the beauty of the rain is how it falls
Safely in CA and counting down the days to Japan. I expect to spend most of them wandering around the house, Donald Keene translations in hand, absentmindedly wrapping things and trying not to kill myself with the stairs.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Kamen Rider Kabuto ep 31: WHY IS MY SFF PAPER OVER, THIS SHOW NEEDS TO BE IN IT.
Sunday, December 20, 2009. Logan Airport.
Wait, I still hate that paper.
At the airport! Logan appears to have finally gotten on the free wifi ball. YAY ABOUT TIME.
Check-in line at American Airlines was insanely long because their computers were down and they had to check everyone in by hand. Joy. Security was practically empty, though. So was the baggage claim. And the T. Nobody except travelers and intrepid birthday partygoers ventures out into the first real snow of the season!
Which it is, by the way. We must have gotten at least eight inches last night. Glorious. Wish I had time to frolic, maybe go see the rose garden (although that would probably be closed, so perhaps not.) Kinda windy though. I’m sitting in one of the rocking chairs by the window watching a bunch of guys on cranes hose a plane off with... well, with something. It looks like steam but that would not be helpful, so perhaps it is chemicals. Perhaps it is paint.
The week in review needs to be done! What things have happened! And no, I am not high on chai, although one cup of Trader Joe’s Irish Breakfast tea made me shake yesterday. (No Earl Grey in the store. Travesty. I condemn their discrimination against teas that people would actually want to drink.)
Friday before last was my last day at The Minionship 3.0. Tears were shed, lunch was had of fried cheese sticks and hardcore chocolate cake. Afterwards I headed down to Porter Square to meet up with people. I was a bit early, so I stopped off at Porter Square Books and was delighted to find that they had both a cafe and a copy of Moribito II. I cooed over its green pretty to the salesdude, who looked bemused and altogether relieved when I left. Was delighted to see they did the text in green after all. PRETTY.
Hung out in the Japan Center, had delicious ramen for which I had no appetite, and went to see The Mikado at MIT. Much fun as always; the casting was really spot-on this time. Everybody was in the right roles. Good times!
Monday, December 21, 2009. California.
It is raining again tonight. Has been foggy all day--beautiful; beautiful. Have been baking all day. Put on PotC for background distraction, but wasn’t in the mood for Keira Knightly and switched to FotR, so we could all enjoy Legolas the blond proto-pirate instead.
Went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. YUM.
Was exhausted when we got home last night. Plane left Boston late but by some miracle got to Dallas on time. I hustled across to my connection and then stood around for twenty minutes waiting for them to start boarding. Which they did eventually. But since Dallas hasn’t changed at all since last time I flew through there on my way to college for the first time, I couldn’t hear my group number called and wound up with the last bunch. Frankly I was about ready to cry, tromping onto the plane and tired of American Airlines shenanigans and hoping desperately that there would be room for my bag. People bring such big suitcases now that checked baggage costs. So there I am, innocently and tearfully walking down the plane, and the stewardess gives me a Look and blocks the way.
STEWARDESS: You shall not pass, plebian. What’s your seat number?
ME: Um... 24B?
STEWARDESS: WHAT WAS THAT? ARE YOU SURE?
ME: Uh...24B, I’m pretty sure? Although it’s been a Very Long Day, so perhaps not?
STEWARDESS: WELL IT’S RIGHT OVER THERE.
ME: Uh... thanks?
STEWARDESS: PLEBIANS.
Perhaps I did not look sentient enough to navigate a single-aisle airplane cabin without assistance. I was overjoyed to discover that it was the kind of plane where B is an aisle seat. I spent the next three hours falling asleep over the Sudoku in the flight magazine. Can’t remember whether I finished the Diabolical level before we landed. I probably cheated.
On plus side, AA now offers wifi on the airplane and (according to the flight magazine) has a j-pop channel. This amused me.
...
Right, the Week in Review.
Turned in the Victorian paper Wednesday and dragged cadragongirl to the annual holiday book talk. Told my professor that Little Lord Fauntleroy was what was missing from my Dude paper last year. (I’m pretty sure Alger is parodying the idea that manliness is the province of rich overdressed mama’s boys.) Then we went to the library and got out Ocean’s 13 (cadragongirl loves those), the Buffy movie (I insisted it was part of pop culture history), and Clueless (just because). We watched She’s All That while we waited for our celebratory lasagna to bake, and then we marathoned the others. It was a most excellent evening.
cadragongirl went home and left me with a fridge full of stuff, so I had to do some serious eating. It's a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it. If it involves making and then eating massive amounts of baked custard, so be it.
Friday I finally bestirred myself and went to the mall in search of a purse and snow boots. BOTH OF WHICH I ACTUALLY FOUND, to my total astonishment. I got giant black lace-up-and-zipper suede boots at Timberland, where the cute salesman assured me that they were silicone-infused and therefore waterproof. And also twenty percent off.
The purse I got at Sears. Of all places. It kind of pains me, but there you have it.
It turned out it was a very good thing that I had warm boots, because on Saturday morning I was awakened by the floor shaking. I got up and got dressed, and about a minute and a half later the fire alarm went off. I grabbed the violin, stuffed Ovid into my bag, and scooted. The main hall was full of exhaust, or something. I thought I’d waited too long what with grabbing stuff, but I was the second person out. The fire department showed up, swung the ladder out just for fun, and eventually decided there was no actual fire but something was up in the boiler room.
They did not turn off the fire alarm. Three hours later somebody else figured out how to do that.
Half an hour after that, the boiler went nuts and the alarm went off again. This time six fire engines showed up. I guess it was a slow morning. A bunch of us stood around bitching about the landlord for a while. Eventually we got on with the day. If the landlord showed up, I didn’t see him.
At 3 am at least four of the tenants stumbled back in, probably drunk, and started complaining about him again very loudly. I was okay with that, but once they strayed from the subject I started banging the wall. They figured out pretty fast that the four thumps stood for “SHUT. THE. HELL. UP.” and went to bed.
I got up and iced my hand, because apparently I hit the wall a lot harder than I meant to.
It snowed in the night.
Headed for the airport in the morning. It was still snowing quite a lot. The C line was full of birthday partygoing children who kept saying “baka! baka!” Or maybe it was “Chewbacca.” Kind of hard to tell. Good either way.
Let’s see. Already wrote about Logan Airport finally getting on the free wireless bandwagon. I think this kind of brings us up to date. We got home from the airport around 12:30 am and lounged around like a bunch of exhausted people.
DAD: We’re sure glad you’re home. But not enough to want you to move back in or anything.
DAD & ME: *crack up*
MOM (indignantly): Wait, I do!
DAD & ME: *crack up harder*
Pre-semester booklist just came in. Heigh-ho Prius, away! To the library!
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Kamen Rider Kabuto ep 31: WHY IS MY SFF PAPER OVER, THIS SHOW NEEDS TO BE IN IT.
Sunday, December 20, 2009. Logan Airport.
Wait, I still hate that paper.
At the airport! Logan appears to have finally gotten on the free wifi ball. YAY ABOUT TIME.
Check-in line at American Airlines was insanely long because their computers were down and they had to check everyone in by hand. Joy. Security was practically empty, though. So was the baggage claim. And the T. Nobody except travelers and intrepid birthday partygoers ventures out into the first real snow of the season!
Which it is, by the way. We must have gotten at least eight inches last night. Glorious. Wish I had time to frolic, maybe go see the rose garden (although that would probably be closed, so perhaps not.) Kinda windy though. I’m sitting in one of the rocking chairs by the window watching a bunch of guys on cranes hose a plane off with... well, with something. It looks like steam but that would not be helpful, so perhaps it is chemicals. Perhaps it is paint.
The week in review needs to be done! What things have happened! And no, I am not high on chai, although one cup of Trader Joe’s Irish Breakfast tea made me shake yesterday. (No Earl Grey in the store. Travesty. I condemn their discrimination against teas that people would actually want to drink.)
Friday before last was my last day at The Minionship 3.0. Tears were shed, lunch was had of fried cheese sticks and hardcore chocolate cake. Afterwards I headed down to Porter Square to meet up with people. I was a bit early, so I stopped off at Porter Square Books and was delighted to find that they had both a cafe and a copy of Moribito II. I cooed over its green pretty to the salesdude, who looked bemused and altogether relieved when I left. Was delighted to see they did the text in green after all. PRETTY.
Hung out in the Japan Center, had delicious ramen for which I had no appetite, and went to see The Mikado at MIT. Much fun as always; the casting was really spot-on this time. Everybody was in the right roles. Good times!
Monday, December 21, 2009. California.
It is raining again tonight. Has been foggy all day--beautiful; beautiful. Have been baking all day. Put on PotC for background distraction, but wasn’t in the mood for Keira Knightly and switched to FotR, so we could all enjoy Legolas the blond proto-pirate instead.
Went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. YUM.
Was exhausted when we got home last night. Plane left Boston late but by some miracle got to Dallas on time. I hustled across to my connection and then stood around for twenty minutes waiting for them to start boarding. Which they did eventually. But since Dallas hasn’t changed at all since last time I flew through there on my way to college for the first time, I couldn’t hear my group number called and wound up with the last bunch. Frankly I was about ready to cry, tromping onto the plane and tired of American Airlines shenanigans and hoping desperately that there would be room for my bag. People bring such big suitcases now that checked baggage costs. So there I am, innocently and tearfully walking down the plane, and the stewardess gives me a Look and blocks the way.
STEWARDESS: You shall not pass, plebian. What’s your seat number?
ME: Um... 24B?
STEWARDESS: WHAT WAS THAT? ARE YOU SURE?
ME: Uh...24B, I’m pretty sure? Although it’s been a Very Long Day, so perhaps not?
STEWARDESS: WELL IT’S RIGHT OVER THERE.
ME: Uh... thanks?
STEWARDESS: PLEBIANS.
Perhaps I did not look sentient enough to navigate a single-aisle airplane cabin without assistance. I was overjoyed to discover that it was the kind of plane where B is an aisle seat. I spent the next three hours falling asleep over the Sudoku in the flight magazine. Can’t remember whether I finished the Diabolical level before we landed. I probably cheated.
On plus side, AA now offers wifi on the airplane and (according to the flight magazine) has a j-pop channel. This amused me.
...
Right, the Week in Review.
Turned in the Victorian paper Wednesday and dragged cadragongirl to the annual holiday book talk. Told my professor that Little Lord Fauntleroy was what was missing from my Dude paper last year. (I’m pretty sure Alger is parodying the idea that manliness is the province of rich overdressed mama’s boys.) Then we went to the library and got out Ocean’s 13 (cadragongirl loves those), the Buffy movie (I insisted it was part of pop culture history), and Clueless (just because). We watched She’s All That while we waited for our celebratory lasagna to bake, and then we marathoned the others. It was a most excellent evening.
cadragongirl went home and left me with a fridge full of stuff, so I had to do some serious eating. It's a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it. If it involves making and then eating massive amounts of baked custard, so be it.
Friday I finally bestirred myself and went to the mall in search of a purse and snow boots. BOTH OF WHICH I ACTUALLY FOUND, to my total astonishment. I got giant black lace-up-and-zipper suede boots at Timberland, where the cute salesman assured me that they were silicone-infused and therefore waterproof. And also twenty percent off.
The purse I got at Sears. Of all places. It kind of pains me, but there you have it.
It turned out it was a very good thing that I had warm boots, because on Saturday morning I was awakened by the floor shaking. I got up and got dressed, and about a minute and a half later the fire alarm went off. I grabbed the violin, stuffed Ovid into my bag, and scooted. The main hall was full of exhaust, or something. I thought I’d waited too long what with grabbing stuff, but I was the second person out. The fire department showed up, swung the ladder out just for fun, and eventually decided there was no actual fire but something was up in the boiler room.
They did not turn off the fire alarm. Three hours later somebody else figured out how to do that.
Half an hour after that, the boiler went nuts and the alarm went off again. This time six fire engines showed up. I guess it was a slow morning. A bunch of us stood around bitching about the landlord for a while. Eventually we got on with the day. If the landlord showed up, I didn’t see him.
At 3 am at least four of the tenants stumbled back in, probably drunk, and started complaining about him again very loudly. I was okay with that, but once they strayed from the subject I started banging the wall. They figured out pretty fast that the four thumps stood for “SHUT. THE. HELL. UP.” and went to bed.
I got up and iced my hand, because apparently I hit the wall a lot harder than I meant to.
It snowed in the night.
Headed for the airport in the morning. It was still snowing quite a lot. The C line was full of birthday partygoing children who kept saying “baka! baka!” Or maybe it was “Chewbacca.” Kind of hard to tell. Good either way.
Let’s see. Already wrote about Logan Airport finally getting on the free wireless bandwagon. I think this kind of brings us up to date. We got home from the airport around 12:30 am and lounged around like a bunch of exhausted people.
DAD: We’re sure glad you’re home. But not enough to want you to move back in or anything.
DAD & ME: *crack up*
MOM (indignantly): Wait, I do!
DAD & ME: *crack up harder*
Pre-semester booklist just came in. Heigh-ho Prius, away! To the library!