Any more than I needed her too?

It is time for partyz.


Someday my roommate will find out that I put a picture of him wearing an apron with no shirt on the internet, and he will make me take it down.

Until that day, please feast your eyes on this piece of wonder. By that I mean the goat ribs on the grill.

Leave it there for safekeeping

Certainly one of the greatest nights of my life.

(my new bride)

Themselves in Rockband / Guitar Hero? version. They made jokes about how AC Newman was only 85% of ... himself. On the song that he wrote.

(The New Pornographers at DC's 9:30 Club - June 23, 2010)

Things For Which I Am Eternally Grateful, episode II

Kisses from babies.

Free stuff at baseball games.

Popsicles in summer (not serial killers, though).

Beautiful women.

The flea market at approximately New York Ave, NE and Florida Ave, NE, and also the wholesalers around there.

Fresh mangoes. $7 a box!

My ticket to the New Pornographers show! which is 27 hours in the future from now!

Kisses from babies. Back me up on this one, they're just that fantastic.

Things To Which I Am Morally Opposed, episode IV

The neighbors having a disgusting pond of water in their front yard, which really is just a massive breeding ground for mosquitoes

Things that make my feminist brain hurt

People who care about Elena Kagan's sexuality, or anyone's for that matter

Busting a hole in my ballet slippers 7 minutes before the end of class, placing me in the inconvenient situation of having to dance on Thursday with a giant hole in my shoe before my new ones arrive in the mail

This, which I absolutely know I signed up for:

The Letter C

I finally figured out how to keep score at yesterday's Nats-White Sox game... Except not until halfway through the fifth inning, so there's a scorecard that doesn't make any sense for half the game. I moved around a bunch and decided Section 416 is where to be when I'm alone and want to keep score. At least 'til I move down to the 100s in the 7th inning.
Demonstration:


I feel like such a nerd going to the games alone, mostly because I laugh out loud at some songs that the organist plays. Yesterday I texted him and asked him to play Hey, Soul Sister (my favorite guilty pleasure song, as has been previously demonstrated), and he was all "Oh man I don't know if I can fit it in today, I'm trying to play songs that fit with Father's Day! but I'll try to squeeze it in" but then, there in the middle of the 8th inning, at double speed, were the tiny electric notes of Train! And then I laughed, and looked at the audio/visual box grinning, and everyone thought I was insane.

In other news, I have unmistakable tan lines on my feet from the sandals that I've been wearing every single day, which is pretty crazy, because I have never been tan in my life. I also still have tan lines from this time, in which I am wearing convertible tights from ballet class that stop mid-calf. I burned slightly from that mark down, though the rest of me was not burned, thankfully, because burns are bad. Instead of just going back to white like normal, it turned into tan, which now looks like a reverse sock tan on my legs. With sandal marks on my feet.

Here is a present for Solstice: the blog of my friend James! Read it, it's real real good, and also funny, and I'm not just saying that because it's my friend writing it. Especially read this page.

fireflies and cherry pies

I no longer have any sort of reasoning behind titles of blog posts.

Last night I ate a mango right before bed while watching Thursday's Daily Show, and now my computer has sticky yellow goo on it. Mmm mango goo.

Now, I am eating a mini cherry pie from Dangerously Delicious Pies, and on the hexagonal bar / coffee table next to me - don't worry, it's on a coaster - is a pint of chocolate milk from Clear Spring Creamery, which also provided me with the quarter pound of quark that is waiting in the fridge. My farmer's market is small but tasty!

Bad Decisions Dinosaur

That fried chicken sandwich after my first ballet class in 3 months may not have been really smart.

Looking at wedding photos while already in a weird alone-mood also may not have been that great an idea, either.

Letting Stellina walk to Eastern Market pushing her bebe strubber! bebe strubber! (baby doll in the toy stroller) in 85 degree weather - maybe should have thought twice about that one.

Choosing to work Saturday night - leaving me with no free nights this weekend! - instead of going to the Nats-White Sox game which will be broadcast nationally on Fox, I might end up wishing I had made a different choice.

Making another blog post that is yet another list, yeah, I really shouldn't have done that.

Awesome Shit that I Have Already Done in DC

1) Sunrise Easter service at Arlington Cemetery

2) Midnight Mass at the National Cathedral on Christmas

3) Easter mass at the National Cathedral

4) Various Smithsonians - Air & Space, American History, Natural History, American Indian, Castle, American Art

5) Inauguration of President Obama

6) Inaugural Concert!

7) Inaugural Ball! Western States reppppresent

8) White House tour

9) Nats games at both RFK and Nats Park

10) Pride Festival (though not the parade, boo)

11) Cherry Blossom Festival

12) Flown into and out of all three airports (lame, I know, but it's a thing)

13) Lunch at the Senate cafeteria

14) Experienced a summer thunderstorm on top of a house in Columbia Heights

15) Tended bar at a DCWeek event

16) had days where I go to all four quadrants

17) eaten at Ben's Chili Bowl

18) mini-golf at H Street Country Club

Ok! some are boring. but there are some things that I think are cool because they can only be done in this city. SUCK IT, OTHER, LESSER CITIES.

there's lots of other stuff I can't remember right now

It's List Wednesday!

I am bored, and don't want to work on things that I need to work on, so I decided to finally put down my DC Bucket List - stuff that I haven't done yet in DC and really need to do before I move away. I don't know when that is, but it is at minimum a year, so just to be safe, I want to start making sure I can take care of business and do everything.

So here is my list of shit that I haven't done yet in DC but want to do / places I haven't been but need to, in no particular order.

PLACES:

1) Roosevelt Island

2) National Arboretum

3) Hirschhorn Gallery

4) FDR Memorial

5) Air & Space Museum at Dulles

6) Frederick Douglass House

7) Pentagon Memorial

8) the museum in Katzen at AU

THINGS TO DO:

1) Sunrise at the Lincoln Memorial

2) Caps game

3) DC United game

4) Watch the drag race in Dupont

5) Screen on the Green

6) Roller derby (uh... watch, not participate, as much as I love Whip It)

7) train to Baltimore for the day (I know that's not DC, but, it starts at Union Station!)

8) a sport on the Mall! frisbee, bocce, softball, croquet, etc. doesn't matter which one.

9) go up the Washington Monument

10) Embassy open houses, EU and others

11) Paddle boats in the Tidal Basin (except this is so romantic I might barf)

What am I missing? It doesn't need to be all national shit, it can be like "hey you totally need to go to Sticky Rice on H Street, NE! and have omakase, and a carafe of sake. Then, go to the Biergarten Haus and drink whiskey while rooting for the Celtics, as your roommate shuns you in his ugly-ass Laker hat."

Well, I did that last night, so, think of something else.

OK well we also have a list of Awesome Shit that I Have Already Done in DC, which will be the next post, for ease of editing.

How 'bout them Uruguayans?

An email

From: Mo

To: Sexy Steve

1:10pm

WHAT IS GOING ON IN SOUTH CAROLINA

DID YOU VOTE FOR ALVIN GREENE

WHYYYYYYYYY

----------------------------

From: Sexy Steve

To: Mo

1:28pm

I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IS GOING ON! AND OF COURSE I DIDNT VOTE FOR GREENE! IM NOT INSANE! I VOTED FOR RAWL!

Mental Forces

Prince Philip and Captain Bananio, who I get to see tomorrow, too! Maybe we will do Play-Doh for TWO WHOLE HOURS again.

I played in the water in the backyard with Stellina today. Splash splash splash! When the UPS man came and rang the doorbell with a package for Stellinadaddy, we answered the door in our swimsuits.

And then I ate a bacon cheeseburger at the Nats game, and we beat the dread Pirates, and it was great.

He's confessing his undying like for me

Strasburg delivers! 14 strikeouts, every single member of the Pirates' starting line-up, in 90ish pitches. I'm glad I didn't buy his jersey in vain. Well.... so far. Chickens still have some hatchin' to do, but it looks like we're off to a good start.

I took a stinging nettle to my right heel yesterday evening, just where the scar is from my slice-on-the-bed incident. Let me inform you, that plant lives up to its name. It should be called "omg don't ever accidentally briefly touch this plant just trust me don't do it stay awayyyyyy" - that would be even more accurate.

I suddenly feel like I have started something in the middle and am struggling to figure out what the hell is going on so I can try to catch up, and in the meantime, I'm just faking it and hoping eventually it will turn out real. As though me trying to learn how to ride my new bike, clipless pedals and all, is a giant metaphor for my life. I get going for a couple blocks or so, and I know I look like a total badass on my sweet retro road bike, and I feel like I know what I'm doing and I look like I know what I'm doing, and then I get to an intersection, and have to stumble off in an undignified and sometimes painful fashion and walk for a few blocks, until there aren't many people to see me try and awkwardly get back on and get started again.

I haven't been good at bikes in a loooong time, if I ever was. I have a very clear memory of remembering to brake at the last minute and stopping with my front wheel an inch away from falling in the duck pond at Westmoreland Park, just when I had recently gotten to a point where I felt a mastery of no training wheels. I was ... nine? ten? Only now, a decade and some odd later, instead of the duck pond, it's traffic, and kids with grandparents, and stone retaining walls, and hot dog carts, and construction workers, and that curb, and trees, and more retaining walls, and I have to remember to relax my grip on the handlebars because I'm holding too tight, but don't relax too much or I'll forget to steer and end up in the duck pond.

Yeah, that Giant Metaphor of my Raleigh Technium TriLite.

My polka-dotted skateboard helmet is securely fastened.

This is it

I got all excited 'cause on my dashboard, it said I had 151 posts, and I was very pleased with myself, and then I realized several were drafts, and so I actually have about 145 total posts on this blog.

Yesterday's 2:20pm to 2:23pm thunderstorm finally cooled the city down after a long string of 85+ degree days, with humidity. Last night, not only did I sleep wearing clothes for the first time in at least a week, I also slept without an ice pack, and by the middle of the night I actually got under the covers!!! it was AWESOME.

Then today, I got my haircut, had a brief spa appointment, had lunch with Uncle Sexy and his friend at this Salvadorean place I've always wanted to try - and definitely should have tried sooner.

The cats somehow stopped begging for food at 3am. I don't know how it happened. Right now they're eating at 10am and 10pm and not begging me for food in the inbetween times. It might be that they're getting into Sawyer's food, but I think they're still too scared to go into that room because there's a hissing smaller version of Zoe that guards it. They ALSO have been leaving food in their bowls for later! Which in the past has been totally unheard of. I think it's probably too hot to eat. Really, who wants to eat anything other than Otter Pops? Which I did actually stack on Rhett for a bit on Friday, which was a super hot day, and he did not protest, and in fact looked pretty happy about.

I got to take a really awesome nap this afternoon, with the breeze coming in the window. And then I got to have tomatoes, mozzarella, and balsamic vinegar, and then leftover Ethiopian food, and then a mango for dinner. Everyone else had pizza, because our gas got shut off, apparently we were using it illegally? I don't really know. But we all sat on the porch, covered in bug bites and bug spray, with the Jesus candles lit, and talked about Snowmaggedon and Snowpocalypse and Snowverkill, and decided to have our housewarming party on June 25. This is a natural choice, as it coincides with the first anniversary of Michael Jackson's death, and we live half a block from the Michael Jackson Shrine House. And Sawyer pranced around in the backyard catching fireflies.

Contra

I will get back to posts that are not just giant lists of stuff ... shortly. Now things are starting to feel settled and I think this will be the first week of real normalcy? So that's pretty great!

So here is a list of Things That Have Happened.

I graduated from college! That's fun. It was really stressful but nice to see everyone.

I moved across town! This is a big big big thing. The chaos started a little over a month ago, when I was hung out to dry by some folks that I was potentially going to live with, and then I wasn't sure if I was going to have to move back to Oregon, or what. Then, I got freaking lucky and two of my new roommates found me, and then some more chaos happened regarding my old apartment, and then I moved into my new house, and then my new roommates moved in about a week later, and now our fourth roommate is in, and everything is fantastic! Actual moving really sucked, but packing was not terrible, and unpacking was also not terrible. I had lots of help from really great friends.

More on the new house and new neighborhood forthcoming.

Somewhere around moving time I got a bunch of new jobs, and also a new phone, and all of those are great.

Then it was my birthday! I turned a different age than I was before. That was fun. I got drunk and busted my knee on the balcony of my old apartment, and it's almost all better now but still kind of gnarly.

Then I helped clean the house of my friend, whose other housemates left him totally screwed and responsible for cleaning the entire house where seven boys had lived. That was fun, because I like cleaning, even though it was gross. I miss that house a lot, it very much defined last summer for me. Now I have a new definition.

And then today! I bought a bike! It looks a little something like this:

the green-looking bit is more blue than what it looks like in this photo, more like in this photo. It is pretty freaking rad. I have to switch out the pedals for regular platform pedals but the pedals (clipless? I need to learn a lot about bikes quickly) that are on it are not too terrible to ride with. The front brake needs aligning, which some random bike co-op folks that I ran into showed me how to do, and they also filled my tires which was so nice of them! Bike is super '80s and very rad. hardxcore rad, even.

And then I bought a fan for my room and a ton of Otter Pops from Rite-Aid, which is two blocks from my house, and a bunch of summer clothes from oldnavy.com. I am done stimulating the economy for a while.

Things To Which I Am Morally Opposed, episode III

People who don't take responsibility for their own health issues and needs and instead make assumptions that their needs will automatically be met.

People who respond with things like "Fun stuff" and "weird" when I've just told them that my life has become one giant clusterfuck in the past 4 hours and that I may end up living out of a U-Haul for a week and a half because I literally have nowhere else to go and don't have a gorram clue what I'm going to do. (would it be difficult to say "omg that sucks"? I feel that is a much more appropriate response)

Communication failures.

No cell phone reception.

NextBus lying to me.

People and things that suck.

Right now.

Things For Which I Am Eternally Grateful, episode I

Sleep.

Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me.

Really good cheeseburgers.

Excellent hair days.

Feminist men (real ones, not fake ones).

YouTube.

Playlists containing only the best Chuckanut Drive, Rhett Miller, Old 97s, Neko Case, and New Pornographers songs.

Progress.

Having too many clothes.

Best friends that email a link to the cast of Glee singing the National Anthem just 30 minutes after you emailed to that person the cast of Glee singing a cover of Charlie Chaplin's "Smile."

Just not the one?

Bored and the babby is asleep. Long boring post is about to happen.

Things I accomplished today, in order!

0.5) got out of bed. Accomplishment!

0.75) got an email from Deanna, was really happy and sad at the same time

1) took a shower

2) acquired tickets to the Nats-Mets game for Thursday with Allison!

3) took the bus! to Friendship Hay-eights Station. talked to Maeg on the way!

4) ate Panera for lunch! Was generally obnoxious. Drank water! a delicious experience, if a bit awkward.

5) went to Gap, bought jeans that actually maybe fit! for $25 off! Now I won't feel so bad when they rip and become unwearable in 8 months because I didn't pay 60 bucks for them. also acquired two new tanktops in colors I had not previously owned.

6) went to new babby house to meet new babby! different than the babby I have right at this moment. I have many new babbies. Once everything settles I will give ALL OF THEM internet names.

7) went home, fed my cats. yay cats, I love them. They're extra cuddly today. Because of the rain, you see.

8) came to other babbysits. fed babby, bathed babby, put babby to bed, sang Psalm 23 authoritatively to babby, finally had to let babby cry babbyself to sleep.

9) tried to get Verizon representative on the phone for the 15th time today. All I want to do is switch my service to the new house, and it is being painfully full of suck.

10) watched this:

11) Brad called this the "AD EQUIVALENT OF ORGASM," with which I politely disagreed

12) found out that one of my friends moved to New Mexico without telling me?!?????!?

activity 13 is to figure out how to get the child lock off the toilet lid so that I can pee.

and I don't want no substitute

Both my roommates are gone now. One will be back next weekend for Georgetown's graduation, and she'll be back next term, but we won't be living together anymore. The other is gone for who knows how long? That Peace Corps thing is super time-consuming.

I can't wait to be moved and have my work schedule set so I can start focusing on what really matters during summer: baseball, grilling, and drinking.

and going to the zoo.

not in that order? in that order?

blerg.

Leslie Knope

I think I scare people with how much I love DC. A few weeks ago I gave one of my roommate's family friends a tour of AU's campus, and what was supposed to be about 30 minutes turned into 2 hours of blabbing about AU and DC, and 2 skipped meetings, and one jilted professor. Sorry, Linda.

Today I found out that one of my friends from high school is moving to DC in the late summer to work for the JVC. She'll be here for a year. I'm pretty jealous because she gets to live in Columbia Heights, where I wanted to live (instead, I'll be living in the Atlas District, which is "painfully hip"?? also, awesomely cheap), but I'm super excited that she'll be here! We were corresponding a bit on the bookface today and then she got bored with that and called me, so I talked to her for THIRTY-EIGHT MINUTES about how awesome the District is. I'm pretty sure that about 10 minutes in she was like "ohhh man who is this crazy person and is she going to try to be my friend when I get there I should have never told her I'm moving there"

In other news, I have just ordered myself a Motorola Backflip, I guess as a birthday present for myself? It is supposed to be wicked awesome and I wanted a phone that runs Android without having to switch networks to get an HTC Droid. But, it's essentially built for the purpose of social networking, which freaks me out. I didn't really need to be further enabled. Also I just realized that if I activate it before the 26th, when our billing cycle rolls over, I'll probably be charged $30 for a full month of data, having only used it for 8 days or whatever. Blerg. Might be worth it to play with the new shiny.

Am in the midst of moving?? But will be getting back to blogging more again. Yay! I've missed it. Stupid finals and graduation.

Happy birthday, Maegarooni, don't die. Punbot is broken.

Nothin' not to love

I'm graduated, yay.

District of Columbia

District of Columbia

- Benjamin Walker -

I applaud

the Navy snipers on the rooftops--

men standing guard

with automatic weapons

on unlit Metro cars

and circling the House of Saud

while the neckties on K Street

and the brass buttons in the Pentagon

outgun everyone

I honor the Congressmen

who get the last word

without listening to ours--

they say don't hand out clean needles

then slip away at night

hugging their comforters in cool Virginia

I sing praises

for the 5-0

who understand

why we left our IDs at home--

who patrol Spring Valley

and the National Cathedral

at 3AM--

who sleep

parked

on Nebraska and Constitution

while a Balkan melee rages

across the Anacostia river

I offer a toast

to the CVS guy who locked up

all the condoms in the Navy Yard

and through the lower wards--

as if this swamp isn't muggy enough

In this city--

as long as it remains--

men on the street

come up to me cold

as I leave theaters

right out of Chinatown--

one takes my offered cigarette

but refuses my dollar

then says

I like you though,

See?

You look me right

In the eyes

It's fine, everything is fine. Just fine. Fine.

I measure my time in Captain Bananio development stages. I hope I get to be his best friend for all of time.

Assignment 1A

I've got a hell of a lot more of this to do.

Also, I got an awesome sunburn that day where my convertible tights stopped, and so I have a line where my skin is slightly more red. It's like the reverse of a sock tan. only it's burn. and right above that on my left leg I have bruises from hopping concrete barriers at the Tidal Basin.

It's clear that this blog is now only about injuries to my lower extremities. It must be spring.

cat

that's what I've got for today.

Right Red Ankle

Things that have happened to my right foot in the past year:

July: Slam it in a revolving door. yes.

September: Drop a full container of laundry detergent (pointy top down) on it.

December: Drop a chair on it (walk it off walk it off okay now let's look OH MY GOD WHAT IS WRONG WITH MY FOOT) - I still have marks.

all the time: stub toes, kick things. only my right foot!!! I notice when I stub my left foot and it is not often.

March 28, noon: Slice open heel on edge of bed. Bleed through two bandaids.

so far.

ETA: we've now succeeded in bleeding through three bandaids, a sock, and a shoe!

ETA II: and now another sock, onto the fourth bandaid. Should I be worried?

March 28, 1:30pm: kick chair, stub toes.

I'm sparing readers the photo of this morning, though I have photos of all of these events.

You save the best for later

When I woke up this morning and looked at my phone, I momentarily thought that it was my birthday.

Happy 27.

It is nice when fussy babbies calm down when you start singing "You Are My Sunshine" to them. Also, one-year-olds should not have Queen shirts, but at the same time, yes they should.

Stay in school, kids.

I can't forget that first time you left

I miss PSU's practice rooms, even though they were terrifyingly effective in producing claustrophobia, because they were really pretty much soundproof. These ones are shiny, though, and I think almost all have a piano?

I would be happy if this happened. I'm happy it exists and I'm happy everything about it.

I've been listening to the FYCL podcast which is totally awesome. I mean, it's just SJ and the Egg sitting around talking about random stuff and dubious sex toys and dubious advice and dubious other things, but it's really pretty hilarious. I listened to it a bunch today as I travelled back and forth from Stellina's house, which wasn't the most practical, because I had to turn it way up to hear both of them, and then SJ's laugh is REALLY LOUD. See how I did that in all caps there to emphasize loudness?

I read too many DC blogs now. and they suck. They're all the same and they all suck. DCist is solid but really bougie, and then there's WeLoveDC that just sucks and is super-bougie but sometimes they pick up stuff that DCist misses so you have to have both, and then there's Prince of Petworth, who is awesome but updates, oh, say, about a hundred thousand times a day. Then there's why.i.hate.dc, which updates like once a week maybe with usually boring stuff that we've all heard before, and then there's Unsuck DC Metro which is kind of funny actually but makes anger. and 14th & You updates once every fourscore years and it's usually boring and/or bougie.

(Bougie being the best word I can presently think of to describe these. See also: elitist, woo privilege!, omgomgomganotherwinebaromg)

More on that later.

Time waits for no man but for woman it stops

This morning Brad recorded the radio show on a minidisc, so ... that is likely where it will stay for the rest of eternity. Is it possible to transfer minidisc to any other format? isn't that why minidiscs failed? also, because you can only record like 20 minutes on each? I am probably wrong. Anyway, I'm sure the show was entertaining.

Yesterday I saw Stellina for the first time in two weeks, and she was confused that I cut all my hair off. She is getting bigger all the time!! Funny how that happens.

I've got Fidelity Grange cycling through again and again, especially "Falling Still." It's just been that week.

Here's a photo from New Orleans:

Honey, I'm searching still.

Things To Which I Am Morally Opposed, episode II

Boys who should be decent and maybe even really great, and instead treat awesome awesome girls (who treat the boys so well) like they are not worth any time or effort or care or thought.

Metal Rolling Stones covers.

Food deserts.

Not getting a second chance.

Phones freezing! Electronics freezing when I am trying to do something.

Miscarriages when the mama wants the babby so badly.

Don't look down, don't look now

Sister was correct when she told me to listen to "Blacklisted" today. such a great album.

How's hope feeling today

Tired and sick of this place

Red wine is fast at the lip of your glass

Saying I'm going to ruin everything

Everything

So it's better, my sweet, that we hover like bees

'Cause there's no sure footing

No love, I believe

Watch this one all the way to the end, then go to BriTANick.com and watch all their videos.

Simon and Garfunkel

Dear Math Major,

Just because "my vacation ended days before yours" doesn't mean I'm not drunk on a Sunday night.

SUCK IT, NERDS.

I love you.

Love,

Crazy Cat Lady

PS I still resent that nickname. think of something better.

leave my girls no faster

Somehow I had forgotten how much my friends from high school understand me, much better than almost anyone except maybe my sister. Not that I'm like, wah, no one understands me, but no one is quite the same as they are. Leaving them the other day made me feel very alone.

Okay, I'm done having feelings now.

Soon I will show pictures of daffodils in DC. daff-o-dils, dils of daff-o!

After all these years

Doctor Lindsey, doctor of math!

Vote for Teddyyyyyyy

THAT IS PRETENTIOUS BULLSHIT


haribo gold-bears ftw

Fire it up

This is a very important follow-up to viewing the "Telephone" video, which you cannot possibly have avoided by now. I was gettin mah hurrs did yesterday morning and convinced my stylist (who I love to death zomg) that she needed to go google it up as soon as she was done for the day. Anyway, read that Feministe post, it is hilarious.

So, I'm on the plane (literally, right now, on the plane, wifi for free. I knew AirTran was a good idea, somehow??) and I was reading my New Orleans guidebook from Lonely Planet, and I turned to a page and saw a dude that I recognize! He is really only someone that I know of, so that's all well and good.

Lindsey accidentally called me this morning at about 1:30(??), and apparently I was having a lucid dream about a really strange- and scary-looking bug, because the first thing I said to her was "man you're right, that bug is fucking weird!" I don't think she heard me because it was an accidental dial, but I hope she did. And also, even though at that point I woke up enough to realize that the bug wasn't real, I still moved to the other side of the bed because I was jeeshed out.

I have had little sleep.

(For Some Inexplicable Reason the) British Train Mascot is a Mexican Wrestler

I found this blog post title in the list of auto-complete suggestions.

The interwebben are alight with chatter about Lady Gaga's new music video. It took me a bit to come around to Gaga; I mostly just thought she was a nutter with a penchant for strange hair. And then I realized that she and her production team are crazyinsane artistic geniuses.

Her video for "Telephone" picks up where the "Paparazzi" video leaves off, and includes Beyonce, sunglasses made of lit cigarettes, poison honey, and the Pussy Wagon, so, um, it couldn't possibly get much better. Here I have embedded it from MTVMusic.com, which I try to use as often as possible, in support of MTV's lost music days.

Lady Gaga |MTV Music

Also on the interwebben, the new OK Go video for "This Too Shall Pass," which I can't embed, but here it is. The official video of the marching band version has been out for a couple months and it's pretty cool, but this new one is AWESOME. Like a bunch (most? all?) of their other videos, it's one continuous shot, and they filmed in a warehouse in 60+ takes over two days. It's well worth the less than 4 minutes of your life.



Thirdly and finally in music news for today, I got a ticket to the Pavement show in Philly in September. I'm pretty pumped about that! My friend Steve bought his ticket separately from me, and ended up 5 seats away purely by luck. We're in Orchestra A, Row C, which is pretty sweet, though we're a little over to the right, I guess. If you're in DC or Philly, or anywhere else close, there are still tickets available, so you should come!!!


Today I was standing in the living room and my kitchen sink made a funny noise. I looked at it and it looked normal, and then 20 seconds later I looked at it again and it looked like this:



WHAT.


Time to finish my food desert paper and experiential map, and start packing for New Orleans. I'm taking my computer, so maybe I will bloggy while I'm there.

Tomorrow is my first adventure with a Zipcar! I get to go buy cat food and cat litter in Bethesda, so... that's cool. My Honda Civic's name is Carl. First time driving in DC! wooo

11th Street, SE

my ears are ringing

and as a result, no song lyrics for a blog title today.

instead, PICTURES.

Boats at the DC Waterfront, with East Potomac Park and Hains Point on the other side of the Washington Channel
BOATS!!!!

Ducks in the marina, they wanted my Haribo Gold-Bears but I told them that they would get sick from them, so I would have to eat all the bears on behalf of the ducks, to save their lives. I wish I had gotten crackers to share instead!

My new shoes!

This week is escaping from me too quickly.

Killing people's not my scene

It seems as though my cat doesn't need to go to the vet, presuming my roommates take care of him properly upon their return from Israel and my departure for New Orleans. Which I'm hoping they do. Everyone cross your fingers, because not only do I not want him to be sick, I really really don't need a vet bill, emergency or otherwise.

I've been sitting Niki's regular kids while she's in Israel, two boys, 11 and 14. Totally different than what I'm used to, which is mostly under the age of 2. The majority of my responsibility involves being there when they get home, nagging them to do their homework, making sure they don't beat each other up, and cooking them dinner before their mom gets home.

On Tuesdays they get out of school at 2:15, which is maybe an hour earlier than usual? And it was 66 degrees out (!!!!!!!!), so I nagged extra hard to get them to finish their homework, then we played basketball outside. This involved a lot of me sucking at basketball and a few quality fence hops to retrieve the ball. Then it involved me falling off a skateboard, and the older boy pelting his little brother and me with icy snowballs of death and stealing my keys so we were locked out and couldn't escape the icy snowballs of death (I was able to deflect some with a Frisbee). It was weird getting in a snowball fight in 66 degrees, and also completely rad to kick everything and play outside for a while.

HERE IS A GREAT THING THAT HAPPENED TODAY IN MY CITY:

If I could do just one near-perfect thing

The new shoes that I have ordered! I think maroon will be more interesting than navy blue. I guess I'd better get a belt that is not hot pink.

I am far too excited to go to New Orleans; I can hardly contain myself. I have made a pact with one of my fellow travelers to make severe inroads on thesis work before departing... perhaps another of our fellows would care to join this pact?
Blerg I can't concentrate on anything except that exact point in time when I get bored of drinking mai tais and switch to hurricanes. I need vacation so hard.

HAY GUYS IT IS SPRING IN DC NOW
IT IS SO GREAT

Oh let me also say something about this horrible girl in my radical cartography of DC class. She's so horrible. She has not gone through an entire class yet without mentioning at least twice that she works at the Senate (let me tell you how much I hate people who love to brag that they work at the Senate. SO MUCH.), and also that she works at the University Information desk so OMG SHE WORKS WITH MAPS like omg she must know so much about everything ever! She never seems to know what she's talking about, but somehow can relate anything to her work at the Senate (did I mention she works at the Senate? Well, she does), or at the info desk. And it never makes sense. Most of the time the professor just kind of ignores her and moves on. I mean, I don't always know what I'm talking about, because the class is confusing as hell, but at least I don't pretend that I do know.

It is a total coincidence that she is a cheerleader.

So on Friday, we come into class and sit down to take our midterm. all 9 of us are kind of last-minute studying and making sure we have all the members of the DC City Council memorized, and know what food deserts are, and stuff. (HERE is some stuff on food deserts) Cheerleader says, "The closest grocery store to my apartment is 0.9 miles, so I have no sympathy for people who complain about having to walk to the grocery store."

um.

excuse me?

Dear Cheerleader,
I see some flaws in your argument! Let me point them out to you.

1) You live in Northwest DC. Not a food desert. I don't care if you live a mile from the grocery store. You only live a mile from the grocery store.

2) You JUST pointed out that many red line stops in NW DC have grocery stores within a block! Look at that, easy transportation, conveniently enough for you, because you live in NW DC.

3) You may work at the Senate AND at the info desk, which is two jobs and I'm sure that is a lot of work. But I guarantee your Senate work is unpaid, and therefore, you can afford to have an unpaid internship, and that makes you pretty damn privileged.

4) You to go American University, which costs $40+k a year. That makes you hella damn privileged and not qualified in the least to talk about having no pity for those who are less privileged than you.

5) Okay, say that you are here on scholarship and you are getting paid at the Senate (because you are actually really intelligent and are just really good at hiding it?). You don't have three kids to feed. Not to mention cart along with you to the grocery store! or, find care for while you travel to the grocery store, which is Really Far Away.

6) Even if you're here on scholarship and you're getting paid at the Senate, I don't see you getting a payday loan at 500% interest in order for you to pay for groceries for you and your three kids, and also to pay for transportation to and from the grocery store.

In fact, I'm pretty sure that after cheerleading practice, you shop at Whole Foods and lay down Daddy's credit card. And you're so preoccupied thinking about which cute J. Crew or Banana Republic outfit you're going to wear when you have to get up tomorrow at 8 am (gasp! so early) to go to the Senate that you don't even look the minority minimum-wage cashier in the eye, let alone glance at your grocery bill. And then you slip Daddy's credit card back in your Prada wallet behind your fake ID, which cost you $120 but is soooo legit, see? Look, it's even your own picture!

Oh, I forget where you work, did you say it was the Senate? Also, all those photos on your FaceBook of you macking on your boyfriend are really classy. Man, I really wish I could work at the Senate and have a boyfriend whose face I could eat all over the internet to prove that he's mine.

So dear Cheerleader, feel free to name-drop where you work as much as you want, but please please STFU about how hard it is for you to get to a grocery store.

Disdainfully,
Mo



(I love how the beginning of this post is about how privileged I am, buying shoes and going on vacation. self-awareness makes it okay, everyone! no but seriously, I don't pretend that I'm not privileged. ugh, I'm that well-meaning middle-class white girl.)

Reasons to stay

My set list so far, for a show in 2 weeks:

1. If She Wants Me - Belle & Sebastian, Dear Catastrophe Waitress
2. Challengers - The New Pornographers, Challengers
3. Your Hands (Together) - The New Pornographers (from Together, which is dropping May 4)
4. Major Leagues - Pavement, Terror Twilight
5. Kickin' In Your Door - Chuckanut Drive, Fidelity Grange (or maybe Mexican Daydream instead, from Chuckanut Drive?)
6. People Got a Lotta Nerve - Neko Case, Middle Cyclone
7. Everything's Easy - Girlyman, Everything's Easy
8. something from Rhett Miller's latest album, I'm not sure yet if it will be I Need To Know Where I Stand, or the demo of I Know It's Wrong, or If It's Not Love, or Another Girlfriend, or Refusing Temptation, because it's a pretty excellent album, but there's not one song that is my by-far favorite.

Any suggestions? I think I get to have two more songs. Please keep all suggestions restricted to the category of "obscure" and "deserves lots of airtime"


And now, the saga of the sign.



When I asked for a sign, this is not what I wanted!!
ha ha, that was a funny joke.

No really, this sign showed up in my hallway, and then I wanted it but realized I totally can't have it, because it's hell of heavy, ten feet long, and a total cesspool of tetanus and a plethora of other diseases, I'm sure. So Nick helped me try to unscrew the sign part from the post, but it's way too rusted to get undone.

The next day, the sign was gone, but this morning the sign was in the stairwell! I am so glad it's not gone. I love the sign.

Shoes right up over

It turns out that Kojo Nnamdi's legal name is Rex Paul! that's actually pretty boring, I guess, unless you are an xtreem Kojo fan, in which case, it kind of just makes him seem lame that his real name isn't Kojo Nnamdi.

I leave that to your discretion

Further inroads have been made towards the singularity.

Here is my cat.


There is a rumor that I may guest-DJ on my friend's radio show in a few weeks. I have to brush up on my indie. I feel like this is just going to make my urgent desire to be in a band even worse. I have to make up for lost time! Quarter-life crisis!

(this kid I know started a band once, and it was called Quarter Life Crisis, and it was really shitty and it lasted for about 10 days because everyone in the band sucked. SO, if any potential future bandmates are reading this, this is me putting on the record that I don't want to be in a shitty band.)

I wore my HRC polo today, totally forgetting that it is March 3, and therefore anyone who wants to get gay married in DC can now go stand in line and pay $35 for a marriage license, just like everyone else! so that is FUCKING RAD. Happy gay marriage Wednesday, District!

Wednesdays are always good for me. they are going to stop being so good, though, because in 2 weeks I have to start going to class again on Wednesdays. Blerg. so what I can say is that things are happening, and that is better than no things happening.

Tomorrow is Stellina day! it is still so cold at the park. I cannot wait until it is warm out, because during the time when it has been cold, she has grown almost big enough to do stuff that bigger kids can do! Someday she and I will go to the National Building Museum, which I am going to have to talk Mamma Stellina into allowing, because there are germs and stuff there. I went once over the summer with Captain Bananio and Prince Philip and it was such an excellent time, and then after, both the boys slept for many many lengths.

Things To Which I Am Morally Opposed, episode I

People asking me "How’s it going?" when I can tell they really don't care

Dave Matthews Band

Bad sex

Being able to hear the bad sex had by my neighbors, which cannot be drowned out by music from my inferior MacBook speakers

Upstairs neighbors who play hockey on their hardwood floors at 4 a.m.

My apartment hallway smelling like cigarettes, stale weed, and gasoline

The question "What are you doing after you graduate?"

The question "What are you going to do with a history degree? Teach?" I already know I can do nothing with a history B.A., stop rubbing it in

People who take themselves too seriously

Jenny on the L Word

People who have the tools to take initiative and stand up for themselves, but don’t.

When I am wondering who

This weekend I went and saw the Washington Ballet's production of The Great Gatsby. Yeah. F. Scott Fitzgerald in all his ... balletic glory? Anyway, it was pretty horrifying. WHY, SEPTIME, WHY.

But! there were some excellent parts. It's been a while since they've been able to afford live music! I'm so glad my $90 ticket (at 16% on my credit card) could contribute to that. /bitter

I've had Irving Berlin's "What'll I Do" stuck in my head since Saturday. So here it is, via Frank.

Perfect couldn't keep

I learned something new today! Boxes of Cinnamon Toast Crunch come with a little pull-back car! And it comes SHRINK-WRAPPED.


so that's cool. it makes me miss KinderEggs. KinderEggs are better than this car though. This car comes with Pennzoil and Shell stickers to put on it. LAME. Basically the coolest part about it was the shrink wrap, and also, that it came with my cereal.

I'm on an unfortunate Kelly Clarkson binge. I really hope it's over soon.

BASEBALL IS ALMOST BACK!!!!!!! yesterday was the last Sunday without a baseball game until November 7!

You Are Everyone

An important observation on the Winter Olympics.

Man, I really really love the Winter Olympics.

Speaking of places where skiing happens, my mom sent me this today:

Good morning, Baltimore

I had to use that blog post title, because I'm in Baltimore, and it's morning. I've already been to the gym, about to get in the shower. So that's interesting.

Jury is still out on whether the morning is "good," but so far it's not bad.

look at that funny joke about a jury, haha look how clever I am.

Here is a picture of the picture of a boat which is hanging by the elevator on our floor. It is an excellent boat. I like boats.

points? transfer of momentum

I'm in social justice class and there is a girl with a HUGE white porcelain teapot on her desk. Also, a styrofoam cup, which contains her shiny metal tea leaf strainer thing (what are those things called?).

I kind of think that if you're going to bring the giant teapot and the nice metal strainer for your tea leaves to religion class, you might as well go all the way and bring the matching porcelain cup and saucer. Perhaps even the sugar bowl.

I mean, really, screw styrofoam.

This'll be the last time I ever do your hair

New header on the blog. It's not very good quality, it's from my cell phone camera. Someday I'll get shiny things.

It's almost impossible to be in a bad mood on Wednesdays. Even if CPAC is in town!!!! Also, check out these crazies.

Here's the whole picture.

The ceiling of the Great Hall in Union Station.

So many attractive ladies, so little time.

Interesting things.

Toast is interesting.

Similarly, breakfast is interesting.

Bucket drummers are interesting! Also, really fucking rad.

It is interesting that the boy who dated my freshman year roommate (at the time we lived together) just married the girl who was my freshman year roommate's sophomore year roommate. does that make sense?

These things are interesting:

this is not modern art. But it looks nicer if you think of it as such! Not an expensive, pointless, ugly, poorly-designed, and ineffective awning that collapsed under 3 feet of snow.

Spinning (out) in Infinity

Some of the reasons I hate winter.

1) I wear at least two pairs of pants at all times from October to mid-March. Not to mention multiple shirts and pairs of socks.

2) Because of that, I have to do laundry way more often. Laundry is expensive and time-consuming, and the laundry room is freezing.

3) There is snow everywhere. It's at least 2 feet deep on pretty much every surface. Because of plowing the roads, there are piles covering the sidewalk that are about 7 feet tall. so that's excellent.

4) I have to blow my nose immediately every time I get inside.

5) Dry skin! Chapped lips! Staticky hair and clothes!

6) Also, staticky cats.

7) I don't get to wear cute shoes or clothes. Boots and sweatshirts all the time.

8) Very slim pickings on fruits and vegetables at the grocery store. Nothing is in season! I love tiny oranges in December but by February they're gross and I'm sick of them.

9) The coldness outside makes my iPod headphone cords stiff and then it's really easy for the wind to blow the buds out of my ear. I hate this more than I hate a lot of the other things, actually.

10) Trying to get Stellina (who is now almost 19 months) to wear gloves at the park is very, very difficult. I am generally always nervous that she is too cold when we're outside, so I just bundle her up so that she can barely move, and then I worry that she's not having fun at the park because she's too bundled up.

11) No baseball. I cannot WAIT for baseball season.

12) When I'm riding on the bus to places that aren't that far away (i.e., Tenley, half a mile, or even Dupont, only 20 or so blocks, mostly downhill), all I can think about is how I wish I was walking instead, but it's way too damn hell ass cold.

Reasons why winter is okay sometimes.

1) When it has just started snowing lightly, and the breeze is still kind of making the snowflakes float upwards. float float float.

2) THE WINTER OLYMPICS

JESUS H. MACY I LOVE THE OLYMPICS.

but, I have no TV and so I haven't gotten to see any of the Olympics at all. Too bad it's a cold cold cold walk to the bar.

There was an unusually large cookie at the dining hall today. Trent was really impressed. I put my hand up there for comparison as well, because Trent is like 6'6" and thus has large hands, so it was necessary to provide a proper scale for this unusually large cookie.

But then Trent eated it.

Angels in the Architecture

I talked to my mom on the phone, ate breakfast, took a shower, did laundry and some ironing, got dressed, and at 2pm looked out the window and said "What!? It's not even snowing yet."

I turned around and when I looked out the window 90 seconds later, it was snowing.

ain't fair, you know

Statehood Day #151:

x 1098091283091810. When did Train get good?

Jake's Recipe for Falker Satherhood.

Stellaluna board book! I can't let Stellina exist any longer with this book in her possession. Especially since she'll probably know how to read by the time she turns 2, she's so wicked smart.

New Orleans guidebook. (heyyyy ladies I have bought us a guidebook)

DONUTS.

A single lol.

Wednesday plans to conquer tacos. and to pick up MARC tickets.

eta: I just ordered three new Moleskines! giftcards to evil giant chain bookstores are awesome when I don't have to save them for textbooks.

eta II: An excellent postcard to add to my collection! Someday I will get to send someone awesome some really cool postcards.

All these things have happened today.

we draw the line

Someday I'd like to actually say intelligent things.


Ten things that are awesome:

1. Chicken Paprikas. The other day Roommate M. asked when I would cook it again, which made me feel really awesome. And helped me deal with Roommate R. not being interested in eating my stew. To be fair, it wasn't that great but I thought it was pretty delicious. I digress.

2. Multilingual children. Tonight I'm watching a two-and-a-half year old who speaks Russian and English! It is very intimidating. Also, makes me want to shake my fist at Russia. Another great thing, children who can sign. SO USEFUL.

3. Amazon Prime! Also, her cousin Optimus.

4. Wait Wait Don't Tell Me. I'm in a phase where no music is appealing to me and much of it makes me really upset, but I can't stand silence, so I need to listen to WWDTM almost constantly. It is good that I have almost 3 years of archives on my iPod.

5. WATER. I'm really thirsty right now and maybe I'm a terrible person for not trusting DC's tap water, but I'd rather hell of Brita my water before I drink it. So at this very moment, I have no water, and I want some.

6. Comfortable and flattering high heels. There, I said it. I'm a girl. Blah. At least I'm not blogging about makeup and all the different brands you should buy.

7. Bedtime rituals. Mine is insane these days. After showering, washing my face, brushing my teeth, and taking my contacts out, then I put on WWDTM and take my various medications and vitamins, and break out the baby oil, Nivea, and chapstick. Then I spend 5 minutes trying to get the correct volume on my iPod. ... good thing I sleep alone.

8. Cake. and ice cream. And ice cream cake.

9. Not being high maintenance. I guess that's the right way to say that? Okay, my current bedtime ritual makes me seem like I would be the kind of person that would be super high maintenance, but really I surprise myself with how self-sufficient I am. Thanks for making me fend for myself starting at age 14, Mom. I've got this emotional independence thing down maybe too well.

10. Dogs.


There. That was supposed to make me feel better.

eta: Upon re-reading this post, I realize that I sound really high maintenance. zomg I promise I'm not.

Azithromycin and Benadryl

Happy upcoming Anna Howard Shaw Day, and Oregon's 151st birthday.

zen zen zen zen zen zen

blahhhh

She ain't no diva

Looks like I just blew an entire week being sick and angry. That week was pretty much a gift that could have single-handedly saved my GPA, and I blew it.

And I'm still sick and still angry. And a whole lot of sad, too. Oh, and broke.

WHY HELLO

okay, time for something new.

welcome back

So, as you see, I've been on a New Pornographers kick. I don't know what took me so long to come back around to them, but Holy Macy, where have I been.

I should join a band. I can sing, and I am excellent at brainstorming excellent band names. Future band members, hello. Nice to meet you.

So my latest project, other than school school and more school, has been embracing my indie/hipster destiny. For crying out loud, I was born on 34th and Hawthorne in the 1980s, how much more fate can you get? Anyway, life. it will be awesomer after graduation, right? it's going to be so awesome?

anyone who is not dating me right now is so missing out, let me tell you.

Because I am named News From the District, I should tell you, THERE IS A FUCKTON OF SNOW HERE.
and that's the news from the District, where all the women are lame, all the men are huge jerks, and all the children are spoiled.

Stay With Me, Go Places

please?

We thought we lost you

"It should be hard. I like that it's hard. [...] But it should be a little easier.
Just a little easier. 'Cause in that difference is ... everything."

Yes a heart will always go one step too far

Today is Hourly Comic Day! So that's exciting. For some reason my account isn't activated on the forums yet (??) so I might post them here, who knows.

I hate winter.