12 of 12, February

There hasn't really been anything normal about the last couple of weeks, but I am hoping and praying for some normalcy soon (in the form of Uma waking the hell up). The doctor asked us to keep our hopes up today, and I was kinda down for a few hours this afternoon, but that ain't doing anyone any good, especially Uma, so "hopeful" is pretty much all I am right now. I am filled with hope and love.

I am clapping my hands for Uma to wake up!

In an effort to do something that feels somewhat normal, I've decided to participate in Chad Darnell's 12 of 12, which I haven't done in several months. The following photos are mostly from this evening. The first part of the day was too stressful for photos.

Oh, and these photos aren't in any particular order, and I don't know what time they were taken at (sorry Chad).

This first one is of me walking to Starbucks (where I am right now) at the end of the day, after hospital visiting hours have ended (approximately 11pm):


This is one of the ambulances outside the hospital, also approximately 11pm:

This is a button that gets a lot of action:

Okay, the irony of the next photo is that this sign is posted right by the elevators and this is totally where we all do all of our cell phone talking:

Here's the hallway that leads to Uma's ICU room (Uma, when you wake up and read this, I want you to imagine so many of your loved ones hanging out in this hallway, waiting for a moment to go hang out with you, because this hallway has been filled with love for you) (Chad said that the theme for this month's "bonus photo" is love, but I'm not doing a bonus photo because all of these photos are love for you) (remind me to tell you about the Uma-Loompa song that Eleanor, Erica, and I made up for you last night) (it's kinda dirty, so I won't print the lyrics here) (and besides, you should hear the song before any of the rest of my blog readers):

This is the sign by the door that leads into the room where we spend most of our time:

We drink a lot of Starbucks, and no one will own up to owning the Ya Ya Sisterhood book that's been on this table for several days:

Aaron Case brought you this rock, and that's the charm that Sian gave me (which I've been using to pray with):

Okay, I don't have time to tell the story of this next photo right now because Starbucks is about to close, but we totally almost got kicked out of the Chinese Restaurant we had dinner at:

I didn't take the next photo, I think Bill took it...Vandalize the World for Uma!:

Another vandalism pic, I love this one:

They are kicking me out of Starbucks, I'm not even sure if that was 12 pictures or not.

HOPE and LOVE. Keep spreading it, please.

ADDENDUM: I'm back at my Aunt's apartment (actually, she's my Step Great-Aunt) and I just received several Uma Vandalization photos, and I'm adding them here as 12 of 12 "bonus" photos because the Bonus Photo Theme was "love" and Vandalizing the World for Uma is all about love.

12 of 12 (really 11 of 12) (AND: New Things #140-143)

So yesterday (actually today, since I haven't gone to bed yet, but it's almost three a.m. so I'll just go ahead and say yesterday since no one's going to read this until the morning anyway) was Chad Darnell's 12 of 12 day, and I spent the morning prepping for a pitch and then Jessica and I drove over to West LA and we had the pitch and then we drove back down to Orange County and honestly, I totally forgot about 12 of 12 because I was busy with all the prepping and driving and pitching. BUT THEN, later on in the evening, I totally remembered about 12 of 12 and I ended up taking 12 pictures (or, at least I thought I took 12, but apparently I only took 11) in the span of, like, an hour.

So instead of representing my whole day, this month's 12 of 12 really only tells the story of one moment. One obsessive little moment.

Basically, I was, like, a stalker for an hour, and I'm just gonna go ahead and use the 's' word because after you look at all of my photos you're going to agree with me anyway, so I might as well say it before you do.

So here's what happened. I was at Virgin Megastore. I thought that today was the day that the new Scissor Sisters album was coming out and I wanted to buy it because I'm going to see them in two weeks and I want to know their new stuff well enough to be able to sing along because concerts are always better when you know the songs well enough to sing along. But the new Scissor Sisters album doesn't "drop" until the 26th, so I was s.o.l.

I left Virgin Megastore, dejected. I got some food. And then I had to walk back through Virgin to get to my car and that's when I stumbled across Virgin's in-store concert of the evening, Stefy. Now, Stefy has two songs on the John Tucker Must Die soundtrack, so I know their work (I cannot believe I just typed that sentence) (actually I can) (the best thing about JTMD was the soundtrack) (the movie itself was just feh) but I didn't know their name, or anything else about the band for that matter, so when I saw that this random band was playing inside the store I didn't really think of it.

Until I saw the keyboard player.

I totally fell in love (or in crush, or whatever you want to call it), like, instantly. Pretty much all of Stefy's fanbase appears to be youngish and Goth and as soon as I set eyes on this keyboard player I totally wished I was 19-years-old and wearing eyeliner so I could fit into this group and become, like, a Stefy groupie, and just watch this keyboard dude play the keyboard all the freaking time.

Basically, he was really cute and he gets so into the music that he kind of jumps around while he's playing. And I was standing there watching Stefy (or, really just watching the keyboard player) when I noticed several people taking photos with their cameraphones and then I realized that I'd forgotten all about 12 of 12 and I started snapping photos. Which I'll post below.

But first I just want to say that after I started snapping photos, I just totally embraced the moment and reveled in being a *fan* and I stood in line after the show and got all of the band members' autographs. In truth, I really only wanted the keyboard player's autograph, but I got everyone else's John Hancocks out of respect for the music. And I got to shake my new crush's hand, and I told him he had a "really great energy while he was playing" and then I walked out of the store and jumped around like a 12-year-old girl. And then I came home and googled him and found him on MySpace and found out that he's married, so he's not going to be a future boyfriend and now I'm officially done stalking him, but it was fun to have a crush for an hour. It's been awhile since I've had a crush.

Here are the photos: (I apologize for the fact that some of them are small, I don't know why my camera makes some photos small and some photos normal sized) (maybe it's because it's not really a camera, it's a fucking phone) (oh, and these photos are totally out of order, but I like that--it feels more fan-ish--like: my hour of stalkerdom tonight felt really frenzied and the photos represent the whole feel of that hour better when they're out of order)

You can't really tell how cute the keyboardist was from these pictures. And I don't really think he looks that cute in the band's promotional materials. But in real life he was really cute.

In summary:

New Thing #140: I watched an in-store concert at Virgin Megastore.

New Thing #141: I stalked a keyboardist.

New Thing #142: I waited in a line filled with 19-year-old Goth kids just so I could get a hot keyboard player to sign the free poster I got with the purchase of his cd.

New Thing #143: Before I found out that said keyboardist was married, when I was still stalking him, I found his band's MySpace page and recognized at least two of the band's friends from the Virgin Megastore concert, and I was like: "that's so weird, I was totally just standing behind them in line for Gavi's autograph (Gavi's the keyboarder, or it's his nickname, I've gathered, from his MySpace page) (and oh my god, I'm so not really a stalker, if you ever google yourself and find yourself reading this, but I am glad I bought your cd and I'll enjoy shaking my rump to it every now and then) and nothing I've said in this particular "new thing" really merits "new thing" status, but the year's almost over and I'm desperate here and sometimes I wish I was a Goth.

August 12 of 12, plus New Thing #127

Yesterday was a really long (awesome) day. I'm still recovering. It was also the 12th day of the month and (after being a tool and forgetting to participate last month) I took photos for Chad Darnell's 12 of 12 project. I finally got my act together and am posting the pictures, kinda late. (Sorry Chad.)

So here goes.

(wait, but first, I just wanted to point out that so many of these photos are hair related and I think my obsession with hair is strange) (i mean, what is up with my hair obsession?) (seriously) (it's weird) (maybe obsession is the wrong word, but i definitely like to change my hair "look" frequently) (and it's not like i'm obsessed with making my hair look "good") (actually, now that i think about it, i think i know what it is--i've always been a collector--when i was a kid it was comic books and key chains--and at some point i think i started collecting hair styles)

(on a completely unrelated side note, i'm eating frosted mini-wheats right now and they're so fucking satisfying) (and degrassi: the next generation is on the telly and i think degrassi might be the best show ever) (i know i just turned 29, but sometimes--okay, more than sometimes--i still feel like a teenager, and i watch degrassi and i'm like, yeah, that's how it is)

Oh, right, 12 of 12:

#1: brushing my teeth, approximately 1:15 a.m. (note the full beard)

#2: trimming with scissors, preparing for the shave, approximately 10:30 a.m. (note the patch of chin in the bottom right corner of the picture--i actually shaved off my chin hair a couple of days ago so i could try the mutton chop look)

#3: hair in the sink, approximately 10:45 a.m. (this was after i'd already wiped up most of the hair with a paper towel and thrown copious amounts of discarded facial hair into the trash) (someone should figure out a way to use facial hair for the greater good of humanity) (a way to recycle it) (instead of throwing it all away) (because facial hair is a resource that we will NEVER be short on, you know? we don't even need water for it to grow) (i'm just sayin' this is something all the scientific folk out there should be thinkin' about)

#4: after I shaved my face i decided that i should cut the hair on my head as well, but the office scissors i used didn't exactly give me the Kim-from-America's-Next-Top-Model look I was going for, approximately 11-ish. (do you like how i didn't even bother to wipe away the excess shaving cream before taking this picture?) (My Year of New Things is classy)

#5: all of this hair was on my head and now it's in the trash can, check it out!, approximately 11:15-ish.

#6: The Haircutters, approximately 12:30 p.m. (this woman was so funny) (she kept saying, "what did you do? what did you do?" over and over again as she inspected my terrible self-inflicted haircut)

#7: my mom's side of the family is having a family reunion this weekend. there are about 50 of us from all over the country, and we all got together in my mom's backyard yesterday for lunch. this photo was taken sometime in the afternoon between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. (the thing i like about this photo is that if you look around, so many people in the photo are laughing) (which represents my family accurately)

#8, one of the neighbor kids came over with a deluxe snow cone machine, with all the fixin's. this was late afternoon, around 4 p.m. (while i was waiting in line to get my snow cone, i was standing behind my five-year-old uncle Bobby, and i was like "hey Uncle Bobby," and Bobby was like, "hey Erik," but he didn't look at me because he was really focused on the snow cone machine, and then i started to ask him a question and he was like, "excuse me Erik, but could you please not distract me?") (which means it looks like Uncle Bobby has inherited the all consuming family sweet toothe) (i used an "e" at the end of "sweet tooth" just now because our family sweet tooth goes back to the days when random words had extra "e"'s at the ends of them)

#9: After a full day with the family, I went out for drinks with a group of friends, at the Edendale Grill in Silverlake. I'm going through another Amaretto Sour phase. This is a photo of my first (of approximately 7) Amaretto Sours of the evening, taken at 8:30 p.m.

#10: New Thing #127: I threw a drink in someone's face, time unknown, late in the evening. This is my dear friend Eleanor and her new fiance Bill. Okay, so, Bill knows about my fixation on wanting to throw a drink in someone's face and he told me that since it was my birthday week, I could go ahead and throw a drink in his face. I wasn't going to do it because Joe Chandler told me I could throw a drink in his face many, many months ago, in order to check this off of my list of New Things to do in My Year of New Things, and I haven't made it happen yet, and I owe it to Joe, but then I got kind of drunk and Bill was like, "you're not going to throw a drink in my face, are you?" and it was like he was throwing down, you know? It was a challenge. So I grabbed a drink, the first drink I saw, which, luckily for Bill, happened to be a glass of water, and I threw it in Bill's face. Actually, I mostly missed his face and got his chest, but I've never had much of a throwing arm. I don't think Bill truly believed I would throw the drink in his face and he was surprised when I did it. And I have to say it was a really enjoyable experience. We should all throw drinks in peoples faces so much more often than we do. (My apologies to Joe Chandler, BUT I PROMISE YOU, JOE, THAT I WILL SAVE THE DUMPING-A-PLATE-OF-SPAGHETTI-IN-SOMEONE'S-LAP-AND-THEN-STORMING-OUT-OF-A-RESTAURANT EXPERIENCE FOR YOU.)

#11 and #12, photo booth with Aimie, around midnight-ish. (That's a total outright lie, the next two photos were actually taken a little after one a.m., but I want to pretend they were still taken on the 12th day of the month so that they can apply to the 12 of 12 project, and so we're all going to agree to believe that they were taken around midnight-ish.) (The next two photos were taken by John Zalewski, and they are my favorite two photos in today's 12 of 12.) (in the first photo, while Aimie was feeding the machine, we were plotting what we were going to do in each of the four photos we were about to take)

(and then in this next photo, we were both like, "um, what were we supposed to do in this photo?)

Bonus photo: the theme was Homage, and this is an homage to my camera-phone. My camera-phone is haunted, or something. It's got major glitch. (I still love it, though.) What happens is, sometimes it works perfectly, and sometimes it looks like it's working perfectly but then five minutes later I'll go to show someone a photo I just took and the photo will have morphed into abstract nothingness. So this is an homage to all of the camera-phone photos I have lost:

12 of 12 for June

Okay, so I wasn't going to do Chad's 12 of 12 project this month because my day was pretty eventless (I'm housesitting for Jessica for the next few days and I've only done three things today: I drove over here, then I wrote for most of the day, then I watched several episodes of Deadwood) (not really a day for photos), but I still took some pictures anyway and so here I am. BonBon graciously offered me some of her bandwidth (or whatever it is that hosts photos) because blogger has been incredifucking unpredictable, but then I tried to post some of the photos and it finally let me! Unfortch, it was only working long enough for me to load 10 photos and then it went kaput again, so this month my 12 of 12 is really 10 of 12.

The "bonus picture" was supposed to be taken at 7am, but I slept through 7am, so instead my first photo was taken at about 9am, right after I woke up, and I'm fairly certain that it looks exactly like my 7am photo woulda looked 'cuz I was doing the same thing at 7am that I was doin' at 9am. Lying in my freakin' bed, mostly asleep.

Photo #1: in bed

Photo #2: waiting glasses

Photo #3: june gloom

Photo #4: accelerating

Photo #5: driving to Jessica's

Photo #6: Orson, waking up

Photo #7: writing

Photo #8: Deadwood 1

Photo #9: Deadwood 2

Photo #10: Deadwood 3

CLINK HERE for May's 12 of 12

CLINK HERE for April's 12 of 12