Maggie tells me that one of her seventh grade girls is named “Bridesmaid”. I’m trying to decide if this is better than or equal to the little boy named “Stingray”, who I photographed last fall.

Tonight I finally finished a massive project that I started over a year ago. I got every photo album, journal, and collection of compulsively-kept-paper-items that I amassed through junior high and high school and decided to condense them all into one scrapbook (there are still lots of photos stored in a small box, but the best ones are here). Messy, collaged pages in no order whatsoever – thirty 12×12 sheets, covered front and back. The taking apart was easy, the throwing away was great fun, but the putting back together……… that took awhile. I got about halfway and then carried it all around in a paper bag for months. Then the bag ripped and I put it in a plastic protective folder. Much better arrangement, much easier to ignore. I don’t know why I decided to get it out tonight, but it’s almost two a.m. and it’s DONE. Everything in the world is in this book, but here is a sample:

pep rally, summer before tenth grade, Mrs. Gellner’s english class, Senor Skeen’s spanish class….

…five-year crush, Mag creations, church camp, first love…

…family, friends, jocks…

…fluffy haired Doug, some marshmallows put to good use…

…some pairs, the late Sam-Mule…

…seniors, pyramid, tiara-boy…

…senior prom, eighth grade…

…eleventh grade, fifteen-year-old-girls’ wedding plans (Erin & myself), Maggie’s dorm room & Kenny’s new college beer gut, Danielle trying to figure out which underwear she should wear in hopes that a certain someone-that-I’m-related-to would see them that night…

…college-hunting, I still remember who the feet are…

…various Bartrug…

…first love, age eleven. can’t you see why i wanted him!?

Now, the inventory:

Ninety-five people that I am/used to be friends with are in this album. Of the ninety five, I am still in frequent contact (at least once a week) with three. I am in semi-regular contact (at least once a month) with fourteen more. In the past two years or more, I haven’t seen twenty-one of them and I’ve run into nine at weddings / Panera / whatever. I am only aware of the whereabouts of nineteen because of myspace, and I have no idea where to find twenty-nine of them. Of those twenty-nine, I don’t care to know there whereabouts of sixteen. It’d be cool to see the rest, or at least know what they are up to.

Of the ones I don’t see or talk to at all anymore, the only one I really really really miss is Ben (photo seven). That boy is nonstop entertainment when he’s not worried sick about something, which is all the time, which is why no one ever seemed to comprehend the extend of his hilarity. At our school, you had to be loud and obnoxious and make lots of penis jokes to be considered funny. He was none of those things and so his comic genius was usually overlooked. I’m still bitter about this. I need to call his mom and get his number. Childhood friends should stay in touch as a general rule of life, I think.

The end.

Today Mikey and I spent the afternoon in Stratford with Mario & Jenn, who are here for a few days for the Shakespeare festival.

They brought oreos!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We went to the most magical toy store ever. This photo will be on the website soon.

I keep looking at this and missing them a lot.

Looking at a little flyer from that store, I see that Canada’s thanksgiving is October 9th, and they’re closed. It made me wonder what Canadians are giving thanks FOR, so I’ve consulted the interwebs. It seems that they are simply giving thanks to god for a bountiful harvest. No pilgrims or massacres involved. I can get behind that. Tofurkey on October 9th, anyone? I can harvest some sprouts.

Oh also, this evening at dinner I had a gin & tonic, and it was at least a dollar cheaper than everyone else’s beers. Where AM I?

I’m going to steal the haircut of one of the waitresses at this restaurant. Just you wait. I’m going to have bangs for the first time since… junior high?

I have no more Lost for a whole year. It was amazing. I cried during almost every episode. I can’t believe the writing talent behind this show… it’s not human. During the last few episodes I had to take several extended breaks to allow my blood pressure to return to normal.

- no more Lost for a whole year.
+ get to see Mario & Jenn tomorrow at the Shakespeare festival in Stratford (and discuss Lost).
+- there will be action figures this winter. I don’t know how I feel about this. Mikey will pout if I have a sawyer toy.
- bread goes bad REALLY fast in this country. This might seem silly, but it’s true.
+ but that’s probably because there are less preservatives.
+ my cousin is mailing me cheese from South Dakota.
- Hershey’s chocolate is not the same.
+ Mikey wallowing on the floor with Dorothy pinned in his arms… “STAY! you aren’t a prisoner, you’re my daughter!”
+ metal-on-metal bang announcing mail arrival.
+ it’s supposed to get warmer over the next few days.

I want to learn how to make handmade books / photo albums. Like… ones that are bound really well. Archival. I also still need glass & metal handling knowledge for some pendant ideas that have been in my brain for months. Why do I have to get a real job. Why?

Also, day 4 sprouts, plus some new babies where we’ve put part of the first batch into salads or pitas or just our mouths:


mmmmmmmm.

Most of you folks probably have the same question as Emmalee: HOW ARE YOU HOW ARE THE CATS HOW IS CANADA??!!@!@@!?????

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Hardest weekend ever is over. I did nothing but say goodbye to people and cry. My three year old cousin wrapping her skinny arms around my neck, saying “don’t move” over and over about did me in. I’m sure most of my heart is still broken into one million pieces all over my Grandparents’ driveway.

At least I can stop panicking about it now that it’s done, I guess.

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Look here, kids. My friend Bryn needs money, and for dirt cheap she will do awesome sketches for you:

There are some exciting horse developments at the farm. Kalita is pregnant (due next spring), and Gabriel – who has never ever stayed within a fence – has finally learned how to get up ONTO the front porch instead of hanging out and looking in the livingroom windows from the yard. I’m going home tomorrow and hoping that I can photographically capture what I can only imagine is a hugely comical sight.

Other pertinant information: Cobra, Moon, and some other band that I don’t know and can’t remember are all playing at 123 on Friday night. Ten pm, five cash dollars. Do come.

Listening: Diane Cluck : Macy’s Day Bird
Reading: The American Way of Death

The events of last evening:

1.] Ate what will possibly be my second to last plate of Black Bear nachos for a long time.
2.] Visited Amanda, Brodie, and Jenn in a bedroom with birds on telephone wires painted on the walls. For maybe the last time.
3.] Went to 123 and saw many many people from near and far. Most of them for the last time.
4.] Made it through Mikey & Andy’s set, only shedding a few tears during “West Virginia, My Home”.
5.] Danced and sang during Dave Bello with Emmalee for the last time. and I said to you, I’ll never be famous… no one in Canada will sing that song with me!
6.] Made it through Andy’s set with a camcorder in hand, requesting songs for the sister who lives on another continent.
7.] Made it through the Priesthood set, getting a little misty-eyed here and there.
8.] Everyone but Mikey & Sean left the stage, and the two of them sang one of Mikey’s old songs. I shed several tears, but was still in control.
9.] Sean said five terrible words and left the stage. “Good luck in Toronto, Mike”. I lost it.
10.] Mikey played one last song by himself – one he played the first time I ever saw him – and I could barely look at him or take my face out of my hands, only once to look behind me and see Kelly and Rosie in the same state, which compounded the problem.
11.] Contined to cry while (drunk) Ryan (who was also standing beside me during the First Mikey Show) kept yelling “but you’re going to have fun in CANADA”, as if not having fun is the problem. At least he made me laugh.
12.] Pulled myself together about half an hour later.
13.] Went to Caitlin’s house and laid on her roommate’s wonderful fluffy cloudbed with baby Pabst while Mikey whined, “I miss my kiddens, let’s get another one that’s small” over and over.
14.] Got two hours of sleep.

Mikey just came downstairs and said that Cobra is definitely playing one last show in two weeks, so I get to do it all over again.

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Just uploaded some new things to Etsy. Some wallets & earrings.

Before I did that, we went to Toronto.

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Iwant a baby, and other events of the weekend:

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