Something next to normal, that's the thing I'd like to try

Hope everyone on the east coast survived snowzilla, or whatever we're calling it. Reports are that my area got somewhere between 17 and 24 inches (there is some hilarious ~scandal about the measuring techniques used at Reagan National Airport not being ~officially sanctioned by the National Weather Service, and therefore their 17.8" total is suspect and probably too low).

SPEAKING OF THE AIRPORT, I shouldn't even BE here right now. I should be in sunny, snow-free Florida. ( Cut for complaining )

On another note, I totally #wontheblizzard, because it was so windy, there is actually no snow on my car? I guess I got the low end of the drift. Since I live in an apartment building, there really is no "digging out" necessary - they shovel all the walkways and plow the parking lot, so all there ever is to do is clear snow off my car, and that's... negligible. I wouldn't park at Dulles anyway, so my plan was to take a shuttle to the airport and hope it all melts by the time I get back, but I probably COULD drive my car if I wanted to. (I do not want to.) 

There has been a sort of entertaining "will I run out of food?" thing happening, as well. Unlike everyone else who went nutso stocking up at the grocery store, I didn't want a lot of food in the house because I knew I was leaving. But because of the canceled flight, I ended up being home - and needing to eat - for an extra day and a half longer than expected. WHOOPS. Turned out I was fine, but if the storm had been worse, and I hadn't been able to make the trip at all, I'd probably be a little concerned about the coming week, lol. On Thursday, one of my coworkers was like, "Just order five days' worth of Chinese food tonight and keep it in your freezer, just in case," and at one point on Friday night, I did wonder if it was too late to order a pizza, lol. 

7:54 PM UPDATE: MY CONFERENCE JUST GOT CANCELED. HOW SOON AFTER A BLIZZARD CAN ONE REASONABLY ORDER DELIVERY?

 (j/k I am fine, I will not starve, but I will be super-sad not to be in Florida)

* "This will be the last season of Dexter, we promise."

* Lots of casting announcements for Downton Abbey. Also, who ELSE is leaving the show. This cast is dropping like flies, aren't they?

* New Catching Fire poster featuring Effie Trinket, and one with Caesar Flickerman.

 * The Mindy Project and several other Fox shows have been renewed. Mindy seems to be still trying to figure itself out, but I think there's a good show in there once the kinks are worked out.

* The American Gavin and Stacey remake (which is apparently called Friends and Family) will star Alexis Bledel and Jason Ritter.

* Relevant only to me, really, but if you're in DC, you should check it out: If/Then starring Idina Menzel is doing an out of town tryout at the National Theater! \o/

* Awesome nature gifs.

* What is with the UK and people dressing up like Batman? At least this one apprehended a criminal instead of trying to scale Buckingham Palace.

* What to name your kid to help them get into Yale. (Also: kids born in 1994 are in college now? OMG I FEEL OLD.)

ETA: And Amanda Seyfried wants to play Glinda in Wicked. Unlike most Hollywood actors, though, she seems to have a realistic sense of her limitations.

ETA 2: And a new Iron Man 3 trailer! SO EXCITE.

* When I saw this yesterday, I literally said "Wow" out loud: Danny Strong is writing the two-part Mockingjay movies.

* Character descriptions for the S.H.I.E.L.D. TV show have leaked. Let the fan casting begin...

* Captain America 2 filming in DC? Best brush up on my stalker skills...

On the fall TV premiere front, I've got my first casualty of the season! I gave up on 666 Park Avenue after one episode. I like Terry O'Quinn, and I liked the premise, but it was just awful in execution, even by the standard of a campy supernatural show. The whole "devil's bargains" thing reminded me a bit of Booth at the End, which, despite being a Hulu web series, is about a zillion times better than 666. So go watch that instead. Sunday nights are way too full to spend time on crap.

Speaking of Sunday night crap, I watched the first episode of Dexter, and was pleasantly surprised - okay, I was flat-out shocked - at how much I enjoyed it. I am not going to suggest you watch it on that basis alone, because from the experience of previous seasons, we all know how quickly it can go completely to hell, and I don't want to Lucy you with the football here. But I actually really liked the follow up to Deb discovering Dexter killing Travis (and thankfully, the romance plot was pointedly ignored). They could've taken the easy way out and let Dexter convince Deb it was just a one-off moment of homicidal crazy, but she gets to be competent as a detective and puts all the pieces together far quicker than I expected. Again, I need to emphasize that it would take practically zero effort to screw it up, and I'm still half expecting that to happen, but this episode was actually pretty promising?

I haven't done a book review in forever - not because I'm not reading, but because I used to use my journal as a place to keep track of everything I read, and now I have Goodreads for that (feel free to friend me there, btw!).

The book I'm reading now, however, sort of begs to be talked about, because it's all about making friends. MWF Seeking BFF: My Yearlong Search for a New Best Friend, by Rachel Bertsche, is a chronicle of the author's efforts to make friends after leaving her BFFs behind in New York and moving to Chicago with her husband. (There's also a website, and if nothing else, I recommend reading the initial articles that kicked off the whole project.) In order to expand her circle of friends, Rachel decides to go on one new "friend-date" a week for a year. Out of those 52 potential new friends, she's hoping to find a BFF whom she can count on to be there in a pinch (whether it's a ride to the airport or a last-minute pedicure), someone who shares her interests and calls just to say hi, and above all, someone who understands the importance of girl talk.

So let's talk.

( Read more... )

Just started watching the short-lived series K Street (can we say relevant to my interests? lol). It's a weird amalgamation of fact and fiction, a semi-scripted improv show with actors John Slattery and Mary McCormack alongside real-life politicos James Carville and Mary Matalin as the principals in a DC political consulting firm.

I am kind of not surprised it was unsuccessful, because I imagine it would be a little confusing and probably not nearly as fun to play the "OMG it's [real politician/journalist/etc.]" game if you're not a politics nerd like me. It was all shot on location in DC, too, so I'm also playing the "OMG I know exactly where they are/have been to that Starbucks!" game.

The filming is in the mockumentary style - handheld camera, unpolished shots, no scoring whatsoever (but no talking heads). Since much of it is unscripted, there's a lot of arguing and talking over each other, which is realistic, but can be hard to follow at times, especially if you're not familiar with the issues. Although, even being from 2003, the debates are still pretty topical. For example, in the second episode, the firm tries to get the RIAA as a client, and I am having serious flashbacks hearing all the discussion about copyright/piracy issues, lol (it hasn't changed much since 2003...).

While we are talking about the intersection of my two favorite things, I've also been watching the Hulu series Battleground, another mockumentary following a Wisconsin Senate campaign. Doesn't have quite the same sheen of realism, but it's very funny!

Hope everyone had a nice weekend. One of my friends from college came to visit, so we had lots of wacky adventures, including:

• mocking the pathetic White House Christmas Tree (seriously, I didn't think it was possible to be worse than last year, but congratulations, Obamas, you have now presided over the Charlie Browniest White House tree ever),
• visiting the Old Post Office (which is apparently becoming my go-to place to take visitors),
• coveting the First Ladies' clothes at the American History Museum,
• going to see a fun Broadway-parody musical version of A Christmas Carol,
• eating excessive amounts of French food,
• bathing in the nostalgia of the Muppets movie, and
• going to Baltimore to see Noel Coward's Private Lives.

All of which was extremely excellent. Except that tree. God, that awful tree. Even the tourists were making fun of it.

ETA: Recorded here for posterity, the National Christmas Tree:



In other news, I am now officially graduated. (I know I've said that, like, twice now, but this time it's totally over.) I got the results back and I passed my exams, which means I can finally recycle the gigantic stack of papers from all my classes that I've been saving. I thought about tossing them as soon as I handed in my exam, but I figured that would be tempting fate, you know?

Mini-linkspam:

* How drunk can you get at your office Christmas party? This handy guide will tell you!
* Facebook History of the World

And now for the rest of my holiday adventures, which are so numerous and awesome that they required TWO whole posts (my therapist would be so proud)!

(Icon especially for Kelly, who immediately craves cupcakes every time I say the word.*g*)

( This one is slightly picspammy )

I've been getting more serious about the whole condo-buying thing this week. I started the process of getting approved for a mortgage and have been talking to a realtor. And I can feel it already starting to stress me out.

I think the trouble is that I feel pressured to buy something, no matter what it is or how much I like it (or don't). Because of course I can't afford the place I really want - something that's not closet-sized, walking distance to the Metro, in a nice neighborhood - which is not really that much to ask except that everything in this area is absurdly expensive. (There are condos that cost more than my parents' four-bedroom HOUSE.) But at the same time, I know that mortgage rates are really low and the market is already starting to recover and so now is the time to buy and I don't want to miss the opportunity. And then I've got my mother saying, "You're just throwing your money away on rent!" and I need to build equity and whatever.

But, you know, buying a condo is kind of a big commitment. I'd have to expect to live there for at least five years, and I don't want to be stuck living somewhere I'm not happy just to build equity. But it seems like I'm supposed to just buy something, anything, and suck it up until I can afford to buy something nicer.

Anyway. I feel like I have a lot of things to write about - the end of Lost season 2, Side Jobs, a couple movies I've seen - so I'll try to get to those sometime soon. If I can just tear myself away from browsing condo sites... (I keep checking the same sites, hoping for an open house to pop up that's in my price range, even though I know that nothing is going to have changed since the last time I checked. Yay for neuroses, right?)

Ack. I seem to have disappeared for several days again. Happy post-Halloween! What kind of costumes did everyone wear? I dressed up as a lame person who didn't do anything Halloweeny, though I did eat a jack-o-lantern cookie. My mom came to visit for the weekend (my dad was supposed to come, too, but he ended up having to work), so we were busy doing lots of other stuff.

On Friday, we went to the Newseum, which is a super-awesome museum about the history of journalism and news coverage of major events. It's HUGE, so they give you a two-day pass, though we managed to see just about everything we wanted to in one (very long) day, but we definitely skipped some things. Since the biggest news coverage tends to be about disasters and horrible things happening, it can be kinda depressing and possibly disturbing (they have exhibits on 9/11 and Katrina), but they also have stuff like the greatest moments in sports and interactive exhibits where you can be a reporter, in order to, as my mom said, "balance out the depressing with fun!" Also, they have one of the best museum food courts I've ever been to (second, perhaps, only to the American Indian museum, but I am biased toward any place where I can get buffalo burgers and fry bread). It's somehow connected to Wolfgang Puck, and so the food is really good, though obviously kinda pricey.

Saturday was the Jon Stewart rally, which I probably wouldn't have gone to if my mother hadn't been here. Nothing against Jon Stewart, but if you've seen one ridiculous mob scene on the Mall, you've seen them all, and getting into and out of the city is an absolute nightmare. (No matter how well-prepared Metro claims to be, they are always overwhelmed by the crowds.) But apparently, on the bus down here, some girl asked my mom if she was going to DC for the rally, and my mom was all flattered that she looked like someone who was a fan of Jon Stewart, lol. (She was expecting it to be all folks my age, but there turned out to be a lot of older people there, too.)

Anyway, the crowd was ridiculous, as predicted, so we missed the first hour of the rally, since it took us so long to get into the city. We never actually made it onto the Mall - we tried a few different spots before ending up on Independence Ave. directly to the side of the stage, which meant we could hear what was going on, but couldn't really see anything except the teleprompter. The best part of the rally was actually seeing all the clever and/or random signs people brought with them. (I think my favorite was the one that said, "The people behind me can't see." Of course, he was over on the side where we were, so there wasn't really anything to see.) There are pictures up on the website.

After the rally, we ended up using our Newseum tickets again (we figured it would be less crowded than the free museums) and had a late lunch at the food court, hoping the crowd would thin out in the meantime. But when we ventured back out, the Metro stations were still packed, and it took us about two hours to get home (it usually takes me 45 minutes during rush hour). I was surprised, though, that the crowd was generally well-behaved. I did not once have to use physical violence, lol, and I only had to yell a little bit when people wouldn't move so we could get off the packed train at our station.

Sunday was supposed to be a relaxing day, but somehow we ended up going to look at condos? I'm not sure how that happened. I mean, I am thinking about moving sometime in the future (no sense in paying all that money in rent if I know I want to stay here for a while, and it's the best market for a first-time buyer), but I've only just started seriously considering it, and probably wouldn't be moving for at least another six months or so. (My lease on my apartment is up August 1st.) Anyway, we started talking about it, and then I was looking at condos online, and we picked out four places with open houses. Except yesterday was the Marine Corps Marathon, so half of the streets in Arlington were closed, so we only managed to make it to two of them. It was a pretty dumb idea to go out while the marathon was going on, but we didn't realize quite how widespread it would be. Anyway, I will not be making any offers just yet, but I did meet a nice, friendly real estate agent who was willing to spend quite a bit of time giving me condo-hunting advice, even though I clearly could not afford the place she was showing. :)

Back at work today. :( Much less fun. How was your weekend?

Well, this is quite a landmark weekend for me. First, July 3rd was the one-year anniversary of my move to DC. Yay! Second, obviously, was the 4th of July. I celebrated by going to the pool, then heading to a friend's house for a barbecue and watching fireworks on the Mall, which was pretty awesome.

And today marks the 60th day of my posting streak. Yep, I have posted every single day for two months, with nearly 100 posts in that time. This is the longest unbroken string of posts ever on my journal. Go me!

I also need to express Epic Woe at the lack of penny_lane_42 lately. WHERE ARE YOU LAUREN??? YOU ARE MY TV TWIN! COME BACK!

Speaking of TV, I finished season 1 of Rome. I liked it, but I have very little to say about it. I will admit, I had a lot of trouble following it in the beginning, because I couldn't tell the characters apart. The only people I recognized were Polly Walker (from Caprica), Suzie from Torchwood (whose real name I don't remember), and Kevin McKidd (whom I completely can't buy as an ancient Roman. He's just so... Scottish). Everyone else was a jumble (too many old guys, mostly), and so I had to follow along with the Wikipedia episode summaries to know what was going on. After a while, it got easier, once they used people's names enough times to match them up with faces. (Am I the only one who thinks that the guy playing Caesar looks like Alan Rickman, lol?)

Pretty much my entire knowledge of Roman history comes second-hand from my college friends who were classics majors (um, I remember Catullus), so I don't know how historically accurate it is, but the costumes and sets sure look spectacular.

It seemed rather rushed at the end there - when Cassius finally appeared in, like, the third to last episode, I thought, "He kinda came out of nowhere. He's rather important, and we're just meeting him now?" And I felt like they were trying to make Brutus sympathetic, but didn't really spend enough time on it, so it comes off as kind of half-assed. I did think the assassination scene (um, spoiler? Everybody knows Caesar dies, right?) was (gruesomely) well done, though. Happy birthday to me? lol