read me like an open book

moon & stars & swirls

2009-05-31T17:34:18Z

[x] 095. get henna'ed by coffeechica

022/101 completed

69/100 things about me: goodbyes

2009-05-31T03:05:08Z

I hate goodbyes. When I was a kid and relatives came to visit, I would hide when it came time for them to leave so I wouldn't have to say goodbye. Sometimes I still avoid goodbyes, intentionally or not (I missed half the people leaving the AF house).

30 poems in 30 days and 0 elevators

2009-05-05T06:54:36Z

[x] 040. stop using the elevator at work

020/101 completed

I guess I could have marked this off after leaving LJ, since that's what it meant. But now at new job and still not using any elevators. (Well, there isn't one and I'm the first floor, but sometimes I have to get up to the second floor..)

[x] 003. write again

021/101 completed

I didn't get a poem out everyday, but I did come up with 30 in 30 days (I forgot until April 2nd, so today is my Day 30). I have more than 30 actually, but most of them are still just partial pieces or otherwise unsharable. I wrote a villanelle at the beginning of the month that resembles the stuff I wrote when I was 14, but the second refrain and end twist is beautiful and worth recycling.

I'm glad I did this and pushed to 30, because even if some of the later ones felt more than forced and are really short, it's material to go through and refine. And I did write some I really like and/or will definitely revisit. Those are tagged with a ★ and in bold below.

This also really put me back into a writing state of mind. I wrote "you could have" while walking to work. On my arm, because I forgot my notebook. It's amazing I could decipher it after. I also wrote a pantoum for the first time, this reversal thing, and a poem in CSS. I didn't get to a sestina and still can't wrap my head around iambic pentameter, but I am writing again.

The majority of them are about the past, which I feel more comfortable writing because it's done, but also a challenge going back to a specific moment. And isn't that just what these are, moments of my life that I'm sharing? Though one of the things I love most about poetry is that it can be interpreted in many different ways by the reader.

NaPoMo 2009 Anthology

Writer's Block: Indulgences

2009-04-21T06:46:41Z

Your birthday is a time when you get to indulge in all your favorite things. So indulge us—what's your favorite LJ post?

View other answers

*cheats* this.

68/100 things about me: pet names & nicknames

2009-04-10T05:19:06Z

I hate being called Stace. It's Stacey. Very few people can get away with calling me Stace. I also really hate it when strangers call me pet names like honey or sweetheart. Hell, I don't even really like it when people I like call me that. Except sometimes.

<3

2009-04-04T18:17:03Z

I love you.

oh hay that looks familiar

2009-03-30T05:50:34Z

That water we had in Vegas? It costs even more in SF o_O

The larger bottles were 7-something dollars plus CRV.

pressies!

2009-03-29T21:00:57Z

Thanks urban_ballerina! ♥

state of the me

2009-03-20T03:54:10Z

Too many good things today. I'm afraid that it'll all unravel tomorrow. But for now, I bask in happy.

67/100 things about me: rain

2009-03-05T07:35:29Z

Rain is one of my favorite weather elements. Streets slicked shiny and lights reflecting movie-like. The gentle refreshing spray of a drizzle or light shower. Falling asleep to the rhythm of raindrops dancing across any surface.

And yet I don't have a rain userpic.

relax-a-therapy

2009-03-02T23:33:13Z

[x] 76. get a professional massage

017/101 completed

For Valentine's Day, Rich got me a gift card to Tru Spa, good for a TruTheraphy treatment. It came in a gift box with three different mini bottles of the shea butter they use for the massages. Also, Rich made me quite an impressive card. Anyway, I had scheduled my appointment for today, figuring that by now, I'd be even more stressed out, especially still not having a job and all. And I was. And now I'm all relaxed \o/

The spa was really nice. The water in the sinks came down a slide on the wall, and the showers had an option for spray from both overhead and the handheld. And I was offered champagne and there were cheese&crackers and brownies in the waiting lounge.

The massage was also really nice. I got to choose which shea butter I wanted—Energize or Relax. I didn't want to smell like a candy cane, so I went with the relaxation one, which was tangerine and vanilla. There were moments where I'd close my eyes and almost fall asleep; it was that relaxing. My neck and shoulders feel so much better now. Everywhere else too, but especially my neck and shoulders.

he said harder, longer strokes.

2009-02-20T02:12:10Z

Yesterday it was red, today it's purple. I didn't just fall, I crashed hard onto the ice landing first on my right knee, then on my left side. I must have been 8 the last time I scraped my knees. Other than the bit of pain when I bend my leg, ice skating was fun. And I can sort of do the two foot spin now, and was given pointers on going backwards.

Afterwards, we enjoyed a relaxing Wei Qi 茶 and cookies on the Samovar patio. It was a nice day out and Yerba Buena was unexpectedly quiet. Though I guess that makes sense since everyone else was at work in the tall buildings surrounding the nature. I should go back again with a book.

it's what you do to me

2009-02-14T17:31:52Z

top 5 entries in this journal (meme from intrepia)

2009-02-08T05:37:44Z

1. 01/09/09 photolog (January 10, 2009)
2. stars and &hearts; (October 9, 2008)
3. my sky is starless tonight. (May 17, 2004)
4. reset, restart, new game? (March 1, 2008)
5. something to get me right (January 17, 2008)

I picked based on style (and memory, since I didn't want to go through 1,471 entries). If it were the top 5 entries that defined me, I wouldn't even know where to begin. Actually, my reflect tag is pretty encompassing of that, and breaking up/moving on is where I discovered strength I didn't know I had. The shooting stars tag shows the opposite, mostly. Re-reading those gave me shivers (the filtered entries, which not many people have access to).

If it were my top favorite moments that I've written about, the totally awesome! tag comes pretty close. Entries tagged hell yeah also fit here ;)

bonus: My favorite entry written as an LJ employee is this one. Though it doesn't really count since that wasn't an official post..

41/100 things about me: little scars

2009-02-07T05:04:38Z

I was 13, playing ice tag, and very determined to tag a certain someone who I totally got before falling forward. I had my hands flat instead of balled into fists when I was getting back up, and someone skated over my right pinky. The cut wasn't deep, but it left a tiny scar about a centimeter long.

linebyline prompt: how could you forget

2009-02-06T04:11:36Z

we left behind these shores of past
the seashells that held our stories
mistakes dispersed in grains of sand

we headed for the horizon
where just beyond laid our future
aglow in a golden light
majestic, so full of promise

i should have known
magic isn't real
& neither are promises.

silly me to have believed differently
to expect that you'd understand
because how could you
forget what i've given, my existence

as the shores disappeared from view
so did everything i'm worth
(to you)

rock it.

2009-02-05T01:36:36Z

[x] 011. get chasethestars.com back up and going

016/101 completed

I had this idea a few years ago for a one page portfolio and sketched out how it would work. Until last September, that's all it was—sketches in my notebook. Then I created the illustrations.. and neglected it again.

chasethestars.com used to be so active, a showcase of my creativity in various forms. Way back in the day, I used to update my websites with a new look at least once a month. Same as with my writing, I had lost that drive when I became too caught up in the real world.

Today, chasethestars.com has something again¹. Not as great as it had been, but it's something. The scrolling effect doesn't work in IE and the image map is the only bit that wont validate in XHTML 1.1. But hey, it's more than just sketches in my notebook now \o/

¹ And I needed a gauge of how much coding I still felt comfortable with. I should probably pull PHP and Javascript off my resume until I (re)learn it.

old news now?

2009-02-02T06:40:02Z

I made my goodbye post to lj_design, and there were a bunch of comments. It trickled down after the 9th, at the end of page 8. Then it really picks up again on the 18th, and there's still a steady stream of comments coming in now. Not as many as when the post first went up, but a lot more than between the 9th and the 18th.

Did something happen? Was there another big announcement somewhere? Was there some big holiday break where everyone had been gone from LJ? My best guess would be the feedback link on the profile page, but it has been a few weeks...

I'm really curious. Enlighten me.

driving into the sunset

2009-02-02T02:48:03Z

It's been a long time since I've crossed the Bay Bridge from above, heading West, at sunset. This cameraphone photo does not do it justice. I can't believe there are people who will go their entire lives without ever seeing the sun dip into the water.

comedy show, and other 101s

2009-01-29T16:24:25Z

[x] 083. go to my first comedy show

013/101 completed

One of my other birthday surprises, which I had totally guessed, was a comedy show. Rich took me to The Comedy Store last Friday. There were 5 performers, but the only name I can remember is Mike Gunn (when did I start having memory fail?). All of them, including the host, were great though.

I think my favorite joke was about women's Viagra, that the name was stupid and he could've done better: Niagra, like Viagra, but for women, and the commercial would be of a young one under the waterfall. Also, I learned something new. Viagra for women? wtf? Uh, lube?

Other things I can cross off my 101:

[x] 033. learn to walk in heels

014/101 completed

I was in heels for 9 hours the night of the LJI holiday party, and was in boots/heels the whole time in Paris. We walked about 5 miles that first night, from Hotel du Louvre down the river, then back the other way to the Arc de Triomphe. And I didn't stumble any more than I do in sneakers and my feet weren't killing me, so I'd say it's safe to say I have this heels thing down now.

[x] 051. new boyfriend

015/101 completed

Basically, idonotlikepeas won't need to send someone out to bash any heads together.

"it's not you, it's me."

2009-01-29T04:33:15Z

Being laid off from LiveJournal really is comparable to the end of a relationship. We were friends for 5 years before dating for 3, and can still be friends. And it was harder than any breakup I've had because of the sudden and unexpected end. I didn't want to see other people, couldn't fathom the idea of being happy with anyone else. It didn't seem possible. And the stupid relationship neurosis of "but who else would want to love me?"

But I've had time away to heal, and I've been noticing others—prospectives and potentials that I'd like to get to know intimately too. Though you'll always hold a special place in my heart, I'm ready to move on and commit to someone new.

London and York, in photos

2009-01-27T01:58:08Z

I have now been to the UK twice. Though the first time was just for a day, I got to see what I came to see ;) Sunday-Tuesday was Paris, then Wednesday-Friday was actually seeing London, and Saturday-Sunday was York.

This seems like a fitting start to this photo set, since Rich surprise-snapped it after I said I didn't want to take any more touristy pictures, and Nicole commented that it looked like a movie still. I hate it.

Stacey Sees London

Trafalgar Square (where the lions were)

Obligatory red telephone booth photo

Big Ben

St. James's Park

Buckingham Palace. Missed changing of the guards both days because of my not liking the whole getting out of bed in the morning thing.

London's tiny Chinatown

My first drink in a "proper pub" (Cittie of Yorke in London)

Huge ostrich at the Natural History Museum (also huge)

London Eye

Tower Bridge

Stacey Gets Into the Walled City

The Minster, with me not in front of it, gasp!

Drinks at The Evil Eye, which we got to via a tiny alleyway that I did not have to duck under! I had the Majestic Melon, which was delicious. Come to think of it, that was the only girly drink I had the whole trip.

Blood spilled at~~... I forget the name of this place~~ Dusk.

Hey look, I'm not red anymore!

Bits & Pieces

It was sunny every day, in every location. When it did rain, it was while we were sleeping, or only for a few minutes at most.
We had sushi everyday between Paris and York.
Ate at Yo! Sushi twice, Wetherspoons twice, and Pret A Manger twice.
Rich made me a bacon and egg sandwich with "real bacon".
Also had real fish and chips.
There was a premiere of Valkyrie in Leicester Square when we were, but did not care to meet Tom Cruise or get crushed by the crowd.
Thought about stopping by The Independent for kicks.
There's more, but I am so falling asleep right now. Good thing I don't have to get up and go to work in the morning! :(

Paris and Birthday Part 2

2009-01-26T22:12:10Z

For my birthday and our first date, Rich took me to Paris for a few days. This included dinner at Le Jules Vernes, the restaurant at the top of the Eiffel Tower. We had a table next to the window and the whole meal was very nice, though I probably committed many many etiquette faux pas.

The only silverware on the table when we were seated were very long and very thin forks with tiny tiny prongs, and matching knives. Our server offered a dish of mini puff pastries and I said no thanks because I didn't know what to do with it. He told me again to take one, and I did.. with my fingers. I realized after they took the tiny forks away that that's probably what they were for. Oops.

I didn't order a starter, just a main course, thinking I wouldn't be able to finish that anyway. I'd forgotten that the fancier the restaurant, the smaller the dish. But it turned out to be the perfect size for the appetite I've had recently.

For dessert, I got the chocolate souffle, which came with a side of bourbon ice cream. I think my dessert was larger than my main course. They also gave us a bunch of extras: truffles, sugar-coated marshmallows, and assorted other goodies. It's happened—there was more dessert than I could eat!

We were there for about 2 hours, and there were only 3 other couples for the first half. They were seated next to each other, then an empty table, us, and window. It was really quiet and I felt like we were supposed to be whispering or something. Maybe no one else heard our that's what she saids >_> Also, just before getting ready for dinner, we had tickle fights and pillow fights (I won).

This was the poshest meal I've ever had (and most impressive first date) and it was a great experience (eating at the top of a world famous landmark!), but definitely not something I'd want to do often (super attentive waiters make me kind of nervous). When Rich first told me he was taking me to Paris, the whole thing felt surreal. Even weeks later, I still couldn't believe it— really? This boy is really taking me to Paris and dinner at the Eiffel Tower?? It still feels surreal now.

[x] 050. go on a date where I know from the start that it's a date

012/101 completed

mount(a)in lion

2009-01-21T23:18:19Z

rendezvous in paris

2009-01-20T20:48:35Z

Crème brûlée! Marta, Carrie, Arie, Ferrell, Snark: was thinking of you.
Also had a croque madame and crêpes while in France.

That famous smile *g*

and The Eiffel Tower.

[x] 088. visit Europe

011/101 completed