Goldslick Night

I haven't been posting much lately because I prefer to put up pics, but have no way of doing that right now. No working USB ports...

Yesterday was kinda fun and at the same time bad... I had a shitty, shitty morning at work. None of my deliveries were going smoothly and what should have taken 3 hours ended up taking 6. But fortunately six hours is usually how long I work on a Friday, so I tried to keep that in mind. I finally got to wash my van after work!!! Inside and out. The grime was thick... Then four of us went out for drinks in Georgetown and I got hammered AGAIN with the folks from work. Too hammered this time. I rode my drunk self back home and the minute I laid on the bed, Fluffz called to see if I wanted to check out the movie Superbad with him in the UDistrict. Drunk and queasy, I stumbled to the bus stop and got on a bus downtown. Minutes after being seated the girl next to me asks if she can use my cell, and for some reason I tell her to wait five minutes until my free minutes kick in. The guy across the aisle also asks if he can call his wife and I turn to the girl and say "what the fuck? everyone wants to use my phone??" she shrugs and i look at him and say "she's got dibs. sorry." i let her use the phone before 7 rolls around, and she's talking to someone about how she's pregnant and has sickle cell anemia and needs a place to stay next month. or as fluffz replayed my story: "i've got TB and mouth cancer... here's your phone back, thanks!"
I vaguely remember transferring buses downtown and sleeping slackjawed on my way to the UDist. Luckily some guy on the street sold me a september bus pass for five bucks last week, so I think I've saved some money using that. I found a way to cure my drunken queasiness and then headed over to meet Fluffz, and we went out for coffee before the movie. Superbad is really funny, even though I'm not all about hilarious teenage boy coming of age films. The first 20 minutes of dialogue was really, really funny. The rest was great, but they lay it on thick in the opening scenes.

Today I am lounging and vegging out big time. I've been stressing about all I have to get done, and not having time to do it, so today is about working on the computer and NOT going out I think. I've suddenly become very involved in a local sailing nonprofit and I've been asked to create not only a newsletter but a new sailtraining program as well. Plus I'm trying to help Adrian with marketing his Classic Workboat Show next month. Oh and I've pretty much taken on the position of human resource development for the collective being built in Mexico. by that i mean getting more people interested and involved in donating their time, skills, materials and money to the project for next year. I suppose marketing/advertising is fun and necessary if it's for stuff you wholeheartedly believe in, and bringing your community closer. Working with boats has gained me lots of friends and acquaintances in the boat trash community. I'm a little curious as to why a lot of these nonprofs don't work more closely together, and pool their talents.

tacos, goats and diesels

Friday night I was planning on going to a party being thrown by an accountant where I work, but fell asleep :( I did however discover a wonderful taco truck in my neighborhood, next to a super deluxe mexican discotheque... i don't know how to spell that... and the truck serves burritos, quesadillas and great authentic tacos with grilled pastor and pineapple to order, great salsas, lots of cilantro and lime to top it all off with. Unfortunately it's only open friday and saturday nights when the club is hoppin. I also watched the doris day movie Glass Bottom Boat, which was stupid.

Saturday Nanette and I went to check out some local farms that were having an open house and some sort of Harvest Celebration. We hung out with chicks, goats, sheep, a lady churning butter, and then took a tour of 21 Acres, a farm trying out lots of peapatch stuff, living roofs, solar powered wells and fountains, and lots more. Very cool. I have lots of pics but no way to upload them. Saturday night I joined Eric and Cass in Fremont at the Ballroom, which was chock full of retarded college kids spilling out of oktoberfest. I had to wait in line for 20 minutes to see my friends!! I can't remember the last time I waited in line to get into a club. I think it was in LA. But it was great to see them.

Sunday I took the bus over to Adrian's, where we had some food and wine and talked about his new projects, one of which is the Classic Workboat Show happening down on South Lake Union on October 21st. He wants me to help advertise for him and maybe sell my magazine at the show. I met his friendly roommates, and we headed over to The Bit Saloon to meet up with his longtime friends Jim and Sean. Jim apparently owns and lives aboard one of the oldest tugboats in the country. He owns three altogether, but he's selling 2 of them. Both Jim and Sean play music, but hey what's new everybody plays music in Seattle. Everybody is in a band. And I mean everybody. Except me and a few of my friends. It was great seeing Adrian and hearing some of his stories, but as per usual for hanging out with diesel engineers, I woke up this morning with a KILLER hangover.

hot links

hmm that sounds good right now. any food sounds good right now. i never cook the days i work. i just go hungry at night.

i changed my links to the right of the page here, because some of my friends NEVER update their blogs. instead there's a list of the sites i visit either daily or weekly, besides myspace.

if you go to vbs.tv, you can let the videos just keep streaming. each one is around 10 minutes long, with the exception of "Do's and Dont's," which are funny little voiceovers of celebrities talking about random photos. Sarah Silverman is the best. There are a lot of great videos on this site, and I love the Travel section the best. EVERYTHING in the travel section is worth watching. the "soft focus" interviews are funny and different, and for all who appreciate the female form, there's a more tasteful look at nude models under "shot by kern."

Fists of Fire

I work really long days Tues, Wed and Thurs, and I'm too tired to do anything other than sleep afterwards. But yesterday I got to visit Jonathan aka "JT" over at the fire station where he works and it was pretty awesome. He showed me the living quarters for the firemen, and had me sit in the driver's seat on the fire truck!!!! We used the radio headsets, blew the horns and flashed all the crazy lights. Then we checked out the ambulance too. Sat in the back and everything. It was a nice short break from my delivery job, but it ended up being more out of the way than I thought, and after my last stop I missed the early ferry back to the warehouse, so my boss was a little peeved with me, I think. It's hard to resist hanging out in a fire truck though...

Last night Fluffz and I drank some really great wine: Abbot's Table by Owen Roe. SO GOOD. And we walked over to this little mexican restaurant by my house. Some crazy halfway house molester lookin' dude was checking us out and following us around. Man he had some crazy eyes. So we're the only ones in the restaurant and Crazy Eyes Ex Con dude sits at the bar and stares at us, has one drink and leaves. With no weapon to protect ourselves on the walk home, I decided to shake a bunch of pepper in my hand, exclaiming that I would blind mr Crazy Eyes should he try to attack us. Fluffz told me that was the stupidest thing he'd ever heard and no way would it work. Once safely near my house he insisted that I throw the pepper in his face in order to prove me wrong. Well, he had glasses on, and I think the wind was in his favor. However the wind was not in MY favor, and I got a piece of pepper in my eye, and yeah, it stung a little. I don't think he totally proved me wrong.

This weekend I think my friend N. and I are going to visit a biodynamic farm and see how that all works... and on Monday I'm meeting up with a girl I used to party with when I was 19! I haven't seen her in 15 years and now she has a little girl, a husband, and a house on Queen Anne. Should be fun and interesting.

Time for bed.

bad touch!


had breakfast today jen & ben, in town on a west coast road trip and getting ready to head back to traverse city. met ben's old kalamazoo friend Ursula, who is a singer for a band here in seattle. she was really cool. we rec'd bad service at smarty pants in georgetown but had fun anyway. when ben saw my camera he automatically turned around and tried to spread his butt cheeks.

below is a pic of my boss judd attempting to "bad touch" nick under the table at stellar pizza, last friday afternoon. nick looks shocked but also pleased.

starting, or stopping?

GUESS WHO is going to work as a volunteer captain of a 60 foot schooner one or two days each week, here in Seattle? Right up there on the stbd side of your monitor - ME!!! Today I got to take her through a few bridge raisings AND DOCK HER!! Yay and big thanks to JT for hooking me up with the info. Big thanks also to the awesome friends who responded to my forlorn "I need discipline" post. There were only a few of you, but your advice was and support was so very valuable and appreciated. Usually I'll erase those downer posts within a day of posting them, because it seems so ridiculously self absorbed and self pitying, but luckily I don't post like that too too often so when I do, some wonderful people feel motivated enough to offer a few words of guidance.

I think one of the best pieces of advice, coming from more than one person, was to go to school. So I'm considering a few things: the publishing arts program at seattle central, the marine carpentry program also at sccc, and then the welding class at south seattle comm. college. It crossed my mind to look into culinary and wine related courses, but that's really not my passion.

Other great advice was for me to focus on just doing things, not thinking about doing things or trying to decide what to do or be. Just DO. trying to avoid the nike reference there. and not to sound too fruity but for 2 weeks my horoscope has asked me to try harder at living in the moment (see link to the right for reliably yet eerily accurate horoscopes published by caeriel crestin). On top of that I watched the movie "Peaceful Warrior" at nanettes in the middle of the night last night. I haven't read "way of the peaceful warrior," which was highly recommended by yuri years ago, but i gleaned some of it's points from the movie. at one point i cringed, identifying what yuri always criticized me for, which was me declaring that in life i MAKE things happen rather than LET them happen to me. i hardly think that i, being such a minimalist and self sacrificing person at times, could be so easily compared to the main character... i mean shit i wholeheartedly agree that service to others brings meaning to life, and i've always felt that. but i definitely need to stop being with men with whom i feel compelled to mother. and honestly, yuri HARDLY lives his life in service to others, so if i'd watched/read this earlier maybe i could have provided a better defense.

here are some of my favorite quotes:

Dan Millman: Life has just three rules?
Socrates: And you already know them...
Dan Millman: Paradox, humour, and change.
Socrates: Paradox...
Dan Millman: Life is a mystery. Don't waste time trying to figure it out.
Socrates: Humour...
Dan Millman: Keep a sense of humour, especially about yourself. It is a strength beyond all measure.
Socrates: Change...
Dan Millman: Know that nothing stays the same.

(i believe i have the latter 2 down. i'm going to work at the first one)

(and my favorite quote...)

There is no starting or stopping - only doing.

kinda wow

AH the weekend is here. I worked until 4, went drinking with my awesome coworkers - drank waaaay too much whiskey and beer in a very short amount of time. I know for sure I brought up dolphin related zoophilia. Always smart to get wasted with the boss! Then I had a LUCKY bike ride home, considering I didn't DIE by driving into oncoming traffic. Natural selection is either bunk or I'm a survivor like tina turner in beyond the thunderdome. and then i fell asleep after chatting up jarad, who's enjoying acl fest this weekend. my friend FluffZ called from this club in san fran. i tried to get ryan "otis" downs to go to the show but i doubt he went.

my hair is super classy these days. long bangs and sometimes i get these feathery looking wings on the side. i think it's the same cut i had when i was nine. oh and since work sometimes takes me out of KEXP range, i've been listening to cd's that i made years ago or that loved ones have made for me. yesterday i had coffee in fairhaven and listened to jeff buckley while cruising chuckanut drive and the lovely fog laden fields in the skagit valley. it's also slightly satisfying to drive through the quaint town of laconner blasting frank zappa's "catholic girls" and "titties and beer."

wbf weekend

On saturday i got a ride with the clampitts to the wooden boat fest. we met up with ta and signe, stopped by the lady wa to say hi to JB and the crew, and wandered over to the big tent. i found ozzie coming in on s/v Crusoe and he showed me the little raft that he and nate k. built on friday. later i made my way to the chanty sing and joined a few lady crew there for a while. it was funny because the pro singers sang the volunteer waltz for the lady crew... this lady crew hadn't even heard the song!! but they loved it of course. back outside the tent i was very happy to run into ozzie again, as well as eric and cass,

the beard, cass, justin and oz
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and we all drank beers out in front of the tent while the clampitts went on in to meet ta. elf was there, oh and i had fun talking to mark's wife brooks. although i felt pretty dumb for being confused about who she was at first. my memory is ridiculously bad and/or confused sometimes. today i found pictures of MYSELF on my friend's computer and i can't even remember the situations in which they were taken. maybe i was drunk? i doubt it. anyway lo and behold one of my favorite sailors, nate k walks up and gives me a big hug.

the beard, nate in yellow crocs!
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we chatted a bit and nate offered sleeping space to several of us, so i decided to forego a 2nd year of turning in early to ta's in port hadlock and joined cass, the beard, and their friend justin for a walk over to the cwb tug for more beer. on the way back i ran into abbie schneidler!!! i doubt anyone reading this knows who she is, but she's morgan schneidler's little sis, and adrian lipp's ex roomie, and a former coworker at vic clipper. morgan and i were the first naturalists/orca whale watch tour guides working for the clipper back in 1998. turns out morgan's been doing more boat stuff in AK and with noaa, and abbie is getting her doctorate in naturopathy at bastyr, and is engaged (upon telling me this she pointed to a dude in carhaarts playing guitar for some adventuress crew). i got abbie's address and made my way over to the tent again to find nate and we all ended up at a lovely home where nate is renting a little cottage in the back while attending the boat school in pt.

nate's sweet cottage
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nate and i stayed up late talking about all kinds of stuff, and when we all got up in the morning he made us hash browns, coffee, eggs and toast. it was an awesome sunday morning. we walked back down the hill and over to adventuress, and eventually i ended up sitting alone near the entrance to the point hudson marina, watching all the boats come and go. near the end i took some video of oz sailing out on his raft.

oz sailing the raft on sunday
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on the way home a woman named laurel hitched a ride with us - she's old lady and rose crew, and was telling us how happy daniel macke is with his new gf wendy. i hadn't seen daniel at the fest, which is a bummer, because i hear he played and is a good musician. i was talking on the phone with a.mckee today and he said he's crewed with laurel, and she has a lot of experience on different kinds of boats. i should have asked her for more stories but i was pretty tired from a long weekend.
today i pulled a muscle in my neck so all my plans were trashed. i took an aleve and drank some wine to help kill the pain. i've been messing around on the internet and downloading pics onto my friend's computer (my usb ports don't work), so now i can at least add a few pics to a blog.

i need discipline

for those of you who didn't know already, if i have never mentioned it, i am a textbook existentialist.
ironically, i feel it's not something i chose to be. it's fucking depressing. i'm pretty tired of being so non-committal. i've got those cds in my delivery van on the 7 qualities of successful people or whatever. haven't listened to them yet. i feel like a real loser these days. i'm not accomplishing much. i'd like to find happiness in just sitting around and not having to BE or BECOME anything, but that doesn't seem to come naturally. i don't know if i should work on THAT, or really trying to BECOME something. all i really want is to be a bum on my own little boat.
i probably should have had a baby or done something that would force me to not think about how this is such a pointless universe.
i'm also a bit of a hyphochondriac and have always felt pretty sure that i'm either going to die within a few years of either cancer or a bad accident. i think my little sister is pretty tired of hearing me say "katie if something happens to me..." blah blah blah. i'll be amazed if i ever turn 60.
my friend ryan was talking about going on a road trip with my friend jimmy. i said we should all hitchhike across the country. i'm 34 and i want to hitchhike across the country, sleep in ditches and hang out with bums, with 2 25 year olds. pretty juvenile i guess.
anyone got some ideas on how i can stop procrastinating and bring some meaning and motivation to my life? for real? i don't mean bullshit like "just think about how wonderful it is to be alive! to have friends! just think about all the things you can still do! follow your dreams!" blah barf barf. i'm talking real advice, like methods, practices... cos the only solution i keep thinking about is how i wish i was an alcoholic/escapist type who was a lot more fun and crazy.

totally unrelated but very cool:

oh flipper!

I was watching an interview with Will Oldham on VBS.TV and he was joking about people having sex with dolphins, which sounds REALLY MESSED UP. But then I found this hilarious and bizarre blogpost.

Labor Day rolls around again.

my friends bought some property in the mountains without looking at it first. yesterday we drove out to look around and found that it's on a pretty steep hill, but might be buildable. i suggested being really open-minded about housing options, because it looks like she might be building atop a very large fir and cedar root system. it was fun to get out into the mountains for a day. last night i checked out some fun bands at Chop Suey on Capitol Hill. Stereo Total was very entertaining.

The Globe

I had coffee and a doughnut at a place on Cap. Hill called The Globe, that serves almost all organic & vegan dishes. I must have been extremely hormonal or moody because I almost started crying when I sat down. My friend goes there often, as do all his friends. But I walked in and the place screamed coolfuckinhipsterhangouthippieswithtatsandpiercings etc etc. I liked Seattle better when the punks and skaters were actually dirty and ugly, and not having to TRY to look dirty and ugly. And of course nobody wants to look too ugly so these people have their hair messed up, and their clothes looking just dumb enough to still be cool. I don't have the energy to put these outfits together, or tend to that many piercings. Capitol Hill is so much a "scene" now. They could do a movie like LA Story here - same movie, just different subculture. I don't know - maybe I'm only annoyed by it because I'm not an artist like my friend. Years ago I brought up the notion and it seemed as though he genuinely didn't think this stuff was noticeable enough to be worth mentioning. It kinda reminds me of when I was living in Seattle during the bush/Kerry election. I was surrounded by Kerry supporters and was sure that he was going to win because everyone in my immediate world felt the same as I. The nice thing is that neither my friend nor his immediate friends do stupid things like wear cute hats or put stuff in their hair just to make it look messy. They all dress pretty functional. So I'm thinking about this stuff and wishing a dozen of my sailor friends would walk in at any moment, like Jesse or Krunch, dirty sailors who don't give a shit about what anyone else thinks because ultimately they know that love and friendship and really getting out there and living are what really matter in this world. While I'm wistful and uncomfortable and waaaay overanalyzing my situation, my friend says "yeah...the hippies have taken over a little, but i just really like the food here." and yeah, the coffee was excellent. as were the tofu scrambled eggs.