Sunday, April 26, 2009
Friday, April 24, 2009
Two lists
Things I Have Not Done Lately:
- Written in this blog (obviously)
- Written anything else to speak of (alarmingly)
- Knitted
- Watched TV except for Chuck and Bones, neither of which will be denied
- Gone to bed on time
- Cleaned the bathroom or the floors
Things I Have Done Instead:
- I have no idea. Seriously. Wherefore art thou, April?
- Gone with church community group to Georgetown retirement home for hilarious conversation-and-singalong time, wherein musical age gap is revealed. All present can sing chorus and first verse of "America the Beautiful," and that's all.
- Attended and enjoyed This American Life Live ("live" in the sense of "at the same time at different theaters"); finally admitted vague crush on Ira Glass. (Ironically, Live re-runs at theaters nationwide on May 7. You should go.)
- Designed and built a website.
- Became hooked on easy and delicious Asian noodle salad; set personal record of finishing package of tofu in two days.
- Got head/chest cold; stopped running; felt like blob; ran anyway
- Replaced The New Pornographers' "The Laws Have Changed" with Bon Iver's "Skinny Love" at the top of iTunes most-played list.
That is all.
- Written in this blog (obviously)
- Written anything else to speak of (alarmingly)
- Knitted
- Watched TV except for Chuck and Bones, neither of which will be denied
- Gone to bed on time
- Cleaned the bathroom or the floors
Things I Have Done Instead:
- I have no idea. Seriously. Wherefore art thou, April?
- Gone with church community group to Georgetown retirement home for hilarious conversation-and-singalong time, wherein musical age gap is revealed. All present can sing chorus and first verse of "America the Beautiful," and that's all.
- Attended and enjoyed This American Life Live ("live" in the sense of "at the same time at different theaters"); finally admitted vague crush on Ira Glass. (Ironically, Live re-runs at theaters nationwide on May 7. You should go.)
- Designed and built a website.
- Became hooked on easy and delicious Asian noodle salad; set personal record of finishing package of tofu in two days.
- Got head/chest cold; stopped running; felt like blob; ran anyway
- Replaced The New Pornographers' "The Laws Have Changed" with Bon Iver's "Skinny Love" at the top of iTunes most-played list.
That is all.
Monday, April 13, 2009
12 of 12: April
Extra double bonus points for the twelfth falling not only on a weekend, but on a major religious holiday (...that I celebrate)! This is so much better than eight pictures of my desk, three of my meals, and one (invariably) of me watching Jon Stewart. I hope you agree. Also, I'm out of my photographic element, visiting family in Armonk, NY for the weekend.
For more 12 of 12 info and/or madness, check out Chad Darnell's blog.
7:55 - Happy Easter! He is risen! I, however, am not. Yet.
8:23 - The guest room (slash my cousin's old bedroom) at my aunt and uncle's house. I love staying here.
8:39 - Ready for church. Neither snow nor sleet nor 40-degree weather will keep me from wearing my new sundress, sans nylons, this morning. Little did you know that my feet have mysteriously disappeared.
8:56 - On the road to church with my aunt.
9:02 - Easter lilies. I've always liked how lilies are kind of a messy flower--their pollen gets everywhere.
11:15 - You will know the Presbyterians by the mostly-empty trays of goodies they leave in their wake. (Totally a good reason to go Presbyterian, by the way.)
11:30 - The upside to having church in a gym: after-service hockey! Pots of Easter flowers make excellent goalposts, as any church kid will tell you.
12:03 - It is a truth universally acknowledged that it must be freezing on Easter, but at least we got plenty of sunshine. (Note the complete lack of leaves on the tree, though. Spring is still half asleep up here.)
3:36 - Easter lunch detritus in the kitchen.
4:28 - Checking in on various Easters back home, and wondering whether they'd wait for me if I ran to the airport now. Triple-timing, bicoastal Easter would be awesome, don't you think? Oh, to have spring break again.
6:00 - My portable knitting, the Lace Ribbon Scarf. We're making up slowly afterI made a mistake a tiny yarny fight. I may have been giving it the cold shoulder, a bit.
6:42 - After a major holiday, we do just what every red-blooded American family would: sit around with our leftover hors d'oeuvres and our BBC costume dramas and our yarn (well, that part's just me). Doesn't everybody?
Happy (day after) Easter, all. See you May 12 if not before.
For more 12 of 12 info and/or madness, check out Chad Darnell's blog.
7:55 - Happy Easter! He is risen! I, however, am not. Yet.
8:23 - The guest room (slash my cousin's old bedroom) at my aunt and uncle's house. I love staying here.
8:39 - Ready for church. Neither snow nor sleet nor 40-degree weather will keep me from wearing my new sundress, sans nylons, this morning. Little did you know that my feet have mysteriously disappeared.
8:56 - On the road to church with my aunt.
9:02 - Easter lilies. I've always liked how lilies are kind of a messy flower--their pollen gets everywhere.
11:15 - You will know the Presbyterians by the mostly-empty trays of goodies they leave in their wake. (Totally a good reason to go Presbyterian, by the way.)
11:30 - The upside to having church in a gym: after-service hockey! Pots of Easter flowers make excellent goalposts, as any church kid will tell you.
12:03 - It is a truth universally acknowledged that it must be freezing on Easter, but at least we got plenty of sunshine. (Note the complete lack of leaves on the tree, though. Spring is still half asleep up here.)
3:36 - Easter lunch detritus in the kitchen.
4:28 - Checking in on various Easters back home, and wondering whether they'd wait for me if I ran to the airport now. Triple-timing, bicoastal Easter would be awesome, don't you think? Oh, to have spring break again.
6:00 - My portable knitting, the Lace Ribbon Scarf. We're making up slowly after
6:42 - After a major holiday, we do just what every red-blooded American family would: sit around with our leftover hors d'oeuvres and our BBC costume dramas and our yarn (well, that part's just me). Doesn't everybody?
Happy (day after) Easter, all. See you May 12 if not before.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Death and...
I think that I need to clarify something for the U.S. government.
I don't mind taxes, in the grand Swedish pseudo-socialist universal-health-care sense. I think the government should provide services to its citizens, not for the 90% of us who are perfectly able to put roofs over our heads and medicine in our medicine cabinets, but for those of us who aren't able to do those things. I have enough, and even if the government isn't the most efficient machine for distributing the money, I don't mind sharing.
But when I say that I don't mind taxes, I do not mean that I don't mind DOING my taxes. That, I mind deeply. I spent all week calling financial institutions and collecting paperwork and checking form numbers and parsing through the exact wording of the tax form. I got them filed, but in response, I'd like to say: Shut up, IRS.
And I'll see you again next April.
I don't mind taxes, in the grand Swedish pseudo-socialist universal-health-care sense. I think the government should provide services to its citizens, not for the 90% of us who are perfectly able to put roofs over our heads and medicine in our medicine cabinets, but for those of us who aren't able to do those things. I have enough, and even if the government isn't the most efficient machine for distributing the money, I don't mind sharing.
But when I say that I don't mind taxes, I do not mean that I don't mind DOING my taxes. That, I mind deeply. I spent all week calling financial institutions and collecting paperwork and checking form numbers and parsing through the exact wording of the tax form. I got them filed, but in response, I'd like to say: Shut up, IRS.
And I'll see you again next April.
Sunday, April 05, 2009
I want to go to there
Well, I had a good weekend. I went here.
The sister of a family friend lives on the York River--right on the York River, as you can see--and when she heard I was a writer, she called me up and offered me the use of her family's guest house as a writer's retreat. Wonderful! Sometimes people are just too nice to be believed.
It was a fabulous way to spend a day and a half away--I had the guest house to myself, but an open invitation to hang out with my hosts. I only stayed overnight, but together, we hiked around and played with my hosts' little great-niece and watched the sunset and messed around with the telescope, and then I got up this morning and watched the jellyfish (big red ones!) off the dock while I ate my breakfast.
I even got some writing done in between the wide-eyed exploring, if you can believe it. Laying the groundwork for the pilot I'm writing is proving really hard--I thought I'd be way into the dialogue by now, but I'm still pushing through what happens and when--but I got Acts I, II, and V plotted out over the weekend. It was good to have a place to sit down with this story in a place where my life isn't staring me in the face. I'm so grateful for the time and space, and you can bet I'll be taking them up on their invitation to come back--if I don't tell them and none of you tell them, do you think they'd notice if I slowly moved my entire apartment into the cottage? Shhhhh.
The sister of a family friend lives on the York River--right on the York River, as you can see--and when she heard I was a writer, she called me up and offered me the use of her family's guest house as a writer's retreat. Wonderful! Sometimes people are just too nice to be believed.
It was a fabulous way to spend a day and a half away--I had the guest house to myself, but an open invitation to hang out with my hosts. I only stayed overnight, but together, we hiked around and played with my hosts' little great-niece and watched the sunset and messed around with the telescope, and then I got up this morning and watched the jellyfish (big red ones!) off the dock while I ate my breakfast.
I even got some writing done in between the wide-eyed exploring, if you can believe it. Laying the groundwork for the pilot I'm writing is proving really hard--I thought I'd be way into the dialogue by now, but I'm still pushing through what happens and when--but I got Acts I, II, and V plotted out over the weekend. It was good to have a place to sit down with this story in a place where my life isn't staring me in the face. I'm so grateful for the time and space, and you can bet I'll be taking them up on their invitation to come back--if I don't tell them and none of you tell them, do you think they'd notice if I slowly moved my entire apartment into the cottage? Shhhhh.
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