Jen

Well, the rain is back yet again. At about 3 am this morning, I was awoken to the sound of hail pounding against our front door and windows. Tiger was totally freaked out, probably because like most Californians, is not used to the crazy weather that is going on here. Apparently, thunder and lightning - simple things that we Midwesterners are so used to - like hail, is also a rarity out here. And of course through this massive hail and downpour, like usual, Matt falls asleep like a little baby, and I lie there, staring at the ceiling, miraculously hearing a drip, drip, drip in the house, even though I can't place where it is coming from.

The week, for the most part has been pretty usual. I am going through what is now a rare instance of homesickness. I tend to miss my friends the most, especially when I find myself with nothing to do. But there are little things that I missed about home that are fading with time. This week, I am missing group gatherings at a bar to hang out and chat. And man, what I would do for some Chicago style pizza and some real beer, not like the crap I find out here. Okay, okay, there are some good beers, but they aren't easy to find. I swear, it's all Pacifico, Pacifico, with the occasional popular English beer. Where is my Bells Oberon or a nice Two Brothers? Hell, I'd even take Schlitz. It is the beer that made Milwaukee famous.

in an attempt to arrange a "group gathering at a bar," new Californian friends, Eric, Kelly and Greg with Matt and I attempted to go bowling on Wednesday night, only to get to our location to find already full lanes. We then hung out at the bar at the bowling alley, because it served Bud in those cool bowling pin shaped bottles. Sometimes, a cool bottle just makes the beer better, you know? Anyway, this seemed to ease some of my homesickness.

Matt and I also played Scrabble with the peeps upstairs. I was shocked when I pulled almost all the letters to spell “beguile” in one reach in the letter bag. I was also shocked when that fantastic word, only gave me a lousy 10 points when laid out on the board. It was much better than half the crap we had come up with before, like “zit” and “do”, which I think scored better due to their location on the board.

Ok, I am boring even myself now. What is everyone else up to?

Jen

A friend of mine in Ireland forwarded this to me. Check out this
game.

The object of the game is to keep him walking, without falling over, by using your mouse from left to right or right to left - you can't see your mouse which makes it more difficult.

My best thus far is 47 meters.

It's in German too, and we all know how much I love German! Das ist gut!

Die Wagenschenke - Das Partyzelt am Albanifest in Winterthur!!!!

If you play this game and score better then me, leave a comment and let me know.

Jen

I swear, sometimes I feel like a chicken running around with it's head cut off. (if I actually knew how that felt. . .) Once again I am alone at the gallery, with way too much stuff to do to be writing this anyway. To top it off, I have some weird sinus thing going on that is driving me nuts. I'm guessing that it isn't a cold, but rather some weird Californian allergy that I never knew I had until I moved. I mean, right now, in Chicago, everything is dead. But here, everything looks the same as it did when I moved. Actually some things look even better due to all this rain we have had. Maybe my sinus/allergy thing just doesn't know what hit it.

I've had some annoying people in here lately . . . One man came up to me and asked if were reviewed unsolicited portfolios. We don't, so I politely told him so. He then commented on our show and told me how his art was better than what we had on the wall! How do I respond to that? “Well sir, our artists' works are in museums throughout the world and are well respected and collected, but I'm sure your stuff is WAY better!”

The Mardi Gra party was pretty fun. I was introduced to a delicious beer named Abita, which is from this little place in Louisiana. It is very good. If you can get your hands on some, try it. There was some drama at the party as well. There was a breakup, and the dumped boyfriend stormed out and then came back in the house and locked himself in a bedroom. Awesome.

I'm getting my hair cut tonight at this place called Paper Scissors Rock. Hopefully I don't have to sell my right kidney to pay for this.

Hopefully later, I'll be able to make Eric's show at The Comedy Store (Details below for anyone who reads this in LA and likes to laugh!) but I have to see how Matt feels after he gets off work. He wakes up super early in the morning and it's kind of a drag for him to stay out late and then get about 4 to 5 hours of sleep. You get it.

So, if you would like to go to Eric's show and see some other comedians as well, check this out:

Greg Dean's Comedy Showcase
The Comedy Store
8433 W. Sunset Blvd.
Hollywood, CA 90069

Doors @7:30
Show @8:00
$6 cover, two drink minimum

Just so you know. Matt and I showed up late last time and did not have to pay for the cover or two drinks. Eric probably won't be on until 10:00 or 10:30 anyway, so show up at 10 on the dot, sneak in, not buy alcohol, unless you want to, and avoid the bad comedians in the beginning.

I hope everyone else's days are moving smoothly.

Jen

I don’t know who out there reads this for one, and of those that read this that have Macs, but if you do read this and have a Mac, make sure you always use Safari when you are reading this blog. I just realized the difference between Explorer and Safari and this blog looks way better on Safari. I’m sure all Mac lovers know this already but I am a slow learner.

It’s been a hellish (hellish because I’ve been here late pretty much every night) two weeks getting our gallery ready for an opening and finally packing up our photographs and shipping them to New York for AIPAD, which translates to the Association of International Photography Art Dealers. I was really hoping that I would be able to go, but alas, I have only worked here 5 months and I’m still getting the hang of the gallery world. So, I am here holding the fort down. I actually have some extensive projects laid out for myself, so I definitely won’t be bored, although maybe a bit lonely when I am at the gallery all by myself.

The thing I hate the most about being here by myself is having to go to the bathroom. See, we don’t have a bathroom in the gallery. I have to lock the place up and walk through the parking lot to use the public restrooms in the station. I don’t mind the walk; I actually like it. What I don’t like is having to put up the sign explaining that I’ll be back in ten minutes and having that one jackass who would like to come in the gallery wait by the door and count every minute on his watch. Then when you come back late for whatever reason, this jackass will then complain that I was gone much longer than the time I quoted on my sign. You may think this doesn’t happen much, but I will tell you, it does.

I am excited for the weekend. Eric’s (friend o’ mine) sister Katie is having a Mardi Gra party (both her and Eric spent extensive time in New Orleans) and I am excited to try this King Cake that Katie is having shipped directly from the source. I know nothing about Mardi Gra, so this is interesting. Plus it’s a party with free booze so I am in!

Christie:

Last night, I went to this pub, the Daily Pint, with Eric for an after work cold one. Anyway, there is a shuffleboard table there! I kid you not! So, you have to book a ticket out here so that we may finish (um, and start) our movie about shuffleboard. Matt, being the budding director that he is, is more than willing to help us shoot and make this dream possible!

Actually, upon talking to some other people at the bar, it turns out this is not the best table in town. It is my goal to scout out other tables before your arrival. Eric and I were also accosted by a diehard shuffleboard fan that yelled at us when we “scored wrong.” At one point, he rubbed his hand all over our scoreboard and then proceeded to rub his chalky hands all over his rather large beer belly. tsk, tsk. He was not following the rules. . . After one game, we were forced to move on.

ps. please look at the links and do some research : )


said shuffleboard table.