What is Happening?

From the finale at Mariah’s dance recital at Cashman Theater in Las Vegas. It turned out so blurry, but for some reason, I really like it anyway. Especially the girls in blue.

Well, I haven’t written a blog in like 9 days. So much is changing and I don’t have any free time at my new job, like I did at Taylor.

It’s 100 degrees out right now, and it’s going to be 106 today. And it’s Just barely summer now. We’ve passed the Summer Solstice. But it’s only going to keep getting hotter here in the desert until September.

The new job is going pretty well but I still need another 2-3 weeks there to feel comfortable. But I’m happy to be working in a new job. I’m moving into another house next weekend, and I have to start packing today. I’m very excited to move into my own place. I’m elated to have all the great changes in my life, but they’re a lot to handle. I’ve been continually exhausted and been sleeping a lot and working the rest of the time. Until I get settled in my new job, and my new house, I probably won’t be writing much. But lots of fun things have happened in the past few days, and I’m going to show some pictures here, for the record:

Mariah’s Dance Group (she’s second from right)

Last Sunday, for the first time in about a year, I went to Church at the little Christian Science church in Boulder, NV. Andrea and I want to go to several different churches of different religions for religious “enrichment”. So we went to this one first. I’ll probably do a massive post about it later after we’ve gone to other churches.

We went to the Coffee Cup Cafe after church for lunch. It was great, as usual. I love the Coffee Cup.

A shot of the Las Vegas strip from the East. I’ve been living here 9 months now!

A drag queen at a gay bar in The Fruit Loop in Las Vegas. She was singing a Celine Dion song.

Friends Pauline and Kevin at PT’s Pub, at my Taylor goodbye party.

Tuisdie & Me, at the Palazzo Topping Off party, where they inserted the very last steel beam into the Palazzo hotel.

View of the Palazzo from the Theater Footprint. This is the building in June of 2007, slated to be completed by August or September of 2007.There was random paper debris falling from the top. I think you can see some of it in this picture.

Me in my office, 30 feet underground the largest hotel in the world. That’s a load bearing column I’m hugging there. It’s kind of big and ugly and covered in white, rough fireproofing.

Jay, Allison and I at our first book club. We read The Jungle by Upton Sinclair.

Roller Derby Game. It was Las Vegas Neanderdolls vs. Chicago. Our team lost.

Well, I’m moving next week, and then when I get settled I’ll probably write more blogs.

—–
Currently listening to Guided by Voices

Yup.

Last day at Taylor!

Well, it’s my last day working for Taylor at the Venetian. It’s 8:05 and that means I have about 7.5 hours left to work. I got a gift from my sweet boss and today there’s a big ‘topping off’ party on the theater footprint today, as well. We’ll get free food and t-shirts. I’m looking forward to that! I am going to take as many pictures of the hotel as I can today (probably mostly from the inside).

Anyway, tonight, coworkers are helping me celebrate my departure at PTs Pub just down the street. It should be fun! I’ll post pictures later.

Also, today marks the halfway period of No Sweets June/H2O June. And, although it’s been a big adjustment getting used to drinking water, the no sweets bit of it has come relatively recently. I think I may have even lost a pound or two, woo! Anyway, I still want coffee every morning, but other than that, I think I’ve gotten used to just having the water, which is a small miracle for me. Considering that there probably wasn’t a day in my life where all I drank was water until this Month, drinking nothing but water for 15 days feels like quite an accomplishment.

Yup.

Eat at Taco Yayo

So, this photo requires some explanation:

I went to this new taco place here in town called Taco Yayo. They serve little street-style tacos in all kindsa weird flavors, like Indian, Japanese, Tofu, etc.

The tacos are super good and super cheap, at only $1.50 each. Plus it’s a really fun and relaxed atmosphere. Here I am sitting at a chunky wooden bench and table on the patio.

When I ordered chips, of course I asked for salt. They gave me that little tiny plastic zip lock baggie that is in my mouth. "It really is salt" they told me. Although it looks a lot like drugs.

Apparently, "yayo" is slang for cocaine, so I think that’s the joke.

Anyway, if you live in Las Vegas, it’s on Maryland Parkway and Harmon, next to the Freakin’ Frog. Highly worth your time to check out!

Andrea and I went there before going on to the Freakin’ Frog to see a friend of hers do standup. However, the comedy show was canceled due to some civil unrest, and there was a jazz band instead, that goes by the name of Smoke Room. They were good, but we left early.

—–
Currently listening to Carnavas by Silversun Pickups

Yup.

Bored Part II

So, I’m back here at the blog again because I am still bored. It would be one thing if I could read a book or listen to my iPod, but I think they frown upon that here. It’s now 10:23, and I have one hour and seven minutes until lunch, followed by more boredom. Sigh. So, to pass the time, I’m going to write a little meme thing about myself.

I rarely do these, but I thought I would, cause, hell what else have I got to do until four o clock? I mean, I already ate my lunch, so there’s not a whole lot left to do. To make matters worse, I’m excited about getting out of here because Andrea and I are going out to dinner at this exotic taco place and then out for a night of comedy. Plus I need a nap. I’m considering going out to my car at lunch and taking a little nap.

Anyway, here goes:

Name: Sarah
Age: 27
Birthdate: October 8
Sign: Libra

Birthplace: Brookings, South Dakota
Place of current residence: Las Vegas, NV
Past places of residence: Boston, MA, Elsah, IL, Broken Arrow, OK, East Stroudsberg, PA, Sioux Falls, SD

Occupation: Graphic Designer

Hobbies: Drawing and other art stuff, reading, cooking, camping, other outdoorsy stuff

Favorite Tastes: Truffles (mushroom kind), authentic street tacos, snickerdoodle cookies, sashimi, carrot cake, brownies, pineapple, goat milk cheese, cafe con leche, fresh bagels toasted with cream cheese, sugar cookies with frosting, Peeps, rasberry mead, bread pudding with chocolate chips

Favorite Smells: The inside of newly printed books (ink), firewood burning, esp. juniper, frying bacon, coffee, the changing of the seasons, cedar, and I like skunk if it’s at a distance

Favorite Sounds: cicadas, katydids, fire crackling, the sound of pig feeder lids hitting the trough once the pigs have removed their heads and the lid crashes down (from childhood memories), robot bleeps

Favorite Sights: hot air balloons, the Big Dipper, mountains, bodies of water, fresh fruits in big stacks at markets, dust devils, blue skies, herds of animals, water towers on the horizon, palm trees

Favorite Tactiles: warm sand, how i feel weightless when curled in fetal position about three feet below surface of pool water, cold feather pillows, fur, pink rubber balls, tree bark, vinyl toys

Favorite Animal(s): Aardvarks, Yaks, Dogs, Donkeys, Red Pandas, Barn Owls, Octopi

Favorite Places: Red Rock Canyon, Caniama in Venezuela, my grandparent’s old farm in Flandreau, South Dakota, Kennebec River in Maine, Boston, the Pedestrian Bridge in Tulsa, Belltrees Road in Elsah, Illionois, Mesa Verde in Durango, & New Mexico

Heroes: Margarite Bourke-White, Damien Hirst, Howard Cosell, Spencer Tunick, Charles Darwin, Vladimir Nabkov, and Zeloot, oh, and Davy Crockett

Things that I can’t stand: People talking obsessively on their cell phone, people who interrupt, or appear to be not listening, but only waiting for their chance to speak, people who talk loudly about how tough they are, traffic, overcast skies with no rain, cleaning the bathroom, olives, cauliflower, televised football, basketball and baseball, women who affect thier voices to make them sound cuter in the presence of men

Things you’ll never see me doing: getting a boob job, skydiving, watching almost any reality show on TV with maybe two exceptions, curling my eyelashes in the car during busy traffic, giving birth, buying anything made by Louis Vitton or Coach, swimming in the middle of a big lake, smoking crack

My biggest fears: Large fish I can’t see below me, premature death, losing my sight, never getting out of debt, losing enthusiasm

My worst habits: Snooze button, picking my nose, getting angry in traffic, impatience with children, not speaking up enough

Things I wish would have happened to me as a kid but never did: Raised by wolves

Ok, I guess I could go on, but it’s now lunch time! Yay. Also, I think I have some new work to do that will get me through the day, yay.

Later.

Yup.

8:42 a.m.–Can I Go Home Now?

Ugh. I’m bored. I don’t really have much to do these last few days of work. I ran out of stuff to do pretty early this morning, so I ate my lunch to pass the time and because I’ve been strangely extra hungry lately. Now I won’t have a lunch. I put way too much mustard on the sandwich. I guess can always eat some oatmeal I have stashed up on the shelf here at work if I get hungry later. Or, if I’m desperate, the 16 day old chili that’s sitting in the fridge. Nah, better pass.

My boss is back from her four week medical leave, but is so busy catching up with her duties that she really hasn’t been giving stuff for me to do. I guess I could pack up my personal stuff around the office, but that seems a little premature. It looks like they won’t be finding a replacement for me until after I leave, so I have no one to train. So, all I’ve got to do now is wait until Friday comes and then I can leave.

The water thing is going pretty OK. To be honest I’m kinda surprised I’ve made it this far without any failures. I had my first real craving for sugar last night, and it was an odd feeling, cause I’ve barely ate any thing with much sugar in it for the past couple of weeks (unless you count fruit). And I certainly haven’t eaten anything intentionally sweet. I thought my insulin levels would have leveled out by now and not cause me to crave sugar.

This morning when I came into work, someone had brough in a big canister of Nestle Cappuchino Vanilla coffee mix. It was tempting! It sounded so good this morning. So I’ve just been staying out of the kitchen so I don’t go into a trance and drink five cups of it.

Water, water, water! Got to tell myself to think water.

—–
Currently listening to Z by My Morning Jacket

Yup.

Countdown

There are so many things happening in my life right now that it’s hard to think about them all at once. And they’re mostly good things, so I’m happy about that.

First off, this is the last week I’ll be working at Taylor International, the construction company at the Venetian hotel. I’ve been slowly telling everyone that I’m leaving, and that’s helping me fully realize the change that’s taking place. I haven’t been here for all that long, but 5 months is enough time to get pretty settled in a job. I’m going to miss some of my coworkers, and I’m going to miss how easy this job is, but I am excited to get back into design.

I start my new job next Monday, and am more than a little nervous. I haven’t worked in a design office in about 10 months, so that will be a change. And while I have been doing freelance work on the side to keep myself fresh, I feel like I’m under this huge pressure to perform well at my new job, less I get axed (which is what they alluded to during the interview.)

My last design job was more production than it was anything else, but I have a feeling this job will incorporate more design, which is much harder than production. Basically, production is taking something that’s already been created and formatting and processing it to be ready to be printed, so it’s all very systematic and linear. But design is a much more creative, organic and abstract task. It’s about coming up with stuff that didn’t exist before.

I love good design and when I see it, whether it be in design magazines or galleries or grocery stores, I am reminded of why I am in this field in the first place. And, generally, when I do design, I’m usually pretty happy with the finished results. It’s the beginning of the project which is scary; you’re faced with inventing something that is creative, expressive and functional. Pulling those things out of the abyss of imagination is a scary task. That’s why, when people tell me, “Oh, you’re creative, I could never do something like that!” I always tell them, “Yes, you could, it just takes a lot of thinking and a lot of patience.” Which, of course, I have very little time to think or be patient in my new job. Advertising is all about getting things out fast and furious to meet that ever-looming deadline.

Creativity and artistic abilities don’t necessarily come from talent. I suppose there are people out there who have pure, raw talent, but I’m just not one of them. Everything I do has come from study and practice and experience. And so it bothers me when people dismiss me or other creative people as being born with talent, as if it was a gift bestowed upon me, as if I didn’t have to do anything to get it. That just isn’t the case. I’ve had to work for what skill I have, and, if they would work at it too, they could be just as creative. Anyway, I digress.

So, I’m nervous about the new job: How I’ll get along with my coworkers, and whether or not they’ll like me or my design or methods, and if they’ll decide that I’m not worthy of the job and kick me out. All these things are stupid to worry about, but, I do it anyway. I’ll be happy to have the first 3 months of the job behind me. Then, I’ll know a bit more where I stand, and I’ll be much more comfortable and confident in my work.

Also, in other news, after some shaky events at home, I have finally decided to move out, come July 1. I am very excited about it. I’ll be a tenant in a 4 bedroom house with one other person in a fairly new area of Henderson, which is a neighboring town/suburb of Las Vegas. I drove out yesterday to see the house. It’s a full half hour drive from my sister’s house. But really, most places are, as this is a really large, expansive city, with most of my friends and family living on the outer edges.

The house is on a nice street in a culdesac, a street with a funny name, Color Magic. It’s very southwestern looking, and has a nice balcony and all the modern amenities. It’s located along St. Rose Parkway, which is a highway that spans a long, dry, sandy plane, not too far from the edge of the valley that is near the Sierra Nevadas. It’s such a new part of town that there aren’t really any commercial buildings around for a couple of miles, just houses and big empty tracts of land that are, I’m sure, intended for stores and gas stations and whatever.

Except for a couple of times in college, I’ve never lived with a stranger before, and in college, it was only 10 weeks at a time before we changed rooms again. This is on a much more long scale time-frame (although I’m not bound by any amount of time, which is nice). The girl who owns the house seems pretty nice, and it appears that she isn’t home very often. So, basically, I’ll be moving from my sister’s house, which is a bit of a zoo, to a nearly empty house in an isolated neighborhood. But I’m pretty ok with that, cause I do actually like spending time by myself a lot.

Also, I’ll have much more time to work on my art and to read undisturbed, which I am looking forward to. Plus, the other benefit of living in Henderson is that my job is in Henderson, too. It’s only a 9.5 mile drive there, which I clocked yesterday at 21 minutes (as opposed to the 35-40 minute drive I’ll have to drive for the first couple of weeks I work there while still living at my sister’s).

I like the little neighborhood around my job, there’s a Trader Joes and lots of little restaurants and coffee shops, and I also found that my gym has a branch location that is on my way to my new home from my new job, so that will work out perfectly! Also, the woman whom I’m moving in with offered me use of a bed, a nightstand and a dresser, so I don’t have to buy any of that stuff.

All this happened so fast, the job and the new place to live, that I’m still reeling from it all a little bit. It hasn’t quite sunk in and it probably won’t until Friday, when I have my last day at Taylor. I’m nervous, excited, and anxious. But it’s a good and hopeful feeling.

Yup.

What the World Eats

Mexico: The Casales family of Cuernavaca
Food expenditure for one week: 1,862.78 Mexican Pesos or $189.09
Favorite foods: pizza, crab, pasta, chicken

Today I read an absolutely fascinating article on Boing Boing. From the article:

What does a family of four in North Carolina eat in a week? How about in Cuernavaca? Or Konstancin-Jeziorna? Several years ago, photographer Peter Menzel and journalist Faith D’Alusio–creators of the fantastic Robo sapiens book–traveled the world documenting what 30 families in 24 countries eat in a week.

Time.com has posted 16 photos from the book, Hungry Planet. It is well worth your time to check out.

Link to the article on Boing Boing
Link to the photo gallery on Time.com
Link to Ten Speed Press, where you can buy the book, Hungry Planet.

Yup.

Water, Water, Everywhere

Well, it’s day seven of No Sweets June/H20 June. And I’m happy to report, that, for the first time in a week, I didn’t feel caffeine withdrawls this morning. When I came into work, I walked by the coffee, and it smelled good, but it’s not like I can’t avoid it. At least I didn’t get a headache or a stomach ache today. I’ve been doing good on the no sweets thing too, which is a challenge, seeing as the house I live in always has them lying around. Plus I have the benefit of having my friend Justin texting me everynight to make sure I haven’t cheated. He’s like my AA sponsor, only, instead of AA, it’s SA.

Last night, Faith came over with her kids to get their hair done. So the house was kind of Grand Central Station. There was so much activity going on that I couldn’t really concentrate. So I decided to go to the gym to escape for a while. When I got into the gym, I realized that I had forgot to bring my locker padlock with me, and so I had to carry my purse around with me while I exercised.

I decided to do the Stairmaster, because there’s a little platform at the top that would hold my purse so I could watch it. I did a low-medium level, 6, and set it for 30 minutes. After ten minutes, I had HAD it with the Stairmaster. I like the Stairmaster, but I really have to be in the mood to do it. So, I got off the Stairmaster, and, completely unmotivated, left the gym. I had been there for a total of 12 minutes. What a shame. Sometimes, however, I feel that just forcing myself to go the gym, even if I don’t stay long, is good, because I get into the routine of going there. I planned better today and packed my lock and a change of clothes so I can got there on the way home. That’s easier for me.

When I returned home, and it was still a busy house. So, I picked up my library copy of The Jungle and headed over to a nearby Starbucks that has this amazing outdoor patio. I was tempted to get an iced coffee, but I ended up getting a bottle of Ethos, the water that Starbucks sells that supports some cause that has to do with clean water for children across the world. It didn’t taste any different, but I really liked the shape of the bottle. Nowadays, my life is filled with water bottles. I have two in my car, two at my desk at work, one or two at my desk at home, and I’ve taken to always carrying one around with me, which is advised when you live in the desert.

I’m pleased to report that, now, in most cases, it doesn’t bother me to choose water over another drink like soda or beer, or sometimes even coffee. And that’s ultimately why I chose to do this: So, that when this month is up, and I release myself to drinking coffee and soda again, that maybe I won’t do it as much as I used to, but instead will opt for drinking water much more often.

It worked with TV, anyway. When I gave up TV for lent, it wasn’t a big deal. And since lent, I’ve been watching way less TV overall. I’m not a huge TV person to begin with, but, now, I watch it even less. I don’t really even watch The Simpsons much, which is probably my favorite show ever.

Today, Tuisdie and I went up to the food court of the Venetian for lunch. The food is is ridiculously expensive, even with our Venetian employee discount. A slice of stuffed pizza and a bottle of water was almost $10.00. I feel sorry for the tourists who don’t get the discount. We went to a little place called L.A. Italian, which was actually quite good. It was nice to talk with Tuisdie, we had a good conversation and she’s a good listener. I don’t think I’ve been up to lunch in the Venetian in maybe two months.

Now I’m back at my desk, with really nothing to do until I leave, in 2 hours and 45 minutes. I’m feeling sleepy. Guess I’ll drink a couple of bottles of water to see if that helps.

—-
Currently listening to..hammering.

Yup.

For the Love of God

“For the love of God” the new piece by artist Damien Hirst.

From the Art News Blog:

The contemporary British artist Damien Hirst is working on creating one of the most expensive works to be created. The work will be a life sized skull cast in platinum and then covered in diamonds.

“For the Love of God” will cost up to $18 million to create and will have as many as 8500 diamonds stuck to it.

“The biggest expense will be the fifty-caret beauty that will sit on the forehead. That one alone will cost in the region of three to five million pounds. It is certainly the biggest single undertaking by a jeweler since the Crown jewels.” Damien Hirst

From The New York Times:

For Hirst, famous pickler of sharks and bovine bisector, all his art is about death. This piece, which was cast from an 18th-century skull he bought in London, was influenced by Mexican skulls encrusted in turquoise. “I remember thinking it would be great to do a diamond one — but just prohibitively expensive,” he recalls. “Then I started to think — maybe that’s why it is a good thing to do. Death is such a heavy subject, it would be good to make something that laughed in the face of it.”

Hirst, who financed the piece himself, watched for months as the price of international diamonds rose while the Bond Street gem dealer Bentley & Skinner tried to corner the market for the artist’s benefit. Given the ongoing controversy over blood diamonds from Africa, “For the Love of God” now has the potential to be about death in a more literal way.

“That’s when you stop laughing,” Hirst says. “You might have created something that people might die because of. I guess I felt like Oppenheimer or something. What have I done? Because it’s going to need high security all its life.”

Yup.

Exorcism of Hedonism

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Raspberry, originally uploaded by elementalPaul.

Think about this question:

“What are five things you can’t live without?”

And now, answer this one:

“What is needed for human survival?”

Are your answers the same for both questions? If not, then why? Aren’t they, in essense, the same question?

Things we think we need and things we actually are not always the same. This is because we percieve the latter as a given. Food, water, shelter, right? And then, on a secondary level, there’s propagation and companionship and hygiene. But, beyond that, there is absolutely nothing that we need, that we really really need, in order to live.

Maybe it’s all the water I’ve been drinking that has got me wondering about this. For the last few days, I’ve drank nothing but water. And I’m trying to see if I can get through the entire month. In addition, I’m not eating any kind of sweet junk food, ie cookies, candies, mints, cake or chocolate. And I miss it! Although I thought the most difficult of the two fasts would be no sweets, as it turns out, I’m really struggling with this water thing!

I can’t believe how affected I am by caffeine. How I miss it everyday and find myself all tense and jumpy without it. I crave pop or juice or beer or milk, and I’ve been denying myself of all of that. And it’s difficult! But it shouldn’t be! Aside from nursing milk as babies, water was the only liquid consumed by thousands upon hundreds of thousands of generations of people before other beverages were invented. I’m not counting the liquids you can attain from fruits or vegetables, I’m talking about millions of animals (including us) never drinking anything but water and getting along just fine.

And now I’m faced, thankfully and not so thankfully, with an endless supply and endless task of drinking water. There are times I’m fine with it, and others when I couldn’t hate it more! I am craving sugar and I am drinking tons of water to drown that craving. I’ve drank more water in the last two days than I probably have in the past two weeks.

I wonder, will I ever flush my system to a point where I don’t want the sugar and caffiene anymore, and arise out of this month a more health-conscious person? Or will I crawl back to sugar and caffiene with my tail between my legs at 12:01am on July first? I hate the effect artificial products have on me, but I can’t deny it, either.

Anyway, part of the reason I give up things in my life for months at a time, is because I see myself falling into a pattern where I’m so entrenched in my creature comforts that they begins to inhibit how I live my life.

For instance: the reason I’ve been continued to live with my sister and to look for a job since I got hired on full time/permanent at Taylor, is that what Taylor paid me would only cover my bills. However, it would not provide me with enough money to go out socially on the weekends, or buy new books or new art supplies. The salary I’m making here would be enough to cover my necessities, but it would not be enough to sustain the lifestyle that I have grown accustomed to.

If I was just considering food water shelter, I could have moved out months ago and worked for Taylor for the rest of my life! But no…I’m afraid to live my life without the comfort of a padded bank account.

And that really bothers me, because it’s the consumer-driven opinion of a priveledged American, which, of course, is what I am. And I won’t deny that, but I do think that I should at least consider that there are people who are barely making enough to feed themselves, lest be able to afford payments on an SUV (which I have) or loan payments on a private college education (also which I have).

Is guilt the reason why I am drinking only water? Perhaps, but I think it’s more than that: What we desire gets mistaken for what we need and that is a false belief. I fast from modern conveniences from time to time to make sure that I’m doing my part to contribute to our proper evolution into a stronger species, so that we don’t devolve into an eggplant with no teeth that needs to be connected to catheter tubes of sugar and entertainment in order to live.

Air conditioning. Fast food. Television. It’s all very nice, but it’s weakening us! That’s not our life! That’s not what we were meant to be.

Yup.