Who writes blog posts in paragraph format any more?

Things I Have Accomplished While on Hold with the Capitol Hill CSO

1. Found a recipe for skillet cornbread

2. Made a grocery list

3. Ordered faux-fur-lined rain boots

4. Wrote a killer blog post

Things Mother Nature Accomplished While I Was on Hold

1. Snow

Things I'd Like to Accomplish Today, But Can't Because I'm on Hold

1. Roll up on TJ's and stock up for any possible snowmageddons

2. Make skillet cornbread in my new Christmas cast-iron skillet

3. Go to SAM and have my Picasso ticket pro-rated towards a year membership at the student rate, thereby achieving the ultimate Poor Yet Cultured Person win

4. Go see "True Grit" and pay for it using the movie ticket I won in a holiday gift exchange and sneak in my own snacks, thereby achieving the ultimate Poor Yet Entertained Person win

An Incomplete List

Things I Have Learned the Hard Way Not to Do Alone

1. Watch "The Omen"
2. Watch "Law and Order: SVU"
3. Read Dracula before bed

Portraits of Win

Made possible by Photobooth. Exhibit A of the Awesome Things That Sometimes Happen to Me:

Retail is retail, and by that I mean it's the worst, but at least I work at a place where David Sedaris just, you know, drops by. Just 'cause. Don't worry about it, ok?

Exhibit B: my parents came to visit on Veteran's Day and surprised Maddie and I by bringing Her Royal Fuzziness, Sophie. As a result, I had a dog all snuggled up in my Seattle bed, which has never happened before! I wish it happened more often.

Also pictured: Dad in my absurdly wonderful, year-in-the-making bedroom reading nook.

"Lauren, I can tell you that this is most definitely not the dream"

...was my coworker's response when I said, "Kelly! We're living the DREEEEEEEEAM" after pooling our loose change to buy a package of Junior Mints to split during a long day of cashiering. I'm willing to concede the point, I guess. I guess.

Autumn! I'm loving it. I bought the best Fall coat last week. In case you were wondering what the perfect book to read at the beginning of Fall is, it is in fact The Witches of Eastwick by John Updike. It's cozy, friendly, spooky and slightly sinister all at the same time, just like this time of year.

A Conversation

On why/how we forgot to watch Mad Men on Sunday:

Banks: Yeah it's weird because we weren't even doing anything. Like, when it came on I was sitting down to a game of Starcraft and you were watching Devil Wears Prada.
Me: Um? Pretty sure I wasn't watching that?
Banks: No I think you were. You kind of always are. I'm just saying chances are high that you were watching Devil Wears Prada.
Me: Buhhhhwhat??
Banks: It's ok, it's not your fault, it's the television's fault.

All is forgiven because Boy In Question is currently at TJ's getting pizza toppings.

Remember back in, oh, January?

When I was applying for jobs? Finally got one. Just a few/several/too many months later.

No more folding! In fact, as the state of my bedroom will demonstrate, I plan to never fold an item of clothing again ever. It's not going to be a problem actually: dirty clothes go in the laundry basket, clean clothes reside on my maroon armchair, which I don't currently use for its intended purpose (i.e. reading) as it is GLOOOOORIOUS SUMMER and any/all reading is done out of doors and at Taste while I wait for A Certain Boy to finish his shift so we can get beers.

Speaking of reading, after hearing I got hired, I went out and bought this:

...which I am super excited to start reading, right after I finish this TOME of a graphic novel:

I really, really like it when I find myself reading something I would have been obsessed with when I was 14 or so. As in, my copy of Ella Enchanted gets reread yearly. Hoo boy, 14-year-old Lauren and Zot would have really hit it off: he looks and acts like Peter Pan (ahem, my first crush), and he gives his girlfriend a LIGHTNING BOLT NECKLACE which is also a HOMING DEVICE so he can find her when she's in trouble. I die.

Come see me at the bookstore! I'll be the one selling...art supplies.

I'm doing this, ok?

I'm just doing it.

Or, you know, I'm doing a knockoff for 1/25th the price. The bottle I bought cost $5.99. You do the math on the bad boy in the picture.

Pretty movie is pretty

I love it when movies I had on my Netflix queue to be mailed come up on instant view. Case in point: "Bright Star."

FONDUE ME

I want! I want!

Is it worth it??? Tell me what to do, Web Void!!!!!

Mom, Maddie, Magazines, Morning

My mom came to Seattle to visit this weekend and, no offense to anyone, but she's pretty much the best mom ever? Proof: oranges just taste better when she peels them for you.

Also my sister is DA CUUUTEST and has glossy, glossy hair.

Still life with tikis.

Oh, hello 23

Happy birthday to me!

Spring

It's coming soon, right? Right??

Here's the thing

While I do love being able to whine about how broke my ass is, the fact of the matter is that drinking beers in the afternoon while working on mah resume is better than drinking beers in the afternoon while working on a 10 page paper due tomorrow. Ok? I said it.

That time my sister rocked it out

I've weighed the evidence and one conclusion is unavoidable: using only scissors, thread and various paper goods, young Madisen Marie Semet will one day conquer the entire world.

More photos here.

Well whaddya know

My boss (the one I like) sent me on an errand here last week:

3rd Avenue between Pine and Union, Seattle, 1911

Seattleites, if you haven't stumbled across the Seattle Municipal Archives' flickr account in your internet ramblings, it's rather wonderful. They have a "Disasters" album.

WISH ME LUCK DOODZ

My major resolution for 2010 has two parts: quit the Gap and replace it with something that isn't soul-destroying and that doesn't make me racist. Ideally, I would replace it with something that gets me closer to you know, a career, but. Baby steps. So! I applied at a few places this week, including one of the classiest joints around, Central Cinema (I blogged about it one time, Patrick Swayze, remember?). For the first time since I first started job-searching back when I was 17 or so, I did not peruse the retail section on craigslist! Can't go back, won't go back. Nope. Anyway, positive vibes and snaps would be appreciated, and if you need anything for half-price at Gap, now's the time to speak up!

Also, as I was pulling some things together for some valentine's cards I'm making, I came across this:

...aaaand "Roman Holiday" just moved to the top spot on my netflix queue. "Queue" is hard to spell.

The Art of Time Suckage 101

Winona Ryder circa 1994 is eternal. Thanks for making me feel better, girl.



And yes, I have endured a jeans folding seminar.

Next paycheck, next paycheck...

...This will be hanging on my wall.

For your edification, courtesy of wikipedia:

Laika was a Soviet space dog who became the first animal to orbit the Earth and the first orbital death. Little was known about the impact of spaceflight on living things at the time Laika's mission was launched. Some scientists believed humans would be unable to survive the launch or the conditions of outer space, so engineers viewed flights by non-human animals as a necessary precursor to human missions. Laika, a stray, underwent training with two other dogs, and was eventually chosen as the occupant of the Soviet spacecraft Sputnik 2 that was launched into outer space on November 3, 1957. Sputnik 2 was not designed to be retrievable, and Laika had always been intended to die.

So sad! And yet so endearing, somehow. Also helps that one of my most beloved books, Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami prominently features Laika in all her poetic contradiction. The picture--which, by the by, is from the shop of two super-talented Portland artists, one of my faves on etsy--is actually of Strelka, another space pup who apparently lived to tell the tale.

Laika:

Desolee

Imagine that title with an accent over the second "e." You have to do this because I am posting from my shiny new MacBook Pro, and I'm still getting used to its non-PC (personal computer, not politically correct...this machine is racist as SHIT) ways. Meaning I have no idea how to type an "e" with an accent over it, and various other Euro stylings.

I also haven't moved over any pictures from my old computer. In its final act of spite and destruction, the old 'puter infested my trusty memory stick with a virus, causing all but 24 MBs of its 8 GBs to mysteriously vanish. I guess if it was going down, it wasn't going down alone. The point is that while I have taken several nice pictures over the course of the...2?...3?...months since I last posted, I am unable to share them because I am unwilling to go back to the old computer to compose this post. But stay tuned! I have some especially rad pictures from that one time my sister was a complete badass at art, aka the opening of her Siena show.

In the mean time, I don't have much in the way of updates. It was a long holiday season of slaving away at a souless retailer that rhymes with "pap" and is just as unpleasant as one. Come to think of it, that's probably a big reason why I haven't posted these long winter months. My thoughts mostly consist of "Go back to Bellevue, bitch" while I'm working there, and that doesn't really make for great posts. However, now that Christmas is over my hours have dwindled and I find myself in need of another source of income. But since the 40-hours-a-week, health-benefits-endowed working world clearly wants no part with me, I'm trying to think outside the box. Which may, if I can summon enough proactiveness, include something that begins with etsy and ends with dotcom. Maybe. I've been sketching some shit, at least.

Anyway, until such time as my updates are not nonexistent/filled with vitriol and stagnation, I will direct you here: http://thesamstagblog.blogspot.com. Because these ladeez are moving and shaking.