Day 192: "You're a PILTS - Person I'd Like to Stab." (Curtis' Mom, The Rocker)

I like movies, I like new places, and I like free things, so tonite's new thing was a trifecta.

I went to Silver Spring, Maryland to attend a free screening of the movie The Rocker. I started the evening leaving work in Virginia, changed lines and picked up my friend Elizabeth in D.C., and ended in Maryland. Gotta love the metro. (And yes, the movie wasn't really free after I paid for the metro, but in my head, it was still free.)
Other than the airport in Baltimore, I've never been to Maryland. Downtown Silver Spring was quite lovely, with a nice open-air shopping, dining, and entertainment area. Dinner and catching up with Elizabeth, a small margarita, and then a funny, funny movie, was exactly what I needed.

Day 191: Sitting, for just a minute.

This week has just been beating me up:

• New project at work that is great but stressful.
  
• Not enough sleep last week at home resulting in zombie-like existence this week.
  
• Running errands today, including to Staples, only to find that my local one has been demolished. Nothing but crushed cinder blocks and dirt, that I stared at for a full minute in confusion.

After the disappearing Staples act, I gave up the errands and went to Cosi for a nice sit-down dinner, as I've only ever gone for lunch. Just me, my Mojito lemonade, baked chicken and cheese dish, and Pride and Prejudice. And just sitting still for a bit. Ahh...

Day 190: Hello, Lodz

Not letting my lack of funds or vacation time stop me from travelling this summer, I pulled out the old* atlas and opened to a random page, closed my eyes and pointed, and decided to look up plane tickets to said destination. (Just for fun, of course.)

The first two times I landed on pages on space. I don't know even where to begin to look up plane tickets for this. (But if only I could.)
The third time I got Lodz, Poland. Hardly the exotic, unheard of locale I was aiming for, but it will do. (Though I will have to do more research on it as all I can remember comes from my History of the Holocaust class.)
Leaving in November, clearly the only time worth going, I could get a return ticket to Warsaw through Swiss Air for just $1052. (Really not too bad, I think.) From there it would be just a nice bus or train ride to Lodz, Poland's second largest city.

This would be far more interesting if I blindly picked a random city and just went there. Maybe one day. But at least I have options, thanks Lodz.


*Atlas is literally old, from the 1960s, from Poppy's house. I just realized it still has West and East Germany on it. Off to check out how Africa looks. I love old maps.

Day 189: I need a vacation after my vacation

It's my first day back to work after a week's vacation and I'm lame. I'm tired and cranky and lazy and lame. And I have a sore collar bone thanks to a run-in with the trunk of my cab as the cab driver yesterday nailed me on the sunglasses and shoulder with the trunk lid. (Complete accident, he felt really bad, did not knock a few dollars off the fare.)

So today I had a sore collar from my near-death experience, and had to take a backpack to work. Those are the new lame things. I love my backpack, and lots of people use them, but it makes me look 10 years old and reverts me back to a college student who just wants to sit on the quad or sleep or work in the library or sleep.

Picture, not at all related, to un-lame this post. World War II Memorial:
(I need to figure out how to do that thing where you make something in the foreground really sharp and the stuff in the background kind of blurry. On purpose. I've only ever done it on accident.)

Day 188: No, I am Batman

I'm kind of obsessed with the Domino's online pizza tracker. After selecting your pizza, sides, and coupons, all online, they show a status bar of where your pizza is. I know when it's being made, when it's in the bag, and when it's on its way to me. Even who is making it. (For the record, mine are almost always made by "Martini." Though I prefer a good margarita, Martini makes damn fine pies.)

I've always known I had voyeuristic tendencies (thanks Facebook) but to actually check on the status of my pizza, is kind of odd. And addicting.

But that's not the new thing, ordering and eating a Gotham City pizza is.
Oh movie tie-ins, how I love you. And Batman, too. How else would I get to eat a pizza "cloaked in pepperoni" that is also "deliciously mysterious." Absolutely brilliant. Just waiting for the Batman qualities to kick in and I'll be off to save the good citizens of Gotham from whatever villain ails them tonite. Or I'll just chill out with my pizza and let them fend for themselves.

Day 187: Crafty fun

I can only think of perhaps one or two birthday parties in my child/teen years that were not sleepovers. I just loved a good slumber party. But had there been scrapbooking and scrapbooking stores and apparently scrapbooking birthday parties then, like there are now, I would have been all over that. I went to my first scrapbooking b-day party today, for my future step-niece. And oh was it fun. I made a handy magnetic notepad and recovered a notebook to make a journal. A very productive Saturday, indeed.

Day 186: "The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive." (Thoams Jefferson)

I love the Fourth of July. Love it. The food. The fireworks. The history. The founding fathers. The Declaration of Independence. The fireworks. (It's the one day of the year I indulge my inner-pyro by gleefully watching other people blow things up.)

To honor all things red, white, and blue I made a patriotic desert trifle. (If you are thinking of Rachel and her trifle with "beef sauteed with peas and onions," I love you.)

For someone's who's cooking follies have been well-documented in this blog, it was quite good. And that's just not my cocky self saying so, the family thought so too. And I don't have one of those families who says nice things because they are family. (Do those even exist in real life? I feel life would be far less interesting.)

Day 185: Blue Heaven

"It's the same 94 feet in the NBA. The same basketball, the same two hoops. But you can't replicate this. This is college basketball. It's pure. There are no nights off. There is nothing like it." (Sean May)

My love of UNC, of Chapel Hill, "of white old well" and "bell's deep booming tone" needs no introduction. And today was the rarest of days when I got to go to my favorite place on earth and do something new, see something new, the Carolina Basketball Museum.

This is what I mean when I say I'm blessed. (Well, after my family and friends and faith and good health. I'm not that obsessed.)

A small fraction of the pictures I took.

Michael Jordan's letter of intent.
Ticket from the '82 championship game, only $18!Eric Montross' shoes. Just wow.Montross' jersey and me. My favorite player ever. (Sorry David, you are a very, very close second.)
Felton's shoes and court shot location from '05 championship game.Joey and me and the world's greatest trophy.
Pretty, shiny things.Mom and her Roy.

Day 184: Always with the 'ritas

Today I got margaritas at Chili's with mom, which we've never done before.

Day 183: I swear I'm a pacifist

Since I moved away from home, my room has become 10% Mom's sewing/craft room and 90% storage space. Which means last time I was home I had to move a coffee table to get to my bed. And as Joey was painting his room this time, our shared bathroom became storage as well. I had to dodge a mine field of trophies to get to my room or the toilet. (Death by 6-inch little gold tennis player is not how I want to go.)

This also meant brushing my teeth alongside five or six antique heirloom guns. So at 11:30, when I realized I had done nothing new, I grabbed a gun, set it by my bed, and went to sleep. I've never slept with a gun by my bed before. A heavy flashlight, yes. Mase, yes. My purse, yes. (The latter two during a hilarious (in retrospect) hostel experience in New York City.)

It was a large shotgun that doesn't work and I would never fire it even if it did, the kickback (is that the word) would kill me before my assailant felt the bullet. But as I've been watching loads of Doctor Who and am currently on the lookout for Daleks, it made me feel a little safer.