Quote of the Day

"Is there some sort of winking thing that Czech people do? Or did I just make a new friend??"

Virginian

Not the rifle-totin' kind though: I got my Virginia license and plates today, so I'm officially a resident. Is it strange that I kind of want to tack up my old Texas plate as a decoration? Good, I didn't think so either.

On a unrelated note, does anyone else think that the sound of any Nickelback song on the radio is much like fingernails down a chalkboard? Man those guys suck. And Train, they're pretty damn annoying as well. Thank goodness for mp3 players.

There's something just wrong with this situation:

I was listening to NPR on my way to work this morning (see earlier post re: me being a nerd) and there was this heart-wrenching story about the Pakistani earthquake and how horrible it is and how practically none of the pledged money from the international community has been received. Then they cut to the telethon fund-raiser that's been going on for what seems like YEARS, and ask again for money to support their programs, with apparently no sense of irony or shame. And I'm thinking: hmm, starving babies in Pakistan or radio programs? No brainer.

New Link

Check out the new "Tricks of the Trade" site off to the right.

This one is my favorite so far:

Street Musician:

Wear a kilt when playing bagpipes on the street. You will make twice as much money than if you wear regular clothes.


Actually, this one is pretty great as well:

Zookeeper

To get an ornate horned frog to release your finger (these gluttons bite hard and are keen to swallow as much of your hand as they can) apply a drop of household vinegar to a corner of the frog's mouth. It will release instantly.

Definitive proof that I am a nerd

I went to a swanky Washington ball tonight. The best part?

I was THIS CLOSE to Sandra Day O'Connor. How cool is that?!

I have grown to detest the smiley

I know that writing emails and such can be impersonal. It's often hard to convey tone, intent, a smile you had when you typed...these things just don't usually go so well in electronic form.

So we have the smiley face. :). Meant, it seems, to soften any email - let the reader know that you were in fact kidding, not just being rude...that it's a sarcastic comment, nothing outright mean.

Trouble is, now I can't get away from it. When I try to go without, I get comments. Yet I still feel so cheesy every time I type one in...as if I'm dotting my eyes with hearts or making dramatic curly-cues with my name in cursive. I am not an eighth-grader anymore, but the smiley sure makes me feel like one. I don't know what else to use though. I know that I come across poorly sometimes, but I rarely if ever mean to, usually I'm joking along too. I swear! I'm the kid that someone would tease, and when I then pretended to act offended or roll my eyes, the teaser tried to apologize. It takes a very great deal to really offend me, just so you all know. I spent the entire first 15 years of my life getting crap for being smart and wearing glasses and the like. So I'm pretty much ready for whatever you got.

But back to the smiley...damn thing has me cornered. And DO NOT even get me started on the new-fangled smileys that convey a range of emotions...I pretty much hate those too...even more than the normal smileys.

:)

Bumper sticker politics

On the way to work this morning I see this:

If you can read this
You're not the President.

Now that's funny.

Bad idea jeans

Does anyone else think that an at home chemical facial peel that's on sale might be a bad idea?

Just writing that made my face hurt a little.

so international

Did you ever wonder what my first name looks like in Russian?

I thought so:
Рэйчел

Here's Azeri:
Reyçel

Pretty cool, huh?

"Beautiful Man"

Listening to this song makes me wish that it made me think of someone.

Concert recap

Someone indirectly asked me (it's a long story, not interesting enough to tell) about my favorite Coldplay concert moment. It got me thinking about it.

Tough question. Largely because I have to think about specific moments, and in a whole blur of people and music and lights and whatnot, those are sort of hard to narrow down.

I think one of my favorites is a general feeling. It's that semi-silence right before a new song is going to start, when the very first hints of chords are being played, and you just know that everyone in the audience is thinking, "which one is this...?" Then there is the tell-tale sound, the dead giveaway of a certain intro, and everyone goes NUTS.

Everyone singing along to "Fix You," just like they do in the video. That was unbelievable.

Hearing "Yellow" live, because that (despite it's being overplayed) is still one of my favorite rock songs of all time.

Ditto for "The Scientist." Except it's probably more of a ballad, not a rock song.

I also love hearing the band chat with the audience; it makes everything so much more personal.

And last but not least, there's this high that lasts for days every time you see people that talented perform, whether they're huge or a garage band. Music is so great.

I'm not really sure what happened...10 days with no blogging have just gone by really quickly I guess.

I went back to Texas. And there was a hurricane. Much drama - grandmother had to be evacuated from Beaumont (by the Air National Guard!), friend was trapped in Houston, other friends couldn't make it up for the planned Saturday night fun. It was crazy. But fun too, and incredibly hot. And that's not Paris Hilton "hot", it's 102-for-a-high-in-September-breaking-all-former-records-hot. It's almost unbelievable that I'm back up here and our low last night was in the 40's. One nice thing about the east coast: fall is an actual season as opposed to a couple of days in October.

I also went to the Coldplay concert, which was GREAT. I love seeing bands I like perform live, there's really nothing like it. And I got to feel like a benefactor: we had an extra ticket because Ginger (as formerly mentioned) was trapped in Houston, so at the last minute we thought to invite my twenty year old cousin. Turns out she is a huge fan and literally went into a girl screaming fit of excitement after I called her, prompting the girls in her tiny college dorm to ask "Is someone engaged!?" Oh but no, way cooler than that (at least when you're 20!) - Coldplay tickets!

I think that's it. I'm so glad it's Friday and the weather is gorgeous. I just might be a good citizen of our nation's capital and hit a museum or two this Saturday. I'll keep you posted...

"Two trailer park girls..."

I can't type "FCC" without launching into an entire Eminem rap. All in my head...luckily for those sitting around me.

26 with a bang

Yesterday I turned 26. It was a pretty fun day, rather uneventful, but I got to hear from a lot of friends, which is really my favorite part of birthdays anyway. My favorite e-card was from my former roommate who is from Poland - she sent me a card that I couldn't really figure out at first, then I realized that at least half of the words were in Yiddish and the little dog in the cartoon had on a yarmulke. Hilarious, largely because I'm pretty sure she had NO idea what she was sending to me.

So in other news, Britney Spears also had her baby on my birthday (as Barbara so quickly pointed out in her e-card!). Sarah and I had been discussing that very fact on the phone, and how she was probably going to name it something atrocious. I hear now that it's "Preston", but in all likelihood, it's spelled Preztyn or similar. Because she's trashy like that.

And in the crowning achievement of my first day as a 26-year old, I got a slight case of food poisoning from my chicken salad that I had had for dinner, and spent the last 30 minutes of my big day (and the next four hours of the day after) feeling pretty awful.

If that's not an auspicious start to another year, then I don't know what is.

Ahem

My visitor was bit by a squirrel this weekend. Now I'm trying to decide, urgent care clinic or general practitioner? I mean, everyone has opinions on what we should do, but none of them are really qualified to make those decisions.

And, just to reiterate: My visitor was BIT BY A SQUIRREL this weekend. I have such a weird job.

That is all.


**Update: Squirrels are not usually rabid as people tend to think they are. Especially in cities. In the event of a squirrel bite, wash with soap and water and keep an eye out for infection. Other bites to look out for though: skunks and armadillos. Because we have lots of armadillos in DC.

Nice Metaphor, by Sting

**Must have heard this song at least twenty times, yet had no idea. Very profound, Sting...very profound.

Then I went off to fight some battle
That I'd invented inside my head
Away so long for years and years
You probably thought or even wished that I was dead
While the armies are all sleeping
Beneath the tattered flag we'd made
I had to stop in my tracks for fear
Of walking on the mines I'd laid

And if I built this fortress around your heart
Encircled you in trenches and barbed wire
Then let me build a bridge
For I cannot fill the chasm
And let me set the battlements on fire...

While watching Dirty Dancing on VH1's "Movies That Rock":

"How can you not love Dirty Dancing? It was THE romantic movie when we were little. Patrick Swayze was so cute...and you had to sneak around to watch it, because your mother forbade you watching anything called Dirty Dancing."

"And we (guys) liked that you liked it...it made you let loose and do some dirty dancing of your own when you went to college."

Perverts, the lot of them.

Please?

I would like to make a public plea to people describing the hurricane.

Please stop referring to it as "our tsunami." It most certainly is not. Not even close. It is extremely tragic, and I am very sad for everyone that lost homes and loved ones. However, every time some public figure refers to the hurricane in this manner, it not only reaffirms that Americans are perhaps the most egocentric people on the planet, but it also makes you look like a moron. I'm not going to go into the details here, but seriously, run a Google search on the two events, and just compare the statistics, and you will in fact see that this is nothing like the tsunami in Asia.

For everyone on the Gulf Coast, my prayers are with you, and with the Red Cross and FEMA and other workers.

Frustration

Who was supposed to be going on a fun, work-is-paying-for-it trip to New Orleans on Labor Day? Um yeah, that would be me. So now I have a plane ticket that Continental may or may not refund. To a city that is primarily under water at the moment. Even if the airport is open, what am I supposed to do when I get there? It's highly possible that hotel in which I have reservations no longer even exists.

No worries, I am not actually going to go. That would be ridiculous. But not as ridiculous as the Continental representatives that are stalling on me. They win in the contest of the ridiculousness.

Chicks were born to give you fever, be it fahrenheit or centigrade...

Someone just told me that wearing my hair straight "brings out [my] beauty."

I love compliments, truly I do. Maybe even more so than the average person...I'd like to believe that I take them well, too. None of this "oh, this old thing?" or "I can't believe you said that, I hate my hair" crap. I generally just say "thank you" (and grin enormously) because I choose to believe that if someone is going to take the time to say something nice to me, they probably mean it.

That being said, I would like to offer some commentary to Fate. If someone is going to like how I look or say nice things to me, could we mix it up a bit and throw some new people in? Perhaps people (ahem, men) who like women? And by like, I do not mean appreciate them for esoteric and aesthetic reasons, I mean like.



On a whole other subject, I have "Fever" by Peggy Lee stuck in my head, hence the title. I'll give you some more lyrics, because they are just that good:

Romeo loved Juliet, Juliet she felt the same
When he put his arms around her, he said "Julie, baby, you're my flame...
Thou givest fever...
When we kisseth, fever with thy flaming youth
FEVER! I'm a fire, fever yea I burn forsooth..."

Is that awesome or what? It's better if you can hear that fab 60's beat in the background. I highly recommend checking it out.