This morning, while getting ready, I flipped to the Fox morning show and found that they had a reporter at the Kennedy Center with the Reduced Shakespeare Company. They were doing the Othello rap. Later they did the Hamlet encore. And I got very happy. I heart Rippy. I realized that he looks like Oswald from The Drew Carey Show, but cuter. Mmm, Rippy. Anyway, that made me happy. Particularly when I flipped to VH1 after Fox went to do news or traffic or something, and the Lifehouse video came on. Mmm, lead singer of Lifehouse.
I read the previous post and laugh the bitter laugh of irony.
Current song in my head:
"When It's Over" by Sugar Ray
Both of my parents have a sister. In both of their cases, my aunts wound up staying fairly close to my grandparents and my extended family. But my parents moved away-at times, far away. I'm wondering if this pattern has extended into my generation. Kathy took off for Ohio and remains there. There's talk of her buying a house out there. Me? I'm 2 hours from my parents. I'm 45 minutes from my grandmother, 1 1/2 hours from my aunt, uncle, and cousins. Am I the one who stays behind?
I look to the future and doubt that I want to stay in D.C. That's not true. I would love to stay in this area, because I really like it. But when I look at my future, career-wise, I don't think I can stay here. I want to go into book publishing, but I don't want to work for a non-profit organization or association. I want to work for an academic or fiction publisher. And you know what? Not too many of those around here.
So, move to New York or Boston? I wouldn't mind, except for the fact that I'd be so far from my family. My parents already have one child who's 9 hours away. I want to stay reasonably close to my folks (this 2 hours is a good deal), but also want to have the career I want. Argh. I hate life. It's so complicated with decisions and choices. Blar. At least it's not something I have to deal with in the immediate future. I'm gonna stick around at AOTA for a while. Build up my experience and my resume.
Current song in my head:
"Head Over Feet" by Alanis Morisette
Root canals have a really bad rep, which they don't deserve. Getting a root canal is really no worse than getting a filling, except that it costs more. A lot more. But anyway. Apparently the anesthesia wasn't as good in olden days, so people could actually feel what was going on. And since the process takes a while, this is, to put it mildly, extremely painful. I can't imagine. But mine was totally fine, and I feel okay. Except a bit of a sore throat, but that's totally unrelated. There's something going around the office.
Brent and I saw The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) on Wednesday night. It totally rocked. Front row seats, baby! It's fascinating when you can actually make eye contact with the performers. And Matt Rippy? Adorable. He's my new boyfriend. And he's a less imaginary boyfriend than, say, Ioan, because I've actually spoken to him. *sigh* Anyway, go check out their website.
This weekend: busy. Helping Jody move. Lunch with Linda. Dinner with Brent, Steve, and Brent's family. I am such the social butterfly.
Current song in my head:
"Bent" by matchbox twenty
Today as I was driving into Bethesda, I was behind a Kia SUV. It had one of those metal or plastic things around its back license plate. You know, the ones that usually say the dealership the car was bought at, or promote a sport team, or declare a certain school to be an alma mater. Anyway, this one said "I can't sleep" on the top; on the bottom, it said "Clowns will eat me." On the radio antenna, it had a little plastic skull. It added this whole element of bizarreness to my day.
Current song in my head:
"Little Black Backpack" by Stroke 9 (?)
On Sunday I went to Hecht's to buy my cousin a wedding present. I was excessively amused by the number of people wandering around this one area, registry printouts in hand. Well, it is that time of year. And it was a weekend. So it's understandable. Besides, I was one of the crowd. Now I just need to figure out how to ship a crystal picture frame without it getting injured. Very carefully is my guess.
I don't like this whole having to interview people thing. It's annoying. I really don't like having Jeff breathing down my neck about it. And the fact that he only gave me 3 1/2 days to do it realy ticks me off when I think about it. Particularly since I already had a bunch of other things to do. Bitter bitter bitter. I mean, having more responsiblities = good. Being given vague instructions and being hurried along constantly (he was already checking my progress 2 hours after giving me the assignment) = bad.
Oh well. At least I had a good weekend and I have "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)" to look forward to tomorrow night. It's gonna rock. Yeah!
Current song in my head:
"Find Me Somebody to Love" by Queen
Update: Dinner is still a go. Newseum is on hold. I'm happy again, because it combines me being able to run errands (I had this realization that I don't get another weekend at home until August 11!) with socialization. Yay!
Current song in my head:
"Teen Angel" God help me, this song is so horribly cheesy in addition to being depressing
I'm kind of bummed because it looks like I won't be going to the Newseum and for dinner with Meghan and Krishni tomorrow. Krishni has this big report for Jeff that's due Monday morning. It pisses me off, because I really doubt he'll look at it Monday morning. For some reason I can't take these types of deadlines at work as seriously as due dates in college (except this whole backpack research thing, because I know it's going into press releases and such that need to go out by a certain date). So anyway, now I'm free on Saturday. Which is kind of good. I can go look at that apartment and go wedding present shopping. But still. I was really looking forward to doing stuff with Meghan and Krishni. This blows.
Current song in my head:
"Breathe" by Faith Hill
Today was one of those days that I thought would be just terrible. When my alarm went off, my first thought was, "Why is the alarm going off?" That's never a good sign for starting the day.
The water had been turned off yesterday, so the water coming out of the faucet in the bathtub was frighteningly brown for a moment. Then I couldn't find a decent temperature for the shower water. The temperature negotiations and the waiting for the water to return to being clear meant I had spent too long in the shower, and had to run around frantically getting ready. I didn't have any milk, so I couldn't have breakfast. I glanced outside at the traffic on Rt. 29 and it looked a bit slow-slower than I've seen it for quite some time. I wound up leaving later than normal, and dreaded the commute.
But from there on out, my day has just gotten better. The commute this morning was better than it's been for quite some time. I got to work feeling motivated and have been working hard. I got assigned a project by Jeff (new director of my department) which involves a lot of research and talking to people. I'm not thrilled about talking to people, but Jeff felt I wasn't being utilized enough. Which is a good sign.
So I've been busy and enjoying myself. Helped by a gorgeous day and a relaxing lunch (I must admit I feel a bit overwhelmed at the moment). Plus, outside my building was a GumBusters truck-specializing in removing gum. With little cartoon pieces of gum on it. Swear to God. Check out the website.
The only thing that's getting to me is that my grandmother is being honored at the family reunion this year. None of us can make it, which is sad enough, but my dad asked me to write something for it. Like a special memory or something. And the sad thing is, I can't think of any. She's always lived across the country from me and I haven't seen her that much. But it's sad that I can't think of anything really meaningful with her. But I'll still manage to come up with something. She's my grandmother, and while she can be annoying and I'm often glad she lives across the country, I do love her.
Current song in my head:
"What Have You Done For Me Lately?" by …I don't know who
Some days just do not go the way you expect them to. It's 12:15 and I've gotten very little accomplished today. Which is sad, because I started out pretty well. I got to work and immediately started working on my "Things I'll Be Doing This Week" chart. I chatted a while with Meghan, who then moved on to chat with Krishni (I'm like the socialization ante-chamber; people don't come to talk with me, I'm just there to pass the time until Krishni can see them). Then I checked my Hotmail account and got caught up in the fascinating arguments on the Jane Austen listserv. It's mostly people bashing each other, which I find oddly fascinating. However, there were tons of these emails, so it took a while to go through.
Then, of course, it's time for the department staff meeting. Which is very boring and involves people talking too much. Jeff reveals that he's going to be away on the 23rd, but thinks we should have a meeting anyway, with someone else leading it. He suggests we could have a rotating leader and nominates me for the first one. Huh? I don't get it either. I believe it came from the fact that I drove a contest entry to Rockville and we actually won an award (see March 1 entry).
After that, I walked over to the dentist, who wasn't where I thought he would be. I wound up wandering through Bethesda before finding the right place. It was nice-no waiting, but anyway. So he x-rayed my mouth and yup, that hole in my tooth is a bad thing. Apparently it involves the Cavity From Hell. It's so bad that the hole is there because part of my tooth fell out (it recognized that it was part of a sinking ship, I guess). So it looks like I get to have a root canal. Whee, fun. If anyone has had one, please tell me about it. I'm trying not to fear it.
Geez, add that to the fact that my glasses broke the other night, I'm just spending a whole bunch of money I didn't want to. And I still have to go wedding present shopping. Kill me now.
On the positive side, somebody brought fudge in to the office. I'm drowning my sorrows in peanut butter fudge. Mmm.
Current song in my head:
"Absolutely (Story of a Girl)"
I love weekends like this. Quiet, nothing big happening. Friday night I just stayed here. Tanned a little after work (Krishni ordered me to leave early because it was just too gorgeous outside). Watched The House of Mirth. Gillian Anderson was fabulous in it. She deserved the Oscar nomination, totally. That having been said, what a depressing movie! Good God. But Eric Stoltz was pretty cute in it.
Yesterday was excellent. I got my requisite bumming around in pajamas, then actually ventured out into nature. And last night, as I was cleaning the kitchen (about to move on to the bathroom), I got a call from Wimberly asking if I wanted to go out with her and a friend of hers. So I wound up going to a bar and a diner. And the friend happened to be a male friend. Pretty cute, too. Woo, social life! Gotta love it. And today the folks stopped by and I got grocery shopping done. Now I'm just relaxing, listening to oldies, and having fun. And kind of looking forward to work tomorrow. I really feel like I've been bonding with Meghan lately. She and Krishni keep saying we should do stuff after work. Maybe I'll encourage us in that direction.
Now I just have to complete that application to volunteer at the Smithsonian (debating the Kennedy Center). And next weekend, it's wedding present shopping and maybe looking at other apartments.
Current song in my head:
"I Can't Help Falling in Love With You" by Elvis Presley (though Michael Ball does a pretty good cover of it, too)
Kathy finally called me back last night. It was nice chatting with her, and she thanked me for being such a good maid of honor. I really don't feel like I did that much, but she said, "No, you were a great maid of honor!" Then she told me that I was really supportive and helped out with a lot of things. Which is really what it means to be a friend, more than anything. But I'm happy that I made her wedding day (and the days leading up to it) a bit easier.
Anyway, I was talking with Krishni and she was talking about how she wants her mother to come visit, but her mother is allergic to cats. So I offered to cat-sit if her mother visits. Now I'm like, "Oh, I hope Krishni's mom visits!" because I really want to cat-sit. Aww, kitty cats. It would be nice to have a cat around the apartment. And apparently Nikki is very affectionate. Aww. It's very happy.
Current song in my head:
"The Longest Time" by Billy Joel
So today I was driving in to work and was sitting in traffic. I noticed that a car a little bit ahead of me on the left had a small round sticker on its back bumper. "Hmm," I thought, "that kind of looks like a Gettysburg parking sticker." I pulled up closer and noticed that there was a Gettysburg College sticker on the back window. And I wondered who this person was, driving this gray Volvo station wagon with the GC parking sticker.
Oh, and don't forget to go to the Skittles website and vote to keep the lime. KEEP THE LIME!!!
Current song in my head:
"I Don't Want to Wait" by Paula Cole
HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!!
It's the 225th anniversary of the acceptance of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress. Just a reminder that there's more to today than getting the day off work, barbecues, and fireworks.
Anyway, I'm going to get back to watching Pops Goes the Fourth. Keith Lockhart...mmm.
Current song in my head:
"Is Anybody There?" from 1776
Getting your pupils dilated at the eye doctor is so bizarre. Even if your eyes are wide open, it feels like your eyelids are mostly shut. And it feels like you have the eye crusties on the sides of your eyes. Plus the fact that you can't focus on anything close up. After my appointment, I had to walk back to my car. My contacts were out, but I needed to wear my sunglasses on my way back to the parking garage. So I wandered around Bethesda mostly blind. Luckily I could make out blurs coming towards me (people), large blobs moving alongside of me (cars) and colored blurs (walk/stop signs). And then I put in my contacts in the car. I couldn't deal with it anymore.
Anyway, A Little Princess is on tv tonight. What a cute movie. It makes me happy. The fact that I don't have to go to work tomorrow and can sleep in doesn't hurt, either. Mmm. Sleep. Bumming around in my pajamas. Yay!
Current song in my head:
"Oops I Did It Again" by Britney Spears (I saw this CD advertised that had kid versions of a bunch of pop songs, and this song was one of them, and it's really easy for me to get this song in my head. Argh.)