Cheap Entertainment

8-31-11

Stupid (entertaining) cats.

I'm Gonna Sing the Doom Song Now!

8-30-22

Spotted this somewhat faded, but awesome, siedwalk art in Berkeley today as I headed down to Philz to do some after-work decompressing. I haven't watched Invader Zim in quite some time, but was talking about it just the other day with some friends (spawned from a conversation about JTHM), and it was certainly a fundamental aspect of my college self, so it was fun to see this drawing of Gir. I might have to have a Zim watching party with myself...that's not as creepy as it sounds...I swear. I'll have to wait until I finish Blood +. though. I'm almost done - don't judge! Anime is totally cool! haha. 

I really like sidewalk art. I don't know why, maybe it's because I don't ever expect it/am never looking for it and it's fun and exciting to find something unexpected and colorful on the sidewalk. 

In other news, I ordered all my transcripts today! This has made me giddy beyond all reason. Probably because I've been thinking about whether or not to apply to PhD programs for the last two and a half years now, and this is the first time it feels like it's real - like I'm really going to do it, apply, and hopefully go. :-D Next week, after getting my paycheck, I'll order my GRE scores (and cry a little at the $160.00 it's going to cost). Inch by inch getting closer. And more and more nervous I won't get in anywhere, but I'm trying to ignore the feelings of inadequacy and just do what I know I need to do and prepare myself to accept whatever outcome because whatever the outcome, I'm moving forward and figuring out what to do next/with my life! It's a good feeling! 

Narrowed Down!

8-28-11

Finally got my list of grad schools to apply to narrowed down! Here's what I've been staring out for daaaaaaaaaaaaaays. A To-Do List on google docs, and my trusty notebook full of lists, cartoons, thoughts, and goals. It felt like this took forever, and was sort of exhausting but once I got over the panicky feeling that if I chose the "wrong" schools my life would be over, I felt pretty good about my list:

• University of Texas at Austin
• UC Berkeley
• UC San Diego
• University of Chicago
• UC Davis
• MAYBE University of Michigan and Gallaudet University

The final list surprised me, actually. Some of the schools I thought were my first picks (Boston, Stanford) didn't even make it to my final list and some that I never dreamed I'd consider (Texas, Davis) ended up being in the final cut. All of these schools have at least one person who is doing SOMETHING with sign language linguistics, and most of them have strong neurolinguistic programs/professors. 

Now, on to ordering transcripts, asking people to write me letters of rec. and getting my statement of purpose together!

Saturday Booty

8-27-11

Played games and had dinner after an awesome mountain bike ride (my 2nd one!). Jeff very kindly brought me these awesome gluten-free cookies! Aren't they awesome! They were all pirate themed and the treasure chest was at the very bottom, so you had to eat through the pirates first. lol. I love it!

I Dig Friday Nights at Home. Alone.

8-26-11

I've been feeling under the weather all week so I took another night off from boxing and went home (after getting my bike fixed, again, at Mike's Bikes). I had a lot of summer squash and zucchini that was going to go bad soon, so I took the opportunity to do some cooking. A night at home, alone, feeling productive and not wasteful - and watching Blood + (almost done with the show. It's awesome, don't judge) - was just what the doctor ordered.

So here is what I made - an awesome sauce of squash, zucchini, tomatoes, black olives, and spices sauteed in olive oil and...some sort of vinegar, I forget which kind now (we have SO many), and some gluten free pasta. I just added some red sauce to it and voila! Delicious, and all the veggies were from either our garden or our local farm veggie box. Yay!

I always feel so good when I use all the veggies we have in the fridge before they go bad. :)

Let's Go Giants, Let's GO!

8-25-11

I went to a Giant's game last night, so technically this isn't a photo from today, but that's ok because I wanted to show you the fog! Look at the lights and you can see the beginnings of it rolling in. It was actually really cool.

And just in case you were wondering, yeah they won. And I saw Brian Wilson drive away in his sweet car after the game. I'm so cool and unique. No one else saw him. Except for like, you know, the dozens of other people standing around, but whatever.

Back to it

8-24-11

Missed a couple of days, but oh well.

Back home after house sitting for a week, and thus back to my regularly scheduled BART/bike commute. Hopefully no protests will get in the way of my travels.

Video Bonus!

8-21-11

Video of kitties playing!

Deflated

8-20-11

Here is my poor flat tire. Jess helped me fix it/change it today so it's good as new again.

Walking

8-19-11

I got a flat tire on my way to Nicole's today after work (I'm house sitting), which was sort of irritating. However, it was nice to walk, also, because you really do notice more when you walk vs. bike (and more when you bike vs. driving). I came across this kinda cool sidewalk art. I liked it. That's all.

Way Past Due

8-18-11

OMG. I haven't had a haircut since early November/late October. I am so long overdue it's ridiculous. But I finally got one today. Nothing drastic, but it feels SO much better. I haven't done anything "new" really in a while, but I dunno. I'm just not feeling adventurous lately with my hair. I don't really want to chop it all off again, but I don't want it longer than this 'cause I hate how it feels. But I'm starting to feel a little bored with the same old same old. So, my hair...person? Hairdresser? What do they call themselves? Anyway, the awesome woman who cuts my hair wants me to color it, so I think that's what I'll do next time. It's been a long time since I did that so maybe that's how I'll mix it up! I won't wait 9 months though - maybe 3. ;)

High Wire Act

8-17-11

These mourning doves are like, always there on this particular wire on my street. So I stopped and took a picture of them.

Callie

8-16-11

Meet Callie, Jess' new kitty! 

bleeeeeh

8-15-11

I spotted this little guy as I walked to the bus this morning. His smile let me know it was going to be a great day. Well, he was both right and wrong. I didn't have to work today! But...only because I came down with something downright nasty. Let's just say I became more intimately acquainted with the toilets at work and home than I'd ever wanted to be. 

Outside Lands, Pt. 2

8-14-11

 More from Outside Lands. Here is Sia! I love her so much. Here she is singing and signing one of my favorite songs "Soon We'll be Found." Interesting fact: This was at the very end where the song ends with "soon we'll be found" - the song is sort of about reconciliation and whatnot. Anyway, that sign she's doing right now means "best friends" in Mexican Sign Language. I thought that was cool! Not sure if she's intentionally doing that, or if it's more of an ASL classifier, but it add and interesting dimension to it, I think. YAY sign! Have I mentioned how much I love this woman?

 John FREAKING FOGERTY! He's a legend! He was AMAZING! I got so close. One more on my list of "must sees" down. :-D

There were different areas all over Outside Lands, all with different themes. This was in the Taco Truck Avenue. I guess they were going for a Dia de los Muertos look or something. 

Outside Lands, Pt. 1

8-13-11

I went to Outside Lands for the first time this weekend. It was amazing. Such great music. I saw 10 shows in two days. Saturday was Bob Schneider (awesome), Starfucker (pretty cool - I'd never heard of them before, but they put on a good show and their cover of "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" was great), Sia (OMG, LOVE HER! I was 2 people from the front. I want to marry her, OMG), The Roots (amaaaaaaaaaazing), and Girl Talk (so THAT'S what a rave is like. DAMN he's good). 

I only wish I could have seen more - I really wanted to see The Black Keys, but they overlapped with The Roots so that won out. I'd have liked to have seen Muse too, but it was too crowded so I just stayed put and saw Girl Talk. This picture was taken is during The Roots show. This was right before that guy came my way and fell knocking about 10 of us over. There was a lot of crowd surfing during this show and a few others. This was, however, before people started surfing on inflatable rafts.

Good. Times.

:(

8-12-11

Dinah is  missing. This is the last time I saw her - as she waited with me at 3am for the Bay Area Porter to come take me to the airport to go to Michigan. Come back, Dinah! We (especially Hobbes) miss you!

Pictures from July

Ok. After spending 3 hours cleaning my disaster of a room I spent another good 3-4 hours working on pictures from my time home in Michigan.

I took a LOT of pictures.

And now I'm tired and sick of working on them. SO! If you'd like to see them, you can log onto my flickr page. My username (if you don't already know for some reason, which you should if you actually read this blog) is bekah1. Enjoy. If for some reason you're not a contact on flickr you will only be able to see a few - basically anything without people in it. So...if you can't see more than that and want to, add me. Simple.

Now I'm gonna read and go to sleep in my insanely clean room. Oh yeah!

North Beach

8-3-11

Holly and Bryan are in San Francisco! I met up with them and we went to North Beach to get some dinner. North Beach is the best. I love Italian food. I only regret I can no longer partake in the amazing pastas there. Sigh. But! The alternatives (fresh tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella drizzled with balsamic and olive oil? Yes please. Beef barley stew? I do believe I will eat the entire pot. MMMMMmmmmmm).

After dinner we walked back towards Union Square and got drinks at Lefty O'Douls. Their irish coffee wasn't as good as Brennan's (and they weren't made in the right kind of glass!) but I forgave it because it still had the same good old Irish pub/Cheers feel, and the Russian lady who waited on us was hilariously awesome and made her opinion of our drink choices quite clear. I'd definitely go there again. 

I have pics from Michigan, but haven't had a chance to look through them really. Work this week is insane and I'm interpreting this weekend and need to prep for it, so I'll try to look at them and post some this weekend. Until then!