Barb’s Burblings

With the upcoming move, I’ve been going through my crap and seeing what I can get rid of. I was digging through my desk drawers when I found my old Rio PMP300. When I was in college, my dad went to some sort of technology conference and got one for free. Since I was the only one in the family with any familiarity with mp3s, I got it. It held something like 10 songs (though you could buy an additional memory card). And I did use it! But man, it’s weird looking at it compared to my iPod:

Oh, technology. How you’ve progressed in 11 years. And now I feel oddly guilty about getting rid of it. I mean, it’s historical! Sort of.

I’m representing Gettysburg at a college fair tomorrow, so I was fooling around on the Gettysburg website, which naturally led to me Googling Gettysburgian, to see whether anything new about the newspaper was online. And that’s how I found…this:

Oh my gosh. I must have this. I don’t care that it’s something that the library has in its collection. It must be mine. It is made of awesome.

Just remember, if you hear of a break-in at Musselman Library…you don’t know anything.

Yesterday I was walking back from the busstop after work and I could smell smoke in the air. It was sort of a campfire smell, but I naturally took a second to wonder whether it was my house. At which point, I considered how convenient that would be (assuming the cats made it out safely). Then I wouldn’t have to move anything! I’d just need to figure out somewhere to crash until Wednesday, when I get the keys to my new place. It’d be sweet. I’d probably miss my stuff, but my life right now would be much easier.

Wieters at bat, March 20

I was concerned when I got to Ft. Lauderdale Stadium last Friday and found that The Future of Orioles Baseball (a.k.a. Matt Wieters) wasn’t in the lineup. Had he already been sent down? Nope–just not in the lineup. Luckily, he came in in the later innings, and I got to see him get two walks. And I’m kind of amused that he has Kev Millar’s old number. I imagine I’m going to enjoy this #15 a bit more than the previous one. Maybe I’ll modify my Millar t-shirt into a Wieters one…

Anyway, it looks like he’s being sent down early next week, though. Then it’s just a countdown until his Camden Yards debut…

Two very different articles…

A man was certified as having survived both atomic bombs–he was in Hiroshima on business, then went home to Nagasaki.

Michelle Obama on topics such as Barack’s thoughts on her fashion (”‘Barack calls it my “Star Trek” belt,’ the first lady said in an interview this week. ‘He doesn’t understand fashion.’”) and how her mother is different as a grandmother (”‘She thinks Malia and Sasha should have dessert every day, three times a day,’ the first lady said. ‘When I remind her that the girls had ice cream after school, she says, “Why can’t they have pie now?” I’m like, “Who are you? What did you do with my mother?”‘”)

Excitingly, I have a new page design. Whee! Many thanks to Harlan for the move over to WordPress. Now I just have to, you know, figure all this out.

In addition to figuring out my living situation. I got approved for an apartment in Kensington. Hurrah! (Which, thanks to my Anglophilia, I think of as “my flat in Kensington.”) But now I have to figure out things like when I’m actually going to move, who’s going to help me move, how to find a tenant for my current apartment, whether Comcast will let me keep my DVR box (please please please–I really don’t want to lose all the crap I have saved on there), and how this is going to fit in my schedule in the next month. Good times!

But, on the positive side, I took a class at CakeLove–small sweets. We made scones, cookies, and muffins. The lemon cranberry scones are awesome. I am in love with them. The chocolate chip cookies and blueberry muffins are also quite good. Yes, even the blueberry muffins. And I’m no blueberry fan.

(Oh, other bonus of the blog moving? Comments work again!)

As soon as I saw that the exhibit “Big!” at the National Archives would include Taft’s bathtub, I knew that I had to go. Technically, it’s not the bathtub itself, it’s a replica. But still. It is awesome. Look! So big!

What amused me most of all was the description of the tub in a newspaper, which described the tub as having “pondlike dimensions.”

I’ve spent the past two days at a class downtown, at a building about a block and a half from the White House. Then this afternoon, I was walking back to the Metro and noticed a bunch of people standing around and a road blocked off. A road that had a whole bunch of black cars, blocked off by police cars and police officers looking a bit threatening. Looks like President Obama journeyed a couple blocks up to a hotel this afternoon. I thought about waiting around for him, but it was a bit chilly and I really just wanted to get home. But still, neat!
What was really odd was that the place we had the class had been showing CNN in the lobby, and I had noticed Obama talking. Strange to think how very close he was at that moment. And by “strange,” I mean “awesome.” There are times when I miss working downtown.

I volunteered at the Smithsonian today and was in the First Ladies exhibit when the cutest thing happened. I had asked people whether they had any questions, and this little girl–no more than 6 or 7–asked why Martha Washington was listed as “Martha Dandridge Washington,” not “Custis.” “Her name was Martha Custis Washington!” the little girl said. I was blown away. I explained that the exhibit has the names of the First Ladies with their maiden names, and “Custis” was her first husband’s name. But how awesome that this girl knew to ask that? Apparently they were learning about George Washington in school. Seriously, it was the cutest thing ever. I wanted to stand there and discuss other First Ladies trivia with her, but other people had questions, too. Boo.
Anyway, it was a pleasant day. I popped into the Spark Lab–formerly Hands on Science–because I saw that some of the folks I used to work with there were on duty. So that was nice. Then I wandered back to the Metro. The weather is great. It’s overcast, so the sun isn’t beating down. Mid-70s, and there’s some humidity in the air, so that annoying static electricity has disappeared for the moment. Hooray! Just perfect.

I got notice on Friday that my rent, effective May 1, would be going up $10 a month. Which is kind of silly, really. I feel like it’s kind of a way to be like, “I’m raising rent because I can, but not enough to really be a hardship.” That doesn’t really work, though, when I know that plenty of other 1 bedroom apartments in my immediate area have lower rents than mine. Yes, I’ve been looking.
I actually kind of freaked out a bit when I got the notice. I think it was the pressure of actually having to make a decision. I’ve been thinking about moving–I’d love to have a bigger place–but I really dislike being forced into decisions. This combined with a realization that I might be missing a tax form (still not sure whether I need it; I need to call my financial company about this), and I had a mild meltdown.
But then I went out Friday night and became much more calm about it. My apartment is month-to-month; I can handle $10 a month for an extra month or two. This isn’t a big deal. So I keep veering between the fun aspects of moving (picturing my stuff in a new, bigger place) and the less fun aspects (the actual, you know, moving).
Seriously, I don’t know why I get so worked up over little stuff like this.