Today's Random MTV Musings

Didn’t see the whole Video Music Awards, but I am in awe of Shakira’s belly control skills. Maybe I should take up belly dancing? That seems to be the in thing now. Also, I think My Chemical Romance should have gotten at least one award. I had never heard of the band before I saw the “Helena” video a few months ago, and my eyes are always glued to the screen when it comes on. Yes, it’s over-the-top emotional, but it is well done. And I even kind of like the song . . . at least it is not the usual jiggling tarts that are showcased in every rap video . . .

I am now hooked on Laguna Beach. Isn’t that really sad? By the way, did you know that Orange County is, like, 40% Latino and 30% Asian . . . and yet you see none of either ethnic group on the show – what’s up with that? Also, these people don’t seem to go to any classes and have very little parental supervision. They are not poor. One girl last night said that for Valentine’s Day she bought $100 worth of candles and stuff. I remember when I was her age, it was a hassle just to pry $10 from my father . . .

I refuse to watch anymore My Super Sweet 16, because the people are just too . . . too. My parents would have killed me, or knocked me into next week, if I ever spoke to them the way these kids do. And the entitlement these kids feel! Oy!

Am I becoming a cranky old lady? I’m only 34 and I’m ranting about “kids these days” . . .

Rockin' Top Songs Meme

First: Comment to Virginia Gal – Nope, can’t afford a Burberry scarf . . . my dad had a scarf with a similar pattern for years, which I co-opted several years ago. The plaid colors are the same though. . .

Second . . .

The rules: go over to Music Outfitters (http://www.musicoutfitters.com/resources.htm)
to find the list of the top 100 songs from the year you graduated from high school. Bold the ones you like(d), strikeout the ones you don't. The ones you've never heard of or can't remember anything about, leave alone. If you don’t have a blog, just throw the stuff in my comments – I trust you.

Now, I didn’t follow the rules . . . I bolded all of the songs that I associate with happy memories – whether it was dancing around in my room, or happy social moments and fun associations. It doesn’t mean that the song was any good, but it means that just thinking about the circumstances around the song brings a happy glow to my heart.

Bonus points if I can still sing some of the words . . . which I can do with most of them. Yes, I was totally into the Top 40 pop & R&B in those days . . . so sue me!

So without further ado, the top 100 songs of . . . 1987!

1. Walk Like An Egyptian, Bangles
2. Alone, Heart
3. Shake You Down, Gregory Abbott
4. I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me), Whitney Houston (Was never really a fan)
5. Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now, Starship
6. C'est La Vie, Robbie Nevil
7. Here I Go Again, Whitesnake (Gotta love the video - a hairband classic!)
8. The Way It Is, Bruce Hornsby and the Range (Was a resident of the town where I want to college and I actually saw him a few times . . . not met, but saw)
9. Shakedown, Bob Seger
10. Livin' On A Prayer, Bon Jovi (Can't diss Bon Jovi!)
11. La Bamba, Los Lobos
12. Everybody Have Fun Tonight, Wang Chung
13. Don't Dream It's Over, Crowded House
14. Always, Atlantic Starr
15. With Or Without You, U2
16. Looking For A New Love, Jody Watley
17. Head To Toe, Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam
18. I Think We're Alone Now, Tiffany
19. Mony Mony, Billy Idol
20. At This Moment, Billy Vera and The Beaters (Remember the connection to Family Ties?)
21. Lady In Red, Chris De Burgh
22. Didn't We Almost Have It All, Whitney Houston
23. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, U2
24. I Want Your Sex, George Michael
25. Notorious, Duran Duran
26. Only In My Dreams, Debbie Gibson
27. (I've Had) The Time Of My Life, Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes (Dirty Dancing! Movie of all time!)
28. The Next Time I Fall, Peter Cetera and Amy Grant (I admit it . . . I loved Peter Cetera. Yes, that's sad . . .)
29. Lean On Me, Club Nouveau
30. Open Your Heart, Madonna
31. Lost In Emotion, Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam
32. (I Just) Died In Your Arms, Cutting Crew
33. Heart And Soul, T'pau
34. You Keep Me Hangin' On, Kim Wilde
35. Keep Your Hands To Yourself, Georgia Satellites (This was/is the most simple rockin' song to me . . .)
36. I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me), Aretha Franklin and George Michael
37. Control, Janet Jackson
38. Somewhere Out There, Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram (I got so sick of this song)
39. U Got The Look, Prince
40. Land Of Confusion, Genesis
41. Jacob's Ladder, Huey Lewis and The News
42. Who's That Girl, Madonna
43. You Got It All, Jets
44. Touch Me (I Want Your Body), Samantha Fox (Cheesy as heck, but fun!)
45. I Just Can't Stop Loving You, Michael Jackson and Siedah Garrett
46. Causing A Commotion, Madonna
47. In Too Deep, Genesis
48. Let's Wait Awhile, Janet Jackson
49. Hip To Be Square, Huey Lewis and the News
50. Will You Still Love Me?, Chicago
51. Little Lies, Fleetwood Mac
52. Luka, Suzanne Vega
53. I Heard A Rumour, Bananarama
54. Don't Mean Nothing, Richard Marx (One of the girls in my college dorm l*o*v*e*d this guy . . . posters everywhere, fan club membership, the works!)
55. Songbird, Kenny G
56. Carrie, Europe
57. Don't Disturb This Groove, System
58. La Isla Bonita, Madonna
59. Bad, Michael Jackson (Although, I enjoyed the Weird Al version, Fat, much better)
60. Sign 'O' The Times, Prince (Not his best work . . .)
61. Change Of Heart, Cyndi Lauper
62. Come Go With Me, Expose (Remember, I think they guested on an episode of Facts of Life . . . I can't remember if young George Clooney was in that episode or not . . .)
63. Can't We Try, Dan Hill (A local radio station would play this song until make people call up and answer a trivia question correctly to make it stop . . . it was amusing, you had to be there.)
64. To Be A Lover, Billy Idol
65. Mandolin Rain, Bruce Hornsby and the Range
66. Breakout, Swing Out Sister (They were actually a pretty good band, I got a couple of their albums)
67. Stand By Me, Ben E. King
68. Tonight, Tonight, Tonight, Genesis
69. Someday, Glass Tiger
70. When Smokey Sings, ABC
71. Casanova, Levert
72. Rhythm Is Gonna Get You, Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine
73. Rock Steady, Whispers
74. Wanted Dead Or Alive, Bon Jovi
75. Big Time, Peter Gabriel
76. The Finer Things, Steve Winwood
77. Let Me Be The One, Expose
78. Is This Love, Survivor
79. Diamonds, Herb Alpert
80. Point Of No Return, Expose
81. Big Love, Fleetwood Mac
82. Midnight Blue, Lou Gramm
83. Something So Strong, Crowded House
84. Heat Of The Night, Bryan Adams
85. Nothing's Gonna Change My Love For You, Glenn Medeiros
86. Brilliant Disguise, Bruce Springsteen
87. Just To See Her, Smokey Robinson
88. Who Will You Run Too, Heart
89. Respect Yourself, Bruce Willis
90. Cross My Broken Heart, Jets
91. Victory, Kool and The Gang
92. Don't Get Me Wrong, Pretenders (My first exposure to them, became a fan.)
93. Doing It All For My Baby, Huey Lewis and The News
94. Right On Track, Breakfast Club
95. Ballerina Girl, Lionel Richie
96. Meet Me Half Way, Kenny Loggins (Top Gun-related!)
97. I've Been In Love Before, Cutting Crew
98. (You Gotta) Fight For Your Right To Party, Beastie Boys (Song all the rage the last few months of Senior year in high school . . .)
99. Funkytown, Pseudo Echo
100. Love You Down, Ready For The World

I hearby tag . . . whoever wants to do this. :-)

Thoughts about the Big Easy

I just posted on Justrose’s blog some of my thoughts about New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina.

Now, New Orleans is nice place that I found to be excellent for taking photographs because there is just so much going on in the French Quarter, that just begged to be captured. It is a very poor city, though. You can see it and feel it when you are there. My thoughts are totally with the people down there right now . . . I can’t even fully wrap my head around the losses and the damage.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/30/AR2005083000148.html

I do hope to be able to show you my pictures . . . I still have to scan them in sometime soon.

This is Your Humble Blogger . . .

Yup, this is pretty much what I look like . . . down to the hat and scarf. (As in, I have a scarf exactly like that and I would kill for the hat . . . I love hats!)

See, new things are afoot on the blog . . . hopefully, I'll have time to make a few more changes.

Random Vacation Thoughts: Part 2 - It Gets Better

The Portland Area: We spent a week at Mr. Random’s Grandma’s house, the mother of Mom Random.

We have not seen Grandma Random in almost 7 years, since our wedding. However, we do send many cards and letters and gifts back and forth over the course of all of the years, so it’s not like we don’t keep in touch. I adore Grandma Random, and she adores me. And the fact that she adores me, well, really touches me, because before I met her I was really scared to meet her. I was scared to meet her because her family told me that she was really conservative, being brought up in rural areas and stuff, and really religious and the kind of lady who believes all of that black helicopters & militia kind of stuff. Being an African American female walking into this little white haired lady’s den freaked me out. But the first thing she did when she saw me 8 years ago? Gave me the biggest hug. Accepted me with open arms. And I learned to never try to ever judge a book by its cover again.

She was so happy to see us that Saturday evening when the train came in. Very tired, but beaming. She will turn 90 years old in January, and she has a lot of trouble getting up and walking due to pains and injuries she’s had since she was a little girl. The whole week we were there, she pushed herself to stay awake a little longer and do stuff with us. We tried to let her know that we were happy just to sit in the living room and watch TV with her, but she wanted to be active with us. Mr. Random and I made her dinner on Tuesday night – a simple herb salad in a bag, with some gorgonzola cheese and little cherry tomatoes, along with some cheesy breadsticks and one of my fave easy recipes, tortellini soup. She loved the salad and bread and had seconds, and liked the soup, but she had filled up on the other stuff and couldn’t eat much of it. Grandma was very pleased to not have another microwave dinner and to have someone make something for her. Yay!

Grandma Random lives alone in a cute little ranch house, around the corner from Aunt and Uncle Random, so they can check in on her and run errands for her. She has an awesome garden in the back yard with all types of flowers and pots of roses. We helped her out a bit and did some staking of flowers and Mr. Random cleaned out her birdbath and put fresh water inside. She loves to identify the birds in her yard, and they hadn’t been coming around for a while, but after the birdbath was cleaned out, the birds started showing up again.

One day, we went out to one of the Random cousin’s houses – she rents a house in a rural area by a river and keeps chickens in her yard . . . so I spent an afternoon feeding the chickens! (I have to post the picture for that – little old city girl, me!, feeding chickens.) They were cool though – came right up to me and pecked them right out of my hand. Later on, her friend, who is the caretaker to an estate, took us by the estate and gave us a tour of the grounds. So beautiful! And the estate has a place where they are growing vegetables, and so there are pictures of me holding huge stalks of rhubarb. We also picked some snap peas and cucumbers to take home to Grandma Random. To end the day, we had some homemade zucchini cake, which was just heavenly.

One day, we just sat at home and looked at old family pictures. Grandma Random actually has the photo albums very well captioned and pointed out the many cousins and aunts and uncles that even Mr. Random didn’t know much about. The last night we were there, she took us to dinner at a restaurant by the river which was one of her favorites.

The day we left, she made sure she took lots of pictures of us, and we all cried as she hugged us goodbye. She said she thought it might be the last time she saw us . . . Awwww! I promised her that it wasn’t, and during our train trip back Mr. Random and I promised that we would surprise her and fly back to Portland for her 90th birthday.

So, you can tell by all of this that this leg of the trip was a much better experience than the week before.

Train Portland to Chicago: We went through Washington and Idaho and Montana and North Dakota and Minnesota and Wisconsin to Illinois. I had never been through those states before, and watching the landscape go from mountains to trees to flat prairie always fascinates me. I was most excited going through Minneapolis-St. Paul because it looked like an actual city! Which made me excited because we were getting closer to home! We were so tired on this leg of the trip, we just slept most of the time or stared out of the window. So much had gone on, we just needed time to process it and try to decompress.

Train Chicago to DC: We were so tired of trains at this point . . . I just wanted to be home! Sleep in my own bed. Pet my own cat. Sit on my own couch. Got into DC at 12:30 on Monday afternoon, took a cab home and here we are. The much anticipated trip was over, thank goodness.

So . . . the trip was a mixed bag. But I am so glad we went to Portland, so glad we made Grandma Random so happy, and so all the stress and drama and aggravation was all worth it.

I just wish it had been an ACTUAL vacation. I could really use one now.

Random Vacation Thoughts: Part 1

I was trying to write some sort of huge 5 part posting talking about our whole trip across the U.S. and back, but have come to realize that if I go about it that way, it will NEVER, EVER be either completely written or posted . . . it will just sit inside my head and reside on bits of paper in fragments.

So without further ado, here are my random thoughts about our Random vacation:

I read the departure time on our ticket out of D.C. wrong, thinking that were leaving an hour later than we were supposed to. Luckily, I looked at the ticket again the night before and realized my error (I had mixed up the time with another departure ticket for later in the trip) but it still threw a huge monkey wrench into our schedule for the next day.

I hadn’t finished my newsletter for work until the morning of the trip. I was going to stay up all night and finish it, but I didn’t start packing until kind of late Wednesday night and then I was too tired and incoherent to do anything else. So I got up early on Thursday, buckled down and send it out to be edited . . . all before 10 AM.

J, our house-sitter, came over Wednesday night too, just so that we could get him settled in and answer any questions . . . and also so the Random Cat could get used to him with us still there. We ordered Pizza and watched lots of Comedy Central and Cartoon Network until midnight . . . when I started packing. Yes, that was bad, but we were having a grand old time . . .

Had to go to a going away lunch for our interns on Thursday, just a couple of hours before the cab was supposed to pick us up to go to Union Station. We showed up in shorts and sandals, looking pretty out of character for a work day, but the lunch was fun and our interns certainly were stars this summer, so I really wanted to be there.

We got home just in time to put the bags out and make sure we didn’t forget anything. Mr. Random still managed to forget his shampoo on the living room table, but otherwise, things went smoothly, although we felt really rushed and frantic.

Train to Chicago: Uneventful, but I was so tired I slept a lot. Got there Friday afternoon. We had a “layover” before the train to L.A., so we were walking around downtown Chicago and I was taking lots of photos with my B&W camera. Mr. Random forgot the digital camera in his bag at the station, for which I gave him heck because I wanted to take a ton of shots in color. I think I love Chicago . . . it has a great city vibe, without the ego and self-pretension of DC. We saw a café that just sells cereal all day. That’s right . . . nothing but cereal and related stuff. We didn’t go in, but I took pics of the outside because I thought the idea was so cool. When we got home this week, I found out they are a chain . . . wouldn’t mind seeing one here! Otherwise we just walked along the river and looked around at the buildings. There was even a lunchtime street festival with a band and everything. Very awesome!

Train to LA: Uneventful and got in on time. We’ve done this before so nothing to remarkable to report. However, one of the servers in the dining car remembered us from our trip two years ago. How random is that! Also, we were on the train with about 150 kids who were in a youth dance troupe who were on their way to Disneyland to perform. Had lunch with two of the chaperoning parents who were from the Norfolk area. Small world! Also, there were about 80 Boy Scouts on the train, on their way to go hiking in New Mexico. I’m so glad we were in the sleeper car . . . it would have been hell in Coach – trying to get some sleep with 200 middle-high school aged kids joking around, being kids. They were pretty well behaved otherwise though . . . it was the kids who weren’t with any group and who were being “watched” by their own parents who seemed to be acting the holy terrors.

Into The Glass Menagerie: Week at the home of Mr. Random’s Mom and Sister. Did you all read the Tennessee Williams play, The Glass Menagerie? or see the movie? Imagine if Tom, the brother, got married and brought his wife home to that situation. And I’m the wife. It was horrible, and Mr. Random felt horrible because it was horrible, and I felt horrible because it was horrible, but I tried to keep Mr. Random’s spirits up and remind him that there was a reason that he moved across the country and isn’t he doing fine now? The less said about this the better. However, I did get a lot of running done that week, because we really needed to get out of the house every day, and that was as good an excuse as any.

Train LA to Portland: Hell continues. Mom Random comes along with us on the train to Portland since she’s never done a sleeper car before and wants to experience it. She was going to share a room with Sister Random, but Sister Random backs out at the last minute, for reasons wrapped up in the whole Glass Menagerie scenario above that I don’t want to get into. The train is supposed to leave at 10:15 AM on Friday. Mom Random calls a shuttle which comes to pick us up at 5:45 AM – you know, because we will be hitting the hellacious commuter traffic to LA and we want to make sure we get to the train station in time. Well, of course, miracle! There is NO traffic and we get to the train station at 7 AM. Three whole hours to kill. Mr. Random is lousy at waiting anyway, but with his mom there, who also is spastic and can’t sit still, they both go into high fidgits. I’m just trying to be Zen and sit quietly at the station, drinking my iced mocha and reading my book, but nooooo – the other two are up-down-up-down-fidget-fidget-rustle newspaper-up-down the WHOLE time . . . until 10 AM, when we see that our train is going to be delayed. This freaks out Random Mom who is antsy to get going, because we have to be in Portland at a certain time tomorrow because folks are having a cookout for us that night, blah, blah, blah.

First of all, you don’t take the train if you want split second accuracy. Trains always get delayed due to the primacy of freight train traffic on the tracks, so you have to be kind of flexible about when you’ll get in. Secondly, on this route they specifically say on the tickets and when you buy the tickets that there is work being on the tracks, so trains are usually substantially delayed this summer. So you shouldn’t schedule anything around the arrival time and just go with the flow . . . we’re on VACATION, darn it!

But Mom Random has waited long enough and is now complaining to everyone about how crappy the trains are and how we’re going to be late and now we have to call Random Aunt and Uncle and tell them we’re going to be late and ruin their cookout and blah, blah. Hey, it’s not my fault we got here 3 hours early – chill out! So, it becomes 12 noon and the train isn’t there yet and Mom Random is still freaking and bringing Mr. Random with her. I suggest that they both go take a walk outside and have a nice lunch and leave me with the bags to read my book in peace. (Because they were both getting on my bloody nerves!) But no, she wouldn’t hear of it, and so we went to lunch in the station at a pretty nice restaurant (if way pricey), where she continued to complain. Mr. Random knew that I was on my last nerves and tried to keep me calm while at the same time trying to humor his mom.

So the train is finally ready at 1 PM. We hustle and hop on. Me and Mr. Random have a sleeper room in one car and Mom Random is in the other. Mr. Random goes back and forth to check on his mom. The train route is beautiful . . . it goes up the Pacific coast along the ocean though San Luis Obispo and then it goes inland through some lovely mountain areas. Such gorgeous views! Unfortunately, it was very foggy and overcast over the ocean, but still beautiful just the same. (Pictures will be forthcoming.) Mom Random gets out at all of the smoking stops (because smoking is not allowed on the train and she smokes, like, 2 packs a day. Despite her killer cough. And the fact she has been to the emergency room twice in the past month, including the first night we were at her house. But I digress . . .) We arrive in Portland seven hours late. More complaints commence.

I really felt bad for Mr. Random on this trip . . . It was very hard for him to deal with all of this stuff coming at him at once . . . and also stuff that’s been festering for a while. I was really hoping that time at his grandmother’s would go much better than the first part of the trip . . . it just HAD too, for both our sakes.

To be continued . . .

It's Coming, I Swear . . .

The saga of the trip is coming . . . just plowed under by actual work to do.

I also have to figure out how to get my pictures and other goodies up here in a pleasing manner.

In the meanwhile, how has everyone's August been?

Hitting the Fan

Mr. Random and I returned to work at the Random Non-Profit today, looking forward to easing back into the workaday life . . . you know, read some e-mails, open some letters, take it slow. Little did I know how much manure would hit the fan today . . . otherwise I would have stayed in bed and taken another day off.

So I walk in and read my e-mails and find out that nothing that was supposed to happen while we were away actually happened. Things that were supposed to go out didn’t, things that were still in limbo, are still in limbo. We’ve been gone since August 4th, for crying out loud! What the heck did people do these past two weeks? Things have been passed on to me with very little exposition, and the people who sent them to me are gone on vacation until Labor Day.

Also, our uber-boss was fired yesterday. The CEO has been going around all day telling people not to freak out, everything is OK, no one else is getting laid off. So, of course, everyone IS freaked out.

I really try not to complain about work here, but I can’t write anything else until I get this off of my chest. WHEW! . . . Now I feel better. Back to being positive . . .

. . . Well, maybe not. That’s right – I still have to talk about the trip!

Hello? Anyone there?

Greetings, Faithful readers! (if you are still there . . .)

We are back from the long awaited vacation and it was . . . ina a word . . . horrible, with flashes of decent.

Full accounting when I get the chance . . . hopefully tomorrow.

I missed you all! I missed e-mail! I missed . . . real, decent newspapers with actual news!

I have pics, too! We finally did get the digital camera, and I hope to get some choice files up before the week's end.

Kisses of joy and relief to all!

Always Feeling Fresh

Two posts in one day! It's rather rare, but I just saw this in my e-mail and I felt compelled to share . . .

In the “Only in the Advertising World” category, I was reading the NYT’s “In Advertising” e-Newsletter, and was rather amused by today’s Stuart Elliott article.

I’ll be loving you, Always?
A new campaign for a leading brand of feminine-hygiene products breaks ground in the category by unabashedly urging women to celebrate that time of the month. The unique approach of the campaign, for the Always brand of sanitary pads sold by Procter & Gamble, is typified by its frank theme, "Have a happy period." The campaign takes a warm, upbeat, comforting tone, with a just-between-us-girls kind of voice as typified by some of the headlines: "Queen for a week," "Take a cab home" and "The cookies in your desk aren't going to eat themselves."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/01/business/media/01inads_column.html?8seia&emc=seia

I do hope the link works, because there is an actual whole WEBSITE attached to this entire campaign. I may just have a sick sense of humor, but this was just too odd to let pass by . . .

Counting the Hours

Another busy weekend at the Random household . . .

Saturday morning, did 50 minutes of running – it went really well except that it was pretty muggy, even at 8:30 in the morning. I just walked in, checked my name off the list and went on a nice, steady-paced run. I was done at the exact same time that the speakers for the day were finished and I was SO glad that I did not stay to listen, otherwise I wouldn’t have finished running until after 11:00 AM.

Later, Mr. Random and I had lunch with my friend, C, and her friend, P, who was visiting from Tampa. We went to the Quarterdeck restaurant in Rosslyn which is a total dive that’s been around forever – it is tucked in an out of the way corner of Rossyln that not many folks know about – but it cooks the best hard-shell crabs outside of the Eastern Shore. P grew up on the Eastern Shore and I was quite pleased when he said that they were the best crabs he ever tasted . . . and Shore natives can be quite picky about their crabs.

Then we went to get a digital camera, which I haven’t has a chance to play with yet, but Mr. Random has. While I was out yesterday, he spent this time reading the instruction book and playing with the camera . . . he took a 1 minute short film of our cat eating in the kitchen, and several pictures of his hand. Oooooo, how thrilling. We need to get a memory stick for the camera in the next couple of days or our camera’s internal memory will be filled by Friday, with my husband taking pictures of random objects and of the cat sitting in her Buddha poses, just because he can.

Sunday morning, went to church sans Mr. Random who was not into getting up so early, so I had to leave him behind. It was just me and the music director for a while, practicing the songs for the service, and I was in a panic because I did not want to be the only person singing up front. About 2 minutes before the service started, two other choir folks showed up so I wasn’t stuck doing solos.

Then I went to lunch with my friend, J, the guy who is going to house/cat-sit for us while we are away. His knee is getting better – he went to the doctor on Friday and got his knee drained, along with a cortisone shot, so he no longer needs to use crutches, but he still has a bit of a limp until it heals. He went with me to pick out the birthday present for the 2 year old’s birthday party I had to go to later. The parents gave us the parameters, “S likes stars moons, keys and alligators.” Do you know how hard it is to find stuffed alligators? Dragons, yes. Dinosaurs, yes. Frogs, yes. Alligators, . . . not one. There are not many books on stars or moons geared to two year olds, besides the ever present, Goodnight, Moon, which he already had a copy of. However, after much searching I did find a set of cards with constellations cut out of them that you can use with a flashlight to beam the constellations onto a darkened ceiling. I thought the set was so cool! Even though the age on the package said “age 6 and up,” I am sure the parents will get a hoot out of showing off the stars on the ceiling . . . I know that I would. I forgot to ask J about the blog . . . he’s the one that I hoped would post while I’m gone . . . but his schedule seems a bit hectic. We’ll see.

So after lunch, I drive like a madwoman home . . . or as best I can, going down Route 50 and Route 7 on a Sunday afternoon . . . those roads are always horrible. I pick up Mr. Random and we head to the birthday party, which at this point is almost over. This is a good thing because there were tons of little kids and their parents there, but very few people that we actually knew, besides the birthday boy and his parents and one other couple with their little1 year old boy. We caught each other up on what’s been going on in various folks lives. They did not know that our friend, L, moved to Australia and that my friend, D, was expecting a little girl next month. We did not know that our friend, S, and his wife, M, had moved to Williamsburg because M got a job at a college near there. We also didn’t know that our old friend, A, had become a stay at home mom – she had just gotten married to an older man who had a young son.

So we stay a good 45 minutes, rave over how big the birthday boy has gotten, chitchat a bit with the old friends, and then are given a piece of cake to take home. This was just enough time for us to feel like we made a presence, and not so long that we start to feel like weirdos for being the only ones there who don’t have any little kids to compare notes about.

We then went home and I promptly took an allergy pill and took an hour nap, because I was totally exhausted. Didn’t really fully wake up for the rest of the night either, but I did manage to eat a couple of bites of dinner and some peach ice cream that Mr. Random had just bought at the store.

. . . Now I’m back at work, not thinking of work, but thinking of all the packing I have to do, and all of the cleaning that needs to be done so that J doesn’t think that we live in a pig sty. The good thing about having people over often is that you have to pick up stuff around the house on a regular basis, so things don’t get too bad. Because my sister just stayed with us, the guest room is rather neat and inviting, so that’s not a worry. Just have to scrub down the bathroom and kitchen and get all of the random piles of junk mail and newspapers out of the living room and den. I also have to write down instructions for feeding the cat and changing the litter box.

How much clothing should one bring for 3 weeks? I’m not that good at planning my wardrobe ahead that far . . . I tend to think of what I’m going to wear the night before, and then change my mind again in the morning. I know that there will be washers and dryers available, so I can bring stuff for just a week and then do a major wash, but I’m not sure what I’m going to feel like wearing once I’m in CA. Skirts & Sandals? Shorts and sneakers? T-shirts? Capris? Nice shoes? Nice Pants? Arrrgh!

Well, a traveling mood needs a traveling poem, and I found one to end with for today:

Traveling Alone
Billy Collins

At the hotel coffee shop that morning,
the waitress was wearing a pink uniform
with "Florence" written in script over her heart.

And the man who checked my bag
had a badge that said "Ben."
Behind him was a long row of royal palms.

On the plane, two women poured drinks
from a cart they rolled down the narrow aisle —
"Debbie" and "Lynn" according to their winged tags.

And such was my company
as I arced from coast to coast,
and so I seldom spoke, and then only

of the coffee, the bag, the tiny bottles of vodka.
I said little more than "Thank you"
and "Can you take this from me, please?"

Yet I began to sense that all of them
were ready to open up,
to get to know me better, perhaps begin a friendship.

Florence looked irritated
as she shuffled from table to table,
but was she just hiding her need

to know about my early years —
the ball I would toss and catch in my hands
the times I hid behind my mother's dress?

And was I so wrong in catching in Ben's eyes
a glimmer of interest in my theories
and habits — my view of the Enlightenment,

my love of cards, the hours I tended to keep?
And what about Debbie and Lynn?
Did they not look eager to ask about my writing process,

my way of composing in the morning
by a window, which I would have admitted
if they had just had the courage to ask.

And strangely enough — I would have continued,
as they stopped pouring drinks
and the other passengers turned to listen —

the only emotion I ever feel, Debbie and Lynn,
is what the beaver must feel,
as he bears each stick to his hidden construction,

which creates the tranquil pond
and gives the mallards somewhere to paddle,
the pair of swans a place to conceal their young.


(BTW, Virginia Gal, the plan is to submit the passport stuff on Thursday morning, since our train doesn't leave until late afternoon.)

Peel Me a Grape

One good thing about blogging is that it forces you to write something pretty much on a daily basis, to keep things fresh and your readers reading . . .

One bad thing about blogging is that you have to keep writing something pretty much everyday, to keep things fresh and your readers reading.

I actually do think about this blog a bit - thinking of the wonderful links I should put up, topics I should write about, maybe even load up pictures and redesign it so that it looks better. Then my distracted mind flits on something else for a while . . .

I think about Virginia Gal, and bless her heart for being a regular reader. You rock! And I hope to get to meet you some day!

I am going away next week, starting on Thursday, and I'll be gone for several weeks on my much mentioned train trip to the west coast to visit with my husband's family. I don't know how much internet access I will have, so the Blog might lay silent until the 22nd.

This thought makes me rather sad. For while I have no idea in what direction this thing is going, I'd like it to keep moving somehow. I probably will be writing in a journal during the trip, but the results of that won't be seen for quite a while. I'm going to ask a friend of mine to guest blog while I'm gone, and I'll let you know if they take the bait. Cross your fingers!

Anyway, things are getting pretty busy in the neverending drama that is my life. My friend who was despairing of law school loans has finally been able to solve the problem and WILL be going back next month. YAY! My friend who hurt his knee is going to be catsitting for us while we are gone, and is looking forward to doing so. My husband's mom is A-OK for now, but we when we are out visiting her over the next few weeks, we may start nudging that she may want to move out here to be closer to us . . . for safety's sake, so we can be nearby if anything happens to her . . . and also so she can be near any possible grandchildren.

The final ESL class of the Summer semester was last night. There was much potluck food, and one of the students and a friend played Bolivian folk music through the dinner part. I gave out certificates to my students who came to 70% of the classes, which turned to be 10 out of my 11 students. The Program director said that I had the best retention for this semester, and that my students have progressed beautifully. Wow! I'm glad that things worked out this semester - I hope I can keep it up in the fall. The Program director gave each of the site's teachers a note and a small plant for our work . . . somehow I ended up with two, because one of the guy teachers didn't want his. It was also exciting because one of my students in my Spring class has now graduated from the program . . . which is awesome! I am trying to hold on to this wonderful sense of accomplishment that I felt last night . . . moments like that don't come along often.

To continue to end on a happy note, here's a song I've had stuck in my head today . . . imagine this Gershwin tune sung by Diana Krall, and you've got it:

The way you wear your hat
The way you sip your tea
The memory of all that
No, no they can't take that away from me
The way your smile just beams
The way you sing off key
The way you haunt my dreams
No, no they can't take that away from me . . .

Just Chugging Along

In today’s “What kind of crack are these people on?” moment – buried in today’s Business section of the Post, in a little paragraph on page 2, was this little bombshell:

Amtrak should eliminate first-class and dining services on its long-distance trains, a new Department of Transportation Inspector General report said.
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/26/AR2005072601952.html )

. . . You know, because, people riding a train for three days really don’t need to eat or have a place to sleep comfortably . . . I mean, really! Those are the main reasons that people go across the country on the train . . . in fact, if they took those things away, less people would ride the trains and bingo! Now they can finally accomplish their goal and get rid of the long distance service altogether.

Most of the folks that we met who ride the trains do so because they can’t fly, whether because of medical reasons, plain old fright, or because there isn’t an airport anywhere remotely near where they live. It is a lifeline to many little communities around this country, and on 9-11 everyone should have learned the value of having a redundant transportation system. People are such short-sighted fools, I swear.

It really burns my buttons when they discuss the expense and losses that the trains have, when we subsidize air and road transportation about 20 times as much. Grrrr . . .

Observed during our train trip two years ago: Did you know that lots of people have trampolines sitting in their backyards? And lots of kids are using them? Who knew? One of the coolest sights was going by on the train and looking out of the windows seeing groups of kids waving at us, some still jumping on the trampolines. We also notice lots over rusty appliances in yards too, or sitting in clumps in the middle of open fields near the train tracks. There’s a lot of just random junk strewn about the countryside that you see from the train – I guess people think of the land near train tracks as free landfill or something.

Oh! Other events from this weekend . . . within a 24 hour period, my husband’s mom went to the emergency room for dehydration, my friend, J, had to go to the hospital because his left knee collapsed, and my friend, L, who was having the law school loan problems is still in limbo – her new co-signer was denied. Lots of phone calls and worrying and emotions going on here to deal with . . .

Vacation time cannot come fast enough for me!

Watching the Detectives

The Harry Potter book has been finished. Too distracted to discuss right now, but would love to soon . . .

I hate having allergies. Where did this come from? I was never allergic to anything before – not when I lived in Philly, not in the wild deep suburbs of Northern VA – now I am just a mass of stuffy nose and wheezes. Ugh! I’d love to blame the condo, but I am all sneezy at work and outside too. I guess I must break down and go to the doctor and get some Allegra 180. My husband and I can then buy allergy pills in major bulk (like 20 gallon drums) and pop them from March to November.

Spotlight TV show: PBS’ History Detectives (http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/)
Today’s Washington Post Live Online Discussion about the show (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2005/07/21/DI2005072101724.html)

Didn’t get to see it last night, but this fine show is much enjoyed viewing at the Random household. When you are married to a history buff, a lot of his enthusiasm for the subject rubs off on you. (Because if it doesn’t, you wouldn’t have married the guy in the first place, because all of the random stories the guy likes to tell about the backstory of whatever random incident is going on at the time would drive . . . you . . . absolutely . . . insane.) The show’s premise is that people have these artifacts in their possession that have been passed down for generations with some story behind it (like, “This hat was worn by Custer in battle, and my great-great grandpa was right beside him and picked it up.”) and these historians actually go out and do the research and see if (a) the story is true and (b) the artifact IS actually related. You get to learn a lot about individual people’s stories and it emphasizes how history is just made up of regular folks who contribute to major events. History, when done well, is basically stories about interacting in interesting ways . . . which is why I love the show. Check it out at least once if you can.

I had to ask a totally wussy question of my running coach today – Saturday was the first day of the Ten Miler training program – but I am glad I did. You see, I am a very slow runner. I mean really, really slow. Yes, I could probably speed walk faster, but what would be the fun in that? Anyway, on Saturday, she divided us up into the different groups – 5K, 10K, 10 Milers, and half Marathon folks – and asked that we find buddies and run our weekly specified training run together. There were 3 other women in my group, and I was the only one who had run these particular trails before, so the coach wanted me to lead the women through the proper trail for the 40 minutes we had to run. So we start, but quickly the other three start peeling away from me – as in, not even within yelling distance. I just let them go, figuring, well they must know where they are going if they are going to zoom away like that. So I basically did my run alone, but it was OK because I was running into other women on the trail who were also running, so it wasn’t scary or anything. However, I felt pretty bad about it, because I was feeling like I was going to slow the group down, and Coach is adamant about always running with someone when on the trails. So I asked the Coach if I could just run by myself as soon as I get there, otherwise I’ll get discouraged and not want to come to training. Luckily, she said so long as I check in with her when I get there and check in with her before I leave for the day, I can go on my own. Yay! . . . But I initially felt really stupid admitting my slowness and insecurity to someone else, even though I’m sure she’s dealt with folks who felt like that in the past. I just need to get more comfortable with actually speaking up . . . I am so lousy at doing that in general.

Teaching my last class for the summer tonight – woo hoo! We will go out today with Don Henley’s Boys of Summer . . . Dedicated to my lovely husband, the California Dude himself . . .

I can see you
Your brown skin shining in the sun
I can see you walkin’ real slow
and smiling at everyone.
I can tell you
My love for you will still be strong
After the Boys of Summer have gone . . .

It's Been a Hard Day's Night

I had a crazy amount of work to catch up on today, so today’s random rantings will be very few.

I do have a Blog of the Week to share, since I was not around on Friday. Drink at Work.com (http://www.drinkatwork.com/) is an awesome blog done by Francesco Marciuliano. “Who the heck is he?” you may ask. He’s the writer and illustrator who does the syndicated comic, Sally Forth, which he took over from the original cartoonist, Greg Howard. Get a glimpse into the world of a cartoonist who is hamstrung by the strictures of the guy who went before him. (Imagine if someone took over Peanuts after Charles Schultz died.) “Ces” also does his own comic strip, Medium Large, and has his pulse on the New York comedy, music and theater scenes. He makes me wish I lived there. He also has a wicked sense of humor.

Had a fabulous time with my sister this weekend. Went out to Tyson’s Corner Center on Friday, where she did a wicked amount of shopping, while I just looked at beautiful things wistfully. Well, I did buy some nice lip gloss at Sephora and a couple of dirt cheap “pashmina” scarves from one of the carts at the mall, but my outlay was quite meager. She does inspire me to buy more girly-type things. The last time I bought nail polish I was with her too. I now also have passport pictures! However, I have to wait to get paid again to actually submit the application. Baby steps, people!

Saturday, we had an early dinner with my parents at the local buffet place and then we went to Barnes & Noble to get reading material for her plane trip and then to Target so she could buy an IPod mini. Did you know that IPods aren’t real big in Europe? Who knew? Cell phones are the big thing overseas.

The buffet place was . . . gross. I know that when I was little, it was a big treat to go somewhere like that, with all of the choices and the array of different desserts . . . But now that I am older, and am agog over Asian food, and have been trying to watch what I eat, those places have lost all of their appeal. Mostly everything was either fried, or cooked in fat, or smothered in a cream sauce, or was carb-heavy. I thought I’d make myself a big salad, but the salad pickings were quite palty. I mean, all you can eat for $9.99 is quite commendable, but you know, would it kill them to throw a few healthy choices out there? I only had one plate of entrees – a small salad, some rice with small pieces of barbecued chicken, some plain corn, some greens and some macaroni and cheese (because I’m no saint.) Then I had part of a piece of cheesecake (which was rather tasteless, so I stopped after a few bites) and a bowl of vanilla soft serve w/some blandish chocolate pudding. My dad had FOUR plates of food, not counting dessert. And he’s supposed to be watching his cholesterol and blood pressure! My mom says he was just splurging, but he does tend to make some questionable diet choices. He’s not fat at all . . . in fact, he exercises a lot, but high blood pressure, diabetes, and high cholesterol run in our family and lots of exercise often doesn’t quite cut it. I know, I’m just being a worrywart daughter again . . .

My sister’s plane left at 11 AM yesterday morning, which meant we had to be at the airport at 9, which meant that we had to be at IHOP for breakfast at 7. I am not a morning person, at all . . . thus the copious amounts of IHOP hi-test coffee. Went straight to church and did my choir thing and coffee hour afterwards. When we got home, I was exhausted and napped during the rest of the day, pausing only to read the papers and watch the Gold Cup Final, in which the US beat Panama in a shootout. Yay!

More to tell tomorrow. Don’t have a song or poem today either . . . but please insert fitting verse of your choice here. :-)

"Hi, Bob!" Edition

Today’s London bombings sounded a lot like a “copycat” type crime. Looking at the pictures on the news, it seemed like the Brits were going on about their daily business as normal, while it was all the news folks who were foaming up into a froth over the incident. This is why I hate watching TV news, because they make so much out of everything, and after a while, no one will really bat an eyelash about stuff, because we will have been bombarded with frights for so long.

Things are looking up for my friend . . . she may be able to secure a loan for the first semester, during which she will work on saving more money for the Spring. It is not a done deal, and it could still fall through, but she sounded like she had a lot of hope in her voice and that makes me cautious, but happy.

Watched the PBS American Masters’ show last night on Bob Newhart. (I missed a huge chunk because I was on the phone with my friend . . . lousy timing!) I’ve always loved his work, especially since it is more subtle and not as in your face as other comedians . . . plus I can kind of relate to his personality. If you do catch the show, be sure to read the Post’s Live Online session about it (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2005/07/20/DI2005072001819.html ) . . . Very well done.

Mood’s a bit better today . . . maybe because I’m going to be out of the office tomorrow? Well I still have a ton to do by Monday, but I may spread it out over the weekend.

I got my new Day Timer refills in the mail yesterday. Yay! I am an old fashioned, pen and paper type-of girl. I can’t handle electronic reminders, I always forget to put things in them and hate the tiny keys and weird alphabet. With a paper based organizer I can stick things in it and put flags all over it, and scrawl little notes really easily. Plus, the pages come in pretty colors. I also bring the organizer on trips with my because I can keep the tickets and all of the receipts tucked in there and just go through them when I get home.

This is an actual e-mail that was sent to all the staff today: “A Monet print is missing from a staffer's office as of Monday of this week. If you just happened to have admired it to the point of taking it, please return it to me today?” . . . That is pretty sad, don’t you think? Well, at least it’s an art-loving thief . . .

Also on the workplace front, our vending machines are now gobbling cash and not giving anything back in return. I went to the kitchen to get some napkins (because I spilled caffeine free Diet Dr. Pepper all over my office floor – don’t ask!) and there are sticky notes stuck all over our snack machines saying “lost $.60 on M&Ms,” “Lost $.55 on Fritos.” I myself have lost a couple of dollars worth of change in those things . . . I just figure that it is a sign that I’m not supposed to be eating a Snickers that afternoon . . .

Has anyone else been getting spam that says things like “Free Laptop – Send confirmation” and “Try a free IPod.”? Those things so annoy me . . . I wonder who falls for that sort of thing . . .

I think that I am suffering from caffeine withdrawal . . . I am slowly trying to stop drinking a lot of caffeinated beverages again. I had stopped for a good 7 months, but then I hit a very stressful time which caused a lot of killer headaches, and the only thing that makes me happy is the full caffeine Dr. Pepper, which along with two Excedrin tablets, makes the pain go away. I have a low level headache now, but I will persevere. If it reaches migraine pain status, though, all bets are off.

I may or may not post tomorrow since I will be out dallying with my sister. I leave you with today’s poem, which rather struck me.


A Glimmer
Marin Sorescu
Translated by
Adam J. Sorkin and Lidia Vianu

Every now and then I still summon up
A glimmer of interest in what's around me.

Sometimes I find myself
Watching in wonder
The tops of the birch trees
Clustered in the hospital yard.
I admire their whiteness,
And I like to ask myself
Where their whitewash comes from.

In a marvel of equilibrium
Little birds perch
On twigs so thin
They tremble like strings.

Above, in the blue-violet sky,
Clouds scurry past
Chasing each other aimlessly:
I stare, eyes transfixed
By these strange waves.

In just this way, inside my being,
Clouds of poison circulate,
Scudding toward every azimuth –
For an instant the sky goes blank

As if through magic little windows
I have a brief moment
Of miraculous communication with the world.

Exhausted Minds Thinking Unclearly

Birthday cake today at 3:30! Woo hoo! It’s the little things that bring joy to my heart these days . . .

I went to bed straight after class last night . . . did not stop for a snack, did not hang out with husband, just went straight to bed at 9 PM with a brief 50 page Harry Potter reading thrown in. Exhaustion cannot even begin to say how I feel . . . and I still have two more weeks to go before the train vacation. Luckily, I’m taking Friday off to spend more time with my sister before she gets shipped to Texas, so hopefully that will help improve my mood.

Before I went to bed, my husband ran into the bedroom to let me know who the new Supreme Court nominee was. He is such a political and news junkie, it’s usually so cute, but last night I was just so cranky and like “Gee, couldn’t this wait ‘till I read the paper tomorrow?”

Someone just walked into my office and told me that I look thinner. Bless them! Just this morning, I was feeling a bit down on myself and feeling a very blah and tubby.

The light at the end of the tunnel is sometimes that of an oncoming train. I have been thinking of that quote a lot today, and for me it can be taken two ways – either in a foreboding way or in a optimistic way. Time will tell which one is correct. Just so long as I get out of the little “Groundhog Day” scenario that I seem to be going through . . . same things happening day after day, same issues being revisited, same plans being made. I am looking toward the light with anticipation.

I’m still quite tired, so I offer today’s poem, which I found to be very amusing - but true sometimes.


To the Couple Lingering on the Doorstep
Deborah Landau

Quit kissing beneath my window.

The day turns shady
as you lean
feeding, feeding.

Night arrives, red-gold
and windless

and still you persist.

I've had enough
slobber and gush.

And let me say this:

the problem with passion
isn't that it doesn't last
but that it does,

and you'll find yourself alone in a room,
blistered and husky-voiced, watching
the side of your building turn to flame.

Beware a woman at a window,
something heavy in her hand.

Waiting for an Audience with Harry

**Only two more weeks of ESL class! . . . As much as I love teaching, I really need a break. My students could use one too.

**My mind is going . . . documents I thought I put together ages ago, I can’t find in their proper network folders . . . stuff I thought I sent out, I can’t find in the “sent” box . . . What the heck is going on? Am I slowing going bonkers or what?

**Started the Harry Potter book last night. Got only a hundred pages in, because I had a few other things to deal with . . .

**I have a very good friend that I met at a previous job. She’s a bright young lady who put herself through a very well-regarded women’s college and has been trying to put herself through law school. Her family has been of no help to her – in fact they have been sabotaging all of her efforts to improve herself. I wish I could tell you all of things that have happened, but I do want to respect her privacy. Now, because of her family’s careless actions, she may not be able to secure another loan to go back for her last year of law school. She called me in tears last night. She is very, very distraught about this . . . she has been working double shifts all summer in order to pay for the housing, and had some exciting internships lined up for the school year. It breaks my heart not to be able to help her and to hear her anguish on the phone. Some people get all the breaks in life, and some people who work hard as the dickens and never seem to get a break . . . I wish I was independently wealthy and could help her out with a loan, but we are pretty on the edge ourselves. If she can’t find a way in 4 weeks, she is going to have wasted two years of law school along with being 100K in debt.

**I’m rather tired today . . . didn’t get to sleep until late, thinking about things . . . so my output today is rather wanting. However, I found a pretty appropriate poem for today, since it is SO muggy-hot. Enjoy!

Very Hot Day
Michael Ryan

I know what's going to happen
to those two plastic produce bags of crushed ice
I perched atop the garden wall:
one's floppy, droopy, flabby,
its overhanging pooch of ice-melt
already about to pull the whole bag down
into the dirt, bursting it, turning it
into a fistful of filthy gummy polyethelene;
the other's centered, poised — even
its ice-melt seems to know where to settle
so the bag stays upright and stable:
if it were a person, he'd radiate
smiling confidence and good health,
a team player wanting only to be useful,
to stand as an example of how to adjust
conflicting parts of himself for the general good.
His effortless balance and bright red twisty-tie
might seem flashy and arrogant
were he not so persistently mindful
that he shares the other bag's fate.
How could he not, since they're almost touching?
He'd have to be completely oblivious
not to witness the moment his twin
plops into the dirt.
He'd have to know he's heading there, too,
no matter how solid he feels at present —
that even now he's really broken and helpless
and destined for the recycle bin
where like an omniscient god I throw
useless used bags for crushed ice
the butcher gives me to keep my raw meat
safe while I drive home on a very hot day.

Fuzzy Monday Edition

**No freaking digital camera yet . . . we wanted to get an entire EasyShare package, you know, with both the camera and photo printer, for ease of use, but the Sears did not have any more of them, and were not getting any more of them. We were buying it at Sears because (a) it was on sale and (b) we have a Sears card and could spread out the payments. However, after reflection, I realize that I was mesmerized by the shiny immediacy of having a whole kit, but the prudent course would be to do a bit more research and get a suitable camera (at least 5 MP), then find a suitable photo printer, and watch for the sales.

**Sometimes I get enviously needy. As in, “everyone else has cool stuff and I want some too!” – kind of like I’m a five year old who wants the Barbie Dream House that all the other little girls on the block have. Everyone else can show cool pictures on their website . . . everyone else has a DVD player . . . everyone else has a cool laptop. But, you know, once the envy subsides, I go on about my life, not really needing the stuff, since I am so busy doing other things. If we had a DVD player, it would sit on top of the TV like our VCR does now, collecting dust. I would probably break the laptop by dropping it, with my clumsy self, or get it stolen somehow. And after a flurry of activity, the digital camera would probably sit on the shelf, lonely and underused, like my other cameras. However the cell phone has come in rather handy thus far . . .

**This weekend, when we went to my parents’ house, my sister whipped out her teeny digital video camera and hooked it up to my mom’s laptop and showed the video she shot while she was in Spain. While the resolution was beyond crappy – at times I could not quite make out the pixels and dark shapes, there was enough there to be a pretty cool experience. She even taped a whole bullfight – and the accompanying murder of the bull, then a team of horses dragging it out of the ring. (I didn’t watch that part . . . I wisely found an old newspaper and was intently reading about the War of the Worlds premiere.) She also had CDs of her trips to the beaches near Barcelona, Oktoberfest, Paris on New Year’s Eve and tour of Dachau. She didn’t get to make it to England or Italy, but wants to go back in a few years, once her Army enlistment is concluded. I hope I will be able to join her!

**We didn’t get the Harry Potter book until this morning, because we had it shipped to the office out of habit, instead of at home. Virginia Gal, I’ll give a shout when I’m done . . . which I hope is by the end of the week. The book is sitting here on my desk, just saying “READ ME NOW!” – I can hardly get through the day.

**In the “It’s a small world after all” category . . . a Philly blog that I read very regularly (which I actually found through the set of academic blogs that I always read) linked to a post to another blog that commented on a blog that happens to be the one done by the best friend of the lovely Anonymous Rowhouse. (Did you follow that logic? I just don’t want to name names here . . .) It seems to have started some sort of hoohah this weekend on each other’s blogs. You see, this is why I stay away from discussing politics if I can help it – it engenders all sorts of name calling and bad feelings all around. The thing is both people are pretty good people (I mean, any friend of Justrose must be a peach among women) although I must admit that I have much more in common with the other person, and tend not to read the other blog because I really don’t want to have to invest in blood pressure medication on a regular basis . . .

***I’m trying to think of a way to get more comments on my blog without attracting any spammers or freaks. However, I don’t think I have quite ironed out the kinks in my content, or lack thereof – although I have improved my frequency of posting over the past few days. My strategy seems to be working - keeping a blank Word document open all day that I can add to it as the mood hits.

***I happened to watch a few episodes of MTV’s Pimp My Ride. You know, if those guys at the auto body shop were to channel their knowledge of technology, their innovative ideas and their energy into something, well . . . like some sort of science or industrial design, think of what amazing inventions would be coming out of the U.S. right now. I mean, we have all known people like that . . . people who are brilliant with their hands, but for one reason or another the academic world doesn’t float their boat, so their creativity is channeled into other venues. Wait . . . Did that make sense? . . . I seem to not be making sense today . . . there an actual idea in there somewhere, I promise.

***My co-worker just went home with food-poisoning from some tuna salad that she made over the weekend. Poor thing, working so hard on a huge project we have to get out in the next week and now this . . . I’m always wary of leftovers myself anyway . . . I’ve had similar stuff happen a couple of times – not fun!

***The day is winding down. On Friday, I should have ended with a Carole King song, so I’ll rectify that today . . . One of my faves – I know it's cheesy, but a really optimistic way to start the week:

You've got to get up every morning with a smile in your face
And show the world all the love in your heart
The people gonna treat you better,
You're gonna find, yes you will,
That you're beautiful as you feel.

Watching the Clouds Roll In

Today’s Featured Blog is . . . The Comics Curmudgeon (http://joshreads.com/). After I started reading this blog, I suddenly developed a serious interest in following “Mary Worth,” “Mark Trail,” and other assorted serial comics that I used to think were beyond insipid and wastes of space. Who knew that they were a satirical gold mine? The comments sections are the best part of this blog. It does take a while to get into, since you need to be paying attention to the entire comics page to get what’s going on, but I promise your patience will be rewarded.

The nail polish experiment was a bit of a failure. I tried to paint my toes and it ended up looking like someone went at my feet with a weed whacker. Really, it totally looked like my feet were bleeding! I couldn’t quite get the contours right, since the toes were farther away than I was comfortable dealing with . . . I couldn’t “color within the lines.” I have flunked “Girly Skills 101.” I wish I had the digital camera so I could show you just how awful my toe painting skills are. I am either going to have to actually just go out and pay for a pedicure or just leave them be . . .

Carole King sang on the Today Show this morning and I actually turned the sound up to hear her. She still sounds exactly the same! I have played her “Tapestry” album hundreds of times since I purchased it, oh, about 15 years ago. She is playing at Wolf Trap tomorrow night, and I wish I could go, but alas . . . as always there are other plans.

If I see another “news” segment on the new Harry Potter book, I am going to scream. Now, Hubby and I actually pre-ordered the book months ago and are eagerly awaiting its hefty arrival on our doorstep. I have first dibs on the book because I am the faster reader and can have it polished off in a week, as long as I promise not to divulge any major plot twists. But to see the hoohah that the Today Show was doing all week, plus the 8 trillion newspaper and magazine articles on it . . . please stop the hype!

Speaking of hype, I am sad to admit that I really have no desire to see Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka. The character, as he portrays it, just looks too creepy for me. I am a HUGE fan of the Gene Wilder version, it just seems much more innocent and but sneakily subversive . . . kind of like the original “Bewitched” series.

. . . However, I do have a desire to see the new John Cusack movie, Must Love Dogs, when it comes out next week. I would watch the man read the phone book aloud, if possible.

I also have to admit that I actually do like some of LL Bean’s clothes, especially their sweaters and turtlenecks. I get cold easily and they are comfy and warm. I was also eyeing one of the large lunch bags in the new catalog . . . I haven’t been happy with the ones I find in Target, the LL Bean ones look sturdy and pretty rugged. I’m all about the practical . . .

In my campaign to eat healthier, I bought a bag of pistachios at lunchtime. I love pistachios, but they do take a bit of work to open. However, you get a much bigger payoff than you do with sunflower seeds . . . I don’t think I have that kind of patience anymore. On Saturday, we are going to a birthday dinner at a crab house . . . talk about food that takes a lot of work! Hubby says that this time he is actually going to try to eat some crabs with me . . . but that I may have to open them for him. Well, at least he isn’t going to order his usual chicken sandwich . . . he’s the kind of guy that will go to a seafood restaurant and order chicken or pasta . . . he doesn’t usually eat anything resembling shellfish, not because he is allergic, but just because he thinks they are gross.

. . . I guess I have settled on calling my husband, "Hubby," in this blog . . . I don't know if I like that . . . It sounds kinda dorky . . . I need to think of something better . . .

I always keep a bottle of OFF in my purse during the summer because I really hate mosquitoes. (The insects, not the groovy bossa nova group!) I shiver at the thought of the constant itching, itching, itching of fresh mosquito bites.

I love the randomness of the rain these days . . . one moment it is semi-bright, the next moment a dark cloud is hovering overhead and it’s pouring down rain, then the next moment it is light again . . .

That’s enough random thoughts for today. We’ll end today's posting with a poem instead of song lyrics – nothing is striking me on the radio today. Have a lovely weekend everyone!

Overcast
Jean L. Connor

The day, of no great merit,
ended — a dandelion gone to seed,
minutes squandered, hours spent,
no bright gold. Yet in the ledgered

plainness of the day, overcast, common,
some subtle brush of meaning
held me. Was it those unexpected
words of thanks, or the single lilac

plunged in a paper cup,
there on a stranger's desk?
Something, a fragrance,
lingered well past dusk.

To Blog or Not to Blog, That is His Question

My husband wants to start a blog. He’s been reading about blogs all over the place, but has never actually read one, mine included. I didn’t tell him about this one right away because I am still deciding what the heck this is I’m doing here. I had talked to him ages about starting one, and then one day I just up and did it. There’s nothing on here that he doesn’t already know, except maybe my spur-of-the-moment poems.

So yesterday, while we were driving home for work, he states that he wants to start a blog but has no clue how to do go about it. He’s kind of a Luddite when it comes to internet communications, despite the fact that he does several online newsletters and helps maintain a Website. He never got into the whole message board scene like I did for a time . . . he much prefers just looking up random stuff and reading about it. However, once the phenomenon hits the pages of the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, he starts to take notice. I tell him about the multitude of blog-type options. “I’d be happy to do it with you,” I offered. “Besides, it would get you in the habit of writing every day.”

Hubby is an excellent writer. He was a news assistant for a major newspaper in Southern California while he was in college, and he had the opportunity to write several feature articles during his tenure there. He currently writes and edits our association’s publications, and when during the first few years of our relationship, he used to write in his journals all of the time. I am always trying to get him writing again, because I know he misses it. Nowadays, he is more likely to come home and either go straight to the gym/running or watch whatever is on cable for the evening. I rue the day we got that stupid cable TV . . . even though I’d be bummed if we gave it up too.

“What would I talk about?” he wonders aloud. “I don’t want to talk about politics, because people will flame me.” “Well, just say whatever comes to mind . . . I do.” “YOU Blog?!?” he sputtered. “I know you had talked about it . . .” “Well, yeah . . . but it’s nothing fancy . . . I barely post half the time . . . you can see it if you want . . .” He didn’t ask to see it, but still seemed surprised. “Wow. I wonder what I should do. All the cool kids are doing it . . .”

If you think I am lousy at following through with stuff, Hubby is slightly worse. I at least try things once. He’s been wanting to get his Master’s in History for years, and I’ve been really encouraging him, but he always is going to “wait and see.” That’s why I offered to start the blog with him . . . that way at least it will be up and I can help maintain it. It also would be a great way to document our cross country train trip and all of the other stuff we do together. We’ll see if it actually goes . . . if it does, I will let you all know.

****More random stuff****

We’re getting closer to getting a digital camera . . . I can feel it! Hopefully, sometime this weekend. Then maybe I’ll put up some pics of little ol’ me, Hubby and Moxie, the Buddha-like Tuxedo cat.

No, Virginia Gal, no progress on the passport [hanging head in shame] . . . but there should be by the end of next week. My sister is on me about this too . . . we’ll probably take care of it while we’re running around together again next Friday.

We had ice cream at work today, as part of a send off for one of our interns. We had birthday cake yesterday for two people. There will be cake for our uber-boss’ birthday on Tuesday. And another send off for another intern later next week. We may not get paid much here, but we are always kept in a sugar rush . . .

Was watching the Mexico vs Jamaica game last night (Gold Cup soccer match) and was outraged at the refs. If a Jamaican guy so much as looked at a Mexican player, he got a yellow card. However, the Mexican players were pretty much blatantly, purposefully running into the Jamaican players and tripping them, without so much as a peep out of the refs. Both Hubby and I were highly miffed - not a good mood to go to bed in.

I actually bought nail polish when I was out with my sister on Monday. I never wear nail polish, which is weird because I am one of those rare individuals whose nails grow pretty long, pretty quickly. In fact, I have to cut them down every ten days or so or they start breaking off at inopportune times. I just hate the whole girly maintenance aspect of wearing polish . . . you have to be still long enough so that it dries properly without smearing or getting cat hair stuck on your nails, and you have to touch it up on a regular basis or it looks pretty tacky. However, I’ve been wearing sandals more lately this summer and my toes . . . look kind of sad. I saw a color that I liked and actually might work for me, so I’m going to try to put some on tonight and see how it goes. Wish me luck!

It’s almost time to leave work, so I’ll close up the post for today. Let’s go out with a little Sheryl Crow that’s playing on the radio right now:

“All I wanna do is have some fun
. . . And I got a feeling
I‘m not the only one . . .
Until the sun comes up on Santa Monica Boulevard.”

Monkeys Randomly Typing Shakespeare

My cooking class was cancelled because not enough people signed up for it. Bummer! I’d so been looking forward to that . . .

My sister has arrived in the States safe and sound and now at my parents’ house getting some much needed rest. We hung out together on Monday and I took her to lunch at the Cheesecake Factory in Arlington, where they give you enough food on your plate to feed a family of four - I am NOT exaggerating! My sister just finished telling me about the small, but filling portions of food and drink you get in European restaurants, and then they bring out the trough of crispy beef and rice for her and the 6 inch high mound of Chinese Chicken Salad for me. And I was having the LUNCH portion of the salad. Of course, I took more than half the salad home for my husband, who snarfed it down in 5 minutes for dinner. We also got cheesecake for dessert, just because we could – she got a huge slice of vanilla bean cheesecake and I got a huge slice of Dulce de Leche cheesecake (which was quite heavenly, but I could only eat two bites . . . Hubby finished that leftover off at home too.) Welcome back to America, kiddo!

I have just been editing documents and researching odd stats up a storm here at work, which is great! I love researching and editing . . . I just wish my actual job was doing that all day . . .

ESL class went too quickly last night. I wasn’t able to finish everything that I had in the lesson plan. These 8 week classes don’t really give one enough time to really cover all the material well enough to feel comfortable that everyone is retaining everything. I told the ESL folks today that I am willing to teach again in the fall, and I am looking forward to that very much.

I’ve been doing a lot of emotional eating lately, which is NOT good. Less than one month until our trip and I don’t want my husband’s family to think that we have both become tubs of fat. I haven’t seen the grandmother since the wedding, almost 7 years ago now, and I do want to make a good impression. I wish it wasn’t so muggy so early, so I could go running earlier in the morning.

If I hear either of those Killers songs again today, I am going to bang my head against the wall. However, I rather like the Rob Thomas song. He did a pretty good job at Live 8, I think. Watching the Live 8 repeat on Saturday, I think that London had the better lineup. I would also love to have Mariah Carey’s voice . . .

Has anyone bought one of those Kodak Easy Share cameras? Do you like them? We’re thinking of getting one for our trip. They are the ones that come with the docking photo printer, which would make it oh so much easier for us to get digital prints. I don’t want to buy an actual photo/regular printer because we already have a perfectly good printer at home that we still need to get a USB cable for.

This blog is going to turn into one of those Larry King columns in the USA Today where he just seems to type whatever falls out of his brain. I don’t mean that in a good way. However, if it gets me in the habit of posting more frequently, I’ll go with it. Maybe I’ll actually get better at the daily writing thing with practice.

Guns & Roses’ “Patience” is playing on the radio right now. This may be a good way to end this post . . . I need to stop being such a worrywart and go with the flow . . .

“Hey, Sugar – take it slow.
Things will be just fine.
All we need is just a little patience . . .”

Today's Random Thoughts

One of my new favorite blogs is now Londonist (http://londonist.com/). Maybe whenever I update the format of this blog, I’ll put it on the list at left, along with a few other faves I’ve found. I thought it was interesting that a lot of the U.S. commenters to the post on yesterday’s bombing were from DC (myself included.)

Other random thoughts today:

** Cooking classes start again next Thursday, only for two weeks. We’ve been getting some serious mileage out of the Three Onion Couscous, Fennel and Endive Salad, Quick Meatloaf, and Strawberry-Rhubarb Crisp recipes that I got from the last classes I took, so I’m really looking forward to picking up a few more recipes.

**My sister’s plane is landing at 10:45 PM Sunday night, which means we won’t be home from picking her up until almost midnight – that is if the plane isn’t late. I am so excited that she will be back in the states and I look forward to carving out some time to spend with her over the next two weeks . . .

**Ugh . . . I guess we have to clean the boxes out of the guest room before my sister gets here . . . I dread that. I should just throw everything in the room in the dumpster and start fresh. You all ever have those rooms in your house where you dump random stuff when you are in a rush to clean up the living areas before guests come, and then you never go back to actually put the things away? This is that room. It is also where we keep the cat box, so I have to figure out where to store that while my sister is staying with us.

**Still haven’t got a passport yet, even though I have actually filled out the form. All I need now is to get pictures taken and then go to the nearest passport office and cough up the bucks . . . baby steps, I guess.

**Still haven’t got any further on the school thing either.

**Did go running last Saturday morning and hope to do so tomorrow morning. The Army Ten Miler is on October 9. I have three months almost exactly to get ready. This is my main goal before I turn 35 years old.

**I would like to go out to tea sometime soon. I never have and have heard that they are fun and tasty.

**August is not coming fast enough! I want to go somewhere! Anywhere! See some new faces! Do some new things!

**Last night, my husband and I were watching “House Hunters” and he said that he might be interested in living in Chicago. I had to gently remind him that it gets much colder in Chicago than it does here in DC. He is miserable when the temperature drops below 50 here . . .

**I’ve said it once, I’ll say it again. I’m not afraid of terrorists, I’m afraid of everybody. The joy of living in D.C. is that besides the normal muggings, kidnappings, drive-bys, murders, arsonists, gang members with machetes, carjackings, etc. that fill the news, we also attract our share of random wackos with a grudge or some grand statement to make. We just have to live our lives and ignore it . . . otherwise, I’d spend my days huddled in a bomb shelter. The majority of people in this world are good, decent people who just want to live their own lives . . . I take great comfort in that.

Hey, I said this blog was random! Have a great weekend everybody. Be safe.

Wearing Black for London Today

Virginia Gal:

I was so upset to hear the news this morning . . . my heart goes out to all of your friends in London.

It is sad to say that I know how scared everyone must be, so I hope you are able to reach your friends by the end of today. Both you and they will be so glad to hear each others' voices. I pray that they will be all be well, and I hope that you will be too.

Big hugs out to you! I will be thinking of you and your friends all day. Funny how I haven't even met you, but you were the first I thought of this morning.

Sent very warmly,
Kath

Lighting a Candle in the Window

It has been exactly five years

Time has softened the blow so much that
I am not as sad today as I once was.

In fact I am hopeful
And laughing

But this doesn’t mean that I miss you any less
I still love you
And feel the emptiness in my heart

Moving on is not a bad thing
Not remembering is.

Hooray for Jolly Old England!

Hey, Virginia Gal:

What did you think of the news this morning?

London Selected for 2012 Olympics
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/06/AR2005070600387.html

I was watching the today show when they announced and was as excited as anyone there . . . that's so cool!

However, as someone who actually has been to London and knows the place, you may have different thoughts. Do share! Will you be there, do you think?

A Moment of Clarity

He sits on the bench in the bookstore
Engrossed in the paperback he picked off the shelf

I sit down next to him
Waiting

His head falls on my shoulder
My head falls to meet his

For a moment there is no one and nothing else –
Just two people
Sitting on a bench
Feeling as perfect as two people can feel

Surrounded by that which we love
Heaven both outside and within.

Riding the Rails with My Sweetie

I Am a Bad Blogger. This week was really busy . . . although not busier than normal, but I have had a lot more on my mind than normal – and not the sort of things I can put on “paper” just yet.

I had a good week, which started with a very lovely lunch on Sunday. Teaching on Tuesday night . . . my class is starting to gel and we are doing a lot more laughing together, people are starting to help others. I only have 4 more classes and then I get a break for the rest of the summer.

This August, we are taking a train trip across the country and back. The whole trip will take a little over two weeks, with us spending about a week in Southern California and a week in the Portland/Seattle area. I am really looking forward to the train trip . . . it takes 2 and a half days to get out to southern Cal from DC, with a brief stop in Chicago.

I think there is nothing lovelier than traveling on the train. It is always fascinating to me to see the landscape change from lush green woods to prairie to desert . . . it is not something you get to see everyday, especially not on a plane. You get to spend three days doing absolutely nothing but reading, sleeping, eating and looking out at the changing landscape.

People ask why we would want to take so long to get somewhere – the plane is faster! And most of the time cheaper – but to us, the vacation is in the journey – being able to take some time and just BE, not having to rush anywhere or see anyone, not having to deal with family members or schedules, just spending the day in quiet bliss, serenaded only by the sound of the wheels on the track.

Once we are on the west coast, we are going to be hitting the ground running. We are staying with my husband’s family, his uncle lives nearby, there are many old friends of both of us who live within a 50 mile radius who it would be criminal not to see while we are out there. There are also the places that my husband wants to take me to, places where he grew up and wants to share with me. And one day, we will go out to the National Cemetery and visit his father’s grave. I will bring flowers and hold my husband’s hand as we go to say hello to the man who shaped him so much, who I am so sad that I never got to meet. He was a history teacher, a voracious consumer of the news and other bits of the written word, a man who was plagued with many health problems the last 20 years of his life, and whose passing it is still hard for my husband to bear at times.

Then we will travel to Portland to spend time with my husband’s grandmother, who told us “Come out here and see me before I die.” Gee, with an invitation like that, how can one refuse? She is a wonderful, feisty old lady, who has had to bear a lot of pain in her life, but who still trudges through it all with a good heart and humor. There are more aunts and uncles and cousins out there to visit and much time will need to be spent with everyone. If we can fit it in, we hope to spend a day in Seattle, a city I love, love, love.

Then we will pack up and get back on the train for 3 days of much needed rest and find our way back home. I get tired just thinking about the trip, but I can’t wait to go.

Does anyone else have some fun summer plans?

Everybody's Workin' for the Weekend . . .

I have been quite neglectful of the blog lately, and I am so, so sorry!

This week has been . . . a week.

However, I am now trying to ac-cen-tuate the positive things in my life, so I can gladly say that I am happy that the week transpired without any sort of nervous breakdown, so I can fully enjoy the upcoming weekend.

I was at an awards ceremony for the Literacy Council last night, so I missed “Hit Me Baby One More Time.” Recap will have to wait till Monday.

We are having some friends over on Saturday night for an evening of catching up and playing games. They had a little daughter born in November and we are eager to see her.

Sunday, I’m having lunch with another friend who is going through a lot of life changes right now, but we usually pencil in a monthly lunch to check in and get advice from each other. I’m really looking forward to a nice leisurely Sunday.

I wish I could comment on the recent Supreme Court decision on eminent domain (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/23/AR2005062300783.html), but the actual decision is much more complicated than meets the eye and I have heard very compelling arguments on both sides. I did not agree with the final decision, and I actually agreed with the minority opinions. I really need to bone up on my Constitutional law though . . . much is happening lately in the context of the Bill of Rights that is quite worrisome to me, but I think I need more information to make sure my instincts are correct.

I haven’t been running at all this week. Yesterday I went to the doctor and he told me that I had gained a pound from last year. This was disappointing, because I know that I had actually lost a bunch in the Spring, but I have managed to gain it back again in spades. But it also means that I can lose if I start running again fairly soon and keep it up through the Fall.

There is much going on with my immediate family that I should write to you all about. My grandmother is moving to Arizona, after living with my parents ever since my youngest sister was born. My older younger sister is coming back to the states and is going to be stationed in El Paso, TX. We had hoped for Walter Reed, so she would be close and we could hang out occasionally again, but at least she won’t be in a war zone. My youngest younger sister is finishing up her master’s in education in the next year and has said that she won’t be coming back to Northern Virginia when she graduates – she wants to teach in rural areas of the state. I got the vibe from my parents on Father’s Day that they will pretty much wash their hands of her when she graduates. Their words made me feel really sad and hurt, but I didn’t know how to call them on it. None of us three daughters is the most communicative, but we work hard and try to make our folks proud, maybe just not in the conventional ways, but we try . . . maybe I was reading a disappointment in me too in what they were saying? Like they say the exact same thing about me when talking to extended family?

There is so much history and emotion hidden in that above paragraph that I don’t even know where to begin. So I will keep movin’ on, not dwelling on it for now, trying to enjoy the sunshine while it lasts.

What City Fits Me Best?

I was trolling around the Blogosphere this morning, trying to get my brain in gear, and came across this quiz.

It's kind of funny, but for a long time I REALLY, REALLY wanted to move to Boston when I was in my 20's. Why? Well it's a pretty historic city and has lots of colleges, museums, public transportation . . . lots of cool things I look for in a location. It is also WAY expensive to live there and, now that I am married to a California Boy, it is way too cold. I am such city girl though . . . and I have always been curious about Chicago . . .

Question of the day: What U.S. city would you like to live in if you had the chance?

Discuss! :-)

American Cities That Best Fit You:

60% Boston

60% Philadelphia

55% Chicago

55% New York City

50% Los Angeles

Which American Cities Best Fit You?

Sunshine Barato (“Cheap” Sunshine)

(A cheery Bossa Nova album for today – check out the band at www.mosquitosnyc.com!)

It’s a beautiful day here in Northern VA . . . the sun is shining, it isn’t humid, and my mind wanders outside of the walls of this non-descript building sitting in the middle of this non-descript office park.

I have much to do this weekend – helping a friend move on Saturday, having my parents over on Sunday – and downtime will be non-existent.

Running in place at the moment, I am. I feel like selling the condo and moving elsewhere, just for different scenery. Itching to travel and enjoy the sunshine.

Last Sunday, we went to a going away dinner for a friend of mine, L, who is moving back to Sydney, Australia this week. She has dual U.S./Aussie citizenship, and had come over to the States to see the World Cup in 1994 and just kind of stuck around for 11 years. At this point, she wasn’t thrilled with her job (she worked for the DLC) or the vibe she’s been getting in the States, so she thought “what the heck?” She’s in her 30’s and single, found a job combining her love of politics and international soccer, and found a great apartment overlooking Sydney harbor. I am insanely happy for her, and only a bit jealous. Which is why I need to get a passport and quite soon . . . although 15 hours on a plane is not something I would really look forward to. It was quite a teary good-by – I’ve known her for 10 years which, outside of family and the lovely Justrose, is one of the longest friendships I’ve had. There is a whole group of us that met around 1995 and still hang out from time to time. (A bunch of us married each other too, which makes things even chummier.) But slowly people have been moving away, whether physically or mentally, for business or for family reasons – and this makes me very sad sometimes.

In this transient area, it is really hard to keep friends that you have such a shared history with, that you don’t have to explain the odd references to past events and people. I am glad that I can check in from time to time, but I do miss the old days when we went out rather often and were thick as thieves, discussing everyone’s crappy jobs and loser dates and campaign intrigues, going to cheap happy hours and the odd congressional receptions where our mantra was “If it’s free, it’s for me.” Why is it when you’re young and broke you can always scrape together money for going out? I can’t seem to find the money now, and there are TWO of us to pool our earnings.

Those truly were the years of “cheap sunshine” and limitless opportunity. Sometimes it’s hard to remember that 10 years from now that I’ll be looking at today the same way – and that I need to take advantage of that accordingly.