a hot july moon

Girl you know you're only 17...



I sang "Strawberry Wine" soooo awful at this weird beach bar's karaoke a couple of months ago. I wish so bad you guys were there. I think I even called you.
I wish more we could do it tonight for Erin's birthday. I googled the images for "Erin Riley's Birthday" and this is one of many that came up.
I was talking yesterday about how a lot of times I'll just say I'm 25... or forget that I'm 24. like it doesn't exist.. Might as well just skip to 25 (think it's because JT is). But I've dedicated myself to reminding myself I'm 24 for the next few months I will actually be... Anyway, cherish it, Erin, and remember, you're not 25 yet!

So, I delete these sometimes... because they pile up in my old email's mailbox. but I'm always so glad when I do take the short time.
Here's what happened Erin's last week of 23.

Harper's Weekly Review July 14-21st, 2009

Sonia Sotomayor, who is expected to be confirmed to the
Supreme Court in August, was interrogated for four days by
Democratic and Republican senators of the Senate Judiciary
Committee. Republicans grilled Sotomayor on her legal
positions. Democrats lauded her; Senator Sheldon
Whitehouse (D., R.I.) said that her life story gave him
"piel de gallina," or goose bumps. Sotomayor was, however,
not able to answer when Senator Al Franken (D., Minn.)
asked her to name the one case that Perry Mason
lost. "Didn't the White House prepare you for that?" he
said. Reporters noted that Sotomayor was "a big toucher"
who responded to Republican senators' proffered handshakes
with a warm smile and a squeeze of their shoulders, and
they also pointed out that on the second day of the
hearings, when the judge was asked by Senator Patrick
Leahy (D., Vt.) to explain her "wise Latina woman"
comment, she blinked at least 247 times while answering,
averaging 90 blinks per minute in the morning; that rate
decreased to 50 blinks per minute in the afternoon. At
least four anti-abortion protesters were arrested at the
hearings, including 61-year-old Norma McCorvey, better
known as Jane Roe, the plaintiff in the Supreme Court case
that made abortion legal. A tiny species of Mexican shrew,
previously thought extinct, was rediscovered.

At the convention to honor the hundredth anniversary of
the NAACP, President Obama admonished African Americans
for their poor parenting, telling them they had to start
"putting away the Xbox and putting our kids to bed at a
reasonable hour." Some worried that Obama was no longer
cool after he appeared at the All-Star baseball game
(where he threw a lob ball that didn't clear the plate)
wearing "dad jeans." "I suppose President Obama is indeed
a father, so we should allow him such a strike against
humanity," said one blogger. "I thought he was cooler than
that, somehow." Auditors questioned whether Crocs Shoe
Company, which lost more than $185 million last year,
could remain solvent. The Pope fractured his wrist; the
Episcopal Church voted to overturn a moratorium on
ordaining gay bishops. An amendment to the annual defense
authorization bill that extends federal hate-crimes
protections to gays passed the Senate; and Bill Clinton,
who signed the Defense of Marriage Act that prevented the
federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages
during his presidency, said he is "basically in support"
of gay marriage. Harry and Pepper, gay penguins who since
2003 have nested together at the San Francisco Zoo, broke
up after Harry had an affair with Linda, a recently
widowed penguin who seduced Harry in her deceased
husband's burrow. "To be completely anthropomorphizing,"
said zookeeper Anthony Brown, "Linda seems conniving."
Seventeen-year-old lesbian Cheyenne Cherry pleaded guilty to
charges of animal cruelty for baking her former lover's
kitten in a 500-degree oven, and scientists found that
cats have developed a "soliciting purr" (different from
regular purrs because they are embedded with a "cry") that
can manipulate humans into giving them food and
affection. Walter Cronkite died.

North Korea launched its first television commercial for
Taedonggang beer, the "Pride of Pyongyang," which promises
to relieve stress; stress-relief was also the reason
offered by Japanese manufacturer Wishroom for the success
of its line of male bras. The unemployment rate was rising
for Japan's robots, and, following reports suggesting that
EATR, a steam-powered, biomass-consuming military robot,
could feed on dead bodies, its makers released assurances
that the robot is a vegetarian. Thick dark blobs of
unidentifiable goo were floating in the Arctic Ocean,
divers off the coast of San Diego were attacked by jumbo
flying squid, and at least nine shark-bite survivors went
to Capitol Hill to lobby Senators in defense of sharks. A
German "molecular" chef, using liquid nitrogen to prepare
a dish, blew off his hands, and scientists found that
swearing alleviates pain. Before police rescued him, a
three-year-old Canadian boy spent two hours floating down
Peace River atop his toy truck. Two Chicago teens sneaked
into a 66-year-old man's home while he was watching
television in bed, pulled off his prosthetic legs, and ran
off with them. A brothel in Berlin began offering a
discount to customers who arrive by bicycle. Researchers
found that amphibians enjoy mating by the light of a full
moon.

-- Claire Gutierrez


I LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU

Jeanine

BONE MACHINE

GEEZ.

I am IN LOVE

so remember a couple weeks ago after my last trip to natures treasures? well we were getting the looks together for the hair last week and took a trip to feathers to check out some of the outfits for the fashion show. This guy was there getting jewelry together that he is selling at feathers and i had to run back because i had a client, but before i did i could not take my eyes off all this awesome jewelry. my dreams had come true! well, someone got to them before i could... im just going to steal his pictures off of his website so you can check them out... or you can go to viachristachains.com..

these are a couple of my favorites

So.. after pretty much just daydreaming about all of this jewelry.. i went to the "austin fashion awards" (which was hilarious... come on...) and i actually got something good out of it. we won the award for best salon which was pretty cool...and after about 3 or 4 glasses of champagne i ran into the guy and girl (i forget their names!!! eeee) who make this jewelry and confessed my love for it. I told them how much i looove their jewelry and how they have to do a photo shoot with me for my masks kind of like the last one i did. i totally forgot about this until today and i sent them an email.. i just wish i had a photographer since i am terrible with that. Hopefully it all works out, all of their jewelry is amazing. I am going to save money every month to buy a piece! I want alllll of it!!!

I can't seem to shake it. It's got me.

The other night, on a mission to get crunk, I drank more tequila than I ever have in my life within 2 hours. The drink: The La Palapa: muddled lemons, raspberry liquor, silver tequila, and soda water. I had two at a time and 3 really giant shots of jagermeister.
I said things I shouldn't have and don't remember to people I don't know that well (that I work with). I had the worst headache ever of my life the next day. I wish you had been there...

Congratulations Erin!!!!
Remember when we wanted to move there right out of high school? I think this will work better... New York is so awesome...
Now I'll be going to work my 9th day in a row...
But I got a new job at my same old job... I'll be doing minor marketing!

Jeanine says...

I'm feeling the suffocating stress right now with you.
Let's vacate...
But seriously, Erin, live in Brooklyn, you can do it... it's so much cheaper than the city.
Talk to Savannah, she has friends who work in fine dining in New York!
I've made a final decision to go to Brazil in February... no matter what (hence that picture up there). Savannah just bought a round trip ticket for $450. I will do nothing but save my money in order to go.
I'm thinking about starting to study for the GRE's to go to graduate school but I still don't know what I want to do, so that's pretty stupid.
I'm getting new roommates and living in the same house but moving into the master room.
I'll have my own bathroom and painted walls. Maybe it'll help me get my shit together... or make me feel like I have my shit more together.
I should probably just get my shit together.
I love Trouble in Mind... it is stuck in my head all the time.
I'm glad we're feeling ill with stress together. Xanax would be exactly what you're looking for for panic attacks. I should give you my stress book. Remember when I was going to practice things, like progressive muscle relaxation and deep breathing, with you? We should still do that. Keep yoga up.
I miss you guys...

where do we go from here

i'm stressed.
sometimes i just want to fast forward 10 years from now.
i'll be taking vacations. paying bills on time.
why couldn't i have graduated 2 years ago?

i just started working at a gallery, desoto row, as the assistant curator. it's a non-profit gallery and it runs solely on volunteers. so, even though i can put it on my resume and it will look good, i wont be making any money. and jesus, thats what i need right now.

i talked to this lady today about interning with her. shes a photographer in new york who is pretty well known. she said she was concerned because a lot of kids will say "oh yeah i can do an unpaid internship." and then move out to new york, work with her for a couple weeks and find out that they can't afford to be there. i told her i understood her concern but felt that if i could work at a fine dining restaurant for a 3-4 nights a week, i should be okay. she said she'd think about it and call me back at the end of the day.
who knows what will happen.

i have panic attacks. or so i think that's what they are.
it's getting to point where once it starts, it affects me for a long time and stresses me out more. i want to go to a doctor, but i don't want to be put on something that i need to take everyday. just something i can take when i feel like i need it. its not as easy as it sounds, though. no one wants to hand me over a perscription to xanax.

oh well.

i'll stick with the johnny cash theme.
here's another video
he makes me feel better.

love erin

DONT LIKE THE LOOK OF IT DONT LIKE THE TASTE OF IT DONT LIKE THE SMELL OF IT

i really love listening to NIN in my car really loud. it reminds me of driving home from school in my brothers car in high school. i made this a few months ago and gave it away to a friend, then discovered that matt took a picture of it.

I cant post any nine inch nail videos because they are all disabled, so... I will leave you with Johnny Cash doing HURT. This version makes me really sad when I hear it, but its so good.

enjoy

luv sara

SUPERNATURAL DELIGHT

I took my aunt to natures treasures today, my favorite crystal store. I told her about how I gave Matt a citrine crystal when he got a new job. Old merchants used to put citrine crystals in their cash boxes because they believed it would bring them more money. So my aunt bought me a big piece of citrine. It is my biggest crystal. I usually just buy little ones. So far I have two pieces of citrine, 1 amethyst point, 1 piece of pyrite, and 2 pieces of rose quartz. I also have a kind of fossil horse bone. My aunt also has some cool coyote teeth she is saving for me that she found in her backyard. I dont know what my fascination is with crystals and bones ... I also really love teeth. They have rhinoceros teeth at natures treasures too. They're suuuper old. like maybe millions of years... maybe I should quit my career as a hairdresser and become an archaeologist! I also think it would be really fun to go somewhere where there is an abundance of certain crystals and go on a hunt! I have been trying to find somewhere in Austin to go bone hunting.. but im trying to stay away from cattle ranches... that is the only place I hear you can find a lot. I want to find ones that happened naturally... I was telling Tyler my idea about how I want to start this thing called HUNT and do things with old bones and teeth, and she was saying how she wasn't into that, and I was like oh DUH shes vegan, im an asshole. So it got me thinking... maybe I should just look where the animals are all wild and their deaths happened naturally. Matt hung up this roll of paper in the living room and my bone was hanging on the wall on the outside and it fell and broke into three pieces. ( I'm not mad.. it was for a good cause, now we have this cool roll of paper that hangs in the living room and everyone can draw on it when they come over.) Anyways.. I was thinking I could do something with the pieces? Not sure though, yet.

Another cool thing about citrine is that it promotes optimisim and gets rid of negative energy. Oh yeah I used to also have this piece of selenite, which is good for like balancing your energy.. and I had this piece that you could hold between your pointer finger and thumb... Well the day after I got it i was walking out of my closet and I looked down and it was broken in half on the floor! Of course.

luv,sara