beaulac ferris

You were a sweet cat that was never completely ours, but I will miss you nonetheless.  You probably went by many names around the Avenue, and probably really only understood Spanish, but you were sweet and chatty to me and were the closest thing Milo had to a friend.

I’ll remind myself of this when I remember that I’ve never found my true vocation.

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.” — Robert A. Heinlein

Well, I tried to write down everything we saw, did, or ate.  Of course I totally failed in this venture, but I did my best.  I had a hard time finding good blog posts about places that we were going to on our European Vacation Extraordinaire, so I thought I’d write one for people who happen to Google “Europe, food, hipster, vegetarian” or some such thing. We made a lot of mistakes, but had some successes mostly thanks to friends, and friends-of-friends living abroad.

London (part 1):

Most of my London Part 1 suggestions are of the “if you happen to be in this area and starving” variety.  In my ‘Part 2′ I have more suggestions that are of the “definitely go here” variety.

Earls’ Court Road YHA Hostel
38 Bolton Gardens
London
SW5 0AQ

If you can find a nicer hotel or B&B for the same or similar price, do it.  We payed about £50 per night for a prisonesque “private room” which was two bunk beds in what would be considered the basement.  There is fluorescent lighting, a window, a radiator, a sink, and a mirror.  It is nice to stay in a hostel that doesn’t have curfews, except when you are sleeping under the stairs and main thoroughfare for the hostel.  You also are sharing a bathroom with other folks who are renting private rooms as well, which I don’t mind too much, but some hostels do have rooms with private bathrooms or in-room bathrooms, such as the St.

In the past 10 years I’ve changed so much, it’s almost hard to believe.  It’s the difference between being 20 years old vs. being 30, I guess.  They’ve been bittersweet years.  I’ve lived alone for 6 years, been independent, had my heart broken twice, lost some friends, gained some new ones, fallen in love, gotten married (which I never expected to happen), had 2 cats, lived in 3 apartments, had 4..5..6 jobs, and had 3 blogs.  I have gained 3.5 years of marriage, gained (and lost) a lot of weight, gained some crow’s feet, worry lines, smile lines, a bad tattoo, experience, gained some perspective, (not in that order) and I’ve lived in Los Angeles for almost all of it.  I also have felt some shared joy at my friend’s triumphs, loves, births, marriages, and shared sadness at their losses-  as there have certainly been some of those as well.  All of these things have shaped the past 10 years in profound ways.

This is a conversation I had with Seth this morning:

My cellphone rings:

Me: Hello?

Seth (serious voice): Hi sweetie… I just wanted to let you know that my car was jacked this morning and someone has been using my credit card info.

Me (shocked): whoa what?

Seth: yeah, they called me to report the activity… totally stuff that I hadn’t bought… weird Google ad stuff… anyway, I’ll be without a card for a few days.

Me (distractedly): well, you have your credit card so you can just use that… but I mean…  wait, this is crazy… so were you IN the car when it was jacked?

Seth (laughing): no, no, no… my WaMu card number was jacked, not my CAR.

Me: Oh shit.  It’s my stupid f***ing cell phone breaking up every f***ing 3 seconds.  Well I’m glad you weren’t carjacked.

Seth: Me too… sorry that you heard me wrong.  I hope you weren’t super freaked out.

Well, as you can tell we’re less than diligent about posting info about our lives on ye olde blogge.  This may be a bit of a recap from my post a few months ago.

Boli just started a new job… bailing on his Canadian-Forever 21-equivalent job, who most recently had decided to hire a porn star as their spokesmodel, decided to do a networking site ala Facebook, and hired people to do the fun stuff that Boli was told he would do when he started… yeah.. wtf indeed.    As of 2 weeks ago, he’s taken up a new position as a graphic designer for none other than K.West’s new clothing line.   Yes. That K. West.  Seems much more promising than the last position because there’s thought, research, and time involved, not to mention a higher calibre of product being made, which means a higher calibre of work, and there’s the financial backing to see ideas come to fruition.

I have been working for a company in Bangalore, India as a sales rep here in LA.  They’re manufacturer of fabrics, who also specializes in dyeing, hand embroidery, printing, sewing, etc.  Pretty much everything.  I’ve been at this for the past 2.5 months.  Not very cool.  To give you an example of the attitude of my employers, they came out for a Textiles show last month, which was their first trip to the US, and as we eating lunch one day my boss says “So you have too many Mexicans here, right?” then later says “Wow there are a lot of mixed couples here!”  I really had no idea how to respond.  They are pushy for sales, and generally have a bad attitude in my opinion (classist, impatient, unrealistic) and the Skype calls at 8:30 at night are really not my thing.

This is a super old list I made last summer when Seth and I drove from Boulder Colorado to Ridgway where his parents live.  These are all actual town names that we saw:

*No Name

Rifle

Parachute

Silt

Gypsum

Eagle

Steamboat

Leadville

Silver Plume

*personal favourite

Wow.  Seth and I have been married 3 years as of the 18th.  Kinda crazy.  I was talking to my friend Kim the other day about how weird it is when you’ve been married so long that you are married in your dreams.

Anyway, anniversaries aside, things have been pretty busy.  I am taking my last math class before I get my A.S. degree from PCC.  Also I took a part time freelance job as the LA representative for a manufacturer in Bangalore, India.  Now I spend my time getting math tutoring, talking on Skype at odd hours, and emailing/calling people asking them to meet with me (even though I still don’t have any samples from them or have any good photos of things they’ve done).  The company has fair-trade factories and they focus on organic vegetable dyes and fabrics.  They can do fabric production (weaving, knitting), as well as dyeing and embellishments.  Pretty much anything actually.  Oh and a dollar is worth 51 rupees.  Seems like it’d be a good time for people to outsource, right?

Have fun pretending you’re Irish for a day!

Some of this you may know already…

1. The name on my original birth certificate was Christina Marie but my parents had it changed to Christina Dawn a few weeks after I was born because they were tired  of people saying “What a nice Italian name!” “What a nice Catholic name!”

2.  I first got drunk when I was 23, alone, on a bottle of peach sparkling wine

3.  I have a tattoo on my lower back.  I got it when I was 20, at the same time that my BFF Kim got her nose pierced.  And of course she let that close up after a few months, but I still have a tattoo on my lower back.  It’s in Kanjii (so 90’s) and is the characters for redemption, specifically redemption of sin.  I copied it out of an English to Kanjii dictionary.  I have also pierced the cartilage in top of my left ear, but let it close up.  I still think about getting other tattoos even though I’m not stoked on the one I have any more.