Las Vegas

So, we're back (clearly), and it was one hell of a trip. It was in many ways the perfect vacation for us and I'm so glad we went.

When we arrived, it was utter chaos. There was advertising everywhere, limo drivers looking for their pick ups, rows of baggage claims spitting out suitcases, tons of people. We were very fortunate in that our suitcases arrived quickly and the instant we walked out the door there was a hotel shuttle service and we were able to get a ticket and get on the next departing bus. This carried a downside, however, in that we stopped at a whole pile of hotels before we ever got to ours. So many, in fact, that we decided to spring for the extra $5 on the way back to the airport on Wednesday and got a cab so we could go directly to the airport without a bunch of intermediary stops. Still, the shuttle driver was very nice and gave a nice tour of the city and made recommendations on what to do and where to stay.

The Circus Circus lobby was little better. In fact, perhaps worse, since there was a HUGE line snaking through those tensabarriers and it was chock full of families with little kids running in and out and around, shrieking and carrying on. It took us 45 minutes to get to the desk, and then we literally had to get a map to find our room, the casino was so big. This was our first hint that walking was probably not going to happen.

After getting settled, we went to eat at a little fast food Mexican/Italian place which was quite good except the fire alarm went off in the middle of the meal, complete with flashing strobe lights! But, who cares? We liked the food and retired on full bellies. Circus Circus's hotel facilities were certainly adequate--they were nothing to scream about in terms of luxury, but were nicer than the Motel 6. Since we're not extravagant people, we were completely pleased with our room, which came with some nice travel guides to the area and extra pillows.

Saturday was our first full day in Las Vegas. We had read in the travel guides that there was a trolley that ran every 15 minutes, and having determined that the strip runs about 6.3 miles, we decided we'd take the trolley instead of trying to walk (Michael's been diagnosed with arthritis in his back). When we got there, a guy at the "Slots-O-Fun" told us the bus was cheaper and faster, so we bought all day passes for the bus and then decided to walk across the street to the Riviera for the buffet, which I had read about and thought sounded pretty good.

In fact, it was not that exciting. There was plenty of food, sure, but most of it looked like it had been sitting around for some time. So I was disappointed with our first buffet. Then we decided to walk out the back entrance and go over to the Hilton, which was "just across the street", to pick up our Barry Manilow tickets.

"Just across the street" took us about 20 minutes! Seriously, the casinos are massive. Even the old ones are huge. I couldn't get over it. We arrived and Michael was getting a bit sore, so we decided I would find the box office, which was right up front, and then we decided to play the slots. Since I'm cheap, we played the penny slots, and by some miracle, I won $50 on the Wheel of Fortune. So, we were conservative and cashed out. Then we went down to the Star Trek place, since Joe had given us the assignment to get a picture of the General making a face at the mannequins of the characters from Star Trek. Mission accomplished, and we decided to take the Monorail to Caesar's Palace, since I had gotten a couple of free passes on it for buying tours and whatnot on Vegas.com.

The monorail is GORGEOUS. It's clean, efficient, speedy, and accessible. We got off at the Flamingo and strolled through there on our way to Caesar's, and it was nice. They have a beautiful courtyard with flamingos, and I got to see some of them. Then we headed over to Caesar's to pick up our tickets for Celine Dion.

Let me tell you now, Caesar's is MASSIVE. It's even more massive than it looks from the outside. We were all over the place looking for the box office, with nothing more than a sign reading "Apian Way" or "Via Yadda Yadda" or whatever aiming us in the right direction. Fortunately we found it, but by then, we needed another quick break, so I put Michael in front of the Bark Day something penny slot machine and he promptly won $60. Man were we feeling good. So of course, we cashed out, and left before Lady Luck won her moolah back. :-)

It was getting late by then, so we decided to head back to Circus Circus to shower and change for the Barry Manilow concert and have some dinner. The concert was GREAT. He allows you to take pictures during the show and they give you free glowsticks when you arrive, so that was really neat. Barry sang a bunch of our old favorites and we were singing along, having a grand old time. And I was pleased to note that there were a lot of people our age or younger there--definitely all of us had grown up with Barry since the 70's. Fun, fun, fun. I got a program and collected some of the streamers they shoot out at the end of the show. Then we headed back to sleep, as we had an early morning on Sunday.

Sunday was our busiest day with a tour and a show. We headed off to the Hoover Dam at 7:45, again taking a shuttle that stopped at a bunch of casinos after ours. Still, it was a great way to see the strip and we loved taking the ride around and seeing some of the places we hadn't seen the day before. I was particularly taken with the New York New York (obviously) and the Excalibur.

We boarded the big bus at Bally's and then took the ride out to the Hoover Dam via Boulder City. The desert was absolutely gorgeous, breathtaking, and spectacular. And the Hoover Dam? WOW. That's all I can say. WOW. We took the tour inside and then we had about an hour to walk the dam itself. How much of a loser am I, but I had no idea that the halfway point of the dam marks the border between Nevada and Arizona, so of course, we had to walk over to Arizona, as I'd never been before. The lake created by the dam is gorgeous, the river is spectacular, just an amazing tour. Go there. You will not be sorry!

On our way back, we stopped at Ethel M Chocolates and the Cactus Botanical Gardens which is behind it. It was a giant tourist trap--a subsidiary of some sort of the Mars Company, they charge $32 for a small box of truffles, and the factory was not in operation while we were there. The garden was small, although many of the cacti were in bloom and I got a couple of good shots on the new camera. Still, if anyone tries to convince you that your trip to Vegas won't be complete without a stop at Ethel M's, laugh in their face and save your money! The General and I bought some left over Easter candy, which admittedly was damned good, but we wouldn't have missed out on anything had that part of the tour been skipped.

As soon as we got back, we took a brief nap, and then freshened up and headed to Caesar's Palace to see Celine! Unlike Barry, Celine has restrictions about what can go into her theater, so I had to check in my backpack. We were spared the indignity of the metal detectors, courtesy of the General's white cane, and we got to be seated before anyone else was! The show was spectacular. It was choreographed by one of the Cirque du Soleil guys and it was very ethereal and visually stunning. And Celine was magnificent. I about cried through the whole thing and the General even shed a few tears. When we left the theater, one of the ushers noticed the white cane ("don't leave home without it!") and went and got the backpack for us out of the coat check. Before most people left the theater, we were in a cab heading back to the hotel! It was AWESOME!

Monday was another day of sightseeing in Las Vegas itself, and we got new bus passes and headed down the strip. I wanted to take a gondola ride at the Venetian, but unfortunately the day was extremely windy and they were docked. So we went inside the Venetian and saw the gondolas on the grand canal indoors. It was one incredible shopping experience. You feel like you're outside, you can't even believe you're indoors when you're at the canal. It became my favorite place the minute we walked in. I've had a dream of going to Italy ever since seeing "While You Were Sleeping" and this really cemented it.

We also checked out Treasure Island while we were there and the gigantic Siegfried and Roy gold statue with a big lion head. Some woman tried to put her head in the lion's mouth while we were standing there and almost got her head stuck, which was hilarious.

Then we got back on the bus and went down to the Bellagio to see the fountain show, but sadly, that was also off due to the wind!! Fortunately we had seen the fountains when we were at Caesar's picking up the tickets for Celine early on in our trip, but I would have liked to have seen them for longer. We went inside the Bellagio, however, and it trumped the Venetian. I told the General we're going to work towards a goal of actually staying in one of those 3 hotels, because the Venetian, Bellagio, and Caesar's are all too beautiful for words.

We wanted to have a relaxing afternoon so we went back to Circus Circus and did some reading and I wrote out my postcards to send to our parents and assorted relatives. And then it was time to head to the Rio to see Penn and Teller. I had wrongly assumed that the box office for Penn and Teller would be open like the box offices for the other shows, and had also wrongly assumed that there were no assigned seats, that it was first come, first served. So I got there at about 5pm. And the box office didn't open until 7pm. Oops. But I looked around the Rio a little bit and then happily found a Starbucks and had a chai and a fruit tart and finished my book. It was nice to have a quiet corner to curl up and relax after the "go go go" of the previous few days and if we go again to Las Vegas, I will certainly do the same.

So, Penn and Teller were AMAZING as well. They put on a great show and did some amazing illusions, including the one for which they were famous on "The West Wing" in which they burn the American flag inside the Bill of Rights in an instant. After that trick, the two of them took off down the aisles and as we exited the theater, they were standing in the lobby to sign autographs and take pictures. So that was a lot of fun... And then I headed back to the hotel, since we had another early morning for our last big day in Las Vegas!

Tuesday was our big rafting and Hummer trip. The raft trip was first and we went on down to the Hacienda casino near Boulder City (gambling is illegal IN Boulder City, but it was near there). They gave us some cool little lunch coolers and took us by van to the base of the Hoover Dam where we got onto a large pontoon raft and motored through the Black Canyon, which our tour guide Jerry called "The Grand Canyon's bastard stepbrother". heh The scenery was gorgeous. We went down an 11 mile stretch and saw plenty of wildlife including bighorn sheep, falcons, coromorants, lizards, fish, ducks, etc. We stopped halfway at a little beach in Arizona to eat lunch, so I can officially say I was in Arizona since I ate a meal there! A few more miles down the Colorado River, Jerry pulled the raft over and told us it would be a good place to go wading since it was starting to get kind of warm in the Canyon in the sun. So I got out and stuck my feet in the water and man was it COLD!!! Jerry then laughingly told us the water was 54 degrees at the moment. It was sure refreshing, though... I took a little walk along the shoreline and found some fool's gold, which I brought back with me, and which I thought was pretty neat. Then we arrived at Willow Beach and boarded a van. Most people were on a large tour bus, but since we had to go back to the Hacienda to get the Hummer tour, we were in a van. Then the tour bus started leaking and it appeared the radiator on it was shot. Fortunately it made it back to the Hacienda, where we were quite late for the Hummer tour, and I think the tour guide was a bit nervous about it. But we found him and it turned out that Michael and I were the only 2 on the "Rebel Adventure Tour" and so we hopped into the hummer and were off.

The Hummer ride was a helluva hoot. I felt mildly ecologically irresponsible (which my father attempted to poo poo by pointing out that "the Indians and buffalo never worried about tromping around on the sand, kid."), but it was a beautiful, beautiful tour. We went to Rainbow Gardens, an area with a large fault line that pushed up different layers of rock, which are all different colors, creating a "rainbow". Some of the rock was 60+ billion years old. We also got to see Lava Butte, a now extinct volcano.

The tour guide was, in my opinion, just waiting for someone like me and the General to come along so he could ham it up in that Hummer, because our 2 hour tour stretched nearly 4 hours. We were flying out of our seats, screaming across the desert. It was so much freakin' fun. At one point, the guide wanted to go through a narrow area and put the Hummer up the side of a steep incline. Michael and I were sharing a seat in the back, and he was a good four feet higher in the air than I was. It was an absolute blast. The guide was a New Yorker like me, so that made it even more fun. He gave us some great ideas for our next trip to Las Vegas, since we were leaving in the morning.

When the tour was over and we got back to Circus Circus, it was evening and we had to eat, pack, and get ready to leave early for the airport. Again, the cab ride was the right choice for us in the morning, since we zipped straight out to the airport, got dropped right at the curb in front of United, and were in and through security in under 30 minutes, which was a miracle.

We learned a lot out there. Number one, you can walk many places, but you can't walk the entire strip. But you don't need a car. In fact, I think a car would have been a real pain in the butt. The bus was efficient and cheap at $5 for a 24 hour period--not just the day you bought it, but you have a full 24 hours to use your pass.

Additionally, everyone out there expects a tip. They basically work for tips. It's kind of like being on a cruise. So bring cash for tips. We tipped the guys who got us the taxis, we tipped buffet servers, tour guides, bus drivers, you name it, they wanted tips.

For us, the Strip was nice for a few hours, but the shows and tours of the outlying areas really did it for us. We didn't regret a single penny spent on a tour or a show. Not only did we get to see our destinations, but we got to learn a lot about the areas around Las Vegas and see how gorgeous the landscape there was.

You really can do Las Vegas pretty cheap. We didn't eat anywhere too fancy, we didn't gamble a lot of money away, so it was a good, cheap vacation for us. I can see where people get carried away out there, but we didn't and we even managed to bring back souvenirs for a few people and didn't break the bank on those either.

We saved things to do for "next time" and are already thinking about a return trip. Isn't that half the fun?

I'm so glad we went, I'm so sorry it's over. We absolutely loved every minute of our time there and I was glad we had some downtime to relax as well as all the time we spent on the go. Go to Vegas!!! You'll be glad you did!

April Reading Rundown

As I expected, April was a very slow month for me, bookwise. I've been a little bit tired lately and haven't felt like reading a whole lot, so slowed down and only read eight books, down from a high of 12. This is the first month I've thought, "Well, I might not read 100 books this year", but I also felt OK with that assessment. What with my vacation and the statewide meeting this month, I lost a week and a half of reading time, so I suppose 8 is nothing to cough at. I also wasn't reading any Little House books this month, which may have led to my downfall :-)

I also had plans to read the books that people had given me as gifts, but unfortunately I only read 1 of those and still have several to get to. Maybe in May!

Again, these may contain spoilers, so if you don't want to know what happens in a particular book, I recommend skipping to the next title. (Particularly for Such a Pretty Girl and Blue Water and The Cross Country Quilters.)

1. The Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst. Book club selection of the month. I wound up switching to this book from The Eyre Affair (sorry, Lesley!) when I received it in the mail and discovered that the author lives in Washington DC. I read the book in 2 days and fell in love with it and contacted Ms. Parkhurst on her website to ask her if she'd be willing to speak to the book club about the book. Not only is she willing to do so, but she's willing to come to the meeting, which is amazing. The Dogs of Babel is a NY Times Notable book and won a number of awards when it came out. It tells the tale of Paul, a professor whose wife plummets to her death from a tree in the backyard. The sole witness to this event is their dog, Lorelei, and Paul in his grief becomes convinced that if he can only teach Lorelei to speak, he will learn the truth about Lexy's death (was it an accident? suicide? murder?).

The book was absolutely gripping and while the description may sound a bit silly, I started to think about what I would do if the person who gave me my life back and taught me to live again suddenly died and I was desperate to find out why and how. I really felt Paul's anguish and as I learned more and more about the eclectic and mercurial Lexi, I too wanted to know what happened and why. We are meeting with Carolyn Parkhurst next week and I'm tremendously excited to speak with her and talk with the club about the book. I'm getting positive feedback from members as well.

2. Florence of Arabia by Christopher Buckley. This was a Christmas gift from my sister, and I had it on my "to be read" shelf since then. However, meeting Christopher Buckley in person spurred me to read this one, and I must say, it was really, really enjoyable.

A shadowy arm of the US Government decides that the best way to ensure Middle East peace is to liberate the women of the kingdom of Matar, the most enlightened of the Middle East states, particularly in comparison with its neighbor, Wasabia. They enlist disgruntled State Department employee Florence Farfaletti and ask her to launch an Arab TV station catering directly to women. Allowed to pick her own crack team to launch the station, Florence enlists the help of a CIA assassin, a snappy PR man (one of the minions from Thank you for Smoking), and a bureaucratic friend who happens to be gay. The four embark on their mission with the aid of the Sheika Leila, who gets "permission" from her husband to launch the station, which he finds an attractive proposition as he can spend more time with his harem and less with his wife.

This was one great book. It started out quite hilarious and become a bit more serious towards the end as the fatwa against the staff of the station heated up and people's lives are in danger. However, it was a wildly enjoyable read and I highly recommend it. It kind of makes you wonder, "Would that really work?"

3. Such a Pretty Girl by Laura Wiess. This is a young adult book about Meredith, a fifteen year old whose father is in prison for sexually abusing her and other children in the neighborhood. When her father is locked up, Meredith is promised that she has 9 years of safety coming to her, time to grow up and get out on her own. However, in their wisdom, the parole board decides to let her father out for good behavior after only three years and the book opens on the day he is to come home.

Meredith's mother is willfully oblivious to the damage this man has caused to her only daughter, as well as to Meredith's best friend Andy, who was also abused by him and who lives across their condo complex. Meredith's father returns home and makes her mother promises about starting fresh and having another baby while trying to pick up where he left off with Meredith.

The book takes place in a very short period of time, less than a week, as Meredith decides she has to do something about her father's lack of reform in prison. It is a quick read, I read it in a couple of hours.

Due to the subject matter, this was incredibly challenging to read, despite its brevity. I wanted to love Meredith, though it was difficult, which I thought was a beautiful part of Wiess's writing--most abused kids don't allow themselves to be loved. I was actually scared when her father returned to the condo, and I wanted to smack her mother silly. So the writing was definitely fantastic. A "cannot put down" book to be sure. Get a copy if you can and read it!

4. Blue Water by A. Manette Ansay. I absolutely love A. Manette Ansay, she is definitely one of my favorite writers. I adored Sister and Vinegar Hill and to a lesser extent I enjoyed Midnight Champagne. I was unaware that she had written Blue Water, so I was excited when I ran across it unexpectedly on Amazon.com and even more thrilled when it was available on PaperbackSwap.com.

Blue Water is the tale of Meg and Rex Van Dorn, an ordinary couple living in an ordinary Wisconsin town. One day, Meg is driving their son Evan, age 6, to school and her car is rammed by Cindy Ann, her best friend from high school. Evan, Meg and Rex's miracle baby, is killed instantly. Cindy Ann and her three daughters walk away without a scratch. It is later shown that Cindy Ann was drunk at the time of the accident and has had a serious drinking problem due to abuse suffered as a child at the hands of her step father.

Unable to cope with the sight of Cindy Ann, and the fact that her own brother Toby is marrying Cindy Ann's sister, Meg decides to leave Wisconsin and she and her husband rent out their house and take up residence on a boat, sailing to escape the pain of their son's death. Rex and Meg can't agree upon what to do, whether they should launch a civil suit against Cindy Ann, who refuses to quit drinking and narrowly avoids jail time, or whether to let the whole thing drop, as Meg feels guilt over not helping her friend more during the years of torment in high school. Adding to the complicated feelings is Toby's impending wedding and his desire for his sister to be present and supportive of his new life.

This book was definitely very good, if perhaps a bit over-the-top with the complicated relationships. I found it a bit hard to swallow that Toby would completely ignore his sister's feelings and go ahead and marry a woman so close the source of his nephew's demise, and I didn't feel that Toby and Meg's brother-sister relationship, which was almost more of a father-daughter relationship, would have survived that. Meg wound up making the most sacrifices to ensure peace in the family and ultimately, I found it incomprehensible that she would wind up caring for the woman who killed her son. Still, I liked the book on the level of Midnight Champagne and was glad to have read it.

5. The Ha Ha by Dave King. I have been waiting and waiting to get my hands on a copy of The Ha Ha and was fortunate enough to get it on BookMooch.com and even more fortunate to get a pristine hardcover copy. I read the description to Michael as we were looking for a new book to read after the spectactular failure of Final Analysis (see March reading review for that one) and we decided to read this one together.

The Ha Ha tells the story of Howard Kapostash, a Vietnam veteran who left the war with a devastating head wound which impaired his ability to speak and read. He is awakened one night by his best friend and on-again-off-again flame, Sylvia, whose sister is forcing her into rehab for a cocaine habit. Sylvia wants Howard to care for her 9 year old son, Ryan, while she cleans up. The arrival of Ryan in Howard's household throws the entire home into disarray. Howard lives in the house his parents owned with 3 roommates, Laurel (an Asian American beauty from Texas) and two idiots he calls Nit and Nat, who work as housepainters by day and smoke a lot of pot by night. Howard works as a groundskeeper at a nearby convent where there is a hill he calls "The Ha Ha" and which he loves to ride to the top of on his lawn mower, as he feels an exhiliration from cresting the hill.

Ryan is a stabilizing effect on the household, bringing the four disparate roommates together in a way that none of them could have predicted--the icy Laurel who announces she has enough to do without a child underfoot falls in love with Ryan, and Nit and Nat become more stable and participate more in the household as opposed to just crashing there when they need to sleep. What happens when Sylvia leaves rehab is insane and striking and real and awful.

Michael and I loved this book. We stayed up at night in Vegas after our days were through, just trying to find out what would happen to Howard and Ryan, taking bets on the women, and enjoying the ride. The book IS a bit racy--Howard likes sex in an almost base way, and the book is also peppered with "f bombs" which made for some interesting reading in places like the airport. And in the interest of full disclosure, we recommended the book to my mom and she called the other day to ask when the book would start to "have a point" so this may not be everyone's cup of tea. We really liked it though! Good for men and women, unlike some of the girlier books I've read recently.

6. The Cross Country Quilters by Jennifer Chiaverini. Judy keeps buying them, I keep reading them. And every time I pick one of the Elm Creek Quilt books up, I think, "Damn this is kind of elementary" and then wind up thinking, "Damn, this one was better than the last."

This is the third in the series, and the third I've read, and my favorite one thus far. Five women meet at Elm Creek Quilt Camp and become quick friends. They decide to reunite in one year's time and in that time, they have to complete a block for a quilt after solving an issue confronting them in their life. Vinnie wants to see her grandson married. Megan wants to see a breakthrough with her young son who is hurting after his parents' acrimonious divorce and his father's refusal to acknowledge him any more. Donna wants to help her brilliant oldest daughter avoid a marriage she and her family are convinced is a huge mistake. Juilia must learn to quilt to save her fading career as an actress in Hollywood. And Grace is facing down a terrifying illness.

The first half of the book sets up the women's meeting and the issues each of them faces, while the latter half deals with the resolution and subsequent trip back to Elm Creek Quilt Camp to complete their quilt. I loved this book. Now, I freely admit, it all wrapped up quite tidily and neatly at the end (for instance, Julia is an actress and one of the women's children is a theater major--see any possibilities there for assistance?). And every time I read them, I think, "Oh no, this is totally predictable" and when the totally predictable ending comes, I'm so freaking happy that everything works out well in the end, that I almost hate myself for it. But I guess that the happy ending counts for something, and as long as Jennifer Chiaverinni doles them out, I'll take them. Not many authors will I say that about.

7. A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly. I first read about this book on Lesley's blog and I was intrigued because of the subject matter. Young Mattie Gokey is a maid at the Adirondack Mountains' Glenmore Hotel and is thrust into the center of a mystery when one of the guests is found drowned in the lake. The deceased, Grace Brown, has given Mattie a bundle of letters to destroy, and Mattie has never gotten around to doing so. As she begins to read the letters, she learns the truth about Grace and her lover, Chester Gillette.

Mattie also struggles in her own life, her desire to leave the North Woods and become a student and a writer pulling her in one direction, while the needs of her own family pull her in the other. She is further pulled by her friend Weaver, a boy her age who wants to become a lawyer and is encouraging Mattie to follow him to New York City, and Royal Loomis, who wants to marry Mattie and buy a farm.

Having grown up in the Adirondacks, this really appealed to me. And while reading the book, I was excited to read a lot of towns (Old Forge, Croghan, Inlet, Port Leyden) that I knew from growing up. In her acknowledgements, the author even mentions Cranberry Lake, where our library was located when I was growing up. So I absolutely loved the book for that reason--it made me nostalgic for home. And while it probably was not the author's intention, a lot of the names she used in the story were the names of people who are still living in the Adirondacks. For instance, there is a family in the book called the Hubbards, and I want to school with the Hubbards. Other coincidental names such as that lent it an additional air of authenticity. Additionally, I was well aware of the Grace Brown murder, an actual case which was made famous by Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy. It's always been a case with which I had an interest, and probably which introduced me to the world of true crime, a somewhat morbid interest I have to this day.

But I also really loved Mattie. I identified with her, a girl trying to decide whether to do what is best for herself or her family. To follow her own passions, which no one around her save her best friend and her teacher, indulge in or understand, or to stay home where she is needed and forgo her adventures in New York City. The book was more than a backwoods story about a bunch of hicks who don't know their asses from their elbows. You felt for these people, from Mattie's Pa trying to raise a bunch of girls without their mother, to dirt poor Emmie, to Weaver and his mother, to the employees of the hotel. A great book, I really enjoyed it, and as Mattie loves to play a word game with Weaver in which she looks up a new word every day, I learned some new words to expand my vocabulary. And I loved that Mattie made up her own words as well. Limicolous or terricipation, anyone?

8. The Patron Saint of Liars by Ann Patchett. Ann Patchett is probably best well known for having written Bel Canto which I am best known for not having read. But I was browsing in Borders one day and happened upon Patron Saint and was finally moved to purchase a book after several months of not having bought any really. The story centers around St. Elizabeth's, a home for unwed mothers in Kentucky in the 1960's. One night, a woman named Rose enters the home, unwilling to share her secrets, stating that her husband has died and she will give her baby up for adoption. However, St. Elizabeth's is perched on the site of a dried up spring that produced miraculous healings, and when Rose's time to deliver approaches, she finds that she cannot go through with her plans to give away her baby and leave.

The book is peppered with a cast of interesting characters, including the nuns who run the home, Rose herself, Son the caretaker, and the other expectant mothers who come in and out of the home. It was a compelling read, not only to discover how Rose's past will rectify itself, but also how her years of story telling affect the life her daughter ultimately will lead. Rose is not, to me, a particularly sympathetic character, but I did find her compelling. The book ended a bit abruptly for my tastes, but definitely no neat happy ending on this one, which made up for the quilting book. I read this one at a more leisurely pace than some of the others, and I enjoyed it a lot. Solid chick lit, so if you're into that, give it a try.

So that's it for April, short and sweet. I like to list the books I'll be reading next month, as I never usually get around to half of them, but I'll be taking a crack at A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley, Naked by David Sedaris, and Gods in Alabama by Joshilynn Jackson.

The Great: Such a Pretty Girl, A Northern Light, The Ha Ha, Florence of Arabia, The Dogs of Babel

The Good: Blue Water, The Patron Saint of Liars, The Cross Country Quilters

The OK: (none)

The Awful: (none)

Totals for April:

Books Read: 8
Pages Read: 2471

Totals for 2007:

Books Read: 36
Pages Read: 11,080

We're Back!

What a time we had!!! I've got to go to work, sadly, but I have stories and they'll be here soon. It was probably the best vacation we've ever taken. We're already planning our return trip... So, enjoy these few pictures to whet your appetites, and when I'm back on Eastern time and haven't got to catch up too much on anyone, I'll be back--the next few days at home are INSANE... (We're going to a Pentagon ceremony, my sister's birthday party, and she's coming here to name a few)

Checked In!

I love online check in for flights! :-)

We're flying out of Dulles this afternoon on United, and last time we did so, it was a complete and utter disaster. We were on 3 different lines, and it took FOREVER. Today, I checked in on line and all we have to do is go check in our bags when we get there. How easy is that!? :-)

Life is good. See you all next week.

Tal Did It, so I Had to Copy Cat Him

Your Linguistic Profile:

50% General American English

30% Yankee

10% Upper Midwestern

5% Dixie

0% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

And Now is When Depression Sets In...

I got home today and found a pile of mail in the strangest place--halfway up the stairs. But I was tremendously excited, because the proof of my soon-to-be-publicly-released photography book was in there.

But I forced myself to read all my other mail first, since I'm never really good with suspense, and I'm trying to learn patience.

Maybe I should have looked at the book first.

What came in the mail?

None other than the invitation to my 10 year college reunion.

And then it hit me.

I've been out of college for ten stinkin' years. I didn't START college ten years ago, no no no, I FINISHED college ten years ago.

So young, so idealistic, big plans, big dreams, not a whole lot of which revolved around driving a car for a living, I can assure you. I had grand visions of foreign travel, diplomacy, perhaps a tony post on the Mediterranean... At least a secretarial job in the State Department, where I'd quickly be noticed for my brilliance and made a liaison or attache...

But alas, Fate has other plans at the moment. Maybe in my next life... Or maybe just later on in this one.

I won't be going to my reunion--it's the same weekend as the planned Myrtle Beach excursion. I'm glad I'll be surrounded by friends on whose shoulders I can cry.

If You Want a Good Laugh...

...click here.

Questions From My Father In Law

1. How many times did Imus say "Nappy Headed Ho's"? Once. How many times has the media repeated it? Countless.

2. How come Oprah Winfrey didn't ask the girls what they had on their iPods? And if it's that despicable rap music, why not take them to task on that?

3. Why haven't Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson apologized to the Duke lacrosse players yet?

Friday the 13th, DC Style

Yesterday was Friday the 13th, and I was skating along thinking it wasn't going to be such a bad day, till I turned on Washington Post radio and got the traffic report. At 6am, some guy rammed his truck into a jersey wall here in Fredericksburg and his truck caught fire and melted I95.

Still, I thought, how bad can it be? They'll repair the road, and I'm not heading down I95 today, I'm heading up it.

Michael and I were heading yesterday evening to see Cal Ripken Jr. at Tyson's Corner.

But the joke was on us. Over by where he works, DDOT had decided to do construction on the bridge on I-295.

So we had plans to meet in Vienna at 6:15pm. I had to go to Charlottesville yesterday, and had already driven almost 300 miles by the time I got up to Vienna (Fredericksburg to Manasssas to Charlottesville to Fredericksburg to Vienna). What makes me sick about that is I could be most of the way to my father's house in that many miles. Hell, I could be most of the way to anywhere in that many miles.

But I digress.

So by then, the traffic from the truck fire had gotten out of control. The road had never cooled off enough to repair and all the Looky Loos had slowed down traffic so badly, and all the locals had jumped on the local roads to avoid the highway, and there was no going anywhere. Traffic at 6pm was backed up THIRTY MILES.

And Michael was stuck on base.

And I was without a cell phone, yet again. Why does this crap happen when I give up the cell phone!?

So I got up to Vienna in plenty of time, ran into my "nephew" while I was sitting in the parking lot waiting, and suddenly it was 6:30. So I was sick of sitting the car, and got out and grabbed some pictures with my new camera. Got back in the car, read for a bit. Then I figured, well, if the General's not here by 7:30, maybe he went home and ditched me. I don't know. Fortunately, I found him at 7pm. (I really expected him to be early--I sat in that freakin' parking lot for almost 2 hours.)

So we decided to give up on Cal Ripken, which also started at 7pm, because the Beltway was a mess. The radio said not to try I95 until at least 8pm, so we went to Joe's, our favorite pizza place, and sat there till almost 9pm. We got a traffic report, which said 95 was heavy but moving, and took a chance.

When we got to Dale City, it was just plain heavy, so I took a chance again and hopped on Route 1, which was crystal clear, and we sailed down that at about 60MPH and made it home in about an hour and 10 minutes. But damn!

As I was driving north, I was mentally composing my, "Honey, we're moving" speech. Even his little scheme that we should move to Alabama doesn't sound half bad about now.

LOST

I don't know how they do it. Every episode of Lost ends on a cliffhanger such as most other shows only manage at the end of each season. And damn if tonight doesn't have me on tenterhooks... WHO IS JULIET?!?!?!?!?! WHAT THE HELL ARE THE OTHERS UP TO!?!?!?!?!? WHAT IS LOCKE DOING?!?!?!?!?! AUGH! And only 5 episodes left this season...

TomTom

My little bunny has developed a disturbing fascination with my husband's bathroom. Until I took it away from him, he was perfectly content to sit on the bathroom floor and demolish the bathmat. Now he's determined that the plunger is a kick ass toy. Where have I gone so terribly wrong?

(This is the week of drive-by postings... Nothing interesting is going on in my life right now.)

Trek to SC

It's time for our annual trek to South Carolina to pick up fireworks for my dad's July 4th spectacular.

Anyone care to join us? We're thinking the first weekend in June.

Boston Legal

Since I've taken to watching "Dancing With the Stars", I'm now up to see "Boston Legal"... What a great show. I wish I'd been watching it all along. James Spader is hilarious.

New Camera!

Woo hoo! Mr. took me out tonight to get a new networking card for my computer, since the D-Link and the Linksys couldn't play nice. And we decided while we were there, we'd take a look at the digital cameras. And since we're going on vacation and everything, and my digital camera is "so old, honey," Mr. did the gentlemanly thing and bought his wife a new camera. I'm going to keep the old Olympus--we've been through some good times, me and that camera, which came into my life in 2001. In fact, I'm working on publishing my very first book of photography with pictures from the old Olympus. (Details to follow when I've proofread the first copy)

But today we traded her in for a Panasonic. We've gone from 3.2 megapixels to 7.2 megapixels. We have image stabilization. We have EASY MENUS! And the camera's not the size of my video camera--it's slim and sweet. And virtually idiot proof. When I go between modes, there is a display on screen that tells me what mode I'm in. Which totally kicks tail. I might actually use some of the different modes for a change.

So, I'll be trying to find some photo worthy stuff to practice on before our big trip out west. I am definitely excited to see what it can do. Look out, you might find yourself captured on it soon!

An Evening With Christopher Buckley

Last night, Christopher Buckley, most well known for writing Thank You For Smoking, did a book signing at Politics and Prose book store. My mom, Judy, and I had seen him at the National Book Festival last fall, and he did a hilarious talk about naming your book, and how editors don't like your book's name and don't mind telling you, but who would have told Adolf Hitler that his book title sucked? It was a riot.

So when I saw he was coming to P&P, I told Judy, and she immediately decided we had to go, and I decided the General was going with us. I knew he'd enjoy it, as it was sure to be funny.

We arrived quite early, but soon they were setting up the seats. And immediately, this little old lady plucks two folding chairs from the chairs that had already been set up and plunks them smack dab front and center at the front of the podium. The P&P guy tells her she can't do that, but if she'll wait, they'll be set up shortly and she'll get a good seat. So she waits. They start setting up the seats in the front of the podium, and she puts her bags on one and tries to sit. Again the guy comes over and tells her she can't sit down yet.

"Oh? But I want to get a good seat. Every year I get a bad seat."

"Ma'am, I promise you, if you just wait patiently, but you're really in the way."

"I am?"

So the P&P guy concedes that she can leave her things on the chairs she wants if she moves. So she stakes out 2 seats.

Then she tries to sit down again, and the guy comes back. "Ma'am there are only six of you here at the moment, I assure you, you will have the pick of seats. But, please. you've got to get out of the way."

Finally they finish setting up and he tells her she can sit. The other 4 or 5 of us let her pick her seat, and then Judy, Michael, and I get front row, center. The lady's little old husband totters up and says, "I don't want to sit in the front row. Move back one." So they move to the row behind us. Then she starts complaining that the people in front of her are too tall. So they move behind me, Michael, and Judy. But it turns out we're too tall. So finally they move to the front row on the side, which seems acceptable to both of them.

The talk and signing were still an hour away. But we were cracking up. I wish I had captured that on tape.

Eventually the thing gets underway, and Christopher Buckley was great. I captured it on video and I'll upload it to YouTube soon and post it here. So funny. His new book sounds great. After the Q&A (which my sister actually got up the guts to finally participate in! Go Judy!), it was book signing time. And we were told to fold up our chairs, put them in a stack and get on line to have our books signed. Doesn't that little old lady decide she's "above the law" and slide smack dab in front of the first person on line!? Very bad book signing etiquette, I must say!

Judy went up and she and Buckley bonded over Salve Regina University/Portsmouth Abbey and then the General and I went and he complimented me on the pins on my jacket and he and the General got gabbing about working for the federal government (it had come out during the speech that the General was a fed). We were up there for probably about 3 minutes, which is pretty good, since lately the authors have signed the books and sent us on our way. We were able to get all our books personalized and have a nice chat.

So I'm officially a big fan, only though I've only read one of his books, Little Green Men, which I highly recommend (and which, in my opinion, blew Thank You For Smoking out of the water). I've got 3 of them to read now, and I'm looking forward to all of them. Plus, I'll definitely be stealing Judy's books as well! :-)

Cherry Blossom Time

I went to see the cherry blossoms on Sunday. They were in full bloom and beautiful. I hope I never get tired of seeing them, as long as I live here.

March Reading Update

For March, I took it a bit easier than February and read only a total of 10 books instead of 12. One thing that I had not really expected as a result of this push to read 100 is that I might not enjoy the books as much as I would if I were just reading just to read. About mid-month I became concerned that I was not going to hit 25 books by the end of the month and really started steaming through the books I was involved in (as usual about 4 at any given time). It left me with some discontentment about the quality of reading, particularly as when I was going at a more leisurely pace, I was enjoying some really great books. Still, I got through 10 at any rate, and am on track for where I think I should be (25 books every three months), so at least my goal is in sight.

So, what did I read? (WARNING WARNING WARNING: The below reviews contain SPOILERS. Paritcularly for Baggage and The Namesake.)

1, 2, and 3. The Long Winter, Little Town on the Prairie, and Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Ok, now granted these are "children's books" in the sense that they're written for young readers, but the shortest one of them was over 300 pages long. The books have been so much fun to read, and so interesting. I have enjoyed visiting Wikipedia to see pictures of the Ingalls family and I must say, I have a renewed respect for the pioneering type. I've enjoyed a lot of pioneering women type books (IE 1000 White Women) but these make it easier to understand for little pea brains like me what exactly went into the mechanics of living life on the prairie with no "modern conveniences". In The Long Winter, the Ingalls family is forced to move into the town near their claim during a winter that is brutal. There are nonstop blizzards every three or four days from October till April, and the family runs out of firewood and coal to heat their little storefront. They sleep every night huddled together under quilts and spend their days grinding their remaining wheat into flour with the help of a coffee mill, while huddled around the kitchen stove to keep warm. Pa and Laura run back and forth to the stables through a tunnel they've made in the snow to grab straw, which they twist into "kindling" that they try to burn. Unbelievably, their straits are that dire. Finally Almonzo Wilder and Cap Garland take a dangerous 12 mile trek to a claim outside of town where they hear the farmer is hoaring a supply of grain to plant in the springtime. They talk him into giving it up and save the townspeople from starvation. In Farmer Boy, we follow Almonzo as he grows up on a farm in Malone, NY (my father is taking me to visit the farm this summer as a little historical field trip). Almonzo and his siblings have a very different life as farmers than Laura and her family trying to eek out an existence on the plains. I enjoyed it not only because I grew up in that area, but also because in discussing it with my dad, he said that the book reminded him of himself and his siblings as they were growing up. That put a nice human face on it. As for Little Town on the Prairie, it is the story of the year following The Long Winter, as the Ingalls family sends daughter Mary off to the Iowa College for the Blind and Laura prepares to become a schoolteacher and is beginning to be wooed by Almonzo. Nellie Oleson rears her ugly head as well. I find great amusement in Laura's precociousness and it's sad that she's growing up and starting to have to act like a lady. I picked up a cheap copy of the full color collector's edition of this particular book, and the drawings of Pa Ingalls look almost dead on what Charles Ingalls looked like in real life--two eyes and a whole lotta beard. Great stuff. So as I move along, I'll probably pick up the remaining couple of books I've yet to read and enjoy them. I have enjoyed reading these books right before bed, as they put me in a nice place before going to sleep. Fewer nightmares, definitely.

4. The Magic of Ordinary Days by Ann Howard Creel. This book follows the story of young Livvy Dunne, who at 24 has been written off as a spinster while her two younger and prettier sisters marry military officers during WWII. When it is discoverd that Livvy has been, well, knocked up by a military officer who left to join the war, a family friend who is a minister arranges a marriage to a far off farmer, away from her family and friends, and far away from her dreams of pursuing a career in archeology. Lonely and not connecting with her new husband, she befriends two young Japanese-American girls who work on the farm as part of their jobs in the nearby internment camp. The girls involve Livvy in a scheme that could land her in a heap of trouble, and Livvy must come to terms with her life as it is and make peace with it. I loved this book. It was a real page turner. The basic criticism of the book is that the plot is improbable in terms of what Livvy and the Japanese girls do, and that it wraps up rather neatly and quickly at the end, both of which are true. But for me, that didn't detract one minute from the book. I enjoyed the story of a woman who takes on her circumstances by doing what is dictated by those around her, and how she must either run from those decisions screaming or make peace with how she finds her life. I felt a definite kinship and sympathy towards Livvy and truly enjoyed reading about her life and life during the time period. The writing was also quite fluid and easy to read.

5. The Dive from Clausen's Pier by Ann Packer. Carrie Bell feels the pull of a new life awaiting her outside her Wisconsin hometown. Her relationship with her fiance Mike is boring her, and she wants to see the world and learn who she is. She goes out with Mike on Memorial Day, and he dives headfirst into a shallow lake and is immediately paralyzed. Can Carrie stay? No. But with pressure from all sides, her mother, Mike's parents, their friends in Madison, Carrie feels terrible about deciding to leave and not return home. Still, she moves to NYC with an old acquaitance from high school with whom she strikes up a new relationship and while there, she meets Kilroy, a man from whom she cannot turn away. But unexpectedly, despite her happiness in NY and a new career looming, she finds herself being pulled back to Madison. The book leaves you in genuine suspense as to whether Carrie will abandon Mike for a new life or will she turn her back on her own needs and settle down to do the "right thing". And who is it the "right thing" for?

This was one of those books that I looked at and thought, "I really should read that" and didn't read it because I thought that way. I hate books that I should read. I hate the pressure of the world's expectations weighing on me as I read a book that it seems everyone else in the world likes. Now, in general, there's a reason why everyone tends to like those books, and it's that they're genuinely good books. This book was no exception. And usually I have a HUGE quibble with people who write about NYC. (see below) But even in this book, the usual pretentiousness of a writer writing about NY disappeared into one great story. I couldn't put the book down. It was great. I was genuinely conflicted as to what Carrie should do. And I was pleased, overall, with the way it came out in the end. I wish I could write as well.

6. Final Analysis: The Untold Story of the Susan Polk Murder Case by Catherine Crier. This was Michael's and my book choice of the month. The story of Susan Polk, whose husband Felix was founded stabbed to death in their California home, centers around the couple's relationship, their family life, Felix's murder, and Susan's conviction for said murder. Susan and Felix met when Susan was a teenager and underwent psychiatric care with Felix, who was 20+ years her senior. Apparently during their therapy sessions, Felix would put Susan under hypnosis and sexually assault her. Somehow, she wound up marrying him, bearing 3 sons, and then, continuing to struggle with her mental health issues, went off the deep end and murdered him after years of alleged emotional and physical abuse. She decides to represent herself at trial and is convicted. (There is little doubt in my mind based on this book that she would have been cleared by reason of insanity had that been her defense and she would have allowed a competent lawyer to represent her)

This book stretched on for miles, included a lot of useless facts (ie what Susan wore to court every day, how she styled her hair, etc). Towards the end, Michael and I just wanted to be done with it and skipped over a chapter or two to reach the end. And I don't think we missed a damned thing. Awful. Singularly awful. Although it was entertaining to read, "Susan stabbed her husband in the chest and abdomen" out loud. hehe Catherine Crier, host of a show on CourTV, needs to take a few true crime writing lessons from John Grisham or someone. We just finally gave up. "Uncle!"

7. Baggage by Emily Barr. Lina Pritchett's life is centered around hiding her new pregnancy from her husband's family until they are ready to tell, her son Red, and her mother-in-law Margot, as well as her career as a teacher in a tiny town on the Australian Outback. One of her former students has run off with her best friend's husband, the big scandal in town. At a wedding for the two, Lina is started to run into Sophie, a backpacker from England who is sure she knows Lina as her old pal Daisy from ballet school back in Devon. Ten years earlier, Daisy was accused of a terrible crime and committed suicide in the midst of the ensuing media melee. Or did she?

This was a really great women's suspense type of book. Written in such a way that you know that Lina is Daisy and that she was not entirely guilty (one of those shades of gray type of deals), the suspense centers around her getting caught, and what will happen to the life she's so carefully protected for the last ten years. Can a person be rehabilitated, and is forgiveness possible? I loved that it wasn't grisly, that it was very human, and exposed the frailties we're all vulnerable to as thoughtless careless youths (granted, we aren't all mildly responsible for poisoning four of our best friends). How Daisy deals with being discovered and how it affects the people around her makes for compelling reading.

8. The Motorboat Boys on the Saint Lawrence by Louis Arundel. We have a great little used bookstore in Fredericksburg and in the basement they have shelves of classic children's series. Apparently Motorboat Boys is one of those series that was big back in the early part of the 20th century, and I had to pick this one up, as it takes place on the St. Lawrence River in the Thousand Islands, where I used to often visit growing up when my dad worked customs on the Canadian Border.

Motorboat Boys was written around 1912, and centers around 6 friends (Buster, Jimmy, Jack, Josh, George, and Herb) who all like to travel on 3 little motorboats through the great waterways of the USA. Travel is certainly a loose term in this case, as their travels on the St. Lawrence seems to center on them anchoring off a small island in the 1000 Islands and sitting there for a week. Eventually they get some strange looks from a couple of passing boats, and discover they've hit upon an island used for smuggling. This happens approximately 7/8 of the way through the book--the first 200 pages have to do with Buster being fat and all his friends calling him Fatty. Seriously, poor little Buster takes it on the chin.

Ultimately a rather tedious little tome to get through, the most excitement being when the boys hook some big fish. Even the boys admit in the book that their trip has been rather dull and they decide to continue motoring into the Great Lakes to head home. It was an entertaining read in the sense of the language that has changed so much in 100 years. It was a cute book and nice to have on the shelf as a curiosity, but I'm not inclined to run out and buy the series.

9. The Lost Boy by Dave Pelzer. The beauty of swapping books on line is that I don't have to pay for books I've been interested in reading but not interested enough in to go purchase or get from the library. This was one of those books. I read A Child Called It ages ago, which details the horrifying abuse Dave Pelzer suffered at the hands of his mother. The Lost Boy is the follow up to that book, in which Dave details his struggles to find a home in the foster care system. Dave's first taste of freedom from fear, hunger, cold, and hurt send him on a headlong path to crazy-little-boy-dom as he just goes off the wall for a while. He switches families a good amount, as he gets into serious trouble while trying to learn how to behave in a world he doesn't understand. Eventually he finds a place where the people understand him and are willing to work with him to help him become a healthy and productive teenager.

I have thought often of becoming a foster parent, although I know it's a difficult journey to follow, and reading this makes me question my own patience even more. It's sad to know there are children out there like Dave was, who need a good home and a place to feel safe as their own families either cannot or will not care from them appropriately. I am currently an on-line mentor to two such youth and it's nice to know that I am doing my part to try and give them a little guidance. (If you think you'd like to become an online "vMentor" to a youth aging out of foster care, please visit www.orphan.org and click on vMentor today.) I enjoyed reading The Lost Boy and learning what it took for Dave and his family to get his act together and help him clean up after years of unbelievable abuse.

10. The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri. This is this month's book club selection, so again I can't say too much about it (we're meeting on Monday) other than I HATE THE WAY PEOPLE WRITE ABOUT NEW YORK CITY. Not everyone in New York is wealthy or artsy or bohemian. There are plenty of average, every day people just living in the city, working, taking care of families, going to school, and/or getting it done. Why do 99% of the books about NY have some crazy songstress who works as a waitress when not launching her own fashion line with her own signature hair color? Or an uptight stockbroker who goes to the Hamptons on weekends to unwind with his mistress while his wife and three children are at home in Manhattan on their 54th floor penthouse?

Ok, Ok, I'm calming down, neither of those people show up in The Namesake, but they very well could have. And it really pisses me off.

It also really pissed me off that a) Gogol spent his young life running away from marrying a fellow Bengali, then finds one he actually loves, marries her and then it's like a flip is switched the minute the honeymoon ends and they hate each other and get divorced; and b) that he is called "conflicted" when all he's trying to do is figure out who he is when out from under the shadow of his domineering parents. Oh, and there was nothing particularly comic about it, despite what the back cover might have you believe.

Still, I thought it was a great book, and I truly enjoyed it. I never would have read it on my own, as I'm also fussy about "ethnic" books for some strange reason, even though I loved, loved, loved the Kite Runner. I just tend to read white bread America books more than any others. Maybe I need to start broadening my horizons.

So that's it for this month. I would have had one more, except that I forgot to bring home the book I was reading last weekend and it's been on my desk at work all week. I was almost done with it too. I had every intention of returning to the office and picking it up, but sadly the car troubles and a few super needy clients had me running this week. So I will review Blue Water by A. Manette Ansay next month. My "to read" shelf is growing in leaps and bounds thanks to the swapping sites, and so I'm busy, busy, busy and have plenty to read for the next few months. This month should be interesting, as I have a full week lost at our statewide meeting, and then of course our trip to Las Vegas (I've been informed only tourists call it Vegas, so I'm trying to call it Las Vegas so I sound like a local), so I may not get much done in April. We'll have to see!!

To Recap:

The Great: The Dive from Clausen's Pier, Baggage, The Magic of Ordinary Days

The Good: All 3 Little House books, the Lost Boy, The Namesake

The OK: Motorboat Boys

The Awful: Final Analysis

Totals:

March: 10 books, 3196 pages

Year To Date: 28 books, 8609 pages

Men, Women, and Cars

What is it about women and motor vehicles that leads men to automatically assume we're a bunch of unknowledgeable idiots? (Of course, my enlightened male readers excepted!)

Wednesday morning, I got in my state car to head up the happy highway to work. I started smelling something funny, and approximately .1 miles down the road, smoke started pouring out the vents. No dummy I, I turned that rig around and headed back to the VDOT lot where I park her. Because I am now cell phone-less, I had to go back home and call the state's vehicle management center.

The conversation went roughly as follows:

Me: Yes, I'm an employee for the Dep't for the Blind and just got out of my state car. There is smoke pouring through the vents.

VMCC Guy: What do you mean?

Me: There's smoke coming in through the vents.

Guy: Did you turn the heat on?

Me: The a/c was on, yes.

Guy: Well, can you drive it to the garage?

Me: I'm not driving it anywhere.

Guy: Well, I can't just authorize a tow for any reason.

Me: This isn't just any reason. THERE IS SMOKE POURING THROUGH THE VENTS OF THE CAR.

Guy: Can you put your driver on the phone? I know you ladies from the department have drivers.

(This really got my dander up)

Me: Listen here, I am fully sighted. I am the sole driver of the car. I saw smoke coming through the vents, and I parked the car and I am calling you. Someone better pick that car up and repair it, because I am not driving it any further. I wouldn't drive it if it were my car, and I'm sure as hell not driving it since it's your car.

(Silence)

Guy: Can you turn the car on and turn the heat off and tell me what happens?

Me: I'm not at the car at this point, I'm at home. I don't have a cell phone. [Doesn't that just freakin' figure?!]

Guy: Well if I'm going to send a tow truck over there, you're going to have to go drop off your key anyway. Go over there and then call me back.

Me: Fine.

I go over to VDOT, and do as he says, and the smoke is gone, but a strange smell of burning or melting plastic or something is now coming into the car. I check all my stuff to make sure nothing is touching the vents or nothing could be melting and find nothing.

So I go into the VDOT facility where I park it, which I should have done in the first place, and ask to use the phone. Where I get guy #2.

Guy: Well, all this sounds rather vague. I'm not sure I can authorize a tow. Can you be more specific about what the problem is?

Me: There was smoke pouring through the vents. It was gray and smoky. There is now a smell of burning or melting plastic. I am not driving the car to a garage. I am not turning the car on again.

Guy: Where did you say you were?

Me: Falmouth VDOT.

Guy: That's S-A-L-M-Y-T-H??

Me: F-A-L-M-O-U-T-H.

Guy: S-A-L-M-O-U...

Me: F! As in Frank. F!

Guy: Oh, F.

(You can say that again)

Guy: Can you hold while I try to get Tony at the garage?

Me: Sure. (What the hell? I know Tony--he'll tell me it's gonna be a while)

Guy: Ok, I'm back.

(Congratulations)

Guy: Ok, Tony says he can't get there for a couple of hours.

Me: Fine. I'll leave the key.

Guy: He says you won't have your car for at least 3 days. (said in the tone of "I'm going to take your favorite toy away since you can't play nice.")

Me: Fine by me. I'm not driving it while it's smoking.

Guy: Ok (as in "Fine, if that's the way you want to be, lady.")

Me: Bye.

Now, all things considered, I held my temper pretty well. But come on, please, who in their right minds is going to drive a smoking vehicle to a garage? Jeez, I particularly don't like those kind of macho men who think I have no brain just because I don't happen to have a Y chromosome.

*Happy Sigh*

You ever have one of those times where you feel like you've participated in something sentimental and it just feels so stinkin' good you want to dissolve into a little pile of happiness slush? Yeah, it's one of those days.

I've been active on YouTube for a while--probably a year. When I say "active" I mean that I've been watching videos. I've posted about 10 videos, which are probably LAME to anyone but the people surrounding me on a daily basis. And even to them, probably pretty lame.

So anyway, this past weekend I got a PM from a guy named Curt that he was seeking people to collaborate on a video for a guy whose videos we all enjoy. And he asked me to participate. I couldn't very well say no! So I sent in a little clip and Wednesday the collaborative video was released, followed by a response video on Thursday and a response to the response today.

I've got a case of the warm fuzzies all over the place. Everyone's laughing, crying, if we were altogether in person, we'd all just go ahead, break out the ice cream and play Truth or Dare.

It's a rare thing to happen on line. I don't know if it's on account of it being on video or what, but it's about the nicest thing I can remember participating in with a bunch of strangers since I don't know when...

The Love it/Hate It Meme

This meme discusses the highs and lows of popular culture. Fill it out with your opinions and send it on to 3 friends.

Three Movies Everyone Loved and You Hated:

1. Star Wars Episode Three: The Phantom Menace. Grown men cried when ole Anakin turned into Darth Vader. People were cheering, it was pandemonium in the theater. I slept through it. I thought it was AWFUL. Hours of torture.

2. Titanic. Yes, I know, the ultimate chick flick AND Celine Dion. After about 90 minutes, I was like "Go ahead and sink already."

3. Spiderman. I figured, Tobey Maguire... I liked the old Batman movies (Michael Keaton, not Adam West, although the Adam West one was hilarious) and Superman. So I thought I'd love it. Plus my dad and sister and Joe all loved it. Snore. The sad thing? I went to #2 to make Joe happy and snored through that one as well. Ugh.

Three Movies that Lived Up to the Hype

1. Little Miss Sunshine. Still one of my all time favorites. I loved the story, the acting, it had some dark humor which I always enjoy, just a great movie. Too bad it didn't win the Oscar.

2. Shrek 2. I thought the first Shrek was pretty good, but the second one was amazing. I absolutely loved it. It was the first movie I watched on the new plasma TV.

3. Wedding Crashers. I laughed till I cried, and I was convinced I would hate it. Enough said.

Three Books You Hated that Everyone Else Loved:

1. The Life of Pi by Yann Martel. Oh. My. God. I hated it from start to page 40-something when I finally gave up. Zzzzzzzzzzz. I hated the poor little goat being eaten by the tiger. I hated the writing. I hated the story. Even the overall story did not appeal to me. However, it was this book that made me vow I would read whatever came up in book club, whether I thought I'd like it or not. And this year, I've kept that vow.

2. Wicked by Gregory McGuire. Ok, in all fairness, I forced myself to read all the way through to the end. I was convinced that if I just went far enough, I would come to a place where it would all make sense and I would say, "Oh my gosh, this was fantastic!" Um, no. Definitely not. Boring. But finishable boring.

3. Blessings by Anna Quindlen. When it was written, Anna Quindlen's name and face were everywhere, and at the time I was heavily into listening to Imus on my way to and from work in Boston. He interviewed her and the book sounded great and was almost immediately turned into a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie, and I thought, well, this must be the greatest book ever. I finally got my hands on a copy with Paperback Swap, and read it in a day or two. It wasn't awful but it just wasn't amazing. Mediocre, didn't live up to the hype. A huge disappointment in my reading year.

Three Books that Lived Up to the Hype:

1. The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards. Oh my gosh did I love this book! It was easily the best book I read last year and probably one of the best I've ever read--it's firmly on my favorite books ever list. I first heard about it on the Diane Rehm show and understand it did quite poorly in hardcover, but once it went into paperback, the book clubs started snapping it up and sales went crazy. With good reason. It was fantastic.

2. Freakonomics by Steven D. Leavitt. This book made a splash by suggesting that a drop in the crime rate was directly attributable to Roe v. Wade. Michael and I read the book and just loved it. In addition to the crime/abortion correlation, it talked about how real estate agents operate like the KKK, how much sumo wrestlers and public educators have in common, and how rich people decide the in vogue baby names of a generation. It was fascinating.

3. March by Geraldine Brooks. This won the Pulitzer last year and was all the rage. I usually hate books that are about classic characters from long ago, and I was sure I would hate this. I definitely had my quibbles with it, but overall, it was a great book and taught me not to be so prejudicial towards something without all the facts (ie don't judge a book by its cover).

Three TV Shows You Hated that Everyone Else Loved:

1. Survivor. I must admit that I watched 3 whole seasons of it: Survivor Australia and Survivor All Stars and the one where the fireman won. But it's been on for what? 10 seasons? And every last one has been the same. Sure, they mix up men vs. women, asian vs. hispanic, or some such, but at the end of the day, it's all blah. The "challenges" aren't particularly exciting, it's basically a bunch of pretentious idiots, losing weight, strolling around naked, and stabbing each other in the back for 30 days. It was new and innovative at the time, but really, who cares any more? (Plenty of people, just not me!)

2. The Office (USA). Everyone goes bananas for the US version of the Office. I watched it a couple of times and HATED it... Dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb. Not funny. Ugh.

3. The Family Guy. Joe and Judy go bananas for this and every time I'm at their house, it's on. And I try, really I do, but it's just the stupidest show I've seen in a long time. They're literally doubled over. I read a book. I don't know why, it just really bores the snot out of me!

Three TV Shows that Lived Up to the Hype:

1. Arrested Development. While it was on, I kept hearing about it, and even managed to stumble onto it on TV once or twice, but never actually knew when it was on or anything. The critics were going bananas for it, but I never watched it. I think Fox was too busy promoting its other stuff. Anyway, then it was cancelled and then Judy said she had seen it with Joe when she visited him in Buffalo and loved it. Finally last year, with nothing to do for 3 months, I got seasons one and two on Netflix. Awesome. Definitely way too smart for network television. But an incredible show and I am now the proud owner of all 3 seasons on DVD.

2. Lost. I was extremely resistant to watching Lost. I'm not sure why, I guess I just thought it sounded kind of dopey--a plane crash on an abandoned island, who really gives a crap? I do. Again, three months to do nothing, I capitulated to Joe's demand to watch season 1, which I did, and then picked up on season 2 while it was on the air. This season, season 3, has been incredible. If you want to buy me something nice, buy me seasons one and two on DVD :-) I don't have them yet!

3. The Office (UK). I had seen ads for this on BBCA at my dad's house, but never really thought it'd could be entertaining. Boy was I wrong! What an awesome show. Funny, clever, not one week character in the entire thing. The episode where they have the guy in for team building or whatever it was is an absolute classic.

So that's it! I'm tagging everyone on my "friends and seagulls" list. You better do it, I'll be monitoring all your blogs :-)

Tagged by Lauren

Alrighty, Lauren tagged me, so I've got to participate. And it's a song meme to boot, so in case there were any doubts, this will put the final nails in the coffin of my tragic uncoolness. All I listen to musicwise now is my iPod, and all the songs listed are on my "My All Time Favorites" play list. Which is basically the sole reason my iPod exists at this point. ;-) The songs I'm listing are the songs I always play at least twice lately while hot rodding around.

The guidelines are: List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what they are. They must be songs you are currently enjoying. Then tag seven other people to see what they’re listening to.

1. Sound of Your Voice by Barenaked Ladies. I love BNL anyway, and heard this song the first time I saw them in concert, which was in November. The lyrics are sad, but the music is upbeat, and I love to really belt it out in the car. It makes me happy.

2. Runaway by the Corrs. I had this song in my head all during National Novel Writing Month and it's become a true favorite. I can't get enough.

3. Accidentally in Love by Counting Crows. One of my favorite happy songs, whenever it comes on my iPod in the car, I play it over and over and over again. Never fails to leave a smile on my face.

4. When You're Next to Me by Mitch and Mickey (aka Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara). My favorite song off the Mighty Wind soundtrack, if this song had been around when we got married, it would have been on our wedding favor CD. My husband and I both love it and sing it in the car whenever it comes on. I have happy memories of seeing the movie, happy memories of the song, and love that Michael sings it with me.

5. The Least You Can Do by Phil Collins. This song says it all about every crappy ass relationship I ever put myself through, with friends as well as amours. There are a couple of people I think of in particular when I hear this song, and I love to sing it loud and proud.

6. Bittersweet Symphony by the Verve. I really got into this song after hearing it on Judy's iPod a year or so ago, and last summer it was the only song for me after Tim died. Kind of a personal anthem, if you will, I love that it is angry and sad at the same time and seems to sum up life so beautifully.

7. Oh Lately It's So Quiet by OK Go. When I first got OK Go's "Oh No" album, it was a bit beyond what I ordinarily listen to, and then suddenly this soothing little melody pops on and I felt relaxed. It was my favorite song they performed when I went to see them last November, everyone's cell phones swaying back and forth in the dark, it was quite something to see. The song is kind of haunting and sweet. Great music.

Well, maybe I'm not such a musical loser. Who knows.

Ok, now I have to tag 7 people. Who to tag... who to tag...

I shall tag Miss Music herself, Annette at Meanderings and Musings, my sister Judy over at MySpace, Melissa who's started blogging again and is a fellow iPod user, Nicole who just started a blog and I'm sure needs material (hehe), Lara who hasn't blogged since JANUARY, Gaina at MySpace who I will have to email and tell her she's up, and last but not least Nancy with whom I'm going away this weekend.

(I would have picked you, Lesley, but didn't want to muddy the waters of your amazing book blog! :-D)

Vegas Itinerary Finalized!

Well, Michael and I have been debating the merits of tours, shows, and casinos while we've been planning our trip, and yesterday we purchased the last little piece of it. Once I pay off Michael's credit card bill in April, which was how we paid for our hotel and airfare only, the entire trip will be paid for, apart from whatever we spend while we are there.

Every other day we'll go on a tour and on the other days, we'll enjoy all Las Vegas has to offer. We have three shows booked. So it's going to be amazing. Type A personality that I am, I have a full itinerary typed out, complete with our "to do" list for such things as picking up show tickets and we have to call the tour company with our room number once we arrive. My itinerary even has foot notes. Yeah, I'm nuts. But I love me for it.

So, here's the basic rundown...

Saturday is the Barry Manilow concert. Sunday we'll tour the Hoover Dam and see the Celine Dion concert. Monday will be Penn and Teller. And Tuesday we're taking an 11 mile cruise of the Colorado River and then a Hummer tour of the desert. I do feel sort of ecologically irresponsible for the Hummer tour, but it was either that or return to the Hoover Dam--those were our 2 Colorado River cruising options. The tour of the Grand Canyon we wanted to take was booked. :-(

So we'll be busy, busy, busy, and I'm sure when we get home, we'll be ready to collapse, but I'm as excited as I can be! I've also secured an official copy of our marriage certificate so we can renew our vows while we're there :-) hehehe Only 4 weeks and 2 days to go!!!!

So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen...

...good bye!

Tonight I had the extreme pleasure of saying "Hasta La Vista, Baby" to Cingular Wireless, the world's worst cell phone provider.

I have had problems with Cingular almost from the start. When I first got Cingular, two and a half years ago, I was living in Centreville. Almost from the start, there were problems. I would drive down Interstate 66, and as soon as I hit the Fair Lakes shopping center, the line would go dead. Whenever I drove certain portions of I95, the phone would go dead. The phone would go dead in major portions of Prince William County, Washington DC, Fairfax County, and surrounding counties. I live in the national capitol region. What's wrong with this picture?!

Calls to Cingular were rewarded with, "We don't show any outages in your area."

Then I made the discovery that they were charging me to call and check my voice mail. Um, I don't think so. So I put a recording on my voice mail that stated, "Don't leave me a message, I am not checking my cell phone voice mail any more."

I've heard from countless friends and acquaintances in the DC area that they've hated every moment of their Cingular service. And apparently Cingular has the lowest service rating in Washington DC.

Anyway, our contract finally expired in October, but due to the fact that Judy needed the cell phone for work, I didn't shut it off. When finally she left those cheap ass bastards, the time came when I could call Cingular and tell them to kiss off.

Still, I felt bad about it. Not for me, since I never use my stupid cell phone. But for my sister, who had it practically glued into her ear. We're talking the need for surgical removal was imminent.

So I called to cancel, and I was told we were "due for an upgrade" which would help us, since our old phones were no longer really compatible with the service or something that they had upgraded to. We'd have 30 days to try out the new phones, they'd reimburse us $200 for the overages my sister had managed to accumulate, and we could still cancel if we wanted to.

Ok, fine and dandy. So I decided to a) see if I even needed a cell phone; and b) test out the phone to see if it would work everywhere.

Well b) never happened. In the entire past 25 days we've had the phone, I made exactly 2 phone calls. For the past 3 weeks, the phone has sat with its dead battery in my car. The ONLY time I even charged it was tonight, when I plugged it into the wall, called Cingular, and told them to cancel my account.

The woman on the other end told me that I could go back to the "month-to-month" plan (instead of a new 2 year contract the new phones--which you will recall I was DUE according to the first woman I spoke to weeks ago--required). All I would have to do would be to return the equipment and go back to using the old phones.

"The old phones didn't work. That's why you sent me new phones."

"Well, that's the only way we can get you back on the month-to-month plan."

"Why would I go back on a plan where the phones don't work?"

*cue those chirping crickets*

"Um, ok, then, go ahead and turn them off."

As soon as I hung up with her, I put both phones and their chargers in the box, sealed it, and Michael and I drove to the Fredericksburg post office, used the 24 hour automated postage center, and mailed those babies off. And you know what? I'm not exactly going to miss that bill coming in the mail. I can think of many things to do with an extra $80 per month.

So, Judy, I am truly sorry, I know how much you loved having the phones. But for me? I won't miss a single ringtone, crappy game, or one pixel of that lousy wallpaper.

Dancing With the Stars

Ok, I'm not even certain this is worth my while to post this on this blog, but what the heck.

Last night, for the first time ever, I tuned in to "Dancing with the Stars." I got caught up in the whole watching Heather Mills thing, and decided to tune in and see what happened. Which was pretty much nothing where she was concerned, other than the fact that she sat all by herself looking either miserable or snotty (I couldn't tell which) for the first 3/4 of the show. They must have noticed, because eventually they did have her get up and she made a crazy face at the camera.

I used to watch American Idol, well, ok, I watched for one whole season. I'm still convinced the thing is rigged and this year, when they have those poor kids competing against a professional singer that the judges can't fall over themselves enough to compliment, well, it just doesn't do it for me.

So I tuned in to see what was going to happen on "Dancing".

I have to say, I really enjoyed the show. John Ratzenberger was just as adorable as can be. The people you expected to be pretty good were, and the people you didn't were better than expected. I'm really looking forward to seeing what happens, as they started with a bang--the kind of dancing I could only imagine being good at. So I don't even care if Heather Mills plants her face on the dance floor. I'm just looking forward to watching and enjoying some great dance.

Pictures from Saturday, Courtesy of My Sister

Cindy Sheehan (told you we were close)


Your humble correspondent


What can you say to someone who thinks peace sucks?
The counter-protest




We finally made it to the Pentagon!!
(The guys in the picture are reading the Constitution into the bullhorn)

March on the Pentagon

Today was the ANSWER Coalition's March on the Pentagon. Judy and I debated long and hard about attending it, but ultimately we decided to check it out. We both wanted to see Cindy Sheehan, and I have become a button-whore and wanted to get some more.

We got out to the Metro, and since I had decided to bring my sign from the January march, we stuck out a bit. When we hit the platform, a young guy yelled, "Hey! Are you guys going to the rally?" so we went over and introduced ourselves.

Our first anarchist. This guy was serious. I don't know about his friends, but he was preaching to us the whole time about the evils of litter laws, and then suggested that we should invade the Capitol building while the cops had their attention diverted elsewhere.

When the ride was over and we got above ground, we kind of ditched those guys. As I said to my sister, if I'm going to get busted I want it to be on my own accord, not guilt by association. We made our way to the protest site and started picking up all kinds of stuff. It was a free-for-all. We got tons of stickers, buttons, pamphlets, I think Judy may have signed up to become a Socialist at some point, and we were invited to march under a JAMOP flag.

Eventually, we made our way to the staging area, where they were leading chants against the counter demonstration across the street and various speakers made speeches. Cindy Sheehan arrived, which was thrilling, since I just adore her. At one point, she was close enough, I could reach out and touch her.

Eventually, they kicked off the march, and after another 20 minutes of standing around because there were SO MANY people that they couldn't get us moving (which was a good thing), we started on our way. We marched past the counter protestors, but I really couldn't bring myself to get into it with them, since most of them are veterans themselves, and I didn't feel good about shouting or making noise or saying anything disparaging. So I walked along the street and the bridge, raising my fingers in the traditional peace sign, and by the time we were off the bridge, the counter protest had petered out and we were on our own until we hit the Pentagon.

The walk was quite nice, although it was FREEZING COLD outside, and by the time we hit the Pentagon, there were protestors everywhere. Some went up to the soundstage that had been set up in the parking lot. Some were up on an overpass, waving to passing cars. Some congregated on the hills and lawns. And some, like us, turned around and headed back for the Metro. Unfortunately, Judy had to work, so we had to get back.

She just called a few minutes ago to say that she had run into our anarchist friends on her way home from work and one of them had gotten arrested and one of them had been in a scuffle with some of the counter protestors. They were looking forward to an April event, but I think it could be when I'm in Las Vegas, so I'll probably miss that one.

It was a great day and I felt like I was doing something important out there. The crowd was a bit younger than the January march, and we met a lot of nice people in the crowds around us. I have a whole roll of "Impeach Bush" stickers if anyone wants one :-) I'll post pictures as soon as Judy sends them to me. I didn't shoot video this time, I was too freakin' cold.

Amour

Sometimes, the only thing right in this crazy world is a guy and his rabbit.

Yuck.

I'm all for people being able to do what they want in their own homes, but, frankly, I'm just totally grossed out.

I'm the type of person for whom showering is a chore. I get in the shower, I do what I have to do, and I get out. I don't take long, supposedly "luxurious", showers, because to me that's a waste of time. Five minutes tops.

Well, this week my clients have been stymying my system!

Care to take a guess why? There's one thing, and one thing only that can make me shower more than once per day, makes me wash my clothes the minute I get home, and totally grosses me out.

Smoking.

Yes, I am an anti-smoking Nazi. I don't tell people not to smoke, but if I'm in someone's home and they ask if I mind if they light up, I don't lie. "HELL YES I MIND!" Only a bit nicer.

And I've had 3 clients this week, all new, who have either been smokers or who live with smokers.

My state car smells like a freakin' chimney. Last night we had to do the wash and today, I just got home, and I'm going to have to wash these clothes (which were just washed yesterday) and hop into the shower again. Which ticks me off since I showered less than 9 hours ago.

But I can't stand the smell of my own self. Then I'll have to Febreze my car, the state car, and the office chair I'm currently sitting in.

And the sad thing is, these guys are all long term clients, so I'm just going to go through this week after week till I can close them. That really sucks.

Is It Really Worth It?

Every few months I get an idea in my head that I need to change something physically to make myself feel better. I have been in a bitter stand-off with my hair for approximately 5 years now, due to several factors, and the whole diet and exercise thing is a real on-again, off-again love affair. But the other day, I looked in a mirror and tried to smile at myself and my mission was clear...

My latest attempt at self-improvement involves Crest White Strips. Or rather, the Walmart equivalent, since those little Crest puppies are PRICEY! I bought a 28 day program, and for the last 5 nights have been torturing myself with these things.

Now, I have no idea whose mouth these things are designed for. The strips are pretty large and the top strip has an extra "front teeth" added length which make me look like TomTom the Rabbit's long lost cousin Sue. The bottom strip slides all over the place--it's way too big and I can't figure out if the curved part goes up or down. When it's up, it doesn't cover my teeth, when it's down, it wiggles all over my mouth and cuts into the inside of my cheek.

I also purchased whitening toothpaste and ACT Restore mouthwash. The feds have only just waved their magic wands and granted us dental insurance after a two year hiatus, so we'll be making appointments soon. And I've been flossing twice daily.

I wish I could say this will last. But tonight, I was getting ready for bed when I spied the box of strips on the vanity and thought, "Oh shoot, I haven't whitened." So now I'm up for an extra half hour while I wait for my teeth to become as pearly white as Walmart can make them.

The taste is GROSS, and I'm supposed to avoid contact with skin and clothing. I just know this stuff can't be good for you, so I hope it improves my smile to some degree. It darned well better. All I hear is Didi Conn repeating, "Sandy, Sandy, beauty is pain!" in my head. Amen to that.

Suisse...

...has gone to her new home.

She has a great new place and I'm happy for her... The last of the oops bunnies has left the building.

Hard to believe, but there it is.

So long, little Suisse. Bring your new family joy.

Five Days From Hell

It's the world's worst kept secret that traffic in Washington DC SUCKS.

And it's also well established that I HATE, HATE, HATE driving around here.

So why on earth did I tell my husband that I'd take him to a conference in Fairfax for two days towards the end of the work week? The only reason I can think of is: love.

So, Michael had a 2 day conference in Fairfax over near Fair Lakes. Due to our mahvelous transit system, there is absolutely no way for him to get over there independently.

So, Thursday, 6:50am, we get in the car and head to Fair Lakes, planning to get there at 8:30.

Um, yeah. Right. We got there at 9:00am. Every single major road we could have taken was clogged by accidents. The traffic then shifted onto secondary roads which...you guessed it...began to experience accidents.

No problem, I thought, I can just go ahead and take the tertiary roads I know from work.

Guess what? Yup, accidents.

See, we had gotten about .000003 microns of snow Wednesday night, and everyone took this as their cue to drive 3MPH and crash into things.

So, we finally get up there, I get him registered, and head out to see a little ole lady who was recently referred to me.

I go to see her, and guess what? She kicked me out of her house!!! She had completely changed her mind about having service, and didn't bother to tell me before I drove all the way out to her house to see her.

Ok, I thought, well surely I can catch up with my sister and take her to lunch between my appointments. So I drive out to Judy's place, only to discover, she's not home. I sit there for an hour waiting and checking my work email and finally she arrives back (from paying her rent, I really couldn't squabble), and we decide to hit McDonald's because I'm in a rush.

We drive to Van Dorn Street, and guess what? A street crew has half the street blocked off and we can't get through! It took us 20 minutes to 1 mile. At this point, I was ready to scream.

So we get our food, I drop Judy off and head to Woodbridge. Afterwards, I go back to Fairfax and pick up Mike.

Guess what? We get stuck in ANOTHER traffic jam. Forty five minutes later, we arrive back at Judy's, where we've decided to spend the night.

Friday morning we leave early and head back to Fair Lakes and only got stuck a little bit. I do my teachin' thing and then pick up Michael and we decided to have dinner before we head back after listening to a traffic report.

After dinner, we put on WTOP and we listened for 4 successive traffic reports. Virginia was not mentioned once. Not even one time. And it's Friday evening... I got a bit of a report on I-95 from Washington Post radio, and we decide to head west and then south. Occasionally we flick on WTOP and in a solid hour, during which we may have missed ONE traffic report, we hear nothing of Virginia. And you guessed it, we were stuck in traffic for the better part of 2 hours.

To make things better, on Saturday, we have to go back to Northern Virginia to get our taxes done. When we first moved here, we met this absolute sweetheart of a gal named Cindy and it turns out she was doing taxes for H&R Block. We decided to let her do our taxes that year, and every year since, and she's been a godsend. So it's worth the drive, really, but already we'd been in NoVa 2 days, that made it three.

Then yesterday, our tickets for the Capitol Steps were valid--we had tickets to see them on 1/21 for Michael's birthday, but that was one of the great snowstorms, so it was cancelled and postponed till yesterday. We pick up Joe and Judy again, drive up to Fairfax for dinner and the show (which was absolutely HYSTERICAL by the way, you must see it!), and then it's time to head back to their house and then back to our house. We pull up to Judy's front circle, and I said, "If I have the energy, I'm just going to come back tonight because I don't want to deal with the traffic tomorrow" (because I have to be in Fairfax every Monday for work). And then, I had to swallow a big ole lump in my throat. The thought of making ANOTHER 120 mile round trip became too much. I wanted to shrivel up and die. My rear was being rooted to the seat of that car, my back molded to its curves.

Joe decides to boogie inside, so Judy, the General, and I start debating what's going to happen, and finally Judy says, "I'll ride back with you and drive you back up here." Ok, that sounded decent enough. But what really put the spring in my step was when she said, "Forget it, I'll just take the General home, pack an overnight bag for you, and I'll be back in a couple of hours."

Someimes, my sister really is an angel.

So today, I got up and drove to Fairfax. I waited till 9am, thinking rush hour on the Beltway would be over. How wrong I was. It still took me 45 minutes to go roughly 15 miles. And tonight I meandered back to the 'burg in about 90 minutes.

Thankfully, tomorrow I'm in the rural counties in the state car. I honestly don't know if I could take a whole lot more.

I hate driving, and I really hate it right now.

The Feel of Books

I've just finished reading two books--one I got on Paperback Swap, the other I picked up at Riverby Books. Both were well used and a bit more worn than I care for my books to be, but for some reason, that didn't bother me one bit.

Both books had spines that had been cracked, and their covers were bent a bit at the corners, soft and flexible from previous use. The pages were well worn and a few had been bent over to mark a previous reader's place. I dodged the bullet where stains and cigarette smoke were concerned.

When I read, I never fully open my paperbacks. I want the spines looking as pristine as they day I bought them. I can't claim the same where my covers are concerned--I'm not always the most careful book layer-downer, and there have been times in the past when I've fallen asleep with a good book and awoken to find the cover bent under a stray arm or my husband's foot, the cover turned back sadly, wondering what it did to deserve such treatment.

Until recently, I haven't really bought or gotten used books, preferring firsthand copies. And some of the books I've gotten have been in first rate condition, clearly read by readers like me, who believe in preserving the integrity of the construction of books.

And I don't know if it's that I enjoyed the stories these two little abused volumes told so much that their own history appealed to me, or if maybe I'm just mellowing. But they look just as good to me on my shelf as all those books I've taken the trouble to keep new.

(And while you're at it, do yourself a favor and go read The Dive From Clausen's Pier and The Magic of Ordinary Days.)

Blog Clean Up

I'm in the midst of the great Blog clean up. I had way too many categories listed and I've cleaned them up a great deal. It will make things slightly harder to find, but I think in the end it looks neater and I'm happier. Nothing like a little OCD in the morning.

Slacker in the Midst of Talent

Yup, that's me!

Oh, my talented family!!!!

My sister just had a piece published on DC Guide and my cousin is apparently a songstress.

Check out Judy's piece at:

http://www.dcguide.com/articles/attractions/the-treasures-of-american-history.html

Not only did she write it, but she also took the pictures!

Check out my cousin Jill's vocals at:

http://www.myspace.com/scrubsmusiconline

I gather she did the background vocals for some friends of hers. Play the song "Love Song in D" to hear her.

How did I get mixed in with such talented people?