Teen Angst

Hiya Juls,

Thanks for the props on my pics. I'm so glad you "get" my art. You are truly a wonderful friend. I loved your post. Is very, um, Cali. I have heard of "Skinny Bitch". My boss was just talking about that book last week. Yes I do know a ton of vegans. I have tried vegan food here and there. The cookies sometimes are not that bad! Overall, I really feel like I should get on this "eat good things" train. Last night I had a bag of potato chips and a hot dog from 7Eleven. Truly gross! I do have a good excuse though. I had tickets to show in Hollywood that I went to right after work. I went to go see this hysterical theater piece. It is very appropriate to mention on a blog about two high school buddies. It's called Mortified. People form all walks of life,(In LA it was mostly actors), get on stage and read journals, letters, poetry that they wrote mostly when they were in High School. Brilliant! There was this one guy who wanted to be a white rapper in high school so he read his lyrics/rhymes aloud. His rap name was "The Usher". He was late to the game when he realized that the other "Usher" had taken that name. Then he changed his name to "Crey" which was his name "Corey" without the "O". Julie, so hysterically funny! You would love it. Get on the mailing list, when it comes to NYC you should go. It's inspiring me to come through my journals to see what embarrassing pre-pubescent pros are lurking about! You should too! Would you ever get up on stage and read your High School dairy?

Um...Ommmmm!

Jill you vixen! You vision! You minx! I love the pics! Super creative and stylish. Me like likes. You need to show me how to get my camera to do that ish! Also love that you took that class. I'm getting my feet wet with exploring new things myself. Lately I have been considering and reading a lot about I guess you would call it conscious eating?! Basically eating organic, locally grown if possible and in season. Along with that...perhaps cutting out animal products. You know I love me my cheese so I'm still thinking it all out. I saw a woman on Oprah named Kathy Freston who has a new book out and conscious eating is one of the topics. She is a practicing vegan. She talks about how if you want to live a better life and be a better person...you should try not to eat animals and animal products. You hear how they are treated and how they are killed and some people think you are ingesting the fear and pain of that animal. That might seem a little out there...a little kooky if you will...but you know me I actually believe it! Between hearing her, reading Fast Food Nation and recently reading Skinny Bitch...it is definitely something to think about. I've been trying to up my veggie and fruit intake, water intake and lessen my addiction to sugar. Also trying to buy only organic produce and meats/eggs. Skinny Bitch, by the by, is a fantastic book. Really funny and smart. They too are vegan and going into great detail about how animals are killed for our consumption and how eating meat is not necessarily the best thing for our health and bodies. Something I am considering. I do notice that I mainly eat vegetarian for 2 out of the 3 main meals I eat. I'm gettin' all spiritual up in hea! Jill, talk me down! I'm not sure I am describing this well enough but I will return to the subject since I am really interested in it at the mo'. I would think that it would be really easy to be vegan or a strict vegetarian in LA/Cali. I think you would have an easy time of it in NYC as well. I'm not so sure of the Jerz and PA. Fine when you are buying your groceries of course...but not so much on the plethora of vegan restaurants in the burbs! Jill, do you know a lot of vegan/vegetarians? Besides the lovely Melis of course! Thoughts?

I'm Going Taking My Picture...

JULES, it's so nice to have you back. Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome! I completely feel your pain a la the retarded burn. I was a victim of many of summers in LBI in NJ. Usually in place that was close to bra for extra pain. Thank you very much Irish ancestry. Love your pics of your NJ shore adventure. Love how your exploited your man in the typical pin up picture. That has inspired me to share my photos..

So I took a one day digital photo class on the beach in Venice a few weekends ago. I discovered that my camera has all of these wonderful settings. I can make the group shot of friends smiling a little spicy. I also discovered that all of this information is in my camera manual. So I have been experimenting with my camera. Most of the pictures are of me because my West Coast buds as well as my boyfriend Dan, are getting tired of me stalking them with my camera. Well that is until they see the final work..pause to pat myself on the back. So here is a sampling of my work thus far.....


So yes, I'm finding that I am the "main" object of this experimentation. I call this series - Le Cart - Fondness of herself



So this is a picture of me attending a Chorus Line at the "Lincoln Center" of LA. The second picture is a back & white study of my foot, with a flip flop, in case you needed help there. The next picture is my foot once again. I threw in my hand in the mix for good measure...



These are some exterior shots of Venice beach. These pics were taken, same time of day with different settings..I mean thrilling..




I call this series, "I rediscovered my apartment..."




These are some cute pics of friends seeing SATC...

That is all from the west. Enjoy my art, let it penetrate you like that exhibit we saw at the MOMA in High School. Remember the brilliant exhibit we saw "Stuffed Animals on Afghans" that was indeed stuffed animals on blankets. Wonderful indeed..

Love you lots - the West is out...
Jill.....

PS Love the you are on the Flight of Conchords train! They just came with a CD of their songs, Dan, may man is obessed!!

I'm Sooorrryyy...Sooo Soorrrryyy!!!

Jill! I'm back! Apologies to all! There are no excuses but I have been crazed with work and my muse was on vacation and yada yada yada...Did not mean to neglect the wonder that is ESWS! Whilst I've been away I would like to report that I went to the Jerz Shore for Memorial Day Weekend and did not really get a retarded burn! In our younger years we tried to defy our Irish skin and not put any sunblock on to try and develop a golden tan...of course that never worked and we ended up with the back of our knees being scorched and other gorgeous bits. The plan backfired if you will...I've learned my lesson and heaved a big sigh and resigned myself to embracing the pale. Or at least slowing working up to a tan and using sunblock when I remember! There was even a time period when I got really Jerz in law school that I went to tanning salons? That has ended too thanks be to Jebus. Anyhoo, point being that at the beach I applied all the good stuff and emerged unscathed with the exception of my right arm being a bit burnt and some red splotches on my knees...but really not bad considering what used to happen! I've evoloved! Jill, since you are in the sun much more than me in gaargeous LA (bastaaad), have you gotten better with your SPF application?

Also, I just got Season 1 of Flight of the Concords via Netflix the other day. Inspired by my trip to LA where you introduced the show to me! Hilarious. I love their fan! she is brills. I think I have a crush on Bret. I believe you favor Jemaine?

Attached see pics of two bathing beauts on the shores of Ocean City, NJ and me on my way to victory during these marathon Monopoly games the gals and I were playing at the Shore...my how times have changed! It would have been flip cup or somesuch years ago!

Feeling like the Tu Pac to Your Biggie....

Jules...

ESWS misses your sweet literary voice. Would ya come back? It's all West with out the East. I’m really feeling all the resentment and pain from the Hip Hop era circa 1995. Is that what this is about? I thought we put that behind us. So for inspiration, I'm posting some recent pics of us when we did indeed live on the same coast. This was before I made the long journey West my dear friend. We were so carefree back then, weren't we? Ah yes, High School reunions, parties in Brooklyn Heights, steeple chases in NJ, hanging out with your brothers friends on the veranda in Westfield until the wee hours of the morning. We had it all in the palm of our hands, without the sweet appreciation of what was transpiring...true greatness.

Julia O’Shea Donohue, ESWS wants you back in game. I hope you heed the call...

Love your oldest, & dearest, friend,
Jillian Kathryn Carty a.ka. JKC

Julie can hear me? Julie can you see me?

A little throw back to Yental. I know how much you love that movie!! Juls me love, haven’t heard from ya. So I’m jumping in for a quick chime in. As you know me and my dear sis Melissa, took a ride up the coast over Memorial Day weekend. It’s so nice to know that Cali has all of this wonderful scenery. I say good day to the LA, ‘ello to Northern Cali. So long smog, silicon boobs, road rage and hello to gorgeous scenery, laid back atmosphere, and people who actually eat and drink and all of these things (lingo courtesy of my esteemed governator – Arnold). So our journey started in LA, then we drove up the coast to Santa Barbara. We stayed there for the evening at the Hotel Oceana. We a dinner reservation at this great tapas place called Sevilla. It was delic. Then we went from class to karaoke at this dive bar on the main strip there. A perfect transition yes? We saw a midget sing the Stones, Sympathy for the Devil. I wish I had a picture, but we felt bad about obviously documenting the scene. We sang a few tunes as well. Many tunes, since the place was not packed, we got up five times. I kept changing our name as the night progressed. First it was Jill C & Melis C. Then it was J&M. It ended up as Jlovin and MGets. We definitely got our fix.


We got up in on Sat morning and headed up the coast to Monterey. That drive was beautiful! In Monterey we stayed at this great pace called The Monterey Plaza Hotel for two nights. I felt like we were a bit young for the place, which was funny. The only people we bonded with were the bell boys who wanted to take us out on the town. I think they were 18, so we politely declined! There we gorged ourselves on amazing food and wine plus some spa treatments.

On Sun we explored Monterey and also took a day trip to Carmel which was right next to Monterey. We ate this amazing place call
Casanova’s. It was adorable and we drank mimosas and had an amazing brunch. So yum.

On way back to LA we hit the Hearst Castle and pretended that we were Hearst’s guests in the 20’s, well the tour guide did. She kept mentioning how the guest would sip cocktails here and there. I really think they should served us a few to get in the mood. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the pics. Here’s the link courtesy of Frommer’s that inspired our journey:
Up the Coast in a Week

Miss ya, wanna hear from ya, need to get an east coast fix…can you help momma out?