deserving of the title 'post'

Okay, so I just was bit by the comicscritter (mythical creature, first cousin of imaginarymonster) and had to post this now. I promise I'll try to replace this with a good scan sometime this week. Also, I promise I'll explain what (to some of you) will come across as a glaring "what? no way! wait, why aren't you expanding on that" later.As always, click for full size image, if I don't do thumbnails, it wrecks the whole formatting Here you go. Goodnight/goodmorning.

unrelated

So I just thought I would post something because not posting yesterday felt weird, and also, it's been many a post since we've had any photos up in here. Scanned a ton in for a portfolio few weeks ago, here are a couple.

twenty

This is it kiddos, the end of the "to twenty' series. I had an absolute blast with it, and hope you did too. So here's the last installment. Also, please go get yourself a goodiebag, I swear they're more than worth it,and I want to get them all out so I can take down that page.

you're invited!

In addition to my festivities today, I'm also having a little dinner with my closest friends  (in town) later in the week, and made them these silly little invites to let them know I have no idea when exactly, but something will happen and they should be ready at a moment's notice. and since I consider ya'll close friends (of a sort) there's a special suprise gift type thing for you today, but only if you're at the ready this moment. Click on the invite for your own special birthday perk! Yay!

/

nineteen

Nearing the end now aren't we? Well, on my 19th birthday my best friends tried to surprise me by getting me an icecreamcake. Only problem: I'm "the friend with the car". So I was the one who "for no reason" was told to drive to the Dairy Queen, where, surprise, there was a happy birthday tori cake, and surprise, they don't sell birthday cake candles. So it was off to the 99cent store, where it turns out they don't sell birthday candles either. So we just shoved a tealight into my cake and bought 15 other things 'because they were just a dollar'. If you've never done this, it leads to pictures like this:

and then we went and ate the cake on the main lawn at campus,inviting everyone who passed to have a bite. Good times.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have 1hour 27 minutes of teenager left. Think I'm going to break open a ben&jerry's and catch up on Doctor Who.

eighteen

Okay, in hindsight of making this, there were actually a handful of cool people who took some pity on the girl who has a birthday right at the beginning of the year so there's no way of telling if she's lame or not. So it wasn't too horrible, and a few of those people actually turned into some really great friends of mine, so win in the long run, but at the time they were essentially strangers and it wasn't like all the spendiferous birthdays I've been happy to chronicle thusfar.

seventeen

Oh, we're in the home stretch now, better make it good.

sorry about the odd edge, that's the back of my notebook, which I'm pasting these all in after I finish them. Oh and what are our thoughts on the new site theme? Still working on making it more easily navigable, but it looks cleaner to me now. Lemme know what you think. About anything. That's what I'm here for.

sixteen

there are a few moments of teenagerdom that didn't suck, as much as I'd like to pretend that wasn't true.

fifteen

So yeah, the pencil's really light, so I'll caption the words underneath.

my 15th birthday kinda sucked. (almost) everyone forgot and I was really pissy about it. All in all, your usual 15th birthday.

Bummed? Never fear, here's some cheer! I finally remembered something from my eighth birthday.
Also, it's my uncle's birthday. He doesn't read this, but still, happy birthday!

and one last thing:say hello! I am getting visitors from all over supposedly, but not so many comments. It doesn't have to be nice, I'd just like us to get acquainted.

fourteen

Okay, so it was my fourteenth birthday, and it marked a kind of shift in birthday-perspective. I was in high school (about two weeks in, you know, that point where you're only 94% sure all the time you spend there is going to epically suck). My mom still wanted to do something for my birthday, I was feeling a little distanced from a lot of my friends (we didn't have classes together), and was worried if I had some big shindig no one would show up (we did however have a birthday family dinner, and then a little get together of friends at the house). But the thing I most remember were these balloons.

at my high school, you could send balloons to any student if you had the cash and it was a school day. These showed up at my 3rd period class, and for some reason, it was a complete puzzle to me: who would send me balloons? Why? They were from Courtney and Nicole, neither of whom I'd seen that day yet, so I honestly didn't even know they remembered my birthday. But they cared. They balloon-getting cared. Which was a big deal in high school. Thanks guys.

thirteen

Okay, so here was the double-effort post.I foolishly decided I should write a paper that was due before working on it, so didn't get to spend as much time on it as I planned. As a result, it didn't come out quite as well as I'd hoped, but it's really hard trying to draw everyone like they looked when they were kids, without any real reference points (with the exception of one class picture circa 2002 that got posted to facebook). So if you're in this and reading it, sorry if you think you look gross. We were all very young and gangly. But all of ya'll over at the old house, swimming and eating copious amounts of cake, is what I think of when I think birthday. Thanks for all the good ones (and they were all good.)

twelve

ummm, letsee, twelve. My parents took my friends and I to Disneyland. So awesome. I actually had a really swampy day today(for those of you who have been keeping tabs on my nonblogged life, my portfolio's in the mail, now we wait, and for those of you who are like "what? You mean I am not sufficiently stalking you just by reading this?" I refer you to the twitter button on your right), and was working on a bit larger piece for this one, so will just post it on thirteen.

eleven

So I honestly thought about not posting today, in light of the sensitivity around it, and who was I do a little spiel about birthdays when we are supposed to be acknowledging the anniversary of a  national  tragedy, but then, thanks mostly in part to a little (actually there were a ton of people there) vigil on campus that was put on, in part, by one of my amazing best friends, I realized that today, and every day, is a day to be compassionate and respectful, but also a day to carry on, to live the lives we are oh so very lucky to lead. So to anyone who had a rough day today, my heart very much goes out to you, and I sincerely mean that.

However, today is also grandparents' day, which regardless of which day it falls on, always gets overlooked. So this one's going to be about their wonderful selves, because they've always been there for me birthday or not.

G-pa (that's gangsta for grandpa) has always been a pro napper. He can and will fall asleep anywhere.

ten.

My tenth birthday was one of the last days I spent in what I've always considered my "real" home (we only lived there maybe 6-7 years, which I'm sure to some people isn't a lot, but it was where I felt most at, and hence will somehow alawys be, home. So my tenth birthday was, in retrospect, an ode to that problem ridden rented model home (if you have no idea what a "model home" is may I refer you to the first season of Arrested Development. Seriously we lived there awhile before anyone realized the problem with the bottom oven was it hadn't been fully wired in). But it will always be one of my favourite places and I only complain for comedic effect. Here's a map of my room there and surrounding areas that I did for this course I'm taking on the private aspects of the creative process, possibly one of the most interesting courses I've ever taken. Folks who come here for the silly comics, check out the book An Illustrated Life (of course your local independent bookstore would be the best place to get it, or check it out from the library!), it is one of my textbooks and I am in love with it, you probably will be too.

nine

So for my ninth birthday we had a luau theme, which was super cool, but trying to find the proper accoutrements in mid-September was difficult. Yet my mother managed to track down grass skirts and leis for every guest, (this was pre "type: grass skirt, into amazon and bam, exact item at best price", so it was actually a lot of work for kids' party favors. Thanks mom.

eight

I'm sorry, right now, I seriously don't remember my 8th birthday. The cake, the presents, the turmoil, anything. I'll try and work on it, though, and if I remember, I'll edit and tack it onto the end of the post.



Just remembered:

It's a long story. I was promised a cat via a card from my parents saying "you get a cat" on my eighth birthday, but Mischief (cat) didn't enter our fam until August 2001.

seven

I'm not sure if it was my seventh birthday or not, but just go with me here. I was going to go into the swimming pool, and someone was like "oh you're supposed to wait thirty minutes" and I just ran away from them in fear (this was childhood Tori for: whatever/meanie!/straaaannnger! no!/not really/ maybe/pretty much my reaction to feeling anything). But I wanted to prove them wrong. So I ate. In the pool. Game changer, huh? I used a floatyboard as a table and had a pickle. The pickle kept floating away, the taste of chlorine was omnipresent in my mouth, and it was the best pickle I ever ate. Because it tasted like freedom, defiance of social norms, and birthday.

six

Sorry, I've been so wrapped up in the rest of my life and posting these that i haven't gotten a chance to say hi to all the new readers, I guess a lot more people must be using the rss feed or bloglovin, because viewership has apparently been way up, and in a steady sort of way (yes, occasionally I remember this thing has stats). So welcome new friends, and hi again old ones. Here is the post:

 

Also, yesterday's post accidentally went up with out the drawing. It has now been added. (view five)

five

Sorry, I almost went to bed without doing one of these. It's been a real angsty day (oh no! she used the word angsty, get out now!) no, I just mean there has been much much exhausting anguish for very little reason. Which has always been a cornerstone of my birthday season. I was the kid who got stressed out over everything, from what color plates would the birthday cake be served on to what to do if I got two of the same toy. I actually remember that for several years, I would cry every year on my birthday. About little things, stupid things, but I just remember the ascent to a new age being such a terribly difficult thing for me that any little thing would cause me to crack. On my 5th birthday it was the balloons. My dad went to tie some balloons onto the mailbox so that people coming for the party would know they were at the right house (these weren't huge soirees, everyone coming knew our house, it is just a thing you do for kids' birthdays) and he let them go. I was sure he had done it intentionally, he didn't like tying, untying and disposing of the balloons. And I couldn't imagine what those balloons could do now, they were in an abyss of blue, they had no one. So I cried for the balloons, and everyone tried to point out that there were more balloons. No one understands that kids don't cry because they have no balloon, but because that balloon is lost in the universe, that balloon could be you.

Darn, that was angsty.

four

When I was four, I had a Pocahontas themed birthday, Pocahontas shaped piñata included. I became friends with her. When they beat her senseless, blindfolded with wooden bats, it killed my little 4yearold heart. Sensitive kids, they never grow up.

three

So I went to the fair today with two of my amazing friends, and it literally put me smack-dab back in the middle of my little kid shoes again. The fair in LA always happens right around my birthday, so while it's not a birthday thing, it's a birthday adjacent thing.
and that's good enough for me.

two

once again, two, a birthday I don't really remember. So I asked my mom about it. Consider the rest of this series thoroughly fact- checked. She documented everything. And has it on hand. And won't let me be wrong.

one

So in honor of the fact that I will be turning twenty on the twentieth, I'm going to do a little post each day, hopefully for the year the day represents (Isn't this like 11/10? or kinda like what Gabrielle Bell did in July? Yes, but I don't care). Unfortunately, this starts with one, which aside from being the lonliest number, is the birthday I have least recollection of. But here: