Monday, February 25, 2008

hey look its biological christmas!



i have been ill, actually only for the weekend so that's not much of an excuse. i'm only required to be at school 36 hours a week between classes and work but i find myself there more like 60-70 hours, so i haven't had much time for anything outside of the labs beside beer and sleep and the gym at 6am. after about 48 hours of being ill, i'm rather sick of it and ready to go back to being well. this is good considering a year ago i would have been out of commission for a week.

so i went down to pilsen yesterday to check out the Textile Outlet at 2121 21st st. erin lives literally around the corner at the hoyne exit of the damen stop on the pink line and i've traveled there many a time to visit her, but this was the first time i'd made the venture in the day time. my opinion of pilsen had been somewhat positive from what i had grown accustomed to seeing, but the arial view of the CTA revealed that it really truely is the shithole my upper middle class white northern suburban upbringing had lead me to believe. have i mentioned that i really love living in printer's row? as for the textile outlet itself, i was rather overwhelmed by all the STUFF. i had to take several tours around the place to really grasp a sense of what they had. i was pleased as to the crazy deals i got (like $75 for what would have cost $250 at vogue) but i was disapointed in the lack of selection of wools. now that i've mastered the pattern making skills of flats and draping, a lush italian wool makes me tremble. had i gone to this store say 3 years ago when all i worked with was knits, not knitwear but just cheap knits and lycra prints, i would have been estatic, but i couldn't help but feel that vogue in evanston had a better selection. but i suppose i must remember it is pilsen and there's a certain demagraphic they're serving versus that of evanston. but if i ever need the perfect trim or just the right zipper or any sort of chiffon, charmuse, dupioni, or wool crepe, i'll go to the textile outlet. otherwise, its vogue for me.

so last weekend i went all the way out to portage park. and now you may ask, well where the fuck is portage park? its close enough to ohare that you have to cover your ears when a plane soars over, and you can make out the faces of people in the windows. i went and checked out Midwest Discount Yarns. again, kinda pleased, kinda disapointed. yes i got one hell of a deal, but i don't think i would go back. i really wanted to jump into a big project on the knitting machine at school instead of waiting two weeks for a package to come and then another week for the lazy fucks in the dry cleaners to tell me i have a package.

On the way back from that (i think i spent about 6 hours on the blue line that saturday between my errands and then going to chad's that evening) i stopped and checked out the salvation army just off the grand stop on the blue line. holy shit this is my new favorite thrift store. it had sooo much stuff. i also loved that they separated all the old lady sequiny stuff into its own section. i almost bought one just for the shits and giggles of it. What i ended up buying was some sweaters (ralph lauren angora and a 100% cashmere) and a crazy knit dress that somebody made back in the 70's
sorry its hard to see, my camera isn't my biggest fan. but my mother said it looked like something her mother's friends would wear back in the 60's. i'm tempted to wear it today but i feel so blah being sick that it would negate the kitsh and cute factor

i also went into the basement of the salvation army into the "bric a brac" room. wtf is bric a brac ? it looked like a whole lotto junk to me. but i found a section of luggage, and as much as i am not a purse girl (the shoe fetish is enough for my wallet) i found an old samsonite carryon from the 70's. and for $2.06 after tax, its a whole lot of awesome. i know i can beat the crap out of it and it'll be just fine, plus when missy and i get a pug (as john told me last night, we're making it sound like we're getting married, to which i asked if it was making him jealous) the bag is big enough to hold him. i totally want to have a mismatched collection of vintage samsonite now

on another note, i have this crazy awful bolero jacket from the 80's that my mother owned (god knows why) in her late 20's. So i make people try it on just for shits and giggles when they come over to my place, as i have finally learned to have enough patience and self esteem to let people in my work place. chad tried it on and then took it a little too far

i suppose there should be other news but i'm just busting my ass at school working on things, to the point where i almost fainted pressing a collar on saturday. i got into a big argument with my ex, which started off with what was him just acknowledging that i was wearing jeans which my brain somehow warped into, wow you look like shit in jeans. what it basically boiled down to was, well why the fuck don't i call more often, which is what everyone else who knows this whole story has been telling me. i tried to dismantle my phone out of frustration yesterday.

hopefully i'll finish my jilted lover ensemble today and have some pics of it later. i feel like its one of my strongest pieces ever

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