Allison’s Eclectic Expatiation

There is nothing about this that ISN’T full of WIN.

“Anyone could buy a green Jaguar, find beauty in a Japanese screen two thousand years old. I would rather be a connoisseur of neglected rivers and flowering mustard and the flush of iridescent pink on an intersection pigeon’s neck”

-White Oleander by Janet Fitch

every day it seems, I swear to myself I’m going to write…and every day it slips away from me, until my brain is such a bowl of mush that conveying any articulate (and for that matter, remotely entertaining) musings is an impossible dream.

So the jist:  unemployment and a time consuming hobby (passion? career?) have turned me into someone with the most dysfunctional sleeping patterns, who stays up until 8 am on a regular basis and occasionally does not go to sleep at all, simply grabbing 2 hours and 3 hours here and there, like autumn leaves falling.

I have become someone that holds onto anything and everything, in the hopes that it can be used in a piece of art or jewelry or…something.

That carries their expensive camera with them everywhere they go, thus being titled “Girl with the Camera” (and believe me, I’ve been called worse).

Who is staying oddly positive despite the looming possibility of bad bad luck.

Who, despite the paint under their fingernails and occasional bags under their eyes and severe lack of unemployment, is more content right now than she has been in years.

Who will post more later, honest.

But in the spirit of being thankful, tips her hat to those few things that make her truly calm and peaceful (which is a hard thing to do even on a good day) this week in particular.

Farmers Markets

Etta James and Nina Simone

Some people look at cold weather months as depressing…I find them beautiful, and quiet, and a time when everything slows down, just a little bit. Just enough for you to pay a little bit better attention to everything around you.

The cold weather’s bite of chill is just enough to make every day, every moment…seem a little bit more special.

I could lay underneath this at night, and stay there for hours:

(i’ll write more later, I promise)

I will keep this brief, because I am attempting to be asleep before 2 am (a task I have been epic failing at all week).

Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte, even with Soy milk, isn’t vegan (the syrup has milk in it).  So…dammit.  But thank the good lord above for soy eggnog.  And the fact that I’m baking a pumpkin pie next week, just because….well, why ON EARTH not?

I am contemplating what I want to do for Thanksgiving this year, as I think I’d like to avoid the family thing (and actually, haven’t spent it with blood relations for the last 2 years…so maybe that should be my new tradition.  Stay at home, eat some seitan and paint a pretty picture of a living turkey.  Oh, and I can stay in my pajamas and watch movies.)

I kinda hit on a Top Chef contestant (from a few years back) tonight at an art show opening, to no avail.  Epic fail #2.

Project Organization and Decoration of Allison’s Tiny Studio is going swimmingly…I’ve gotten a few new items (all given to me by excessively generous friends and loved ones) who needed to get rid of  them anyways…This place is slowly but surely becoming the dream home I always wanted for myself, ever since I first started living by myself (even though it doesn’t have a full kitchen or a bathtub, but…eh).  Pictures will come soon.

Oh, and while aimlessly surfing Facebook, I came across one of those 25 Random Things About Me things I wrote in February.  And this one caught my eye:

8. I’ve recently learned that my warm nature and open heart are often misconstrued as “desperation” or even “easy”, both in friendship and dating. It is very frustrating, and I’m starting wonder if I have to become a colder person just to gain people’s respect.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.  However:
15. I got 99 problems but a bitch aint one.