DC Post

It's been so long! I am so, so lame. I wrote this yesterday:

Greetings from the lovely, rainy Washington DC area…

Well, I won’t be in DC when I post this, because I’m sitting in a California Tortilla sans internet. I refuse to budge because it was just pouring outside and there’s no way I’m waiting for my Chinatown bus in the rain.

The ride down was pretty eventful, actually. I left work at 4:30 and you’d think that would be plenty of time to catch a 6:00 bus and you would be wrong. I was sprinting (me! sprinting! with a suitcase!) down East Broadway and I made it on time and threw my suitcase under the bus and had a heart attack. There were a few empty seats but all next to people who not-so-slyly had put their bags pretty far over so clearly they did not want a seatmate. As I was reaching the back I gave up all hope of finding an unoccupied pair and awkwardly collapsed next to some girl. I called Travis and then settled down into my seat. I offered the girl the trashy Cosmo I had with me; the former inhabitant of my room had a huge neat pile of old magazines that she left in the room and I found that they make excellent subway reading fodder. She continued the conversation and we ended up talking all the way to DC. The trips go a lot faster when you have a distraction, not surprisingly.

When we arrived at the rest stop, the driver didn’t specify how long the bus would wait so I took my good old time, stopping at the bathroom and then the smoothie place for a microblast, which was like a generic blizzard. Isis, the seatmate, got those tiny cinnamon buns from Cinnabon.

We sauntered out and saw our bus on the horizon… and then saw it turn on the engine and start to pull out. Oh, god, I sprinted. Again. I managed to flag them down (how embarrassing) and luckily they stopped, and I had to take the walk of shame down the aisle. What would I have done if they pulled out? What I had OCD and spent another minute washing my hands? I would have viewed only the tail lights getting smaller as they careened down the freeway. I was lucky, indeed.

So Isis and I have planned to take the bus back at the same time today. This bus company is freaking weird – they have you specify what time and day you are going to leave, and then they seemingly don’t care when you come back. All they ask is that the bus driver sign a copy of your e-ticket. I don’t know how they can make sure that it’s not full by the time you get there if they don’t have a head count in advance. Maybe it’s just first-come, first-serve…

I should probably leave soon.

Dinner

I have an exciting mystery shoppe tonight at a restaurant that shall not be named because who knows, the owner could be reading this. And call up the Mafia to put me in cement shoes. Oh, have I said too much??

The Dark Knight, as Aunt Bonnie pointed out, was wonderful. The beginning didn't really grab me at first but the rest sped right by. At two and a half hours, that isn't bad. There were at least four or five things that I didn't get right away (some I didn't get until Travis told me). Go see it.

I must dress. I will try to post more this week, but there's a lot going on.

Lots of Fun

From cnn.com:

Man counted calories; watched the pounds go.

It starts out, "Sujit Bhattacharya knew he felt sluggish and had trouble putting on his socks and shoes. One day, when he tried on a pair of size 30 shorts, his wife pointed out that they fit only under his belly."

What? Really? What is newsworthy about this? Except for maybe the fact that he's got an insensitive wife. And this is the #6 story in the world!! Oh man, I need to just stop going to cnn.com.

I went to a great meet-up yesterday at Dinosaur BBQ, which was meaty and fantastic. I split a pulled pork sandwich, mac and cheese, and fries with this guy I sat next to who just moved here six days ago from Los Angeles.

Today I believe I will be eating even more barbecue, and tomorrow I have plans with a guy from the meet-up who I didn't share food with to go see The Dark Knight. Oh Heath, you'd better be everything I've hoped for. I've been waiting too, too long.

Yesterday was the last day of camp for Cohort I, and one of the girls that I nominated for a $1000 St John's scholarship won. Go Bryana! Make me look good!

Pictures With Context

While Travis was up to visit this past weekend, we took the opportunity to visit the luxe chocolaterie on the Lower East Side, Max Brenner's. I just love their table placements.



Could I take these home? Are they available in the gift shoppe? We get 20% off with receipt!






Travis ogling various dessert items on the menu. Such difficult decisions.










I got the Swiss Hot Chocolate, and it was tasty.









Travis went all out and got some fiesta party bowl creation.









Sprinkly goodness.








Can he finish it? Is that a challenge?











He did finish it.

And then turned into a bald man with an earring.










The Empire State Building was patriotic, still.







On the way to the Upright Citizen's Brigade:







I feel kind of bad for this guy. He's begging, begging you to not write on the wall. But come on - even I was tempted to go out and graffiti away.





What a funny ad! Hah.








I had an unexpected visitor the other day. I woke up, minding my own biz, and I stepped into the kitchen to get my morning cereal when EEEEEK there was a squirrel, nibbling at something on the table. He freaked out, scrambling from the table to the floor, jumping onto the cabinets to the fridge, and then finally, near the couch. I ran back to get my camera.

Here's the critter in full retreat.








But he lingered by our patio door, wondering if there was anything tasty in the fourth bedroom.







More animal fun - these flowers always seem to attract some kinds of weird bugs.







View from the side.








It looks like it is hovering in mid-air, but I don't think it was that cool in real life.







I was on the Lower East Side today and these cute kitties were pressed up against the glass in some apartment on the ground floor.








Remember Daniel, the kid that I was talking about in my earlier post? I got a video! You can hear Ms. Amy in the background reading a book to her children who were not quite as well-behaved as my own and thus did not deserve frivolous video-making.

And another of him going slightly wild.

This picture I moved up to this post is one of his drawings on the board. Very... pretty.










So apparently YouTube won't let you see the videos unless you're logged in, which is definitely a problem. See below.

Random Pictures

Now that I find time to post anything, I'm... in the middle of a class. Maybe not the best time. Hmm. I have some pictures, so let me toss these up without any explanation whatsoever.

Three Days Down

Yeah, it's been forever, right? I don't have good photo software on this computer (the new, shiny laptop) so I haven't updated any pictures and thus have had no incentive to write. That's what you're worth to me, people.

Camp is camp. I have precious time to eat, and my lunch 'break' is usually me just rearranging desks and muttering about disrespectful kids who don't put their pencils back where they belong.

The kids are okay. My afternoon class (ages 7-10, but mostly around 9 luckily) is mainly comprised of well-behaved kids. And they're supposed to be worse! The troublemaker Michael was punished today so hippity happity hooray, I had a day without him. They know how to write, which was my biggest concern, so now my new biggest concern is what to do with them so that they don't stab me.

The older kids are whiny and bored. I don't blame them - the only books we were given to use were picture books. Some of these kids are like, 13. I picked the 'most challenging' book, and did you notice my use of quotes? It's because the hardest book we have is Frog and Toad are Friends. This is a first-grade book, people. I wouldn't want to work, either.

One of my younger kids, Daniel, is such a suck-up. His greatest talent, according to the About Me exercise, is 'being a good listener'. The other day, he showed me his folder and was like, Ms Alaina, my folder doesn't look good. I said, "I think it looks very nice!" He said, "oh, I know, it looks fabulous", and then winked at me. He likes to sing with the girls and always holds my hand. He's going to grow up to be the guy that always talks to you and flatters you constantly but is just a little too suspiciously fem so you're never sure if he has a crush on you or not.

Oh, it's hot. No one likes the hot, and the fan we have in our room is nice but I can't have it pointed anywhere near our general directions because then you have to sit on the papers to keep them from flying away.

But it just downpoured, and hopefully that will help.

Short Report

Hi, all. Haven't posted much recently because there hasn't been much to report. Went to Brooklyn for the first time on the 4th of July and am envious because it's nicer than my neighborhood.

The Ikea in Red Hook is so wonderful, and their cafeteria is so cheap. I may have to go back.

You will notice on the left that I have been very busy watching nature documentaries lately. Yup.