Hard at Work

This picture was in a presentation at work?!

"I'll take the stairs, thanks."

Today for lunch the Development Staff went to Red Robin. All six of us piled into one woman's mini van and headed across town. It was like a field trip, and I love field trips. As we got back to the office we all got into the elevator to come up two flights from the parking garage. Just as the doors closed my boss said "this thing is probably going to stall because the last time I was in here the guy told me no more than five people at a time." Sure enough, just as the words escaped her mouth, we stopped moving. We were stuck in that elevator for twenty minutes. It got pretty hot and stuffy, but nobody panicked. Our co-workers stood outside the elevator to both keep us company and to laugh at us. When we were finally released we were greeted by cameras flashing, and a video clip is currently circulating around the office of our hilarious escape.

I found Myrtle

We named Grandma's turtle Myrtle. Then she was missing for a long time and we thought she might be gone forever. But don't worry, I found her this morning on the other side of the yard. Whew.

Celia and Gris

Finally, the crazy pictures of Celia and me walking around Times Square wearing eye patches have arrived. But first let me give you some background on how she and I always end up doing ridiculous things when we're together.

Celia is a friend from high school, and pretty much the only friend from Santa Fe that I keep in touch with these days. I feel like it may be hard for some of you readers who know me here in Richmond to imagine me acting in silly ways with her, but it's true. We speak in a funny dialect that involves saying "yah" or "cha" a lot. She calls me Gris, which is Gray in Spanish. She makes up songs about me wearing Swedish socks or being in the ghetto. In high school we would switch one of our shoes and walk around all day like that. Or we would put chapstick on each other. Once I got a crazy hair cut (not much unlike the one I recently got) so she started calling me Hiawatha, and then she made me a headband out of pipe cleaners that I wore in English class. At an amusement park in Denver we wore Spongebob Square Pants temporary tattoos. We also snuck around the school parking lot leaving secret messages on cars while humming the James Bond theme.

Over the Memorial Day weekend I visited her in New York. On my last night there we planned to wander around the East Village. We honestly don't know when or why we started talking about it, but we thought it would be fun to look like pirates and search for sailors, since it was Fleet Week. Most people would laugh and say "yeah, that would be funny," but we actually went looking for eye patches. Celia happened to know from past experience that Walgreens carries them (KMart, we found, does not). Donning our patches we headed to Times Square where we knew we could find sailors at midnight, and sure enough...



We also happened upon this place, and got two men pushing baby carriages at 12:30 am to take our picture.



Good times.

10 things

As instructed by Valerie...

10 Things I Love:

1. orange currant scones
2. those plastic letter openers with advertisements on them
3. going on walks during my lunch break
4. crossword puzzles
5. Carnation Instant Breakfast, milk chocolate flavored
6. playing the piano for my Grandpa
7. Danny, the best dog ever
8. hippopotamuses when their mouths are open
9. Modigliani paintings
10.head massages

10 Things I'm Fascinated By:

1. Civil War reenactments
2. how people get real jobs
3. parents who give their kids stupid names
4. how people made maps back in the day, or even today
5. life in the Peace Corps
6. married life
7. how people swim in the ocean without worrying about sharks and jellyfish and stingrays and crabs and seaweed getting wrapped around their legs
8. rural towns, and the people who live in them
9. girls who are beautiful all the time
10.people who have never left the state they live in

Apple, Lettuce, and Hot Dog

Those are things my Grandma feeds her new turtle. Grandpa found a turtle in the front yard yesterday and they put him in the back yard, where Grandma set up a little water dish and puts out food. She hasn't named it yet but she thinks it's a girl because it has brown eyes. She's pretty excited.

Happy June

I'm a big fan of musicals. Old ones, new ones, and especially ones about US Presidents. In Carousel, by Rogers and Hammerstein, there's a number where they dance around and jump off of roofs while singing "June is busting out all over!" My dad used to sing that song when June came around, and I like doing it, too. Usually I just sing it with him, but you should have seen how excited I was two years ago when I was in Stockholm and the girl I was traveling with sang it with me! Anyway, this morning at work I got a call from my dad singing those familiar lyrics, and it made me smile. I'm sure I'll be humming it all day.

Arrrrgh!

I just walked around Times Square wearing an eye patch and searching for sailors. For fun. Pictures and details to come. Shiver me timbers.

Phil's

For the past two nights in a row I have found myself doing the exact same thing, and it is a thing that is totally out of the ordinary for me. On both Tuesday and Wednesday I went to Phillip's Continental Lounge at Grove and Libbie. I had never been there in my whole life. In fact, I worked less than a block away for over six months and yet I never even knew the place existed. And not only did I go to Phil's (I don't know if people really call it that, but I imagine they do) two nights in a row, but both nights I watched my only episodes of American Idol this whole season. The only episodes in my whole life, actually. How bizarre is that?

Phil's is a diner-type restaurant and bar in the near West End that has been there since the 30s. It's full of old black and white pictures of Richmond. The first night Justin and I walked in and there were some guys sitting at the bar staring at us who looked like small town regulars. Finally they stopped staring and let us know we could pick any table we liked and a waitress would get us some dinner. It was eight o'clock, so the TVs were both tuned into American Idol, and they even turned up the volume so the whole place could listen in. A small crowd of middle aged and gray-haired folks crowded around the bar to watch. I was a little astounded at the whole situation.

Tonight I ended up going there after potluck with Jennifer. Again, American Idol was turned up, though one of the workers had to keep turning the volume even louder to compete with the radio still playing in the background (when I googled the Lounge I found this: "More Reasons to Go: There is background music while you dine.") There wasn't quite as much of a crowd tonight, but I imagine it's because everyone was joining the millions of other Americans sitting in their living rooms and biting their nails over who would be their new Idol.

Hair Cut

Yesterday I got a hair cut. I don't really want to talk about it yet because the jury is still out on whether it's cute or not. Part of me feels like I have crazy lesbian rock star hair, and I don't really like any of those words to describe the way I look.

The hair cutting experience, however, was amazing. I went to Mango in the West End. I knew of it because I used to have to take pastries there every morning when I worked for the coffee shop, which is now closed and totally empty and depressing. Anyway, I had never been to a place like this.

First, they give you a black robe and you can go take off your shirt in a changing room, and they have lockers to put your things. I put the robe on, but didn't remove my shirt. That would have been weird. Then you're supposed to get coffee, but I think they were out, so that was a little disappointing.

Next the shampoo girl becomes your best friend ever by giving you a head massage. It's always nice to have someone else shampoo your hair because you can imagine they're giving you a head massage, but this girl really was. It was great. And she didn't ruin the whole moment by making you come up with small talk. It was silent and beautiful. After the massage she put a hot towel over my head and let me sit and relax, then she came back and did more massaging as the towel was slowly removed. She even used the towel to get the water out of my ears. How thoughtful.

From there my "designer" came and we got to the cutting part. At one point my earring came out and flew to the floor, so we stopped to look for it, and then I had three fancy salon ladies in black pants and heels on the floor searching for the stupid tiny earring I've worn for three years straight. I felt embarrassed about all the fuss, but finally one of them actually found it.

When it was time to leave I got a $10 discount because my stylist had been running late, so that was nice. And even though this place sounds super expensive it really wasn't, compared to everyone else (above the Hair Cuttery of course). They even gave me a gift bag with little bottles of fancy shampoo and conditioner.

And to top it all off my boyfriend came to meet me and tell me I look cute, even if we're not really sure it's true yet.

Weekend

I did interesting things this weekend. At least, interesting for me.

For example, Friday night I found myself being the only girl at an apartment with a bunch of tattooed dudes. This usually doesn't happen to me. We walked to a crazy college bar and played a round of bowling on an arcade game. And on the way there we passed a guy playing the banjo.

Then on Saturday I found myself at a blogging get-together. Sure I have a blog, but not like those guys. This get-together was at an old firehouse, and involved me buying a t-shirt.

Next I drank my very first (small and watered down) mint julep. I also watched my very first horse race. Who knew they only last two minutes long?!

Following the short horse race I found myself eating dinner and drinking beer at an Exxon. That's right. Hanging out at the gas station.

From the Exxon we walked to the Innsbrook Pavilion and saw the Strokes perform. I had heard of them, but never actually heard them. So that was fun.

Then came Sunday afternoon, where I found myself eating Shiwarma and stuffed grape leaves at the Lebanese Food Festival. Saw some Lebanese dancing, too.

I mean, who doesn't want to move to Richmond after reading about the awesome things one can find herself doing here?

Virginia is for History Lovers

Saturday Justin took me to Charlottesville and Lexington. After visiting with his aunt and uncle in their log house on the side of a mountain we went to Lexington and walked around the Virginia Military Institute, or VMI. I'm not used to military schools, or the military for that matter, so it was so crazy for me to see all these young guys in uniform standing around display cannons. It felt like glimpsing the Civil War, but really it's 2006 and those guys will go back to their bunk rooms and instant message online just like every other college kid. Also, VMI is where Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson once taught, and if you don't already know, he happens to be my seventh great uncle.

After VMI and Lexington we stopped by McCormick's Farm. Cyrus McCormick is the guy who "invented the first successful reaper and founded the harvesting machine industry." The buildings were closed for renovation, but it was a cute area near a stream and surrounded by sheep and cows. We even went on the Interpretive Trail along the stream and learned about the ecosystem and how McCormick liked roasted chestnuts.

Next came Charlottesville. We walked all over the University of Virginia. I liked it a lot. Justin likes to categorize the Virginia public schools pretty broadly/stereotypically, and he doesn't describe the UVA kids very nicely, but I'm not gonna lie, I feel like maybe I would have wanted to go there if I were from Virginia. Or William and Mary, which is a school I really did want to go to when I was applying.

It was so nice to get out of Richmond and into the country for a day. The weather was beautiful and I feel like we saw a lot for one day. I definitely want to go back though, since there are tons more awesome places to see. I've been to Jefferson's Monticello before, in the sixth grade I think, but I would love to go again. I also want to visit Madison's Montpelier and Monroe's Ash Lawn-Highland. There's also a Frontier Culture Museum that I'm interested in, and I want to see the Natural Bridge, which I'm told was owned by Jefferson and surveyed by Washington.

As an American history lover, these sorts of things make me giggle with glee.

Observation

While orange soda is delicious, it does nothing to help one stay awake!

Today I was *that* girl...

You know, the one who brings leftover fish to work and then microwaves it to stink up the whole office? Yeah, that was me. What a disaster.

The license plate said "Fresh" and there were dice in the mirror.

Last night I had a little brush with the rich and famous at the Jefferson Hotel. I was working at the after party for A Midsummer Night's Dream, put on by the symphony, ballet, and opera. Uncle Phil and Aunt Vivian from the Fresh Prince of Bel Air were the narrators for the performance, which is hilarious, and were both at the party. Uncle Phil and I are pretty much best friends now. I mean, he did ask me where the restrooms were, after all.

Where a Kid Can Be a Kid

Last night Justin took me on a date to Chuck E. Cheese's. It was pretty exciting. After eating a whole bunch of pizza and drinking soda out of kid-sized cups we headed over to the games. Did some ski ball, knocked over some clowns, raced frogs, flipped coins at dinosaurs. Afterwards we counted up our valuable tickets and headed for the prize desk. It took a lot of deliberation, but we finally left with me wearing a purple bracelet that resembles a Koosh ball and Justin with a magnetic Chuck E. Cheese pin that lights up. The date concluded most appropriately with ice cream sundaes at Friendly's.

W. Franklin St.

During my lunch break today I took a walk down W. Franklin. It was amazing. The sun was out, trees were green, buildings were neat. A lot of it was through VCU territory, and it was nice to see the different department buildings, converted from old houses. African American studies, art history, politics and government, psychology. All kinds of neat ideas and things are being said and written and read and thought about on that street. And I saw a student wearing a black punk rock shirt and denim shorts, carrying a brief case in this left hand.

From Work

I've been listening to this. You should, too.

My lunch break was longer than usual because I couldn't stop looking at these.

Sometimes I admire my own handwriting.

I like names with the middle initial B. Especially when the last name could be an adjective. Like, Johnny B. Goode, or Freida B. Saine, or Skye B. Gray.

Ways my life isn't like movies/tv/teen magazines made me think it would be:

My high school didn't really have lockers. I feel like that knocks out whole genres right there.

I've never been to a pool party.

I haven't fallen in love at first sight.

Not one of my friends drives a convertible.

I never went to a Greek party in college.

My friends and I have never had a regular burger joint to hang out in.

Road trips never seem to live up to all the hype.

I never went in a boy's dorm room.

Friends don't climb through my bedroom window.

Reading Again

I have, for the past several months, been on a somewhat involuntary reading hiatus. When I flew home for Thanksgiving I was reading Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Love in the Time of Cholera. [As an aside, I accidentally hit the paste shortcut instead of the italics shortcut, and this appeared: Cheese Ghostkersandwich.] I was enjoying the book, but the chapters are very long and I hate to stop in the middle of a chapter, so after the plane ride the book was set aside for a while. Then the while got longer. And I also hate to quit reading a book after I've started, so I was unwilling to start something else that might be a faster or easier read. So I didn't read at all, and instead stuck to crosswords and sudokus to fill my spare time. This whole time I was a little sad about how I couldn't get myself to read for fun. I even have a stack of New Yorkers I haven't looked at yet. The worst part is when I tell someone I want to go to library school. "Oh?!" they say. "You must really love to read then." "Er...um...yeah..." I respond as I shuffle my feet and look away. I mean, librarians don't stop reading for four months straight!

So, the good news is, I have ended my readers block. At least I hope so. I have, reluctantly, given up on Marquez for now, though I plan to finish the book some day. A friend gave me The Jane Austen Book Club to read on my recent plane ride, and I just finished it. It was fun and light- the perfect read to get me back in the swing of things. Now I am reading J.D. Salinger's Franny and Zooey. I'm pretty excited about it.