Back
Drove back to Rutgers today. Offical end of summer, beginning of schoolwork and other such things. Oh well. I'm happy to see my roommate again, though.
Saturday I had a birthday dinner with friends, as opposed to the Friday one with family and vegan cake. It was fun, and I was glad to see some people that I hadn't managed to see prior to that. I, of course, managed to be late to my own dinner, but that was kind of okay because people arrived at all sorts of different times. Next time I will have to pick a less popular restaurant though--the food was good, but the seating space was cramped, and it was very hard to talk with all the noise. Also, each time someone got up, they bumped into somebody from a neighboring table (or maybe it was just me).
All in all, the party consisted of me, Anna (aliterati), my cousin Masha (dangermousie), Marissa (rissyau), Thomas (suburbansamurai), Alice (sagemessalina), Maria (zazie_la_beast) and Vicky (fedorovna). And yes, we all have livejournals, though Vicky hasn't updated hers ever, and Thomas and Alice have also largely abandoned theirs. (Probably healthy.)
I had been a bit worried about how the diversity of the group would work together--most of the people are old high school friends, but there was also my cousin, Vicky, whom I know from Georgetown, and Thomas, whom I know originally from LJ land, and many of them hadn't met each other before. However, it worked out rather well, because I have cool friends. In fact, I had several people tell me afterward, "hey, you have cool friends!" Which is true. Vicky really liked everybody, and Thomas really liked everybody, and everybody really liked Vicky and Thomas (at least, I think), so it was a very nice cuddly lovefest.
The best part of the evening, I thought, was after the restaurant (and unfortunately, after Maria and Masha left) when we all just sat down on the grass field outside the movie theater, and discussed pirates, feminism, and the merits of wrapping paper worn as a neckcloth. Vicky was also the official photographer of the evening, though again, there wasn't enough light for proper photographing. However, I hope she will soon send me the photos so that I can post them. I kept trying to capture the elegance of Alice blowing bubble gum in her lovely 40s-style outfit, but from what I saw, the shots didn't really work. However, Vicky did get a lot of pics of my shoes. And Alice's shoes. And Thomas' shoes. And Thomas' shoes in (I think?) slow-motion behind mine and Alice's. I'm not sure what the picture was meant to be like, I just remember standing in painful poses with Alice while Thomas was made to walk back and forth behind us to Vicky's commanding "Again! Damn, too slow, again! Wrong angle, again! Uh, from the other side, again?" But that's fine, because I do the same thing.
Eventually it got too late for some of us less-nocturnal creatures, and Anna and Alice went home, while Vicky and Thomas and I walked Marissa to where her car was parked in a "sketchy garage." (Thomas valiantly agreed to serve as Rissy's escort and protector, because you can just look at him and know that he'd beat up any potential mugger or rapist who'd dare to approach.) The sketchy garage actually ended up being the backdrop for probably the most entertaining session of photos, after Rissy left, which will be my first priority to post if they come out. (Sadly, they might not, since Vicks said she had the focus setting wrong for half of it.) Right now I will just say: I am a bad actress. Vicky is a much better actress. It's very hard to look properly panicked when someone is mock-chocking you because it tickles, dammit.
After the garage, we made our own somewhat idiosyncratic way back to the metro, and Vicky took shameless photos up my skirt which I really really hope she'll delete. I was wearing a 50s style dress, and um, it turns out I can't really make fun of those 50s pinups as much as I used to. I always laughed at the girls' "oh oops, my skirt is randomly blowing up around my legs and I can't do anything about it!" expressions, but if I can judge from my dress, it turns out such skirts are in fact prone to this behavior. While still on the grass, I leaned over to say something to someone, and the skirt blew all the way up over my waist. Going down or up any stairs, it blew up like clockwork every few feet. And the worst was when I sat down at a fountain, and there was a breeze, and... yep. Vicky thought it was funny how I was flashing everyone and looking all surprised, but I will not if it's going to remain on her camera harddrive!
But maybe it was just Vicky's fault, and not the skirt's or the wind's. Because when Vicky finally got on the metro and said good-bye, something happened that really, I still don't understand. Basically, Vicks stepped into the train and waved good-bye at us, and I waved back at her, and at that moment something seemed wrong with the dress's bodice--I looked down, and it came undone all the way to my waist (it was a button-up dress). This wasn't really very embarassing though, because I had just turned to the wall and so nobody saw me. (Also, I have decided that it's silly to be embarassed about underwear.) But I am puzzled and not a little concerned about the general probability of such behavior in the future, as I like this dress and would like to wear it to class.
Saturday I had a birthday dinner with friends, as opposed to the Friday one with family and vegan cake. It was fun, and I was glad to see some people that I hadn't managed to see prior to that. I, of course, managed to be late to my own dinner, but that was kind of okay because people arrived at all sorts of different times. Next time I will have to pick a less popular restaurant though--the food was good, but the seating space was cramped, and it was very hard to talk with all the noise. Also, each time someone got up, they bumped into somebody from a neighboring table (or maybe it was just me).
All in all, the party consisted of me, Anna (aliterati), my cousin Masha (dangermousie), Marissa (rissyau), Thomas (suburbansamurai), Alice (sagemessalina), Maria (zazie_la_beast) and Vicky (fedorovna). And yes, we all have livejournals, though Vicky hasn't updated hers ever, and Thomas and Alice have also largely abandoned theirs. (Probably healthy.)
I had been a bit worried about how the diversity of the group would work together--most of the people are old high school friends, but there was also my cousin, Vicky, whom I know from Georgetown, and Thomas, whom I know originally from LJ land, and many of them hadn't met each other before. However, it worked out rather well, because I have cool friends. In fact, I had several people tell me afterward, "hey, you have cool friends!" Which is true. Vicky really liked everybody, and Thomas really liked everybody, and everybody really liked Vicky and Thomas (at least, I think), so it was a very nice cuddly lovefest.
The best part of the evening, I thought, was after the restaurant (and unfortunately, after Maria and Masha left) when we all just sat down on the grass field outside the movie theater, and discussed pirates, feminism, and the merits of wrapping paper worn as a neckcloth. Vicky was also the official photographer of the evening, though again, there wasn't enough light for proper photographing. However, I hope she will soon send me the photos so that I can post them. I kept trying to capture the elegance of Alice blowing bubble gum in her lovely 40s-style outfit, but from what I saw, the shots didn't really work. However, Vicky did get a lot of pics of my shoes. And Alice's shoes. And Thomas' shoes. And Thomas' shoes in (I think?) slow-motion behind mine and Alice's. I'm not sure what the picture was meant to be like, I just remember standing in painful poses with Alice while Thomas was made to walk back and forth behind us to Vicky's commanding "Again! Damn, too slow, again! Wrong angle, again! Uh, from the other side, again?" But that's fine, because I do the same thing.
Eventually it got too late for some of us less-nocturnal creatures, and Anna and Alice went home, while Vicky and Thomas and I walked Marissa to where her car was parked in a "sketchy garage." (Thomas valiantly agreed to serve as Rissy's escort and protector, because you can just look at him and know that he'd beat up any potential mugger or rapist who'd dare to approach.) The sketchy garage actually ended up being the backdrop for probably the most entertaining session of photos, after Rissy left, which will be my first priority to post if they come out. (Sadly, they might not, since Vicks said she had the focus setting wrong for half of it.) Right now I will just say: I am a bad actress. Vicky is a much better actress. It's very hard to look properly panicked when someone is mock-chocking you because it tickles, dammit.
After the garage, we made our own somewhat idiosyncratic way back to the metro, and Vicky took shameless photos up my skirt which I really really hope she'll delete. I was wearing a 50s style dress, and um, it turns out I can't really make fun of those 50s pinups as much as I used to. I always laughed at the girls' "oh oops, my skirt is randomly blowing up around my legs and I can't do anything about it!" expressions, but if I can judge from my dress, it turns out such skirts are in fact prone to this behavior. While still on the grass, I leaned over to say something to someone, and the skirt blew all the way up over my waist. Going down or up any stairs, it blew up like clockwork every few feet. And the worst was when I sat down at a fountain, and there was a breeze, and... yep. Vicky thought it was funny how I was flashing everyone and looking all surprised, but I will not if it's going to remain on her camera harddrive!
But maybe it was just Vicky's fault, and not the skirt's or the wind's. Because when Vicky finally got on the metro and said good-bye, something happened that really, I still don't understand. Basically, Vicks stepped into the train and waved good-bye at us, and I waved back at her, and at that moment something seemed wrong with the dress's bodice--I looked down, and it came undone all the way to my waist (it was a button-up dress). This wasn't really very embarassing though, because I had just turned to the wall and so nobody saw me. (Also, I have decided that it's silly to be embarassed about underwear.) But I am puzzled and not a little concerned about the general probability of such behavior in the future, as I like this dress and would like to wear it to class.