Just a post.

Hi GSS and our admirers. I have gotten on here and half-assedly attempted a post at least a dozen times. Today I'm actually gonna hit publish.
Since graduation, I've kind of been a lost soul. I went to New York with a few bucks and a whole lot of excitement, and it turned out to be a failure of sorts. Mostly, looking back on it, I was looking for jobs in all the wrong places (I thought I was invincible with my uni degree) and my lack of a job/career ultimately soured the entire experience for me. I moved home, where the air literally smells like pine, and was happy and safe. I learned more about life and about myself in my brief NYC stint than I did in, like, my whole four years of college. So that was cool. Plus, I got to meet some rad people and see some neat stuff, so it's all good. I don't hate NYC as much now as I did when I was there. Maybe my timing will be better someday.
Regardless, I joined my fellow recent graduates and moved back into my parent's homes. It was a pretty sweet deal because I worked for my dad, so I could stay with him and not have to commute, and spend weekends and days off at my mom's. This way, no one got tired of each other and most fights and frustrations were avoided. It was great while it lasted, but I hope I will never have to move back in. It is just so sweet to have a place of one's own!
I worked my butt off all winter, teaching an 8th grade writing class, playing assistant/personal chef/chauffeur/big sister to a VERY deserving family, keeping Dad's clinic running, falling in love, and slaying giant steelhead in my spare time. It was wonderfully chaotic and cool. Found out I love to teach, manila charts give nasty papercuts, and smoking 20lbs. of fish takes more than 3 days to complete.
By the time spring rolled around, I was ready to go. Not ready to go back to school and tired of my whirlwind (commitment issues?), I decided to travel. A friend told me he was going to au pair in Germany for the year. I got jealous, did some research, and landed myself a job with a family in France. Et voila!
I'm in Megeve, France, in the Rhones-Alps region, until May 2013 (a constant internal battle against my commitment phobia). I see Mt. Blanc everyday. I am lonely and mute, but it gets better every day. Lots of time to reflect and write and explore and eat. And, lucky you, you get to hear about it.

What has everyone else been up to all your lives????

happy christmas and merry new years or whatever

hello spiders and friends of spiders! guess what? it's 2012. like right now. they've made movies starring John Cusack about this shit.

this man is the reason most relationships in the 90's didn't work out.

so if the world is to end as planned then i have a plan of my own: have the most bitchin ass radical mind blowing time evers this year. and i don't care who gets mad about it. this year, i'm doing me and everyone else can jump on the ride with me or go to hell (quite possibly literally).... so level up spider kids, or get left behind (haha.... another apocalypse reference joke!)

christmas for me is just another day. the food is a bit better and i'm morally obligated to spend time with my family, but mostly i just want to get back to work. i was in the good old state of MT this year (as i have been every year previous, come to think of it) and so all those things afore-mentioned still held true. new year's was frackin awesome and i got to sing a duet song with one of my favorite local bands, of which all the members are really great friends of mine, Abelina Valley. check them out cuz they r00L. i'm back in chi-town now, and things once again are slowing down, which isn't a bad thing, considering the last three weeks i spent in montana consisted of me running around like a person who runs a lot trying to do everything i wanted to do, see everyone i wanted to see, and do at least two tattoos a day. i do really enjoy being that busy but it's nice to have a little break. let's hope for my bank account's sake that things here pick up in the next few weeks.

there is a great deal more that i could talk to you about as far as plans for the upcoming months and art shows and excitement such as that but i don't want to blow my whole load on one post you know? hope all is well with the rest of you and your holiday seasons were filled with wonderment and lots of booze :)

deuces.

-olive.

Greetings from California!

Well, the time is nearing where I will fly back to Chicago but I figure I write from here so that maybe some California sunshine will warm our blog up.

See, it's still green over here.

First of all I'd like to say, Happy New Year to all the readers and spiders out there. I'm not gonna do much tonight, I'll be drinking some cranberry vodkas, counting down, and hopefully try to convince my city friends to play some good'ol Werewolves of Millers Hallow. This is because I love that game and I have Montana to thank for that.

Yesterday I went to a party/gathering of yelling people for a UFC fight. There were enchiladas, a very fast acting referee, and a very interestingly decorated cake involved.

Usually when I come back to California I have a checklist of things that need to be done:

• In N Out (is a must because there is no better burger than In N Out, I dont give a fuck what anyone says I will stand by their toasted buns, freshly cut fries, and simplistic menu.)

• Disneyland (it's the happiest place on earth, duh. Sam may say that Disneyworld has a better castle and scarier Tower of terror, but hey, Disneyland is the OG in the OC.)

• Shorts in the winter (yes, yes, yes. California can be boring as shit if you dont have a car but you can at least wear shorts and skirts when the east coast is wearing down coats)
• Play with dog (I know, this only applies to me but look how adorable she is:)

I've pretty much got all of them checked off.

Also, in earlier news. Sam and I rode the Christmas train and it was literally the ride of my life. When the train rolled up it smelled like Christmas. The inside was packed like sardines, but the seats had Christmas fabric on it. The ads were'nt ads because they were Christmas jokes.

Over and Out

For now.

Happy Yule!

The days are now officially getting longer.

You gotta love livin', baby, cause dyin' is a pain in the ass.

She tells me, I'm scared.

She just got done with an intense round of chemo. She finds out the results after the new year.

She tells me, I worry every day. I play "what if?" all day long.

She has 2 kids, 11 and 16. They do not have a dad, only a man, somewhere in town, with their same last name and a very short temper.

She tells me, I can't drink alcohol, it makes me sick. I ask her if it has always been this way. Yes. That's probably a good thing, I say. No. She wishes that it wasn't so. She wishes she had had more fun in her life. Like, real fun, she tells me. The kind of fun where you raise some hell and get yourself in and out of trouble.

I think we should throw a party for New Year's . It's my mom's birthday. Everyone could use some fun. No, she says. I'm too worried.

But what she's most worried about, besides bad news, is being in a funk and spoiling everyone else's mood. That's the way she's felt throughout her fight. She never complains. Even when she passes out standing at the counter, even when I direct her to her bed, she mutters lists of "to-dos," mumbling, I'll be fine, go, go.

I work with people who are in pain. I work with people who don't have all of their toes, who cannot snap their own bras, who cannot sleep through the night. I work with a woman who doesn't know if she will wake up tomorrow morning. But you know, I love it, what I do. I love being a part of these sufferer's journeys. To some, I am a sounding board. I can sometimes make the old ladies laugh, sometimes hold the kids when they cry. To some, I am a pain relief. The things I bring them release them from their lives. To some, I am just another shoulder to help them carry their load.

I am in a weird place in my life, working with a very grumpy, angry, sad population of people. But their unique insights on life, the joy that they have learned to derive from what I perceive as trivial, have made me a tiny bit wiser, stronger and happier to live this life I have.

Turns Out the Muppets Are Still Awesome

We saw the new Muppet movie, entitled The Muppets, this weekend. Good move on our part. Basically the Muppets rule because they don't age or try to go "serious" or whatever, and just spend decades and decades being extremely silly and extremely heartwarming. This movie was great, classic Muppet style, celebrating teamwork, singing, love, and the rainbow connection.

Best of all, it has the Fox Business Network's panties in a twist.

The basic plot of the movie is that an evil oil baron, aptly named Tex Richman and played wonderfully by Chris Cooper, has plotted to buy the Muppet studios, tear it down, and drill for oil where the buildings stand. Jason Seigel, Amy Adams, and Seigel's inexplicably puppet-like brother Walter (who, it turns out, is an incredible whistler), go find Kermit so they can get the rest of the gang back together for ONE LAST SHOW, as they say, to raise money to buy the studio back in time, yada yada yada. They live Muppetly ever after.

Fox's beef is that because the villain is an oil baron, Disney is brainwashing our children (America's children, I don't have any children) to be anti-oil, anti-corporations, and anti-America. Clark actually mentioned this as we were leaving the theater, mentioning his appreciation for the subtle nod towards environmentalism. Apparently not subtle enough for Fox (nothing is, really). I don't have anything really articulate or smart to say on the matter; my ridiculous meter for the Fox network blew up several years ago so I can't even think about how to respond. While we're here, though: the fact that they can't find anything else to talk about besides the supposed subliminal Communist messages in Disney movies drums up very little confidence, in, like, society in general or something. It's as if Fox News has finally graduated to the 7th grade, and will soon find out that someone whispers "Take of your clothes" in that scene in Aladdin.

It was them who whispered it.

And, for the record, there were bunches of little kids, ages ranged probably three to nine, and I don't think any of them know what the word "baron" means, or what oil is, or even Texas, for that matter, so it's hard to believe they'll take any stock in the bad guy in this movie (who, by the way, raps (?)), besides the fact that he's the bad guy, and scary music plays when he's on screen. They were just there to giggle at Fozzie's fart shoes and Miss Piggy hitting her head on the desk. It was a freaking Muppet movie, Fox, so stop trying to ruin our childhoods.

sorry to disappoint yo

much like one of my literary heroes Chuck Klosterman.... all i ever feel motivated to write about are things that piss me off, the general decay of society, and the different self-destructive methods i use in order to cope with all of the afore-mentioned things. get ready for a christams rant: coming soon to the GSS near you. as for thanksgiving... i really am going to miss my sister's down home cooking, and this year can blow me because even though i went to a pot luck at the shop that i currently work in, i dropped my new iphone in a glass of wine and i think that some lushy poltergeist now resides in one of the wires because my phone now randomly calls two people : my old boss at the coffee shop, and my old boss at a tattoo shop that i am no longer on good terms with. i can't really be mad at this ghosty living in my phone because i would probably do the exact same thing. i'm an asshole like that. also, sam, max, and rachel left for alabama to go give thanks with harriet (sam's mum) and will be gone until sunday. i am to spend this day all on my lonesome and i'm pretty bitter about it. at least i have my dog, right? i do get to go home for christmas, which i am balls excited about. not the christmas part, but being able to go home and see everyone that i hold near and dear and finish several tattoos that i started before coming out here. i am sending one of my fliers to my girlfriend shayna in preparation so that hopefully i can get mad business when i'm home and i won't have to stay in montana and live in my sister's basement.

business at the shop has been hella-slow and i don't really know what to do about it. i drew a dope ass flyer:

and hopefully this will bring me lots and lots of people who think i am a rad artist and are willing to let me ink them forevers. other than whining about how much peanut butter i don't have, i have been drawing quite a bit, so that's productive (i guess). i know that when summer hits i'll do an about face and have lots of wonderful things to tell you about but for right now i'm sticking to my original formula.

i'm fore-going shout outs because nobody responds anyway.

olive out