Vol 2 Issue 22

Pic of the week 

Spent a couple of days this week at a summer camp doing some Story Pirates.  This is Stephen Eric Apple a glow-in-the-dark alien horse.  He went on quite an adventure to find a girlfriend who ended up being an inflatable dinosaur.  Love finds a way.

What's going on?

Y'all.  I love my job.  Like, LOVE my job.  And I recognize how lucky I am to be able to say that.  The summer camp we went to this week is called Camp Harmony.  It's a camp for underprivileged kids - many, and I think most of whom experience or are affected by homelessness in some way.  It's one of the coolest things we get to do all year.  This was the most involved we've been as well.  We did two days of programming.  Writing workshops in the morning and a show performing the stories the kids wrote in the evening.  It's always such a cool experience.  A couple of us did both days, but most of the Pirates involved just did one.  We got to stay overnight and experience all the fun things at camp - including staff pretzel night!  Also fun - a couple of the camp directors are sort of famous for riding Segways around camp.  One of the stories was set at Camp Harmony, so we borrowed one of the Segways and I pretended to be one of the camp directors and got to ride the Segway around for a bit.  Turns out, I'm pretty good at it!

Also spent a good chunk of time this week building a bookcase.  I bought some plywood, used a friend's jigsaw to cut it up, and spent yesterday afternoon assembling it.  It didn't turn out exactly like I planned, because all I had was a jigsaw and a drill, and didn't measure it out exactly beforehand, but luckily it's easily adaptable.  I still have a few finishing touches to put on it, so I'll post a picture next week, but I'm pretty darn happy with how it turned out.

Early in the week I had a meeting with a friend at a cookie shop.  I bought an extra cookie and threw it in the seat of my scooter.  It kind of got buried and I discovered it again SEVERAL days later.  It was still good!  Cookie surprise!

What I'm reading

This is a quintessentially British production and I am HERE for it!  I love British humor.  It's so bizarre.  Anyway, this also recently came out as a series on Amazon as well, and I'm interested in seeing the adaptation.

What I'm watching

This was delightful and so heartwarming.

What I'm listening to

This episode of the On Being podcast included such an interesting and refreshing conversation on what it means to be Christian.  I really enjoyed it.

Vol 2. Issue 21

Pic of the week 

I put up new curtains.  I had some blackout curtains hanging in my window because the porch lights of the building next door shine directly in my window all night.  Those particular curtains have been there since before I moved in so I thought it'd be a good idea to wash them.  I put them in a bucket of warm water with some Oxyclean and the formerly white curtains turned black.  No idea what happened.  Isn't science fun?  Needless to say, I bought some new blackout curtains.  

What's going on?

Summertime is finishing up with a bang!  I mean, I guess technically we're only half-way through summer, but school starts around here soon, so summer is basically over.  And I'm packing everything in.  Work, Shakespeare in the park, ice cream, dinners, cleaning, organizing, hanging curtains, installing a bike holder, taking my bike to get fixed because it broke while I was riding it, hitting a GIANT pothole and nearly eating asphalt on my scooter.  Quite an adventurous week.

Y'all.  There are too many TV shows to watch.  Have you noticed?

I had a plan this week to build my bookcase.  I went to the Home Depot and everything.  I was looking for 3/4" Maple Plywood.  I told the guy working the saw that that's what I wanted and he said, "maple?!" like I was crazy.  Anyway.  Turns out they didn't have any.  So I didn't get to build my bookcase this week.

What I'm reading

Super cute book about a robot who wakes up on an island and becomes part of the wilderness community there.

What I'm watching

Haven't seen it yet, but I plan to.  I loved these books when I was younger and am excited for the movie!

What I'm listening to

This playlist on Spotify.  It's so fun!

Vol 2 Issue 20

Pic of the week 

As part of my life upgrade, I'm getting some plants for my room.  I saw a cute planter on Etsy that I wanted, but they were charging $45 for it.  It's pretty simple and I have a friend who does pottery, so I asked if he'd make it for me.  But then I went one better and asked if he'd show me how.  So he did!  We went to a little ceramics place and this is the start of my little planter.  It has to dry and then be fired and then glazed and fired again, so it's a bit of a process, but when it's done it'll look something like this:

Also.  Throwing pots is super fun!  And harder than it looks.  And I kind of want to take a class now.

What's going on?

Not much to update y'all on this week.  I was busy with all my jobs and enjoying life immensely.  I went to see a couple of plays with friends and by friends and starring friends and it was all thoroughly enjoyable.  If you ever get a chance to go see "The Play That Goes Wrong" I'd recommend it.  It was hilarious.

Other than the usual, I'm still in the middle of various projects to get my life and things in order.  Bookshelves and curtains and reading chairs and thrift store donations and planters and all that good stuff.  Slowly but surely it's coming along.

I had to take Phin in for a service this week.  My mechanic told me that mine is the scooter with the most miles on it that he works on.  It's got just over 60,000 - which is a LOT for a scooter.  He also told me he'd like to keep it on the road as long as possible.  He therefore did about $300 worth of extra repairs for free for me.  Super cool guy. And now Phin is running like a champ.  Not that he wasn't before, but even more so now.

What I'm coloring

Mandalas.  It's a fun morning meditation.

Vol 2 Issue 19

Pic of the week 

On tour with Story Pirates in Las Vegas this week.  We rolled up to our hotel and immediately got a flat tire on our 9-ft-tall 15-passenger van - which we then had to change.  So.  Adventures all around.

What's going on?

LAS VEGAS!!!  That's what's going on.  We had a fun little tour up to Sin City. It was over 100 degrees every day we were there and thank the heavens for air conditioning and a pool - sketchy though the pool may have been.  We did have a blast though.  We had a few fun shows, wandered through so many casinos, had lots of mediocre food in kitschy restaurants, saw a police chase, an overflowing sewer, and a capybara! LAS VEGAS!

Also.  I asked my room buddy how gay this outfit was and he said, "Is 'turbo' the right answer?"  I think it was: