How to please meGenerate the lowest temperature I've encountered since I left Montana. It's in the 60s and I'm wearing a sweatshirt, watching back-to-back
Grey's Anatomy episodes, sipping sparkling wine. (Freudian slip: I just typed "whine" by accident). Even though I already have homework and I HAVEN'T EVEN HAD CLASS YET, this is the happiest I've been in some time. You can take the mick out of Ireland...
This is a man in control of his destiny
Happy THIRTIETH Birthday to Roanoke's Favorite Son, PYI Bill.
No comment, just posting because it's pretty badass
It's come to the point...
...where I need to wear one of these around my neck, or strapped to my person somewhere, AT ALL TIMES. I literally couldn't figure out what day it was this morning--hours after I'd woken up and already had some coffee. Every week I work all three of the possible shifts that exist, and right now I'm in the midst of a 14-day-straight stretch. I know: that's nothing compared to being deployed for months at a time or working the 3rd shift exclusively for a 20-year career. But kids, it's still a rough gig, and the only one I have, so give me my moment to kvetch about it, 'kay?
I've managed to work in some good down time, including
drinks (Friday) and
ice cream (Saturday) with Erin D. and BLang. Also, the great Suzi bachelorette was Saturday night and man, what a classy shindig. Calling it a b-rette is really a misnomer because there was not a ribbon, faux-veil, or penis straw in sight. Instead Suz contracted to have a chef from
Chef Geoff's, a sous-chef from same and a bartender who all came into to her home and made us sushi and Asian tapas, and the most amazing drinks. The guys showed us how to make a lot of the offerings on the menu and I got schooled repeatedly on over-reaching with my wraps and rolls. My eyes were bigger than a dragon's, what can I say? The thing I loved most about it was meeting all of the women who are important to Suzi (with some noted geographically-unavailable absences KRISTIN) that I've heard so much about over the years. All smart, funny, beautiful specimens and being in their company was a breath of fresh air. I'm looking forward to the wedding that much more knowing I get to party down with them all again.
Yesterday before heading into work I met Julie and Steve for a jaunt to Del Ray. Steve had gone on and on and on about the sangria sorbet at
Dairy Godmother which lived up to the hype (they also have lemon ginger and green tea flavors, to show you how eclectic it can get) and then we found
Artfully Chocolate just around the corner, opened just 3 weeks ago. Nothing like lots and lots of sugar before work. But it helped my bachelorette hangover so that's all we need to know about that.
Is it autumn yet? I seriously think that starting school will calm things down for me, and it can't come soon enough.
FutureMan doesn't have on his rockin' chapeau, but the guys still represent well here
The reason I raced back yesterday was that PEbs and I had tickets to see The Acoustic Planet tour last night at Wolf Trap. Marc Broussard, Umphrey's McGee, and Bela Fleck & the Flecktones jammed for 4 solid hours, and I do mean solid. The thing about these groups is that someone is playing the entire time they're on the stage, and between acts musicians would just ebb and flow on and off so there was never a break in the sound either between songs or between acts. That coupled with the phenomenal weather and the general high that is watching a concert outside made for a pretty transcendent experience.
Now if I could just figure out what the hell that hat was that FM was wearing....
I-95 is for suckersThis weekend marked my last stint of 2 consecutive days off between now and when school starts next month. I chose to spend that time honoring my family with my presence. Normally this means slogging my way down I-95 and then I-64, a harried evolution that should take around 3 hours but has, in the past, taken upwards of 5 start-stop, shift-neutral-brake hours and not a little "I would fucking shoot you if I could" feelings/out loud statements. However, on Thursday since I wasn't in too much of a rush I decided to go via the Eastern Shore, Rt. 50 to Rt. 13 and across the
Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.
Best. Decision. EVER.
It's a little further, and takes a bit longer because the roads don't get much above 60 mph, with the odd stop light as you go through small towns, but it is so worth it. There was no traffic, the scenery is gorgeous--lots of little sea shanty towns, fields of nothing but corn--and a dearth of assholes who don't know how to drive. Yesterday when I came home I had to take the interstates and I hated it to the point that I welcomed a traffic jam near Fredericksburg as an excuse to bail out onto Rt. 1 for the rest of the drive. If "H8N 95" wasn't already taken it would be my new license plate.
In other news, while in Norfolk we enjoyed a wine tasting, a deluxe dinner with a friend of my mom's, lounging by my sister's pool, and getting the last of Shelby's graduation gifts: the snazziest
dorm fridge in history. She is going to JMU next week with more fancy new stuff (clothes, appliances, stereo) than I currently have in my apartment. I have to say I'm officially jealous of her and the general going-off-to-college thing. It feels like just yesterday that I was starting school m'self and I miss it. Going back to graduate school while working full time isn't
quite the same thing.
I wish he was the Arlington troubadour
Grant-Lee Phillips, acoustic guitarist and soulful singer, cameo
Gilmore Girls roving musician of Stars Hollow, and my entertainment last night at
Iota. Pam and I walked down for the 8:30 show and I fell instantly in love with the venue. Warm, cozy, friendly, with 2 bars so you're never far from a frosty beverage, nowhere is a bad place to stand, and I had room to groove a bit to the sweet, sweet tunes. He played old standards and some of his awesome new stuff--covers of 80s tunes by, for instance, New Order, Psychedelic Furs, the Pixies, and the Church. If you love me you'll just happen to leave a copy of the
new album on my doorstep. I'm out of town until Sunday so you can drop it by and I will be totally surprised. Thank you.
Now I'm Feeling Some PressureI've noticed that I'm still getting a smattering of visitors from
BackFence.com, so I followed the link and come to discover that I am one of the
Featured Blogs on the local Arlington site. I have
no idea how that happened, and while I am very flattered it also makes me feel guilty about how boring and spotty my posts have been lately. You see, in my haste to make the most of this summer before I start back to school next month (thereby losing any free time and/or semblance of a personal life) I have been going NON STOP since May, basically. It's gotten to the point where I'm getting advice from a
dear friend to "slow down already, you're gonna burn out" and while I agree a little bit, I'm also loathe to let one meal, run, or concert go by. Trouble is, now that I'm without internet at work I'm also loathe to take what little time I have at home to sit and blog. Ironic, no? Now that I actually have fun, real stuff that I'm doing (as opposed to complaining/commenting on the activities of others) I have little time or inclination to write about it even though that content would at last be genuinely interesting to you, my adoring public. (shakes head at the sad, cruel turn) In any event I'm always thrilled to have people come look, laugh, and love here at BlogSport but you may have to go to the archives occasionally to get it.
Don't let it be said
that I'm not serious
about my cookie cravings
Two weeks ago my power went out around 7:30 pm, just as I was settling in to make a batch of chocolate chip cookies. Never one to be deterred when every fiber in my being was screaming "GIVE ME CHOCOLATE RIGHT NOOOOOOOW!!" I busted out the 360-degree flashlight, set it up, and kept on keepin' on, as evidenced above (first with flash, second 2 without). I could have cooked them, too, as I have a gas oven and stove, but I'm more of a cookie-dough-is-the-ideal-end-product kinda girl.
If dreams are meant to help you sort through what's going on in your waking world then what is THIS about?Just before I woke up this morning I had the most vivid, elaborate dream. I was in my old house in Harrisonburg (in all it's glory,
pre-fire) with both my parents. Apparently it was near Christmastime because I was feeling some present-buying stress, trying to figure out what to get for people and literally, in the dream, I woke up and after chatting with my mom upstairs was headed downstairs to fire up my laptop (which I didn't have when I lived there) to do some trusty online shopping. Anyway, we're then all congregated in the kitchen discussing breakfast and plotting holidayish things when I glance down and notice a black plastic...probe is the only word I can come up with for it...poking out from under the cabinet near the sink. I notice it not just because it's odd and out of place, but because it's
moving. Poking out more and less with jerky motions, attached to a flexible metal-sheathed hose. Suddenly, in the weird, leap-from-A-to-L logic of dreams I realize that this thing has a camera and microphone in it and that we're being reconned by someone from outside the house. I try to make a grab for the probe but whoever is operating it knows they've been burned and pulls it back immediately. I spring up, looking out the window above the sink and see a vintage green Jeep with industrial roll bars and top spot lights backing away from the west side of the house. I notice as it does this that it has Virginia plates--as I sit here I still remember the first three characters: wtf?--and then go tearing towards the front door. Of course, again in the way of dreams, I run like I'm stuck in molasses and don't get there until the Jeep is 1/2 way down the street. I can picture it, slowing for the stop sign at Franklin and Mason streets before continuing on, while I'm freaking out, yelling for my parents to call the cops, inconsolable about how to keep the house safe while we're in Virginia Beach for Christmas.
And then I woke up.
I ate some cookie dough before going to sleep last night; clearly this was a huge mistake.
