:::Snapshots -- Friday, May 14th, 2010:::

I really like my hair.
Really, really like my hair.
I used to hate it.

Mother's Day in VA

In the midst of an engaging conversation with myself
whilst the happy couple finishes dinner.

Blind milk chocolate taste test.
Michel Cluizel, you came in dead last!
Gummy, waxy, horrid.
Unblinded, I would have put him first.
Sometimes I think we like things just because we want to be cool.
Green and Black's Organic was excellent.
Nice and dry.

Oh, gosh. Dark chocolate. Blech.
I freely admit to being uncool in this regard.

What you find in a doctor's backseat.

Alas, poor Yorick!

Drinking brains.

New earrings from Darly Bird.

I laugh every. single. time. I hear this song.
Then I start singing,
"My mother bids me bind my hair
With ba-hands uh-of ro-sy huuue!!!"

This woman had on the most beautiful sweater.
The sleeves were made of silk and knife-pleated.

We're full swing into peony season here
in the Mid-Atlantic.

Peonies on the bus.

Reading on the bus.

The multipurpose bathroom sink.
Needs must.

I checked out a few DVDs from the library this week.
Turns out they weren't unlocked properly.
I found a tutorial online to solve my problem.
But it required the use of two high power magnets.
???
Guess I'll just have to go back to the library.

:::Snapshots -- It Be Friday, January 29, 2010:::

Things I Like

1. Reading next to an open window on the bus. Fresh air!

2. This bilingual stamp label with the motto of Canada Post -- "From anywhere...to anyone"



3. Craisins in oatmeal. It be crazy delicious. When folded into hot oatmeal and left to sit for a minute or two, they plump up into succulent bits of stewed fruit.

:::Snapshots -- Wednesday, September 23, 2009:::

1. Well, whatever the heck was happening with my body temperature has now ended. Yesterday I felt as hot and stuffy as ever even though the air conditioner was on full blast. I think I have molten lava running through my veins instead of blood. Oh well, it was fun not feeling like a sweaty beast for a few days.

2. I am tired of walking everywhere. Even though I take the metro or the bus, I still have to walk in order to get to the stations or stops. Pound, pound, pound. Every morning as I walk to Union Station, and every night as I make my way up the street to my house. Pound, pound, pound.

3. This morning when I arrived at work I felt especially frazzled, and because of this I kept dropping things, forgetting things, and just doing things wrong. I did manage to get a package ready for Emily, but as I was walking to the mail room I realized that I had separately addressed and stamped the card that I should have included in the package. {Smack} More than likely the package will arrive before the card. {Smack} {Smack}

4. Yesterday I received 220 photos from my Texas trip that I had ordered from Snapfish. Most of them were of a horrible quality. I sent those off today as well in order to get my money back, but not before I had to reopen the thoroughly taped package to include my order information. {SMACK}

5. Today I ate a cookie that was literally the size of a frisbee.


6. That's the book I'm currently reading. I like it. It's well paced and comfortable with a good enough story to keep you going.

7. You would not be able to conceive how much I've spent on lunch in the past two weeks. Here's a hint: lunch in DC runs about $8-$10, easy. Add any kind of side or drink and you're looking at $11 and upwards. Plus, I've ordered Thai food twice. The place I order from has a $15 minimum for delivery.

8. As I was waiting for the bus tonight I looked up and saw some policemen on horseback. I was so happy that I had thought twice and decided to bring my camera to work with me today.


As they passed, the ladies at the bus stop were chatting about how pretty the horses were and how much they reminded them of New York, etc. When the horses had gone through the intersection we all turned back up the street to watch for the buses, and one of the women said, "Oh, now that's a shame."


I call this photo Wednesday, September 23, 2009, On Pavement.

9. Tonight was one of the nights that I ordered Thai. I got some satay sticks, and was surprised to find that a single slice of white bread was included in my order. This confused me, and I wasn't quite sure what to do with it. I've eaten a lot of Thai food in my life, but I've never been served white bread as a side. Unaware of its use, I just threw it away.


10. Someone just posted a Miss Marple episode on YouTube that was taken down about six months ago. Hot dog! I've been waiting for this for a long time.


Meh. Legale, non legale.

:::Snapshots -- Thursday, August 27, 2009:::

1. I left work early today because I was feeling really fatigued. I took a cab home -- which I'm always game for -- and got a little sad as I drove past all the museums and realized how much I missed the hospitable weather of fall and spring. Pretty soon I'll be able to move about comfortably again. See ya later summer, you won't be missed.

2. When I was talking to my mom tonight I heard my dad break out into laughter in the background. Apparently he was watching football bloopers. I always like hearing him laugh that way.

3. I've started reading the Book of Mormon again, and I'm highlighting every instance when someone directly asks the Lord for help in a prayer, how the Lord answers back, and what the outcome is. I'm using a new paperback version, so the pages are free of previous marks. This will be exciting and should give me some good examples and guidance.

4. Why haven't there been many pictures on the blog lately? To be honest, I'm not loving the new camera. I guess that in the few years between when I bought my first camera and when I bought this one, Canon decided to be cute and switch up some of the functionality of the A series. I feel like I have less control now than I did before, and the way the buttons work annoys me.


5, Yeah, ate the whole thing.

:::snapshots do-over -- saturday, february 21, 2009:::

my sister accused me of being in a bad mood yesterday, probably in regards to my spelling rant, so i decided to do a snapshots do-over for you today.

1. today was a housekeeping day, though i feel like i did more shifting and stacking than genuine cleaning and organizing. oh well. at least i was able to put things away that had migrated to various places over the course of the week. that always feels good.

as i was getting started this morning i had to make a special trip to the bathroom just to get water, not to drink, but to fill up various containers. there you see the big blue reservoir for my humidifier, the evian bottle that i cut the top off of and use to fill my clothes steamer, and the little purple spray bottle that i spritz my houseplant with.

besides that, i usually have at least two cups in my room, one filled with ice and the other filled with water. i'll have to post about my ocd tendencies with mixing ice water some other day...

2. my boss took me out to lunch yesterday for my birthday. we went to my least favorite place in the area, but the lunch was still decent and of course it was a very nice gesture. i ate my leftovers -- crispy fish burrito and fried plantains -- for lunch today.

3. the cutest little girl in the universe turned 6 this week! she called me this morning to tell me that she is about to lose her first tooth, and the realization that we can't keep her from getting older actually hurt my heart. losing teeth? she might as well be a teenager. i can't handle it.

when she told me she had a tooth that was 'a little bit loose like it's falling out,' i said, 'NO!' and she quickly replied, 'TRUE!' she so funny, but seriously, who is this grown up child? anyone else remember this?

sunrise, sunset...

4. laundry time! i had to make three trips downstairs before there were enough washers open to accommodate all of my loads. i could have done single loads throughout the morning, but that drives me nuts, so i waited until i could use four machines at once.

5. the girl who cleans my room each week gave me a collection of scrapbook papers for my birthday. i was totally floored by her generosity. on the outside of the package she had written funny messages like, 'just a bunch of stuff i stole from your room,' and 'there's nothing in here, i'm poor.' receiving her gift was one of the best parts of my birthday.

inside the pack were these dividers to separate your papers with. how fortuitous! i really needed these and was about to make some myself. score!

6. speaking of being crafty, i've really lost my inspiration. this afternoon i was determined to make something, so i started a small decoupaging project that i eventually had to throw away because it was so heinous. i guess i'll stop forcing it until i get that loving feeling back.


7. during our conversation this evening about, what else, my life, my mom was giving me career advise and at one point made a reference to 'hemingway and his drunken friends.' i really like my mom.

8. i went to the little market near my house tonight to get dinner for tomorrow. i also picked up these hit cookies that i remember eating at my french friend's house all throughout childhood. i had to laugh after examining the packaging and discovering the descriptions written in english and spanish, though they were made in poland by a company based in germany! ah, globalisation...

and yes, i did just spell globalisation with the common british spelling, even though the OED has this to say about that...

"... some have used the spelling -ise in English, as in French [...] But the suffix itself, whatever the element to which it is added, is in its origin the Greek -izein, Latin -izare; and, as the pronunciation is also with z, there is no reason why in English the special French spelling should be followed, in opposition to that which is at once etymological and phonetic. In this Dictionary the termination is uniformly written -ize."

chacun à son goût.

but tonite still isn't a word.

:::snapshots -- friday, february 20, 2009:::

1. i bought my very first suit this week. a skirt suit, of course. it's fully lined. have you ever worn a fully lined suit? it's like butter putting it on. silky nirvana for your arms. i'm in love.

2. even though i expect it, the email from zappos telling me that my shipping has been upgraded to free overnight delivery still makes me happy.

3. my windows are being cleaned as we speak. like, right now. weird.

4. the power went out on our block yesterday afternoon at work. after putzing around for two hours, we decided to get happy thursday started a little early. grape soda for the believers, and chicken fingers in the dark.

5. my knees hurt.

6. tuff is not a word. tonite hasn't been a word since the ink was wet on the magna carta. for the love of mike, people, i can't handle it anymore! TONITE IS NOT A WORD!!!

7. how do you turn down birthday gestures you don't want? answer -- you can't. dang it.

:::snapshots -- friday, january 30, 2009:::

1. it snowed this week, and, oh, mamma mia, people freaked out. this town.

i have learned that i can't handle a winter without snow; it's just too cruel. it's cold and gray, you never see the sun, but there's no lovely snow to wake-up to, to watch fall from a picture window, to cover the brown grass and dead trees...alas for mid-atlantic winters.


2. one of my favorite people at work left to start a new job this week, and i was invited to her farewell lunch along with some of my other favorite people at work. in total it was four of us staff members and one attorney who is only a few months older than i am. she provided the supervision (use air quotes with that one) and the company AmEx. we ended up staying at the restaurant for two hours and we laughed the entire time.

this is a picture looking out from our table. the main dining room had a row of tables running down the center that were set in little semi-rooms. the walls were made of dark wood panelling and stood about 7 feet high, and at the opening of the room there was a heavy green curtain on a brass rod that could be drawn to provide privacy. it provided such a nice atmosphere for our jovial (yep) group.

these are the doors leading out of the restaurant. aren't they pretty?

3. wednesday night while i was laying in bed i tried to see if i could watch my youtube videos on my phone.

score! british mysteries on the go, my life is complete.


4. i got my second issue of seeing the everday this week. i haven't read most of the first issue, but i still recommend it for the pretty pictures. there you go.

5. i'm so glad it's friday. i felt every minute passing by today at work. weekend, welcome! i've got my monkey slippers on and i'm not going anywhere.

6. today my mom had her last chemo treatment! more on that later. she'll be sick all weekend, and then, THEN, she'll be done, done, done with those horrible (but life-saving) treatments!! on to radiation...

7. my posts of late have only been these snapshots and then the weekly spt. admittedly, i haven't been in the mood for blogging this past week. i hope these snapshots work for you at least a fraction as well as they work for me. i like them because even when i have zero motivation to write i can still do one of these posts and get some documentation down.

:::snapshots -- monday, january 26, 2009:::

{still loving macro mode}

1. first, roberts screws up the oath, now it turns out the musical number was prerecorded?! what's next? is W still president? is santa dead? yeah, yeah, i know it's hard to play in the cold. it's still a bit of a downer though.

i have to admit that i wasn't that impressed with what john williams composed. here is the concurring opinion of a smart person, lest you think i'm a philistine. my favorite quote from the article is, "Rather than write what he is good at, he corseted himself in a straitjacket of what he thought he was supposed to be doing." here, here.

2. i found another store to share: redstamp.com.

not thoroughly inspiring, but still fun.


3. today started out as a 'serenity now' day at work. one of my new year's resolution is to go with the flow more. i think i can, i think i can, i think i can...


4. i did so much work this weekend. it really amazes me how many hours there are in the day when you don't mess around. this weekend alone i finished, stuffed, and addressed all of my valentine's cards, reorganized my closet and reorganized it again, hung a bulletin board using an ingenius system (i can't make holes in my walls), sorted through and folded more clothes for Goodwill, ran errands downtown, and solved a major computer issue, among other things.

i love my word for this year! i'm so glad i picked an action word and not something contemplative. i really need the motivation to actively do what needs to be done, as opposed to sitting around thinking, pondering, and philosophizing (a bad habit of mine).

5. this weekend i was contemplating (see!) what i would possibly do with my life after i felt that i was done in dc. go back to utah? the thought isn't as appealing as it used to be. i unashamedly love utah -- the glorious springs, the white winters, the mountains!!! -- but i'm afraid that i'd just be a nobody again if i moved back there, whereas out here i never feel that way. i'm not eager to be under that cloud again.

i also wonder if i would feel trapped (another feeling from the past), or disappointed that i didn't try other places. to be honest, if i ever went back to utah i don't think i would leave again, so i want to make sure i do all of my living before i settled down.

oh, i just felt a little nauseated when i typed 'settled down'. let's move on, quickly.


6. the heat in my office should really be called 'heat', since it blows cold air straight at me all day long. i've got a blanket draped over my front and have consumed two mugs of hot cocoa since 10 am in an effort to get warm. i might need to purchase a little heater. this is just ridiculous.


7. the american history museum reopened a few months ago after being closed for an annoyingly long time. i plan on going this weekend to see the new lincoln exhibit and to revisit julia child's kitchen, which is my favorite museum exhibit of all time. i love seeing things in situ and supported by context. this is one of the reasons i struggle with traditional art museums -- white walls and little tags just don't do enough to pull me into the art. i always want to know more about where the piece was created, what the life of the artist was like, what his/her supplies looked like in their studio, what the political climate was like, what they ate...

i take the same approach to literature, which, if memory serves me correctly, lends me towards the school of new historicism. heidi? rachel? i feel that a piece of art or literature is just one little point on a larger spider web, that there are always lines of influence that have merged at that nexus to the point of creation.

spider webs are great visualization tools. my first critical theory teacher always used them to describe structuralism and deconstruction to our confused little minds. i miss my literature classes. i could almost be persuaded to pursue a career in academia but for the tales of politicking and infighting. oh well...


8. i'm going to ask my sister to cut my hair for my birthday. only a fellow texture-haired person can truly understand what you want and need from a hair cut.

:::snapshots -- friday, january 16, 2009:::

1. it's currently 12 degrees. the high today is 22. as i walked out of my building this morning i told myself, 'i can do hard things.' and cold things...

2. there have been planes and helicopters in the air space since last weekend. i live and work under restricted air space, so it's weird to hear engines and propellers above my head again.

3. i majorly spaced a commitment last night. majorly. woops.

4. i finally, finally got my dc license yesterday. did you know that legally you have to change your license within a few short months of becoming a residence of a new state? another woops. better late than never.

this was my second time going to this dmv to try and complete the process. thankfully, on this trip the only hitch was that my check card wouldn't go through so i had to go to the atm and get cash out. i know the woman behind the counter entered my numbers wrong, and i was annoyed that i had to pay a $2.50 fee to use another bank's atm, but i really didn't want to fight it. i'm just considering it a surcharge from the universe for having such a pleasant dmv experience on the whole. my sanity and not being rude to someone are well worth $2.50.

5. i need to be better at carrying cab fare with me for unplanned trips. like today -- it's so stinking cold and i may not feel like walking home tonight. my preferred denomination of cab fare money is two fives and ten ones. it costs about $7-$8 every time i ride a cab, so i can either give the driver $10 or a five and some ones. i'm sure that seems like a lot of money to spend for a ride home, but cabs will save your sanity, i'm telling you. plus, that's how much it costs to eat lunch around here and i've been bringing a lean cuisine every day for a few weeks. the average cost of a lean cuisine is $2.50 (yes, as i was getting money out of the atm yesterday i thought of that), so i'm saving little bits of money every day.

you don't care...why am i telling you this?


6. my thoughts on the outgoing president -- eight years, wow. there's so much being said, so much that's been said about bush. in all, i'm not a fan, mainly because i don't appreciate his leadership style, i.e., his attitude, outlooks, communication styles, etc., the presence of his presidential office.

7. my thoughts on the incoming president -- i want the hoopla to calm down. i expect obama to very shortly prove himself to this country, and to the world. to me, at least, the wave of popularity that he rode into office on no longer matters. it's time to earn your keep, buddy.

8. today i am alone in the library. i find that these days are some of my most productive. i have so much to catch up on and i'm hoping that i can lop a chunk off of all the projects sitting on my desk right now.

9. my patience with personalities has been worn thin this week. t-h-i-n. the weekend couldn't come at a better time.

10. some people at work are spending the night in the office on monday since we're so close to the white house and the parade route. i want to spend the night in the office, not because i want to see anything, but because it's been a dream of mine ever since i read from the mixed from the mixed-up files of mrs. basil e. frankweiler. that's the best book, isn't it?