The Freckled Diaries

A Library Kind of Day

Or, more accurately, a Library of Congress kind of day, seeing as how every day is a library kind of day for me.  I slept over at my aunt and uncle's house (we had fun when I was living there after the burglary, and it's just easier to stay over when I go there for dinner ) and dragged myself out of bed at an ungodly hour (7:15) the next morning. Libraries and librarians keep non-standard working hours (as you may imagine), and I generally use that to my advantage and swing in sometime between 10 and 11. Lest you think I'm lazy, that also means that I'm always there at least until 6, frequently until after 7. I prefer that schedule--it suits me and my nocturnal ways. So, long story short, anything before 8:30 is "ungodly early" in my book.

Why this cruel turn of events? I had to go to a training at the Congressional Research Service, in the Madison building of the Library of Congress. CRS runs all sorts of classes on Congress for congressional staff. I noticed that a 7 week series--Advanced Legislative Processes Institute--was coming up. It's a good program, and you get a certificate after it, and the fact that you've taken it goes in your personnel file, and for someone who would like to stay working on the Hill or in a related library environment, it's a good idea to take it. Legislative process and procedures are really quite complex. I know that most folks know this, but I still feel the need to say that it's not all School House Rock. I know the "basics", (which is actually pretty detailed for non-legal/legislative types) but the really advanced stuff is difficult to me, and quite confusing. So, not only to I want to show I've taken this course, I really do want to know the stuff.

Unfortunately, CRS requires you to be invited to take the Advanced course, and a prerequisite to being invited is to take "Congress: an Introduction to Resources and Procedure". From 9am to 3:30 pm. Now, I will say that it was a great review, particularly for House processes and procedure (very very different to the Senate, and in my opinion more complex, but maybe because I'm just not used to it), but it was a very, very long day. Particularly because I was surrounded mainly by extraordinarily young, brand-new-to-the-Hill kids from (mostly) House member's offices (as opposed to committee staff, or Senator's staff, who tend to be a little more.... let's go with experienced). Anyone who's heard my rant about how one actually gets that first and usually entry level job in a Member's office will know what I'm talking about (connections, plain and simple, you will NOT get hired without major string pulling by some big shot on your behalf) . I think I've grown to be too nice (or paranoid) to put the rest of the rant in print. So, I found myself back in the sea of everything I grew to hate about the Hill, which prompted my career change in the first place.

Now, there is no such thing as a stupid question. If you do not know something, you should ask it. It is never stupid to seek the information you need. This is the librarian's creed, and it's true, and I believe it. But what I couldn't believe is some of the things that some people needed to know. These are people who already are in the employ of the United States Congress in some shape or form. It was very surprising, disheartening, and brought back up a lot of old angry feelings about just how unfair the whole "hiring process" is (it's not what you know, it's who you know). So they weren't stupid questions, and I won't repeat any of them here. But it was just really very...difficult. 

After that (and after putting in my application for the Senate Advanced Legislative Processes Institute, and double checking that the House Advanced.... will be offered later this year), I scurried across Independence Avenue (or is it Pennsylvania once you get to 1st Street?) to the Adams Building of the Library of Congress to meet with someone related to the project I'm working on for the Committee. An hour later, and I was in another room of the Adams Building for my graduate school class: (Indexing, Abstracting and Thesaurus Design).

All in all, I spent the entire day, from 8:30am to 7:30 pm at the Library of Congress, for three very separate reasons. A very library day indeed.

Finals are Upon Us

Well, they have been for a week now, but I'm just now getting to that "haven't slept, feel like vomiting" stage. What's frustrating is that I've gotten really good at this school thing. I could do finals easily under any other circumstances. But now I've got work and a Huge Scary Deadline for work to deal with, and the Official Job Hunt (this one is still not a permanent job even if they did just renew my contract until May and gave me another unasked for massive raise). Oh, and the fact I've been doing the school and work thing for 12 months now, without a break, and I'm exhausted. And I added extra-curricular activities (dance, karate, Irish parade stuff) every night of the week. How I long for those days as an undergrad when all I had to worry about was finals for four classes!

Anyway. Wish me luck.

Guess where?

Yes, I'm back at the library.  This time in the Science and Business Reading Room of the Library of Congress.  It's not anywhere near as impressive as the Main Reading Room, but I actually really like it.  It's extremely art deco in here and honestly reminds me of a bank--an old, cool art deco type bank (green marble, gold grilles over doors, some chrome looking stuff and very geometric and stylized stately looking owls standing at the doorways).  It also smells like a library in here, something the Main Reading Room does not.

I'm updating because this is a closed-stack system and I had to put in a request for my books and now I'm waiting for them to be sent up the conveyor belt to me.  But, yes, here I am another Saturday at the library and I'm very pleased about that.

Oh, I also meant to add,  this place is so fun.  There's cool stuff everywhere!  But by far the Science Reserve Services is the best! History of Household Technology webcasts (it's fun I swear), information on beer brewing, school gardens etc.  It's my goal to take up the offer of one of our guest speakers in class the other day and come in and check out the cookbook section.  Hundreds of years of cookbooks--from small town Junior League fundraiser cookbooks from the 20s to Julia Childs' first editions. Sounds like kind of a blast to me, quirky recipe and regional cooking wise, at least.  Man, I could live here.

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.

Midterms

They've been keeping me kind of busy.  I finished reading The Future of the Past, and think that everyone else should too.  But it's not just me.  Check out this reiview, it does a good job of giving you an idea of what it's about, what it's like and how awesome it is.  NYT review.

Anyaway, I read it, I wrote my own report about it, which to be honest I didn't do nearly as good of a job as I'd wanted to but I was so engrossed in the book I kept putting it down to kind of think about things, or look things up and it kind of blew my time management plan for the whole thing (which, again to be honest, was "ambitious" at best in the first place...).  So yeah, that was done. Had a long quiz/short test sort of thing in History of the Book, aka the class I cannot possibly get enough of.  Pretty sure I got more than 100%.  I'd be shocked if I got less than....95% on the main part (and less than 100% would be a bit of a surprise) and then I had time to answer all five extra credit questions, all of which I'm fairly certain I got correct so...yeah. Sitting pretty there.  The professor is always like "well we don't have time to go over X in detail, which I'm sure you're all happy about" and I'm sitting there like "Nooooo!  We'll stay!  Go over it!" (I don't actually say it but I'm thinking it, emphatically, and attempting to transmit it telepathically).  Tonight, after class the professor and I had a nice little chat about the Medieval Warming Period and the Little Ice Age (geology classes undergrad) and their effect on the development of movable type.  It's like nerd summer camp, I swear.

In other news, I have now been indirectly (or directly depending on your outlook) prayed for by not one but TWO Popes, which is pretty cool.  My Uncle Terry met Pope John Paul II several years ago and asked him to pray for his family (of which I am a member).  And just a few weeks ago, Mr. Pat Troy himself (proprietor of my local pub, and a perpetual thorn in the side of Ballyshanner officers) met Pope Benedict the....whatever number we're on with the Benedicts (bad, Catholic, bad!) and had with him a list of his family, friends, employees and (oddly) Ballyshanners to pray for and, well, I was on that one too.  So, looks like it's Heaven for me ;).  

This, by the way is also, the same Mr. Pat Troy who worked as a butler at some castle in Ireland which entertained royaltyand then moved moved to the US where he worked for some fancy family in Georgetown (I don't know which but I have my suspicions, and they're pretty big figures in American history) and has stories about when "Jack and the kiddies" would come over for dinner.  Jack being JFK and all.  Then the man opens a bar/restaurant, and who shows up on St. Patrick's Day but Ronald Reagan.  He's met something like 7 sitting and former Presidents (how, I'll never know) and just recently got a private audience with the Pope.  Oh, and, my personal favorite story... he was on What's My Line in the 60s and met John Daly, Bennet Cerf, Arlene Francis and all them.  And stumped the panel. Oh, and he has the Irish flag that was flown at the North Pole a few years ago too.  Like, just random, weird, Forrest Gump kind of stuff.  Someone needs to get this man's memoirs stat. 

So, that's about it.  Rough draft for big assignment due Wed, an exam next week (midterms have been super spread out, and all classes have both a project and exam).  

And I'm still all silly and girly and giddy.  I feel about 14 years old.  It's nuts.

Never saw the video for the song before.  Kind of disappointed with it.  Seems to take away from the song, for me, seemingly the only one of the so-called "MTV Generation" who never saw MTV.

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!

Bad Day

I woke up with no water or electricity in the apartment.  This was because someone's dishwasher (people have dishwashers in this building?) was broken and seeing as how the appliances use both water and power, both were effected.  But that meant tooth brushing with no water which really is no fun when you use baking soda toothpaste.

Then the errands started and I wound up with a bag of (non perishable) groceries, a small stack of books and a large hamper of clean laundry in my "loaner vehicle" because my car was still in the shop since the Friday before Labor Day.  No joke on that one. 

About the car...it took a while because things needed to be ordered and that takes a bit but I got a call yesterday about it being ready and I said "ok, I'll go by the DMV to get the tags renewed and then come pick it up" (tags had expired while in the shop).  He said "oh you need new tags?  Did we do an emissions test?" and I said "...... that's part of why the car was there".  An involved conversation followed and basically it turns out that the car computer won't let you do an emissions test on a car until it's been driven for 50 miles after you do somethingoranother which, apparently, they had done.

So, I had a car that couldn't legally be driven that needed to be driven for 50 miles before it could be legally driven.  I don't know how they resolved it but they did, but it took a day.

So anyway, I was out erranding in my loaner vehicle, and I want to the doctor for a variety of things, one of which involved a Very Large Needle, which is never fun.  I had to do some work for work at Catholic, some homework and then attend class all in the 3 hours after Fun With Needles.

It's at that point the dealership decided to call saying that the car was now ready and to please come now, I'd had the loaner vehicle for 10 days and they need it back this afternoon.  So now I had three hours to get from Chevy Chase to Catholic and work for an hour, skip doing homework, go to the DMV (Alexandria) to get my tags, go to the dealership (Arlington) to get my car and get to class (Capitol Hill).  Not going to happen.

So, I just returned the loaner vehicle and was stuck dragging a stack of books (no bookbag) and a bag of groceries with me to class.  Luckily I was able to stash the large hamper of laundry in my fixed-but-undrivable car, otherwise I'd be the crazy lady bringing groceries and laundry into the Library of Congress (got there by cab, got back by cousin).

Class was awesome though.  This is a great class, I can't get enough of it (History of the Book). Tomorrow is DMV and getting my car back day, followed by more work at Catholic, and a preservation class field trip to the Library of Congress's Preservation Lab which should be great.

Reading List

Here's my reading list for this semester (or, well the books, most of the readings are articles), I'm very pleased with it! 

Other than that, I'm stressing myself needlessly about all the different options available.  I'm trying to sort through what needs to be done, what should be done and what I just plain old want to do.

So far my list is thus:

• American Library Association's Midwinter Meeting in Denver Jan 23-26
• American Library Association's Annual Meeting in Chicago July 9-15
• Oxford Seminar Early May-Late May
• Art and Museum Librarianship Class (which is possibly being taught in Scotland this summer, if it is and if the dates line up I would certainly do both Oxford and the Museum class)
• Rare Book School at UVA (different seminars at different points all summer, generally week long)
• Figure out exactly what is up with the Certificate in Conservation from U. Texas is all about.  All their website has is information for people getting their MLS who also want the Certificate of Advanced Studies in Conservation, which is apparently a 2.5-3 year venture.  It tells those who already have the degree to call to work out their options.  This is certainly a post-graduation thing, but I really hope it's not longer than a semester because I just don't feel like relocating temporarily to anywhere.  I'm either in or out, no halfway (of DC that is), and because it's a conservation certificate and DC is where a huge amount of conservation jobs are....you figure it out.  I really would hate to have to give up the new apartment because I'm leaving for only 6 months only to turn around and have to go through the hell that is the apartment rental game all over again, with no guarantee of success. Oh, it's maddening.

So, that's it, so far.  It's what I can remember.  It's a lot.  There's several more regional meetings of ALA type things and Society for American Archivists and just a huge variety of things.  Overwhelming, I say.

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.