The Freckled Diaries

Saturday on Friday

So, Saturday. Last Saturday (just catching up!), I woke up early (for a Saturday, for me), at 10 and had two things to accomplish: go to Pentagon City (neighborhood of Arlington--there's a large mall and several other shopping areas there) to pick up a dress they were holding for me at Ann Taylor, and meet up with my potential car buyer and hopefully sell my car. They would only be holding the dress until 3, the car guy (Scott the bartender from Pat Troy's, actually) would be at my house at 1. A morning run to Pentagon City it was.

I took my bike on the Metro the 4 stops to Pentagon City because I wasn't sure exactly where the Ann Taylor was and bikes= getting around a whole lot faster. I made it to store, got my dress (ever so slightly too small, but if I swim more and eat less ice cream it'll fit by my birthday in May) and was about to head back via Metro, when I heard from Scott saying that something had come up and could we meet in the evening instead. Suddenly, my afternoon was wide open, it was 75 degrees and sunny and I was 5 mostly flat miles away from home, I had a bicycle and my regular commute route (Mount Vernon trail) was just down the street. I easily came up with Plan B. 

I stopped and got some lunch, then hit the trail and was back in Old Town in no time flat.  I was a bit of a spectacle on the trail for a few reasons:  the trail is full of "weekend cyclists" on the weekends--casual types out for a fun ride and Spandexies out for training. I was on a Dutch bike in a sundress and sandals and was very likely the only person out at that time of day using the trail to actually get somewhere. I was also, unbelievably, one of the fastest folks out there, which really surprised me. I'm usually on the trail with my electric bike, because that's what I use to commute to work. I've commuted on the Amsterdam many times before, but not since the fall. The Amsterdam is generally the scooting around Old Town/to friends' houses up to 5 miles away vehicle. I passed nearly everyone I saw, and kept up with a pack of Spandexies without breaking a sweat, until they stopped for a water break.  The hills/overpasses that gave me so much grief when I first started commuting (pre-electric bike)....I didn't even notice them. Literally, it wasn't until Monday when I was commuting home did I realize that I'd done that route sans-electricity easily on Saturday. My first few weeks of commuting with the Amsterdam, I pushed that bike up a few of those hills. How amusing.

Anyway, I was back in town before I knew it. The trail cuts through Old Town down by the marina, where there happens to be two competing ice cream shops across the street from one another (three if you count Ben and Jerry's, but I personally don't). I figured: pretty day, just got some unexpected exercise....ice cream (yes, even though I had just plunked down good money on a too-tight sundress). The ice cream shops also happen to be across the street from O'Connell's, one of Old Town's many Irish pubs (in case you've missed that fact in these pages). O'Connell's is a bit different from the rest--it's quite upscale, has no live music, lacks the drunken military dude contingent (for better or for worse...), has a proper restaurant that's not quite fine dining but is certainly in the "written about"/"destination restaurant" category, and is a (rare) rugby bar. As I was parking my bike, I saw someone I know from the parade-planning efforts who said "Hey, Catherine, you here for the rugby?". And it hit me: the 6 Nations Rugby Tournament! I'd been meaning to catch a game for weeks but I kept forgetting (largely because many of the games kicked off at 8am our time...). Ice cream ditched for rugby.

I stated for both the Ireland/Scotland match and the England/France match. I wound up getting drawn into a friendly group of rugby folks (mostly members of the various rugby clubs in the area, and many British/Irish expats), and had a grand time. One in particular was a friendly (and moderately pushy) Welsh woman selling raffle tickets for a fundraiser who insisted that I get involved with the Alexandria club even if I don't play. To that end, she thinks that I should get a ticket for the Rugby Ball (held at the French Embassy) in May. When I told her that I had no boyfriend and therefore one to go with she told me that I'd pull one there you silly girl. I told her she'd have to help me out with that and pointed to a few worthy candidates in the room, knowing that she's exactly the type of woman who knows everyone in the room and who you'd want on your side in date-finding. I'd be lying if I claimed that I didn't purposefully steer the conversation in that direction from the start. If this pans out, I officially have a middle aged Welsh wingman, which is awesome. We'll see where this goes.

I'd had a really nice time getting to know those folks (a few in particular) and wanted to stay and hang out, but I had my belated car-selling appointment. I went home, showed him the car and we talked about prices and the fact that his wife would need to come look and left it at that. We're going to figure this out next week.

After that, I headed to my friends Gabe and Mariah's house to celebrate National Corndog Day (yes, there is such a thing and my friends are the type of people who know of such things). They'd bought some really nice sausages from the farmers' market that morning, made a sort of pancake batter with something related to corn, I assume, and fried them up in a cast iron skillet on the stove. They were amazing. We made funnel cakes with the leftover batter, which was even more amazing. It seems unlikely, if I continue this way, that that stupid dress is going to fit by NEXT May, but it was worth it.

By 9, I was back on the bike headed to Old Town to meet up with my friend Mariel for some late drinks and general catching up. Neither of us lasted long (she had a headache, I'd had an unbelievably full day) so we called it a night at 11 or so.

This week, I kept up the busyness. This week, Congress was still losing its mind (the healthcare bill passed the House on Sunday, but the corrections had to be approved by the Senate, and the protesters got really frothy, even for them. There have been death threats and all sorts of nastiness happening. It's times like those where you really question the wisdom in the 1st Amendment (tongue in cheek!)). 

I bike commuted every day this week (finally!), including during a thunderstorm for the first time ever (the thunder was far away, no lightening risk!). I went to karate twice (and one private lesson), a French language discussion evening, my normal Wednesday happy hour, had a date (a nice one), and then tonight had dinner and a movie (Alice in Wonderland) with my friend Tammy. Busy. And loving every minute :)

Whirlwind

I can't believe it's been so long since I posted. I've been busier than usual. Much, much busier than usual. If any of you follow the workings of Congress, you'll know that things are pretty much insane on the Hill right now, and the committee I work for has an awful lot to do with all of it, and in one instance of all the drama (basically, the jobs bill, the healthcare bill and recent ethics charges), is very close to the center of it. It's making for an interesting work environment for sure, but also an extraordinarily stressful one. 

There's filibusters, House-Senate ping pong (I literally had a dream one night in which the crypt of the Capitol--where you can see straight through from the House to the Senate--turned into a giant indoor tennis court, but we were playing dodgeball instead) and parliamentary acrobatics the likes of which are rarely seen.  I just so happen to have signed up for a Congressional Research Service course for Hill staff on advanced legislative processes (Senate processes, I'll have to do House another time). It meets once a week for 2 hours for 7 weeks. Even the person teaching this course, one of the nation's foremost experts in parliamentary procedure, is all atwitter over what's going down. I *barely* grasp it, which is only adding to the anxiety, because I feel like I ought to have this stuff down. 

One bonus is that because our regular conference/meeting rooms are almost always full of meetings, there have been a few occasions in which confidential meetings had to happen in my office space, which means that I've been periodically been told to get lost for an hour. I had a nice long lunch once, took care of some HR business on the House side (and got my shoes shined), and got a hair cut at the Senate Hair Care another time. Here's the cut---after riding my bike home from the Metro with a helmet on in the rain. Making a face demonstrating what I think of people who disobey leash laws and allow their dogs to attack me on my bike, making me swerve, lose balance and have to jump off into an ankle-deep mud pit (necessitating the shoe shine mentioned above):

 

On top of the nuclear meltdown that is work, I was still keeping my regular grad school/dance class/karate class schedule while parade planning kicked into high gear (our parade was yesterday--we do it a week early because many of the bands and other participants are in the DC parade too and we can't conflict). We had a final fundraiser on Sunday the 21st, a long and late meeting on Tuesday the 23rd (we went to the City Council meeting to get a proclamation, then had a normal meeting), then a dry run on Sunday the 28th, then our final-push meeting on Wednesday the 3rd, our Grand Marshal Ball on Friday the 5th (which spilled into the wee hours of Saturday the 6th), then the parade itself, with events (classic car show, community dog show) starting at 10am Saturday. It was a lot. I'll write a bit more about the parade, and specifically our Grand Marshal who is my new favorite person in the world, later.

Me personally? After Friday night shenanigans at/after the Grand Marshal Ball, followed by working the parade all day Saturday, followed by some social time on Saturday (I couldn't stay long, because the pubs are as packed, if not more, as they are on St. Patrick's Day itself, and I just can't handle those kinds of crowds), I went home for a nap. I got up and immediately went to meet up with some librarian friends at the piano bar after which we headed to Murphy's to try to meet up with a friend of mine who lives far away and who I haven't seen in a year who was supposed to be out last night. She wasn't there, but Mr. You Messed It Up was! Awkwardness ensued, but we eventually ran into each other in private, hung out for a while and long story short, we're cool. So he's around, but this is the last you'll be hearing of him because this is just not that kind of blog.

So that's about it. If I disappear again it's either because Congress is still insane or because I'm spending time doing the type of thing that I generally refrain from writing about here. For my sake, please hope that it's the latter!

Busy Day!

Ah....

That's the sigh of relief of having finished a very busy (but VERY fun) day in the life of....well, me. It's odd, because I've been nothing but busy for months now (or, well, really a year now...I started my job at the Senate Library on December 2 of last year and full time school plus mostly full time work=not so easy), but this kind of busy feels so different from what I've been doing these many months, but yet so familiar. Maybe it's the Christmas/Holiday season busyness that everyone goes through or...something.

Either way, I started my day at 10 am (don't laugh, I didn't get to sleep until 3 because I was up writing a paper that was due today), and prepared myself for karate class. I then exited my home to go to my bike (to take me to class) to discover that the snowpocalypse* I'd thought was predicted for Saturday night/all day Sunday was in fact for Friday night/all day Saturday. I must say, hats off to Dottie from Let's Go Ride A Bike and everyone else who rides in the snow (and enjoys it!), because my experience was abject misery. According to Google Maps, it is .7 miles between my house and the dojo (that sounds so long--I think of it as 10 blocks), and it was .7 miles of miserable awfulness. My feet were frozen solid, my karate uniform from mid-thigh to knee totally wet (and cold), my hair was wet and snowflakes and pieces of flying ice/"wintery mix" kept getting into my eyes. People in cars were even more humorless than usual (grammatically speaking, can you be "more" of "xxx-less"?). Put simply, it sucked. Now, I don't have the proper gear, or anything that could be defined as "gear" at all, and that's probably largely the culprit. But I was not a happy camper.

Anyway, I got to karate class, where I did get some serious "omg you're so tough" points for having ridden the bike there. Unfortunately, about a half hour into class, I very nearly passed out because I hadn't eaten enough and because that's what happens to me when I exercise vigorously before noon.

Straight from class (which ended at noon), I got back on the bike into the snowpocalypse to the Metro to go to actual class--the one for which a paper was due today. From 1:30 to 4, I was a slave to Information Systems for Libraries (the worst class I have ever taken at Catholic or any university), then back on the Metro. On the way home, I realized that being on the bike in the cold and wet could be much more comfortable if I had warm, dry feet and I should get some wellies and wool socks. I got off the train at Pentagon City (a major mall in the DC area) and went hunting. 2 hours later, I came out with some wellies (yellow plaid!), two hats, a flower headband, and two dresses. No wool socks to be found. But the dresses totally made up for it. Macy's is having a major sale and has awesome stuff. I got this dress (don't mind the huge pile of laundry on the ottoman) 

 

for $24. It was on the half off rack and the lady in line ahead of me gave me a coupon or an additional 25% off....all on top of Macy's big ol' sale.

I then got back on Metro, retrieved the bike, raced home (got there by 7) and got showered, blow-dried and dressed (in the new dress!) in 25 minutes. Back on the bike all spiffed up to go to Arlington. One of my friends from ballroom dance class is the conductor and director of the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra (his wife is also in the class and is one of "The Catherines". He offers free tickets to all their events. For some reason I don't fully understand (though I suspect has to do with Arlington trying to lure the Orchestra away from Alexandria), they were playing their holiday concert in Rosslyn. I was so pressed for time, I did my makeup on Metro. 

The concert was great, and I had fun catching up with folks from dance class. It started at 8, ended at 9:15 and at 9:30 I was in my cousin Rebecca's car on the way to Shirlington to see "An Education". We've both been DYING to see it for months now, and she texted me last minute to let me know there was a 10pm showing and this was her last free time until Christmas. The movie was great, I'm SO glad we made it and I had an absolute blast being out in my new dress. We decided we wanted to talk about the movie and "catch up" after not having seen each other for 6 whole days so we went to Murphy's in Old Town--got there at midnight on the dot.

This all brings me back to what I WOULD have been doing today had it not been for grad school. Today was Alexandria's Scottish Walk--our Christmas parade. Alexandria was founded by Scottish merchants in the 1600s etc etc....it's just a thing we do. As most people know, I belong to a group which plans, organizes and fundraises for the Irish cultural events in Alexandria (mainly the St. Patrick's Day parade and the Irish Festival). This organization's members march in the Scottish walk singing Christmas carols and pimping our own parade (and not drinking Irish whiskey from flasks. Nope.). If I hadn't had to be in class, I would have been marching in said parade and participating in the day-long liver-busting bar hop fest that was last year (long story short--a friend of a friend would up crashing at my house, but before I was even home, because she was too drunk and had like a 4am flight home and at some point got up and made herself soup in a skillet--we're lucky she didn't burn the place down). Those were the days. 

Instead, this year, I got to hop in at the very end. All the bars (Irish ones in particular) were ALL hopping and lit up for Christmas. Men in kilts and women dressed up all pretty were in abundance. Everyone was in good cheer. It's actually better to come in late, because then you get much of the fun, but without the hangover. Note to self for next year.

One of the many things I love about living in Old Town (I'll get more into all of them another day) is the walk home between 1 and 2am. The bars are closing, everyone's out and about, you see some crazy ass shit (excuse the language but seriously, there's no better way to talk about it--office wheely chair, drunk people, cobblestone, snowbank---you do the math), have random and funny interactions and everyone's, generally, in a swell mood. It's just great.

So then I came home, checked my email and started updating my blog. The end!

*The Washington, DC area and all of its inhabitants absolutely flip out beyond all reason every time something "not rain" falls out of the sky.  This snow wasn't even sticking to the ground and only UP TO 4 inches (in the far western suburbs--the Appalachian freaking Mountains!) was predicted and people behave as if Christ himself was floating out of the sky with four horsemen and a flying pig in tow. It's so extreme you'd think people were doing it to be "ironic". But they're not.

Libraries and Autumn

They're just best of friends.  I wish I could just upload the sensory perfection and the sheer bliss that has been the past several days. I've spent much of my time since Saturday at either the Library of Congress or Catholic's library.  Saturday afternoon was passed here:

The Library of Congress's Main Reading Room.  Literally right there, too.  At the seat just in front of the second column from the right.  Not a good seat at all, actually.  Too close to the traffic coming in and out (see the aisle), and too close to the laptop users (they are on the other side of that aisle). Seeing as how I'm extremely noise-sensitive, even the whispered conversations between the librarians and patrons and the clicky clack from the laptop section were a bit much.  Oh and that seat is in direct line of sight of the tourist area and even though they're enclosed in plexiglass, you can still hear their shrieking toddlers and see them milling about, which is only slightly less distracting than the clicky-clack.  I sat there, though, because I needed to keep the late afternoon sun out of my eyes and get the heck away from the scofflaw Georgetown student who had set up her laptop in the non-laptop area. I had half a mind to ask something to be done about it, but I didn't.

Anyway, that was Saturday until 5pm.  Then I was off to Catholic's library to get some books that I could actually check out and then I headed to my aunt and uncle's house for dinner. Walking out of the library, the last of the sun's rays disappearing and casting that clear autumn light onto everything, loafers clicking on the stone steps, cold air nipping at my legs (tweed skirt season!), wind whirling around crispy leaves with an armful of books, the newness of puppy love popping into my head, surprising me over and over again (what exactly IS it about me and fall...aren't we supposed to have spring fever?), the satisfaction of a good day's work well done, and looking forward to a cozy family evening....it just is so wonderfully and stupidly perfect it just shouldn't be legal.

Sunday was an equally lovely day spent with Rebecca and Erin at the Maryland Renaissance Festival, where we ran into no fewer than 7 people we know from Ballyshanners or Gatsby's Tavern or just generally from around Old Town.  The weather was so lovely it should be bottled and sold and we had a great time watching a Shakespeare parody/comedy troupe, semi-stalking a bagpipe band (men in kilts...we've decided that's our favorite way they are packaged), watching a joust, window shopping, and eating fried things on sticks.  Oh and drinking Sam Adams Octoberfest which is really just a wonderful beer.  Came home, car heater working it's sleepy magic but managed to swing by Murphy's to hear about Rebecca's first paying gig (she'd left the Festival early to do a show at Casablanca).  Pat Garvey who is in an apples and oranges type of tie for my favorite pub singer was playing, and I haven't seen him in ages and it was so nice to hear him sing again--especially those songs that only he does.

Monday was a sleepy kind of day but it involved more Catholic library which wasn't so blissful this time around (mainly because the research topic is a little frustrating) but then there was pub trivia.  We got our asses handed to us but it's alright.  We had fun.  Today was more Library of Congress which is really just my favorite place on earth (Newspaper and Periodicals Reading Room this time) and then to Catholic for a midterm which I think I did pretty well on.

Phew.  So that's life.  Libraries and autumn pretty much.  

Agenda (besides unpacking): buy pumpkins, carve, cook, toast seeds.  Buy firewood (I'm on the hunt for applewood--burns cleaner and smells so sweet), have fire.  Sit in big comfy chair, drink apple tea, read copious amounts of books (preferably with kitty in lap, dependent on feline cooperation).  Coziness index will be through the roof.

Oh, and PS, a little schadenfreude to fall asleep by. They're having trouble renting out my old place.  They just had to drop the price.  It would be amusing if they have to cut it to below what I was paying (economy having tanked and all). They're already out one full month's rent that I happily would have paid in full (and early, as always).  It doesn't seem hugely likely that they'll get someone by Nov 1 so that will be more than a month's rent by then.  And they have the nerve to claim that *I* have cost them "thousands of dollars" (patently untrue--the only person to move out over the alleged smoking--his apartment was rented out almost immediately upon his departure).  They've just cost themselves a sum in the four figures, plus the time spent advertising and showing the place.  The bullet couldn't have hit the foot more squarely if they'd tried.

Ask and ye shall receive, demand and ye shall receive faster

It topped out at 63 today.  I went out in tweed and wool.  I noticed some leaves that were neither green nor dead, possibly for the first time since I've lived in this godforsaken place.  The sun gave us a break.  It is finally fall.  We had a 20 degree drop literally overnight (the day before topped out at eighty-fucking-five).  Today's high was yesterday's low.  I am appeased, for the moment at least.  I won't trust that this will last.  I need a week's proof.  If I can go to the farmers' market tomorrow and buy apples and pumpkins and squashes without feeling like an impostor, that will help.

Spent the day sweating out a fever on the couch.  Felt miraculously better at about 3pm.  Figures.  3pm on Friday, too late to do anything of substance but early enough to still go out.  My body is SUCH a slacker.  Went to a birthday party in "North Old Town" as I believe they call it--the area with the ugly 70s/80s era highrise apartment buildings and hotels.  The bar/restaurant is cute though--a little retro 50s theme and a decent menu.  We used to go there to hang out after ceramics class way back when but there really isn't much point in going to that part of town unless you live up there so I haven't really been there in a while.

Anyway, after the birthday party I met up with some folks at Pat Troy's which was fun as always and now I'm here.  Awake, and full of energy well past last call.  Sometimes sleeping all day really doesn't do you any favors.

Tomorrow is market day, and then Library of Congress to finally get that book from reserve.  I've been meaning to do that for weeks.  Then Saturday night, who knows?  All my friends either have obligations, colds or are out of town.  I want to go back to Troy's because my buddy Rocky is playing but who knows?  Sunday is Renaissance Festival and then....I don't know. Family time?

I just wish I wasn't so awake.  Or that I'd gone out earlier.  I feel like my night has barely begun and in reality....everything's closed :(

Lady Anchorage, with a Dagger, in a Penguin Costume

I went to a 1920s themed murder mystery night--a fundraiser for the restoration of the ice well at Gatsby's Tavern.  That was the outcome.  Though we, as witnesses knew the dagger and the penguin costume from the start, as we saw the murder happen during cocktails. One thing that bugs: the penguin costume (and the penguin stuffed animals given away when you "buy a clue" and the red herring with the penguin necklace on) was supposed to be a "clue" to Wasilla Anchorage's guilt---for the love of all that is good and holy people and for the last time: penguins are ANTARCTIC animals and Alaska, Canada, Russia, Greenland and Scandinavia are all in the ARCTIC regions.  Doesn't sound very different but seriously, vastly hugely and just....different.  Sometimes it feels like me and Encyclopedia Brown are the only two people to realize this (one of the stories that I remember from that series was Encyclopedia knowing someone was guilty because he was lying about seeing polar bears and penguins in the same exhibit in a museum).  

Anyway, beyond the penguin madness that kind of made me twitch (and the Lady Macbeth reference which was not only misquoted but just...no.  If you want to show that a woman committed a murder, Lady Macbeth is not the one to allude to.  That just points the finger at a man who she controls, at least to those who know the play), it was great fun.  We (Rebecca, Erin and I) were decked out in our finest costume jewelry and posed in front of a vintage car and all that good stuff.  We had fun. (And btw I DID buy a clue, which also got me Cecil, my new penguin...and Cecil is a temporary name.  Suggestions much appreciated.)

What else?  It's finally getting cool-ish in the evenings here.  The days are still decidedly summery (75 today) and I have come the realization that I have spent the past four years wishing, almost on a daily basis that it was 10 degrees cooler.  It is so hard to see "the leaves change" (here that basically means "turn something other than green and then die", no brilliant shows of nature's glory here) but have it also be tank top weather.  But anyway, yes, the nights are approaching the "cool" mark.  Which means hearth fires.  Which means the smell of woodsmoke.  And even if the leaves aren't pretty, they still do smell like fall leaves, and smashed acorns.  And that, even in the relative heat, smells like fall.

Bathed the cats yesterday, lived to tell the tale.  Or, well bathed Penny.  She was fine as always about it (though a little miffed after a few minutes).  "Bathing Toby" is actually a real life example of what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object.  It's interesting, and far bloodier than you'd expect.  I've given up attempting it though, I do value my corneas. 

And, finally.  Sigh.  It's fall, I'm blissfully happy (if slightly nervous) and all is right with the world :)

Books and Moving Galore

So it's that time.  Yes, finally after nearly two full months of trouble and strife (and three years of living in this apartment), I'm packing up and moving out.  I still have mixed feelings on the subject but won't linger too long on the bad because honestly I have the night before Christmas feeling about the whole deal--I'm really looking forward to the new place.  I suppose my desire to stay is tied up with a lot of "ifs".  If my neighbors didn't suck, if my landlord wasn't a jerk (I didn't like the neighbors or the landlord for a good long while before all this), if a whole bunch of other things.  Basically, I love this physical space and geographic location but I really don't like all the BS that comes along with it.

So anyway.  Moving.  Sunday is packing day, Monday is moving day. 

Today is a busy day that I'm going to have to get done on no sleep (I'm a difficult sleeper to begin with--stress and an almost totally flexible work and school schedule does nothing to help that fact).  I have to: drop the kitties off at the vet where they will remain until about Thursday (depending on how fast I get the place painted).  I also want to meet with the vet about various and sundry issues I have--namely the fact that she's now terrified me that I've gone and given them heartworm and I'm scared and that they are due for a teeth cleaning but I'm scared of anesthesia which is apparently necessary for the teeth cleaning experience.  Then, I'm off to the National Book Festival which (a) I want to go to because a favorite author of mine is going to be there and (b) I have to go for a class assignment (long story from History of the Book and author-reader interactions and public performances of literary works etc).  That's from 10-2.  At 3 or so, my mom will be in town and we're going to get packing supplies and bring them on up here.  I then plan to attack my desk drawers and my pile of Very Important Mail. 

Then I move, then I unpack and paint, then hang stuff and then my life is back to normal.  Oh and I have two assignments for school due next week.  Joy.

More on books.....

Last night, I went to what I dubbed the "nerdiest of nerd events", the Washington Rare Book Group's "Rare Book Roadshow", which is basically Antiques Roadshow but for rare books and produced for Book Guys--NPR's book show.  I'm not entirely sure I could have made that sentence nerdier if I tried.  We all know that I mean nerd in it's jovial, positive connotation, right?  Let's hope.  Anyway....it was good fun, honestly.  I didn't bring a book of my own for two reasons really:  first, I'd kind of automatically figured that I didn't have anything worth bringing and didn't want to look like the dumb girl who just brought any old or dusty book wanting to hear that it was worth a fortune.  Second, if I had given it a second thought I may have brought a book just in case but was highly distracted because I was busy straightening up for and then making a YouTube video of my (currently dusty and cluttered) apartment.  It's as good as it's going to get--and I even ventured down into scary, scary basement! 

Anyway, about the Rare Book Roadshow--it was really a good time and I met some good people, heard some good stories and got to hang out after-hours in the National Museum of Natural History (which is where we met).  No one else from my class went which was a little surprising because people seemed really into the idea but that's their loss I guess. 

And finally, before we get to the YouTube links, oh! Dear Reader, there is much else going on in my little world and I'm kind of stupidly giddy about the whole thing but I don't really dare write much more because...well I don't know why. But, :)

So here's the apartment in all it's hastily spruced up from the moving mess glory (and scary scary basement):

Update time!

Oops, it's been nearly a week since I've updated. And I'm going to stop whining. Even with all the packing/moving headaches and the Bastard Landlord this situation has really resolved beautifully and I got more or less exactly what I wanted anyway so....yeah. There's lots and lots to do and iI just want this DONE already (and that's been the recent overwhelming part) but I'm doing it and I'm just going to shutup about it and plod on.  At least that's the plan--no promises :). So, What's been happening besides housing freakout?

For starters, it would appear that almost everyone I've ever known was born in mid-September and I've had the accompanying rash of birthday parties to attend, which have all been great fun (one maybe a little too fun).

I've also been mentally decorating and redecorating the new apartment which is kind of giving me a headache (and is one of the reasons I just want to have this done with already so the fun can begin).

The kitties spent the day at the vet on Thursday because they needed shots and checkups and because I wanted to keep them away from potential open windows...the painters came on Friday anyway, go figure.  They woke us up at the crack of freaking dawn, too!  I spent the morning doing schoolwork in this room (the den?  the library?  I never really figured out what to call it) and kept the kits locked up in here with me.  They did not enjoy the presence of the painters one bit and kept running up to me with saucer-sized eyes whenever a loud noise happened.  Poor dears.  The vet sent me on a bit of a guilt trip over some feline health issues but it's nothing I haven't been aware of.  I'm just going to redouble my efforts on the feline front.

What else?  School.  Work.  Work is "eh", I need a new job.  Research assistantship is just so not my game.  I've applied to a few different things at National Archives, Library of Congress, Legislative Resource Center and American History Museum's Archives Center but those are all kind of random shot in the dark kind of applications.  They are all what appear to be lower-level Bachelor's only required positions, but who knows?  And also who knows if they'd be willing to hire a student who needs flextime to go to class?  I truly don't know if I'm way over or way under qualified for the positions and don't expect to hear back.  But it would be nice to be surprised :)

School in Scotland is on the back burner for now, as I've been reminded of the little deal I struck with my dad in exchange for tuition.  Bummer.  But the option remains, and hopefully I'll gain employment someplace that really wants me to go and get the degree at their expense.  A girl can dream, right?  But really, I may wind up there this summer for a class anyway (it's still in the works--my professor is still getting funding/permission) and I think I'll investigate the option of getting this certain kind of work visa for people getting professional training for after graduation.  I think it's largely a matter of finding a place to sponsor said professional training.  So here's hoping we get the funding for the museums and librarianship class in Scotland this summer.  Birds, meet stones :)   The end of this story is that I am determined to move to the UK, and specifically Edinburgh if I have my way, at some point in the midpoint future (5 year plan).

What else?  School in general rocks, readings, classes, field trips, assignments...all.  Just having fun with it all.  Blissful :)

Finally, the futon.  What can I say?  I now have like 20 swatches and none of them really "work".  I'm just waiting for the move, and until I pick out the new paint color. This whole futon thing really is taking on epic proportions. What I really want is this:

But that's just not going to happen anytime soon.

So, that's life.  And just in case I haven't said it enough, I cannot freaking wait for this move to be over.  Maybe I'll take video before I leave to show an old vs new apartment thing.  But be warned: I'm not going to be cleaning first and this place is moving mess spectacular now that the painters are gone!

Still here

The first week back at school was great--I love my classes and this is really going to be a good semester.  Not much else to report beyond the details of textbook ordering and sleeping-in-missing-farmers-market.

Oh, well, wait.  I went out to the pub with some friends on Friday and it was fun, but slow (everyone's at the beach....the lemmings) but the singer (who I've known for years now) came up to me during a break saying that he'd been hanging on to this business card all summer but hasn't seen me.  Turns out one of the regulars at a Capitol Hill pub that he also sings at is the head of the Africa and Middle East division of the Library of Congress and that he (Pat, the singer) told him about me and he'd love to talk to me!  Cool, huh?  And bizarrely, hanging out in pubs really pays off professionally!

Went out last night with another friend.  We went to see The Dark Knight.  I had been back and forth on my desire to see the film--I wanted to because it looked really good, and because I'd heard that it was really good, and Heath Ledger in particular was very good. 

But it just left me an icky feeling, the whole deal with Heath Ledger.  I have heard it theorized that it was his work on this role which lead to his untimely death.  As a "method actor", instead of acting the part, he becomes the part and becoming this particular character caused depression and general mental disturbance.  Whether he intentionally killed himself, or accidentally, his mental stability was certainly a factor and just the idea that the mind is so dark and mysterious that a person can actually drive themselves mad is just creepy.

Also, I have finally figured out the connection between things that I "just don't like" (or more like didn't like...I've mostly gotten over it) which most people seem to really like.  Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, for one.  Aerosmith, for another.  Girl, Interrupted and by extension Angelina Jolie, and just a bunch of other things I can't call to mind right now.  It's suicide, or the appearance thereof.  Bohemian Rhapsody's first part deals explicitly with a person contemplating suicide, one of Aerosmith's videos features a teenager jumping off a bridge in an apparent suicide (but she has a bungee cord and did it to freak people out but still), Girl, Interrupted is generally dark but features a suicide that Jolie's character purposefully pushes the girl toward etc. 

Obviously, it's not exactly a topic that gives anyone the warm and fuzzies, but it would appear that things dealing with (or in the case of The Dark Knight, tainted by) suicide just don't sit well with me at all to the point of my almost total avoidance.   The weird thing is that it's kind of hit-and-miss.  LOST has dealt with the topic and not only do I not avoid the show because of it, the episode I'm thinking of (with Desmond when he's in the hatch before he realizes that other people have arrived on the island) is actually one of my favorites.  Maybe because it shows a deliverance from despair and fateful coincidences which may or may not be "just" fate....all I know is that not everything touched by the topic bothers me to the extent many do.

But on The Dark Knight.  It was good.  Not great, like I'd heard but certainly good, particularly for the big Hollywood blockbuster, mindless summer movie, superhero genre.  Heath Ledger was great which is kind of depressing it it's way.  The movie though....PG-13 is a joke.  PG-27 is more like it, or at least in my case!  The level of graphic violence (not just the shoot 'em up, you never see the dead or injured guys, but real actual, squeamish grossnesses and mental torture violence) is high.  How this movie can avoid "R" but one drop of the "f-bomb" or the sight of two bare breasts warrants that rating is just SO beyond me.  How people can bring their young children to it is just...well to me it seems cruel.  There were at least 3 couples in there with children of about 5 or 6, all of whom had to be taken out of the theater at some point--maybe fear or tears, or maybe a potty break...I don't know. Maybe I'm just a wimp, or maybe kids are more resilient to this type of thing but there are some truly terrifying things that happen and I can't imagine how I'd have reacted as a child.  The Joker's "pencil magic trick" is still turning my stomach 24 hours later, the images of him with knives in people's mouths asking "why so serious" and threatening to give them permanent smiles with the knife to match his own is just...it's terrible! 

Either way, I'm glad I saw it, it was good and I will now go see Batman Begins and will probably to to all the sequels.

Today I slept and avoided housework because to me it feels like this big clean and organization isn't for me, it's for the landlords who are allowed to start showing the place on Tuesday (I don't think they WILL but they are allowed and I want to put on this place's best face not to help them rent the place out but so that they can't find any fault in me at all besides whatever they and Mr. Jackass have dreamed up).

If I could move out today to avoid the feeling of violation that accompanies the knowledge that they can bring strangers tramping through here at will, I would. 

Committment, and the lack thereof

My discipline in maintaining this blog, like my discipline in pretty much everything else in my life at the moment (with one major exception--my health and the relative lack thereof) is at an all-time low. Even things that are fun (fun like hanging out in bars, not just the fun of blogging) are things that I'm slacking off on.  I also find myself wanting to smoke for the first time in a good long time, which is really odd.  See?  The discipline chip has gone defective. (No worries, I'm not headed down Tobacco Road ever again).

I don't feel well.  I am tired and a bit cranky.  I have more work to do than I've done in a good long while.  My fun and exciting home pet projects have become either routine (freezing food) or a headache (canning food). Don't get me started on the peaches.  Peaches and I are not friends anymore.   Someone needs to come up with a better plan for home food preservation.  This is the modern world!  Where are the self-vacuuming and sealing jars?  Where?  It really can't be that difficult of an invention.

So yeah.  All I really have to say today is that this article really ticks me off.  In the science section, no less!

7-10 are just ridiculous and smack of a reporter who was told to make a list of 10 and couldn't come up with real ones

3 and 5 are seriously ill-informed:
#5--hey, why not mention reusable bags?  The world is not all paper and plastic, moron and by the way, "and they take up much less space in landfills" wtf, mate?  Recycling much?
#3--::shakes head:: "One study showed that apples shipped from New Zealand to Britain had a smaller carbon footprint than apples grown and sold in Britain."  That is a study, and compared them during the month of May, when apples are at the height of the season in NZ (it's fall there after all) and anything but in-season in the UK.  So the ones grown in the UK (the study says this) are either grown in greenhouses which require a huge amount of energy, or have been kept refrigerated for 6 months, which also requires a huge amount of energy. Eating local and in-season is the key, but it's not mentioned anywhere.

I actually agree with #1, #2 makes sense but remember that was at 65 mph, a whole lot of driving goes on below that level, #4 I don't know anything about but it does sound dangerous to tell people to not worry when you also say that they don't know for sure one way or the other, and #6 WAS insane hype but it's done now, and Nalgene has brought back the original opaque-ish white bottles which are free of that chemical.  I never liked the clear ones anyway.

So there's my rant.

Much, much later...

Oops, forgot to press "save".  I can be really dumb sometimes :(