The bright side

The only good thing about being on hold with United Airlines, waiting for their somewhat incompetent customer service representatives, is that the hold music is "Rhapsody in Blue" by George Gershwin. It makes me want to dance at my desk as though I am Leslie Caron in An American in Paris. Just thought I would share.

Still holding...

Alanis goes acoustic

So Eb has already written a great post about this cd, but I'm going to add my praise as well.

Not to mention my thoughts as to how scary it is that I remember EVERY WORD from EVERY SONG (including the obscure ones, like "Perfect" and "Forgiven"). Seriously, I don't think I've listened to the whole thing since I was maybe 15...the mind is a wonderful and eerie thing.

Hello everyone! Sorry for the hiatus, wasn't exactly into the idea of being on the internet all that much. I was on vacation, after all...not that I didn't check my email at least once a day, because I am attached to it as though it is my invisible umbilical cord to the outside world.

I had SUCH a good time, got to do everything on my list and lots more. Movies in my hometown theatre are a whopping $4.50 for the matinees, so I saw two. I also ate lots and lots of Mexican food, and some barbecue; it all comes back to food for me.

There's more, I'm sure, but my brain is a bit fried. I drove 20 hours to get back to DC, so I could have a car here. Oh the glories of a car in this formerly inaccessible city! It cut my commute in half, and that alone was worth the twenty hours. But I saw some interesting things along the way:

License plates are quite varied. I saw one with a dancing crawdad in the middle, and I thought it was from Mississippi but then I couldn't find it on their website. A dancing crawdad license plate might make living in Mississippi worthwhile. Maybe the plate is from Louisiana - that might be more appropriate, but it was impossible to find anything on their website (which is also quite appropriate). Kentucky, however, had one that looks as though it should be painted on velvet.

Somewhere in southwest Virginia, there is a person or company building houses that look just like Lincoln Logs structures. Each log had to be at least two feet wide (in diameter, for you math nerds out there) and the houses even had the same little green roofs. There's no explaining taste sometimes, I suppose.

The Blue Ridge mountains are bee-yoo-ti-ful. I would totally have taken the scenic route had I not been roughly 16 hours into the trip.

Near Luray Caverns, they have "ENDLESS CAVERN" written a la the "Hollywood" sign on the side of a mountain. Seriously...illusions of grandeur much? I mean, I'm sure they're great but no one thinks you came up with that ad idea on your own.

Mostly the drive was uneventful. And it was quite enjoyable. Not that I'm looking to do it again any time soon, but all things considered I definitely had a good time. Now I just need to get lots of sleep to recover!

I'm comin' home!

Look out, Texas, because I will be there at approximately 7:41 pm. For my week and some-odd days at home I would like taste/experience/participate in the following (in no particular order):

Cheap movies
Mexican food
Happy Hour in Austin
Barbecue
Sonic fountain drinks
Chat with Brianna
Hang with my extended family
Drive a car
Catch up with Sarah

Give Eb hugs

And then I ask all of you to think of me on Monday and Tuesday (the 25 & 26 of July) as I will be driving a 1999 Saturn across the country. Yay for a car in Virginia! Someone really ought to warn Target. And Trader Joe's. For those of you in DC: will miss you, have a fun week, try not to cry yourselves to sleep every night from missing me; for those in Texas: can't wait to see y'all!

A little advice

In a conversation, it is most helpful if the participants have a least one language in common. For instance:

(At a gathering for an international group)

E: So, have you ever been to the United States before?
Syrian guy: (points to self) Architect.
E: Wow, really? That's great. So have you ever visited the U.S. before?
S.G.: I really miss my wife.
E: Er...okay. Nice chatting with you.

See?

And as a further aside, let's all encourage E to start her own blog. I know she wants to, deep down inside, and I think it would be damn funny if I do say so myself. I've already got about twenty emails she could start with...

This makes me so very sad. I know that terrorist attacks happen; frankly, I'm kind of at the point where they seem to be inevitable. But it still made my heart sink into my stomach this morning when I saw the news.

Despite past love letters to Paris, I'm equally smitten with London. I studied there when I was a sophomore...London represents Rachel at the age of 19/20, very clueless and naive, the first experience abroad, loving living in a big city (the city that started the must-eventually-live-in-a-big-city-bug), going to the theatre, trying Guiness and cider, feeling very grown up.

So what to do then? Besides thinking about the sad things happening to many beloved Londoners and listening to the radio reports...listening to Radiohead and drinking (strangely enough) French press coffee, just like it's 1999 and I'm in the kitchen on the third floor of the apartments on Auriol Road.

Feed me

I wonder what the magic age is when you stop appreciating a free lunch or dinner. My guess is never. But I don't know if that "never" includes going to meetings specifically because you know there will be food there...just like in college where I didn't really care all that much about the beautification of the campus mall, but free pizza? I'm in.

I'm going to dinner with a family friend on Thursday night, and it may or may not be some sort of fix-up, as there is a grad school son involved. But again, this is something I am totally willing to overlook/put up with for a meal in a restaurant I have never been to. I'm downright excited to tell you the truth. Of course the family friend is really nice and I had a good visit with her at the otherwise not socially exciting wedding, so I'm sure it will be fun on all fronts. But still, free dinner!

619,000

According to AAA, that's the number of people that will be going at least 50 miles away from DC this weekend.

What they did not share, at least not that I could find, was the number of people coming in. I have already counted at least 500 fanny packs. Why, why must you wear the fanny pack? It's not a requirement to be a dork when you travel. Maybe they didn't get the memo...