney time and i think it was just what i needed. i didn't take any cameras with me on the trip, which i regretted immediately. i did mess around with the camera on my phone a little bit to see what effects i could get. a few examples:
the only thing i was even kind of upset about was the fact that we didn't get any documentation of our tandem ride around town. we got so many weird looks, we even got holler'd at! haha! i somehow have a busy few days ahead of me. everything is happening so fast. i'll be headed to seattle in a week to find a place to live. then it will be official, wow!

just some thoughts,

bradley, you take beautiful photographs. i must admit that at the time of this photograph i was hoping you would take one, and you did, and you captured that moment perfectly in my opinion. :)

i'm leaving tomorrow to go visit whitney in sour lake. i am very very excited. i am also still anxiously waiting for my first roll of film from my new mamiya to be ready. i have to make myself forget about it because i'm so excited.

SHAQ ATTACK

my fisheye has a light leak, but i've kind of been enjoying the end results.

i love this kitten so much. he has the greatest personality, i can tell he remembers me when i'm there, and he loves falling asleep in your arms. i spend most of my time wishing i was hanging out with shaq.

there is little over a month until lauren and i move. i am nervous/anxious/worried/excited/devastated/terrified/enthralled/a million other feelings. i know i have to go. i want to go! its just getting to the point where i know i have to savor every second of my time or else i will regret it. i long to be far from all of you so that i can mail you letters and packages and always have the hope of seeing you again soon. also, if i start crying a lot please don't be alarmed.

//////

my parent's 25th wedding anniversary is on wednesday. my dad is going all out he is re proposing with a new ring. he has never done anything like this for her before, and i can't wait to see the expression on her face.

i'm with bradley on this one,

ryan mcginley is the bomb!
(www.ryanmcginley.com)

in seattle i'd like to live in a place like this.

so far this summer i have been lucky enough to have:
mononucleosis
streptococcal pharyngitis
tonsillitis

i hope to be done being sick after this latest outbreak.

zzzZz

i guess for me this summer is all about catching up on any sleep i ever lost during my entire time at college. i don't know why but the past two nights i have been going to bed at 9:30pm and waking up around 10:30. i mean, i'm not complaining. i'm totally fine with staying in on weekends.

also, i'm not quite sure why internet shopping exists, but i've unleashed the buying beast inside of myself and it needs to be stopped.