Final DC post, now with soundtrack and pictures!
Yesterday started with me going to yoga with Laura. This wasn't Laura's class, or the class taught by her friend, this was the class at her other yoga center. She's a yoga ho. I was a little wary of dropping in on a mysore class, but I've always been glad when I went with Laura before, so I trusted her. Mistake. I'd told her I hadn't been practicing and was out of shape, and I worked really hard and was doing ok at first but I forgot the order and the instructor came over and corrected me, and that's fine, but then I forgot the order again and I was getting really tired, and he came over again and told me to go to finishing poses. Which basically means "Skip the rest of the series, you're done here, do the last part and leave the class." I was so tired and humiliated that I even messed up the finishing poses. Laura still had about 45 minutes left until she finished her practice, so I just got dressed and went across the street to Whole Foods to grab some food. I got to try a new juice and a new protein drink, that was nice. I was trying to not be hurt and angry, and decided to just let it go - Laura had made a mistake bringing me to the class, I had been a bad yogi by not practicing, it wasn't worth fighting over. But when I got back she was like, 100% not apologetic. I wasn't expecting much, but a "hey hon, sorry you got kicked out" would have been nice. And then she stopped in the office and the guy who'd helped me/kicked me out told me I didn't do all my finishing poses which really seemed like kicking me when I was down, but I just said "I did what I could remember", and then the other instructor came up and told me that I did well and started giving me advice for next time but Laura interrupted and explained that I was only here for the one day since I lived in NY. And then she did that thing that I hate, where she tells other people about me and things I said, and I've told her that I hate this, but she was telling these guys how I hadn't practiced and was out of shape and didn't want to come and blah blah and I'm just trying to not flip out on her in front of these guys. Once we were out of the building I started crying. Dumb! I don't know why I was crying, I wasn't that upset, I think it was just this was the last straw of everything I've been stressed about the past couple months or something. So I was crying and telling Laura that I felt humiliated enough already and she didn't have to rub it in by gossiping about me, and she's like What the hell? Apparently she'd had no idea that I'd gotten kicked out of the class, she thought I just left because I was tired. She wasn't being a dick, she was just being oblivious, which is typical Laura. She made me feel better, I guess her other yoga teacher who owns her own studio had also gotten kicked out a couple times, and getting kicked out of a Ashtanga mysore class isn't the horrid thing it would be in any other class. ::shrug:: So...yoga drama. Oi. At least I didn't cry in front of anyone other than Laura, even though I'd wanted to since he told me to go to finishing poses.
I finally went to the National Geographic museum! I've been wanting to go since I found out it existed at the Goldman Awards, but sadly the map exhibit was now gone. :'( But it was cool anyways. I wanted everything in the gift shop. So many maps, map postcards, map magnets! And books! I splurged a little - I bought a book of travel stories, from like 1930-1950s. It has pics and old maps too. I'm ok with splurging, because I like supporting NG, they do so many cool projects, and I would be so sad if they ever stopped existing. They make my fav maps. I wanted to be part of their genetics project, https://www3.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/ I was all set to pay a little fee to buy the testing kit, I figured it'd be maybe $10, enough to defray costs. Nope, mofo was $100. Apparently the Genographic project will only track indigenous people and rich people.
Laura got lost trying to find the NG and that was when my phone went wonky so I couldn't tell her where to go, so I was waiting around a long time for her. This turned out ok though, because after I'd been sitting by the entrance for awhile I saw 4 drag queens come out of NG. We're talking Priscilla-level queens here. They complimented a stunned tourist on her breasts, took a picture with the cat statue, and tottered back up the steps into the NG, all within maybe 2 minutes. I still have no idea what was going on, but it was clearly something awesome.
http://download.yousendit.com/1F032530682AF3F9
International Spy Museum = Awesome! I really need to go again with somebody who will accept their mission. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3BH9hKNPoI Laura was not into it, and we were rushed, boo. I was all "Woo, I'm going to assume my alias and get all my debriefing questions right!" and "Eeee, tiny camera!" and ready to sneak around corners and speak with an accent, and she was all "This is lame". Oh well. At least on that future golden day when I drag Stacy around DC, I'll still be hella excited to go be a spy with her. :)
(i did get all my debriefing questions right.)
http://download.yousendit.com/C57F6D513D2124A9
Ninjas for Stacy!
http://download.yousendit.com/C80A89B618FA8A90
The drive home was rather painful what with the jujitsu cramping, but very pretty. My camera battery ran out, so I cannot show you the pretty. I highly recommend rt. 297 to anyone journeying through Pennsylvania. I chanced across it on the quest to avoid waiting in nasty construction lines on rt. 15. I'd tried cutting through Willamsport to the east but was foiled by the river and ended up going in a circle. "Damn, back on N 15, oh well, maybe I passed the construction...hey, there's that weird Smokey Bear sign, heh...Oh god, that sign's before the construction, Abort Abort!" I managed to cut down a side road before I had to go through the first line again (I hate lines) and ended up back in town. But I did not give up! This time I went through town to the west and made it to 44 and up to 297. And it was beautiful, and life was good.
My car's been a very good girl this trip. After I changed the oil the transmission started working a lot better, and she didn't run out of gas on the backroads of Pennsylvania even though I was dumb and didn't fill up before exploring, which I really appreciated.
Now if only my phone and watch would be so well-behaved. ::glares at them::
http://download.yousendit.com/976890AF5AD89983
Since I couldn't take pics, and I kept wanting to show Mina buildings, I amused myself by thinking about showing her by actually taking her there. http://download.yousendit.com/40C62AD1097BD343 So I planned out a whole road trip in my head, taking note of cool side roads and whatnot. I think if Mina and/or Stacy ever got left plane tickets by the tooth fairy or something, I would: Start out in Rochester for a day or two, take her around Rochester, to Spot, prob Highland Park, and to Vertex. Then drive down through Corning and stop there at my Butterbeer cafe for lunch, maybe hit the glass museum, then head down 15 and take 297. Prob find a cheap hotel/hostel around Westboro if one exists. It's possible to make the trip to DC in a day, but it's more fun to go slow and explore. Next day finish driving to DC, possibly with a side trip to the coast if we leave early enough. Then fun in DC! I already have a list of good places to go from spring when I noted places to take Stacy. :) That would be a good 5-7 day visit I think, a fair showcase of the northeast US. And lots of sharing music time in the car, woo! :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocp_RJe3ci4
I always sing when I'm alone in the car, and usually around the house too (that's actually one of the main reasons I'd like to live alone or with good friends, so I can sing). I also used to do this thing where I'd kinda improv with random sounds to music or when I didn't know the lyrics, and I'd play with my voice a lot when singing lyrics I knew really well. I barely knew I did it until I was driving with erika and was comfortable enough to do it around her. Once I realized it I stopped, but she didn't mind it, so I'd sing with her in the car just like I did when alone. After we broke up, I still sang but I didn't do the sounds anymore. It wasn't a conscious thing, I just...I dunno, didn't have the urge. For some reason today I remembered that, and decided to try to start doing it again. I kinda failed at it, it just wasn't working. I had Dinah on shuffle, and a Moxy Früvous cover of Billy Jean came on, which amused me since Laura and I had been discussing Micheal Jackson. So I decided to listen to Live Noise. And lo, I realized that my jamming had probably come from that fact that my first favorite band was originally an a cappella band and still did a lot of that style voicework. http://download.yousendit.com/CFA570631AC36D3F Singing along with Früvous got me back into the groove. :) I'm still not doing it like I used to, but I hope to one day return to my former dorky glory. I was also really proud because I sang Johnny Saucepan perfectly, I don't think I'd ever not sounded muddled on the "sheep shanks" part before. :) http://download.yousendit.com/F33C91D862F597B7
And Boo Time is one of my fav songs (largely because during it they wear fedoras and Mike has never once missed his fedora toss in all the times I've seen them). I can't believe I forgot that Boo Time mentions Batman! http://download.yousendit.com/014B72D25D064FBF I fail in 2 fandoms! I have brought shame on both my clans. I think in general the term "fandom" isn't applied to music, but in the case of Früheads I think it fits. Discuss.
Random story that the whole series of events reminded me of - The actor playing Carla's brother on Scrubs looked familiar, but I couldn't place him, and never remembered to IMDB him. So one day I'm driving to work, and I see a sign for the Rochester Latin Festival, and it reminds me of Carla and got me trying to remember if she actually spoke Spanish, and I remembered her talking to her brother in Spanish, which reminded me that I really needed to look him up. As I'm thinking this, a song from the Can't Hardly Wait soundtrack comes on, and I remember that he was a jock in that movie. The Metro always used to play the song I wanted/needed to hear when I was in it (I listen to my CDs on random), I'm glad me and the Prism have reached that special bond. :)