|
|
Saturday, November 18th, 2006
| |
2:40 pm
|
Because I have 45 pages of academic writing due on Monday, I thought today seemed like a really great time to post to LJ for the first time in about a year.
Greg and I got into a heated discussion of the matter below over lunch -- so heated, in fact, that I decided to upgrade to LJ "Plus" just so I can get you all to comment on it and show him that I am, of course, right. ( So do this poll ... )
|
|
(12 comments | comment on this)
|
| Wednesday, October 5th, 2005
| |
7:34 pm - Meet Prickles!
|
Um, this is my new pet hedgehog, Prickles. I know Prickles is a completely dumb name for a hedgehog. But look, she's purple! And if you click on her for long enough, she ... well, I'll let you experience this for yourself.
Oh, the many ways I can waste time now that I have Internet access in my dorm room!
|
|
(6 comments | comment on this)
|
| Wednesday, September 7th, 2005
| |
10:50 pm - The bridal gown saga continues
|
Thanks, everybody, for your helpful comments on the dresses I posted about two weeks ago. As you unanimously suggested, I did not return to the Pittsburgh shop to buy the Mon Cheri dress (although I swear y'all would like it better if you'd seen it in person), and by the next day I realized I'd been taken in by the saleslady's hard-sell, paid-on-commission sweet-talking. I vowed not to fall for that trick again. In fact, I also thought I would wait a while before trying on more dresses, but that resolution did not last long.
The following week, I decided to go to (oh, I am embarrassed even to admit it) David's Bridal. Even though I was reasonably well convinced that David's Bridal is the Wal-Mart of bridal salons, I still harbored some suspicions that perhaps I could find a beautiful dress there for $400 and move on with my life. So I went, and I found nothing. A complete waste of time. The dressing room floor was covered with beads that fell off the dresses as I tried them on. Not impressed.
For my next act, I went with ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) logie, dirtkid, and my FMIL (that's Future Mother In Law to those of you who haven't been reading bridal boards obsessively) to Bridal Mart, a slightly overwhelming superstore in Burlington, NC. My favorite dress there was Allure Bridals #8269, which does not seem to exist according to their Web site, though it's not too dissimilar to the #8210. The beads were tiny and the design fancy but not over-elaborate -- probably a step up in classiness from the Mon Cheri.
Still haunted by the Mikaella dress (#1062 here), I visited it again tonight. I still really liked it, although something about that seam at the waist started to bother me. Afterward, I visited a brand new bridal salon in Keene, the new home of the dressmaker who designed my mom's dress for the Oscars, Pamela Moore. I hadn't really even been planning to try anything on, but decided to take a couple gowns into the dressing room since she'd been so nice to my mom. Oops. One of them was this beauty by obscure British designer Augusta Jones (which means there's no way I'm going to find a used version of this dress floating around the Internet for sale). Ooh. It's soo pretty. It comes with a matching veil that has the same embroidery on it which cascades even beyond the train, and Pamela would do the bustle for free ... but still. It's $1500. That's about $700 more than I'd been hoping to spend on a dress, and $400 more than the Mikaella dress. I've spent this evening trying to think up ways to skimp on the rest of the wedding to generate $700 extra dollars. Hmmm.
The search will continue in Boston, home of several designer discounters. More updates to follow.
|
|
(11 comments | comment on this)
|
| Thursday, August 25th, 2005
| |
4:08 pm - Emergency bridal attire question
|
What do you all think of this wedding dress, with silver and white beading rather than the red and gold shown?
If I can make up my mind by 8 p.m., I get $100 off the price, which would make it suit my budget. Adding to the delight, it's long enough that it wouldn't need special hemming, and it has a detachable train so I wouldn't have to pay for bustling, so that's $200 of alterations that I'd save, too.
Unfortunately, I am still haunted by the lovely, albeit overpriced, simplicity of the Mikaella #1062. Also, I completely suck at making such decisions in general. And I'm afraid that if I get a dress this early, I won't like it anymore by the end of next July.
On the other hand, the dress is completely gorgeous, and total strangers in the bridal salon told me I should get it. And if it doesn't turn out to be the one, I can always sell it on ebay or something. Hmm. Any opinions?
|
|
(7 comments | comment on this)
|
| Tuesday, July 26th, 2005
| |
1:08 pm
|
Conversation this morning in the bathroom, following me clumsily dropping my toothbrush into the toilet:
Greg: That's Moore's Law, that when you drop your toothbrush it falls in the toilet.
Me: Huh. That must be a science joke. I don't get it.
Greg: You know, Moore's Law. Whatever can go wrong, will.
Me: That's Murphy's Law.
Greg: Oh, right. Moore's Law is the doubling of processor speeds. Completely different thing.
|
|
(1 comment | comment on this)
|
| Saturday, July 16th, 2005
| |
2:29 am
|
I feel a little lame about being wide awake at 2:30 a.m. and yet not yet possessing a copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. J.K. Rowling, I promise that when book 7 comes out, I will do this right. Unless, of course, book 6 completely disenchants me with the whole thing.
Greg and I did, however, go to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory tonight, which, combined with our viewing of March of the Penguins on Wednesday, means that we have seen more movies in the theater in the last two days than in the last 10 months combined.
Only four more weeks left of CPE!
|
|
(3 comments | comment on this)
|
| Sunday, June 19th, 2005
| |
8:12 pm
|
|
| Friday, April 15th, 2005
| |
5:09 pm
|
Who's going to a free outdoor concert by the Shins tonight, within walking distance of our house??
Me and Greg!
Life is good.
|
|
(1 comment | comment on this)
|
| Wednesday, March 30th, 2005
| |
2:08 pm
|
Things that are entirely unexpected and really quite wonderful: receiving a bouquet of roses from future sisters-in-law. Hooray! Thanks, Logan, Lindsey, and Gwen!!
Things that are really, really weird to start saying: the phrase "future sisters-in-law."
|
|
(4 comments | comment on this)
|
| Friday, March 25th, 2005
| |
8:33 pm
|
|
Anybody left here who doesn't read my blog? Check it out for some extra-special, very-important, quite wonderful news!
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Monday, December 20th, 2004
| |
9:13 am
|
Whoa, we got five inches of snow here overnight. This will show barlow what New England is all about. If he ever gets out from under the covers, that is.
We're having a fun time, although we didn't manage to make it to Granite Gorge (they were closed for tubing still, yesterday. I imagine that they'll be open today, given the snow). Mr. Tucker (of user icon fame) slept on Greg's head in an Evergreen Ave. initiation rite.
Today, onward to Mount Holyoke -- if we can manage to get there without sliding off the road, of course. We'll see.
|
|
(2 comments | comment on this)
|
| Saturday, November 27th, 2004
| |
11:27 pm
|
|
Yes, it's been ages since I updated here (I've been busy treading water, but I read my friends list just about every day) but this seems like the most appropriate place to direct you all to that hip-hop classic, Gangsta Knitter. Go back to your patterns, boys. We're free-stylin' here.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Wednesday, September 8th, 2004
| |
7:55 pm
|
"How come you haven't posted in such a long time?" missmary6 asked me on the phone about a week ago. "Oh, it's because I have a Real Blog!" I said, and pointed her toward my new baby, Treading Water. She approves, even if she says it's "super holy" (which is, after all, kind of the point). "Is that why Greg hasn't posted, either?" she continued. "Does he have a new blog too?" "No," I replied. "He's just lazy."
So, I'm putting most of my Internet-self-disclosure energy into that site right now. But never fear. First off, I'm going to continue reading my Friends list on a daily if not hourly basis. And second, you can keep up with all my musings by adding ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/syndicated.gif) treadingwater1 to your friends list! No pressure, of course. I'm not one of those people who believes that the "friends" label on LJ actually translates into anything meaningful in the realm of human relations. But if you want to hear about my first year at seminary from a progressive Protestant perspective, add away.
I'm leaving for Andover Newton tomorrow. I would have said "tomorrow morning," but, as nothing's in the car and it's pouring right now, that's not going to happen. I spent today tracking down my new computer, which required driving to Greenfield, but proved to be worth it because it's cute and easy to use. Now for some more laundry and packing. The excitement never ceases.
|
|
(1 comment | comment on this)
|
| Tuesday, August 17th, 2004
| |
12:50 pm
|
|
It's downright scary, some of the information you can have in your head without even realizing it's there. I was just entering the Chicago publication "Neighbors" into MediaMap to see if it would be a good fit for our Chicago forum publicity, and found myself singing the Australian soap anthem (everybody, now!): "Neighbours ... everybody needs good neighbours! With a little understanding, we can find the perfect blend. That's when good neighbours become good friends."
|
|
(3 comments | comment on this)
|
| Monday, August 9th, 2004
| |
6:50 pm
|
Today I closed up our Crystal City apartment. It's been a lengthy process that's required lots of paper towels and Fantastik. And tears, of course,
because I'm incapable of leaving any place without feeling a hearty nostalgia.
I was washing the last few dishes and I thought of Ox Cart Man. You remember Ox Cart Man: the hero of Donald Hall's Caldecott-medal-winning picture book. Ox Cart Man and his family spent all year shearing and spinning and weaving, whittling and hammering, planting and harvesting, so that he could gather goods to sell at market. Finally he goes on a long journey to market, and he sells everything: the wool blankets, the pegs and boxes, the grain and seeds, and last he even sells his cart and his ox. Similarly, I washed out the saucepans, silverware, tupperware, and finally rinsed out the scrub brush itself. It is true, as Ecclesiastes writes and the Byrds sang, there is a time to build up and a time to break down. It is these in-between times, when you've sold your ox and cart, when you lock that apartment door and give away your key, these times before the building-up-again begins, that hurt so much.
I know I will be happy in Boston. But building up takes time, and it will be a while before that happiness can start.
current mood:  melancholy
|
|
(1 comment | comment on this)
|
| Sunday, August 8th, 2004
| |
8:24 pm
|
Gregory and I have had an enormously busy weekend. Since 8:30 a.m. Saturday, we have ...
- Had breakfast with my newlywed friends Kate and Steve (see wedding photos in my entry dated early July) and wished them happy travels as they begin their work in Greensboro.
- gone back to sleep, because who wants to get up at 8:30 Saturday morning?
- taken the Metro to Woodley Park and had lunch
- visited the National Zoo, where we got to watch the pandas at quite close range (they're adorable) and also enjoyed the Small Mammals and orangutans and elephants and the cheetah
- returned to Arlington and walked down to 23rd St. On the way there, we ran into not one but two delusional people at crosswalks who said unsettling things like, "If you want to know what all these red people are doing walking around, they're after me. My father took a hit out on me, his own daughter. It's because of the money he embezzled from Rockefeller."
- looked for a Chinese restaurant that came highly recommended in the Ethnic Dining Guide, but discovered it's gone out of business.
- decided instead to have noodle soup at a Vietnamese restaurant
- fallen in love with Vietnamese noodle soup
- driven to a large movie theater with inadequate parking in Alexandria, circled the parking lot for fifteen minutes, and left
- hung out at Barnes & Noble waiting for the movie to start at the theater down the street from us
- paid through the nose to see my ex-boyfriend's father's cousin in Spiderman 2, which I won't comment about here because I think we're the last people in the world who haven't seen it (to make matters worse, we also haven't seen Farenheit 911)
- come home, gone to bed
- woken up at 8:00 this morning
- taken the Metro to Foggy Bottom and walked to The United Church
- heard an interestingly pre-millennial sermon and experienced a passing-of-the-peace that lasted as long as an entire hymn
- made grilled cheese and tomato soup for lunch
- mopped up the soup that I spelled all over the kitchen floor
- gotten lost in Mount Vernon because the Pope-Leighey house is very poorly signposted
- finally located the house (one of Frank Lloyd Wright's Usonian houses), which I liked far better than I'd imagined. The new plan: our main house will be octagonal, our lake house with be Wrightian
- bought groceries
- cooked a delicious dinner of pork chops in maple syrup glaze accompanied by sauteed mushrooms and spinach
- written this list
Whoa. And now I think I'm going to go to bed.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Thursday, August 5th, 2004
| |
7:57 am - Books galore
|
|
| Wednesday, July 21st, 2004
| |
10:11 pm - Happy 'Versary, Gregory J!
|
Just about exactly a year ago, I pressed "send" on what may be the most valuable Friendster message anyone has ever sent. Then, before going to bed, I wrote in my journal: "Hey, excellent news on the Find-A-Man front: I found this guy Greg, who sounds like he could be my twin: drinks tea, is a smart-snob, listens to the NC folk show on NPR, lists Edna St. Vincent Millay as a Livejournal interest(1). He sounds like a big dork, in other words, but that probably suits me. So I messaged him, because what on earth do I have to lose?"
It's been a great year; thank goodness for the "power of the Internet" and the strange serendipity of this wonderful adventure. I know you're embarassed by public declarations, sweetie, but let it be said: I'm ever so happy and I love you so much. Yay, us!
--
(1) I didn't know the whole Edna St. Vincent Millay story then, of course. I keep meaning to lend Greg my volume of Collected Poems so he can actually read some of her work.
|
|
(2 comments | comment on this)
|
| Saturday, July 17th, 2004
| |
10:41 am - I was thinking of something a little less gangsta.
|
Once upon a time, I had goals and dreams for today. I was going to be the most goshdarned accomplished young lady you've ever met. I was going to rock the correspondence world, I was finally going to get that TFA contact info mailing out, I was going to clean this messy room. Then, Greg turned me on to Gold Miner. Now I'm afraid my days of productivity are over.
Speaking of the boy who got up at 7 a.m. this morning to watch the British Open, last night he and I and a few MHC chums went to see Saved. We'd been intending to see it for well over a month, and were quite surprised to find it's still playing. The theater, Foxchase in Alexandria, is on-beyond-sketchy, with a lobby full of loitering, smoking men and theaters that haven't been renovated since 1973. This meant, though, that Greg, Leslie, Gillian, and I were the only people there, so we got to hoot loudly and put our feet on the seats without worrying about annoying others.
I liked the movie. I'd been a little afraid that it would unfairly skewer sincere belief systems, but I found that, instead, it was disdainful of evangelical culture more than any system of doctrine. The characters spouted theological lingo ("he died for your sins!") and tossed Bibles around, but never actually cited the Good Book, never backed up their wackiness with anything real. I enjoyed the scenes of honest prayer (best prayer ever in a movie: Mary standing in front of a cross, saying "Shit!") and thought Macauley Culkin was oddly convincing. Apparently, I dig boys in wheelchairs, because I felt the same way about Jude Law in Gattaca in this post here. In the realm of the unconvincing, though, was the poorly-written role of Patrick ... no matter how hard Patrick Fugit tried, you just can't make a high-school boy say, "I really like you" and have it sound like something that any high-school boy in the universe would actually say. Or maybe I didn't know the right boys in high school.
Speaking of high school, I will share one more paragraph and then I'll quit and be productive (or play more Gold Miner). This is from The Jane Austin Book Club, which is worth reading especially if you've read more Jane than I have. The following is one of the truest paragraphs I've read in a long, long time:
(whoa. just have to note that I went to open my inbox to copy-paste the Austin paragraph and almost had a heart attack when it came up saying "Inbox opened with 0 messages." Then I realized I'd opened Greg's inbox by mistake. Mine has 1,227 messages, and having them all disappear would not make for a good day.)
Back to our regularly scheduled paragraph: "She had grown early and by sixth grade was far too tall. 'They'll catch up,' her mother had told her. And she was perfectly right. When Prudie graduated, most of the boys topped her by a couple of inches at least. What her mother didn't know, or didn't say, was how little this would matter by the time it happened. In the feudal fiefdom of school, rank was determined early. You could change your hair and clothes. You could, having learned your lesson, not write a paper on Julius Caesar entirely in iambic pentameter, or you could not tell anyone if you did. You could switch to contact lenses, compensate for your braininess by not doing your homework. Every boy in the school could grow twelve inches. The sun could go fucking nova. And you'd still be the same grotesque you'd always been.
It's so true. We spend the rest of our lives trying to recover from the way we perceived ourselves in middle school.
|
|
(1 comment | comment on this)
|
| Tuesday, July 6th, 2004
| |
9:52 pm
|
Quote of my entire life, delivered in Gregory's whitest-white-man-ever tone:
"They're not members of the former Wu-Tang Clan, are they?"
|
|
(1 comment | comment on this)
|
|
|
|
|
