june 20, 2009 453pm

Some time back in early June, I went home for my little brother's graduation. I find it weird that I can remember 18 years back to when David was born. I cried when I found out he was a boy because I wanted a little sister. I am old enough to remember 18 years ago?!?! I say this to my sister and she smugly says "yeah, your 20's are flying by, huh?" as if I am living in fear of my 30's. BRING IT ON. That is what I say to my 30's. I imagine I will be about the same when I am 30. No babies. No husband. Awesome. hehe. My dad definitely fell asleep during the graduation. My grandma did as well. Can you blame them? It was my dad's 5th child to graduate.

18 years ago...

I said goodbye to another friend at the Hole in the Wall, Trevor Smith (aka Brodeo). It was oddly about the same goodbye setup as with Dan Edwards, less emotional though. Trevor was Dan Edwards' replacement in the Rotten Apple Gang and they just so happened to have a show on his last night in town. Weird. I think 2 going aways at the Hole is good enough for one year. Trevor is moving to Boston to join a cool music scene. I will definitely miss him. We have a solid bond and both lovelove vegan foods. yummmm. I can see a spring break visit to Boston on the horizon.

Kitten pictures, because that is why you read this thing, yeah?

When I was home, my best friend Yen and I made a day out of the museums in Ft Worth. We went to the Kimbell Art Museum and the Modern Art Museum. Then she treated me to lunch at the Spiral Diner, a vegan eatery. I had this rad vegan Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich. Such goodness. I have not cooked too much lately that has been photo worthy. I did, however, make some yummie BBQ baked tofu the other night.

My housemate down stairs, Lindsey, is living a dream of mine. Her and Pete just bought a tandem bicycle. We decided that the bike is sexist because the front seat is WAY too high for us girls to ride. It ASSUMES that a guy will be manning the vehicle. jerks.

Matthew Tucker is here for the weekend. We have been doing quite a bit of bike riding around town. Yesterday, we hit up the springs and the Daily Juice. Then, last night, the Annie St crew rolled down to see Master Pancake do the Sixth Sense at the Ritz. I was pleased with the performance. They even made a Pee-Wee's Big Adventure reference! yessss. Love that movie.

june 02, 2009 0123am

Just when I thought I was permitted to feel sorry for myself, I get a call from a coworker telling me that the Blood Center laid off 30 people today. I was not one of those people, thank goodness, but it shook me up a bit. Some of the people that were let go had been at the Blood Center for quite some time. They had to lay off the sweet old ladies that handed out cookies after your donation. I am glad I was not at work Monday. Apparently it was an emotion packed day, people were crying. uhg. So yeah, whatever was bugging me quickly faded into the background.

I spent the weekend camping at the Kerrville Folk Festival with Grizz, Adam Rader and Tuggles. It was very overwhelming for me, the first night anyway. I had a minor anxiety attack the first night when I finished my volunteer shift and had no idea how to find my group of friends. It was dark and I seriously had no idea where I was. That place gets pretty crazy. You have people staying up till 4 or 5 am for several nights in a row on various drugs. We borrowed a family sized tent from Graham, so the four of us slept together. I had a good time, but it is definitely not my scene. It would have been better for me if I were a songwriter or a musician of some sort.

Family time this weekend. My little brother David is graduating high school. I definitely remember when he was born, holding him, and now he is 18? Weird. So, a weekend in SGP. I spend most of my life in Austin these days; going back to Grand Prairie is so foreign to me. I always end up getting wasted with some mixture of old friends. Or maybe I will hit up some graduation parties with David and try to find myself some barely-18-years-old ass? Probably not the latter.

There is an awful stomach sickness that has spread like wild fire to everyone around me. Several of my friends have had it, and now my little godson Arthur has it. He is on the mend though. I am hoping it does not turn up inside me. I do not need something else that lessens my desire to feed myself.

may 27, 2009 1007am

I went for a run early ealry this morning. For any of you that regularly run the trail here in Austin, you know that there are other regulars down there. After seeing them several times a week, you begin to recognize eachother and wave, say hello and/or nod. This morning I was passing one of those regulars. She is an older woman, maybe in her 50's with shoulder length gray/black hair. I chimmed as I passed "morning!" She looked at me and said "Morning! You are such a beautiful runner." At first, I thought she said "Such a beautiful morning to be running." Then my brain processed her comment and my heart melted. I said "Who, me? Thanks!" It was quite possibly the sweetest thing anyone has said to me in a while. This woman does not know me, she just sees me running the trail. That is why I run, among other things. Inspiration.

So, earlier this month I dropped the camera Matthew Bishop ever-so-kindly sent me after my other one was theived away (sorry matthew). Now, it has a problem foccusing. And by problem, I mean it does not foccus. I am going to take it to Precision Camera tomorrow and see if it can easily be fixed, if not, I will start saving up the dollars for a new one. In the mean time, I will try to borrow Drew's camera when it is not in use. This is what I get:

I made the Apple-Rosemary Oat Bars from May/June issue of Vegetaian Times. They turned out quite delicious. I accidently used fresh thyme instead of rosemary, but they still tasted great. I love thyme anyhow. For those of you who get this magazine, I would recommend using an 8 x 8 baking dish instead of an 11 1/2 x 8 baking dish. It seems that most baked goods in the magazine call for the larger dish, but they work best in the smaller one. This recipe caught my eye because it uses nut butters, which I am in love with right now. I used cashew and almond butter for my bars.

may 26, 2009 1200am

I should probably be asleep, considering I woke at 5am to travel home Monday. My friend Graham came over to hang out this evening. We had a couple of beers and sat on my porch getting eaten alive by mosquitoes. Then I broke out my hippie lavender essential oil mosquito repellent I was given for my birthday. Even if it did not work, it was calming. I feel like I have been quite lazy in the hanging out category as of late. I should remedy that, especially since I am sans boyfriend and school. No excuses.

There is a small spider living in my room. I am a bit scared to take him outside. I could never kill a spider. When I was young my dad would get angry with us kids if we killed a spider. "They are our friends, Mary," he would say. "They eat all the bad bugs." There was one spider that was ok to kill in his book though. Black Widows were ok to kill because they killed their male mates. hehe. Typical guy logic.

Sometimes I am really good at beating a dead horse. As in, sometimes I do not know when to quit. I think I get that from dad as well.

may 25, 2009 216pm

I ran my 2nd half marathon yesterday in Madison, Wisconsin. Why Madison? Well, two good friends live up there and another was coming from Ohio to run the full marathon. It was sort of an Austin family running reunion. Michael and his wife live in Madison. I met Michael in Austin almost 3 years ago through Kathryn (the friend that came from Ohio). We all ran together for a year before they moved away. I cannot describe how refreshing it was to be around my old running support again. Michael was going to run the marathon, but he was injured earlier this year. But, he was the best supporter ever! He biked around the course finding us and making sure we knew he was there cheering us along. And Michael's mom was such a great cheerleader. I think her goal was the say silly things to the runners to make them smile, because around mile 16 you start to hate yourself and wonder why you are running a marathon. And Julia and I got out there after our race and cheered. It was impoartant for me to get out there and help motivate others. My enthusiasm for running has been less than stellar as of late. A good deal of that stems from the lack of running support I have here in Austin. I generally run alone, and I am burnt out on races for the most part. I know my friends care about me, but none have ever really come out to cheer me on during a race in town, granted it is usually early in the morning. They are pretty unaware of that part of my life. Well, I take that back. Dan Edwards came out for the Turkey Trot last year with me. It is one of those things that I do not want to ask people to do though, if that makes any sense. I mean, I really wanted to get out there and cheer for Kathryn after my race was done. It is such a motivator to hear people out there, that actually know you, yell your name, letting you know that they believe in you. So, I mostly just keep to myself about my running. I suppose that just means we will have to have little Austin family running reunions around the U.S. for races.

As for my race Sunday, I did make my goal of finishing under 2 hours. I ran 13.1 miles in 1:58:57. That is about a 9 minute pace. I ran my first half marathon in 2 hours and 6 minutes. I could have done better this time around, had I not felt as though I had to vomit and poop the whole race. I take that back, I felt ok the last half mile. I think it was the cheese curds we had Saturday. And maybe the ice cream I had Friday night. And also the veggie rubin with 3 types of cheese on it I had for lunch Saturday. Or the cheese I put on my pasta dinner. Yeah, I felt like my body did not digest ANY of the food I ate Friday night or Saturday. I could hardly sleep Saturday night because I kept burping up these foul burps that tasted just as gross as they smelled. Kathryn got whiff of a burp on the way to the race Sunday and mistook it for a god-awful fart. Yeah, it was definitely not the funniest run of my life. But, I made it. And I am definitely not going to be eating foods that contain lactose any time soon. Michael's mom had us over for a great post race meal, including grilled corn on the cob! My favorite. I almost want to buy a little grill to make it here.

ps. Cheese curds squeek when you eat them. It was kinda cute.

may 19, 2009 749pm

Today I was successful at resisting the nap. Unless you count the 30-second nap I had on the bus? (I do not count that.) I have been hanging around the house with Robert a bunch. It is nice. Drew has not really been around. We are like two ships passing in the night. With his new dating partner and all his bad commitments, he barely comes home to sleep. It is weird, but he is happy, which makes me happy.

I like to watch the sun rise and set from my window. There are lots of trees out there to reflect the light. I also like spending the whole day in my room, looking up to notice the light changing in my room. Windows are nice. The weather has been more than great the past few days, so we have been living with windows down and no air conditioner.

Hanging out at the house:

I gave the cats a bath. They were not real thrilled about it.

Some Day Parish had their CD release at the Cactus Cafe.

Gringo de mayo vegetarian potluck:

After all the eating was done, I found the cats in my room. They were hiding out, scared of all the crazy children running around. They looked so cute and inviting; so I decided to cuddle a bit... well, a bit turned into a 1 hour nap. I woke to find everyone had left. Sorry guys, napping is hard to resist sometimes.

may 10, 2009 1057pm

Someone I work with wished me a happy Mother's Day today. That was weird. What if I was a mother but had to give my baby up for adoption and every Mother's Day was a guilty struggle? I never think about Mother's Day for the most part. When I was young, we would make Mother's Day cards in Sunday School and every year mine would be addressed to my dad, "I know you are not my mother, but Happy Mother's day anyway. Love Mary." I am feeling particularly bitter about it right now. I am in a sour mood in general right now. I think this day is supposed to be happy, maybe? Right now, all that is running through my mind in regards to my mother is aversion.

Only in Austin might you see this downtown. I am pretty sure Jesus did not have a training wheel one his cross.

The Mcmercy Family Band played the late show at Stubb's Saturday night after Old Crow Medicine Show. I bought a ticket for the show a little while back thinking that I would be going alone. There were two people that I knew would want to come to the show with me, but one is deported to England and the other had plans to see the Dead in California. But, all the Mcmercy folks were there. And better yet, I scored a seat in the VIP section, so I could ACTUALLY see the show. Being 5'almost 4 inches, I have come to terms with the fact that I will always be standing behind some tall dude at shows. Justin Townes Earl opened for OCMS. I think I liked him better, actually. It was just him and another guy that alternated between banjo, harmonica and mandolin. I was able to catch the last 20 minutes of The Blue Hit's CD release across the street as well. That was fun. They covered the Pocahontas song "Colors of the Wind." Love that song. They definitely slipped in the fbomb in their version though.

may 08, 2009 815pm

I am pretty sure I lost about 5 pounds in sweat today riding my bicycle around town. But, it was worth it. I had lunch at Mr. Natural with Jeffery Hoskins. Love a Jeffery. We then rode to a bike shop a friend of his owns called East Side Pedal Pushers to get my bicycle adjusted. I need to take it in the get a tune up though. The back wheel is a bit wobbly. The steering wheel stays straight now. And the squeeking was fixed with a little oil.

I am going to post photos from last Saturday's morning breakfast. This Saturday, Drew will be absent and Robert is doing the Master Cleanse, so I thought going out for breakfast would be more appropriate. Raina Rose and I are going to ride bicycles over to Juan and a Million around 1030. I am super excited to expose Raina to the Don Juan. Last Saturday I made some vegan biscuits and mushroom gravy, both from La Dolce Vegan. Trey gave me that cookbook. I love it. Drew made some eggs. Eva and Marie brought a delicious strawberry tart and Joanna made some sticky buns. I love making food and feeding people.

On the 5th of May, we had the Secret Show. It was on the island again. I missed the first island show. This one was great. I got a wild hair that night and decided to drink my dinner, so needless to say, I ended up passing the fuck out on my blanket 5 beers and many swigs of Ted's whiskey later. Sadly, I did not capture any photos of the last two bands. Here is a video Raina took of a few of us at Magnolia afterwards. I do not remember much of that dining experience. I am just thankful that I am a happy silly drunk.