Oh, boy.

BOOKS:
Stuck Rubber Baby
Cancer Vixen

MOVIES:
Come and Get It
Frances
Mr. and Mrs. Bridge

STUFF:
Running skirt
Buffy shirt

I want to start doing Babbjab in black and white instead of color. The reasons being that color takes too much time (like, 2-4 hours), is tedious, and I don't think it looks that good anyway.

I'm getting some opposition from people (read: Julian) who like the color and don't want me to give it up. But I think black and white will be a lot more manageable and I'll be able to keep up better during the semester. Maybe I can do every 10th strip in color or something. Color is a luxury!

So next week is finals week, and the week after is my Painting Week in which I need to make about 15 paintings to give out to everybody as Christmas presents. And then, winter break! This semester was probably my favorite semester ever, but the break will be nice. I have a lot of art to keep me busy. Also I need to clean my room. Real bad.

I'm getting so freaked out by the fact that some people who I went to high school with are getting engaged and married. REALLY? DO YOU REALLY NEED TO BE ENGAGED WHEN YOU'RE 22 YEARS OLD?!

WHY?

32 even seems young to be married to me. Maybe 33.

A couple hours after I got home from work today (babysitting at a gym, if anyone forgets since I haven't updated my livejournal in months) I received a desperate phone call of one of the mothers that comes into the gym pretty regularly, asking if I could come babysit RIGHT NOW because her babysitter had to cancel. So I should've been working on some art homework, but I can't say no to someone who is desperate like that, and also...I need money.

When I got there I realized that I have never actually babysat anyone before. Like not full-out babysat. I was a "nanny" for a while in highschool, which meant I just played with a 10-month old baby while her mother was working upstairs. I didn't actually DO anything. I worked at summer camp a couple years ago, but it was a daycamp with activities and stuff. And at work now I just watch kids for like an hour at a time while their parents work out.

I'd never had to like watch, cook dinner, bathe, read stories, etc, with a kid, and frankly as soon as the sentence, "We don't have a microwave so you can heat up her dinner on the stove" left the mother's lips, I was instantly terrified. Even worse was this: "Sometimes the stove doesn't light, so you can use a match." I love how since I'm all a 22-year-old adult, she assumed I knew how to use stoves and stuff (I DON'T! AND MATCHES SCARE ME!) But I just smiled and nodded. (Luckily, when the time came, I said, "Please god let the stove light, oh god please" and it actually DID work. I'm sorry people who are always trying to convert me?)

So I like...watched a kid. On my own. For 5 hours. And didn't destroy or burn anything. I'm kind of shocked. I even cleaned the kitchen too. I think this is a rite of passage or something. It needed to be documented.

Yesterday it took us six hours to get from Disneyland Paris to our hotel by the CDG airport because the only metro line between Gare du Nord and CDG was closed down for hours. This is a trip that would normally take about an hour.

Today our flight from Paris to Washington is delayed (so far by an hour and twenty minutes, and we still don't know when it'll leave), so we are missing our connecting flight from Washington to LA, and who knows when I am going to get back home at this point...Who. Knows. Right now Julian and I are just sitting around in the terminal paying too many euros for internet and eating crispy M&Ms.

The good part is...I might miss work Monday morning. I already emailed one of my coworkers to let her know.

I am hungry and pretty much the only things I've been able to eat this entire trip are cheese/veggie pizza, french fries, & chocolate ice cream. I found tofu ONCE at a Chinese restaurant. Europe does not like vegetarians very much.

So I'm all in Paris right now, and EXHAUSTED. Still 37 more minutes til I can check into my hostel. Julian and I have eaten at a French cafe near Gare du Nord. The lady running it called him shy. At one point trying to ask a shop owner where we should sit (before we found that cafe) the only word he could remember was un hamburger. But to be fair he remembers a lot more French than I do. Usually.

I really want to sleep. We drew comics on the plane. We've been wandering the streets for a while. Yeah...so...there is a weird smell I just noticed and I strongly hope it is not me.

I guess that's all...bye everyone...

Joe is on his way to China right now! I worked this morning and now I don't work again until Saturday and Sunday. Then on Monday I'm leaving for two weeks in Paris, Rome, and Milan.

I've been drawing nonstop comics lately.

( Fathers Day Comic )

( Best Day Ever Comic )

Productive summer, yay!

I met Nicky Brendon AKA Xander. And it wasn't the horror like I predicted last year. I was basically just like, "Hi, I'm Jamie. Nice to meet you. You were really great tonight, and also in Buffy." And he was totally nice and let me take a picture with him and I didn't make a fool out of myself or nothin'. I think I'm growing as a person.

I am done with school! Meaning, this semester of school, not graduating, because I'll probably be in school for another forty years. I am too excited for summer. Here are my plans.

1. My summer workout program. Already in full swing. I made my own 4-day strength training workout (learned how to do this in weight training class this semester), and I've got running, gym, swimming, DVD workouts, and FIT TV (yes this is a channel devoted entirely to work-out shows that I now get in my room) and this will be great.
   
2. ART! MY ART! Yes, I finally have time to work on my own artwork. I've already started this too, first by painting my replacement bookshelf shelves to be The Misfits themed (as in the Marilyn Monroe movie, not the band) and second by starting on my minicomic. It is pretty.
   
3. Someone else's art. Maybe. I've gotten a few requests for tattoo designs and other stuff that I will be paid to make and I like money because it allows me to buy pretty stuff, so I will do this other art as well.
   
4. Website design. I finally learned some CSS in my computer art class this past semester and now I want to try it out some more and make a website for something. Possibly a portfolio website?
   
5. MOVIES! AND BOOKS! That's right, I have Time To Read and Watch Stuff. I just got Suddenly, Last Summer at the market last week for $5 and that will probably be the first thing I watch. Unless I watch The Hustler and the Color of Money first, cause I got those a while ago and still haven't watched them.
   
6. Playing with Roary and Kitten! They are cute.
   
7. Traveling! Santa Barbara next weekend for Julian's play. Then I am going to Paris for two weeks in July and Comic Con the weekend directly after. I am basically going to be very broke. ...Any art requests?
   
8. Working. Oh yeah, I almost forgot this one. Hopefully I will have some more hours during the summer so I can have some more $$. Hooray for watching drooling babies.

Well that was a lame end to my list.

My hours got cut at work because kids club is no longer open Sunday mornings or Friday nights due to budget cuts. I've worked every Sunday morning since the summer, (save one where I was at Comic-con in July.) This was the first Sunday in like 8 or 9 months that I didn't have to wake up at 7:30. (I still woke up around this time at Comic-con.) I actually slept in until like, 11:30. It was crazy. It felt like Saturday, even though on Saturday I woke up at 8. Ahhh!

On Thursday I went with Joe to his cousin's funeral. At the dinner after, there was a buffet with cookies. When we were sitting back at the table Joe's cookie fell off his plate onto the table and he cried out, "Noo!" I was thinking, Wow, I would never be so careless with MY cookie. Then when I sat down, my cookie fell onto the SEAT! And my "no" was more like "NOOOOO!" Luckily I ended up eating 3 cookies though.

I love running a lot, except right before I go running. I think I would rather go to sleep instead. But then when I am actually outside running, I love running. Especially today, because I ran around Newport Back Bay for about 3.5 miles. It was the nicest run I've had in a while. I walked the same course with Roary yesterday and it felt twice as long.

But I am really excited about spring break in two weeks, because I get to visit my dad in Hawaii and we will go running, and then Emily and I are going to Palm Springs/Yucca Valley/Joshua Tree and there are really good places to run (and hike) there too. I guess I am kind of sick of my current beach path run, which is really spoiled because I am literally running next to the sand on the beach. But it's always the same. Also, I am really slow. Oh well.

Also, I have a huge bruise on my knee from running into a giant padded children's bench at work. I say bench but it's not even really a bench, it's completely upholstered and soft. And I ran into it while I was trying to step over it. And by "giant" I mean "at knee-height." I do not know why this is relevant.

So last night was the first weeknight I had ever worked (except for Friday nights occasionally, but that doesn't count because it's technically the weekend and the gym is dead.) It was so so so crowded that I had to park on the top level of the parking structure, which I have never seen before! Then again, I never go during peak hours, and when I work in the morning I either walk or take the bus.

But as crowded as it was, only one kid came in the entire three hours, and he was very easy to watch. Just played with toys the entire time. He liked it when I moved a toy hippo around and made a kissing noise when he touched its mouth. Then he went around pretending to kiss all the toys he could find so I would make the noise for him. But he was very serious throughout all of this. I don't think this child smiled even once. Playing is Serious Business. So is kissing hippos.

Also I met the new club manager, who has apparently been the manager for over a month. I never know who is in charge since it changes constantly. I'm sure there have been managers I've never even met. But he saw me come in, and since I never worked weeknights before he'd never seen me before, so he went to kids club to introduce himself and asked me if I was filling in from another club. I was like, well, actually, I've worked here for over a year...Awkward!

In other news, I started school, but I am totally sick. I haven't been able to do my Tuesday/Thursday morning running (even though I've only had a Tuesday) or any kind of exercise. And it sucks. Roary is upset too. All I do is sleep and drip snot. But we are dressing in aerobics tomorrow, so I will have to exercise or maybe die.

I'm a little bit dreading but a little bit excited for school starting. Here are the classes I'm taking this semester:

1. AH 113A Asian Art Early Sacred Culture
Yeah I have to take this for art history credit. I would've rather taken Latin American art but this fit in my schedule better. Oh well.

2. ART 149 Foundation Computer Art
The only thing I know about this class is Rate My Professors says the teacher is hot. Yay?

3. ART 271 Intro to Rendering
I am terrified. This is an all-day Friday class, and I've heard the teacher is totally brutal.

4. KIN 142 Group Exercise: Cardio
This should be fun. Joe is in my class. I think it's like aerobics and fitness DVDs and stuff.

5. KIN 151A Weight Train & Cond I
I am a little bit scared that there will be no other girls in this class but I'll get over it. I know the teacher from racquetball last semester, and the syllabus says the final project is creating our own workout plan. It sounds fun.

6. KIN 198G Tai Chi Chuan
I took it last semester but I'm taking it again because it was really fun (even though I am entirely awkward) and the teacher is cool.

7. KIN 198H Combat Jian Shu for Sport
The same guy who teaches Tai Chi just created this class. I'm not sure if I'll stay in it since my Thursdays will end with 2 hours of Tai Chi followed with 2 hours of this (Chinese sword fighting) if I take this class, but I want to see what it's like.

8. POSC 100 Intro American Government
I gotta.

So if I were a normal person, I would be graduating after this semester. But I am not normal and I wasted time taking theater classes and stuff. Plus the art program takes longer than four years. So I am told. Anyway at this rate I'll be graduating...never.

This week has been my week of plays. And by week, I mean two days in succession of going to see plays. On Wednesday, collie_wing and I went to see "You, Nero" at South Coast Repertoire. It was a comedy set in ancient-but-anachronistic Rome. It was okay but I didn't think it was really that funny. I only laughed a couple of times in all. Before we went, she bought me a little baby Dumbo toy at the Disney store. Which Roary promptly stole and claimed as her own as soon as I walked in the door. (Don't worry, she doesn't rip her toys up or anything. She actually treats them pretty nicely or else I wouldn't let her play with it at all.)

Yesterday Joe & I drove out to Santa Barbara to see Julian's directorial debut in Joseph & The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Honestly, I think it was better & funnier than the professional production that Kirsten and I saw the day before. (And I'm not just saying that because I found out certain Santa Barbarian directors have been creeping my live journal as of late.) Before the show I got to help paint the backdrop, because two hours before curtain they did not have scenery. So now one cactus and one baby cactus are famous and painted by me, and I don't care if anyone says they are crooked or shaped like something else!

I am so tired. We got in around 2:30am and I had work at nine. And now I have another shift tonight from five to eight. And today I found out my favorite kid at work, Adrian, is moving away and I will never see him again. Yeah I am so tired.

Why is George Sanders' autobiography selling for $300 on Amazon? I will never be able to read his memoirs of a professional cad.

I am suddenly on a Kim Stanley kick. She was not in very many movies though, since she was mainly a stage actress. But I need to see:

1. The Goddess
2. The Three Sisters
3. Seance on a Wet Afternoon
4. Frances

Ever since my 1950's actress research project on Geraldine Page, Kim Stanley, & Joanne Woodward, I've been interested in these 3 actresses. It's weird though, because even though they were just about the best actresses of their time, pretty much nobody even knows who they are now (with the exception of Joanne Woodward in some cases, but I think she's only known because of Paul Newman.) There haven't even been any books written on Geraldine Page.

I didn't like Gran Torino as much as I thought I would. Clint Eastwood was good, but every other supporting actor in the movie (other than the barber) was absolutely horrendous. Their dialogue was not believable either. When it first showed the Hmong family speaking in their own language, I remember thinking, "Maybe it's just because I can't understand them, but these people seem like horrible actors." Unfortunately it didn't get any better when they spoke English. It probably got worse because I could understand the stupid and unrealistic things they were saying.

I honestly wanted to walk out after the main supporting characters were introduced because I just could not stand the bad acting. But we stayed, and I guess the second half of the film was better than the first half--even though the acting was NOT any better at all. It was embarassing, awkward, and painful to watch, and Clint Eastwood's bad-ass-ness did not make up for it. Very disappointing. I thought it was going to be great.

I've taken Roary to the dog park three days in a row, and she is now begging me to take her again. Roary's version of begging is a silent stare that somehow appears in front of me wherever I go. If I turn away, she moves in front of me again (sometimes sits down) and stares at me very soulfully. She doesn't make any noise, or even move. She just stares. "Hey, I KNOW you kin take me to de dog pawk wigh' now!" (That's Roary's voice.)

Today at work I had seven kids to watch, starting from the minute I got there until the minute I left. Let's compare this to last week, when I got there at 9, sat for two hours reading Lauren Bacall's autobiography (and finishing it) until someone finally came in around 11. Even last week was kind of busy, with five kids total. Usually it's two or three. But January is here, and so is everyone's resolution to lose weight, therefore they bring their kids to the gym.

Usually watching kids for the entire four hours would be absolutely mind-numbing for me, but it actually didn't bother me today. I kind of liked it. I was really bored yesterday and having something to do was pretty nice. The first three kids were total cry machines, though, and when one cried it would set the other ones off. God, I could never have kids. Luckily they only mildly amused me instead of annoying me today. But one 2-year-old had a pacifier, and whenever she cried huge globs of snot would stream down her face...into her pacifier...and she would then be eating her own snot. It was totally nasty!

One of the moms I'd never met before was totally excited when she found out who I was. She'd just started coming to the gym, and said people had been telling her I was really nice and really great with the kids. It was totally shocking to me cause I always feel really shy around the kids' parents. But anyway, I draw a portrait of her little girl in black crayon while she was watching Barney, and when the mom came back to get her and saw the picture, she liked it so much she was seriously about to cry!

Okay Roary is being unrelenting so I have to do SOMETHING. She has now taken to snorfling my arm with her nose.

I've been reading through my old livejournals which are pretty depressing. (2002: "My parents are getting divorced," 2005: "I have been dumped and am going to obsess over this fact for the next 2 years") Anyway, it made me realize how little I write about every-day life these days. It's weird to look back and think, "Oh, yeah, I remember that," but even weirder when it's more like, "I have no recollection of this happening at ALL."

So now I am going to write every tiny, mediocre thing that happens every day. Starting today. And probably ending tomorrow because I can't see this actually lasting more than a day. Today I woke up and cleaned the apartment. Then I took Roary to the dog park, which I don't like doing anymore because she is too scared to go into the regular section and has to be in the small dog section. And today some guy with a small dog & his wife were like, "Aren't big dogs supposed to be in the other park?" not directly TO me, but like, aimed at me and I thought it was really rude. She is about medium-sized, and she wasn't bothering their dog. Whatever! But then Emily came and Roary got so excited she started attacking all the little dogs that ran over to see why she was so excited. Then I made her leave.

I did a lot of nothing. Then I went to Trader Joe's, came home, and did some more nothing. I tried some pilates videos and found them to be kind of painful because I despise ab workouts, but I am going to do them more often since I never do any strength training.

My dad keeps emailing me links to depressing articles about how the USA is going to turn into a completely policed state, how thousands of people are being killed in Israel and the US is supporting it, how the country is fucked, etc, etc. I don't respond to any of them because I don't know what to say. ":(" ?

I saw The Wrestler last night and really enjoyed it. (Except for the actual wrestling scenes. I had to close my eyes because it was way too violent and scared me and STAPLE GUNS?!) Mickey Rourke's acting was unbelievable. I honestly could've watched another few hours of him just walking around and making casual conversation with people while in character. I'm excited for the Oscars this year, since I've already seen (or will soon see) just about every movie that will probably be nominated for Best Picture.

But I have to say that Slumdog Millionaire is this year's Juno for me. I really disliked that movie and I hope it doesn't win anything. Best picture is between The Wrestler and Milk for me, although I have yet to see Doubt and Gran Torino, and I think I'll really like the latter.