Fly Away.

I am off again to Norcal for a second consecutive weekend to spend New Years with familia! Have an amazing New Year weekend everyone!!!

Too Long.

My awesome front bangs are fast becoming my annoying front bangs as they slowly take over more and more of my line of vision!

Pink Scarf.

I call this: “An Exploration In Feminine Colors On Masculine Subjects In Sketch With Juxtaposed Words: A Commentary On Modern Day Social Gender Stereotypes” in reminiscence of often grotesquely feminist theory-inclined art classes courtesy of the University of California, San Diego LOL! This piece with that title on a wall decorated with a string of tampons over crocheted blood splatters embedded with cross-stitched cusswords = instant A+ with standing ovation!

Bundled Up.

It is purrty cold this week. Thank goodness for my big black jacket :)

Flying Jake 2.

Ate so so so much at home over Christmas weekend Jake had a hard time flying me back.

EDIT: OMG just noticed I forgot to draw Jake's antlers! He is stripped of all his dignity and manly deer-hood LOL! (points and laughs)

Flying Jake.

Flew up to NorCal to spend Christmas weekend with familia! Merry Christmas everyone—Or as the boys would say: Happy Merry Christmas!

Uniform.

This week I wore the same exact outfit (gray sweater tunic, leggings, uggs) to work every single day of the week (including today) lol. I woke up tired every morning and really truly did not feel like choosing clothes but to just mindlessly throw on something warm and comfy, the most mindless choice of all being to just wear the day-before outfit.

Dentist Appointment.

Today I have a cleaning appointment with the dentist. When I was little I believed that an entire hour of brushing my teeth would magically make all cavities (in case I had any, which I always did) go away, redeeming an entire year of shoddy brushing and sweets chawing. I would thus spend an entire hour after breakfast running around with a toothbrush in my mouth until any hint of toothpaste eventually dissolved and only spit was dribbling down my chin, doggedly brushing while periodically rubbing my front teeth with an index finger to see if it was making that squeaky clean sound yet, which everyone who is anyone knows is the ONLY scientific way to prove clean teeth.

Umbrella Fail.

Was on my way back to mi coche during lunch while holding onto my umbrella with both hands for dear life against the treacherous gale-rain combo when my loser umbrella after maybe 20 seconds of holding up under pressure goes right ahead and turns inside out in humiliating defeat! Looks like a plastic grocery bag would have done a FAR better job at keeping me dry!

Bag Lady.

Was at the Korean market over the weekend during a particularly vicious hour of rain when I saw this one lady donning a plastic grocery store bag over her fluffy MAKLH (aka Middle Aged Korean Lady Hair) before running out to her car with groceries in tow. Presently I still cannot decide if that sight was totally the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen or smartest thing I’ve ever seen.

Company Christmas Dinner.

Tonight is my fourth annual holiday Christmas party with my company. Nothing much to report except that this is my third year going dateless. This being my fourth one, you may (likely not) be wondering who I took my first ever holiday Christmas party.

Let us now journey back in time to the year 2007, this very month of December to find out (insert tacky watery fade-out effect):


Figure A: J as my date to my company Christmas party.
All my coworkers think we are cute.



Figure B: Me as J’s date to her company Christmas party.
All her coworkers think we are gay.

Needless to say, it did not happen again.

I61 Christmas 2.

Click on image to see larger version!

Alas, the story of this drawing's life is also one of shattered hearts and broken dreams, because you see, while the illustration from yesterday was intended for print, this one today was intended for online digital glory. But because the other one ended up online when printing fell through, it took the spot of this one here, which will likely be posted on the I61studio photoblog. This was my first drawing ever without line work and I’m quite immensely pleased with how it turned out. If all my drawings are my children, and I was a bad parent that showed extreme favoritism to a very special select few of em, this one would probably be one of those favorites I sneak extra portions of food to and buy new clothes for.

I61 Christmas.

Iiiit’s show case time at the SusanDraws headquarters! That happy time of the year during which I showcase some “serious” drawings by moi. The first one featured today was initially going to be run as a holiday post card print but fell through. So sadly its life’s dream and sole purpose of printed glory is long gone, but still it is enjoying some spotlight in digital form as a pseudo-splash greeting image on our website I61studio.com... so shut up and stop crying already, you drawing! I'm sorry I'm kidding I love you.

Warm December.

84 degrees in mid-December makes a very very happy Susan who enjoys frolicking in the office parking lot in a summer dress and open-toed heels, free from the constrictions of winter clothing. Unfortunately that was yesterday; today, the wonderful bout of freak warm weather is gone and replaced with clouds and impending rain.

Juice vs. New Hair.

I made the dire mistake of calling a very sleep-deprived and thus seriously cantankerous sister out to eat dinner right smack in the middle of her college final's week with the double mistake of showing up with a fresh new haircut, which became the subject of some friendly fire across the restaurant dining table. Note to self: Do not initiate contact with private Juice until her winter break, over.

True Love.

The above is a photo of me and J at approximately 1AM last night(/this morning) in a delirious and passionate near-embrace –
NOT with each other, but with our amazingly THIN! and amazingly AWESOME! brand spanking NEW! 40’’ SAMSUNG LCD TV!!!! (Pictured above is the TV’s side view). We discovered promptly after set up that this TV: 1) After connecting a random cable on the wall (we don’t pay for cable) PLAYS CABLE and 2) Having a USB hub on the side, PLAYS ANY MEDIA FROM ANY USB DRIVE, meaning our libraries of movie and TV show downloads can now be enjoyed in our posh living room on the posh living room TV. It also has Internet connectivity, which if attempted last night might have possibly blown our brains to bits in awesomeness, so is saved for another day.

Floss Time.

Floss time is happy time when all the fish in the sea sing songs and flowers pop up out of nowhere around my head. I love love love the feeling of clean gums and cannot go to bed without flossing. This is just one of those many acquired tastes I developed with age, along with my acquired love for veggies, tea, whole wheat bread, and brown rice, this all after graduating college and within the span of three years. So I guess more accurately speaking, I acquired it with my college diploma, which perhaps makes complete sense owing to the fact that it bears powers from the signature of the venerable governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

No fun.

I hate when J points out my issues. Especially when she is right. It’s a pretty fun fun party pointing out other people’s problems and listing out all their character flaws but not so much a fun fun party when it comes around to picking out mine.

Tea-holic.

Tea tea tea - Tea is the drink for me
Tea tea tea - Tea fills me up with glee!

Mama.

I love my mom. She is the most gentle, wise, and beautiful woman in the whole wide world. Her hugs when I was growing up were the warmest, strongest, most wonderful smelling hugs that had the power to instantly right every single wrong in my world. Even now as an adult much taller than my mom, nothing can make big bad things go away quite like my mama’s hugs.

Cashier Man.

Yesterday whilst Christmas shopping (third attempt) I came across a cashier man that happened to be the hottest man I ever saw probably in my entire life that was not a celebrity on a movie poster enhanced by Photoshop magic. Oh, how much nicer it’d be, how much more bounce in my step, how much more zing in every hour if I could trade in all my office boys for boys like that!

Office Supply Sales Lady 2

Figure A: Pretty Office Supply Sales Lady calls for back-up and this time sends a man.


Figure B: Near-death by chatty sales person.

Figure C: Not five minutes after a polite (I thought) rejection of all sales goods, Office Supply Sales Lady 2: Man version comes storming back inside yelling my name at me.


Figure D: Office Supply Sales Man turns out to be none other than an elementary/middle school classmate from my private school in Korea who I haven't seen in over 12 years!

We then in wild excitement proceeded to hold an obnoxiously loud impromptu grade school reunion in the middle of the office including a call to another long lost grade school classmate who happens to be in SoCal conducted on speakerphone. SMALL WORLD.

In the Car.

A typical car ride with my whole familia entails us the three fully grown children smushed in the back seat usually laughing and having a jolly ol time but also occasionally breaking into fights most often started by me, the “mature” oldest. I suppose being 25 and all I could very well sit all mature-like in my seat and look out yonder through the window at the passing trees and occasionally comment on the frailty of life or something, but I would much rather amuse myself by getting the two youngest in trouble a la grade-school antics by tattling on em at all available opportunities.

Baby Susan.

Happy Monday everyone! I hope everyone has returned safe and sound from out yonder and are now nicely tucked back into where y’all belong, which in my case is this FREEZING ICE-CHAMBER OF DEATH disguised as an office (shivering under jacket and lap blanket).

While at home, my baby brother made this amazing discovery of a giant blue folder containing everything I considered of utmost value throughout elementary school! It included all my honor roll certificates, soccer team pictures, musical and concert playbills, every card and post-it my third grade teacher ever wrote me, all the epic stories I wrote in third grade on now-frayed and browned paper, and last but not least, a little blue book called “Third grade memories” that our class made at the end of the year.

I present to you from that book, an original Susan Draws by baby Susan circa 1993:



Obviously I was a great deal more confident of a third grader than I remembered myself to be (check out that coy winking action!) and did not yet possess the great pentagon-drawing skeelz (for the pentagon glasses) I possess today after many many years of grueling training (read: doodling throughout my entire educational career). Allow me also to point out how baby Susan painstakingly drew the line-work in the same color as the coloring to be done inside, with skin being drawn in peach marker, then colored in peach crayon. Brilliant!

Perhaps you may be interested to compare it with one I drew recently of baby Susan back in September:

http://susandraws.blogspot.com/2010/09/young-me-1.html

Thanksgiving.

Happy happy Thanksgiving from NorCal everyone!!!
Hope y’all eat tons of turkey and mashed potatoes and pie and all that good stuff in the company of all your close friends, family, and pets! See you next week!

Smoke.

Our beloved chain smoking CEO is in town this week, and sure sign of his presence is the thick near-visible plumes of cigarette smoke that fill the entire expanse of our office building. Often our eyes will irritate and tear, our throats scar from coughing, and our heads spin from inexplicable headaches and migraines, but all this we are used to, and none of this can deter us from our dogged love for our CEO, or rather: from doggedly acting like the Air Pollution Index in our building is not going head to head with mainland China and that our life expectancies are not fast deteriorating at the rate of minus one year every 15 minutes.

Quote of the Year.

Usually tidbits of chatter from the boys floating into my space automatically get filtered out as static and float right over my head, but this delicious morsel and shining gem of a quote floated in and stayed. What makes this quote most epic is not that the boy called a laptop a “beautiful machine” (fairly standard word usage within the PC industry), but that he started the sentence with “SHALL I…” instead of “can I” or “may I”, as if the pre-appointed time foretold since the beginning of the age had drawn nigh. This is what happens when you mix a majority of Koreans with a minority of non-koreans; though for the most part the Koreans will ignore the non-koreans, the very very rare times they do graciously decide to extend human interaction to the non-koreans, out of their mouths will come English so strange and so awkward that it completely surpasses the category of broken English and jumps right up into the ranks of awesome-double-rainbows-exploding-quote-of-the-year-English!

Pinky-a-gogo

After two weeks of mi coche Pinky-a-gogo (who is not actually pink) being extremely oppressed under mountain dirt from a weekend camping trip, I had never managed to find the time to go get him washed, and then: BAM POW! Over the weekend came these clouds bearing gifts of rain (read: FREE CARWASH!!!)! I am happy to report that Pinky-a-gogo is now the shiniest, happiest, squeaky-clean-est car in all the town! Kids, let this be a lesson that sometimes procrastination DOES pay off.

Champion!

I am totally proud to announce that yours truly has successfully beaten the entire current four levels of Angry Birds (BAM POW!)!!! I now pronounce myself champion and ultimate defeater and ruthless crusher of rubble and green pigs. Above you may see an actual snapshot of me taken for the local paper in which I am candidly chillaxing with my pals. In midair. Because we be FLY like that.

Octopus Hat.

If ever I ever had an octopus pet,
How surely most definitely assuredly I’d set

The pet right up on the top of my head
Passersby be awed, “How wonderful!” said

The octopus and me, what a sight to be seen!
We’d be the talk of the town, with fashion so keen!

Office Supply Sales Lady.

Figure A: Pretty Office Supply Sales Lady.


Figure B: Susan fixated on pretty office supply sales lady.


Figure C: More specifically fixated on her hair.


Figure D: Sad and jealous Susan.

Dapper Art Block.