Simone

I'll be the first to say that I've had my fair share of weird roommate situations (including renting a room from a "massage therapist" in San Jose, though that's a whole blog entry unto itself.) However, I've also been lucky enough to meet some really amazing people like Simone Shin. Simone and I both rented a room in this funny little yellow house with a red door in South Pasadena. We bonded over the weirdness of our other roommate, who kept squirreled away in her room during the day and was a smelly food-eating, crazy club-going party animal at night. One of the first times I talked with Simone, we were discussing getting internet for the house. I was tired, so I looked around her room and found a chair to plop down in. And plop I did. See, Simone is an artist. And the chair was not really a chair, but a sculpture of a chair made out of cardboard and fabric. When I sat down, I crushed her sculpture. I felt TERRIBLE. I ruined ART! But Simone was gracious and made a joke and I knew then that I liked her more than any other roommate I'd had in recent history.

Even though I moved out of that house soon after Simone moved in, we've tried to keep in touch as much as our busy schedules will allow. I was so, so thrilled when, out of the blue, she contacted me last week because she'd been nominated for a prestigious illustration award and needed a photo to submit in case she was selected. I was like, OF COURSE! I mean, if anything else, it was a way to work off some of my destroyed-chair-sculpture karma. And, more importantly, it meant we'd finally meet up like we'd talking about for ages. Anyway, long story longer, we did the shoot, she won the award and we finally got to hang out. What more could I ask for?





If you have time, stop by Simone's website and blog. She's amazing!