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Tuesday, March 30, 2004

 
9:43 AM: meh. [#] [0]

i'm sick. my throat huuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrtttttssssss! :( say nice thing to me. bring me ice cream & luden's wild cherry throat drops. :)

Monday, March 29, 2004

 
4:02 PM: car washing and other strangenesses [#] [0]

trixie is anonymous again: i washed her for the first time since i moved out here. she still has some residual outlines where older magnets have been, but she looks very shiny and sleek from a distance.

 
10:11 AM: using colons, semicolons and slashes to describe my week [#] [0]

done: junktown all-stars w/ sven; firefly w/ the geekgroup; interesting & labour-intensive job from psu; pink martini w/ leopoldo; hidalgo w/ michaelmas; babysitting miles; looking for studio space; a housecooling party w/ sven

to come: workin' for psu; gotta call rob (& decide on a groomsperson outfit); going to norwescon w/ leopoldo (i've never been to one!); possible werewolf game w/ the geekgroup; more firefly w/ the growing geekgroup; more "boy in blue" w/ the unconscious collective; doctor & dentist appointment

Sunday, March 28, 2004

 
10:45 PM: itunes never has what i want to buy, episode #124 [#] [0]

nope. itunes doesn't carry any uncle bonsai. "did you mean jungle bossa?"

Saturday, March 27, 2004

 
12:03 PM: the suspense! [#] [0]

proving that our lives really are soap operas, rob & kyrie are almost famous! (certainly more famous than anyone else in benton county, i'd imagine.) they were quoted & had a picture in today's new york times because benton county decided to refuse all marriage licenses rather than give gay ones. holy cow! tune in next week for the exciting conclusion of....

Thursday, March 25, 2004

 
1:06 PM: the state of gretchin's address [#] [0]

i'm moving! by may 1 my address will be the same as sven's. (though i'm keeping the same email & same blog, so for many of you, this won't even matter. :) michaelmas is supportive and generous and patient and kind; he's always been there for me, and from the looks of things, he always will. *blinks in gratitude*

of course, from all the feedback, apparently this development was obvious to the readers of the blog long before it was obvious even to me. at this point i feel like i ought to have an faq:

1. who's sven?
sven's my boyfriend. ee!

2. what about michaelmas?
michaelmas and i are still dating. ee!

3. why are you moving?
because it's where i belong.

4. who's the luckiest girl in the world?
i am!

nothing in portland has been what i expected it to be. i've gotten so much more than i could have even known i could hope for. i've never had to write about happiness for such an extended period of time and i feel like i can't write about it well enough; i find i keep repeating myself, like i don't have enough words to express this oddly foreign emotion. i don't often use the word "blessed," but that's how i feel. thank you, ladies & gentleman. drive safely, sleep well, kiss your children goodnight.

Saturday, March 20, 2004

 
5:51 PM: spring is springing! [#] [0]

happy vernal equinox! can i say again how i can't believe how fast time is moving without everyone rolling their eyes? :D today there was even an ice cream truck!

we were finally able to watch the last new episode on angel (thanks, philip!): fred is much more likeable as a badass! but my respect for wes just plummeted this episode, and i don't feel nearly as angry about gunn as i suspect i'm supposed to feel. but then, my tolerance of deliberate cruelty is much lower than that of accidental selfishness. i think they're handling the "token girl possessed by unspeakable horror" storyline much better this time than they did w/ cordelia.

i've been really happy with what the unconscious collective (the film group) is calling the "boy in blue" project, based on my idea to use a willamette week chance meeting ad. we've done about four versions of it and we'll probably get at least another one, but i've been most impressed with how we've fallen into a workable "ensemble art" concept: when you all have the same pool of content, and are allowed to steal & build off each other, the series of films you create is really interesting. sven thinks the process might be applicable to other endeavors.

Friday, March 19, 2004

 
2:22 PM: the world is right again... or is it? [#] [0]

i am relieved to announce that tori is working again! it was, in fact the power cord: a new one did the trick. i got a non-apple one which was almost half the price and is said to be more durable. the guy was able to show me exactly where it had frayed to the point of no return.

the weirdest thing happened yesterday: i got a piece of mail addressed to me at sven's! we are both puzzled at how this could have occured; i certainly don't remember using his address for anything!

Thursday, March 18, 2004

 
1:45 PM: you had to be there [#] [0]

yesterday i actually woke myself up laughing. how often does that happen? :)

it looks like i will have to take tori into the mac store; she finally stopped being finnicky about the power cord and finally just decided to stop recognizing it entirely. now she's out of power and won't boot. :( we've had this problem before; a new power adapter fixed things, but i have to go get one.

Tuesday, March 16, 2004

 
12:20 PM: where to go next? [#] [0]

when i first got to portland, i spent a month brooding and then i spent a month meeting people in interesting locations. that's how i met keller fountain, powell butte, multnomah falls, forest park and the waterfront; originally got to lake oswego, beaverton, hillsboro, camas, mt. hood, ashland, lincoln and philomath; ate at a whole host of nifty places i would have never known about; and got lost a couple of times, in frustrating but interesting ways. and then i went to burning man for what felt like a month, and i never got back into the swing of portland exploration beyond the route between here and se 140th (with an exception for the lovecraft festival, corvallis and the leonids).

a few days ago i drove past a whole street lined with cherry blossom trees which were gloriously decadent in the afternoon sun. so yesterday, i took sven there, where we ran across a most unusual place: the memorial life house, an art installation which has become a shrine in memorial of a bicyclist who had been killed at that intersection (btw, the pictures on this site are horrible. it's much cooler in person). i love art like that, things which are surprising & that have heart & that are cherished by their communities. and i have a huge fondness for what sven & i call "unplaces." though as he notes, this chunk of taylor has more than its fair share of character, like moss-covered steps which move in a gentle wave up to the door; or a handrail made of rebar and seashells and old plumbing and tow hooks; or a porch-come-crocodile flaunting fang-shaped cutouts.

now that it's staying lighter later, i'm interested in seeing more. leopoldo says he's interested in urban exploring with me (yay!). so beyond the interesting places i'll bet leopoldo will take me, i'm also interested in finding:
* share-it square at se 9th & sherrett
* the sunnyside piazza at se 33rd & yamhill;
* a labyrinth on se 19th & washington as well as a labyrinth on se 17th & taylor;
* washington park since it's practically right outside my freaking door
* and michael told me about something in the belmont neighborhood worth seeing.

 
1:54 AM: new tech all around [#] [0]

thanks to the miracle that is mph, sven is now all set up with his nifty new non-aol email eddresses. mph has also shamed me into using blogger-native atom for site feeds & titles on posts as opposed to the screen-scrape of the previous rss-generator. this is the first time i've been able to spend any quality time w/ him and his new baby benjamin; he's good folk. and we may have found a way to continue to get him & alison to socialize with the rest of us; leopoldo & i wanted to catch up on firefly, so hopefully we'll snare them while we're at it.

boy, i haven't drunk nearly enough water today.

Sunday, March 14, 2004

 
10:45 PM: and how was -your- weekend? [#] [0]

attended the last two arts therapy workshops; freecycled 5 bags of october leaves; babysat miles while alex & amelia gardened; the triplets of triplets of belleville w/ leopoldo & sven.

Thursday, March 11, 2004

 
8:39 PM: oregon loves dreamers, but does it love artist's way? [#] [0]

michael & i went to dinner and afterwards stopped by new renaissance books because when i first moved here, i asked around to see if anyone was facilitating an artist's way group, and the only response i got was "check the new renaissance." while poking around in the store, i heard someone at the counter mention artist's way and asked her if there were any groups running. when she heard i was running one, her first excited question was, "do you have a flyer?" she said people ask her that all the time and they tell people to check the community boards but as far as she knew, there wasn't one. so now all i need is a flyer, and a space to hold a group in. hmmm. anyone got a spare studio they're not using one night a week? how about a garage? :)

also, i got my first burning man item today! whee! it's a small notebook w/ a pocket decorated with a 17th-century star map: last year, my notebook didn't fit in the backpack and so i didn't carry it around as often as i wanted. since i actually know i'm going to burning man more than a few weeks in advance this time, i can *gasp* start gathering things early!

hey, and would some please get me this swiss army knife w/ usb drive before they stop making them? :D

 
5:26 PM: [#] [0]

more about the creative arts therapy workshops: a more interactive session this time (art therapy in the workplace), but we roleplayed personas that put me right back at csusm. eep!

but then i stopped by laurelhurst park for the afternoon (gotta take advantage of the gorgeous days when we get them, even if portland always looks a little surreal in bright sunlight); i've been here for almost 9 months and haven't been! really, actually, i've been exploring portland remarkably little. i ought to get back into that. but i picked cherry blossoms, watched baby ducklings, and laughed at the birds as they tried to balance on a rolling log. a policeman saw me as i was trying to pick another type of flower from a huge bush, and he admonished me to leave them for other people to enjoy. bad gretchin. no donut.

when i got home, michael immediately noticed i cut my hair yesterday! :D i was thinking i ought to have cut it even shorter, but at least it isn't tangled and as much in the way anymore.

in today's "what the heck were they THINKING?" category, the bush-cheney campaign sent me a photograph of the president and the first lady. they thanked me for "being a grassroots leader in oregon," protecting the president from "democrats [who have] relentlessly attacked the president" as well as from "liberal special interest groups [raising] hundreds of millions of dollars to defeat president bush." because, you know, i'm such a political force for selfish constitutional-amending fear-mongers. i have to figure something artistic to do with this photograph, though i would consider donating it to someone who already has a good idea.

Wednesday, March 10, 2004

 
2:28 PM: [#] [0]

i've been "meh" about the creative arts therapy workshops so far; they've given me some ideas for artist's way tasks, but are usually too much talking and not enough doing. (i miss pamela!).

today's workshop, for instance, was "therapeutic storytelling," and after the first hour of plodding through the handout which was the same as the overhead which was the same as what she was saying, i thought about leaving, especially when i realized we probably weren't going to actually do anything. but oh! after the initial lecture, she told us some absolutely heartbreaking stories created by and for abused children she's worked with. i was one of the people sniffling and i left with chills. i don't think i could work in an environment like that, especially given how much those kids move around. my heart would break every day and i don't think i'd feel like i was doing enough for them.

my interest in art therapy is to stimulate adults to be creative, and i recognize that many of them have blocks where having a background in art therapy might be useful. working with adults allows me to give them a "gift" of something they should have never lost, but it also seems like a safer distance to deal w/ traumatic events.

 
2:14 PM: the ethereal world [#] [0]

finally, sven has wireless! after a trip to the store for an ethernet cable, and another trip home to get a crossover cable, i finally resorted to a hard reset on the airport. there's a big nest of cables behind planet camino now, but it's so nice to see the airport in action again! strong signal everywhere in the house, and i suspect he could even get it at alex's.

but sven definitely needs to figure out where to plug in another power supply because right now, the upstairs light switch has to be "on" or the dsl router goes out. :) [update 03.18.04: so does the upstairs phone.]

Monday, March 08, 2004

 
6:36 PM: [#] [0]

it looks like burdell is working again now. you may now return to your regularly addressed emails.

Sunday, March 07, 2004

 
4:27 PM: [#] [0]

as the mood indicator, well, indicates, i am feeling productive: two workshops & birthday presents & birthday cards & all march bills paid. go me! hopefully, the airport installation will be trivial tonight. :)

 
3:21 PM: [#] [0]

alex gave me a copy of the tiger lillies' the gorey end; an album loosely based on the works of our hero edward gorey. it was weird, to be sure, but infinitely better than the last edward gorey cd i heard, which frustrated me to the point of thinking, "fuck! i could do better than this!"

 
12:53 PM: [#] [0]

we're now a 3-ipod family! michael just bought a 40gb ipod! couple that with his original ipod (10gb) and my ipod (30gb), we have an awful lot of music & backup. :) he also got an "arctic" iskin, and the in-ear headphones. its name is "happy," after ecto singer happy rhodes. michael's decided music devices will be named after ecto singers, and computers named after tolkein references. (and as a completely random aside, michael found the olivia newton john version of "ring of fire." bad michael! social distortion did a version, too.)

today begins my "creative arts therapy week" workshops. i'm hoping this gets me some artist's way ideas and some contacts or insight into this sort of thing (can i use these sessions as insight into the "i wish i knew what to do with the rest of my life" question?). this morning i went to a free session: "art therapy: the healing vision," which was essentially a video w/ a question & answer session. six more sessions to go....

btw, it looks like burdell is down and so i haven't received email since last night. until further notice, please use gretchinATmac.com.

Saturday, March 06, 2004

 
8:07 PM: [#] [0]

the weirdest coincidence i've had certainly since i've gotten here: after dropping leopoldo off at the airport, i went to the mac store to pick up an ethernet cable and ilife for sven, and the person next to me at the counter was michael! my michael! how weird! neither of us knew the other was going to be there. plus, i got a free pepsi, my first since the itunes promotion, and i won a free song! yee!

Friday, March 05, 2004

 
11:50 AM: [#] [0]

well, that was a weird movie. definitely the kind which is better to see w/ lots of other people.

hey, did anyone notice that michael quietly adopted guzzlefish to list his dvd collection? philip, too.

btw, philip was in a car accident w/ teena! everyone except the car is fortunately okay, and no, philip, you are not the worst boyfriend in the world.

game storm starts tonight; michael will be running a game tonight, but as far as i know won't be attending anything else.

Wednesday, March 03, 2004

 
10:53 PM: [#] [0]

and how could i miss talking about multnomah county's foray into the gay marriage liberation front? multnomah county is apparently now granting marriage licenses for same-sex marriages (one of four places in the nation to do so, i believe). thanks, leopoldo, for being the first person to notice this! (michael burton also found a copy of the county attourney's opinion that started this whole thing). interesting to note: marriage licenses here come w/ a 3-day waiting period (which can be waived by the deputy county clerk), and a marriage license granted here can be used anywhere in the state of oregon. i suppose we'll see how true that is in 2 more days.

[update 03.04: i was out & about town and yes, there are protesters for both sides outside multnomah county buildings (the ones near the hawthorn bridge). i honked & waved at the ones w/ the rainbow "love is for everyone" signs rather than the ones w/ the "my family is straight & caucasion: don't we count?" signs.]

[update 03.05: elizabeth & jill got married! hooray!]

[update 03.08: and they have pix now!]

 
5:11 PM: [#] [0]

i'm looking for recommendations for good doctors, gynecologists & dentists affiliated w/ blue cross/blue shield. any input is appreciated, really. please?

 
4:23 PM: [#] [0]

i have sucessfully conquered dsl, despite the terrible qwest instructions & the slightly confusing easystreet process (though other than that, i have good things to say about the easystreet people & products, both of which are competent, kind, and quick).

props to mph for talking me down from panic at 12:30 a.m.; when brilliant people can't figure it out, either, then you know it's not just you. :)

[update 03.04: things left to do:
* get laptop set to access dsl via ethernet
* get wireless working
* networking between confessor & planet camino
* mail etc. settings
* usb printer sharing
then....
* planet camino=jaguar
* ical publishing to puddingbowl
* backup plans to puddingbowl]

oh, and alex found another excellent chick track mangling, but charlie's ants is supercool because it's interactive! (it's also superslow, even on dsl. but worth it.)

Tuesday, March 02, 2004

 
1:20 AM: [#] [0]

hey, donald norman has a new book out (emotional design)! *claps hands w/ glee* it has, of course, been added to my wish list.

Monday, March 01, 2004

 
8:54 PM: [#] [0]

happy march! on thursday, the filmmaker's group met again for the first time this year and completed a short film (hooray! go us!); on friday, sven & i had pizza w/ alex, then saw the last shorts block w/ leopoldo at piff, and then went to southpark (the building w/ the fish); yesterday michael, sven & i went to rob & kyrie's engagement party, which was a hit despite the rain (and oo, la la! what a place!).

mph invited me to join orkut (the coolest friendster clone backed by google, no less), and it kills me that i can't be one of the cool kids because i refuse their terms of service, which specify that any content in orkut becomes theirs to redistribute or profit from as they wish. mph also got me to modify my blogger template so that it can be read by rss feeds.

synchronicity: after asking sven if he wanted to see the odd-looking what the #$*! do we know? (apparently a film about human consciousness & "the radical souls of science" featuring local cultists), leopoldo sent an email asking the same thing, and then alex did, too! so i guess we'll be in a big collective. :)

i finally gave in & started using ical, mostly because i couldn't (and i say this w/ a fair amount of chagrin and w/o much hypberbole) figure out how to attach a note to a palm desktop item w/o it needing to ruin my collection of handheld notes. :P and i'm mad they've decided to stop developing a mac os x version of their product. but i'm surprised to discover isync is so slow!