A Simple Complication

Here am I

2007-12-31T23:59:00.000-06:00

I see you.

2007-07-23T20:20:00.000-05:00

I finished the book on Saturday, and like Bridget I will refrain from any comments that might give something away.

I also found time for this:

The sorting hat says that I belong in Ravenclaw!

"Said Ravenclaw, "We'll teach those whose intelligence is surest."

Ravenclaw students tend to be clever, witty, intelligent, and knowledgeable.
Notable residents include Cho Chang and Padma Patil (objects of Harry and Ron's affections), and Luna Lovegood (daughter of The Quibbler magazine's editor).

Take the most scientific Harry Potter
Quiz ever created.

Get Sorted Now!

A picture is worth a thousand words...

2007-06-19T00:15:00.000-05:00

And with my long absences from posting they are the easiest way to fill in the gaps. :-)

Final drawing for art class:

Visiting Chicago and Wheaton with Ben:

St. Edwards park with friends:

The cake I made for Ben's bday:

That's about it for now. :-P

sheepish grin

2007-03-07T00:23:00.000-06:00

Okay, okay, so I don't post often enough...but when I resurface, it's extra good. :-)

These are some low quality pictures of what I've been doing in my drawing class. You should bug me to see the real thing. :-D

2006-11-30T00:16:00.000-06:00

I had been stuck in my house since Sunday night.

So, I tried to get out of my neighborhood today.

How did it go you ask?

Well my car is parked a hundred feet down the road instead of in my garage. Couldn't even make it out, and then I couldn't make it back up the little slope I had just survived sliding down, so I left my car and trudged back up to my house feeling very defeated.

No history final for Katie!

Silly Cascadia and it's silly staying open and my silly history teacher still having our silly final.

Silly.

(I actually don't mind too much since I hadn't lost any points really and the final was just 15%, so I still expect a B. A silly B. :-P)

Blizzard

2006-11-27T19:53:00.000-06:00

This is the only shot I managed before my camera died...

2006-11-05T04:09:00.000-06:00

"I want to run my fingers through your hair, but they're covered in salt, so I won't."

Quote from Ben, in the van on the way to the show, whilst eating McDonald's.

Hahaha, Beau isn't the only one who says random cute/funny things. :-P

2006-11-02T20:08:00.000-06:00

Alright, sorry I never update anymore. Have some pictures.

First, there's my trip to Dallas.

My brothers and I on the x that marks where JFK was shot. Morbid.

Look, there comes a minivan ready to hit me and allow me the notoriety of dying on the same spot as a president! (...too far??...)

The grassy knoll...I somehow expected it to be bigger...and grassier...I dunno.

And of course, the Texas School Book Depository, which has a very well done museum on the sixth floor, where the boxes by the corner window have been cordoned off and their arrangement preserved. (Not that the original crime scene really was.) I felt very creepy imagining Oswald in that corner. I also felt creepy having my Aunt and Uncle translate the note he left for his wife in Russian...

Okay, that's enough of that...here's my halloween costume. The boyfriend suggested it:

I'm a scary, scary stewardess. Oh, sorry...I mean frightening flight attendant.

When I've got a brand new hairdo...

2006-09-04T14:55:00.000-05:00

Remember this?

Well now it's this:

2006-08-01T02:00:00.000-05:00

Wow, she's updating!

2006-06-13T04:27:00.000-05:00

Rundown of current events in my life:

Last week I finished school for the summer, yay for a successful quarter.

Yesterday I had an awesome day at the zoo with a ton of really cool people. We saw an Orangutan who had made himself a shawl out of a burlap sack and kept adjusting it, a falcon who tried to escape, another bird trying to take Erica and Joe's heads off, and penguins being fed. There was also a great blue heron stealthily snagging the fallen fishes. The seagulls and crows didn't do too well. Penguins rushing out to find the woman with the fish are pretty much the cutest things ever.

After the zoo, Ben and I headed back to the apartment because he was recording vocals. Since I had to be quiet for a while I plugged my iPod headphones into the tv to watch Arabian Nights (on Sci-Fi of all channels). Then we watched Ace Ventura. Such a classic.

Today he was recording again and Steph and I spent all evening making stealthy plans for his birthday present/celebrations. Tomorrow he and I are having dinner with friends, and friday we're having dinner with his parents. It will be my first time having dinner over there, he doesn't have the best relationship with his parents so we usually only stop by for a few minutes at a time, like when we're getting the van for a show. I'm kind of nervous about the whole thing.

Now all I have left is my usual plug of all his upcoming shows. Us merch girls just added a new item, bracelets, and we have a new style of earrings. Business is good. :-P

July 1st - Kirkland Teen Center with Fall From Grace, Lines Into Phoenix, and The Primacy Effect (8:00, $5)
July 3rd - Studio Seven with Endeavor, Remnant Soldier, and Stereotactic (7:00, $8)
July 8th - Club Impact with From Aphony, Cavalier, and Silent Envy (8:00, $8)
July 15th - WARPED TOUR at the Gorge, Ernie Ball Battle of the Bands stage
July 19th - El Corazon with Tysen, Truce, and Kill Your Ex (7:00, $7)
July 21st - Ground Zero with From Aphony, On the Last Day, and Silent Envy (7:00, TBA)

One Year

2006-04-23T22:51:00.000-05:00

I haven't done a decent update on my life in quite a while, so I thought I'd fill you in on fun happenings with Ben and I.

Yesterday was our one year anniversary, and while I was wrapping some stuff and frantically working on a scrapbook that I gave up on finishing and showed him as a work in progress, he was pulling together an amazing day "out of his butt." (Yeah right.)

He came by my house around two in his new jeans and jacket we had gotten him on Friday, and a button-down shirt. He gave me a dozen red roses and warned me before we left that I "would not be happy in my skirt all day" and needed "comfortable pants", something I could "be athletic in." I grabbed my purse, some black yoga pants, and shoes, and we were out the door.

Our first event was a picnic in Blyth park that his roommate Stephanie had helped prepare. (Complete with delicious homemade cookies!) We enjoyed our sandwiches, capri suns, and jello while laughing at the kids and random couple camping out in their pick-up.

Then we headed to Woodinville to see Scary Movie 4. It was playing at 3 and 4:30 rather than 3:30 as he had thought, so we tried to call someone with internet to see if there was another Loew's with something sooner. (Ben had a giftcard so it needed to be Loew's.) We didn't have any luck so we decided to kill time getting bulk gummi worms and reading Rolling Stone over at Top Foods. Anywho, Scary Movie sucked pretty hardcore, but I still enjoyed our time.

In the car he gave me Love Actually, and we headed back to the apartment. I got cold and changed into my pants before we got dinner at Red Robin. Then we came back to the apartment again where Ben played guitar and I was falling asleep on the couch, wondering what we were going to do that was athletic.

My questions were answered when our friends Jeremy, Louis, and Karl all came in going "Yay, bowling, woo!" or something to that effect. :-P We waited for Ben's bandmate Chris B and his girlfriend Bekah and then all headed over to Brunswick lanes where I beat Ben, he beat me, and then we tied exactly. It was 117-113, 120-110, and 119-119. So if you add up the points from all three games, he won by 6, but I still like to think of it as tying. :-D

After we finished he brought me home and I fell right asleep, thinking that maybe my scrapbook was a tad lame. Haha.

A Chance Without has lots of shows coming up where Ben will eventually be the new lead singer and I'll be lonely and bored sitting at the merch table peddling t-shirts, so you should come say hi if you can make it:

April 25th @ Studio Seven with The Panic Division, Aphasia, The Transit War, The Royalty
April 29th @ Hell's Kitchen with Fall From Grace, From Aphony, A Quite Uprising
May 6th @ Club Impact with Cavalier, Truce, Blane, Remnant Soldier
May 7th @ El Corazon with The Vacation, The Sun, Top Heavy Crush, Remnant Soldier
May 12th @ Redmond Firehouse
June 3rd @ Kirkland Teen Center with The Scene Aesthetic, Kane Hodder

2006-02-11T02:34:00.000-06:00

2006-02-10T02:18:00.000-06:00

Due to the events chronicled in my last post, I am currently wearing my retainer.

It kinda hurts.

By kinda I mean kinda alot, but still better than braces ever were.

Ow.

Dr. Pain

2006-02-07T00:49:00.000-06:00

Today I did something I haven't done in almost two years.

No, not updating my blog.

I went to the orthodontist.

I was just supposed to get a wire on my back two molars fixed or removed.

And despite me being a 20 year old woman and supposedly done with treatment, they managed to make me cry in just ten short minutes.

Lady, I KNOW you did NOT just suggest I get braces again just because my tooth moved a couple of millimeters off of "perfect". You people had eight years to mess with me, you are done now. And don't give me this "Well OBVIOUSLY it doesn't seem to bother you, but it drives ME crazy looking at it knowing you had braces. And it doesn't seem that we can get you to wear your retainer." I don't care if it drives YOU crazy.

Look, you're new and you don't know me the way that the people I saw all those years do. You don't know how much more I went through than can be recorded on a chart. You didn't see how I followed every instruction to the letter to try and get out faster. Whole lotta good it did. You didn't see me crying in the car on the way home after most of the appointments. So don't act like I'm some unruly child who can't obey their parent, and don't patronize me.

For those who think I'm overreacting, imagine having a palette expander glued into the roof of your mouth and having to crank it wider every day. Imagine relearning to swallow and talk, and spending the first couple weeks being physically unable to eat enough to satisfy your hunger. Imagine begging your mother in hysterical tears to have them take it out, but all she can do is cry with you because she knows it needs to be left in. Then imagine having the people who did it to you PROMISE it will be six months but quickly have that turn to over a year. And that's only ONE of the appliances I had glued into my mouth over those eight years of treatment. Then imagine how you would feel if after enduring that, trying to keep your eyes on the prize, and finally earning the end result of a beautiful smile, they tried to drag you back and glue some more crap in your mouth.

It really makes me angry that even though I KNOW they can't do anything without my and my parents permission, they can still upset me this much.

GAH.

/venting.

Christmastime is coming

2005-12-05T02:34:00.000-06:00

I'm dreamin' tonight of a place I love
Even more then I usually do
And although I know it's a long road back
I promise you

I'll be home for Christmas
You can count on me
Please have snow and mistletoe
And presents under the tree
Christmas Eve will find me
Where the love light gleams
I'll be home for Christmas
If only in my dreams

Christmas Eve will find me
Where the love light gleams
I'll be home for Christmas
If only in my dreams
If only in my dreams

Split screen

2005-11-05T23:02:00.000-06:00

My friend Laura from high school drew me. She is pretty much my hero right now. :-D

Halloween

2005-11-04T16:13:00.000-06:00

Thalia, the Muse of Comedy:

I weep for my generation

2005-10-27T19:25:00.000-05:00

Here are the highlights of a converstion I had with a friend on instant messenger last night, edited slightly to be easier to read. It's long, but you need to read the whole thing to see why I am so upset*:

*Note: I am not upset by her being Republican...the upsetting stuff comes later, and believe me, you will recognize it.

Her: So here's an ironic story. I think I've gone Republican. :-\ Good job us.

Me(joking): No you didn't. We'll talk and it will all be ok, haha.

Her: Here's the thing: I see both sides but I believe that most repub ideas are better for the country/people. It's hard to take, I know, but everyone is a democrat till they're 30...and if they are still demo after 30, they're a trekkie.
Her: Casey had the perfect quote when I told him I'd switched...he said: "Exactly. Republicans are successful businessmen who wear suits and make important decisions....and democrats...are in Green day."

Me(really offended): Whatever.
Me: Just don't go forming opinions without looking at the news/what politicians say for yourself.

Her: What I meant was how I feel JUST BY MYSELF might in some ways reflect how republicans feel. For example (and I may be a horrible person for this) I hate tent city. And free loving democrats are all for having these people in their neighborhoods and near their churches. I am not. I hate the idea.
Her: I hate hurricane katrina.
Her: I think the people down there are dirty and deserved the douching they got.
Her: Most of those people are being put up in really nice hotels when they didn't even have a house to begin with...how about helping the people who had houses and paid taxes?

Me(shocked): Who are all these people in hotels of which you speak?

Her: Umm the people they took into hotels for housing whose "homes" were detroyed by the flood. Some of them were homeless and were getting really good treatment yet were still looting and stealing.
Her: I heard a first hand story from a girl in a sorority near Casey who was stuck there 5 days. People were getting into their hotel and most were wearing brand new clothes. The superdome was a disgusting place full of nasty people who were raping others.

Me: So this makes you hate everyone down there and think they're all dirty and 'they deserve the douching they got'?

Her: Pretty much yeah. hahaha I told you I'm horrible

Me (appalled and angry at this point): Because there were a group of a**holes screwing over other people, thus everyone down there deserves their suffering...I'm really not getting your logic.

Her: Well anyone in their right mind wouldn't live in New Orleans so they must all be psycho.

Me: Wow.

Her: Honestly, that's why the smart people are in Seattle. Nothing happens here but rain.

Me: I can't even believe you.

Her: I'm sorry?

Me: So how bout when some big 9.0 earthquake hits Seattle, it's our fault for living on a fault line I guess. No help/sympathy for us.

Her: Yes I would expect some help, cause we produce lots of things.
Her: Boeing, Microsoft, music.
Her: What does New Orleans produce? Jumbalaya?

Me(sarcastic and angry): The people in third world countries are just stupid for living there...we shouldn't help them either. What do they produce, AIDS?
Me: It's only because you live in Seattle that you know we are where Boeing is from and all that...I've found most people from other places don't know that. You don't know what new orleans produces because you're not from there and you've never heard about it.
Me: I just wish you had a better basis for your opinion, cuz I could deal if you did...ok we're really done now.

Her: Oh no we're not!
Her: I have a FINE basis, it's called MY OWN OPINION.
Her: I have NOTHING to say about Bush or the news, just my OWN thoughts.
Her: I don't need to watch the f***ing news to get my own f***ing opinion.

Me: Not to GET your opinion, to get FACTS then form your opinion FROM them...that's how it's supposed to work.
Me: How can you have an opinion on Bush without hearing what he has to say?

Her: I don't form my opinion on basic human instincts from facts, I do it from my feelings.

Me(speechless): We are done.

Her: Don't pull this.

Me: I'm not pulling anything!

Her: You are doing the OPPOSITE of what you are saying! You are retreating: "I don't wanna talk about this."

Me: I DO, but it's impossible to communicate with you when you won't listen.

Her: KTB, I am listening!

Me: YOU CANNOT FORM AN OPINION BASED ONLY ON FEELINGS WITH NO INPUT OF FACTS FROM OUTSIDE...YOU CAN'T COME UP WITH A POLITICAL VIEW FROM SCRATCH IN A SENSORY DEPRIVATION TANK!

Her: Yes I can.

Me: You have to have heard SOMETHING about republicans to know that you agree with them, then you decide what you think about the facts.

Her: Someone who has been in a hole for their entire life can form an opinion of a homeless man begging for money, whether they support him or not based on THEM alone. They don't need someone to tell them he is bad or good.

Me: Yeah, but you have to SEE the man first, to have an opinion on him. Do you get that at all?

Her: You used a horrible example there. You are talking about just seeing something, an object. But you mean that I need facts from the news to form my own opinion, and I don't.

Me: If you've never heard of the issue, how can you form an opinion? If I've never heard of AIDS, how could I FEEL something about it? When I don't even know what it is? So yes, you need facts, because then what you are deciding is HOW YOU FEEL about the facts.

Her: Now you are stating the obvious. Of course you have to know what AIDS is to form an opinion. I'm talking about actual things. You act like I know nothing.

Me: THAT'S WHAT I'VE BEEN SAYING, AND YOU ARGUED WITH ME.

Her: NO: "You have to have heard SOMETHING about republicans to know that you agree with them." That line.

Me: If you didn't know what a republican believed, then you wouldn't know you WERE one.
Me: Ok...I am going to sum up what I have been trying to say to you about forming opinions.
Me: You cannot have an opinion or feeling about nothing.
Me: You need a fact to have an opinion on or feeling about.
Me: I think you should be seeking out facts to have opinions about.
Me: That is all.
Me: Does that make sense?

*Note: she did not answer that, instead she sent me a portion of the conversation she was having with Ben at the same time*

Her: Ben. Want to know the difference between our views????
Her: I honestly have it. The end of our convo. Right here:

Ben: I'm listening.

Her: "YOU and I have different views cause YOU care about helping everyone else that can't help themselves...while IIII am too busy with my own life to worry about anyone else's."

*back to us*
Me: ...
Me: Ok then, you still didn't answer my last question.

Her: I'm done, I'll talk to you later.

*signed off*

I'm horrified. I don't think it needs any further comment.

Compliments

2005-10-10T15:18:00.000-05:00

Spring Break '05 - Everything is more artsy in black and white

Things that made me smile recently:

Amedee: You look like Eve. Sarah! Isn't this how you picture Eve looking?
Me: *a little embarassed* Except I wouldn't have a belly button.
Amedee: Oh, we'll just fill it in with some putty or something.

Me: Now that I've decided to grow my hair long again, I'm so impatient to get it into a ponytail.
Ben: That's gonna take a while hon.
Me: No it won't! I can almost manhandle it into one...with lots and lots of clips.
Ben: Really?
Me: Well what I've been doing more often is tiny little pseudo-pigtails.
Ben: *pauses, thinking* You would look REALLY cute with pigtails...

New words we should add to our vocabulary:

Estivation - Passing the summer in a state of torpor

Rasbliutto - Russian for 'the feeling you feel for someone you once loved.'
Mom? Confirmation on that one? If it's true, Russian is officially the coolest language ever and I have even MORE of a desire to learn it.

Weltschmerz - The unhappiness of eternal disappointment in life as it is.

Surprises in the Windy City

2005-09-25T21:43:00.000-05:00

Wait a second...

Who's that in Chicago with Katie and Sarah (my suitemate)?

And what's with that bean thing?

It's Austin!

And Bean Security!

You guard that bean. You guard it good.

No, I don't have any better pictures. Yes, I suck.

Friday night Jamie Spiro called and told me Acceptance had a show in Chicago, so Austin would be in town. I didn't have money/energy for a show, so I didn't think I'd get to see him.

Last night my phone rang...I thought it was Ben, picked it up, looked, did a double take, and said "What the heck, it's Austin!" Turns out he had today off and was still gonna be in town, so he wanted to hang out, and I was definitely all for it.

This morning Sarah and I caught the 11:24 train and walked up Michigan Ave to find Austin in the lobby of a Holiday Inn (he wasn't actually staying there, but in an RV across the street, he just utilizes the HI lobby...ha).

We...
...got burgers and gyros at Navy Pier
...got caught in a torrential downpour and ended up soaked
...went to the huge mirrored bean
...mocked the 'bean security'
...headed to the fountain with the faces and got more soaked since it was already a hopeless cause
...mocked the 'fountain security'
...squelched our way through the Chicago Art Institute

Get this: They have a paperweight collection. And it was actually really freaking cool. We also spent alot of time in the photography and contemporary art sections. There were a couple contemporary pieces that were all sorts of weirdly symbolic and ask you to participate by taking a piece...so I got a piece of paper that's silver with a white stripe and a piece of candy...the candy represents the artist's partner who died of AIDS, and he said it was "finding something sweet in an unexpected place." I liked that quite a bit, I must say. I also loved the strange wire-protruding-from-frame THING that actually said in the description that it was meant to be 'awkward'. SO COOL.

After the museum closed we met Amedee (from my floor) and Christian (bro-floor) at Starbucks, headed back to Ogilvie station, said goodbye to Austin, handed off the damp 3x5 card with directions back to his RV, and got on the train. Ryan Trout and Daniel Creamer (bro-floor) were on it and we all sat around laughing at drunk sports fans and calling each other's cell phones...crazy fun day, awesome to see Austin and hear how he's doing.

More Salinger

2005-09-19T00:12:00.000-05:00

I happen to know, possibly none better, that an ecstatically happy writing person is often a totally draining type to have around.

Yet a real artist, I've noticed, will survive anything. (Even praise, I happily suspect.)

Seymour once said, on the air, when he was eleven, that the thing he loved best in the Bible was the word WATCH!

Let him come out of this a trifle high. But what kind of high? High, I think, like someone you love coming up on the porch, grinning, grinning, after three hard sets of tennis, victorious tennis, to ask you if you saw that last shot he made. Yes. Oui.

One of the thousand reasons I quit going to the theatre when I was about twenty was that I resented like hell filing out of the theatre just because some playwright was forever slamming down his silly curtain.

All we do our whole lives is go from one little piece of Holy Ground to the next.

--Seymour - An Introduction

Salinger

2005-09-07T22:40:00.000-05:00

"The crack had evidently resounded throughout the car. But at twenty-three I was the sort of young man who responds to all public injury of his person, short of a fractured skull, by giving out a hollow, subnormal-sounding laugh."

"'Look,' she said, in the spuriously patient tone of voice that a teacher might take with a child who is not only retarded but whose nose is forever running unattractively."

"In certain Zen monasteries, it's a cardinal rule, if not the only serious enforced discipline, that when one monk calls out 'Hi!' to another monk, the latter must call back 'Hi!' without thinking."

"I mentioned R.H. Blyth's definition of sentimentality: that we are being sentimental when we give to a thing more tenderness than God gives to it."

"He said he even wished everybody in the world looked exactly alike. He said you'd keep thinking everybody you met was your wife or your mother or father, and people would always be throwing their arms around each other wherever they went, and it would look 'very nice.'"

"...in Zen Buddhism a master was once asked what was the most valuable thing in the world, and the master answered that a dead cat was, because no one could put a price on it."

"I don't think he could see her for what she is. A person deprived, for life, of any understanding or taste for the main current of poetry that flows through things, all things. She might as well be dead, and yet she goes on living...I love her. I find her unimaginably brave"

-Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters

Random thoughts.

2005-09-01T00:17:00.000-05:00

I miss the rain.

And yet I almost don't want it to rain, because it's too foreign here, it never feels quite like home. Seattle has the patent on rain I think, and they would sue if Chicago did a better imitation.

Humidity stinks.

Today I spent three hours kicking butt at Star Wars Monopoly.
I was Darth Vader ("Annikin Skywalker!" Ben insisted when he called and I informed him of the activity). I only bought two railroads (imperial warships) and one utility (Death Star), managed to trade to get the pinks (St. Charles Place, etc, called Hoth and such in this version) loaded up the hotels, and started raking in the cash. EVERYONE landed on them. Repeatedly.
I ended up with the purples too (Baltic/Mediterranean, Tattoine in this). When the floor closed (I was on a guys' floor) I had over 6000 republican credits, two monopolies, and all hotels. I rule.

It was nice hanging with some guys, I've found I get very sick of girls around here...especially after just growing up with brothers.

I don't like sharing a room with someone who thinks that that means all my food is theirs and they can loan it out to someone down the hall without asking OR telling me. Funny when a girl walks in with MY cocoa and hands it to Gretchen saying, "Here's your stuff I borrowed," and neither of them says a word to me. I hid it in my closet.

Dr. Penney is amazing, I laughed constantly in Greek today.

The Iliad is alot more interesting than I expected.

That's all for now, much love. Happy September.

Chapel Musings

2005-08-28T11:23:00.000-05:00

Well here I am back at Wheaton, back in classes and chapel and floor activities...I wanted to share some thoughts I had during Friday's chapel, you may disagree, but at least give it a thought:

Have you ever listened to someone praying in a group who said Lord or God or Father or Lord Father God every five words? And you just want to ask them to quit it because they've reduced God's name to an "um", a filler, a reflex and isn't that taking it in vain in a way? There are people who won't write/speak/depict the name or image of God, I've always liked that idea, or at least stopping and thinking before you just let it tumble off your lips like the rest of the meaningless words you spout off.

Then I wonder if it annoys God too, when He's having a conversation and someone keeps interrupting themselves to say His name. Like if a friend came up and said "Hey Katie, how are you Katie? I just came from class, Katie, do you want to go to lunch Katie? I'm hungry Katie, and Katie I wondered, Katie, if you, Katie, were too." And when I put it like that I see just how ridiculous it really is. Wouldn't God like it better if you saved His name and made it special? Made each utterance of it a pouring out of all your love for Him in those few syllables. Like when I let someone call me Katherine and they save it up and draw it out slowly to let me know they recognize how seldom I hear it and how much more significant "Dearest Katherine" is than "Hey Katie." And then they know how much I love them too, because I let them call me that. When God told Moses His name, wasn't that an indication of His love? That He smiled down on this silly little man in the desert and allowed him to use something closer to His true name than ever before: I am that I am.

That's all. Just kind of a pet peeve of mine.