Not Quite Café Terrace by Night

Not Quite Café Terrace by Night
Originally uploaded by chaayenyen

One of these days, I am actually going to invest in oil paint and instruction. Until then, dear reader, you might have to suffer the occasional bad reproduction of a famous painting.

But they are so much fun.

off to thailand, or sweet orange shorts

it' s official. i am going to thailand. aaahhh!! (cry of excitement) to be honest, it has been official since early this week. on tuesday, i went into town--translation: i drove two hours to boston. after a quick jaunt through the dentist's office--uncomfortable discovery: two freakin' cavities--and a brisk flirt with a drill and novocain cocktail (not in that order, i still like my dentist), i was off to buy my ticket before heading to the consulate-general. in and out of the library (free internet) in 20 minutes. minus eight-hundred-odd dollars, that is. and it's only a one way ticket. at this point i can't come back. flipping scary...err, sort of.

so mom and i were jaunting around downtown boston trying to find the blasted consulate. at some point the consulate moved across town, thus there were two addresses listed. arrghhh!! we finally found it (after being told adamantly that the consulate had moved to new york--it hadn't) and i was in and out in less than ten minutes. less than ten minutes!! it was amazing.

i went to quincy market to celebrate and treated myself to my second sushi roll ever (spicy tuna--absolutely delicious) and a slice of white pizza with chicken and broccoli. all things considered, a marvelous afternoon. that is, besides the fact that it cost me about a thousand bucks...including sushi and pizza for 8 bucks.

so in honor of all these new developments, i decided to experiment with watercolors and illustrate a little something. an important discovery: there is a reason that illustrators use waterproof ink--it runs like crazy on low poundage paper. here's the result:


boston to chiang mai, thailand by way of seattle and taipei (quick, name that country). thirty-one plus hours in transit. as alan would say, "a kick in the head."

and that's all folks. except for these sweet orange shorts i found in a drawer. yes, i am rockin' 'em. and no, i probably won't wear them in public. a little short for my liking, especially when sitting. too much information. my bad.

i would love to be an illustrator

i'll be honest. i have been in a strange sort of funk for the last month. after reading some of my previous posts, i think it has sort of seeped into my writing. that being said, i live for the moments of non-funkiness. i had one of those tonight.

some people read on friday nights, others go to vespers and chat, and still others sleep. tonight i went to vespers, and was captivated by the awkward beauty of the banjo's sound. vespers was all music, and good music it was. i then went to my room and shamelessly imitated one of my favorite painters. it was the most enjoyable two hours of my day. now, i am sure i am not destined to be any sort of art forger, but i think, somewhere in my consciousness, i would enjoy being an illustrator. great. another thing to add to the list of things that intrigue me.

here's the result:


i figure if you can tell who the original painter was, it's a decent reproduction. you can tell, right?