haddadadad

Houston was weather-oriented. Besides the temperature being warm enough for shorts and tank tops, we had a lot of rain. Coming in on Wednesday, it looked like it had rained. Thursday was a mfing thunderstorm with the anger of god all afternoon. The main highway roads lacked proper draining pathways and they literally flooded. A nice reminder that hurricanes hit the area on a regular basis.

T sent me to Glassell School off of Montrose. Holy moley. The facilities for clay (which don’t seem emphasized on their website) are vast and awesome. The building rooms themselves, warehouse style, are laaarge large large with a few wheels lying around and plenty of canvas-mounted and wooden-top tables. They have three or four electric kilns inside. THEY HAVE AN OVAL. For whatever reason I’m a super fan of those type of kilns. Outside are three hummer-sized gas kilns. Giant gas kilns are a happy place for me. They fit about four full-sized adults to give you an idea of their size. Too bad their deadline for residency is in a few days.



We walked around Montrose and had ourselves some Thai. Omnom green curry with tofu. We drove to Baytown afterward – when we got caught in the monsoon – and then headed to the Galleria. Holy mall. Holy stores. Holy waterfall.

Houston is nice. It’s a city… similar to Chicago, less ego. Ego in the sense of OURCITYISAWESOME IDKWHYANYONEWOULDLIVEANYWHEREELSE WHYWOULDANYONENOTLOVETHISPLACE I’VENEVERLIVEDOUTSIDEOFILLINOISGOBEARS. Weird considering I equate Texas with big-mouthed big belt buckle wearing racist asshats. It seems like this city is integrated – there are a bunch of people of a bunch of different backgrounds coexisting and acknowledging other people are around. I felt like the other two places were rather white but more importantly, segregated. Less so here. Spanish billboards are right next to English billboards. Again, sort of freaky. I mean, it’s Texas! I didn’t see many cowboy hats. Plenty of cowboy boots!

It was warm! WARM. My knuckles have almost healed. And so concludes our tour of the southwest.

758PM central
Mom says our waiter seems ‘very very sneaky.’ I concur.

453PM central
HOUSTON SMELLS LIKE THE BEACH

12:24pm mountain.
yup. carrot juice takes like liquid carrots.

Monday we drove into Santa Fe. My pictures do not give justice to the environment. I was overloading on pleasant desert views with a mountainous backdrop.

The rest of the day we looked around the touristy part of town as our hotel is located within its depths. It was sort of vacant (it’s super cold for this part of the country: lower 50s in the day, around freezing at night brrr). The nutty shop signs and sculptures were awesome.



There are a zillion and one galleries here.

Please note: one of these galleries is the Chuck Jones art gallery, as in the guy that animated Bugs Bunny. I think I know why Bugs tended to take wrong turns in Albuquerque… he lived in the southwest. Sweet. Mom and I browsed the shops and galleries. I found a couple galleries that might like my type of work and a bunch of ones that most definitely would not.

Today, Tuesday, was much less touristy and more people were active. While we did visit the Georgia O’Keefe Museum, we adventured to see active artists and living areas, not just crafts and fine galleries. Santa Fe Clay was the planned destination. That place is really darn cool. Upon entering, more clay tools than I knew existed took up a wall and a half. A couple shelves are dedicated to books on art in general, making forms, glazing, subjects of that nature. Many more shelves have glaze upon underglaze, available both wet and dry, catalogs from several companies for more. Some are just pigments! Sacks of materials for sale. Besides things to buy, there are gallery spaces that I was nervous to walk around with my backpack and the ~not-so-secret~ storage spots that I was super duper nervous to walk around with a pack. I took it off. I talked to a resident artist and the nice in-charge lady (HAH I’m not throwing names around so fucking deal) and we talked about how awesome Ron Kovatch is (okay… maybe a little). A few of his pieces are in their collection. Artist guy with no name showed us their kilns: three “normal-sized” electrics, one baby tester electric outside, and two outside gas kilns.

We accidentally went to Warehouse 21 while looking for Santa Fe Clay. We spoke briefly with a nice dude in the main office and wandered around. This place is a teen art center… not exclusively for teens but definitely for the youngsters. Work all over the hallways and rooms totally give the inspiration vibe. They have screenprinting, top-notch computers, painting facilities, a recording studio, and a working stage. I remember peavey and bighead speakers, but I didn’t notice the specific model types. The mural that saw us out:

People are friendly here: while I was out running, people smile and nod hello as they pass. Even the probably-homeless dude I noticed from across the way waved a recognition “s’up” and went back to his conversation. Most of the time people treated each other as equals. I say most of the time because while I was running I got catcalled from dudes in pickup trucks — at least they all had the same type of vehicle so I could prepare myself. No escaping the leering no matter where I end up I guess. I’m also still in touristyville, so the people in the area may be a bit friendlier than the norm.

Santa Fe is an odd place. A chunk of it is aimed toward tourists and another chunk is for active artists. Residential areas are sprinkled around it. They coexist, but I didn’t see how integrated and comfortable locals are with the set up. I dig the heavy Native American influence. I’m not sure who’s angry and who’s not. Outside of touristy spa land, it’s tough to tell. Reservations and casinos cover the sides of the highways. The majority of buildings look similar to pueblo dwellings I had only seen in social studies books, from the high class to the little shacks.

Not exactly what I expected from the southwest. Totally intriguing for sure. Definitely has a vibe different from the midwest.

717PM mountain.
Have found the only noticeable Asian restaurant in town. I think I
like Thai food more than Chinese. This place is Chinese. Sad face.

332PM
Nude series VIII, 1917. Watercolor on paper. Nude series in general is awesome.

323PM mountain Tues March 24
Georgia O’Keefe museum. This lady is awesome. Just had five-minute
conversation with security guard about xmen and transformers. He has
action figures. Just picked up a hardcover of transformers comics and
is super excited yay for him!
Back to O’Keefe… She also did a lot of figures in watercolor, which
tend to get ignored in the history books. I wish they weren’t because
they are super monumental in the way of gesture. It’s very instant,
very spur of the moment. You can feel her brush strokes. Her more color
fieldy stuff is… Color field. Eh. But her figures! Holy shit.

640PM mountain
Mom just ordered my dinner for me and caught herself halfway. I’m glad
things have changed. Kind of.

534PM mountain
her: “How about there? That looks like a food place”
me: “The Ore House?”
her: “Ooooh… I get it. Maybe not. It’s a cantina.”

Sunday.

After a lovely breakfast with the cuz, she showed us around Pacific Beach, drove through Mission Beach, and attempted to go to Ocean Beach — I love these names — but had to cut short our tour due to homework. Pacific and Mission both look like the beach towns in Delaware: a bit cluttered, a little worn, a lot of people, funny-named shops lining the main streets. After our good-byes, Mom and I headed to the main city. It was overcast.

I asked Chelle where we could find the gay in town, and she suggested Five Point and Gaslamp Quarter. We walked around the Gaslamp Quarter mostly and drove through random sections of town while looking for it. Most things are painted fruity colors and in different shapes. It makes for fun visuals.




There don’t seem to be a lot of fast food restaurants. At least, there aren’t many national chains. San Diego keeps it classy with the Hooters.



After walking around the shops of the area, we decided to head back to San Diego International Airport early. I was able to catch up on internet things there as they have FREE WIRELESS HUZZAH. The airport is nice in other respects: good food selection, nice people. The bad: not enough seating room or power outlets. The chairs are comfortable if you can get them.

We flew to Albuquerque last night and were waited on by Christian Bale-a-like-circa-american-psycho. He was super nice and gave me his number if I wanted to get in contact with an art professor he knows. I discovered the Jackie Earle Haley-a-like from the plane is actually a lot older when the lights came on. Still cool. Very friendly and has a Tigger jacket. Yes.

We got to our Albuquerque hotel last night in the wee hours and slept for ten hours. Hell yes. Next up: Santa Fe.

San Diego is a nice place with nice people. It looks to be very people-centric with lots of shit to do. All the clothing shops I saw were super pricey and very surfer-oriented like Quiksilver. Plenty of people were outside running or biking or skating, and the majority of the people I noticed were fairly fit. I didn’t get to see the older parts of town nor did I notice any thrift shops. Chelle did show us the nicer parts of the area, though. There was a clothing resale shop or two, similar to Plato’s Closet only more vintagey and upscale. The house trend is ranch-style and long with little or no yards. The geography has both flat spots and mountainy hills, and the shorelines are kickass. It’s a cute place.

1234PM mountain
Receive text: ‘Stephanie bought twilight on bluray. It is just as bad
in hi def as it is in theaters!!’

1215PM mountain
Have seen tumbleweed. Officially in the southwest.

1138am mountain
CUBA next exit.

1109am mountain
We have the Rav4. We have the coheed. Let’s go to Santa Fe.

118am mountain time Monday March 23rd.
Albuquerque has candy EVERYWHERE.

935PM pacific
Have boarded flight to Albuquerque. Sitting next to a dude who looks a
whole bunch like Jackie Earle Haley. happy place. Time to turn off
phone.

Saturday the cuz showed us the beach towns around the San Diego area. Beach towns are little places along the shore that have their own bit of beach land to their name; they’re like little suburbs of the greater San Diego area. We began our journey in the little shopping area near chellchelle’s apartment. She gets a fancy pants McDonald’s. No really! It’s a working concept model McDonald’s. We were assured that no matter how fancy this McDonald’s is, In-n-Out Burger’s taste will win our hearts and tastebuds over. Sure, Chelle. If you say so. After nomming bagels, our tour guide took us to the beaches. Stores, restaurants, bars, and galleries galore. There are a LOT of art galleries in these places. Some were super upscale, others were more crafty and cut it close labeling themselves as actual galleries. I think those ones called themselves malls of some sort to cover their hides. We visited Del Mar, La Jolla, Encinitas, Carlsbad, and Solanas Beaches. Encinitas was the most intriguing to me, but La Jolla has seals. Lots of seals! and mussels as we caught the shore at low tide.

Only after hanging out with the seals did we see that we are to be warned! They are quite ferocious!



After our beachy endeavor, Chelle took us to the best place she knew: In-n-Out. Mom and I had been told repeatedly how wonderful the fresh made burgers are, how awesome the special sauce tastes, how yummy the fries are, and our final decision?



AWESOME SAUCE. It’s a great burger. The menu has three burger choices: the double double, the cheeseburger, and the regular hamburger. These burgers taste like the kind you make on your grill in the backyard with a hint of “this was made in a fast food joint.” The big thang with these guys is they don’t freeze their meat. Unfortunately for people like me, In-n-Out is a California-based restaurant, as in only in California.

So ended our Chelle-hosted tour, day one and a half of San Diego’s beach communities.

Here’s a map for those of you who are keeping score at home!

1:39PM pacific (3:39PM central)
I think trendy delicatessens and clothing shops share the same soundtracks.

EDIT: pix are up.

Yesterday I disembarked from my safe bubble of awesome, Chambana, to preview the possible future of my lyf. My mom and I are traveling the southwest of the United States, and I will be keeping track of thangs on this guy. I wrote a live blog of sorts to capture the moments of driving to Chicago and flying into San Diego on my phone and emailed it to myself. Pictures will be updated when I am able to access the internet with my own laptop, which isn’t possible at this time.

832PM central
Cylons are in San Diego.

820PM central
Landed. I wonder who won basketball tonight.

806PM central
Final descent. Turn off phone.

8PM central
20 minutes til we land.

751PM central
Ungrateful kid finally looked out the window. Is now grateful. Less
miffed due to her adorable reaction.

749PM central
Holy crap… Im really going to California! HOLY MOLEY

742PM central
We are so checking in right at midnight o’clock EST to get window
seats. On level four. I am progressing. Tweedle, Like, Omigod! Dee
seems interested in my game and keeps looking over.

738PM central
Holy shit, those are mountains out there! Damn my aisle seat! Damn me
giving up that seat! That little kid isn’t looking out the window at
all! Kids appreciate nothing these days!

736PM central.
Yup. Im traveling with my mommy.

731PM central
Brick breaker time, bitches. Time to bust that record.

708PM central
Woke up from nap. There is a kid wailing slooowly like a siren on a wambulance.

527 PM central
STUPID KNEE. Reminder to start hardcore rigorious leg stabilizer
workout upon return. Need to look up how the knee works.

513PM central
I miss riding horses.

507 PM central
Work on jeff’s sweater song instead. Water was too cold.

502PM central.
Stupid knees. Nap attempt number one.

459PM central
Oh good. Tweedle, Like, Omigod! Dee has busted out the Seventeen magazine.
Tweedle, Like, Omigod! Dum’s name is Kara.

456PM central
Man with septum piercing likes lorna doones as well. Rock.

453PM central

LORNA DOONES BEAT SHITTY BAGGED CHOCO CHIP COOKIES

443PM central
Learn best actress nominees received a pushup bra and thong panties
with diamonds and pearls on a pin. Urge to scream repressed by social
contract with fellow passengers.
Panty is a disgusting word.

441 beverage order
Tall drink of water for me, please. Mom’s reading.

432PM central.
There is talk of fresh chocolate chip cookies on the magic speaker box.

422PM central
Electronics allowed back on yaaay. Liz and Julie are keeping to
themselves. The originals are telling each other how mean they are.
Reading US Weekly. Remembering why I don’t read US Weekly.

414 PM central
’sit back and relax, or hey! Lean forward and be tense!’
It would be nice if people knew closing the window shades brings the
temperature down literally ten degrees. The valley high school girls
are going strong. One in front is Liz. Other is Julie.

407PM central
oh, they have two friends in front of us.

406PM central
sienna miller can bite my ass

403PM central
Have boarded plane. Have up group of two seats I scored to lady with
little girl. Am now next to the valley duo, names TBA.

13 PM central.
Showed mom random pictures on laptop due to editing to pass time. Many
pictures with lip ring involved. Mom Looks received. Oh the guilt! My
self expression, let me show you it. Being squashed. Rediscovered kick
ass picture of grandpa and uncle uncle Jim. Crisis averted.

240 PM central.
Wonder about brackets. Hate Barry for getting me involved.

218 PM central.

Sitting at terminal, see bag. Ultimate man purse? Maybe.

116 PM central.
Bush and barbed wire is protecting my vehicle in the car lot. I
feel safe. Text parental unit concerning arrival.

115PM CUTE BABY ALERT.

113PM central.
He left! The spot is mine. Fuck the bus is here!

110PM
In midway parking lot. Douchebucket in a beamer SUV sittin pretty
playing with his OFA toys. No other possible spots in the lot. Go
knock on window, ask if he’s leaving. Snot gives me 5 minutes answer.
Douchenugget.

1025am central.
Fuel gauge still says empty with my full tank. Poop.

1030 vertical horizon

1022am central
I don’t really get these live blogs that sports guys do, but I have a
feeling there will be a lot of downtime during this upcoming week. For
those who I don’t talk to or avoid eye contact with, I’m traveling to
the southwest of the United States with my mommy to visit potential
areas I can live and/or work in with this alleged art degree I’m
getting. Um about to make the journey to the big city. Getting gas.
Aha! Full tank achieved.