shoo flu

I got a flu shot! I always do, mostly thanks to my dad's nagging. I also made use of my new health insurance for the first time! Ah, grown-up excitement.

a little crooked house

This morning I moved my bed a good eight or ten inches back towards my bedside table. I think my floor is crooked and the bed slid over time. That or I like to move furniture in my sleep.

weekend with the g'parents

Friday: Got off work early to go to a piano master class with Grandpa at VCU. If you haven't been to one, basically you go listen to a "master" give piano lessons to students. Ate dinner with Grandpa at Kuba Kuba.

Saturday: Up for a run, then went to lunch with Grandpa at a Vietnamese place on the southside. Spent a couple hours at the mall, then let Grandpa help me finish hanging up pictures around the apartment. Back to the grandparents' for a bite to eat before going with Grandpa to a piano recital with the same guy who gave the master class- Awadagin Pratt. He was pretty great. Went back to the grandparents' and spent the night there- just like old times.

Sunday: Slept in, then ate lunch outside with grandparents plus Aunt Caryn, Janelle, and baby Bobby. Went to Barnes and Noble to inspire myself to read again and to look at mosaic books. Bought a latte. Stopped back by the apartment, then walked to church with my latte. It was a beautiful day. After church walked back, ate dinner, and played Scrabble with Josh. Now going to get in bed and start my new book.

orange lights

Have Halloween decorations (i.e. fake spider webs all over the yard and strings of orange lights) always been this big around here or is this just the first time I've noticed them?

roller coaster fever

Yesterday Josh and I visited Kings Dominion for some amusement park action and Halloween fun. Actually, I just went for the amusement park action because I don't like the haunted part, but I tried to be a good sport and visited two haunted houses.

While there we had two pistachio sightings. We saw a single half-shell while in line for the Volcano:



and we saw another shell just before getting on the Shockwave:



Finally, here I am in an oldie but goodie, a bumper car.



We spent nearly twelve hours at the park and were exhausted when we left, but it was fun and I'd say we got our money's worth.

clarification

Don't forget, it's still October! And that means it's still Archives Month!

Now, maybe you're secretly wondering to yourself what the difference is between a library and an archives. Lucky you, I am here to share the difference.

As a fellow archivist once told me, "The books in a library are like whores. You can find the same ones in libraries everywhere. But archives are filled with one-of-a-kind documents that aren't found anywhere else!"

And there you have it.

Weekend with Ryan

Thursday: picked Ryan up from the airport after work, ate dinner at our grandparents' house, and worked on fixing up his resume.

Friday: Went to breakfast at Jay and Janelle's house, then went directly to lunch with Grandpa. Took Ryan to a few hotels downtown to drop off his resume (he's thinking of moving here!!!) Hung out during the evening at Aunt Caryn's house.

Saturday: Woke up and went for a walk to Carytown, then went to Aunt Caryn's house for lunch with the whole family. Hung out for a while, then went back over to grandparents' house for wine and a game of Rook. Met the cousins at my apartment and walked to dinner in Carytown, then went downtown to Capital Ale House; got home late.

Sunday: Slept in until we went to meet the family for lunch. Four of us cousins took a nap on the couch together. Ryan, Sunni and I went to the Folk Festival for a tiny bit, then to coffee at Captain Buzzy's before going back to grandparents' to eat again. Headed over to Aunt Caryn's house and hung out with cousins more.

Monday: Up and over to grandparents' for breakfast, then took Ryan to his quasi-interview at a well-known hotel. Afterwards we had an hour to kill before he needed to be at the airport so we went to the Capitol Building and wandered around. Finally took him to the airport, then I returned to the grandparents' to finish my laundry, take a nap, and laze about nursing my oncoming cold. Now headed back to my own apartment, where I hope to sleep very soon.

Guess who's super excited?

Me!!!

Why?

Because my brother Ryan is visiting! SO EXCITED.

starchives!

October is Archives Month, folks. Get excited.

If you're in the Richmond area, check out the month's events.

pistachio "sighting"

From The New Yorker*:

"They [a colony of pavement ants] ran wild over a Popsicle stick, a plastic spoon, pistachio nuts, Marlboro butts, and degraded credit-card receipts."

*From an article by Nick Paumgarten in the "Talk of the Town" section of the September 22, 2008 issue.

changing places

As you all know, or hopefully know if you actually read this blog or know me in real life, I recently moved. I've been in my new apartment for two and a half weeks. It's mostly settled, and I'm feeling at home here. But like all big changes, I also feel a little sad about the move.

For one thing, I really liked grad school. I loved classes, I liked my friends, I liked my apartment there and running around the lake or in the neighborhood with tall trees. Looking back, the whole thing flew by. After my classmates and I graduated most of us left North Carolina. I have no desire to live there now, without being in school and with everyone gone. But I still miss it.

I also miss my grandparents' house. Sure it's not far away and I can easily visit. Yes I can still go over for a meal or to hang out or to do laundry. But it's not the same. One of the reasons I felt close to that set of grandparents while growing up in a different state from them was because when I did see them, it was for longer periods of time. Sure I might have lunch with my Santa Fe grandparents every once in a while, but when I saw my (then) Texas grandparents I visited for a week. Even when I was in North Carolina, if I saw my grandparents I was visiting for a long weekend. Now that's over.

I'm very happy and thankful to be where I am now. I like my job, I like my apartment, I like my neighborhood. I don't regret all these changes; I'm just feeling nostalgic I guess.