In which I am a fashion icon.

See Photo # 7

You can buy me and Rissa practically poster-sized if you want. Oh, the possibilities.

Four Sqaure

[1] My valentine this year is my new house. All I want to do, ever, is be there. Cooking in our giant kitchen, hanging out on our huge patio, sleeping in my new bed, staring at the extra room in my closet, peeking in on Braedyn sleeping under dinosaur sheets, and staring at the giant pile of boxes we've unpacked.

[2] It's a busy weekend, which makes me sad because even though I am excited about seeing Jules' band (tonight), and Of Montreal (tomorrow), and ladies night (Saturday); there is a huge giant part of me that really, really just wants pick up the discs of Lost Season Two that arrived today and maybe rent Science of Sleep and watch movies on the floor with Rissa and Patrick and big cokes.

[3] Sometimes the headlines on pitchfork media news totally read like Onion parodies... See: 'Gnarls Barkley holds haiku contest'.

[4] New Bright Eyes EP... Not that awesome*. What is happening????????????????????????????

* Not bad, per se, just not up to par. Except for the song 'Tourist Trap', which I like a lot.

Wheeeee house!!

Larissa and Braedyn and I found a house (well, a duplex), in our neighborhood and price range, yesterday. We start moving stuff into it tomorrow. It all happened really fast and we're in a crazed rush, but really I just can't wait for it to be Tuesday or Wednesday and to be unpacking boxes and making this blank slate full of color and toys and life and all of the things Larissa and I love. We can paint and stuff like that so we're thinking of making giant stencils for our walls. We also have a giant porch/yard thing that has a fire pit, so we'll be stringing up lanterns and inviting people over. I have my own bathroom (!) and a walk-in closet (!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and Braedyn will have his own room (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

I love moving. I moved around kind of a lot as kid and I complained about it a lot, but as an adult I've found it to be sort of like my own personal new years celebration. Obviously I don't want to keep moving Forever, but every time I move I feel like it's a chance to re-evaluate all my old patterns and discard the ones I'm tired of. Also, decorating. Eee!

Pictures coming soon. House house house.

Gulf Coast Highway

Although my childhood wasn't perfect (whose is?), there are a few extra-amazing things that my parents did for me that I could never thank them enough for -- in addition to keeping me fed and clothed and all of that. These are the things I pray to emulate if I ever have kids:

- Unschooling.
I don't talk about it as much as I used to, but suffice to say I am not a big fan of the public school system. This is one area where I'm all about revolution over reform. My public school stories aren't very horrifying compared to some I've heard, and I was only in school through third grade, but I don't think I'd be the same if I had stayed. I'll save my specific problems with public schooling for another time, but thank goodness my mom read John Holt. Instead of being shuffled around and graded and condescended to, I read books I wanted to read, I went to the zoo with my mom, I played with kids who (relatively speaking) all loved each other, I hung out with entire families instead of just kids my own age, I debated politics with my dad, I ran around the real world, I loved my brother, I started volunteering when I was 12 and started working when I was 14. There is no personal philisophy more important to me than the idea of choice and free will, and there is no part of my life where I've experienced all of choices laid in front of me like I did with my self-education.

- Honesty.
I don't believe in the 'radical honesty' movement that is popular with some of the unschoolers I know. I don't want to be completely honest with everyone all the time, I think that there are plenty of feelings that can't and shouldn't be expressed out loud. However, I do strive to be as honest with my family as I can and I think they mostly do the same. Questions were encouraged, about anything from spirituality to politics to my friends. As an adult, my relationship with my parents resembles my relationships with my best chosen friends, because we lay our feelings in front of each other as often as possible. I love that.

- Freedom.
Related to homeschooling, but more than that. As a teenager, when many kids I knew were being handed curfews and rules as complicated as bibles, my parents trusted me. They believed that I would make smart choices, and from a parents' perspective I almost always did. Probably not an unrelated consequence. you know? Once I felt more or less like an adult, my parents more or less treated me like one and I don't know how I would have dealt with them not believing in me. As a result of not having a curfew or rules about who came over, I cultivated what remains one of the healthiest relationships with another person I've ever had, spent lots of late late nights really getting to know my friends -- male and female, and never drank or did drugs or slept around or broke laws. And the trust that we had made it natural to transition into a mature, loving relationship with my parents as we all matured. Awesome!

- Music.
There was always, always, always music around me. I remember my mom blasting Austin singer-songwriters in the minivan and sitting in the backseat thinking of who each song reminded me of. We went to go see bands and musicians all the time, my first trip to Kerrville Folk Festival was at age 10. My mom accompanied me to my first show-of-my-own-choosing, They Might Be Giants, cause she loved them too. She taped Cat Stevens and Joni Mitchell and I jacked the tapes for my Walkmen. I talk about new music and indie-rock an awful lot, but no song in the world breaks my heart like Nanci Griffith's 'Always Will'. My parents each have excellent taste and I bet I could be listening to My Chemical Romance right now if it wasn't for them.

A short list of extravagant and mostly girly things I would buy if I had approximately 1000 extra dollars right now

Because I know this fascinates you. And, for the record, I'm pretending that I can't spend the money on charity or my friends or savings or anything practical or nice. And I'm pretending I already have a Wii. And I'm wasting time.

These ludicrous Irregular Choice heels
These boots
This keyhole belt buckle
Dememter Scents - Honey, Paperback, Peach, and Snow
The red/gold Seagull camera
A yard of this, this, this, and this.
This dress for Valentine's Day partying

"Try some, boy, and have some of your friends drink some also. "

Highlights of the Troll 2 screening / cast Q&A at Alamo Drafthouse last night:
- Mr. Waits hugged me. A lot.
- He is a dentist. He shows Troll 2 to his patients.
- Joshua described the Italian director getting in his face and yelling 'Bigger! Louder!'
- None of the crew spoke any English and the cast rarely knew the context for their lines. I knew it!
- That playboy son of the Coopers looks EXACTLY the same.
- Joshua is Mormon.
- Michelle asked them if any of them actually thought it would be good.
- Joshua's description of his Dad reading the script and saying "this is a pretty weird movie."

Grandpa! Are you really in Hell?
No! But I know a trick that a friend of mine who went there taught me!