Art & Soul, part two of... lots

By the time I got out of class Friday night, I was famished for food and other people. But at this point I only knew my roommate Kecia...
... and I'd only met her online up to this point. So I wandered over to the free drinks at happy hour, and there was La Lemoncholy herself with lots of interesting people: Jan (you can see her arm behind K's head), Sammy (who'd just been in my deMeng class), Blaiz, and Mija. Then the connections started clicking. I realized I knew of Mija through our mutual art friend Tally, who's been my dear friend since third grade. And I'd seen Blaiz's work on Artitude's website long before I knew these were real people I might someday meet.

With Jan's prodding, we finally got off our tuchises and found dinner at Sayler's Old Country Kitchen. Whoooo-whee, those folks do MEAT. Huge steaks, chicken breasts -- their idea of a chicken dinner is "oh, two or three chicken breasts" along with the (generous) sides, according to the waitress. Poor Mija... she looked and looked for a side salad with her shrimp cocktail -- and got one when she asked, but it wasn't specified on the menu.

We also discovered we had a few political differences amongst us... Jan (who's from TX) and Sammy are Republicans who were excited to see the celeb pictures of George and Barbara on the wall. And the rest of us... um... aren't. We had a politely animated discussion of Why They Hate Us, and no blood was shed. Aren't you proud?

Then I joined Mija and Christine for chocolate and wine in their room, and Dawn, Kecia and Sammy appeared soon after. Much loud laughter and snorting was heard in the next room over, and we got the "shut the hell up, you loud-ass art women" knock on the wall. I later told Dawn it's a good thing she lives on the opposite end of the country and I live in Increasingly Diverseville, because we agreed we'd soon become insufferable inseparable. Then Kecia, Sammy and I chitchatted as we settled in for the night in our own room, and passed out from exhaustion.

Mija and Christine kindly extended an invitation for me to come hang out with them on Saturday, since none of us had classes. So we went exploring in Portland, to find:We have something similar in my neck of the woods, but hoo-boy -- haven't been to this one before!
I found magnifying lenses that were about the size of thick page pebbles... inexpensive tubes to hold flat papers (really need those)... and the best find: hardback book covers. At first I thought, well, I know people make their own books with these but I'd have to go online and learn it and I'm already crunched for time to finish other projects, so I put them down.

And then hit myself on the head. Helloooo!! Going to take a class on Monday with LK Ludwig that teaches me to do exactly that! One of them even came from the 800 pound gorilla research institution where I work. So I was obviously meant to have all three that I bought, and only for a dollar-fitty. The fourth one was from the "Journal of Hispanic Culture," which Mija happily accepted, it being all about her peoples and all.
We also bounced to a scrapbooking store and Fabric Depot, which is like the Costco of fabric. It's freakin' HUGE. And packed to the gills that day, because there was a big ol' Columbus Day sale. But we still made it out in time to go to Vendor Night. More on that in the next post.

Yay! I have comments on my posts now! Go see all my wonderful peoples now.