Engaged Part Two

Got the ring today! It looks awesome, they did a great job. We pretty much spent the rest of the day just showing it off. Martyn took this picture with his phone outside the place we had breakfast, Decatur Diner (which I highly recommend, by the way, best diner I've been to in Atlanta so far.) You can see what my ring looks like in bright sunlight.

Just now I took some more photos of it in the apartment with my camera. It completely changes color depending on the lighting.


Here's a detail shot of a fun point of interest--inside the ring underneath the stone there is a little carving of a crescent moon.

And a couple more photos of that box that it came in, with all its tarnished glory.




I like it.

I'm Engaged

YAAAYYY!!! Martyn and I have been dating for five years, but I actually did not see this one coming. In hindsight there were hints that it might happen soon but I really hadn't thought much of it with all the stupid Christmas stress taking precedence. So after we woke up Christmas morning and exchanged our gifts to each other (and the stupid cats) the plan was to head over to Roswell to meet up with my mom at her new house and the rest of my immediate family. My brother was cooking the special breakfast that my Dad used to make for Christmas, and everyone seemed like they were getting frustrated that we were running late. The car was already packed, I was waiting on Martyn and wondering why the hell he was just dragging his feet. Then suddenly he tells me to, "Wait, there's one more thing" and starts digging around in the closet where he keeps his video games. I never play video games or go in that closet and start to wonder what is going on, but before I can think about it for too long he tells he to close my eyes...then he's down on one knee with this ring...and yeah. My initial response was actually just, "WHAT?!" due to my surprise at this very unexpected proposal. Then a few minutes later I remembered to follow up with..."Oh yeah, I mean...YES."


So yeah. The ring is perfect. Martyn knew that diamonds aren't really my thing and chose the best thing he possibly could have for me--moonstone and white gold, antique from the art deco era. Since the moonstone is so old it has a unique smokey quality to its surface that really brings out the layers of blue and reflected light within, kind of like a droplet of water or of course, the moon. There is a slight etched detailing on the sides of the ring and the setting is strong and simple. The Tiffany style prongs that hold the stone even remind me a little of tree branches framing a full moon at night. Even the box the ring came in is cool. It's this really banged up tarnished silver with black puncture marks all throughout. It looks like it's been through an explosion and it even creaks sometimes when I open it.

I am of course psyched about the whole thing. We're getting married this coming October the 31rst and there are going to be costumes involved. I'm not the sort that has been planning my wedding since I was four years old. In fact, I have never watched a chick flick in my life or even thought about my wedding until pretty much now. I feel that I probably have quite a bit of catching up to do, but I know I'll figure it out in the end. I can think fast, I'm creative, I have no regard for conventions or traditions and I have a damn good sense of humor, so hopefully at least one of these things is going to work in my favor. I think I want the shortest, most understated ceremony possible and then a really awesome and noisy party with electric guitars, crazy costumes and lots of alcohol. These are after all, some of the finest things in life.

Anyway, since my ring is from a time when ladies were dainty (or at least shorter that I am, I'm around 5'10") we had to take the ring to a jeweler to get resized. I of course had no clue about my ring size so I'm glad that we left that part up to a professional in Decatur. The jeweler was closed for the holidays so we have had to wait for quite a while. By some strange "coincidence" the date that my ring is ready for pickup is January 14th--the one year anniversary of my Dad's death. I generally don't believe in a whole lot of anything but this struck me as intensely interesting. What better way to spend what would have been such a sad day otherwise. One key quality about my Dad, especially while he was sick, is that he absolutely hated when people worried or were sad about him. He would put on a front, change the subject or do anything else in his power to stop people from dwelling on the messed up situation that fate had given him. He fought death like no one in the hospital had ever seen, using his last bit of energy to smile at us, make us laugh or even flick us off if he thought we were acting too sad. Maybe this world is made up of a series of random events, maybe not. All I know is that my Dad really did approve of Martyn (despite how much he loved to mess with him) and if he could have set something sneaky up with the date of the engagement ring corresponding with the anniversary of his death, he would have. I miss you Dad, and I can't wait to pick up my ring tomorrow!

Tattoos

So much has happened since I last posted that I don't really know where to begin. In the months following my last entry I lost my paternal Grandmother to a stroke, my maternal Grandfather to Alzheimer's disease, and my Dad to cancer. My Mom also had a ruptured blood vessel in her brain (similar to an aneurysm with about a 50/50 survival rate) but she pulled through with no lasting damage. Oh and ALSO there were two of the largest ice storms in Atlanta's history while this was going down so I was trapped in the hotel where were staying and the hospital for about a week. So yeah, a whole lotta shit that I don't even want to get into right now. I have managed to make some artwork since then but I'll probably be posting most of it at a later time. Right now, since it is the most relevant to today, my lastest and second tattoo, an image I adapted from the Japanese poster for my favorite movie since childhood, An American Werewolf in London. The poster:


The image I adjusted:
My tattoo, done by Dirk Hays at East Atlanta tattoo:

"A naked American man stole my balloons."

Actually with the way life has been for me lately I feel exactly like that poor little boy that gets his balloons stolen. At least the image makes me happy. I mean, how could you not look at that ridiculous poster and be happy, or at least laugh? David Kessler gets a majorly rough deal in that movie and still manages to have a sense of humor about it. I think that sometimes, that is really all we can do.

Oh, and while I am on the subject of making shit times not so bad, I might as well mention my first tattoo, which was done as a cover up for one of my appendix scars. I say one of my scars because I had two after the operation in 2006, one little one where the camera went in and one giant one down the middle where the had to cut me from the navel down. Apparently the thing had already exploded a while ago and I managed not to notice, so my insides were kind of in pieces by the time I got to the E.R. Funny thing was, it didn't hurt.

The "before" photo:


And after, with my tattoo by Phil Colvin at Memorial Tattoo:



The scar had a puckered texture that always reminded me of sort of a half kiss print, so I just had to finish it off. It's nice to look at something that used to remind me of laparoscopic surgery and now reminds me of glam rock. Oh, and in case you were wondering, the lips are my boyfriend's. I have small lips which make for a lame print so I had to use his, which are quite nice. Also I kinda like that I have a dude's lips for a tattoo. It's much more fitting in my case.

It's the Hour of the Wolf and I Don't Wanna Die!

Hello. So Paige just posted a bunch of photos on Facebook of our Halloween costumes this past weekend. Since all of them were frickin brilliant, here is all of them in the order they were posted.


I wanted her to take these pictures for Martin Millar, author of the book I am reading, Curse of the Wolf Girl (the sequel to Lonely Wolf Girl.) His books feature punk rock werewolves with colorful hair and were also the inspiration for this costume.








Hutch as Bob Dylan.

Here's a disturbing crossover fanfic slash couple for you--David Kessler the American Werewolf and Scott Howard the Teen Wolf.


Haha, Teen Wolf drinks PBR.


What a hipster.


Me looking quite mannish and retarded.


Stiles the Wolf Buddy.


He matches the decor.


DAVID!


Look at these fucking werewolf hipsters.



Another crossover story: the lycanthrope that attacked David and Jack on the moors was in fact Teen Wolf!

The cool kids.

The butt.


Hey kids, don't do drugs!

"Sean, I think there are some hooligans in the park again."

What a couple of jackasses.


80's werewolf movie smackdown DERP!


So vicious!


Precious kitty!

Punk Rock She Wolf

Since last night was a full moon, here's a sneak peak at my other Halloween costume for 2010, which is basically me as a mid-transformation werewolf.







My boyfriend was Teen Wolf.


We made out.