day 212

repeat

day 211

i wake up at 6:15

walk my dog

eat a mostly green banana

finish a book

and go back to sleep

day 210

oh hi just the reason i'm uploading this late is so i could get my film developed...

7 rolls since california and there are quite a few gems

i'm thinking about making a flickr (because duh everyone wants to see my photos, not just my mom and me) although i don't know what that entails exactly

as some of you may know, i have been cellphoneless for a few days. the port to charge my battery is ruined, so i've ordered an external battery charger but it won't get here for almost a week.

being without a cellphone is strange to say the least. i rely on that little black crackberry for so many things.

i use it as my alarm clock in the morning, and my mom coincidentally/luckily had purchased one for my birthday.. a pirate alarm clock.

now you might think, wow pirate alarm clock! that sounds great!

but NO you are wrong

i wake up to screaming!!! AHHHH! a lady screaming, and then a man (pirate) laughing. its horrible.

BACK TO WHAT'S IMPORTANT: being cellphoneless

i'm having a hard time without a handy calendar.

i always type thoughts/lists into my memopad (if you recall)and now it's not accessible. i've been writing things in my moleskine notebook but i left it at home today

i've been using fb A LOT for communication because i don't have most people's phone numbers. also my old lips phone from middle school won't work so i can't even have a phone in my room!

but guesss what. amidst all these clouds is a bright ray of sunshine because y'all.. going to sleep without your phone next to you is so liberating.

AND THAT. IS. ALL. point made

day 209

to ease the distress that accompanies my return from a summer-long break, i've assembled a list of positive actions/things that are good about being home:

• sleeping in my own bed
• taking a shower in my own shower
• watching movies/television shows on netflix instant before i fall asleep
• doing laundry (although the process isn't enjoyable. but having clean clothes is)
• watching pretty little liars because jake saved all the episodes i missed (three! i don't care! that show is good!)
• playing with kitties and bunnies
• walking garp before 7am
• having alone time
• not having to spend money on gas, food, hotels, etc.
• continuing the lost art of reading novels/informative books/not-magazines

day 208

after spending the morning in branson playing with pot-bellied pigs, enjoying the most delicious breakfast possibly ever, and swimming in the lake,

we drove home to shreveport

(ps: h8 driving in rain!)

i was welcomed by the same uneasy feeling that's followed me home from every vacation since i was young

I HAVE NEVER LIKED COMING HOME

this could be elaborated on immensely. i could go into depth about the anxiety that dominates my every thought*

but really honestly i'd just rather play with my kitten that i had to leave behind only days after i adopted her.

i'm looking forward to establishing a routine with her. this includes eating, sleeping, playing, and loving me.

she is crawling on the keyboard and making it almost impossible to type

*in conclusion, a haiku:

been gone a long time

returned to shreveport today

feelings are heavy

day 207

hello twenty-four

(on my birthday i'm allowed to have three completely unrelated pictures in one big picture

you should probably click on it to see the full size)

day 206

dacoda and i have begun our descent (?) back to shreveport

we stopped in branson for the night, and tomorrow we're going to the titanic museum*

LUCKILY i listened to an audio book for most of the drive so it went by quickly

tomorrow is my birthday. i don't think i could possibly be less excited.

i never understood when people would tell me they didn't like their birthdays or didn't want to celebrate, but this year it makes perfect sense. i have no desire to celebrate my birthday whatsoever.

this is unusual/i don't understand

OKAY while driving, besides listening to audio books and perfecting our wisconsin accents, dacoda and i are making a to-do list, as follows...

to do:

immediate and forever

throw away pee bottle

make PSA**

go to eureka springs

hair wraps***

learn french

finish writing/develop musical****

eat at panera (check!)

play cards

drink more water

stop texting while driving

sew shorts

*you probably don't know this very interesting fact, but i've become quite the expert on the titanic. just as interesting: i still have the may 1997 issue of seventeen magazine with leonardo dicaprio on the cover

**will be awesome

***IF ANYONE DOES THIS IDEA WITHOUT ME I WILL BE SO MAD Y'ALL

****also will be awesome

day 205

july 24th was my family reunion for my mom's side.

everyone is striving for attention or judging those who do.

let's just say that my family loves to procreate

and everyone loves the babies because they are innocent and have never made mistakes.

i would go into a lot of depth about my extended family,

but i think i'll save that information for when i write a memoir.

BUT that won't be until after i go to clown college and then become a walrus trainer

day 204

oshkosh b'gosh --> milwaukee

we went to the natural history museum

ladies and gentlemen reading this blog, please allow me to introduce you to my nightmares for the majority of my childhood:

yes yesss this is a dinosaur exhibit at the museum,

no the dinosaurs are not real. they are not alive

BUT THEY MIGHT AS WELL BE TO MY 5-YEAR-OLD MIND.

my parents would take us here and my little brother and i would run away screaming

also the dinosaurs used to move but they don't anymore and dacoda thought i was crazy but I SWEAR THEY MOVED

anyway besides the fear forever instilled in my memories, the milwaukee museum is the greatest ever

day 203

this was much more graceful-looking in my mind

we spent the morning/afternoon in madison

I LOVE MADISON

i sort of almost went to college there (well it was one of the three that i applied to)

and then we drove through pouring rain to oshkosh to see my grandparents and meet up with my maammmm and daaaad and errybody

day 202

sadly i didn't run into justin vernon on this morning in eau claire

but i did get to eat good crepes and go to the farmers market wifff my sister and her fam

dacoda and i made a much-longer-than-it-should've-been journey to madison

we stopped in black river falls because of this and tried to swim in the river but dacoda got violently ill from swimming too much and i'm pretty sure i picked a leech off my leg

also we tried to find this place called dr. evermore's forevertron which is the world's largest junk/scrap metal sculpture but:

*first we couldn't find it

*we asked someone where forevertron was and she just looked at us like we were maybe crazy

*then it was closed and we couldn't even see it

THEN we finally got to madison and walked around state street for a minute

dacoda got to try blue moon ice cream, the midwest's best kept secret///MOST DELICIOUS FLAVOR MAYBE TIED WITH PEANUT BUTTER AND CHOCOLATE

alsooo i got us a 1-star motel so maybe we'll go swimming in the tub-sized pool later if it doesn't stop raining

day 201

listened to bluegrass music and showed off my dance skills to the fine folks of menomonie, wisconsin

here's a conversation between dacoda and me involving cheese:

me: do you want a bite of this?

dacoda: no i'm so full

a few seconds pass

oh i didn't realize that was wisconsin cheese!

short pause

i'm so hungry

short pause

can i have a bite?

day 200

oh nothing just played wii mariokart and ate pbj with my niece and nephews

day 199

omaha nebraska --> wautoma wisconsin

family tyme y'all

day 198

miles traveled: 2,459

dollars spent: 1,000,000, each

books read: 1.5 (dacoda: speed reader extraordinaire!)

cryptograms solved: 7 (basically i'm a genius)

blizzards eaten*: 3

some music for the road:

taking back sunday- tell all your friends

billy joel- the nylon curtain

tom petty and the heartbreakers- greatest hits

a playlist called "best of the format" which i think would be more appropriately named "a diverse selection of the format songs including most of my favorites"

and the greatest mix cds in the world

tonight:

we're enjoying the great midwest

*none of which were nerds blizzards, because those, VERY UNFORTUNATELY, are no longer available

day 197

cadillac ranch^

i want life in the middle of no life.

i want a big city in the middle of a desert.

phoenix, santa fe, los angeles (does that count as desert?)

i need to live in one of these places.

day 196

drove from austin to marfa texas. immediately upon entering the city limits, we almost died in a horrible storm. but shortly after, the night significantly improved.

JUST SO YOU KNOW, we probably saw aliens or at least the ghosts of conquistadors looking for gold.

MARFA MYSTERY LIGHTS.

you may have heard about them while watching unsolved mysteries*

see that tiny light right there!?!? THAT IS 100% REAL!

also we stayed in the swellest place in west texas.. el cosmico

we spent the night in a trailer! no, not a hotel room, not a tent, a trailer

and it was awesome.

*interesting fact: i used to schedule my college classes around unsolved mysteries. i would take the early classes on purpose just so i could be home by 11am to watch it. i fucking love that show.

day 195

just did some exploring in austin

i'm having a really awesome vacation

in case you guys were wondering, dacoda and i could stay afloat in the ocean for days if we needed to

day 194

"there is no difference between the sky and the water, and i can feel the water rising around me, and i am already under the water, and all of the water is inside something larger, and i look at my feet to make sure they are secure because i am inside something larger."

day 193

day two in new orleans

today i went to not one but TWO history museums (dacoda's idea)

i am basically never interested in history. i have TRIED to be. and i have tried to trick myself into thinking i care about history (similar to the ways i try to enjoy drinking tea and eating eggplant) but it never works.

ALSO I:

• ate good beignets for breakfast
• walked until my legs were HURTIN' BAD Y'ALL
• visited marie laveau's grave
• lost a bet to dacoda over whose gravesite is the most visited in america and therefore didn't get to choose where we ate dinner (IT'S ELVIS!! NOT LINCOLN!)
• went nightswimming
• began to really love new orleans

day 192

HEY Y'ALL>

we're in new orleans, where the streets are dirty and the people gone crazy

and we're just being tourists and eating beignets that's all!

day 191

HEY.

today i was supposed to be packing.

so naturally that means look through old photo albums and also this little mermaid folder that i found with drawings of "fashions" from 5th-8th grades

here are some examples of the treasures that exist in my room and the product that my genius brain creates:

those photos are of my friend louisa and me in 9th grade, lookin fly as we always did.

and at the bottom is a picture i drew when i was in 8th grade, 13 years old, of what i was going to look like when i was 23. and i was going to be a movie star and singer of course.

interesting anecdote: also when i was 13, my science teacher made us write letters to ourselves in 10 years and she told us she would mail them 10 years later (which would have been in may). i never got my letter. i'm probably the only one who remembers that.

ALSO i have a horror story to share:

two weeks ago-ish, when i was at the melrose trading post aka flea market aka greatest place on earth, i found this elephant ring that i could not survive another day without owning. i thought i remembered seeing something similar before but i wasn't sure because i've seen a lot of awesome rings in my lifetime. SO OBVIOUSLY I BOUGHT IT. FOR $12.

and then i just now just realized that DUH i had seen it at forever 21~~!!!! DUUUHHH LIZZIE> you were deciding between that and the parrot ring!! just in case you guys weren't aware, rings from forever 21 are like $3.80 or maybe $4.80.

and not that it's just a similar ring... i'm pretty sure it's the EXACT same ring that came from forever 21 and the price was increased 300%

TOTAL SCAM

anyway.

i've been listening to the national's high violet side 4 (d?) for about 4 hours while i've been packing.

dacoda and i leave tomorrow for our excursion around this glorious country.

(you know what that means.... i could be going days without updating. BUT never fear, 95 people per day who read this, i promise to take pictures everyday. also i'll get to wi-fi whenever possible)

day 190

gone a little cray-zay

day 189

oh hey.

today i cleaned out my bathroom sort of,

as in threw away old stuff and stuff that i never use

i've compiled a pretty complete list of things that need to be thrown out, in case any of you are planning on cleaning out your makeup collection:

• any samples that you've gotten that you think you might want to use someday but still haven't even though you got them years ago
• anything that crumbles as soon as you touch it
• really old makeup sponges
• rusty tweezers
• glitter mascara
• anything that you can't even get open anymore
• that one color of blush that you thought would look good but actually it just ended up looking the exact same color as your skin so there's no point in wearing it
• any mascara tubes that have just a tiny bit left in them that you think maybe you might want to scrape out someday... not happening
• anything with no lid that you meant to find a new container for a long time ago but kept forgetting
• anything that you still somehow own that you stole from your mom's makeup before you were even old enough to be wearing makeup

i think that covers it. HA COVERS IT. GET IT????!!!

and other things:

i read that sunscreen that's a year old is no longer effective. also i decided that a full bottle of conditioner that i probably bought in high school didn't really need to be saved.

and finally, anything that's green that once wasn't green gets thrown out.

thanks, and i hope these guidelines help y'all guys

day 188

^^i made that shirt with sam (not my brother) last year while i was in california/going through my crafty phase

okay fine she did most of the "making"

but i picked out the fabric for sure

today i spent a lot of time with THIS BABY:

my neighbor found this kitty and now it is sort of accidentally my pet

it was never my intention to get another cat right now but LOOK AT THAT FACE!!

i wanted to name her an old lady name since she IS a lady and isn't trouble like most kittens (well, so far)

her name: Esther

AWW!

she loves people but she hates garp and osiris is unsure of her.

she is tiny and beautiful and she lives in my bathroom until i can get osiris to accept her presence in his house

anyway i was thinking about not keeping her for endless reasons (we have 8 indoor pets already, 9 if you count colin, i've wanted a HAIRLESS cat for a long time, i can't afford this shit, what am i thinking, etc.)

but that's really no longer an option because I LOVE HER NOW AND THERE'S NO TURNING BACK

and hopefully things will work out and i won't regret the unnecessary addition to my household

day 187

summer is my favorite season but

it rained today, it's about 100 degrees, and when i step outside i feel exactly the same as the night paula and i decided it was a good idea to cover me in baby oil and take pictures (see day 183)

despite the less than stellar weather, i had a pretty awesome summery day.

i ate breakfast with dacoda, dylan, chad and jake at another broken egg WHICH IS DELICIOUS... farm fresh omelettte mmmmm

i picked up my new glasses (new prescription/horrible eyes)

i went to the farmers market to get some gooood zucchini bread and granola.

and i unpacked THREE suitcases. one from california, one from wisconsin, and one from chicago. you might be thinking, "lizzie, i didn't know you went to chicago. i don't remember reading about it in this really interesting blog with details on everything you ever do"

well, dear friends, that's because i went there in december and YES JUST NOW UNPACKED

and then i went over to dalzell to watch pretty little liars with dylan

but i had my time zones confused and i thought it came on at 8! sooo we were an hour late and didn't get to watch it

OH AND there may be an addition to the drexler zoo. deets tomorrow y'all, promise

day 186

"don't leave my hyper heart alone on the water

cover me in rag and bone sympathy

'cause i don't wanna get over you,

i don't wanna get over you"

here are some good pictures from california:

(hope you guys appreciate my creative method of converting these to digital files)

and now the gargantuan task of unpacking begins...

and i have an enormous to-do list that needs to be completely accomplished before i leave again

gaaahfasdiruasjldhgklahbajllkmvm

day 185

fourth of july.

i have never liked this holiday

these were uploaded late because i got home last night and really just wanted to spend time with my family/boyfriend/cat and not stare at a computer screen.

day 184

three decades ahead at the dead man's bones show.

SO WHAT IF WE ALREADY SAW THE EXACT SAME SHOW LESS THAN A WEEK AGO

there are a few things that i really needed to buy from amoeba music before i left but didn't.

allow me to list them for you:

1. daria- the complete animated series

2. the michael haneke box set

3. the complete series of six feet under

4. the fun. record (which i carried around the store with me for a good long while so i could pretend like i was about to own it, even though i knew i couldn't afford that hefty yet reasonable price tag)

when i added all the prices of these items on my convenient blackberry calculator, it came to something above $350 :o(

also this was my last night in california.

day 183

places i like to walk to when i'm in los angeles:

melrose^^^

coffee bean

whole foods

santa monica blvd

jamba juice

amoeba music

hollywood blvd

fairfaxxxx (bakeries)

almost to the ocean (i was 11 blocks away!!)

these legs take me far, lately.

also, paula and i did a photoshoot tonight that involved me losing my vision in one eye for a few minutes:::

any one of these would have been used as my picture of the day but we aren't sure if they were taken before or after midnight.

and even though these turned out awesomely, it was ridiculously messy and required a lot of clean-up (something i hate doing)

ALSO tomorrow is my last day in LA before i fly back to shreveport for a few days//

day 182

halfway point.

july 1

in celebration of this momentous occasion, and as a treat to those of you who've stuck with me, i've decided to share my july-specifically-fourth-of-july-themed playlist that i made last year.

1. jesus the mexican boy- iron and wine

2. just watch the fireworks- jimmy eat world

3. fireworks- the whitest boy alive

4. july july!- the decemberists

5. the general specific- band of horses

6. faith in fast cars- the format

7. the city's summer- the honorary title

8. naked if i want to- cat power

9. independence day- martina mcbride

10. firecracker- steel train

11. fireworks- animal collective

12. fourth of july, asbury park- bruce springsteen

13. courtesy of the red white and blue- toby keith

14. fireworks- the tragically hip

15. la la lie- jack's mannequin

16. fourth of july- mariah carey

17. sam's town- the killers

day 181

y'allll i was supposed to go to the ocean today

but being without a car i really have no control of whether i go to the ocean or not.

unless i walk/skip/run which i'd have to leave now (tonight, 11pm) and get there tomorrow OR take the complicated bus system which dacoda and i failed at in october.

SO instead i took a very long walk. first to pick up the pictures from my disposable camera and get some overpriced jamba juice oatmeal, and then down fairfax allll the way to the grove. which is a great place to go if you have a lot of time to kill (convenient for me right!?)

on fairfax is basically the greatest bookstore of all time, family. everytime i go in i can spend hours (okay usually only maybe one hour, max.. but i COULD spend hours) looking at all the books and zines (like, actual zines, i'm not just shortening the word magazines, although it IS short for magazines, but thats because they aren't REALLY magazines)

ANYWAY.

i bought two books.

mcsweeney's and CATholic which is pictures of cats doing things and stories of cats (a must-read!)

then at the grove i went to barnes and noble to look at photography/art books... lichtenstein and john baldessari and nick knight.

just lets spend a few minutes looking at this picture of devon aoki, by nick knight:

i wish i looked like that.

and then i went to nordstroms to look at shoes that i really love but can't buy.

AND then began the treacherous walk back.

(also i went to erewhon to get a snack and almost immediately after opening it, dropped it on the ground.ffffff)

WELL then i was so determined to go swimming even if it wasn't in the mighty pacific. i mean the pool at paula's apartment is ALMOST just as good.

then then then i finally saw tim tonight for the first time since i've been here. AND sam and martin.

we had dinner at frankie's and that concluded my evening.

and for those of you who are questioning what i just said, i have photographic proof:

...goodnight!