wow, i really miss making money while not working

i know what youre thinking, "how on earth does anyone make money while not working?", but its true, i used to make money while not doing a single thing. thats not to say that i didnt work for that money, see, i used to have my clothing in a local brick and mortar boutique. this was a consignment arrangement, so i would make clothes, jewelry, accessories, or whatever, bring it into the shop, and in anywhere from a few days to a few months, id have money, there in the store, waiting for me to pick it up. all i had to do was make the merch (which, i will admit, was often quite difficult and/or laborious), there was no selling. now, i still have etsy as an outlet, and dont get me wrong, i love etsy, but photographing, measuring, describing, listing, and promoting each individual item? thats alot of work that i cant always do. not to mention, (well, in my opinion) everything looks better in real life. and so, im left with quite an extensive inventory worth hundreds, maybe even thousands, and unless i work my ass off to get it sold, its not going anywhere. 

so, if you know of any friendly indie boutiques that like to do wholesale of consignment with local artists, and theyre located in the greater los angeles/orange county area, could you please let me know? id appreciate it. 

from now on, im just gonna go to shows alone

really, after a very traumatic afternoon where ALL of my friends flaked on me, i realized, im better off on my own anyways. 

ok, let me back up, im getting ahead of myself again. i have a tendency to do that. im sorry. last night my current favorite band in the middle bracket of my hierarchy of bands, the matches, played a show at the knitting factory in hollywood, which, is not too far from where i live, and tickets were dirt cheap. so i call up the three friends i went with to see the same band at a different club in february, jane didnt know, but she never knows what shes doing in advance, and thing one and thing two said they were in, for sure. so i bought three tickets. 

then, yesterday, hours before the show, thing one calls me to tell me shes sick, i say, no worries, but i still need the ticket money, she says fine. i cant get ahold of jane. then thing two calls and says if janes not going than her parents wont let her go, because three teenage girls in hollywood is fine, but two is dangerous, or something like that. and guess what! i finally get ahold of jane and she CANT GO! (im not upset with any of them, really)

i panicked. i have HUGE social anxiety issues. the thought of going to something somewhat social ALONE paralyzes me. i cry for a bit and my mom helps me out the door, cause we both know ill be fine once the music starts, cause then its just me and the band and the weight of the crowd, my friends dont exist in that world. 

so i leave, and after stopping at my dads house in glendale to feed his cats, and then circling the same two blocks of hollywood boulevard looking for the club, i make it in time to only miss a couple songs of the first band. the band was called the vouge in movement, and, well, i didnt get much out of them. it was all a bit cliche, in this five piece band, three members are rocking the urban outfitters sheer jersey t-shirt with black vest and skinny jeans. they didnt impress me musically either, i mean, they actually had a song called "fire on the dance floor", and yes, that was the hook. 

the second band however, scissors for lefty, really impressed me. like, i bought a shirt impressed me. not only did they have a great poppy indie rock sound, but they also had really great style and stage presence. and their bass player, oh the bass player. he made me melt, i dont know if it was his pink gaping v-neck shirt exposing his hot chest hair (ya know, like an american apparel model), that it was tucked into the tightest black jeans held up by a rad thrift store belt, that said jeans were tucked into vintage moccasins, or that he (nor the rest of the band really) absolutely COULD NOT dance, but did so anyways. i made it a point to say hi at the merch table, and he was nice too. though he shook my hand like three times, THAT was a bit odd. 

anyways, i was there to see the matches. now, i forgot to mention that between clichebob urbanoutfitterpants, and scissors for lefty, i saw shawn harris standing in a corner, and actually, after a few minutes of standing awkwardly, said hi, and talked to him a bit. which was a huge deal for me, being so ridiculously shy, but he seems to be a special case, im alot less afraid of him than most other guys of his attractiveness level. back to the program, the matches played a typical REALLY good set. of course, they didnt play any of my favorite old tracks, but bands never do cause i always like the most obscure tracks possible, so ive gotten used to it. the only thing that irked me a bit was that the bassist was NOT being a team player in the wardrobe department, i mean, suck it up and wear the tight red pants, you look like a jerk for wearing regular jeans. but other than that, GREAT set, GREAT energy, GREAT crowd participation, and GREAT stage presence and end of set stage dives, which were awesome cause i got a handful of shawn ass. 

so, long story short, i had a great time. and it didnt matter that i was alone. i couldnt wait around after to talk to matt whalen (the drummer), cause i was tired and waiting outside a club alone looks really creepy, but honestly, i didnt miss friends. 

also, the knitting factory is quite possibly my new favorite venue, and from this day forward i will always pick it over chain reaction. now, this is probably mostly based on my intense dislike of anaheim and high schoolers, and while chain is always packed to the brim with irritating 15 year olds, the knitting factory was pretty chill, and had an older crowd that i felt much more comfortable in. but also, the security was MUCH nicer, i mean, as i was leaving, i was drinking a cup of ice water, and the told me i had to finish it or throw it away before i went outside, so, i stood in the doorway finishing it (i was hella dehydrated), and as i was standing there, one of the security guys hands me a bottle of water. a COLD bottle of water. seriously, this guy deserves a medal for being nice. 

then i went home, which was quite uneventful, and i woke up at like 10, and now, at 4, im still in my jammies. the end. 

yes, i do realize i havent blogged since march

and i have absolutely no excuse. im lazy. there. i said it. adventures HAVE been a tad slow this semester, but they were certainly in existence. i just felt the need to address this issue before it became a problem. 

my splendid little adventure at fye this morning

thats the nice way of titling this post. it was really anything but splendid. fye irks me to no end for reasons that very few people i know understand. i mean, tower records wasnt perfect, BUT at its core, it was a record store. fye, not so much. honestly, i avoid going. in fact, i dont, except on special tuesdays when a record that i absolutely NEED is being released. today was one such day. the last one was in mid-september, if you need any further evidence as to how much i hate what record buying has become. 

yes, today was the day that the new matches record, a band in hope (which i recommend you go buy RIGHT NOW) was released. so i had to go to fye. i just had to. after the show at chain on february fourth, i was sold. after their feature in alternative press, i was DYING to get my hands on it. and so, i resigned to a morning at fye. 

so i get there, go inside, look for the general music section, where im assuming a punk rock record released on epitaph records would be located. it takes a while, cause since that fye has been not a tower records, ive been there maybe three times, actually, i think exactly three times, before. once i find where the rock and roll records belong, i look for the letter M. i see motion city soundtrack, so im in the right aisle, then, find marylyn manson, meaning im close, at least alphabetically, and then i reach the other match themed bands, and alas, no matches. i look again, and theyre not there, not even the little plastic place holder to let me know that they normally carry that artist. 

i ask for help, and the kid who looks barely my age checks the computer, and goes, "yeah, we have like 20 of them". really now? and where are they hiding them? in the HEAVY METAL section. yes, the matches are heavy metal, didnt we all know that? yes, all this time i have been totally skewed in my categorizations of music. you know who else i saw in the heavy metal section? THE RAMONES. yes, the ramones who embodied the very essence of not heavy metal. however, marylyn manson, hes in regular music. 

fye is run and staffed by idiots. and their cataloging system was developed by proverbial monkeys at typewriters. 

wow. i just listed my first art on etsy.

this is a really big step for me, in a way, its harder to put my art out there with my clothing, but, i dove in headfirst anyways!

the blue ones in my etsy shop and the pink ones about to follow, take a look over at annierexic.etsy.com, where this month only all proceeds go directly to buying annie a button press. 

finally, something good.

so, yesterday was the postmark deadline for my usc application, but, because i am awesome (and it was really starting to piss me off) i mailed it on thursday, and marisa jane and i went on a celebration adventure. we had also already planned an adventure for today (oh, the irony), so i got me a two adventure weekend. a  two very different adventure weekend.

thursdays adventure was a typical annie and jane adventure of spontaneity, see, she wanted to go to bff and pick up money and have lunch at lbjs, and i wanted to go thrifting in hollywood. so we did both, with a leaving a creepy note on a certain boy's window (um, long story, its on the maybe ill tell you later list) in between. this adventure was extra cool cause we found a new shop on la brea that was really rad, and like usual, i spent all my money on lunch, a top, the worst latte ive ever had, a sweet mens button-up and an apron, and like usual, jane spent two dollars on lunch. but the most important thing was that at jet rag, we found the cutest boys ever. the cutest "were 99% sure theyre not gay" boys that could possibly exist in hollywood. and then we went home. 

today, however, happened on bikes. all around 20 miles of it, and im tired. the way this one worked was that i had a sleepover at my house with jane and jenny, and then we rode from my house, to that one boys house (he wasnt there again), to mickeys deli for lunch, then  to janes house cause she had to get home, and finally back to my house, where jenny got picked up and then i took a very very long nap. then i at dinner, did a little (about as much as i could given the liquididy of my legs) annie work, and now im eating a very large piece of cake. 

thats the end of the adventures, but, since youre here anyways, i just thought id share this months promotion over at annierexic.etsy.com: 100% of all proceeds will go directly into the "annie really needs a button press" fund. so please, shop for a good cause. 

why i love being indie part 1

note:

this may or may not become a recurring topic. lets see how this goes. 

so, today i was reminded of exactly why i do what i do. and no, its not because people constantly bow down to my awesomeness, although that is a plus.  

its because i have absolutely no control over my income, which, when coupled with my irresponsible tendencies in the financial department, leads to an extreme case of feast or famine syndrome. 

sometimes, like this summer when, seriously, i was depending on a not very lucrative custom silkscreening gig to barely keep gas in my car, and mcdonalds diet coke (anyone else remember the 75 cent giant sodas?) in my bloodstream, and using my bff money to fund a local show habit (i dont think the king is dead know how many times ive given them my last $10). it was really fun, and i was really happy, but i couldnt afford ANYTHING, and racked up something like $300 in debt. to my mom. cause cell phones only break when your scraping up quarters for coke. 

but on the other hand, right now, i have more money than i know what to do with. of course, i really *shouldnt* buy any expensive things, cause i have to pay my car registration and buy school supplies next month, but still, i thought i was doing pretty good with that extra day at work last week, but that was just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. cause i have more money at bff than ive ever had before, and if that wasnt rad enough, i just got a pretty big order via myspace! 

yeah, im pretty much loaded, and if i knew what was good for me, id wait things out and with the next big wave of money and buy me that button press ive been coveting. hmmm.... lets see.