Weekend recap

Finally getting around to my past weekend. Saturday was the best day I've had in awhile because, in terribly-written bullet form:

• Clothes. Wore my new dress with tights. I don't get to wear tights a lot since I'm always cold, but they make me so happy, I might just have to sacrifice warmth.
• Motorcade. After lunch, I walked toward Pennsylvania Ave. and the Newseum, just in time to see the presidential motorcade as he headed for the Capitol. I've been in the D.C. area for two years, and this is my first motorcade. (Excluding the one I saw the day of the pre-inauguration concert; he wasn't President yet.) So what if I stood and watched and grinned. I refuse to become jaded and not appreciate the unique opportunities that living in the capitol provides.
• Newseum. Finally made it to the Newseum—my new favorite place. More on this later.
• Movies. Saw Where the Wild Things Are, a beautiful movie. Aside from a few parts where I cried, I pretty much sat there and smiled the entire time.
• Food. After a long day, with my feet hurting and just wanting to get home, I got a pizza sandwich from Potbelly—perfection.
• C-SPAN. Got home, ate, got warm, and started watching C-SPAN health care debate coverage. Yeah, I don't know what has gotten into me. It's not my first time watching C-SPAN, but it's the first time I've watched it for as long as I did, with such an interest in what I was watching. And I was in such a good mood, I didn't even get mad at the people I disagreed with. I just yelled back at them.

His game is called survivin'

Today was a Clash kind of day.

It started as a Carrie Underwood kind of day, but my work wasn't getting done and clearly she was to blame.

The iPod: the only place where The Clash and Carrie Underwood can live in harmony.

I'm going to start carrying my own apple juice

An ad for Starbucks I saw in a metro station. I have a "blankie;" Starbucks is nothing like a blankie. I've lost track of how many times I've gone into one this fall for a caramel apple cider, only to be told they don't have any apple juice. My blankie never lets me down like that. Shame on you, Starbucks, you are no blankie.

(This post brought to you by Bonnie's fatigue, bitterness, and lack of caramel goodness.)

Oh, baby brother

I routinely start posts and never finish them. Thus I have about 20 posts in drafts that I keep around because I'm a pack rat. This is from when Joey visited in September. The kid can make me laugh like no one else.

[on my walking speed]
Joey: You walk like a cyclops!
Me: Um...cyclops aren't exactly known for walking fast. I think they're just known for having one eye.
Joey: No, they are known for their speed, too.

I started to argue that if they only have one eye and walk so fast, they'd probably run into things a lot. Then I remembered that I run into things a lot. Maybe the kid has a point...

Most Over-Used Words

Words to strike from my vocabulary:

• random
  
• sketchy
  
• totally
  
• so
  
• seriously
  
• awesome
  
• creepy
  
• super cool
  

It looks like entries in a book titled How to Speak Like a 13-year-old Girl, doesn't it? Except, I didn't start using any of these words until college. And of course this is made all the more sad by the fact that I'm a writer. I love words!

I'm posting this because starting last week I am working on removing these from my brain, one painfully idiotic but expressive word at a time.

Friday Soapbox

I tried to keep it in but I have to get it off my chest. If I lose readers then that's ok, sorry.
I love the fact that we live in a country where we are free to protest. My biggest regret about college is that in four years at one of the most politically-conscious colleges in the country, I didn't attend a single protest. Bu the protest yesterday at the Capitol, and the many in the past few months, have just got me thinking.

The media coverage has been focused on those against the health care debates and proposals, against the so-called "socialized" medicine. They deserve to have their voices heard, but they aren't the only voices. And that's what bugs me the most, about some of their signs and messages, some of them acting like they speak for everyone. Some people want this! Please quit making it out to be Congress steamrolling the electorate. Some people have fought for this, voted for exactly this!

And "tea parties" where they claim they have no representation? They have representation, they just don't like what their reps are doing. (The only people who can legitimately claim no representation, are D.C. residents. And I thought that long before I became a resident and will continue to think so after.) The same people crying "hands off my health care," are probably the same ones who would shout down someone with a pro-choice "hands off my body" rally-cry. (Of course, I want government hands off my body but on my health care, so maybe I'm a hypocrite, too.)

This is what I voted for last November, so I'm happy. But I do need to try to remember how miserable I was for 8 years, and that a good portion of the country is feeling the same way now. (Of course I'd be a lot more patient and tolerant if people would stop saying the President is Hitler, the Joker, a Kenyan national, and a Grandma-killer.)

And while living a mile from the Capitol has made me less tolerant of protesters, particularly when they're exercising the First Amendment in the middle of a workweek, I still appreciate living in a country where it's at least an option. Where it's a guaranteed right in the pocket Constitutions they were waving around yesterday. Though I don't remember them doing so when freedoms were trampled on with the Patriot Act. Just another difference of opinions and perspective, I guess.

Happiness is...

It's the little things, people. And if I keep googling things more often than usual just so I can look at his wonky eyes, then, oh well. Yesterday was Big Bird, I just hope tomorrow is Grover, my favorite.

It's that time of year again...

...when I complain and moan and groan about how COLD it is. When I pine for the sweltering days I bitched about in the summer. When I wonder why I moved further north when the winters in NC were plenty harsh enough for me. When I accept begrudgingly admit that for the next six months I will be COLD all. the. time. When I drink around six cups of tea a day and twitch constantly as a result. (I've heard a rumor there's something called decaf, but I haven't looked into it.) When if I'm outside for more than two minutes without a hat my ears feel like they're bleeding and my nose runs all day. When I try to invent a way to have a space heater permanently attached to my person.

Yes, it's barely a month into fall. Yes, the high is nearly 60 today. Yes, I'm a pansy. But I'm COLD.

NaBloPoMo

I was reminded in an article yesterday that November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). From their web site:
National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30...Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It's all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.

I'd love to be inspired enough to write a novel in a month. Even a crappy one. However, seeing as how I've been working on a "novel" for the past seven years, I'm not so sure how good of a NaNoWriMo-er I'd be. (Besides, I much prefer re-writing the first two pages over and over again.)

Also, "lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly." What do those words even mean? No, really, there's a reason this blog is called "Learning to Fly — it's because I don't. I plan, I agonize, I complain. (I've considered changing the title to "Kicking and Screaming into Adulthood.")

However, since this is the Internet and there's always something being made up, November is also National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo). A much more manageable goal for the commitment-phobe in me of writing one measly and mundane blog post a day for a month. (In light of how I posted every day last year, this shouldn't be a problem. Of course, if you followed my blog at all last year, you know I tended to post once a week, seven posts at a time.)

So here I go. Work is about to get crazy and I need something else to keep it from consuming me. Plus, nablopomo is fun to say. Or at least it was until Doctor Who invaded my brain, as it is apt to do, and now I can't get this out of my head:

Repeat after me: I never said I was normal.

After the flood all the colors came out

The past few weeks have seen a succession of gray, windy, dreary, chilly days. Saturday was a nice change, at least somewhat, in that it was still gray, but rather warm and pleasant outside. Thus I set out to capture some of fall's colors.

Coming from eastern North Carolina, we don't really have trees that change colors. We don't really have the trees that ignite in reds, oranges, and yellows. Our pine trees are regal, but they just coat the ground with their crunchy brown needles. Other trees also tend to just drop their dead leaves everywhere, though sometimes it seems like the leaves just dissappear entirely. (We do, however, have magnificent Bradford pear trees in the spring.)

Because of this, I still find changing leaves a novelty. I'm almost childike when encountering a tree blazing red or orange, that just last week was green and lush; I become entranced. So on Saturday I walked around town until my feet cried and my camera whined, capturing all the colors while they last.

Pictures are uploaded to my Flickr. They aren't amazing or anything, it was just too gray outside and I'm not sure I have the color settings on my camera right.