Inaugural weekend adventures
Yay, I made it back to D.C. today and it's still here! And we have a new President, and it's still shiny and awesome! \o/
On Saturday, I met bretagnes_rose in Philadelphia, where it was painfully cold (like, two seconds outside and the cold hurt) and where we went to Other Emma's flat. We had planned this playdate so that I could meet Other Emma, who Brittany thought I would like because she is a children's/YA librarian and has similar interests to us. Our initial plan, way back in November/December, was to go see the Twilight movie together (to mock its sparklyness, of course), but alas, I was eaten by grad school finals so we postponed, but the last day Twilight was showing in Philly was the 15th. So we went to Milk instead (which ... is rather a 180, no?) and that movie is so, so good. All the actors are brilliant. The subject is still rather painful for Brittany and me (being Californians), but dude, I am so ready to kick ass and carry on with the fight.
After that we went out for Mexican food with Other Emma's husband, which was okay but not up to Brittany and my exacting tastes (again, Californians). Then we went back to the flat and watched one of the weird fairy tale movies I'd brought along: [ Tri orisky pro Popelku ], a Czech Cinderella tale done in 1973 in which there is lots of frolicking and a plethora of weird hats. It's awesome. :D There was also lots of tea drinking and some hot chocolate with marshmallows. We lingered a bit longer on Sunday morning (we had waffles for breakfast, so yummy!) and then I went back up to Brooklyn with Brittany.
Upon arriving in New York, we dumped our stuff at Brittany's brother's flat and dragged him along to tea with us at [ Tea & Sympathy ], a tiny British tea room where we had to stand outside in the cold until a table was free but it was so worth it to have a proper British afternoon with tiny sandwiches and wee scones and cupcakes and a pot of rose petal white tea. It was heavenly.
There were other tasty food excursions and on Monday we went bookstore wandering. Brittany took me to a used bookstore in Brooklyn (where, naturally, I discovered a weird old book with which to delight myself, in this case a book on legends of Atlantis originally published in 1882) and then of course we went to [ The Strand ].
We spent our evenings watching more fairy tale movies of varying degrees of quality, including [ Printsessa na goroshine ] (a Russian Princess & the Pea, featuring more silly hats and a prince with a truly awful haircut, but it's great fun and has Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" as the soundtrack so there's also pretty music), [ Enchanted ] (which I had shockingly not seen yet, and which does a brilliant job of making fun of Disney fairy tales), and [ A Cinderella Story ] (which is just awful and makes no sense whatsoever and we couldn't even redeem it with MST3k-style comments).
And then I also got Brittany started on Merlin because everyone needs to see the ridiculous awesomeness of that show. (Seriously, the last three people I've had extended stays with, I've made watch episodes. Bwaha!) What was especially fun with Brittany, though, is that she's a medieval historian, so I had warned her that it was clearly an alternate universe because not only does the legend not resemble any actual Arthurian legends beyond the names, but the historical accuracy is rather ... spotty, to say the least. (The spottyness is educational, though. We knew they didn't have tomatoes in Europe in the middle ages, but then we were curious so we looked up the history of tomatoes and subsequently regales her brother with our fascinating new knowledge.) But, keeping in mind the alternate universe-ness, she did enjoy it, so that's another one converted. \o/
Then of course Tuesday was Inauguration Day. Brittany had to work, so I stayed at her flat and watched inauguration stuff online, and then read all afternoon before meeting her in the city for more tasty food (soup dumplings!) and scintillating discussions.
So I had a lovely weekend with lots of tea and tasty food and fairy tales and-most importantly-fabulous company. And then when I got back to my flat, I had some Terribly Important International Mail from lavvyan waiting for me. I feel much refreshed (and much loved!) and ready to take on another term. :D
On Saturday, I met bretagnes_rose in Philadelphia, where it was painfully cold (like, two seconds outside and the cold hurt) and where we went to Other Emma's flat. We had planned this playdate so that I could meet Other Emma, who Brittany thought I would like because she is a children's/YA librarian and has similar interests to us. Our initial plan, way back in November/December, was to go see the Twilight movie together (to mock its sparklyness, of course), but alas, I was eaten by grad school finals so we postponed, but the last day Twilight was showing in Philly was the 15th. So we went to Milk instead (which ... is rather a 180, no?) and that movie is so, so good. All the actors are brilliant. The subject is still rather painful for Brittany and me (being Californians), but dude, I am so ready to kick ass and carry on with the fight.
After that we went out for Mexican food with Other Emma's husband, which was okay but not up to Brittany and my exacting tastes (again, Californians). Then we went back to the flat and watched one of the weird fairy tale movies I'd brought along: [ Tri orisky pro Popelku ], a Czech Cinderella tale done in 1973 in which there is lots of frolicking and a plethora of weird hats. It's awesome. :D There was also lots of tea drinking and some hot chocolate with marshmallows. We lingered a bit longer on Sunday morning (we had waffles for breakfast, so yummy!) and then I went back up to Brooklyn with Brittany.
Upon arriving in New York, we dumped our stuff at Brittany's brother's flat and dragged him along to tea with us at [ Tea & Sympathy ], a tiny British tea room where we had to stand outside in the cold until a table was free but it was so worth it to have a proper British afternoon with tiny sandwiches and wee scones and cupcakes and a pot of rose petal white tea. It was heavenly.
There were other tasty food excursions and on Monday we went bookstore wandering. Brittany took me to a used bookstore in Brooklyn (where, naturally, I discovered a weird old book with which to delight myself, in this case a book on legends of Atlantis originally published in 1882) and then of course we went to [ The Strand ].
We spent our evenings watching more fairy tale movies of varying degrees of quality, including [ Printsessa na goroshine ] (a Russian Princess & the Pea, featuring more silly hats and a prince with a truly awful haircut, but it's great fun and has Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" as the soundtrack so there's also pretty music), [ Enchanted ] (which I had shockingly not seen yet, and which does a brilliant job of making fun of Disney fairy tales), and [ A Cinderella Story ] (which is just awful and makes no sense whatsoever and we couldn't even redeem it with MST3k-style comments).
And then I also got Brittany started on Merlin because everyone needs to see the ridiculous awesomeness of that show. (Seriously, the last three people I've had extended stays with, I've made watch episodes. Bwaha!) What was especially fun with Brittany, though, is that she's a medieval historian, so I had warned her that it was clearly an alternate universe because not only does the legend not resemble any actual Arthurian legends beyond the names, but the historical accuracy is rather ... spotty, to say the least. (The spottyness is educational, though. We knew they didn't have tomatoes in Europe in the middle ages, but then we were curious so we looked up the history of tomatoes and subsequently regales her brother with our fascinating new knowledge.) But, keeping in mind the alternate universe-ness, she did enjoy it, so that's another one converted. \o/
Then of course Tuesday was Inauguration Day. Brittany had to work, so I stayed at her flat and watched inauguration stuff online, and then read all afternoon before meeting her in the city for more tasty food (soup dumplings!) and scintillating discussions.
So I had a lovely weekend with lots of tea and tasty food and fairy tales and-most importantly-fabulous company. And then when I got back to my flat, I had some Terribly Important International Mail from lavvyan waiting for me. I feel much refreshed (and much loved!) and ready to take on another term. :D