I did a report on moose in the 10th grade, in honor of my imminent move to Montana. When I found out we were moving there, for some reason I decided that Montana = moose, and became fond of them. Never saw any, but oh well.
And now, look! Moose playing in a sprinkler! Twin moose are actually very common. Anyway. Cute!
Sadly, this never happened in my backyard.
I got my Social Security statement in the mail. I enjoy getting it; I like seeing how much money I’d get if I went on disability right now, and it’s interesting seeing how much money I’ve made each year. First year I paid taxes on my income? 1995. My taxed earnings were a whopping $531. I started working after school at my dad’s brokerage firm; I think I made $4.25 an hour. So…that’s about 125 hours.
But as I glanced it over, I noticed that I somehow managed to earn about $1750 less in 2005 than I did in 2004. I have no idea how that happened. Maybe I moved into a different tax bracket? I wonder where the line is there. I mean, I can’t imagine that the difference is from tutoring, which was my only non-primary job at the time.
It is, however, a bit depressing looking at the total amount of money I’ve paid to Social Security thus far. It’d be more reassuring if I believed that I’d ever see that money again. Also, I’m pretty sure I’ve earned less in my lifetime than my dad earned last year.
Today was my last day tutoring. It’s been a while coming, my quitting, but it’s still a bit sad. My day job is just crazy lately–we’re trying to get ready for our annual conference, and I’m still trying to get my normal books done, plus all of those random projects that pop up. Plus, I live and work farther away from the tutoring location, and the dealing with 270 on weeknights…it’s not pretty. So I’ll miss the kids, who by and large have been very sweet, but after 5 years, it was definitely time to hang it up. And I’ve been doing freelance work for my previous employer for a while now, earning more money than I did tutoring, and earning it at home, frequently in my pajamas.
And talk about timing. My last session was today, and yesterday I got a freelance project from a new location AND an inquiry about working on a thesis. AND I already have a project. Kind of crazy, but very encouraging.
Watching the Closing Ceremonies, I found it oddly endearing that there’s certainly one thing people from all over the world have in common: the desire to completely ham it up for the cameras. As the athletes entered, people from pretty much every country started playing to the cameras–blowing kisses, holding up medals, flashing the peace sign, jumping in front of each other, saying hi to Mom, etc.
I seriously did find it incredibly endearing. See, we really are all the same!
New reason to want to be an Olympics athlete? Nah, none of that crap about medals and such. Nope, it’s all about the sex, baby.
I got a dollar bill somewhere and noticed writing on it. At first I thought it was one of those things to track money, but then I read it: “For Colissa Gwen, Your first dollar. Mommy (heart)s you.” On the one hand, that’s sweet. On the other hand…it’s sad that somehow I wound up with that dollar bill.
I spent it on a Diet Coke. I wonder where it’ll wind up…it might just be taken out of circulation. It wasn’t in the best shape.
Since seeing Bolt win the 100M the other night, I’ve been bothered by how he pulled up before the end and pumped his chest a couple of times. In the initial race, I didn’t even notice (in a race of less than 10 seconds, not much registers with me). But then NBC just kept replaying it, and the more I saw it, the more annoyed with Bolt I got. I can’t think of a bigger turn-off than arrogance, even when the arrogance is earned. (Smoking is also a big turn-off. This morning I got stuck next to a smoker on the bus, and that was a very unpleasant 10 minutes.)
Anyway, I just caught part of a Bob Costas interview with…um…someone involved in track. Anyway, Bob was like, “That was disrespectful to the other runners, that was disrespectful to the Olympics, and I hope someone has made that clear to Bolt.” I *heart* Bob Costas.
He’s also awesome for putting up with Bela Karolyi…who is also awesome.
The first time I visited Charlottesville was when I was in middle school and my dad was giving a lecture at UVA. I really liked it at the time; it was pretty, it was close to Monticello (Jefferson was already my second favorite president), and the people seemed nice. I applied to UVA, got rejected, and wound up at Gettysburg, so I can’t complain.
Now Becca and Steve live in Charlottesville. I was there this weekend, and still find it lovely. It was a great, relaxing weekend. We didn’t really do anything of note–wandered around a farmer’s market and the downtown mall, got some great food, and talked a lot. Just a perfect, restful weekend with friends. I couldn’t ask for more. I’m not happy they live 130 miles away, but in some ways it’s nice to spend longer periods of time together like this. And hey, I much prefer them being in Charlottesville than them being in Wisconsin!
Anyway, today we drove around a bunch and wound up at Michie Tavern, just down the road from Monticello. We had wandered around some paths at Monticello, so I was pretty thirsty when we got to Historic Michie Tavern. Luckily, we saw this building:
A historic building with a sign saying “Cold drinks”. Fabulous! I’m not sure what I thought would be inside; maybe someone with ice water? I’m not sure, but whatever I was picturing, it certainly wasn’t what we found:
Awesome. So I had some Historic Mountain Dew.
And then we went to Carter Mountain Orchard (and they’re not kidding about the “mountain” part; it’s at the top of this huge hill, and only small portions of the road up are paved) where I got this awesome slushie made from wine grapes. Mmm.
Last night, Brent, Katie, and I met up with a couple of friends from Gettysburg to catch the Nationals-Mets game. It was my first time at the new Nats Park, and it was a great time. Things seem to happen to me at Nats game (see 6/13/05 entry), and this was no exception. We snagged the $5 seats, which really do seem to be the best in the stadium. I mean, check out the view:
(You could see the field, too. But given the 12-0 outcome in the Mets favor, why bother looking there?) It was all very pretty, and I got a great half smoke from Ben’s Chili Bowl, but it seemed a bit…bland. No character. And everything had a sponsor. For example, want to spend time where a lot of Nats have been spending time lately? Here you go:
It was totally nuts. The concourse area in center field reminded me of the new football stadium in Philadelphia, so now I kind of want to check out the baseball stadium in the same complex.
Anyway, we met up with a friend of one of our Gburg friends, whose work had a box. So yeah, we spent a good chunk of the game in the luxury suite. Which was, obviously, really nice.
Brent and Katie seem to be enjoying it, anyway. The seats were super comfy, though the little ledge they provide to put food, etc., on dug into my legs a bit. But who am I to complain about free, swanky seats? Totally worth the $5 I spent.
I’ll probably still try to see some games there, but I certainly don’t feel the overwhelming need to get back there immediately. And, like RFK, it probably takes me about as long to Metro there as it does for me to drive to Camden Yards.
Best part? The President’s Race. For which they played “The Distance” by Cake, which I love. Also, when you walk in, they have the Presidents milling about. Awesome! Here I am with Tommy J.
That picture alone made it all worth it.
You know those cable ads that are like, “If you want to better target your audience, advertise on cable!”? I just saw one that was all about targeting ads to your voters and making sure your message gets out to your constituency and how cable can help you. I assume this is the kind of thing you’d only see in the DC metro area.