This life... just... wow. Charmed.

Such a whirlwind of the past few days! My life blows my own mind sometimes with how well things work out every now and then.

On with the photos and stories!!

Wednesday I installed my show at Merlins... badly. Pepper would have been appalled. Badly nailed corners, no level or a ruler, and I gave up at one point and defaulted to duct tape. It was dark in there during the actual show though, so no one was the wiser.

That night was drinks and seafood with my fam & Casey - couldn't ask for more.

Jill came that night, ready for our full day Thursday.

Thursday was an early start dropping my car off to have the clutch looked at, and to buy tank tops and a point&shoot camera finally at Target before our appointments. Tank top success, camera fail. They had one I fell in love with but they were completely out of stock. Cue heartbreak because I wanted better than cameraphone pictures of the tat experiences. After moping, we settled on IHOP for breakfast and I settled down.

When we arrived for our tattoo appointments, I wanted to see if Dave could fit in Locatelli around 5 when she was getting into town. He wasn't sure, but her tattoo was small enough, black ink only, and she already had it laid out. He said he'd try.

Me first:

I'll try to take better picture when it's all healed.

Halfway done

We are the music makers & we are the dreamers of dreams

Jill

Hold Tight

After running a whole gauntlet of errands, Locatelli landed in town, and within 20 minutes was inked up herself:

Yay tattoo party!!

(Best pint glass ever [yes we stole it.] & The Franks.)

We met my fam at the Pub for some dinner and drinks, then the 3 of us picked up Kevy and went to Merlins so they could see the show up & dance our fannies off. Met up with other lovelies and had a delightful time. Poor Locatelli and her lack of alcohol intake lately - that tolerance just isn't what it used to be =p I still think the night was entirely worth it. 

Friday we saw Locatelli off and I got my hair did. Probably the shortest my hair has ever been & I just love it. It's a bright red now rather than the faded brown I had acquired.

Sandwiches from Original Italian Pizza & the movie Shortbus, and our afternoon was made.

Got dressed, met Gracie & Mike & Casey & everyone else who came to support my show around 6 (I have the best friends & family). 

I got such positive reviews, I almost couldn't believe it. It's one thing to hear from family and friends how much they like the work I do, it's another matter entirely when strangers seek you out to tell you they love it. I got at least 3 job offers from it, here's to hoping they all pan out in the near future.

Thank you to everyone that came out to see the show and all of the other amazing work on State Street last night!!

We missed Lauren & Hannah quite terribly.

We remedied the situation by drinking enough for ourselves and them, and dancing extra hard when we went down town after the galleries closed. From Merlins to Dillengers to Paradigm to Flashbacks and back to Merlins. Dillengers was nice to just relax and enjoy good 80s music and damn-decently priced drinks. 

After starting a dance party at Paradigm, I was left uncomfortable after being insistently hit on and annoyed, so we rushed over to Flashbacks instead. The light up floor was empty, so we obviously took full advantage. Merlins was empty when we got back there, and we decided it was more important to go find food than start yet another dance party. 

The Spot gave us grilled cheese sandwiches and Mike got the best omlette of all freaking time - a cream cheese omlette. Literally a plain egg omlette filled with half a brick of cream cheese. OMGyum.

Home by almost 4, and we all had to get up by 7. Gross. Worse was that Gracie convinced Jill to stay for the night and just not sleep & drive home to get to work in time by 4:30am. Poor thing has been a zombie all day. Gracie and I fueled up, picked up the camera I wanted at the Target in Fayetteville, then the puppy in Tully all before 11am. Obviously, we got to Warrens & passed out until Mama Jarvis picked her up around 4. 

(My new Olympus baby - she's got 14 megapixels of fury & some artsy settings like Pop Art & Pinhole, you best believe most of my pictures from this camera won't be "professional" and "color corrected," I can't wait to play around with her this week)

I have since been enjoying TCM movies, and I've decided that my Heaven is most sincerely An American In Paris - beautiful people, beautiful scenery, beautiful choreography, and a happy ending.

This post is way too long, so I'll fill you all in a little later about why (on top of everything else) my life is absolutely charmed. 

Tune back in!