in which I refer you to my flickr photostream...

Pictures of our apartment with stuff in it are up on my flickr.
You'll also find a few (no, really, like less than 5) pictures from Tye's visit. We went to a really cute place called Comfort, but my camera's battery was dying, so I didn't take a lot of pictures.
(picture taken by Leanne's wonderful camera. I am trying not to laugh at the guy taking the picture, who said "You look like ducks!" or something along those lines, because we were in a V formation. Also, a prize to the first person that notices what's different about this picture. Here's a hint: I learned a valuable lesson this week about keeping track of how long I use one pair of contacts.)
You'll also find really blurry, hard to understand pictures from the night I went out with Leanne, Diana, Shannon and Rebecca and had a ridiculous amount of fun. My camera was on its last little bit of energy, but I tried to take a few good pictures (uhh, they're "artsy"??).

There is a hilarious story behind this picture. I wish I could tell you, but 1) it's really Diana's story and 2) it's probably one of those "you had to be there (especially after a few cucumber mojitos)" stories.
There are also pictures (and videos) of when David and I went to the Gone to the Birds festival to see the Purple Martins. It was crazy to see! The picture above is a shot of the huge flock we saw first.
This hawk snatched a Purple Martin out of the air, plucked it, tenderized it with its claws and then ate it whole. Someone in the crowd called it a Republican, which got a lot of laughs. It then flew into a tree full of Martins to try and get another. What a jerk.

completely & totally not dead

It's weird being in a city again. I keep remembering there's lots of stuff to do!

What we've done so far:

• Unpacked, cleaned, and went to Ikea to get some important things (like a sofa, chair and wardrobe)
• Figured out how to function in a smaller apartment
• Remembered what it was like to live in an apartment with no central air and no dishwasher again (that wasn't too difficult, it was only 2 years that we lived with those luxuries)
• Celebrated our 2 year anniversary by walking over to a wonderful restaurant called Kuba Kuba
• Many walks. One of those walks was to Plan 9, which I knew was a bad idea to begin with because I saw their vinyl collection when I was there with the family, and ended up finding a few good things.
• Got my moped running!!
  
• Got David a Schwinn Varsity for $50. Considering we spent about $200 on my female Varsity, his was a steal. It's a pretty green one that
  
• Went to see The Dark Knight with two lovely ladies. It was awesome, even though I was hungry and had to pee really bad by the end of it (TMI? I'm sorry).
• Met most of the people in the building.

Not much, but I've been trying to not spend too much since I still don't have a job. I know I'll probably have one by the time school starts, but I really don't want to chance our finally-somewhat-stable financial situation just in case I don't hear from anybody or get an offer.
But that's enough of that. Thinking about that just makes me anxious.
Plus, it's my summer vacation. I'm not going to worry about finding a back up job (positive thinking: because I won't need one) until school starts, so I've been enjoying that thing called sleeping in. I've also been trying to read The Pillars of the Earth--that thing is a beast! Since I don't teach during the summer, and my day to day activities of sleep in-read a little-check email-slide on the wood floors to Bikini Kill because I just moved to this lovely city and lack friends, places to go, a job, etc. isn't really interesting to anyone but me, I've been thinking about all the things I've been meaning to sit down and write all year. Being a second year teacher actually gave me a second or two to remember: oh yeah, I actually had other stuff that I did before I was swamped with planning, grading, giving a crap, etc. So, I'll try and get some of that down and hopefully some of it will be interesting.

two years!

Happy Anniversary, babe!
I can't believe it's been two years. It's gone so fast!

my tribute to rocket star

Dear Rocketstar,

I was there the day you opened. I remember I was incredibly happy when Bill and Dan asked me to work for them. I liked how they set up the place, I liked the atmosphere they were going for and they seemed like awesome people to work for.
I remember the first day I worked and how nervous I was that I would screw up, Bill would realize he made a bad choice and tell me not to come back (and then I'd have to go work at Ali Baba's again).

I remember when Dave B. put in the glass between the smoking and non-smoking rooms and how paranoid I was about breaking it.

I remember when this room was clean.

I remember working many midnight to 6 AM shifts and only seeing Scott (who always kept me laughing and had some sort of obsession at times. Does anyone remember when he would say "touche" to everything?), Mischa (who drew really interesting things in the Rocket Log and scared off creepy dudes for me) and Radiohead Dave (no explanation needed).

and then many 6 AM to noon shifts, where I saw Ms. McKenna a lot, but was too intimidated to talk to her.

I remember when a helicopter landed across the street.

And when Dan dropped a box or two of China Cola.

Dan also once told me that I had to own a moped and be a member of the Moped Army to continue working at Rocketstar, so I got this:

(hahaha. Just kidding. I got it cause mopeds are awesome, duh.)
I remember one day I got a special message on the sign outside.

And I remember when 2 of the 3 Hanson brothers were hanging out, drinking coffee in Rocket Star. And when Bill was convinced that Edward Norton came in, but was in ~disguise~.

I've met many people because of Rocket Star.

Erin M.


Miss Kim

Dan

Chris!!

Joeybearrrrr

Bill (I think this was during his dance off with Mikey O)

Mikey Ohio (winning the dance off)


Emily!
Beth.

Lauren (Petro's in that pic too, but I already knew him!) I believe this picture was taken at an 80s night. Ugh, I miss those! They were so fun!
Franta

Jordan

DVG
Abe and Kyle. (Abe once recorded a version of Elvis Costello's "Alison" for my birthday. It was awesome and I still have it.)

Chad
Dave B

Amanda.
Some of them I'm still very close with, a lot of them came to our wedding, but (sadly) some of them I don't talk to much or at all for various reasons. A lot of us are now living in different places, some I see when I go back to Kalamazoo and hopefully I'll see some of them within the next year.
BUT
We had lots of fun together! LOTS. I have a lot of good memories both inside and out of Rocket Star.















With lots of love and memories, (and sad I couldn't see you as Rocket Star one last time)

Alison

**There are a lot of people I don't have pictures of on my computer (like Miguel, Clay, Mike, April, Neil, Mary, etc., to name a few) that I got to know through Rocketstar. Also, I didn't take all of these pictures posted, but I'm glad that somebody captured the moment.