if you insist...

i have been doing the same things every day so there's not much for me to update about.

kristin had her 3rd annual christmas cocktail party on friday night. that was a whole lot of fun. i made vegan cheesecake. she made vegan truffles. there were cocktails and a whole lot of people.
since she has two roommates, it wasn't just our group of friends, but theirs too. it was interesting to see how segregated everyone really was. we all generally stayed in the kitchen and kristin's bed room. it's a pretty small apartment so i'm surprised everyone fit.
everyone was very respectful of everything, though. so that was nice. the entire group of people that is at palmer's every sunday showed up there. even the bouncers! some kid was being a jerk towards the end of the night, so the bouncer kicked him out. it was funny.
sarah made her burlesque premiere and did a very good job. eventually she'll perform at shows and make money. i didn't realize how much money burlesque performers could make, but i suppose it's not too surprising since it's pretty much stripping, only classier.
other than that it was pretty much a normal, fun christmas party. kristin's style is very classic, and she always looks fabulous!


i'm also organizing a monthly board game night/pot luck and that has sparked a LOT of interest among everyone.
we might have it at my house, but considering the large amounts of food that may be involved, it might not be safe to have the dogs around.
so we might have it at someone else's house, but i am still the organizer, and it will be grand fun.

other than that there isn't much going on. i'm going to marya's on christmas eve when she has her kids, and we're going to sit around the agnostic bush [a dead, leafless bush with a strand of lights around it] and play yahtzee, use a ouija board, and other fun things.
then i will probably spend my christmas like how i spent my thanksgiving. find other people who don't live near their families, eat at hard times, and go to karaoke or something.

christmas ball.

marya and i at the beginning of the evening.


marya, kristin, sarah, me.


zombie beauty pagaent/raffle. marya won [miss congeniality, obv.]


touching up the blooooood.

more on myspace/facebook. and more to come. there were lottttttttts of cameras.

walter's a crazy man!

he's running around upstairs, breathless.

thanksgiving turned out okay. the triple rock didn't open until 8:00pm, and i was hungry for more than potatoes. since marya's husband has the kids on holidays [since he has a big family] she, too, was alone. john was alone as well because his dad is dead and his mom lives near canada. and steve's holiday was postponed due to his nephews' illness.

so we all met at hardtimes, which is a place with really good, cheap food, tons of vegan options, and it's open 6am-4am every day no matter what.
great for night owls like myself.
anyhow, i had a falafel sandwich which was good. it was no vegan meatloaf dinner, but it was good.

then we went to see if any other place was open. we decided to stay on the west bank since hardtimes is only a few blocks from the triple rock and due to the large somali population on the west bank, it was more likely for things to be open there.
palmer's was open, and as it turned out they were having a thanksgiving dinner there, but due to veganism and being stuff, i obviously didn't partake.
we sat around the bonfire there for a while outside and then sat around inside for a while until the triple rock opened.

john had to go home, and the three of us were the first patrons to arrive at the t-rock and thus just walked into the entire staff hanging out. which wasn't awkward because marya and i know most of them pretty well.
it ended up filling up after a while, and they were having karaoke which they only do on holidays so that was amusing.
marya asked to go to the cc [i was driving] so we left and went there, where she eventually disappeared. still don't know where she went, but she tends to do that sometimes, so i left and went back to the triple rock where i rounded out my night with steve and jesse.

the day after thanksgiving was fun, too. i saw the falls play at stasiu's and then corpse show creeps at lee's, and then we all went to kristin's.
she live across the street from pizza luce in seward, so we had some good pizza and just hung out there with her boyfriend and some friends.

last night i just hung out with kristy. lane [the one who tried to cheat on her with me] beat her up last week and then fled back home to north dakota, so she's been a bit somber for the past week.
last night she was in a great mood, though, because things are getting better, so i was glad that she was feeling good.

i pulled something in my knee last week so i haven't been able to do much at the gym, but it's feeling a lot better now, so that is good. tomorrow i will go back. i've been doing about 15 miles on the exercise bike and a few miles on the treadmill.

i think i might apply at a few caribou and dunn bros locations. i'm not opposed to working in a coffee shop, at all. so then i can have free coffee [though i only drink decaf now because of my anxiety].

i have community service onthe 13th, which is the day you're supposed to visit, daddy. amanda and mike are coming 11-13.

two good pictures from friday night. i don't usually like pictures where i smile with teeth but these are good.

change.

tonight marya took me to dinner to make me feel better. i was feeling rather cooped up in the house, as i had been in bed for the past 36 hours, and i was starting to feel okay.

so she, her son quinn, and i went to the bulldog for dinner. this was right about the time that the first results from the polls were coming in, and they were showing mccain.

we decided at that point that quit watching for a bit because it was bringing us down. we went to our friend's house and both took a nap, woke up and went to the triple rock to see the end of the election results [we knew at that point that obama was probably going to win because quinn woke us up jumping on the couch say "obama's winning obama's winning!"]

so we sat at the triple rock watching the teevee with no sound-- me sipping my diet coke, her sipping her vodka diet-- and across the screen flashes "obama wins presidency".

the bar erupted into one unanimous cheer. there was hugging and happiness. a bit later we watched mccain's speech [which was very good] and then obama's speech [which was very powerful].

we walked down to palmer's because cadillac kolstad was going to play a few songs, and that is when i saw it: a huge mob of people. at least 500! singing, playing drums, dancing, celebrating.

the feeling was like nothing i'd ever felt before. i've been to protests and rallies, but nothing ever had such a positive, optimistic vibe. somalians, blacks, whites, hmong, hispanics... they were all gathered, cheering, having the passing cars honk.

we sat on palmer's back deck and watched it for a while before i got tired and went home. some of the older people at palmer's said they've never seen such a rally since the 70's.

think what you want about obama, but i've never seen anything bring people together like this. everyones' petty differences were put aside to celebrate the hope for a better country.

so there.

sunday nights at palmers

we had three cameras last night at palmers because it was john's birthday.
so here are a few pictures. don't worry, i was the designated driver...

sarah and me.


cadillac, sarah, and kristin.


kristin and sarah/john and megan dancing.


marya and me.


cadillac and cornbread.

holy cats.

well.
last night i was at the triple rock with my friends and for whatever reason, i wasn't having fun.
so i went to the cc, saw my friend wes and was talking to him. someone came up beside me and poked my shoulder.
i glanced up and kind of nodded my head. it was no one i immediately recognized, so i figured at first that it was a random drunk dude trying to hit on me.
then i did a double-take... it was cliff. i haven't seen or talked to him in about ten months.
strange.
turned out fine. we talked and caught up on things. he's doing okay.
it was just weird and unexpected to run into him.

here's a picture from the triple rock of my friend john and me... i like it because i look really thin.

oh, the horror.

i know i said i was growing out my hair.
but i was thinking, and since i let my hair air-dry, it would end up freezing in the winter.
and also, i was just getting tired of it. there's only so much i can do with my bangs.

so i did this [brace yourselves...]











yea... it's a mohawk... a modified, girly one.
i figure my 20's is a good time to get all this hair-stuff out of the way..
so there's that.

braaaaains

the zombie pub crawl was a load of fun. i didn't join until later and actually didn't go on the "route"... by the time i got there, there were so many zombies that it was impossible to go to the appointed bar.
i stopped at the triple rock first to meet up with my non-zombie friend, steve. there were a few zombies there already. i went outside to find my friend austin a bit later, and i couldn't get back inside because it was filled to capacity.
so we ended up going backwards on the route.
the last stop was a show at the cabooze, which is luckily huge since there were at least 1500 zombies by then.
i didn't have my camera, but austin had his, so here's some pictures...

i don't know this guy's name. he's austin's friend.


the guy on the left looks like matt lawrence [my ex boyfriend]. don't know his name either. he was totally not zombied enough so a few minutes later i spit blood all over him.


so he got me back. [nice double chin i have here]


austin and me.


this is kristy. we look great here.


zombie jesus.


all in all a good night. i was out from 7-1, and i had three drinks the entire time :)

no arboretum

i didn't go to the arboretum on saturday because there was no one to drive, but i did wander around the neighborhood on my bike and take some pictures...

geeseseses:








those are some of them.

every sunday, marya and i have been going to palmer's bar to see cadillac kolstad and the flats with cornbread harris.
cornbread harris is a pretty famous blues legend. he's in his 80's.
cadillac and the flats are all in their 20's/early 30's.
really worth it to watch these two videos. AMAZING musicians. it's a dance party every sunday.





we brought mouse last night with us, and she got her photo with a lot of people...
we're going to make an entire album called "mouse around minneapolis"... the first installment is palmer's...

first is me with mouse. it's very obvious she has no interest in me whatsoever. also, i'm going for a different look... thinner eyebrows and betty page-ish bangs...


next is marya with mouse.


this is the bassist from cadillac kolstad and the flats, his name is auggie, or chad.


another one, which is so cute i want to puke all over the place...


cornbread and mouse.


she LOVES cornbread...


mouse with john and sarah...


and finally, mouse building her punkrock cred with a random tough punk dude.


she's such a harlot.

to my little brother.

sarah palin is a fucking idiot.

i'm learning sign language pretty fast at work. i know the important things like "bathroom", "pop", "cat", and "popcorn". haha.

hunnee is losing her hearing. i have to yell for her to hear me. her one eye seems to work okay, though!

but here's the most important thing:

what the fuck?

this is the most disturbing thing i've seen on the internet.
that is saying a lot... because i'm seen some pretty sick stuff on the internet.
it's nothing vulgar... it's not porn or anything like that.
it's much more disturbing...

well my interview #2 is at 8:30am tomorrow, and then i see my lawyer at 10:00am.

i am going to a free music show with seth tonight. he is kind enough to pick me up, as i'm wary of driving unless i absolutely have to.
i'm drinking sprite this evening.

let me tell you a little about jesus.

perhaps neither of you will find this as hilarious as i do. i can't stop watching it.

he is like a mountie
he always gets his man
he'll zap you any way he can
zap.

a few recent pictures.

so i decided that if i ever get parkinson's disease, i'm just going to refer to it as "constant jazz hands syndrome". it sounds much more optimistic...

here are some recent pictures.


this is my friend violet the cow. she really liked being scratched on the face.


i call this one "will this picture get me a boyfriend?!" because it is so very flattering. i was talking while she took the picture.

i guess that's about it as far as recent photos go. for some reason i thought there were more.

still nothing to really talk about.

things have been okay. nothing much on which to report.

oh, another thing about my surgery. girlie thing [daddy you can skip it]. so the first period after my surgery, it was a little lighter, but i was kind of disappointed at how heavy it was.
but then last month i was pleasantly surprised to find that my period was extremely light. like, i had to give my big box of "super" tampons to marya because i can't use them.
and this month, it is apparently not even going to happen, or if it does, it is not much of anything.
so i guess that first time was just clearing out all the stuff that was still there from surgery.
also my pms symptoms have extremely waned. i get a little cranky and super hungry two days and one day before it starts, but there's no horrendous cramps [which makes sense since there aren't chunks of my uterus sloughing off anymore].
so yes, good deal.

also, jonah is a fucking tool. when he found out i started eating mollusks and shrimp, he stopped being friends with me.
he says it shows weakness, and that killing one animal is exactly the same as killing any other animal. eating a shrimp is the same as eating a cow or a puppy dog.
i think that's pretty idiotic. and i think it would be weaker of me to stay "vegan" just because i don't want people to get all uppity about things.
i don't care what people think about it. i have my own beliefs about it and fuck them. i don't need a label in order to be considered kind to animals.

i made another female friend up here. that is big because it is generally harder to become friends with girls. and actually, i met her because i became friends with her boyfriend.
but her name is kristy, and she's 28, and her favorite movie is hedwig and the angry inch, just like me! and also she is a hair dresser and also her hair is big and curly like mine.

it is hot up here right now. it was 88 degrees today! i hope that the tropical storm goes well for you guys!

ellllllll

saint agnes.

marya was raised catholic and recently has developed an obsession for the saints.
she has studied up on all the virgin martyr saints, and some of the stuff she read was interesting. all of it was disturbing.
i gave her the idea to make a dress out of rosaries. that way maybe god won't send her to hell if he figures out she's being ironic.

anyway, i don't know if mentioned it, but marya is absolute batshit insane.
she goes through phases of being more crazy, and right now she is in one of those phases.
while studying up on the saints she read about penitent lifestyles, and now she'd like to try her hand at living one.
she made a bed of broken glass in her garage [she doesn't want to track broken glass through her house and injure her kids] and she is planning to only eat canned oysters with hot sauce.

according to the gals at work she does things like this rather often, and it's best to just ignore it until it stops.

so, my point is... aren't you glad i'm not that crazy? i can't say i wouldn't be if i was off my medication.

we have bigger fish to fry

well it's been a week since the incident, and, while it is still upsetting, i have gained a better sense of humour about it all. it's an easy coping mechanism when working with living creatures.

today marya was grooming on her table [where the incident occured] and someone came in for a nail trim. i started writing up the receipt, and marya says "do you want to use this table? i can move..." i whip my head around and stare at her for a moment before erupting into a fit of giggles. the customers just looked at me, clueless, as i trimmed the nails on their terrier.

i bring walter in tomorrow for my test, and then i get to officially start training. we kind of bullshat through this first part because obviously i wouldn't be working in a grooming shop if i didn't know how to bathe a dog.

kerry asked jen and chris's husbands, "do you think a pellet gun could kill a chipmunk?"
to which jen responded "yea... i mean it'd probably just scoop it up in its beak and that'd be the end of it."



"...not a PELICAN, a PELLET GUN."

jen is no doubt the biggest ditz i've ever met. nice lady, but so stupid. and you can ask the most sarcastic, stupid question, and she will answer it completely seriously. like "do only dogs named george get demodectic mange?"
sometimes for kicks we use a random word in the wrong context all day, and she picks up on it and starts using it that way.

kerry told us how she was reading and saw the word "misled" and read it as "my-sold"... like the past tense of the word "misle", if that existed.
we think that should be the next word we "teach" jen.

we decided we shouldn't be able to use the english language anymore, since marya said so many christians are "hypothetical" instead of hypocritical, and i referred to someone as a "competitive" liar instead of compulsive.

the dark knight.

i saw the new batman movie last night and again tonight. it is soooo good.
even if i really like a movie, i rarely see it twice in theatres, let alone on two consecutive days. this movie is great, though!
i might even see it again while it's in theatres.

i took hunnee and mousie to the dog park today. first we were in the big side and mouse whored it up. hunnee kept trying to chase the balls and frisbees people threw, but she couldn't see them after a few feet.
then i took them into the small side because mouse was being a bitch to all the big dogs. hunnee wandered away from me and then couldn't figure out where i was. she was looking around very panicky, and i started calling her name, and she still couldn't find me. it was really sad.

november should be fun. my then i will be grooming and having every other weekend off, so it is not going to be a problem getting off work. it wouldn't be a problem anyhow. as it stands, as long as no dogs are scheduled, i can ask for any day off. though i don't do that.

devegged.

i have decided might eat shellfish. after thinking for quite a while about my stance on animal rights, i do not feel as though invertebrates have the same feelings or emotions as vertebrates.
this, of course, will make me lose my title as not only vegan, but also vegetarian. but then again i was never in it for the title.
i still won't be eating any vertebrates/products from vertebrates.
seth and i got chinese food and in my fortune cookie, the "learn chinese" word was "fish", so i took it as a sign.

it will possibly make it easier to eat at fancy shmancy restaurants with you guyes, although not very much easier. it seems most shellfish dishes have cream or butter-based sauces.

this week was a little bad at work. a dog had explosive diaherrea all over my arms while i was drying him. and another dog bit my wrist today.

i am going to see the new batman movie sometime on my days off. i wanted to see it this weekend but it sold out so quickly, i couldn't.
my friend austin manages at a movie theatre and is getting me in for free, but i can't very well get in free to a movie that is sold out to paying customers.

i've lost about ten pounds since my surgery and am not at a plateau, so that is good, i guess. i could lose another five.

until next time....

sorry, here i am!!!

jb is back in town so he came over yesterday to clean my gutters [that is not a euphamism] and fix my garage door.

the ladder was not tall enough so at one point he tried to climb out my upstairs window thinking perhaps he could walk across the roof, though it was too steep so he didn't. while he was climbing out the window, i said "you know... the retarded people in the house behind me are probably watching you and saying 'wow, what a retard!'"

he then went to his sister's house [she lives on the other side of crystal] and borrowed a ladder. i almost pissed myself when he got to the window walter was near. i have never heard walter panic more than that. he had been barking while we were standing in the yard, but to have a guy with his face right next to the upstairs window... he flipped shit. it was really funny though.

the dogs are very happy that they are able to stay outside all the time now. i just open the door and let them out. on mondays and tuesdays they're just outside allll day long. i only make them come inside if jasper starts barking too much.

here is something i posted in my other blog.

so a few months back when i was relatively new to petco, i had a customer named molly armstrong.

she is a sweet, well-behaved, rather overweight chocolate lab. one of the best-behaved dogs i've ever had the pleasure of grooming. she stands quietly for the entire process, isn't afraid of the dryer, doesn't give trouble for nails, jumps into the tub willingly, and is just a sweet girl.

unfortunately, her owners were known to be complete assholes. they would routinely come in unannounced insisting they had an appointment when they didn't, complain about everything under the sun [shampoo not being rinsed out, etc.], always try to get a discount about things, and were just generally unpleasant bastards.

i was told that if i was given any trouble this time around, i could suggest that he find another place to get his dog groomed, as we obviously weren't meeting his expectations.

knowing this, when i was writing up the receipt for mr. armstrong, i made sure to go over the price very carefully with him before he signed and left.

i offered him the milk works, which costs $17 in addition to the $31.99 for the regular bath, brush, nails, and ears. i explained that it was milk bath, a cream rinse conditioner, and tooth brushing. he accepted and additionally repeated the prices back to me, read the receipt, and said them again before signing.

he left and i groomed sweet molly rather easily, called him, and he came to pick her up.

he took his receipt [the one we went over in detail before he left], and before he brought it up front, this exchange happened.

him: did you have a price increase?
me: not recently, but i've only been here a few months, so it may have been a few dollars cheaper last time you were here, depending on when you came.
him: the milk works was only five dollars last time i was here.
me: ::looks at card:: oh, no, last time you just got milk bath in addtion to the regular grooming. that's five dollars. this time you got milk works, which has the conditioner and toothbrushing too.
him: oh, i didn't want all that. i didn't know it would cost this much.
me: well, i made sure to go over the receipt with you before you left.
him: ::getting angry:: you didn't tell me how much it would be.
me: yes, i did. you repeated it back to me. my manager was standing right next to me.
him: i wouldn't have agreed if i knew how much it would be.
me: i'm sorry, but we did go over this before you left.
him: this is ridiculous!!
me: well, maybe you need to go elsewhere since we aren't meeting your needs.
him: EXCUSE ME??
me: there seems to be a problem every time you are here. we obviously aren't doing a satisfactory job. you need to go elsewhere. that's your receipt, you can take it up front and i'll get molly ready.
him: I WANT MY DOG NOW!
me: you need to pay, first.
him: GIVE ME MY DOG!

at this point the other bather [no longer with us], who is well known for being a pushover and a moron when it comes to customers chimes in with "he can take his dog with him to pay!" which is probably the dumbest thing i've ever heard. you don't give someone their dog if they're arguing about the price.

at any rate, he went to the manager, she agreed with me, he ended up paying, he requested that i NEVER do his dog again and thus only bree was allowed to bathe her from then on, and that was the end of it.

fast forward to sunday. i was looking at my monday appointments and who was my 4:00? molly armstrong. after discussing with leeann my options, i called mr. armstrong [pretending not to be me, of course] and this is how it went.

me: hello, mr. armstrong. i'm calling from petco grooming. we saw that molly has an appointment with us tomorrow, but we checked your card and saw that you only want bree to groom her. unfortunately bree is no longer with us, so i was calling to give you the number to another petco grooming salon.
him: well, i need her bathed tomorrow. she's going to be in a wedding.
me: i'm sure another salon would be willing and able to take you tomorrow if you call them today.
him: well i would be fine with someone else doing her, as long as it isn't the girl that did her last time.
me: according to our records, elyse did her last time, and at this point she is our only bather, so she would be doing her, and it seems you adamently insisted that she doesn't touch your dog again.
him: she can do her as long as someone watches her to make sure she isn't rough with her again.
me: we would have to ask and see if she is willing to groom molly again.
him: just give me the number to the maple grove store.

rough with her? i'm not rough with any dog, let alone a sweetie like molly.

monday night rolls around and we get a call from maple grove to get molly's rabies records. we ask them to call us back after mr. armstrong leaves so that we can warn them about his shenanigans.

the groomer calls back and i talk to her, reading all the commentary on the card from molly's past visits. i tell her molly is a fantastic dog, but the guy is a fucking psycho, and i suggested he find another grooming shop.

then she says "yeah, he seemed very strange. then he said he wasn't going back to your shop because the last person who groomed her beat her with a brush."

BEAT HER WITH A BRUSH.

THAT'S ME, I BEAT DOGS WITH BRUSHES.

i find it funny that he says he refused to go back to our salon when he actually made an appointment with us first and would have continued to come back had i not told him to go elsewhere.

but the rest of it just pisses me off. i get told all the time i'm not firm enough with the dogs. except of course when i beat the hell out of them with brushes.

i have his address and am half-tempted to take out some vigelante justice on him, but that would certainly cut short my grooming career.

now whenever a dog is misbehaving, the girls say "elyse, can you come here and beat this dog with a brush?" ohhh that guy is such a douchebag. he looks like the principal in "ferris bueller's day off", only fatter. and he talks like an exaggerated version of richard dreyfuss.

fucking jerk.

texting.

one of marya's online photo album contains these pictures:


at work.


at the cc club.


outside the cc club.


7th street entry.


another view at 7th street.


in front of first ave. purposely in front of the pixies' star.


at marya's house before we chaperoned her kids to a goth show.


the triple rock.


on kerry and tory's deck.

and this is only the beginning.

production.

so today was my first day off since i got back to minnesota. i didn't get home on friday until about 10am due to my commute via light rail and bus. then i worked at 1:00.

saturday, sunday, and monday i worked 11:00-7:00. didn't do anything at night except sunday i went to the triple rock with seth for my birthday and he gave me an "avenging narwhal" set. which is a narwhal with four different detachable horns and a little seal, koala, and penguin it can impale.

however instead of bumming around all day i beautified my yard and cleaned my house. well, my basement and the first level. the second level is tomorrow.
yes... i mowed both my front lawn and my back law ALL BY MYSELF. without losing any limbs or passing out in the heat [yes, the HEAT, it was 87 degrees today].

i also got a hanging geranium plant that i put on my tree out front, and a pot of dahlias.

the dogs love that i can leave the door open for them now and let them run around out back without having to sit there, get tired of sitting outside, and call them back in.

hunnee came to the front when i mowed the lawn and of course enjoyed that immensely.

i bought three stepping stones to decorate, too. i'm going to put the paw prints of everyone and then my hand prints on one of them.

my period is not as light as i had hoped, but it is 80% or so lighter than it was, mostly due to the lack of gigantic fist-sized chunks of uterus coming out all day for three days. sorry, that was gross...

my training days for the first part of my apprenticeship are going to be on thursdays. i have to spend a month officially "training" as a bather before i start actually grooming anything.

tomorrow i may go bike shopping with jonah or seth, though i might wait until next week, depending on what i do tomorrow. there's a vegan dine-in a pizza luce uptown that i'm going to with seth. there should be a lot of people there.

ps: your comments on my last entry made my brain hurt.

i'll make an actual blog soon

but here's some pictures:
quinn and echo... i think this is the most adorable picture ever...


max and me!


and this is oregon:

this dog reminded me of muffin for some reason.

see more dog pictures