lollipops

IMG_1835
Originally uploaded by soytyka.

and these

and these
Originally uploaded by soytyka.

and these

IMG_1806
Originally uploaded by soytyka.

fun

IMG_1814
Originally uploaded by soytyka.

what do you think of these?

Spankers

I forgot to tell you guys about the show we went to on Friday. It was awesome. And I was DRUNK. And Annie drove us to the ferry. Her version can be found here

My all time favorite photo of Keith

My all time favorite photo of Keith
Originally uploaded by soytyka.

See, this would make a great profile photo

No idea
Originally uploaded by soytyka.

Talent

Talent
Originally uploaded by soytyka.

I want this to be my profile picture, but I cant get the damn thing to work! When I enter the URL, it says I need a jpg file. But it is supposed to be a URL. HELP!

He got high. It was tobacco

He got high. It was tobacco
Originally uploaded by soytyka.

He was all silly and light headed and totally high. I've never seen someone do that because of a hookah before.

We had to use this on our way to Seattle

IMG_1662
Originally uploaded by soytyka.

Hookah

www.flickr.com More of soytyka's photos tagged with hookah

Folk Life

www.flickr.com

Hookahs and Spa parties and worms, oh my!

First of all, I want to apologize to anyone who had an unpleasant experience with that last link that I posted. I had no problems and enjoyed the silliness for a bit and then moved on with my life. My father, however, called me up during my lunch on Friday and was very upset because he couldnt get it to shut off. Even after he closed the site. He had to restart his computer so it would stop saying "welcome to zombo com" Did that happen to any of you?

This weekend was lots of fun and didnt turn out to be stressful like it could have been. Folk life was great and we got lots of shots of silly people. Can I post video on here? Because I got some great footage. If anyone knows how to do that, let me know. Photos are on their way.

Keith's family is a lot of fun and I had them smoke my hookah tonight. It was a bonding experience. Of course I took pictures.

I got worms from my dad, but they had to sit in the car while we were at the Folk Life Festival. Unfortunately there were few survivors. Hopefully the ones that did survive will get down with their bad selves and make some more little wormies.

Okay, gonna go download the photos

Who are these people?

Got this from Cosby

Dear Lis, Laurel, Toni, Jess

First of all, I apologize, Lis, because I spelled your name wrong in my previous post. Forgive me.

Um, you can have my bed to sleep in, but I need to warn you about something. It's broken. Really broken. It has fallen all the way through onto the floor. It looks like it is in a frame, but its really not. The frame has been smashed to smithereens (sp?) and I really don't know what to do with it. I am so sad about it. I don't want to take the frame down because A) I have nowhere to put it and B) It is still pretty.

Be careful with the shower curtain, it is slowly ripping off.

Also, do you think that you could water the flowers on Saturday? I would appreciate it.

The house is a mess right now, but we will try to clean it up before you arrive.

Well, I hope that you have fun this weekend making waffles and giving each other massages and talking loudly in the early morning.

Love,

Kate

p.s. You will love the yellow walls.

Just pin your heartbeat up against my heartbeat and let's see how well we rhyme

Happy Josh Ritter day!

It is so so hot today. Oh me. Oh my. Last week it was freezing and raining and today it is 90 friggin' degrees. Why, God, why?

I don't mind, really, I just like to be dramatic.

I have the craziest weekend coming up. Keith's family is coming into town tomorrow morning. I am going out to lunch with them after work and then leaving for Seattle for our traditional Annie and Kate (and Kate's dad) Folk Life Festival Extravaganza. And we are going to see the Asylum Street Spankers tomorrow night in Seattle before we cross the Great Waters to stay with my dad.
Then we get up to go to the Fold Life Testical.
Then we go sell Annie's "china" to some lady in Seattle. Sketchy, I know.
Then we drive back home in time to have dinner with Teeth's Family.
Then we play with Teeth's family on Sunday.
THEN we have a SPA PARTY on Sunday.
And Toni and Liz and Laurel are coming into town this weekend.
Then we rest.
Then we drive Teeth's family to the airport.
Then we go back to work.

Craftiness all the day long will they meditate

I used to hate being crafty. I never made things. Homemade was for losers. I was rebelling against my Waldorf childhood and my urban homesteader mom and all her ways of pickles from scratch and rabbits from the backyard for dinner. She used to make me help her can for the winter and knit Christmas presents. I refused to love it.

When I got my own job and started being more independant, I became the uber consumer. I bought everything. I loved being able to go out and purchase whatever I wanted.

Now that I am 22 and have linked up with the Woodsy Lord Himself, I have made a complete circle and become full on Homesteader Housewife material. Scary!

I knit, sew, make earrings(!), bake and cook. I have a garden AND a worm bin (with worms inside after this weekend). I want to learn how to make CHEESE for goodness sake. What happened to me?

I don't know what happened, but I seem to be 'touching my roots' as Ballstein from Zoolander said. And I like it. Very much.

um

I know, I know. I was intoxicated last night. I apologize to anyone I may have called (although I think I only called Keith)

I know that I commented on a few blogs, I do not know which ones. Sorry. Drunk blogging is not a good idea.

I also posted on my own blog. Twice. Actually they were just titles.

Its funny, I never ever get hangovers. I have never had one. In fact, I get the opposite of a hangover. Its easier to get out of bed after a night of drinking than on a regular morning. I pop out of bed all chipper with lots of energy. I usually wake up earlier too. I have no idea why this is, but I am not going to complain.

freakt tha basil dumstr

teeth are purple

We painted our walls on Saturday and they are all glowy and lovely. Now we can never leave

So, I enjoyed my viewing of the LOTR, even though I couldnt tell you which movie it was. Ask Keith.
But I dunno, some of it is kinda silly. Like the names. Gwenovan of Snowboard looks pensively into the hills as she wonders what has happened to her lover, Treebeard of Gnash. I kind of want to give my kids LOTR names now.

Knitting elbow

I almost got hit by a cop today. He pulled right out in front of me and then looked back, startled like, "where did you come from?"

My knitting instructor was telling us last night about how she has a knitting journal. It has a photo of each item she has made and who it was for and the occasion it was made for. Its a neat way to track your progress and remember what you have done. I should probably do that, but let's face it, I am lazy.

I knitted drunk in a pitch black movie theater on Wednesday and I didn't drop one stitch. Damn, I'm good.

In other news, I dreamed last night that I went to work at Trader Joe's with Keith and he kept saying, "you're here, hon!" over and over.

I got somethin' ta say

From now on I will try to use Strangers With Candy quotes exclusively for blog entry titles.

I have decided to integrate peas into my diet more as they add lovely color and flavor to many a dish. The Pea Integration Project has begun. First up: Chicken Masala.

I am sick and I keep having Tissue Emergencies where I have to abandon the copier and run, shoving innocent coworkers out of the way, back to the tissue box on my desk in order to stop the flow. And why is it every time I pick up the phone to talk to someone, I have the urge to sneeze. I put the phone down and it goes away.

I get to knit at work today. I am teaching some of our female clients how to knit and I am preparing for the class. That's good because I still don't have a computer. I keep thinking I do because the monitor is still there. I'll jiggle the mouse sadly every once in a while just to make sure I hadn't dreamt it.

Last night, while watching the Lord of the Rings (the first time for me, I am not sure why), Keith decided it would be HILARIOUS to give me a 'chin hickey'. And then he did. But he was just kidding and didn't try too hard. So I wasn't worried. I looked in the mirror for the first time today on my way to work and there is a HUGE hickey on my chin. I am telling people I was in an accident on my Harley. That's what it looks like. Thanks, Keith.

Chin Hickey would be a great band name

Saving up my cash

I am so getting a set of these instead of an ipod

What do ya'll think about that wall color?

What does v-i-c-t-o-r-y spell?

So those who know me well know that there are a few things in this world that I cannot stand.
1) Cilantro. I hate the taste, I am offended by the smell. Its ugly even though it is green
2) Teddy Bears. They are so pointless and take up space in this world. A stuffed aardvark, okay. A gorrilla, sure. Teddy bear, no.
3) Certain textures such as: cotton balls, foam, velvet, dryer lint, suede, etc.
4) Cute little Hallmarky shit

So last week was "Support Staff Appreciation Day" when they take us all out for lunch and tell us how much they love us. That's fine, but I would believe you loved me if you had not given me a basket FULL OF ALL THE STUFF I HATE IN THIS WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!

Check it out. A basket lined with a velvety suede cloth. Filled with a teddy bear. A CILANTRO scented candle. A ribbon that says "Great JOB!" A hallmark bag filled with gross candy.

I cant take it anymore. I quit.

Um, thank you? Can you carry it out to my car for me? 

Whoa nelly

Wow. Okay that was heavy. Sorry.
I had to get it off my chest.

Man, I am in a funk. I dont have any funny little stories to tell. I do have a request, though. Toni, plug your ears.

Maren, Jess, two gals from work and I are training for a 5K. We have formed a running club and want to make this a regular thing. We are planning on running a half marathon in July. We need your help in naming our group. The only thing we have thought of so far is the River Rats because our training route is along the river. But we arent crazy about it and want some suggestions.

Fandango?

Well you know, I have problems. With my mother. And its sad and hard. Most of the time I am able to set boundaries and things are okay and we can live in harmony. We can't really be close and I can't really be myself, but its not tense.
But there are times when the boundaries are suddenly gone and I find myself totally vulnerable and exposed to her madness before I can rebuild them. Its exhausting to always be on guard and not able to completely relax.
It would be easy to write her off and cut her out of my life if I ignored the fact that everything she does comes from her heart and from her intense love for me, however insane and misguided her actions may be. As it is, I try to love her and see things from her perspective while protecting myself.
So I am in a relationship with a wonderful man. He's compassionate and kind and responsible and everything I have been looking for. He happens to not be Orthodox.
I have a good job and I am doing good things with my life. I'm a good person and I'm okay with who I am and who I am becoming.
But somehow, to her, its not good enough. Not only that, its wrong and evil and bad and I am going to hell. Just because I dont live exactly the way she feels I should live. She is not able to love me for who I am and just accept me. I might as well be a crack whore. It would make no difference.
Jess and I had dinner with a family from my church tonight. Their children are mostly adults now and all very different, wonderful people. It was so refreshing to be in their house and see the love that they had for each other. The parents were completely loving and accepting of their children, most of whom no longer attend the church. They were also loving and accepting of me and the choices I have made in my life. It was lovely, but it made me long for the same unconditional love from my own mother. I want so much just to be myself with her and have that be okay.
She told me once that she would not come to my wedding if I end up marrying Keith. I dont think she meant it, but that hurts. She hurts me like that all the time.
I want so much to be the kind of parents that I witnessed tonight. I want my children to be able to be themselves with all their flaws and poor choices and silly tattoos. I vowed to do this as I left tonight.

boosheezums

"It means your own money would grow better than that which the government can make it grow. And that's important."—on what private accounts could do for Social Security funds, Falls Church, Va., April 29, 2005

Hobo camp! Ho-hobo camp?

Hi.

Its been a while. For several reasons:

1) I was sad. Its not worth talking about.

2) My computer at work exploded. No more puter for a week.

3) I'm lazy


But I'm back now.

I have been walking to work when the weather is nice lately and its funny how you see things you never saw before because you were too busy driving.
Like 2 cute clothing stores right in my neighborhood that I must check out one of these days.
Or the yard with little tiny flags depicting Bush's face stuck upside down in every little pile of dog poop.
Or the 13 year old boy and girl chatting in front of their houses.
"I know! Me too! My mom is totally crazy!!"
"Yeah, we like totally have a show for every night of the week. Oh wait. Except Tuesdays. We dont have a favorite show for Tuesday."
"Uh, what? What about One Tree Hill? Helloo?"


I had a dream last night that I got married in a Starbucks. And they were still making lattes in the background as the minister (this random lady from my church) pronounced us husband and wife. And I wore a black t-shirt over my wedding dress. And I had bed head. And then I looked down and realized I was wearing a jean skirt. And my mom showed up and pretended like she was just there for some coffee and sat in the corner. What's it mean?

Stay real! WE are all brack people

I am feeling kind of down today and have not been motivated to post. Issues with the crazy family member.

I have found some hope and inspiration in today's engrish, however.

Keep it real.

Keep on faith.

Keep on going.

PIECE!

So cool.

Respect!

Importand

These are the kinds of issues I get heated about

Brunch! 

We decided to have a bunny 

We say 'no' to drugs and bouncing bunnies

This young guy came in and tried to sell us a laser pen and a bouncing bunny that sings a song.

"KB Toys is selling this for 25 bucks, but today we're blowing it up for just 10 bucks"

He proceeded to clear off Melanie's desk to demonstrate the rabbit's capabilities. He pressed its paw and it emitted a hellish sound while thumping all over her desk, to her horror.

"You get two songs in one, it plays a longer version if you press it's other paw"

"Please, dont press the other paw, we dont want to buy it"

I hid behind my computer and typed furiously at nothing, avoiding his question, "so how about this laser pen? Anyone? Oh, rats, the battery is dead."

We stared at him blankly. None of us knew what to do.

"Well, ya'll have a great day!"

He tripped out the door and closed it loudly behind him.


For some reason we get the weirdest people wandering into this office. Once we had this guy come in and tell this whole long story about how his mother has to wear diapers and they ran out of their weekly diaper money. But he was fixated on the diaper issue and told us waaay more than we needed to know.

Later we told the director about the incident and she said, "oh yeah, that's the Diaper Man"
Apparently he is just crazy and has a weird fixation with diapers and periodically wanders into places to talk about them.

The Cakes!

This is what I am thinking in my head all the time

Uh Oh

I, uh, kinda put in my notice at work. Shit. I think this means that I won't get paid anymore. Crap. What was I thinking? What possessed me to do such a thing? Can I have a do-over, are there any take-backsies?

I actually did think this through and do still feel that it is the right decision for me, but its sooo scary. Scarier than The Ring. My job is such a huge part of my identity. When people ask, "what do you do?" I always have an interesting answer that I can be proud of. Now what? A full time student? I've never been 'just a student' in my whole life! I have bills to pay! I have a car payment! What am I doing???

Its going to be okay just as long as I dont hyperventilate.

I will leave at the end of the summer. I decided to do this so that I can focus on school and get it done because it is taking me forever at the pace I am going. My job takes a lot of my time and energy and it was really hard this past year to juggle both. I will have a practicum every term this year and it is impossible to schedule everything with work. So I quit. I'm a quitter.

The funny thing is that I have a job that many of my classmates hope to get after they graduate. But I am not digging it enough to hold on to it until I finish. I want to work with little kids. Not surly ganster teenagers.

Okay, that's enough whining. I'll get over it, I'm just scared right now. I know I made the right decision. Right?

The Story of the Weeping tyKa

I watched the Story of the Weeping Camel last night. It was the best movie I have seen in a long time. I was mesmerized. It was so sweet. I want to own it. Go watch it. That is all.

You know

You know when you are technically not supposed to be reading something and you somehow end up reading it anyway and it ends up being super funny and you stifle your laugh and it comes out like a loud snort and you cough to try to cover it up, but everyone knows? That just happened to me.

Oh my

I like the engrish of the day. The second character from the left looks like a hand flipping you off

Underground Smoothie

I'm watching Manor House.
Manor House Fact: footmen were paid according to their hight. The taller you were, the more you got paid.

One of the maids just complained that she can't just "Pop into town and have a bevvy" whenever she wants. That's rough. When I was in Mexico I often complained of not being able to have a bevvy whenever I wanted.

I participated in an activity with Maren this afternoon that shall not be named in this post. Life is always an adventure with Maren. We had finished with our activity and had decided that we needed a Jamba juice. We parked downtown and started walking. Suddenly Maren stopped on the sidewalk and said, "do you want something to blog about?"
You just can't pass that up, so I said yes. She then pushed in an unmarked door in the side of a building and said, "come on!"
We stumbled into a tiny entry way with an elevator. We got in and she said, "I'm warning you, it smells like fish" It did. She was right.
We stopped a couple of floors down and stepped out to discover a complicated series of complex hallways with numbered doors ever few feet. It was freezing cold and there were rat traps in the corners. Maren took off with a mostly confident, "I think this is the way" and I had no choice but to follow her. After a few false turns, we pushed through and unmarked door and came tumbling out into a mall. I turned around and saw that the door we came out of said, "authorized personnel only". Dude. Maren rocks. We walked past Banana Republic, did a quick lap through Eddie Bauer and ended up at our destination.

Check it

I've been reading this blog lately. He has a funny Mother's Day post.

So, man, what do you think about this whole Resurrection thing? 

Easter Egg HUUNT!!! 

Gurrl 

These are not our kids! 

Waiting

Ca-yoot 

Jess and god-daughter 

Q 

Brother 

Baby fever 

Is that all the candy? 

Other brother

Shoulders! In church! 

Waiting for the go ahead 

Funeral Beer

In our fasting stupor this week, Jessalynn and I came up with lots of silly ways to amuse ourselves. It will appear on both of our blogs. Enjoy.



Jess and I are no longer able to stand together in church, we have decided. It is just too risky. We tried it last Wednesday with disastrous results. We were innocently sharing a book and singing along, when we came across this line, “they placed in My hand a reed that I may shatter them like a potter’s vessel” and Jess lost it. I had to walk away quickly so that we would stop laughing.


In good fun and humble devotion, we have prepared these Troparia. The banana peel offering was inspired by a pre-Passion Gospel snack in which we didn’t know what to do with a banana peel. I suggested that Jess lay it on the Funeral Bier along with the more traditional flowers.


Springing forth from the tomb as from a bridal chamber
Thou didst rise from the dead as from a bridal chamber
Jonah didst leap forth from the monster as from a bridal chamber
Prefiguring Thine own Resurrection
Like a bridegroom in procession,
Thou didst emerge from Thy Mother’s Womb
As from a bridal chamber
To save our souls

Oh Virgin Theotokos
Thou has kept thy virginity inviolate
Preserving Thy virginity through childbirth
Thou was and art ever virgin
Glory of mothers and virgins
Thou didst conceive without seed in thy womb
And didst bare the savior of our souls

Laying at thy feet a banana peel
We offer to thee o Savior our humble sacrifice
Having consumed its contents
The humble shell we bring as a funeral offering
As we look to Thy third day Resurrection

This is what happens when you have been standing in church for 4 hours