22 November 2010

New Things November: Monday the 22nd

Today is a really crappy New Thing. I was running out the door to dinner when I noticed that my cats were outside, which was confusing because they did not get out the door. Then I noticed that one of the cats was halfway out the WIDE OPEN WINDOW, and the screen was pushed all the way up, and then I got the cats inside, and realized that one of my roommates often leaves his computer on the table in front of the window, and that it was gone.

So, wooooo, our house got robbed. That is a stupid stupid Thing That Has Never Happened To Me Before Today. Luckily, roommate whose computer is gone came home right as I was closing the window, which allowed him to log into all his accounts on my computer and change all his passwords. His computer was not worth much more than personal information, which I realize is priceless, but the hardware itself is several years old and not worth much money. He also, I assume, filed a police report.

In our neighborhood, it was only a matter of time until our house had stuff stolen from it, especially because my roommates leave windows unlocked and open and shades up and things like computers in plain sight. I'm really thankful that it was this fashion, even though that roommate had to pay a really unlucky price. It was not our back door being busted down, and all our bikes being stolen, along with our stereo, TV, all four computers, jewelry, other electronics, and all three cats going AWOL possibly for good, etc. etc.

But now, of course, our house is a target, because the stealers could look around our living room, and could at least see my bike and some other things. I feel bad that it happened while I was home. I had the radio on. I don't know that I necessarily could have done anything anyway, I guess. Except lock the window. I suppose it is time to call the landlord and have him fix the back gate. And it is time to talk about leaving the windows locked and closing the motherfreaking blinds.


The New Thing that I did today on PURPOSE was that Biebzbear and I went to DC-3, which was delicious, if not kind of stressful, because taking babies anywhere is stressful, let alone babies who are as fussy as Bear. He's so fussy!

21 November 2010

New Things November: Sunday the 21st

Today I did a New Thing That GrownUps Do, I guess? I applied for yet another credit card, this time just to transfer my balance from my credit card that has a 16.9%APR (BTW, WTF! LOL, KTHXBAI) to the new card which is 0% on balance transfers for 12 months, so, hopefully that will be a thing that will save me moneys, like 250 bucks or more I think. But then I will have three credit cards which is Less Than Ideal IMO. I wish that air travel and vet bills were not so expensive.

Um so yeah, that is about as much as I will talk about my finances on the internet!

Oh except the other day I did a New Thing after I had already blogged for the day. I got my credit score! Which I had Never Done Before. It was really not so bad, actually! Yayyy.

New Things November: Catsup

Thursday, November 18
I don't remember what I did on Thursday. I met some new people! That was fun. I spent the entire 24 hours with Capital R, which may have been a first, but probably not, and then we went to dinner with his sister and her daughter, which was fun. New People are New. We went to Ted's Bulletin which is not a new place but I did have a new food. I'm stretching for Thursday, because really not that much happened except for that.

Friday, November 19
I went to two new places! First I went to the Dangerously Delicious Pies store, and though I have previously eaten their pies I had never been inside the store. They really are super super delicious. Then I went to Kabob Palace in Crystal City, which was delicious but I didn't have very much, because let's be honest, I was already full of fried chicken (mmm, Crown) and pie, and also a couple of beers.

And a new thing I just learned is that Crown Fried Chicken has a website, and also it's halal? I am not so sure I believe that.

Saturday, November 20
I went to my first small-child birthday party! I was picking up Stellina at her friend's 3rd birthday so that her parents could go get ready for the fancy schmancy party they were attending. It was kind of scary but really cute. Stellina may have been slightly scarred when the head of the four-foot-tall Mickey Mouse balloon came off and floated up to the ceiling of the hall.

On the way home we talked to the moon and Stellina sang the ABCs, in which I was not allowed to participate because Stellina said so. And then at dinner she wanted more and more broccoli and then more and more cantaloupe, which I felt bad denying her, but even she agreed it was going to make her tummy hurt. And then she took a bath and freaked out at getting her hair washed. I had to tell her that she couldn't have any stories before bed, which she didn't believe for a while, until a few minutes later she said "No stories?" and I said "no stories unless you put water on her head" so then she took the washcloth and put water on her head three times and then said "three stories!" If there was a tiny bit of soap left in her hair, she will probably not die from it.

When the water was draining, the following cute time happened:
Me: Ready to get out, Baby Girl?
Stellina: babygirl.
Me: Who is Baby Girl?
Stellina: meeee.
Me: That's right!!
Stellina: biggirl.
Me: That is also right.

Then she shiverrrrred and shiverrrrred during pajama-dressing-time and while her teeth were chattering she was saying "No brush teeth, no brush teeth" and because I am the cool babysitter, I didn't make her brush her teeth. In reality I am the bad babysitter because I forgot to have her brush her teeth. I was focused on her not dying of hypothermia. Her tiny hands and feet were purple!! I gave her many hugs for warmth.

And that is what happened on those days.

can has

behind, I know. lots to blog! a couple of really busy days. hard days. catch up sunday! so tired.

17 November 2010

New Things November: Wednesday the 17th

Today's new thing is Super Tasty New Thing. Somehow I have made it 22 years without eating banh mi sammich. NO LONGER! Super delicious. Also I got to have pho which made me into a superhero. Everyone should go eat one or twelve right now.

Also I got to drive a new way on Rock Creek Park today that I had never been. It was dark, so I didn't see anything to tell you.

Dave Jr. and I had some cute times today. After dinner we took a bunch of pictures with PhotoBooth, which was fun, and then we YouTubed Elmo videos. We watched Elmo Has Four Ducks, and 12 Ladybugs, and C is for Cookie, and I Love Trash, and then Elmo and India.Arie singing the ABCs. Somewhere in the middle of the ABCs, maybe somewhere around LMNOP, Dave Jr.'s eyes slammed shut and his head fell back on me, so we quickly said "adios" to the dogs and traipsed upstairs to brush teefs and wash face as best as possible. No bath tonight! Lucky bug.


16 November 2010

New Things November: Tuesday the 16th

Well, it rained today (fall?! I notice you now!) so I did not take Biebzbear to Stanton Park, and though we did walk around it, I don't think that counts. We also did not go to DC-3. Karaoke is still upcoming, but I will write a different new thing!

I was late to work and a guy stopped me on the street and asked if he could ask a question, and I think it is bad karma to not let people ask directions or whatever even if you are running late (the exception is the Children International people who stand on the street, obviously). He did not ask for directions, he asked if I would marry him. I told him I was late for work and that I hoped he will find someone.

I know there are People Who Are Pretty who I'm sure receive at least 3 marriage proposals before work on a daily basis, but this has Never Happened To Me Before.

Also on the way home, I got hit on by a 9-year-old on a bike. WHEN IT RAINS, IT POURS.

15 November 2010

New Things November: Monday the 15th

Mondays are difficult days for new things. I get up late, hurry hurry to work, hopefully get there more or less on time, hang out with Baby Biebz for 8 hours or so, entertain myself all day long with thoughts of how I'm going to go right to bed as soon as I get home, bike or walk home, change into sweats, lounge around for the rest of the day. It is a good thing I do not have a regular 9-5 job because I would be very unhappy and extremely unproductive in my personal life.

Ha! Personal life.

It has been determined that I am going to have to start doing new things in order to write about them, which was the whole point anyway. Today I didn't really do anything new, I learned Something That I Did Not Know though, which is that I cannot get up at 8:23am and get to work on time from Virginia, because there is a thing called traffic on the Beltway. What?! Something That I Already Knew is that I can get up at 8:23am and get to work on time from my house. I can even get up at 8:33am and be on time!

Tomorrow Baby Biebz and I will find something new to do. If it is not rainy and wet, we will go to Stanton Park, to which I have never been, but I hate because it messes me up geographically something awful. If it is wet but not rainy, then we will go to the new hot dog place on Barracks Row. If it is wet and rainy, then I guess I will have to blog about going to karaoke at Sticky Rice which is apparently happening, or maybe the crazy iTunes announcement that is apparently happening, or maybe I will dye my hair pink just to have something to blog. That is probably not happening.

ETA: I realized, a thing that is cool about today, but probably isn't a Brand New Thing, is that I had a buy-nothing day! I didn't spend a single money. I did just download a new album on iTunes but it was after midnight so technically, I did that tomorrow.

IT CAN NEVER BE TOMORROW.

14 November 2010

New Things November: Sunday the 14th

Sunday! I have been obsessed with Eastern Market (place, event, and neighborhood) (I include Barracks Row in the "Eastern Market" category) for a while, and yet an important Place I Had Never Been was Peregrine Espresso, which I have heard is the best coffee in the area, if not the city. So, I went. I did not have coffee, but I did have iced tea which was delicious, and my friend had drip coffee which he said was not all that impressive. We decided that the ambiance left much to be desired. It was not very warm and the chairs were hard and the green is not very inviting. It's very trendy though.

I got back to the bike shop and some of the bike shop boys were just returning from there, saying, "blah blah omg I love Peregrine so effing much blah blah" and one of them was talking about how he wants to be an investor, which made me roll my eyes while looking away, as I often do in response to this person, and he was mispronouncing "Peregrine" the whole time, which made me roll my eyes even more in response.

I will go back and try real coffee sometime, maybe Tuesday! In the meantime, I maintain that Pound Coffee is the best in the city.

13 November 2010

New Things November: Saturday the 13th

Today I have a New Babby! Not for regulars but for tonight, anyway. She is amazingly adorable. She is the babby of some people with names. Names that you can Google and find things about. Babby is tiny and bubbly and has see-through eyelashes and loads of curly red hair, and is friends with Stellina! And anyone who is friends with Stellina is friends with me.

The Best Years of Our Lives is on TCM right now, which is exciting. Some people might know that it is one of my favorite movies! I wrote a couple of papers about it in sophomore year, but I haven't seen it since then. Myrna Loy is gorgeous.

OH, double new things for today! I found a store that sells ONLY CHEESE, and also I guess it sells other things that go well with cheese, so bread and olives and wine and stuff. I was only there for a few minutes but now I would like to back, because they sell ALL THE CHEESES.

12 November 2010

New Things November: Friday the 12th

There I was, in the brand new bike lane at Lincoln Park, and there was the UPS truck, parked smack in the middle of my brand new bike lane at Lincoln Park. Curse curse, grumble grumble, gtfo of my lane, HOLY CRAP MY CONTACT.

So my contact fell out while I was riding my bike in traffic. Luckily I grabbed it right as it was falling out of my eye, and just held onto it as I made the next two blocks so I could pull over and try to manage the situation. I was two blocks from work, and had about 5 minutes to spare before I needed to be there so I was in no major rush but as I was attempting to stick my contact back in my eye, I was going through the plethora of terrible things that happen if I drop my contact on the ground. My mobile contact solution that I used to carry in my bag is now stationary, not to mention, if I drop my contact, there's no way in hell I can find it on the asphalt in the dusk with just one functional eye.

None of those terrible things happened! I got my contact back in my eye. WOO. High fives all around.

That whole shenanigan is a thing that has Never Happened To Me Before. I wish for it to Never Happen Again.

I feel like my New Things are kind of lame. I am pretty sure there will be one Really Awesome New Thing before the end of the month, seeing as how it is only the 12th and we are actually going all the way to the 8th of December?? So, that's good.

Heat and shower are both back in business. We got a new furnace and a new diverter. Yay!

11 November 2010

New Things November: Thursday the 11th

Today the new things is some movies, I am in the middle of Elizabeth, which is pretty ok, and also I am watching Henry Poole is Here. It is interesting, I guess. I have never seen these movies! Luke Wilson is very Luke Wilson-esque. Both movies are really heavy on the religion! So there you go.

Some other things, as well. We have no heat, still. Tomorrow the guy comes to look at it to see if we need a new furnace, and then after that we will get a new furnace, because I will tell you that we need a new furnace.

I realized why my bartender looks so familiar, he looks just like Geoffrey Rush, but not the Geoffrey Rush in that picture, more like the Geoffrey Rush in Elizabeth.

I'm not sure how I feel about today.

10 November 2010

New Things November: Wednesday the 10th

While Maeg and I have had many food times at many Cosis, today we went to the Cosi on Georgetown University's campus, which was a Place I Had Never Been! I had a TBM Melt which was a thing I had never had, because usually I stick with Turkey Bacon Cheddar Melt because it has delicious mustardy sauce.

Also then as I was leaving campus, I was headed for a 32 bus, but came across a D6 bus, which takes me much closer to my house, and doesn't travel down the quagmire that is Wisconsin Avenue! I was happy.

Our landlord gave us a new thermostat, which I could have told you was not the problem with our heater. Now we have a new thermostat, and no heat, and also our shower is broken because someone switched it from shower to bathtub, which we try not to do, because it has been getting harder and harder to switch back to shower. Now it is broken, and I did not shower yesterday, and Capital R is out of town until late late tonight so I have no shower and no heat. I may have to impose myself on Stellina's mom tomorrow while Stellina is at school so that I may shower. We will see.

I am cranky over it, and now I am going to bed.

09 November 2010

New Things November: Tuesday the 9th

A couple of new things happened today!

New Thing Number One!: I went to Frager's for the first time. Yay! Frager's is an independent hardware store that has been on Capitol Hill for nineteen thousand years. It was a Place I Had Never Been, and it is pretty cool. I usually go to the Ace at City Vista, because it is right by the Sexy Safeway.

New Thing Number Two!: I fell off my bike in a new manner! Woo! I was at a stoplight and couldn't get out of my clip on my right side, but couldn't swing my balance to the left. There were lots of cars there when I fell! Nothing is wrong with bike that wasn't already wrong. ie: bearings are still square, not round; chain still needs to be lubed; handlebar tape is still nasty-looking; yellow housing on my rear derailleur cable is still FLY AS HELL; etc. I myself will have some interesting and awesome bruises, and be slightly sore for a bit.

there you go.

08 November 2010

New Things November: Monday the 8th

Today my mother told me a story about how when she was pregnant with me, and I was due in a few weeks, she was all "oh, crap, the baby isn't moving. huh. Well, if she's gone, she's gone, there's nothing I can do about it. My appointment is on Friday anyway." And then it happened the next night and the next night.

Turned out I was just sleeping. And I was borned just fine a few weeks later. THANKS MOM.

That is a Thing That I Did Not Know!

Oh, also for November 7th, which was a Sunday, I watched Eddie Izzard's Circle, which was a Thing That I Had Never Done.

07 November 2010

Dear Selle Italia

I finally sucked it up and bought my new saddle for my bike, which I didn't want to do because it's pink and while I like pink, I wish it wasn't so gendered. Then I had a short but good conversation with one of the guys at the shop, who gets a ton of crap from people because his bike has lots of pink bits, pink grips and wheels and chain and straps and stuff. I wanted to have more conversation about it but I didn't get to. It is silly, the association of the color pink with the ladyfolk. If I want to have the color pink, I should be able to have it, but so should the guy at the bike shop who wants his bike to be pink. If I don't want to have pink, I should not have to have it.

That said, my new seat is pretty great. (and look! those people are selling it at cost!)

The end.


Tomorrow I get to watch the new episode of the zombie show. Or maybe Tuesday morning we will watch it before work, so that I don't have to sleep after it. I have already been having weird dreams lately.

My cat is trying to hack into my bag of Costco mangoes that Stellina's mama bought for me! He is a jerk.

Cold house is cold.

06 November 2010

Today I ...

Woke up with three cats on my bed

Ran out of hot water in the shower within ten minutes, and I am the only one in the house (wtf hot water heater!)

Determined that our heater is broken, just like our A/C was broken, thought about moving to San Diego

Decided to get back in bed, because the house is 57 degrees

Thought about cleaning my room a bit

Put my Google Calendar in a color scheme that I like

Thought about birthday presents

Talked to Maeg, and also my sister, and also Hannah

Watched the first 5 minutes of Billy Elliot, then determined that I don't understand them enough to watch the movie without closed-captioning, and so I will have to wait for the DVD in the mail

Thought about brushing my teeth

Still have three cats on/in my bed

Thought about biking the MBT for a bit

Decided to blog.

IT'S BEEN A GREAT DAY SO FAR. AND IT'S ONLY 3:30!!!

26 October 2010

Things To Which I Am Morally Opposed, episode V

Fox News perpetuating a culture of Islamophobia

Lady bike parts being pink. What is this?! Just because I have lady bits sitting on my saddle instead of manly bits means my saddle has to have PINK on it?

Stovetop burners so gross that the pilot won't light.

My nice stainless steel cookware not being clean.

Ubiquitous credit card offers.

Being angry.

PEOPLE WHO LIE TO ME.

People who don't understand their own religion, let alone any real attempt to understand anyone else's religion or spiritual lifestyle.

Let me mention again how much I hate EVERYONE WHO PERPETUATES THE CULTURE OF ISLAMOPHOBIA.

Feminist Hulk say FUCK THAT NOISE.

21 October 2010

Today is Thursday

and I am cold.

I understand it is the case that I have not blogged in a long time. It is now October. It gets cold at night and often during the day it is not all that warm.

One of our biggest squashes is moldy?? Not rotting, moldy on the surface. I discovered this with no time to deal with it today, so I will deal with it tomorrow.

I have been listening to wayyyy too much pop music, but I did get to see the New Pornographers again on Sunday!

I was pretty disappointed by 30 Rock's live show last week, but I found the west coast show much more entertaining. Kelsey Grammer is guest on tonight's show!

I have almost finished my November budget! My finances are in pretty decent order, as it turns out.

For how short my attention span is, I can't stand flipping channels.

I keep having dreams that I wake up and my hair is long again.

Now that it is cold, Rhett is cranky again, and Zoe is cuddly except she keeps trying to escape.

Nine days until the Rally to Restore Sanity!

These are things that I know.

03 September 2010

Hello Little Sproutlets!

DC WASA came and fixed our water leak, and dug up the front yard. I got an email from a Roommate NorCal while I was in NYC last Friday about how the Squash Monster was okay. I came home that night and looked at the squash all dug up and hanging out on the dirt and wondered what Roommate NorCal had been smoking. Squash Monster pretty much not okay.

Then on Monday, DC WASA came back and brought us "topsoil" and so I skipped ballet class and all other previous obligations and attempted some hack gardening. I was too lazy to go get mosquito spray at Rite Aid (which is two blocks away, so maybe I was just too broke), and it was about 90 degrees, and remember that our lawn had been a pond and we have the lovely shelter of a ginormo Squash Monster. The next day I started to count my bites, got to 15, realized I was halfway down my first leg, and gave up. Anyway I dove into the plant and cut off the parts that were very clearly dead and rearranged the bits that looked like they might be okay still. I dug a hole and put the okra plant in the ground with a tomato cage around it, and took off all the dead leaves which was all of them, and harvested the 6 inch okra dudes, because no one in my house pays attention to stuff like that. Then I dug some weirdly placed trenches and poured in some flower seeds just to see what would happen.

Because we don't have a giant water leak any more, OR a spigot at the front of our house, I have now assumed the responsibility of massive watering duty. This means filling up a huuuge bucket at the spigot in the back of our house and then hauling it through the house to the front, where then I fill up the watering can and water twice a day.

Here is the status on plants at our house.

Squash Monster: ALIVE! Flowers blooming! I think I saw one fruit today that might still be growing, but I would be super surprised if we got any fruits. It's still nice to know that it is alive.

Okra: Almost certainly dead. I'm gonna give it until I go home next week to rehabilitate, and if it's not alive and doing things by then, that is okay. No one knows how to harvest okras on time anyway.

Flowers: sproutingggggg! I do not particularly care if we get real flowers or not, I just want to have plants in the yard because right now we have dirt and a sickly squash and a dead okra. I have sproutlets, and they are alive.



Soon my bike will have yellow housings for brake and derailleur cables, and it will look so fly. I have been going on and on about yellow housings for so long that the bike shop [personified] just got sick of me talking about it and ordered them. when that happens my bike will be looking fly like this but I have yellow water bottle cages (and a black saddle) so even fly-er than that one.

30 August 2010

and I'm more Atari



I know this has been making its rounds on the internet, and I'm a bit late in furthering its journey. I have been totally addicted to this song for a week. It is ridiculously ridiculously good and more music must be made like it. but not too much 'cause then I'd get bored. NO NEVER.

26 August 2010

Squashtopus

I am not very good at posting because my August got insane crazy, as my Augusts seem to trend!

Here is a funny thing.

Once upon a time in June, we thought our squash plant was going to die.


Now it is trying to eat the house. And the neighbors' house. and the dead tree, and the fence, and the everything ever.

Yes, that is one single plant. A SINGLE PLANT. ONE. JUST ONE SQUASH PLANT. it's gone all hydroponic on our asses.

15 August 2010

I'm gonna debauch the hell out of this blog post

Last night:


I went to a barbecue at the house of a coworker of my roommates, where there was brick, and a fire escape, and pretty lights. We decided it didn't look like New York, but a movie about New York instead. It was delicious and fun and I smell like mesquite still, which is funny now but was probably really obnoxious at all the bars last night.

Oh, except I'm kind of sad because I just put clean sheets on my bed and now they smell like barbecue smoke. I can't be too upset at myself, though, because even if the thought to shower had crossed my mind when I got home last night, I wouldn't have been able to accomplish becoming clean, as I was far too focused on the cricket that I was absolutely convinced was under my bed. The cricket! It was there, I swear to David DeJesus.


I have had excellent times in Augusts in the past few years. This marks the second year in a row that Maeg has called me from a wedding the night before she moves back to DC and conveys all the ridiculousness that has happened so far at the nuptial party for one of her one hundred fifty three thousand three hundred and forty cousins. This year there was fountain swimming, none by Maeg unfortunately.

oh, wait, sorry, that's not how many cousins Maeg has, that's how much water we got billed for by DC WASA as a result of this little baby:



That's right, the spring, the source of life, the reason for our $1505.66 water bill and 153,340 gallons of water sitting in our front yard. For some perspective, China reported its giant oil spill as being 400,000 gallons. (Also, holy smack what is with all the oil spills. Sorry, Earth, I think we're beginning to get the picture...) (and, couldn't we have had one more dollar's worth of water in that 33 day billing cycle, so that our bill, which we received on Friday, August 13, was $1506.66?!? That would have been too much)

Yesterday one roommate and I were standing on the platform of the NY Ave metro station, watching some dudes bike past us on the MBT , and one guy yelled something to the effect of "Hey stop being such lazy asses! Get a bike!" which I thought was situationally hilarious and also infuriating. Someone came up with the idea that back before that idiot started to ride, someone yelled that at him once, and so now he thinks he's the shit and wanted to pay it forward to try and make himself look cool. How many combined hours in the past six weeks have I spent on my bike or at the bike shop or drinking with the guys who work at the bike shop? Hey entitled douchebag, I'm taking the fucking metro so that I won't bike drunk, because biking drunk is FUCKING STUPID.
And, let's talk about how biking is a policy of choice and not everyone can afford a $1500 Bianchi and the time to leisurely ride the MBT, because some of us have $1500 water bills to pay, and cooler plans than you for Saturday night.

13 August 2010

Things For Which I Am Eternally Grateful, episode III

(this appears to have gotten lost in the drafts during my 6-week hiatus from blogging, so... I publish now, yes?)



Babies that say my name

Squash blossoms

Amanda Peet's character in Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip

When the bus tracker doesn't lie!!

A clean bedroom

Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day dryer sheets in Basil scent

New bike pedals! They are the SHIT. and I have these toe clips, which are also real rad. (As a side note, it appears that I am paying too much for bike parts. Though I'm getting discounts on stuff now and don't have to pay shipping.)

GUHHH MY BIKE MY BIKE I LOVE MY BIKE

The B-12 Shot

So, that math alarm clock. Let me just tell you how I couldn't multiply 9 and 7 at 7:45am, and as a result, I am now fully showered, breakfasted, dressed, and have started laundry and watched 15 minutes of a Studio 60 episode. Let me also tell you about how I have no commitments today, I have stuff to do but no time frame, so I am up at early o'clock on my day off! And all because 9 times 7 is not 56.

Here is a funny picture:


It is Rhett and Sawyer hunting a squirrel on the neighbor's porch, and Sawyer's ear is pressed against the screen because man she wants that squirrel so hard.

Here is another one that almost embodies our house perfectly:


Cats 'n' bikes. If there was a mango and a glass of whiskey on the windowsill, and if you could see the giant squash plant out front, you would have all the essential elements of our house in one picture.

12 August 2010

A Man Among Boys

It's a great day. Not only did I wake up because of an awesome storm, I woke up with enough time to get coffee before work! which was great. Also, I got great news from one of my baby mamas. Stellina was in a great mood because she had slept for 13 hours. Also, our air conditioning is working again, which is great. And I just downloaded this great new app that makes you do math before the alarm will turn off, so it's supposed to be real great for awful awful wake-up times, which is every wake-up time ever.

I would go to the bike shop and order new pedals because I HATE the pedals I have now, they keep stabbing me and I keep almost dying trying to get them upright because they don't have tabs. I ran into a curb during such an attempt yesterday, fell, and skinned my ankle? that's possible? So now all the skin on a patch of my right ankle is gone and I have 7 (seven!) gashes on my calves, and yeah I look mega hardxcore but, really, I'd rather have better pedals, ones without stabby bits even though the stabby bits are good for when it is raining. But I don't have any money! So that is not a thing I will do today. Which is a great day!

This blog is about my injuries more than I would like it to be.

Thursday Morning Wake-Up

Fifteen minutes before my alarm was set to buzz and ring and generally suck, this is what woke me up:
Except that at 7:30, that delightful purple bit was ever so slightly to the west, meaning directly over my house. There were more lightnings with immediate thunder (so, the impression that lightning was RIGHT on top of us, and I think the science says that means the strikes were within a mile, and I did see one bolt hit a building at Gallaudet) than I had ever witnessed, the rain was pouring in the window through the screen and onto my laundry, and my cats were sitting by the window, watching the storm.
Though, I think that might have been because there was not only water pouring in the window but also somewhat cool air, and seeing as how our house's air conditioning broke yesterday, along with all the outlets in one of the bedrooms (??), I think they were just trying to get a little bit of relief.

08 August 2010

Maximum Strength Cortizone and I are like *this*

Things I did not accomplish this weekend:
1. Cleaning my room
2. Laundry
3. Purchasing eggs at farmers market, they were out before 9:20am! Boooo

Things I did accomplish this weekend:
1. Showered Captain Bananio with kisses this afternoon when I ran into him and his daddy at the store
2. Harvested squash blossoms
3. Singlehandedly provided enough blood to increase the world's mosquito population threefold
4. Started watching Doctor Who!
5. Started a project
6. Cooked and consumed stuffed fried squash blossoms oh hey oh hey oh HEY.

It is Zannah's 8th birthday!!! She is sooooo big

This was my Friday:

This is my cat sleeping at night:

And this was my dinner this evening!:
and theennnn we sopped up all the extra browned butter with bread that was fresh from the oven. This house was a good choice.

04 August 2010

In re: sharks

I sat in the front of the first metro car tonight while I was headed home, and watched out the front window, which is usually too reflective to see through. Going on the track between stations was like some perverse Disneyland ride - perverse because Disneyland has a higher safety record than WMATA. it did make me want to go on Indiana Jones 15 times in a row.

Happy Shark Week!

Speaking of shark, my new platform pedals that I switched to on my bike are made of shark. The stabby bits on them keep biting me and then I am awkwardly bleeding and people are constantly informing me that I am bleeding and asking if I am okay.

HEYOOOO CALIFORNIA
now, onto appeals, and all the way up to the Supreme Court, so we can get this ridiculous one man-one woman bullshit kicked out of the country. No mans! No womans! All people!

02 August 2010

Step on it, Velma, step on it!

A very successful final Screen on the Green for 2010. I miss it already!

This lady photobombed my picture of the sunset through the trees by smiling and looking cute.


Bonnie and Clyde sure do get real dead at the end of that film. Real real dead.

01 August 2010

Silver Jenny Dollar

I went to Annapolis today! It was kind of like this:


Maybe tomorrow I will upload the thrilling video I took of some boats and stuff.

30 July 2010

On saving money, and the word "also"

I gained cred today in two major areas!

First I got in a bike accident, which really doesn't count, because traffic was pretty much stopped, and I only just clipped the door of the Comcast truck with my brake lever, but I did fall to the ground! And I do have a bruise from it! And the Comcast dude was freaked out!

And then I cursed everyone in Georgetown for sucking, because everyone in Georgetown sucks.

EXCEPT JAVIER AT THE MAC STORE.

Because he helped me learn how to install a hard drive! He was all "No no, don't do it here, it'll cost you so much, let me write down everything you need to know and then go to Best Buy and get the stuff." So, I bought Snow Leopard for $30, and then went to Best Buy in Tenley and bought a 320 gig hard drive for $60, and ALSO 2 gigs of RAM for $80. Because of math, I spent $170, but if I hadn't done the RAM it would have been $90, which is awesomer than the $250 at the store, which only would have been a 160 gig hard drive and no RAM upgrade! And then I went home and did it myself, with a quick pause for a trip to ACE to buy a tiny Torx screwdriver. I was kind of freaked out and my hands were shaking but I did it with all the tiny screws and everything. Then I just reformatted and installed Snow Leopard and then I took an old copy of Microsoft Office 2004 from BB's family, and now MY COMPUTER IS AWESOME.

The one thing I am sad about as a result of doing it myself is that I was looking forward to the Mac store cleaning my computer, which they always do no matter what problem they are fixing. Now I have a dirty but fast computer, for cheap! So I am not really sad.

Also while I was at the bike shop I ordered toe clips, and then while I was at Best Buy I bought Serenity, Fever Pitch, and Whip It, and then while I was at the hardware store I bought that torx screwdriver and shower cleaner, so I did end up spending a bunch of money today, but it wasn't all in the direction I thought I would spend it when I woke up this morning!

Oh also I did all these things while wearing my Old 97s shirt, so I HAVE SO MUCH CRED LOOK GUYS AT ALL OF IT

ALSO IT IS ALMOST SHARK WEEK

SHAAAARK WEEEEEEK

28 July 2010

Sea to shining sea each year

The other day I went on one of the most frustrating journeys of my life (biking to Georgetown at any time on a weekday is never worth doing again) to find out that I need a new hard drive in my laptop. So, that is a thing I'm doing tomorrow, so that I can trade $250 for 160 gigs.

Next to me on the counter is a shopping list that says:
Keg
Grill
Eli. parts
Roofer
order cleats

Partially because I need to pay for things like emergency hard drives all the time, partially because I've been freaking out about student loans (what do you mean my balance has gone from $13k to $16k?!), I am taking lots of extra hours of work. I skipped ballet tonight for the baby named Dave Jr. (he looks like a tiny version of my friend Dave). Tomorrow I skip enjoying the pleasant evening for the baby who shall be known only as BB. This sometimes stands for "Baby Beibz," because with his current hair situation he kind of looks like Justin Bieber, but mostly it stands for "Blorfy Baby," because his favorite pasttime is blorfing ALL OVER ME. All the time. Dave Jr. is a pretty pleasant baby, he's 18 months and the worst thing he does is refuse to sit down in the bath. BB is adorable and all that, but he's 9 months, weighs 28 pounds, has the aforementioned blorfing problem, and is really fussy, which is only exacerbated by the fact that his mom works from home and naturally comes every time he screams for longer than 30 seconds. It is fine! It is just hard work. what?! I have to work for my moneys?!?

Nothing is new and I am dying for something new!

20 July 2010

And this is what we wanted, a place to settle down

It turns out that the bar next to the bike shop has an excellent happy hour, and if you sit outside and drink a gin & tonic while waiting to meet a high school friend for dinner, one of the bike shop dudes might recognize you and tell you that you should come to the shop for a beer.

Speaking of bike,


There you can see also my rad polkadotted helmet, and my new 24 oz. insulated water bottle that was on sale, and also my shiny new stem that makes me feel like I am sitting upright when I ride, even though if you look at my bike, you will see that I am still nowhere near upright, especially because I ride in the drops most of the time (better brake control with my tiny hands, necessary for city riding... you can see the dirty spot where my hand goes, yuck). Also, there is Sawyer. She has her eyes closed but she is modeling her fabulousness all the same.

Also, I love Natalie.

Happy Tuesday?

Some interesting use of second person in this post today!

18 July 2010

Matt Lauer was shaking his head

Sometimes I forget how great Girlyman is, and then I smack myself in the head for wasting time listening to other, lesser music.

I am a border collie when it comes to listening to music. I listen to one artist / band over and over until I get sick of them, and then I go to another artist, and listen to that over and over, etc. This happens with Neko Case, the New Pornographers, Girlyman, Rhett Miller, the Old 97s, Michael Jackson, Glee, Chuckanut Drive, and sometimes Dar Williams too. (Side note, you should listen to all of these things, except Glee, omg Gleeeee it's so bad) Right now I'm taking a break from the NPs to have this song infiltrate my brain, or rather to listen to that song repeatedly and wonder how Girlyman infiltrated my brain. Also, that whole album.

OH ALSO one of the other ones that I cycle through is Lady Gaga. of course.

Anyway the point is I am not very good at mixing things up.

Um so yeah, this is an example of me trying to get any work done at all at the Eastern Market Starbucks and FAILING MISERABLY. it's so cold here and there is just so much free internet and so many amusing bougie white girls to watch and did you know that a dirty chai frap tastes just like gingerbread??

there is a girl here in a pink and white striped boatneck 3/4 length sleeved shirt, and also snakeskin gladiator sandals, and also high-waisted shorts that are navy blue with tan diamonds on them, and her pink shirt is tucked into her shorts, which is a thing I don't understand. It is maybe one of the weirdest fashion choices I have ever seen. Power to her for wearing sleeves in 8109283 degrees Celsius. Amusing white girls.

It is too hot to get work done at home, and everywhere else is too air-conditioned.

A roommate and I went on a bike ride yesterday and it was like 15 miles (or, at least, over 10, and I am rounding up because it was so hot) and I got a new stem on my bike, and it is so great and I never want to get off my bike but my butt hurts from riding and also I need a little bit of a break from being drenched in sweat.

Today is Stellina's birthday! She is two now. Later I will write about our trip to the bike shop last week, which was super fun and great.

THIS HAS BEEN A SUPER INFORMATIVE AND INTERESTING POST THANKS FOR READING GUYS

14 July 2010

West Virginia to the north

People who are my sister will now be attacked by this image for a third time (first email, second Bookface), but it is too amazing to not share a lot:


Today was rainy, so Stellina and I couldn't go outside really, we have been having crazy crazy thunderstorms, so she attacked my bag, and put on my extra shirt (NatsTown) and socks (argyle), and then my shoes and bike helmet, and went through my wallet and dragged around my Timbuk2 a bit and generally impersonated me. The shirt is a unisex medium, so, huge on me, extra ginormous on her. The bottom of it dragged on the ground and the sleeves covered her hands all the way before I rolled them up a bit.

She turns 2 on Sunday. Already if you ask her how old she is, she says "Do! Do!" which seems to be the only number she knows. I got her a couple of books, one called Baby Giggles (the kid is absolutely obsessed with babies), and then Maisy Goes to Preschool (Stellina will be starting preschool in the fall, and I will miss her but I don't want her to be scared), and also Elmo's ABC Book (if you thought she loved babies, she loves Elmo even more, and also she will need to learn the alphabet soon).

Another really important thing that happened today was that I bought my plane ticket to go home for a bit in September. Now I need to make a comprehensive list of all the things I want to do in Portland and Seattle! It will come up very very quickly I know, and I am so excited but also I will be sad to be gone from here for so long. I will miss my cats and my bike and my kids and my city. Mid-September is a great time of year in DC.

I am having a problem with my bike. When I get on it I do not want to get off. I don't care where I go, I just want to ride around and look at stuff and get totally lost and just spend time going fast or going slow and swerving to avoid potholes and stopping at stop signs and running red lights (of course when it is safe to do so) and getting angry when people drive or park or walk in the bike lane, which I learned some things about today. I guess my bike continues to be an extended metaphor for my current place in life, though I don't think that metaphor is the correct literary device, please help.

The day before yesterday my roommate and I converted his bike to a single-speed after his rear derailleur broke to unfixable proportions (that is not a fixie pun, his bike is not a fixie), and then we decided to ride to Screen on the Green, which was much more fun than I expected it to be. Both the ride and the movie. Halfway through the sky opened up and it started to flood, complete with lightning right on top of us. Roommate was terrified of the lightning so he dropped his keys and phone and wallet in the middle of the ground and then just kind of ran in a circle and then just stood there looking sad and confused. Then we decided we probably weren't going to die and so we danced in the sheets of rain until it stopped and we were soaked all the way.

And so, we rode home on the wet streets, which were nearly empty in the dark, and we went up a huge long hill at the Capitol, and roommate's bike doesn't have gears, and I can't change gears yet because I have to have two hands on the handlebars or I will die (my shifters are on my frame, not handlebars), so we sang Livin' On A Prayer at the top of our lungs to get to the top of the hill. The Hill, I guess. The view of the Capitol as we rode east on Constitution was breathtaking, or maybe it was just that I had just ridden up a crazy crazy hill without being able to downshift.

Then when we got home we got fried chicken and mac & cheese and ate it sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor.

10 July 2010

A Ginger in a Red Sox Onesie

I read a lot of Kate Beaton's comics yesterday from her Twitter, (also you should read Hark A Vagrant if you do not already go and read every single one right now it is worth all the hours) (this one is one of my most favorites ever) so then I remembered that I had wanted to do hourly comics so today I am doing hourlies and maybe I'll do them tomorrow too because even though my life is boring, picking out one thing every hour to put down makes me feel kind of important, in a boring and insignificant kind of way.

Then I remembered that I am bad at drawing and so a lot of my comics today are made only of words. except the really profound drawing of me waking up in the morning with crazy morning hair and crazy angry morning eyes.

I went to get my bike at the shop today, Future Bike Shop Husband called me last night and said that the wrong stem came from the supplier place (sidenote: I hope FBSH was right about the stem business, I forgot to tell him that even though I am 5'6" all my length is in my torso. Longtorso is loooong) and I should pick my bike up and then come back later when it will be in for real. So then I did, and then I rode my bike up 8th Street from Barracks Row to my house, and I learned a thing. The thing that I learned is to not ride on 8th Street.

Today is Captain Bananio's birthday. He is two! Happy birthday little guy.

EDIT: Kate Beaton just yelled at the people for calling their comics boring and sucky. MY HOURLIES ARE SUPER INTERESTING AND AWESOME GUYS.

09 July 2010

Pulled by my name

When it is time to catch up with old friends, the things that we talk about start with "what are you doing now," and right after that comes "what are you doing next." It is never "what are some of the things that you have been doing in the 3 weeks / 6 months / 17 months / 4 years since I talked to you last." It is also never "if you could do it all again, would you."

It is also never "do I still matter to you like I did when we were growing up together."

07 July 2010

A Few Things That Are True.

Prince Phillip is now five. As we were coloring yesterday and I was listening to him ramble on and on about something that only a five-year-old would think of, I asked him if he'd ever heard of Axe Cop.

Prince Phillip: Axe Cop? Who is Axe Cop?
Me: You don't know Axe Cop?
PP: Nooooo who is Axe Cop?
Me: *recounts first episode of Axe Cop*
PP: But that's made up, right? Axe Cop's not real.
Me: I don't know, what do you think?
PP: Dinosaurs died a long time ago, Axe Cop couldn't fight them with any kind of weapon. They died in a big snow.
Me: But Axe Cop can fight anyone who is a bad guy.
PP: Only police can fight bad guys.
Me: Axe Cop is police. That's what "cop" means, it's another word for police. And police are good guys, right? They fight bad guys. And Axe Cop is the best at fighting bad guys, he fights them all the time and he never sleeps.
PP: Yeah. but Axe Cop isn't real.

I am guessing I will not be getting the plot for a guest Axe Cop strip out of this five-year-old.

this site just told me that DC is 95 degrees Celsius, or 203 degrees Fahrenheit. Also tells me that DC is like Yavin 4, which I am not sure I agree with, because it is not really that humid. It is totally 203 degrees though.

I don't update as often as I'd like anymore, partially due to the increasing amount of uninteresting things that happen to me. Every time I want to write an update, I can never think of anything really worth sharing.

I could write about fighting with Captain Bananio both yesterday and today about how even though he is almost two (!!!?! when did he get so big), he still needs to nap in the afternoon, and it is less than ideal to wait for a complete and utter meltdown at 5pm so that he can then fall asleep on my shoulder as soon as I pick up the boneless screaming blob from the floor.

I could write about begging Prince Phillip to watch Sleeping Beauty so that I could try to get CB to sleep, and reminding him that this time last year it was his favorite movie in the world. He was utterly uninterested and wanted to watch Diego Saves Christmas, but really he just wanted to cut up his Highlights Magazine with scissors. He also wanted to spell my name over and over on the Magnadoodle which we both thought was pretty great. He has learned a lot of stuff at school. SCHOOL!

I could write about the little girl that approached as I was clipping CB into his stroller today to go get PP at "camp" (it's really summer school, but shhh). She immediately asked, "What are you doing?"
To which I replied, "What are you doing?"
"No what are YOU doing?"
"Well, what are you doing?"
"Nooo, what are YOU doing?"
"I don't know, what does it look like I'm doing?"
"Clipping him into his stroller and putting his hat on." At this point her lady caretaker/mama caught up and said to me, "Wow, you know how to answer that question!"

Yes. I work with kids.

And holy mayonnaise, do they grow up quickly.

02 July 2010

A post just for Maeg

I rode my bike today. I went to work and I went to the bike shop and I went home.

Also I did not die but I broke lots of traffic laws I am sure.

I would like Tommy Wells to work on fixing the roads, especially right around Lincoln Park. Thanks for our overhead wires, though, Tommy!

26 June 2010

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.

24 June 2010

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)

22 June 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:

21 June 2010

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.

19 June 2010

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!

17 June 2010

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.

16 June 2010

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?

15 June 2010

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!

10 June 2010

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.

08 June 2010

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.

07 June 2010

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.

06 June 2010

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.

19 May 2010

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.

18 May 2010

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."

17 May 2010

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.

16 May 2010

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.

15 May 2010

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.

11 May 2010

Nothin' not to love

I'm graduated, yay.