Just finished rereading the first Harry Potter...what can I say, it's been an exciting summer.

I realized iTunes has not only an iTunes DJ but also a "Genius Mixes," and was very excited to discover there's an Indie Pop Mix. Listening to The Winter Song by Eisley who I had no idea even existed (she must have made her way into my music library on a mix) was very relaxing, and I guess inspired this edit.

Ooh La La

by Goldfrapp is what is playing

Kitty

My sister bought a kitty off some random people, so there is now an addition to the family. Her name's Faery, she's adorable, runs around like she's on crack, claws up my arms when climbing over me, and enjoys sniffing shoes, pouncing, and sleeping under the couch.

Another World

Breitenbush - A place to bring life into balance. Their mission: To provide a safe and potent environment where people can renew and evolve in ways they never imagined.

Leaving Thursday and returning Sunday, I spent 3 days and nights at Breitenbush, a community far from cell phone service and shopping malls. I went for their Solstice healing retreat, along with about 600 other people from all over the northwest. 

The weather was miserable, perhaps the dying breath of winter/spring, but other than some chilly nights that was alright because of the amazing hot springs at Breitenbush, where it's weird not to be naked. 

I made incredible friends, ate delicious vegetarian food, danced with abandon, and was reminded what it's like to be part of a community. 

Being their made me reevaluate my priorities and my lifestyle, a reminder I should have had long ago. Lately I've been missing being a part of nature more and more, and as treehuggery as it sounds I wish I could just go live in a cabin on a mountain forever, waking and sleeping when I feel like it, free of clocks, mirrors, and standards. 

Sleepyhead

This week is finals so I should have spent the weekend studying to save my sinking grades. Is that what I did? Of course not- naps are so much more important anyways. 

If you haven't heard of Passion Pit, it's pretty standard hipster music, but I still enjoy it ( check out Sleepyhead or, my favorite, I've Got Your Number ). 

If you're in the mood for something a little more low key, I recently discovered Portishead and am in love with Glory Box especially.

Persian Cats

Despite it being the weekend before finals, I spent Saturday having a picnic and adventuring with Zoe. The Rose Parade was going on which screwed up our buses, but we decided to forgive them. After having a lovely picnic we wandered around the Saturday Market and bought some incense, and then went to Livingroom Theater to see No One Know About Persian Cats (if you go to Regal Cinema or whatever chain movie theater is nearest, I suggest you look for some local places because in my experience they're cheaper, friendlier, and often more comfortable as well).

Persian Cats is set in Tehran and is about two teens trying to get band members and visas/passports so they can escape to Europe where they can play shows and practice without being worried about getting the cops called on them. The soundtrack is fantastic ( myspace music ) as is the filming. I loved it even though it was sobering, while Zoe was disappointed by how things never seemed to work out for them.

Flat Tail Music Festival

I recently discovered Y△CHT, this amazing band from Portland. I somehow found out they were coming to Oregon to play before heading off to Europe, so I knew I had to go or miss my chance forever! After a little hunting I found some friends who liked the bands playing, and obtained a ride from my sister's dad - they were playing, along with Neon Indian and Minus the Bear, at a music festival in Corvallis, which is about 2 hours away (I failed my license test ;( I still drove though). 

No, we didn't actually wear the headbands haha

I was surprised by the number of romper wearers, but it was probably a good thing seeing as how there were some very drunk college girls who probably would have flashed everyone had they been wearing dresses. 

Y△CHT was incredible though we didn't get as close as I would have liked, but when Neon Indian came on they switched stages and we fought our way to the 2nd row! I'm pretty short, so concerts really suck when I'm stuck in the back or even the middle.

Anyways, Neon Indian was also really good (he had the sickest guitar ever), though I was a little distracted seeing as how the nice, cute guy next to me who I had definitely thought was gay turned out not to be and started grinding on me...which was a little odd seeing as how it was a concert not a dance and I hadn't really invited it, but I decided what the hell. The really weird part is he looked like a guy my friend Zoe and I ran into after an Oddsac showing in Portland, and after talking to Zoe apparently he was the same guy! Even weirder, she had thought he was extremely attractive and was debating going to talk to him on the bus but didn't, and I told her if it was meant to be she would see him again. Well, maybe it was. Only in a slightly mixed up way...
Afterwards we went to get T-shirts and got free ones since it was almost over which was awesome, even though mine it a medium and looks like a large. Oh well.

We got our faces painted by a fine arts major (haha), and for some reason everything washed off except a pink stripe down the middle of Zoe's nose. Lucky her! 

Beautiful girls

Rewind to Friday afternoon.
7th period finally ends, and I run out to catch the bus to the creperie where I'm meeting Arima, my fellow blogger who flew in from Antarctica for the weekend to see me. I show up like 20 minutes late, but thats ok because she's 25 minutes late anyways. We go in and order some very overpriced crepes, and halfway through this guy comes up and asks us where are some cool places in portland to visit. I try to be polite and direct him to Powells, the bookstore of all bookstores, and he seizes the opportunity to give us his life story, insisting that we guess where he goes to college. I guess Italy, and oh, surprise surprise he speak Italian and lived there and did you know Italians are CRAZY? It turns out he lives in Hawaii. He's shocked to find out I'm in highschool, and when he asks where I want to go to college and I tell him Harvard he says oh for the prestigious name? I say no, for Harvard Law, and he says oh you must be the smart one and your friend Bob (which is what she introduced herself as of course) must be the stupid one. Excuse me? He then says some shit about us being "polarized" friends or some shit. Anyways he finally leaves just before "Bob" has a panic attack (he goes the wrong direction too, failure).
Next we continue on to this amazingly pink, fluffy jewelry store, where we are FOLLOWED IN my two unshowered middle aged men who tell us they saw us and just had to come tell us we're beautiful. Awesome. (Arima was wearing a skimpy sweater dress and boots with heels, and I was wearing an admittedly tight dress.)

Once back on the street a guy we've decided to call Mr. Wheat asks us to sign a petition and when I say I'm underage he says "UNDERAGE? Girl you been eatin yo wheaties!!!" What the fuck do wheaties even have to do with anything? Anyways, he's my new favorite.

Next we go to William Samoa where we get followed around by a very snooty saleswoman who looks at us disapprovingly until we scamper away.

We also went into "The Dapper Cap" where Arima refused to push me on their ladder (like the one in the library in Beauty and the Beast).

I then go back to school where I meet up with Cason, Eri and Alexia. Alexia has obtained some chalk, so we spiff up the patio with all sorts of amazing doodles (we also write this guy Bruce's name super gigantic hehe). We then go to the drama awards thing so we can see our friend's band play, as their concert was cancelled due to a sick techie (I offered my services but it was too late).

Then a bunch of us piled into my friend Asa's truck (6 people in a tiny truck = accomplishment) and went to get froyo at SkinniDip (I hate SkinniDip) and shesh at a park. We had some nice conversations about hot v. pretty girls at school, and then I got to take the bus over to my other friend's house (by now it was almost midnight).

Once there we made a run to Walgreens to get some balloons, which we had great difficulty blowing up. "We" (I actually stayed home and slept because it was like 3 am) went and pinned all the balloons in her hot neighbor's yard, with messages written on them. Mwahaha.

Next morning we went to the waffle window which was DELICIOUS.

Ah this was way too long sorry!

The man on the bus

I was taking the bus home today, already in a good mood because the sun finally came out, and this guy gets on the bus. I'd seen him once before; he was mentally challenged (is that the politically correct way of putting it these days? who knows), and the previous time had introduced himself to me and we'd kind of had a conversation though he was bit hard to understand.
Today when he got on the bus he recognized this woman, and they started speaking in sign language. He was obviously very excited, and when she got off he looked at me, pointed at her, and put his hand on his heart. Just watching their interaction made me the happiest I've been in a long time.
Another woman was getting off, and he helped her lift her rolly-old lady thing. When it was his turn to get off, he waved at me and gave me a thumbs up. My day has been brightened. Why can't everyone be so friendly and kind? It made me reflect on my interactions with others; I'm so untrusting of people that I usually ignore people who try to talk to me. Especially this weekend I got a lot of comments because I was wearing a short dress; even though they were all pretty polite and said I was beautiful instead of hot or sexy, I felt degraded and ignored them when maybe I should have just taken it as a compliment.

Loosing sight

I feel like every so often I loose sight of what's important in life and am distracted by what society wants me to be and what I want to project to other people. Truthfully, I would choose a playground over a dance any day.

I missed school today to go down to the capitol to judge 8th grader's congressional hearings (they talk about the Constitution and such). Ahhh nostalgia...It was weird, there were these two genius boys, and then there were a group of girls who said "like" every 5 seconds and who did disgusting things with their gavel-shaped lollipops. Middle school, gotta love it. 

Today as I was waiting for my bus I saw my ex walk up out of the corner of my eye. Naturally, I faced the other way and quietly made a bunch of deals with god in an attempt to avoid him noticing me. Lets just say the breakup was pretty one-sided, and I prefer not having awkward bus rides. Once on the bus I sat down in the most crowded part even though it was a by a scary man taking up half of my seat as well as his, and thanked god I dyed my hair and was wearing glasses that day. I'm obviously stellar at dealing with people.

After hours

Basically I had 3 hours to kill after school before this stupid track awards dessert thing, which turned out to be at 7 so I actually had to wait 4 hours. Awesome. Before falling asleep in the hall leaning against some lockers, my friend Cason and I (I'm trying to be more grammatically correct...we'll see) got intothe computer lab and killed time watching The City, basically the trashiest show ever. Like OMG. She didn't wear the right brand. WTF was she thinking?
Then she let me take random pictures of her around school, scampering out of sight every time we heard footsteps. Oh well.

 

Heatstroke

Yesterday I went Goodwilling with my friend Zoë (and found an awesome Dr. Suess lunchbox, and WALKIE-TALKIES. Still in the package. Score, I know). We tried going to this little food-cart though and got some very mediocre chicken (and shared the table with some very friendly people who offered us a bite of their much less mediocre food haha). Of course after our unsuccessful attempt at being local we were very unsatisfied, and had to trek all over to get some very delicious Jo Jos from Fred Meyers. Then off to Powells to look for real postcards in Post Secret books (unsuccessful and disappointing). This entire time we were trekking around it was the hottest it's been in months (which for Portland is like 65F) and I was dying in jeans an a big sweater. Oh well.
Then we went to our favorite little theater (for those of you who live in Portland, check out Living Room Theater. It's like half the price of Regal, has softer chairs and better movies.) and saw Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, a fantastic Swedish movie. I basically want to be Lisbeth.

My friend took this of me for a school project, and I figured I'd post it since I actually look happy haha.

Also, check out Black Box Recorder for some amazing music (currently listening to I.C. One Female)