Before I Go, I Just Need To Say Thanks

I'm leaving at a strange time. You see, two of my very good friends are moving, quite far away, and I won't see them for awhile. Funny thing is, they both leave basically while I'm away.

Kelsey, one of my best friends since high school, is moving to Peace River until the end of August, but she leaves the day after I get back from Vancouver. She got an amazing job offer for an environmental practicum, so I am super excited for her! She is definitely a wild, free spirit, and she deserves this opportunity. She cares more about the environment more than anyone else I know, and she works very hard to stick to her beliefs and ideals. I admire this very much, as sometimes we can all be quite hypocritical, it's part of human nature. But Kelsey has always stayed true to herself and she is one of the most kind hearted people I have ever met. She has been a very good friend to me for this long for a reason, I truly value her friendship and always will, no matter how far she moves away for how ever long!

Now Brit...oooh Brit Drew. Where do I start with you? (That rhymed!)

Well, I worked with Brit for, almost a year? And before that I remember her as a customer, as she is a hard person to forget (I mean that in the nicest way possible!). She came into the store, before she worked there mind you, and she brought in condoms. Yes, condoms. In circle shaped packages. And as she showed everyone these condoms she then proclaimed, "WE CAN PLAY CONDOM POGS!!". Yeah, that was interesting. Then, after she left, Sarah came to me and said, "I think I'm going to hire that girl." I immediately said, "No. Just no." Thus, began the Brit Drew segment of Divine. For the first week I thought Sarah was out of her mind, but I quickly came to realize I was wrong. Brit has this amazing ability to understand things and read people very quickly, and dear god there is no hiding anything from her. If you are in a bad mood, or if something is on your mind, she will know. Creepy, I know, but amazing. I have never met anyone who would stop everything they're doing just to better someone else's life. One of Brit's favourite things to do is to 'go on errands'. I would say, "I'm really thirsty" and she would respond with, "SEND ME ON AN ERRAND!!". (She yells. A lot.) And off she would go, rain or shine, just because she cares. The day after I leave for Vancouver, Brit is moving to Sanich(?)....ahem, Victoria and area, and I'm not sure when or if she will come back. I hope she does. Brit has only been a part of my life for less than a year, but she has made such a HUGE impact on me and many other people. She is truly a diamond in the rough and I only wish her the best and hope she finds what she is looking for. And no, Brit, I'm not worried. You just do what you do best, take care of yourself, because you need to do things for you.

It's hard to put any form of appreciation I have for both of these wonderful friends of mine into words, so I hope you can accept the only thing that comes to mind; thank you. Thank you so so much. I would not be the person I am today without either of you, and I honestly don't know what I will do without seeing you on a regular basis. I am so proud of both of you, for taking on crazy adventures, and making changes that are right for you. I am truly happy to have such amazing friends in my life, and I hope I can do the same for you as what you have done for me.

Love you both, and I can't wait to see you again when your adventures bring you back!

Now its time to (try and) sleep for tomorrow!!

One More Day

Tomorrow, I leave for the magical land known as Vancouver!

I have been waiting to go for about two years now, so it's definitely about time! I get to see my best friend, along with a few other good friends, my brother and his awesome girlfriend, the ocean, lush greenery, good food, RACCOONS, and just everything. Everything is so awesome about that place. Including the rain. It's supposed to rain here while I'm gone, so I guess I won't be missing much, but it's always better than snow! I'm even buying a raincoat. The last time I owned one was when I was probably around 6 years old. Ugh! I just can't wait! This is going to be the best week ever, and it will be so hard to come back home.

If I disappear for a few days, that will be because I'm busy adventuring around. Don't miss me too much, but I will try to post ever few days!

I am currently waiting for my good friend Kelsey so we can go out for breakfast (which, fun fact, I NEVER do before work! I'm breaking the rules!), so this was pretty much just a post about how excited I am for tomorrow. Weeeoo!

For now..more cat pictures!

Meow.

I gave in..

For the past month I have been thinking that I want an iPhone. Then that thinking turned into dreams about it, and now, well what else are you supposed to do when you dream about something? You go and fulfill that dream! Yes! Today I jumped onto the iPhone band wagon, and I have to say I am loving it so far (the iPhone 4, of course). I have not been able to put the thing down. I also just become an obsessive compulsive creature when I get something new, so it will eventually pass. I'm just so happy to have it before I go on my big adventure! Mass amount of raccoon pictures, here I come!

Speaking of which, I also joined Instagram, because I won't ever stop taking pictures, so follow me if you feel like it! My username is (big surprise) zombiebot. I think it may be safe to say that the camera is a huge reason why I decided to get an iPhone. Among other things, of course, but that's a pretty awesome feature.

I think this phone and I are going to be great friends.

Coffee sleeping like a baby, but snoring like an old man.

Mail Day: My Favourite Day!

YEEEEAH! I literally JUST got my limited edition Uncle Allan print in the mail! So excited!

First of all, it's kind of strange when you follow someone's blog, who lives across the world, and you have never met them or spoke to them, and then you get mail from them. And they even put a little cherry blossom sticker on the envelope! That's so them! So cute! Anyways..

I bought this print at the beginning of the month, and I have been so excited for it's arrival! It is an amazing piece that will fit nicely in my collection. I just have to find a spot for it! If you want one too, go to their blog and you will find the info there. They might be sold out, or at least close, so hurry! All proceeds go towards helping Japan! So it's a win win situation.

So amazing!! Thanks Conspiracy Inc.!

Picturesque

Here are a few (of the hundreds!) photos that were taken from the photo shoot! It was so much fun, I can't wait to do one again! Some of them, well, actually most of them, are just silly. Mostly because of my face. Haha!

This is my favourite one..

Dancing..

Family Dinner Feud

What a mixed up day, let me tell you!

I had a blast working on some (ahem) World of Warcraft tattoos (Yes! You're probably just as much of a nerd, so shut it!), and although I don't play that game, I think they are turning out awesome. So that happened. Then the tiniest thing was said to me and it completely ruined my day.

I'm sorry, let me start off by saying that I don't think I'm a very selfish person. I like to think that I try to think of others before any decision I make, but when it comes down to it you should always do things for you. Right? Especially when you do things for others all the time! So, when someone tells me that I should take someone's shift on Friday so they can have family dinner, and expect me to ditch my family dinner plans because "It would be a nice thing to do", then what am I supposed to do?

First of all, I originally had this Friday off, so I made plans for family dinner well at the beginning of April, then suddenly I am scheduled to work. Ok, so what, now I work in the morning so I'll cut my shift short so I can still have dinner. Problem solved. But now all of a sudden I get lectured because I'm going to Vancouver for a week during an important sale (which was announced after my flight was booked), and I'm trying to make this fucked up schedule work so I can still see my family, whom I rarely see, on the day that I originally had off. And you expect me to forget about that so someone else can see their family? While everyone is happy and cheery with their family, I get to work all day and not see mine until fall? Um, no, not my problem. It's not my fault that you fucked up. It's not my fault that you won't let someone work longer before they leave.

I'm sorry, it does sound selfish, doesn't it? But the way I'm seeing it is totally different, I assure you. In a way, everyone is being selfish because we all love our families. But when it comes down to it, it's about fairness, and I am not seeing the fairness in that. So, yeah, fuck you.

Anyways, that was that. In the words of Brit Drew, "Bitches aint shit."

But on a lighter note, I also got those photos from that photo shoot I did a million years ago. I think I am a little weird looking with different make-up and hair, but they still turned out awesome! I will post a few of my favourites in a separate post so it's not so...jumbled. Anyways, NERDINESS!!

I didn't get a good enough straight on shot, so this is going to have to do for now!

Bored, Buffy, and a Bird

Well, there goes another non exciting day at work! Although, I was quite happy that an 8 hour shift felt like 5 hours. So much time flies when you get stuff done!

I have two days off this weekend, and I have no idea what I'm going to do with myself (do I ever have an idea?). Tomorrow, I think I'm just going to sit in, do my nails, work out, and try to work on some projects that need some attention, and most likely not in that order. And Saturday will be a hang-out-with-mom day!

Until then, I have nothing interesting to say. I am currently glued to my TV watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But look! I finished the bird and rose tattoo the other day! It's so cute..

Holes in throats and creepy perverts

Some days are so long that you want to just crawl into a conveniently dug hole and die. Today wasn't really one of those days, but it was interesting to say the least. Where should I start?

Well, I suppose it didn't really get interesting until the very end of work. One of our piercers, Jen, pierced a microdermal in her throat today (!!!), and went about her job. After a few hours, she took off the little tiny piece of gauze that was taped to her throat and noticed that the minuscule shiny jewel was no longer there. It had sunk into the hole, no where to be seen. Well, that's a problem, isn't it!? Now, this isn't something new to the piercing studio, we've had our share of sunken jewelry, but never in someone's throat. So, Jen, trying as hard as she could to get the thing out, was having troubles doing it herself in the mirror. That's when she called me over to help. Like I said, this wasn't anything new, I have helped our other piercer with the same problem. But I like to stress 'helped'. This time it was all me. If either me or Jen couldn't get this thing out right then and there, things could have gone south. So, I washed up, put on some latex gloves, and had at 'er. Jen, being as tough as she is, just laid there as I dug into the little hole with piercing tools, trying to get a hole of the tiny jewel. It was so hard! There was so much blood! Now, I am usually a very squeamish person, so I was very surprised to find myself doing this. It was intense, to say the least. I couldn't get ahold of the jewelry, so Jen did one last, determined dig and finally got it! Then, we had to switch the ity bity cap with a larger one to prevent it from sinking in again. That was a whole other challenge within itself, but we finally got it. Holy crap! What a fucking intense moment that was! I'm glad we could fix it though. Whew!

But that's not all, oh no. Only about a half hour after that happened, a drunken man stumbled into our store, as they usually do, asking our manager if she wanted to party. Of course, she declined, and he continued to wander around the store, probably thinking he was in a strip club of some sort. There was a young girl trying on dresses, and he would come up and say, "Yeah baby, you should try that on!". We all responded to those creepy remarks with, "Yeah, that was very inappropriate!" as he would wander off drunkenly. Then he would keep his distance, still watching the girl come out in dresses and make this extremely creepy perverted laugh. Like, imagine how a creepy clown pedophile would laugh. Yeah, like that! No joke! That was it. So I went up to him and said, "I think you should leave. You are making our customers very uncomfortable." And with that he replied, slurring, "Oh my apologies....where are the stairs?" Yeah, fucken' rights your apologies, you fucking creep! "They are right over there where you came in." As he walked closer to the door, which is clearly the way out, "..Where are the stairs?" Are you fucking kidding me? "They are RIGHT THERE!! BYE!" Good god. Never in the five years of working there have I had to deal with a legitimate pervert. Fuck.

Well! That was my night. At least it kept things interesting? I hope my next week is at little less crazy, or at least more spread out. I can only take so much!

Circus Freak

Yesterday I got to do a really fun tattoo; a bearded lady!

I don't get to do a lot of traditional stuff, and that's what I like to do the most, so I was so excited to do this one. It's on our new manager at my store, and she loves it! We only got to do lining and shading, it's on her shin so I don't blame her, but it's looking awesome so far. We might do a circus gentleman on the other leg sometime in the future to keep this wonderful lady company!

Here she is! Isn't she beautiful?

More for the Cause

Right now, I can hear what appears to sound like rain. I don't know if it actually is rain, or just really slushy and wet snow, but I'm going to go with rain just because I like it better. It has been so long since I've heard rain, and I have really missed it. I can't wait for spring to finally take form! Green grass, warm weather, picnics, bike rides....oh man the list goes on. Several months of bipolar, cold, dry weather is not my cup of tea. How people decided this would be a good place to start a settlement is beyond me. Maybe they saw something that I don't. Oh well, I'm just grateful that I have a roof over my head and food to fill me up. Sometimes it's easy to forget that there are people less fortunate in this world, in areas with worse conditions that here.

Speaking of which, less fortunate that is, my favourite tattoo artist, Uncle Allan from Copenhagen, is selling limited edition prints and donating all the profits to relief in Japan! I bought one yesterday. Not only am I getting an awesome print from my favourite artist, I am also donating money (which I planned on doing anyway) to help people in Japan. I want to do more, I would like to try to think of something. Although the situation seems to be getting better over there, there is still so much to do, and so many people that need help. Just because the media is completely ignoring the situation now doesn't mean it's all better. There are still aftershocks, and potential for another tsunami, so Japan isn't out of the woods just yet, but of course I am hoping for the best.

Anyways, it's been awhile since I've posted any tattoo pictures! I am also doing a few this week that will be worth posting, so stay tuned! For now, this is what you get.

This is a touch up, and we added more to the bottom.

Still some filling in to do, but so far so good!

Just added background to an existing tattoo.

Ran out of time, but the bird gets filled in soon!