Nighttime

this post is going to be extra dumb and fluffy, but I have so many good pictures

It's kind of weird that I don't see much sunlight anymore. By the time I get out of class, it's always dark, but I like it. When it rains, everything reflects off of the roads

and the overcast usually makes the horizon glow orange

and the fog is so thick, you usually can't see past your hand - the perks of living right next to a river. I'm always frustrated I can't capture it via photos.

bonus picture of my friend and I at 2 am

POMM4

This was the last People On My Mind of the summer

(me i guess, some boy i used to know, someone who used to be my best friend, someone who seems out of place, and someone who's really special)

Cafe Drawings

The first week of the semester, my advanced figure drawing teacher sent us out to do 50 cafe drawings in a week. It was super fun!

It helped me get back into the habit of carrying my sketchbook everywhere and seeing opportunities of drawing people/things. My friends and I took some time everyday to just sit in the school cafe or to go to the mall to draw people.

I feel like this assignment really pushed me, but I don't know what I got on it. My figure drawing teacher is new and doesn't know all of the policies yet (which includes giving us our grades after so many days of turning it in). Regardless, here are some of the 'best of's

Dog Path

One of my good friends had a birthday party. The plan was to have a BBQ at the big park down the street, but none of the grills were open. Instead, we opted out for pizza and costco cheesecake while the boys played football (at Digipen?? who knew.)

My friend and I honestly didn't really know anyone; we were the only two girls out of A LOT of guys, so we sat and drew a giant group of LARPers who showed up at the table next to us.

But, the park also is known for having the largest off-leash dog park in the pacific northwest, so we decided to check it out and to pet some cool dogs, but we had no idea the park was actually that big. It was a huge path along the Sammamish River and had a bunch of paths that branched off, and eventually, we were in the middle of a forest (?????) where we didn't run into anyone else for maybe two more miles when we finally found a path that lead back to the park. 

Besides feeling kind of lost and isolated, it was a really neat path. 

There are lots of frogs?? I had never seen a real wild frog before coming to Washington.

but the river was very pretty! Once we got away from all the dogs, we found lots of little paths to the actual river bank where you could find little fish and lily pads (who knew lily pads were a real thing too!)

Except as we were talking about how we didn't think lily pads were real, the path took us to Sammamish Lake where there were LOTS of lily pads.

There was part of the path that lead out over the water, and it was actually really creepy how many lily pads there were! You couldn't even see the water! Thinking about falling in and having to fight them all just made me anxious.

Washington is pretty anyway, I guess.

After we FINALLY got back (and everyone had texted us asking if we were okay/if we went home), the BBQ migrated to the pool. My complex has three pools though, so my friend and I ended up waiting at one of them for a good hour before realizing we went to the wrong one.

I got some nice pictures though, right? Good aesthetics.

The Front Bottoms

My friends and I bought tickets to The So So Glo's/The Front Bottoms/Say Anything MONTHS AGO. It was probably one of the best shows I've ever been to; the crowd had really good concert etiquette and the vibe wasn't too harsh. It was a lot more enjoyable than the other Seattle shows I've been to, at least!

Before the show, we hung out at my friend's place in Capitol Hill and my friend bought me Indian food (in exchange for driving us to Seattle) from a tiny underground restaurant down the street which turned out to be the best Indian restaurant in Seattle. The both of us were both extremely sick and the Indian food cured us from all previous ailments.

My other friend's best friend from her old college was in town visiting too though, so they met up with us for the show and our Capitol Hill friend hired fancy black SUV's to take us to the show. Heck, it was nice. Even though my friend and I both forgot our tickets at our friend's apartment and we had to run back.

We only went for The Front Bottoms, but The So So Glo's were KILLER live. I also honestly wanted to stay for Say Anything since they were a big band from my middle school years, but none of my friends shared the same feelings and had a hard enough time even letting me stay for one song.

This is the only group photo we have. Post-concert. Very sweaty. Very tired.

The venue was right across the street from the market, so that was p rad to finally see at night (from a moving car.)

but real talk, we were super sweaty.

The Beach Episode

I was having a bad week with friend fall outs and dumb boys, so one of my best friends took me to the beach! I didn't know I was so close to a beach like the one she took me to, but it was great! I had no idea West Seattle was a beach town; it looked like a wannabe L.A. with pine trees in lieu of palm trees.

Even the people kind of looked like L.A. folk.

My best friend was super motivated to make this trip work out! She organized it all herself and got everything ready. When we got there, she made sure we all got into 'beach mode' and made her boyfriend roll up his pants and made us all go in the water for a few seconds to get our feet wet.

But, after we claimed a fire pit, we realized she forgot most of her firewood at home and we only had a plank and some bark to work with. After an hour of not being able to start a fire, a group of men walked up and asked if they could use our fire pit. In return, we could use their fire. Okay.

We were embarrassed, but it worked out.

I like this picture because it looks like we have friends (but really it's just the group the kicked us off the fire pit since we couldn't start a fire)

 

Also these pictures because they show the real struggle of digital artists who never go outside.

It was super pretty though, and my friend did a really good job planning everything (besides the whole fire part).

Also the Seattle skyline on the way home

Birthday Away

I didn't expect to have a birthday this year. Since my birthday lands two weeks after finals, I figured everyone would be out of town, and they just about were. 

My actual birthday was uneventful. I went to school and drew a bit and ate lunch with my classmates. I got asked to dinner, but that dinner never actually happened. Instead, I kind of got duped into watching two Lord of the Rings movies back to back with friends. By the time they ended, the only food I got was a thing of fries from McDonald's at like 3 am.



But, Friday happened. None of my friends were at school during lunch. That was a bummer. I think I go to school mostly just to eat lunch with people I know.

A bunch of people I never hang out with though kept telling me we should get together. Well, that's a shame, because I already told like three other people I'd hang out with them? Oh, just kidding. They're going to be at the same apartment, that's cool.

I took a long nap and went over late, in my pajamas. I was expecting to sleep on my friend's couch and hopefully get some free food out of it. I saw all of my friend's cars in the parking lot, but when I showed up, no one was there. Okay. "They stepped out to get some things"

but one by one, they came in wearing party hats. The first one said, "it's really weird. There's a guy out there just giving out party hats and noise makers? weird." Okay. I could believe that. My apartment complex is pretty weird.

Then my best friend who I didn't know was coming came in with a balloon, "who wants this? I think you want it" and she tied it to my drink.

And as she did that, two of my best friends from a completely different friend group walked in and only then did it hit me what had just happened. My friend pulled out a cake from the kitchen and they all sang to me and said happy birthday and we played video games for the rest of the night.

And I feel weird talking about my friends on here because I know they can easily find this blog. I really just imagine my family reading these because they're the only ones I pitch this entire blog to, but I know how the internet works. Regardless, it felt good.

 I'm glad. I have good friends.

I may have gotten a bit teary eyed as they sang, and I might have had a hard time blowing out my candles, but it means a lot to have people out here to take care of me.