I have been remiss in posting photos of my new house. I did lose my camera for a couple weeks, but it has been found and photographs were taken.

That was what one of the upstairs bedrooms looked like when I moved in. I called it Oxygen Tank Green. It was putrid. It was just paint, though, and it could be painted over.

I knew I wasn’t going to use this room as a bedroom, because it was just too small. It is the only room upstairs with an overhead light, but the door swung open so that it covered the lightswitch. Um. Yeah. The big bay windows and the fact that this is the southwest side of the house means it would be good for Nate’s amateur botany (I have two brown thumbs, and knew those windows would do me no good), so it immediately became his plant room. I thought we should make it a combination plant and computer room, and put the menagerie in the back bedroom, so that Nate did not feel like I was sequestering him to one room of the house, but he wanted the snakes in the same room as the plants, so ok. His mama snake was going to lay eggs soon, which meant that repainting this room had to get done before other projects, so that it’d be ready for her.

We took the door down for easier access to the lightswitch (and with not keeping it as a bedroom, there was no real need for it), but now we’re discovering that it’s more difficult to keep the temperature regulated in there. (Is that why she’s not laying her eggs?) We might do something nontraditional in the doorway to keep it warm in there. Window quilt? I don’t mind if it doesn’t look “normal”, I just don’t want it to look tacky. Thinking, thinking …

I learned a few painting tricks that did me no good until it was too late along the way, but if you look at the other pictures in my photostream, you’ll notice that there’s terrible wallpaper throughout the house and there will be plenty of time to practice!

I am pretty sure he meant this dog.

I love this man.

Nate and I went to Portland to hang out with his friends this weekend. It was awesome, as usual. Friday was drinks at Novare Res (for everyone else, of course. I might have tried the raspberry mead I hear was on tap a week earlier, but otherwise I don’t care for beer).

Saturday was breakfast at BreaLu, then loaf around the house until it was time to go back to Novare Res. I got myself a black cherry soda, and we played Lunch Money. Right as it was time to leave, there was a torrential downpour, and we got back to Rory’s totally soaked. I’m glad we had more clothes to wear, but I wish that either I hadn’t been wearing my converses or I’d grabbed my sandals out of my backseat when I realized we were taking Nate’s car down to Portland. I had wet shoes for the rest of the day :(

For dinner last night we went to Gauchos, which was incredible. I might be a vegetarian now, though. I seriously was doing okay until the sword-o-chicken-hearts came by, and I realized that one chicken had to die for each of those bite-sized morsels and then I remembered the piles of meat I had just eaten and I lost my appetite. I didn’t want to even see meat anymore, but we had to wait until everyone was done to leave and ughhhh. A combination of feeling sick and overstuffing my gullet led to my going to bed early (or rather, passing out on Rory’s couch while everyone played Wii next door), but at least I felt better afterwards.

This morning we had breakfast at Bayou, then headed back up to Bangor, but not without stopping at Fort Williams Park. We climbed on all the kinds of rocks I was never allowed to climb on as a kid, found pretty snails, and teased the seagulls with empty crab legs. I’m glad my shoes had dried out :P

Anyway, enjoy the pictures. I carried my camera with me all weekend, but got self-conscious about it and didn’t take any pictures until it was just me and Nate, and it was almost all over. Next time I’ll do better.

Kaity got married, and her photographer posted some of the pictures online. I’m in a couple, but most importantly, OMG LOOK AT HOW PRETTY EVERYTHING IS!!!1!eleven

Especially Kaity. And her dress. And the way she got everything to turn out just perfect. I can’t believe it. I love these people so much and MOOSE!!! What a beautiful dog. Srsly.

I had so much fun at that wedding, and I can’t imagine anything better than the two of them together.

I’m gushing, I know. But I don’t get to do it often enough.

One of my favorite pictures from our trip was this one, and now that I have a functional two-dimensional relative motion detector, I thought I’d play around with GIMP and see what I could do with it.

I like it. It’s cheesy, but I like cheese.

After I worked on this for a while, I realized that it kind of looked like one of those stupid wedding invitation pictures that have the kids on them. Ugh. So tacky. At that point, however, I was 80% done and wanted to see the finished result.

Pictures are up at flickr; let me know if things are fucked up over there. I was adjusting things with it last night when I was super jet lagged and I think I’d been up for like 27 hours or something, but my math might be wrong. Time zones confuse me.

I’ll add descriptions and stuff. So far the only real organizing I’ve done with them is added geotags.

This week was awesome. It’s nice to know that Nate and I can handle being constantly together for like 10 days or whatever it ended up being. The 16th around 5:30 after work until 10 last night. But it is also nice sitting around naked in my own apartment without him.

This place is a pit. I should have cleaned it before I left, but I ran out of time.

That’s not exactly true, but that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.

I gave my cat to the humane society before I left, because I am always at Nate’s these days and I’m a terrible cat mommy. Even when I am home I was mean to her because she’s super affectionate and I have no patience for her. Don’t worry, I am never getting another cat again, so this is not the place to put me on a guilt trip. I am pretty sure I’m never getting another pet again, because I’ll just fuck it up.

Anyway. Hawaii was incredible. I loved every minute of it, except when I was paralyzed by anxiety over one foolish thing or another. Seriously, I am such a nutjob. But Nate was super patient with me, which gives him 50k bonus points. 1up!

Seriously, though, I am a freak. If I wasn’t intimidated by the crowds, it was the huge waves, or the sand, or eating food I didn’t know, or mispronouncing something, or getting lost, or Nate’s driving (OMG CONVERTIBLES WHAT IF THE CAR FLIPPED OVER I”D BE DEAD), or snorkeling, or missing my flight, or what if someone looks at me OR OH MY GOD I AM IN HAWAII WHAT IF HE HATES ME AFTERWARDS?

Luckily, I brought my xanax, but I am pretty sure it did absolutely nothing for my anxiety. It had a nice psychosomatic effect, though. I also put VZ Navigator (gps) on my phone, so getting lost was pretty much never a real option. And the way the Sebring is designed, you cannot see the speedometer from the passenger seat. And eventually I learned how to talk myself out of being an idiot and did fun things like snorkeling. Coping mechanisms, people. Coping mechanisms.

And the parts of the trip I was really looking forward to, we got to do with Ian and Tracy and their kids, so that was awesome. His son (like … 3 1/2?) kept calling Nate “Mr Nate”, and his daughter was just this amazing bundle of giggles and shrieks. I really can’t wait to have kids some day, even after getting a glimpse of how much work they are. Even after realizing I am no where near responsible enough for an animal. I don’t know. I’m stupid for wanting kids, I’m sure, but that doesn’t make my ovaries stop wiggling.

Let’s hope that the metformin I’m taking is doing its job and I actually can have kids someday.

Speaking of metformin, I need to do some medication reconciliation. Right now I’m taking 2000 mg metformin (which seems like it’s finally enough to keep my insulin in check — though I haven’t gotten the results back from my lab visit just before my trip) and it makes me poop SO GOD DAMN MUCH. So I hate taking it, but I do, because I feel better (less the pooping). I’m also taking prevacid, which doesn’t seem to do anything, but it doesn’t seem to have any side effects, either, so I’ll keep taking it when I take everything else. I have a PRN prescription for xanax, which I really haven’t needed until last week, and like I said, I’m not convinced it did anything. I’ve also got a prescription for wellbutrin, which I originally got to quit smoking (and now I only smoke when I hang out with Kaity — which sadly isn’t that often anymore — but I can definitely say I’m not addicted to it. I’m not even sure I could say I like it.), but I kept taking it afterwards to see if it would help with depression and anxiety. Evidently it doesn’t do much for my anxiety (at least, I hope it hasn’t, or I’m in much worse shape than I thought), but I haven’t been too depressed lately. Nate really would like to see me off of the wellbutrin, though he hasn’t given me a clear reason why yet. Then I just got prescriptions for a steroid cream and an antibiotic for my rosacea. I didn’t start them before my vacation, because they make you more prone to sun exposure, and hello, I was going to Hawaii. I got a 2nd degree sunburn as it was, I’d probably be dead of sun allergy if I’d started it before I left. The other thing is, antibiotics + birth control … scary. But everything says that Nuvaring is less affected by antibiotic use than oral contraceptives, so we’re going to go with that.

I’m sure that was incredibly boring. Sorry. I just had to write it all out so I could see it.

God damn this sunburn hurts. I should get dressed so I can get some lidocaine to put on it.

Fuck, with my mouse not working I’ve had to tab to links and I can’t see when I’ve tabbed to the save entry button.

I haven’t been able to figure out why Flickr can’t post here anymore. I’d investigate it further, but I’m out of ideas.

Except the idea that it might be this layout, somehow. It doesn’t really make sense, though.

I only took about 30 pictures or so, because the last couple miles I was busy singing and carrying my big stick that I found and wondering if I could not pee my pants before I made it out.

With laces or without?

The problem is that the toe-end holes can’t be laced, and I think it looks retarded with the laces starting halfway up.

don’t you wish your girlfriend was goth like me?

Originally uploaded by dianarchy

These are going to be awesome at the concert.

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Originally uploaded by dianarchy

He really isn’t a chow chow, I promise.

Uploaded by dianarchy on 12 Oct 07, 10.28PM EDT.

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Originally uploaded by dianarchy
A leaning tower of everlasting pasta bowl at olive garden.

Uploaded by dianarchy on 12 Oct 07, 8.53PM EDT.

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Originally uploaded by dianarchy

My cat, Paulie, while we were waiting at the vet’s. She was so scared that the dark mark beneath her right eye is a tear. :’(

Uploaded by dianarchy on 11 Oct 07, 9.54PM EDT.

Originally uploaded by dianarchy
This is mah frnd winning an award at werk.

It’s in the photograph.

Originally uploaded by dianarchy

I want to live in a house like this someday.

Uploaded by dianarchy on 6 Oct 07, 12.42PM EDT.

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Originally uploaded by dianarchy
A piece of chicken kiev left over from yesterday’s steam table entree. Now it’s on the salad bar and solidified.

Uploaded by dianarchy on 4 Oct 07, 11.43AM EDT.

Why does this guy have such a tiny head?

This picture was not originally titled “The Vampire” but received this name from a later art critic. The title in inappropriate, conjuring a one-way predatory relationship to the painting. The picture portrays two people in a complicated and painful love, having injured one another numerous times. Nonetheless, the man is consumed by a true devotional love but aware of the impossibility and pain of this relationship. He sinks into the bosom of the woman while she feels the irresistible urge to cling maddeningly to him, devouring their love but simultaneously is overbearingly hurt and frustrated. Thus, their desperate, hopeless, and painful “union” endures. Munch lays bare this experience of love that some of us have unfortunately experienced.

- Jason S.

Picture

Originally uploaded by dianarchy.

… best served with a bowl to catch shells, stems, and pits.

That was my face shortly after I got my camera, so … a month ago. A month ago tomorrow, in fact.

That was yesterday. I’m so fucking happy it’s starting to go away.