The bug sprayer is coming tomorrow. I may finally let him in this time.

The bug sprayer is always scheduled to come a Monday morning of every month. Or perhaps every two months.. I can’t really keep track. Either way, I always refuse to let him in, for a number of reasons -

a) I don’t have problems. Therefore, bug spray seems unnecessary.
b) My studio is relatively messy that day and I don’t want him to judge me.
c) I don’t particularly feel like getting up before the scheduled 10 am spray time on my sleep-in day. (When I sleep in, I really sleep in.)

I usually remember to put a note on the door with a simple “no spray please!” message. However, on the last spray day I forgot to do this. It was not until I awoke to rustling in my stairwell that I remembered I needed to do this so I could a) continue sleeping in, and b) avoid having the spray man unlock my door to the sight of sleeping naked helena in a messy studio. I wrap my blanket around me and head to the peephole to see spray man walk into the opposite apartment.

Ok. I have several minutes to write the note and put it on my door. Very good.

I grab a post-it note and write a friendly note declining the spray man’s services and open the door to quickly stick up the note before spray man comes out of the opposite apartment.

Too late.

I, still completely unclothed other than my blanket wrapped around me, note in hand, am standing in my doorway staring at the opposite doorway, which happens to be open. Spray man is staring at me.

This is awkward.

What to do. I awkwardly hold up my note for him to read, quickly explain that I do not need spray but thank him for his efforts and slither back into my room, careful not to catch my blanket on the door in the process.

I think I’m going to put a note on the door this time, just in case.

The yard sale went well. I stayed up the entirety of Friday night preparing for it (I made the mistake of going out for an hour-turned-six, so I had my work ahead of me starting at 2 am), and was quite delusional for the majority of the sale, but we had a great turnout. I didn’t sell nearly as much as I would have liked, but it’s largely because I am trying to sell a bunch of young girly knick knacks that I have grown out of, and considering the average age of our yard sale visitor was about 30 years my senior, I wasn’t exactly catering to the right market. However, I do plan on having another yard sale at my abode on the 27th of the month, so I plan on bringing out the younger crowd for that one. I also plan on peer pressuring all of my friends to take my things and pay me handsomely for them. You should as well. Just saying.

That night, Kelly (my yard-sale-mate) was having her going-away party, as she too is moving to San Francisco. I was planning on going after a short nap, as I hadn’t slept in 30-some hours. So I go to bed at 1 expecting to wake up at 5 or so. The alarm is set.

Well, I wake up at 8. I check my phone. I managed to sleep through five missed calls, four missed texts, and an hour-long alarm. Impressive.

I realized that chances of making it to Kelly’s party is out. There is, however, still time to eat Lebanese food. I return one of my missed calls and schedule a hot dinner date at Sitti with my friend Erin.

We decide to make the night a neighborhood tour de bars. Nothing crazy… only six or so. The itinerary: Sitti > Foundation > Busy Bee > Landmark > Raleigh Times > Jackpot.

And so we did. We acquired some friends along the way, and managed to get friend JT to come with us for his first-ever visit to the Jackpot. Miles (DJ Sputnik) was DJing, so I was expecting a dance party of epic proportions. And that is what I got.

I danced in a dirty sweaty hoard of people for a couple of hours, had a nice 30-second walk home at 2:30, nursed my bloody feet, and went to bed. It was a lovely night.

Also:
In cleaning and sorting through things in my apartment, I have finally found a solution to Raphael’s ridiculous excess hair problem: an afro pick.  I’m not sure why I have one, but I suppose that’s irrelevant.  It’s the first tool that has been able to handle the amount of fir that this cat is able to expel. Who would have thought.

Also:
I stumbled upon this article recently. It’s about a guy named Heath.

Heath’s Story

I met Heath about two years ago at my merch stand while I was still touring with American Aquarium. I remembered seeing him on a Lucero documentary… Dreaming in America I think? At the time he had recently sold all of his belongings and was traveling the country in search of some sort of inspiration or purpose. He spent most of the night sitting by my merch stand telling me stories and discussing life. He was a really interesting fellow, and I enjoyed my few hours of talking with him. He left a photo of himself in our merch case to carry around with us on tour, and I’m fairly sure it’s still sitting in that merch case.

Apparently Heath is living in Oregon, just like he said he would… glad to see he’s doing well. Perhaps I’ll run into him on my tour when I pass through the state.

Also:
I recently found a photoblog that I’m quite enamored with. This epitomizes all that I want my life to be as far as adventuring and photography goes:

www.suckapants.com

[Photocred: Tod Seelie]

This dude knows how to travel. He is currently traveling the Adriatic coast from Slovenia to Venice on a handmade junk raft. What the fuck. How does one find adventure like THAT. I one day hope to stumble upon a team of junk raft craftsmen next time I’m passing through that area.

After doing some further investigating, I’ve realized that I’ve already seen this guy’s work before in Vice. It’s always neat to see photo discoveries come full circle.

Anyway, check out this guy’s stuff. I could get lost in it for hours… I’ve been trying to avoid it for that reason, but if you have the time, you should go ahead and let yourself.

His projects:
Tod Seelie Photography
Sucka Pants
Every Day I Live

Also:
Thanks to Samuel Rhodes for the shoutout on his design blog. Sam’s a graphic designer based in Brooklyn (formerly Raleigh) who I used to just know as Sam. Then he suddenly seemed to start barfing ridiculous talent out of nowhere. These days he’s making awesome crafty projects like it’s cake. Get him to draw you something. I heard you can pay him with cupcakes.

[Photocred: Samuel Rhodes]

I also just laughed out loud at his most recent post regarding “how to eat poop.” Enjoy.

Also:
Seth Lester, a fellow Raleigh-ite who I’ve seen around the neighborhood basically every day for about 3 years now, is planning a nationwide tour of his own.

He calls it Americano To Go. It’s a cross-country tour sampling the coffee scene of the United States. He will be taking the next four years and embarking on a tour of the nation’s coffee shops, seeking coffee-shop-related employment along the way. He will be immersing himself in a city’s coffee scene, writing detailed reviews of individual coffee establishments as he goes. He will spend anywhere from a few days to eight weeks in one city, and he has 78 cities on his to-do list. He is absolutely out of his mind and I love him for it.

You should follow him as his trip commences… he leaves soon!

Read what the News & Observer had to say about Seth’s tour here.
Read Seth’s Americano To Go blog here.

As for me….

1) Phototour plans are still in the dark at the moment. They will regain structure within the week though. I will keep you posted once I have things figured out.

2) I have decided that I need to start taking photos of the things I take for granted: Raleigh and the people in it. I travel constantly and take pictures of places and experiences that I consider novel, yet take for granted the details and people of a city I love so much but have simply grown accustomed to aesthetically. I also rarely take portrait photos, so this will be good practice for me.

First subject: Paige, my coffee date of the day.

3) I have finally built a photo store! I desperately need to earn money for my trip westward, so I have set up my shop a little differently than I normally would. I have priced my photos obscenely low, so they will sell quickly. Here’s the catch though – I am only selling one copy of each photo. Therefore, if you want a specific photo, you need to order it before someone else does. Otherwise, no fun photo for you. Or you can just pick another. I’d recommend being proactive and buying the one that you like the most. That’s just me though.

Check out my store HERE. I’ll be adding more photos over the next few days, but if you see a photo you want, you should probably buy it before someone else does. That is all.

Otherwise, donate to my relatively unstructured soon-to-be structured phototour here:

Ok, that’s really all for now. More to come soon.

hp