So because I have the Washington Post tab open, I couldn't avoid idly keeping an eye on the service of thanksgiving for Her Maj from St Giles, Edinburgh, and I tell you what, there's a moment two bars before the end of the last hymn where you see Edward and Sophie quickly turn around and put their bulletins down on their chairs and hurry to straighten up again, and then the camera shifts and the principal mourners are standing at attention, left to right—Sophie, Edward, Andrew, [skip two because it's Charles and Camilla], Anne, Timothy—because they've been standing and sitting and participating as you do in church, and in the kind of fugue state you get in when you're burying a parent, but now they're singing "God Save the King." It's like he's not their big brother anymore. It's something.
LLTK, I suppose
Sep. 8th, 2022 02:23 pmI have speculated that what happened this week was, the Queen said (or at any rate thought) "I'll be damned if Boris of all people Johnson will lead this nation in mourning," and hung in there until she had BY GOD outlasted him.
Be at peace, ma'am, and good luck to you.
The first major story of injustice that I can remember is the Rodney King verdict.* I was at home by myself when the verdicts were announced, and my parents came home not long after and found me in tears. That was April 29, 1992, and I was almost 15 - the time in a relatively sheltered White girl's life when her thoughts turn to social issues.
I was done with work at 4:30 yesterday, but I stayed at my computer for another 40 minutes waiting for them to announce the verdict in the trial of Derek Chauvin. My hands were shaking, my heart was pounding, and I wasn't sure I had heard properly the first time the judge said "guilty." I hung up my headphones when he started polling the jury (and Himself came out of his office wondering if I'd seen the news and heard me crying, so he knew).
Things that are good:
Things that are bad:
* The fact that we know it as the Rodney King verdict is problematic, because Rodney King, like George Floyd, was not on trial. The names of the defendants were Sgt. Stacey Koon, Officer Laurence Powell, Officer Timothy Wind, and Officer Theodore Briseno.
I was done with work at 4:30 yesterday, but I stayed at my computer for another 40 minutes waiting for them to announce the verdict in the trial of Derek Chauvin. My hands were shaking, my heart was pounding, and I wasn't sure I had heard properly the first time the judge said "guilty." I hung up my headphones when he started polling the jury (and Himself came out of his office wondering if I'd seen the news and heard me crying, so he knew).
Things that are good:
- A man who did a murder was convicted of doing that murder.
Things that are bad:
- We all knew there was a very real chance #1 would not happen.
- We are all shocked that #1 did happen.
- While #1 was happening, a teenager in another state called the police for help, and they shot and killed her.
* The fact that we know it as the Rodney King verdict is problematic, because Rodney King, like George Floyd, was not on trial. The names of the defendants were Sgt. Stacey Koon, Officer Laurence Powell, Officer Timothy Wind, and Officer Theodore Briseno.
everything is awful
Oct. 21st, 2020 04:42 pmSo Sunday I took half an Ativan at bedtime, as I said. Slept like a rock. Monday night I pondered whether I should do so again, and Himself said he thought I should - not that I should take it every night, but as I was still feeling the dad's-hospice-anniversary tension, it wouldn't hurt to ensure another night of good sleep. And I took the Ativan and did again sleep like a rock.
Last night, Tuesday, I did not take the Ativan and in fact my sleep was pretty fitful. ( Dreams and then today. )
I ordered a big junk-food lunch because sometimes it does help a very little bit to eat our feelings (and I can't actually drink during the work day). And I have to shake it off before I pick up my own kid, because while I can get a little mileage out of "Mommy isn't feeling well, so please be extra well-behaved," I can't do that every day, and I am not ready for him to know why I'm sad (either the dad stuff or the news stuff). So here I go.
Last night, Tuesday, I did not take the Ativan and in fact my sleep was pretty fitful. ( Dreams and then today. )
I ordered a big junk-food lunch because sometimes it does help a very little bit to eat our feelings (and I can't actually drink during the work day). And I have to shake it off before I pick up my own kid, because while I can get a little mileage out of "Mommy isn't feeling well, so please be extra well-behaved," I can't do that every day, and I am not ready for him to know why I'm sad (either the dad stuff or the news stuff). So here I go.
meme, why not
Apr. 14th, 2020 04:49 pm1. Are you an essential worker? I am not, but my work can be done entirely from my home, so thank god I'm still working (because Himself has been between jobs since March 4; new gig starts Thursday).
2. How many drinks have you had since the quarantine started? About five, one of which was a glass of wine (standing in for all four cups) at seder.
3. If you have kids... Are they driving you nuts? Oh my god, you guys.
4. What new hobby have you taken up during this? I have a full-time job and a three-year-old. New hobby, ha.
5. How many grocery runs have you done? I've done two. Himself has done the rest (one per week with an extra run one day last week when I discovered the local store had TP in stock).
6. What are you spending your stimulus check on? I think we did well enough last year (before Himself was between jobs) that we aren't getting one. I guess another way of looking at it is that we've been stimulating all along.
7. Do you have any special occasions that you will miss during this quarantine? My brother and his family were going to be in town for my nephew's spring break. Alas.
8. Are you keeping your housework done? Sort of. I had a frenzy of kitchen-cleaning yesterday, and I sweep the floors when the crumb-bumbler that is my kid (and, let's be fair, his father) has made enough cruft that I can't stand it. But I'm afraid when our miraculous cleaning lady is able to return it will be as though she was never here in the first place. (Note: We are paying her on schedule even while she's not coming in.)
9. What movie have you watched during this quarantine? We started to watch Avengers: Infinity War one night after the kid's bedtime, a hundred years ago in the beginning or middle of March, and after 15 or 20 minutes I had to admit it had been a poor choice. Since then there's been more froth. The original Back to the Future (both adults) and one or more Jane Austen adaptations (me). We have also introduced the kid to The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, which he is watching about once per day.
10. What are you streaming with? Plex.
11. Nine months from now is there any chance of you having a baby? It is vanishingly unliklely.
12. What's your go-to quarantine meal? Ramen with an egg in it.
13. Is this whole situation making you paranoid? No.
14. Has your internet gone out on you during this time? PTUI PTUI PTUI
15. What month do you predict this all ends? All of it? Ends? Shoot, maybe next July. I have to assume we'll be poking our heads up like, as Bertie Wooster said, a snail after a thunderstorm quite a lot sooner than that.
16. First thing you’re gonna do when you get off quarantine? Realistically, knowing me, probably break down sobbing.
17. Where do you wish you were right now? Taking my kid to day care (or picking him up, either one) or a goddamn playground.
18. What free-from-quarantine activity are you missing the most? Date night.
19. Have you run out of toilet paper and hand sanitizer? No.
20. Do you have enough food to last a month? Not really, although a shipping error in our favor left us with a quantity of cinnamon applesauce that amounts to - and my husband calls - a strategic reserve, so maybe we do. We'd be unhappy but we probably wouldn't starve.
2. How many drinks have you had since the quarantine started? About five, one of which was a glass of wine (standing in for all four cups) at seder.
3. If you have kids... Are they driving you nuts? Oh my god, you guys.
4. What new hobby have you taken up during this? I have a full-time job and a three-year-old. New hobby, ha.
5. How many grocery runs have you done? I've done two. Himself has done the rest (one per week with an extra run one day last week when I discovered the local store had TP in stock).
6. What are you spending your stimulus check on? I think we did well enough last year (before Himself was between jobs) that we aren't getting one. I guess another way of looking at it is that we've been stimulating all along.
7. Do you have any special occasions that you will miss during this quarantine? My brother and his family were going to be in town for my nephew's spring break. Alas.
8. Are you keeping your housework done? Sort of. I had a frenzy of kitchen-cleaning yesterday, and I sweep the floors when the crumb-bumbler that is my kid (and, let's be fair, his father) has made enough cruft that I can't stand it. But I'm afraid when our miraculous cleaning lady is able to return it will be as though she was never here in the first place. (Note: We are paying her on schedule even while she's not coming in.)
9. What movie have you watched during this quarantine? We started to watch Avengers: Infinity War one night after the kid's bedtime, a hundred years ago in the beginning or middle of March, and after 15 or 20 minutes I had to admit it had been a poor choice. Since then there's been more froth. The original Back to the Future (both adults) and one or more Jane Austen adaptations (me). We have also introduced the kid to The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, which he is watching about once per day.
10. What are you streaming with? Plex.
11. Nine months from now is there any chance of you having a baby? It is vanishingly unliklely.
12. What's your go-to quarantine meal? Ramen with an egg in it.
13. Is this whole situation making you paranoid? No.
14. Has your internet gone out on you during this time? PTUI PTUI PTUI
15. What month do you predict this all ends? All of it? Ends? Shoot, maybe next July. I have to assume we'll be poking our heads up like, as Bertie Wooster said, a snail after a thunderstorm quite a lot sooner than that.
16. First thing you’re gonna do when you get off quarantine? Realistically, knowing me, probably break down sobbing.
17. Where do you wish you were right now? Taking my kid to day care (or picking him up, either one) or a goddamn playground.
18. What free-from-quarantine activity are you missing the most? Date night.
19. Have you run out of toilet paper and hand sanitizer? No.
20. Do you have enough food to last a month? Not really, although a shipping error in our favor left us with a quantity of cinnamon applesauce that amounts to - and my husband calls - a strategic reserve, so maybe we do. We'd be unhappy but we probably wouldn't starve.
best news i'll hear today
Mar. 31st, 2020 03:28 pmI've been working from home since March 12, but for the first week (March 16-20) we kept sending the prince to day care, because it was open and they didn't have clusters of more than 10 people and the slight veneer of normalcy was good for all three of us. We had some anxiety about it, but. (It was the only place he was going, and I wasn't going anywhere at all once I'd gone to the pharmacy one time; Himself has been doing the grocery shopping alone rather than en famille on Saturdays, and we haven't seen the in-laws since March 8.)
On the 22nd they got the news that a parent of a kid in another classroom had tested positive. The parent nor the kid hadn't been in the place since the 13th (though who knows when the test was administered, for the results to come in that Sunday), but that was the push we needed to finally get all the way out of the pool. We made a child-care-plus-work-from-home schedule and started keeping him home on the 23rd. I've been able to work eight hours a day while Himself looks after the prince, and Himself gets about four hours to himself while I look after the prince. But Himself is starting a new job on April 21 (or, stop presses, maybe sooner), so we'll have to think of something else.
The new Families First act, which expands paid sick leave and FMLA and includes taking care of a minor whose school or day care is closed because of the 'rona as a reason to use those types of leave, kicks in tomorrow, and effective yesterday the day care did indeed close for the foreseeable future. Himself will not be eligible for family leave even under the new law until he's worked at the new job for 30 days, but I've been at my job for five years and haven't used FMLA since the prince was born, so.
And today I learned that while under the new law I'm entitled to 80 hours of extra sick time at 100% of my normal salary (up to some maximum that I think I'll max out, but whatever) - that is, two weeks - and 400 hours of extra family leave at 2/3 of my normal salary (up to some maximum ditto whatever) - that is, 10 weeks - I don't have to take that time all in a block. I knew intermittent FMLA was a thing, and it turns out I can use both the sick and the family leave intermittently as well - which means Himself and I can swap eight-hour and four-hour blocks and be covered at almost all of my salary and definitely all of his new salary for 24 weeks instead of just 12. And if things are still not back to normal by then, well, Himself will qualify for FMLA himself by then? And also, we'll have other problems by then.
Dear god I hope that's long enough for things to be back to some semblance of normal.
On the 22nd they got the news that a parent of a kid in another classroom had tested positive. The parent nor the kid hadn't been in the place since the 13th (though who knows when the test was administered, for the results to come in that Sunday), but that was the push we needed to finally get all the way out of the pool. We made a child-care-plus-work-from-home schedule and started keeping him home on the 23rd. I've been able to work eight hours a day while Himself looks after the prince, and Himself gets about four hours to himself while I look after the prince. But Himself is starting a new job on April 21 (or, stop presses, maybe sooner), so we'll have to think of something else.
The new Families First act, which expands paid sick leave and FMLA and includes taking care of a minor whose school or day care is closed because of the 'rona as a reason to use those types of leave, kicks in tomorrow, and effective yesterday the day care did indeed close for the foreseeable future. Himself will not be eligible for family leave even under the new law until he's worked at the new job for 30 days, but I've been at my job for five years and haven't used FMLA since the prince was born, so.
And today I learned that while under the new law I'm entitled to 80 hours of extra sick time at 100% of my normal salary (up to some maximum that I think I'll max out, but whatever) - that is, two weeks - and 400 hours of extra family leave at 2/3 of my normal salary (up to some maximum ditto whatever) - that is, 10 weeks - I don't have to take that time all in a block. I knew intermittent FMLA was a thing, and it turns out I can use both the sick and the family leave intermittently as well - which means Himself and I can swap eight-hour and four-hour blocks and be covered at almost all of my salary and definitely all of his new salary for 24 weeks instead of just 12. And if things are still not back to normal by then, well, Himself will qualify for FMLA himself by then? And also, we'll have other problems by then.
Dear god I hope that's long enough for things to be back to some semblance of normal.
I don't mean to be away for that long at a time. I think the issue is actually that I seldom use my laptop at home anymore - I'm on my work laptop at work or when I'm working from home, and when I'm at home not working, I get my internets on my phone, where it's harder to post to DW and much easier to post to Facebook or Twitter. (I'm on the work computer now, of course, because I'm at work. It's not like I can't use it to read and post. But I generally don't, because I'm generally working. Only right now I have done all the work available to me except one project that I really am going to have to dig in my heels before I can face it. So here I am.)
( obU.S. politics )
( Family )
The latest cuteness, was walking home from day care yesterday. He asked me to pick him up at one point, and I didn't argue, so I was carrying him when a neighborhood dog started barking at us from its fenced yard. The prince was alarmed, but he patted my face and said "It's okay, Mommy." ♥
I don't remember who recommended An Ever-Fixed Mark eight million yonks ago, but I had it open in a tab on my phone for many, many months and finally read it. For the benefit of anyone who's further behind than I am, it's a soulmark/wristname treatment of Pride and Prejudice, and that's all I'll say about that except to note that it got me to dig out the 1995 BBC miniseries again (I do love the Netherfield ball scene, before it all goes sideways; in fact I generally like the ballroom scenes in the TV and film adaptations, because the directors pretty uniformly use the scenes properly and achieve what they're going for, as far as I'm concerned, and everyone looks great doing it; I think late Regency fashion might have suited me) and I may one day actually - gasp! - get one or more volumes of Austen down off the shelf and actually read them again.
I sort of miss being fannish about things. I don't consume much new media anymore, because we're not ready for the kid to be watching TV so we don't turn it on until he's in bed, and then there's only a couple of hours at most before we go to bed ourselves, so it's generally hockey or curling or old familiar comfort viewing rather than anything a person would have to pay attention to. Plus Himself and I have different tastes in TV shows; we both like sci-fi, there's some overlap on fantasy, but he's not much of a one for most procedurals (legal, medical, police, political, whatever) and would generally prefer to eat glass than watch a half-hour sitcom from any era or costume drama of any length. (That might be a bit harsh. But he doesn't care for them, and in fact he doesn't watch nearly the amount of TV on his own that I do or did on my own, so if I'm going to "make" him have the TV on in the limited time we're together without the prince in the evenings, I feel it's fair not to "make" him sit through something so far down his list of preferences.) So when I do DVR those, I save them to watch when he's out, which isn't super often. One falls behind. And of course getting out to the movies requires a week's worth of planning these days. We can just about keep up with Star Wars; we might have been able to get a babysitter so we could get to Avengers: Endgame, but we're so far behind on Marvel movies that we're having to do a lot of DVD catch-up before we're prepared, so we're going to have to get that one eventually as well.
No idea if anyone is even reading me anymore. I'd hoped to get back into the posting habit when you all came back from Tumblr, but I haven't managed it well. I'll keep trying, though.
( obU.S. politics )
( Family )
The latest cuteness, was walking home from day care yesterday. He asked me to pick him up at one point, and I didn't argue, so I was carrying him when a neighborhood dog started barking at us from its fenced yard. The prince was alarmed, but he patted my face and said "It's okay, Mommy." ♥
I don't remember who recommended An Ever-Fixed Mark eight million yonks ago, but I had it open in a tab on my phone for many, many months and finally read it. For the benefit of anyone who's further behind than I am, it's a soulmark/wristname treatment of Pride and Prejudice, and that's all I'll say about that except to note that it got me to dig out the 1995 BBC miniseries again (I do love the Netherfield ball scene, before it all goes sideways; in fact I generally like the ballroom scenes in the TV and film adaptations, because the directors pretty uniformly use the scenes properly and achieve what they're going for, as far as I'm concerned, and everyone looks great doing it; I think late Regency fashion might have suited me) and I may one day actually - gasp! - get one or more volumes of Austen down off the shelf and actually read them again.
I sort of miss being fannish about things. I don't consume much new media anymore, because we're not ready for the kid to be watching TV so we don't turn it on until he's in bed, and then there's only a couple of hours at most before we go to bed ourselves, so it's generally hockey or curling or old familiar comfort viewing rather than anything a person would have to pay attention to. Plus Himself and I have different tastes in TV shows; we both like sci-fi, there's some overlap on fantasy, but he's not much of a one for most procedurals (legal, medical, police, political, whatever) and would generally prefer to eat glass than watch a half-hour sitcom from any era or costume drama of any length. (That might be a bit harsh. But he doesn't care for them, and in fact he doesn't watch nearly the amount of TV on his own that I do or did on my own, so if I'm going to "make" him have the TV on in the limited time we're together without the prince in the evenings, I feel it's fair not to "make" him sit through something so far down his list of preferences.) So when I do DVR those, I save them to watch when he's out, which isn't super often. One falls behind. And of course getting out to the movies requires a week's worth of planning these days. We can just about keep up with Star Wars; we might have been able to get a babysitter so we could get to Avengers: Endgame, but we're so far behind on Marvel movies that we're having to do a lot of DVD catch-up before we're prepared, so we're going to have to get that one eventually as well.
No idea if anyone is even reading me anymore. I'd hoped to get back into the posting habit when you all came back from Tumblr, but I haven't managed it well. I'll keep trying, though.
and then i remembered
Jun. 22nd, 2018 04:24 pmA childhood friend of mine did a PhD on pre-Columbian Mesoamerican art and architecture and spent some time learning Yucatec - so I forwarded her the RAICES Texas volunteer-seeking message where they need people who can translate indigenous languages. She may not be able to do much herself, but in turn she may know people who can help more.
I sent that message with no preamble, by the way. Friend I haven't seen or been in touch with in more than a year, and I didn't need so much as "Of course you'll have heard" or anything of the kind. Out of a blue sky I said "Hang on, didn't you study Yucatec? Look, RAICES needs volunteers."
Trying to do more.
I sent that message with no preamble, by the way. Friend I haven't seen or been in touch with in more than a year, and I didn't need so much as "Of course you'll have heard" or anything of the kind. Out of a blue sky I said "Hang on, didn't you study Yucatec? Look, RAICES needs volunteers."
Trying to do more.
and then on Facebook i almost want to say
Jun. 19th, 2018 03:14 pmWow, friends and family, some of you have friends who are real assholes.
it turns out i can get madder
Jun. 19th, 2018 11:22 amLike many of us, I've been suffering from rage-and-despair fatigue for the past year and a half, and I have extremely limited confidence that voting (which I early-did on Sunday) will help worth a damn in the midterms or even, maybe, in 2020; it's great to reflect that the moral arc of history is long and bends toward justice, but I want to improve the bit of the arc I'm going to be using for the next thirty or forty years, you know what I'm saying? "This too shall pass" is not super helpful to me right now.
Anyway. While I've spent the entirety of this administration seeing breaking-news headlines or hearing people sigh or curse in frustration and automatically asking "What did they do now?" - because that's the only thing you can ask, most of the time - in the past two days I have broken down in tears twice over the separation of children from their parents at the southwest border. I continue to rage and despair, but today I am also trying to do other things:
Anyway. While I've spent the entirety of this administration seeing breaking-news headlines or hearing people sigh or curse in frustration and automatically asking "What did they do now?" - because that's the only thing you can ask, most of the time - in the past two days I have broken down in tears twice over the separation of children from their parents at the southwest border. I continue to rage and despair, but today I am also trying to do other things:
- [eta: Oh, first, self-care: I am not listening to the Pro Publica recording of children sobbing. I have some guilt about the decision to protect myself from that, but I think it would tip me from having difficulty focusing or caring about much else into total inability to focus or care about much else, and that's not good for me or my family, so.]
- I am planning to take my kid to the Families Belong Together protest at the White House on June 30. It will be over his lunch time and his nap time and will thus completely disrupt his day, and he can handle one day of disruption goddammit. If it will not be actually dangerous to him, I'm taking him with me and pretty invested in his father coming along as well. Going to a "Families Belong Together" event without my family seems to miss the point rather.
- My Congressfolk are all sapphire-blue, so there's no need to yell at them persuasively or otherwise - but I wrote to my senators to thank them for supporting the Keep Families Together Act and to my representative to ask him what he's doing and what the living hell his colleagues are thinking, and I asked all three of them what else we can do. Busloads of Freedom Riders to overpower the CBP agents and tear open the doors, is what I'm working with right now. Open to other suggestions.
- I've made substantial* donations this morning to RAICES Texas, Al Oltro Lado, and the ACLU. If you have the means, I hope you will consider doing the same. *I can't give tens of thousands of dollars per family member like the Teigen-Legends, but there's a lot of room south of where they are that's still more money than I need, so.
- For many, many months, I've been resolved that the next time I'm anywhere the national anthem is played or sung, my knee is on the ground. That's not going to change until this does, that's for damn sure.
- At
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ellen_fremedon's suggestion, I also wrote to the governor of my state, who is not sapphire-blue, and urged him to follow the lead of the governor of Massachusetts in refusing to deploy the National Guard to the southwest border, "where they would have 'supported security operations' by separating children from their families. I have a 19-month-old myself, and he doesn't understand why lately I've been loading him up with extra hugs - but when I think about these children being separated from their parents, it is so hard for me to put him down. ... One thing you can do is declare in advance that you will not - and will not require the Maryland National Guard to - collaborate." - Be assured that my use of the word "collaborate" was one hundred percent deliberate.
for christ's sake, 2016
Dec. 27th, 2016 01:18 pmCarrie Fisher has died.
Can everyone else who hasn't already died please just keep still for five more days and maybe take an aspirin to be safe or something?
Can everyone else who hasn't already died please just keep still for five more days and maybe take an aspirin to be safe or something?
what a day
Sep. 4th, 2014 07:19 pmJoan Rivers died and a jury found the former governor of Virginia and his wife guilty of a whole mess of corruption charges.
There, that's the headlines taken care of.
In more local news, the county came and took away the handicapped parking signs that had reserved the curb space in front of the house for the late previous owner, so we can park more comfortably in front of our own house now. (We have been able to squeeze both cars between one sign and the driveway next door, but only because we both drive Minis. And if we parked nose-to-tail, the tail car couldn't get anything out of the trunk.)
Additionally, I have worked out how to be sure I can always get a seat on the metro on the way to work in the morning. I board at the sixth stop from the end of the line--but some trains only go as far as five stops from the end of the line. On the other side of the line, some trains only go as far as three(ish) stops from the end. One day last week, I realized, hey, if I get on a train that originates at Shady Grove, I'm going to have to stand all the way in to work; but if I get on a train that originates at Grosvenor, it won't have had time to fill up by the time I get on, and I'll definitely get a seat. But, alas!, the signs only tell me where the trains are going, not where they're coming from!--until a light bulb went off and I thought, surely the train won't go from the very end of one side of the line to the short end of the other. That is: the trains either go all the way from Shady Grove to Glenmont, or they go from Grosvenor to Silver Spring. Like the amino acids in DNA, they do not change partners. In short: if I get on a Silver Spring-bound train in the morning, I will be assured of getting a seat. And because the sign boards tell us the destinations of the next three trains, I can always tell if it's worth skipping a Glenmont-bound train if there's one in front of me. \o/
Unpacking continues. Oof.
There, that's the headlines taken care of.
In more local news, the county came and took away the handicapped parking signs that had reserved the curb space in front of the house for the late previous owner, so we can park more comfortably in front of our own house now. (We have been able to squeeze both cars between one sign and the driveway next door, but only because we both drive Minis. And if we parked nose-to-tail, the tail car couldn't get anything out of the trunk.)
Additionally, I have worked out how to be sure I can always get a seat on the metro on the way to work in the morning. I board at the sixth stop from the end of the line--but some trains only go as far as five stops from the end of the line. On the other side of the line, some trains only go as far as three(ish) stops from the end. One day last week, I realized, hey, if I get on a train that originates at Shady Grove, I'm going to have to stand all the way in to work; but if I get on a train that originates at Grosvenor, it won't have had time to fill up by the time I get on, and I'll definitely get a seat. But, alas!, the signs only tell me where the trains are going, not where they're coming from!--until a light bulb went off and I thought, surely the train won't go from the very end of one side of the line to the short end of the other. That is: the trains either go all the way from Shady Grove to Glenmont, or they go from Grosvenor to Silver Spring. Like the amino acids in DNA, they do not change partners. In short: if I get on a Silver Spring-bound train in the morning, I will be assured of getting a seat. And because the sign boards tell us the destinations of the next three trains, I can always tell if it's worth skipping a Glenmont-bound train if there's one in front of me. \o/
Unpacking continues. Oof.
changing it up in the house of orange
Apr. 30th, 2013 06:53 pmI enjoy that for the festivities surrounding the formal abdication of Queen Beatrix and investiture/coronation/what-have-you of Crown Prince King Willem Alexander of the Netherlands, the representatives from the world's royal families were the heirs apparent rather than the monarchs. I think that's charming.
Everyone I've got in Boston seems to be okay. I hope that is true for as many of those here as possible.
One recalls what Mr. Rogers once said:
♥ Boston. We're all with you.
One recalls what Mr. Rogers once said:
When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping." To this day, especially in times of "disaster", I remember my mother's words and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers - so many caring people in this world.Or, put another way, Ubi caritas et amor: Deus ibi est.
♥ Boston. We're all with you.
habeis/habeant papam
Mar. 14th, 2013 10:20 am(See, I can conjugate too. ;-) )
I was not interested, in the involved sense, in the conclave or the election of the new Pope. But for those of you who are Catholic, I'm pleased that you seem to be pleased with the new guy. On behalf of those of us who are not Catholic, I'm pleased with how fervent he seems to be about social justice issues and how much he seems to loathe this "austerity" we've all heard so much about. (Sharing a little of the great wealth of the church seems a good idea, she said, remembering the shocking poverty visible in the very shadow of St Peter's.) On behalf of those of us educated at least in part by Jesuits, I'm chuffed that he's a Jesuit. (Hoya Saxa!) And I'm fairly impressed that he chose the name Francis. If he really makes himself an instrument (or channel?) of the peace of his (/their/your) God, and repairs the house which is falling into ruins, then, well, marvelous. Literally.
The only thing that displeases me, really, is how often I'm hearing people call him Francis I. I don't care what Pope John Paul I and King Juan Carlos of Spain did - until there's a II you're not I, you just are. I don't think I've heard that he's calling himself The First, but I certainly heard it on the radio this morning from (I believe) Msgr W Ronald Jameson of the Cathedral of St Matthew Apostle here in DC, who ought (I believe) to know better.
I was not interested, in the involved sense, in the conclave or the election of the new Pope. But for those of you who are Catholic, I'm pleased that you seem to be pleased with the new guy. On behalf of those of us who are not Catholic, I'm pleased with how fervent he seems to be about social justice issues and how much he seems to loathe this "austerity" we've all heard so much about. (Sharing a little of the great wealth of the church seems a good idea, she said, remembering the shocking poverty visible in the very shadow of St Peter's.) On behalf of those of us educated at least in part by Jesuits, I'm chuffed that he's a Jesuit. (Hoya Saxa!) And I'm fairly impressed that he chose the name Francis. If he really makes himself an instrument (or channel?) of the peace of his (/their/your) God, and repairs the house which is falling into ruins, then, well, marvelous. Literally.
The only thing that displeases me, really, is how often I'm hearing people call him Francis I. I don't care what Pope John Paul I and King Juan Carlos of Spain did - until there's a II you're not I, you just are. I don't think I've heard that he's calling himself The First, but I certainly heard it on the radio this morning from (I believe) Msgr W Ronald Jameson of the Cathedral of St Matthew Apostle here in DC, who ought (I believe) to know better.
good morning pyongyang
Dec. 18th, 2011 10:31 pmI see from the AP that Kim Jong Il has died. I wonder how much North Korea will be allowed to open up in the next while. It's not that they don't know we're out here - they're not the People of Krikkit - so I wonder how strong a hold Jong Eun and the lieutenant-regents are going to be able to keep on the place now that Jong Il is gone.
some more earthquakey thoughts
Aug. 23rd, 2011 11:13 pmSo here's the thing. While the earthquake wasn't frightening to me personally, I am quite capable of recognizing that this was because (a) (mainly) I was busy being baffled almost until it was over and (b) I work in a one-story building that is designed to be Quite Sturdy in ways I shouldn't say much more about. But the fact remains that here in Washington - on the east coast in general, in fact - we don't have learned instincts about this sort of thing. You know what I mean. I grew up in the midwest, so I know what to do when the sky turns yellowy-green and how to drive in snow. But until people started talking about it in December 2004, for example, I'd have had no idea what to do if I were in a coastal area and saw all the water rush away from the shore. I had to read someone talking about how the right answer was to run like hell for higher ground; without that I'm pretty sure it would never have occurred to me that the water would all come back in a big damn hurry.
So it's not just that our building codes don't much bother to include earthquakes (or, this far north, probably hurricanes either) - which changes the learned reactions, by the way, doesn't it?, because I believe bracing yourself in a doorframe is the right answer in a lot of places and rushing out of the building is the wrong one, but a lot of buildings were evacuated on purpose today and not just emptied by people panicking and fleeing into the streets.
So right. It's not just that. It's that absent what we may have picked up from here and there (including having lived elsewhere), a lot of us around here don't actually automatically know what to do when stuff starts shaking. Or, you know, to the extent that we do, our first thought is not going to be that it's an earthquake. Friend of mine was working a couple of blocks from the White House today and mentioned that he's never been so glad to hear something was "just" a medium-to-severe earthquake in his life.
So it's not just that our building codes don't much bother to include earthquakes (or, this far north, probably hurricanes either) - which changes the learned reactions, by the way, doesn't it?, because I believe bracing yourself in a doorframe is the right answer in a lot of places and rushing out of the building is the wrong one, but a lot of buildings were evacuated on purpose today and not just emptied by people panicking and fleeing into the streets.
So right. It's not just that. It's that absent what we may have picked up from here and there (including having lived elsewhere), a lot of us around here don't actually automatically know what to do when stuff starts shaking. Or, you know, to the extent that we do, our first thought is not going to be that it's an earthquake. Friend of mine was working a couple of blocks from the White House today and mentioned that he's never been so glad to hear something was "just" a medium-to-severe earthquake in his life.
many steps back
Aug. 10th, 2011 08:36 amHad my teeth yanked around yesterday, and last night for the first time in many months I was awakened from a pretty deep sleep by excruciating pain in the lower right side of my jaw (where all the Trouble started). Of course the tooth with the root canal couldn't hurt, but everything around it could, and since the project has basically been to tug at the ligaments until they give up and align a different way, I'm a little surprised this hasn't happened until now. Fortunately I remembered what it was like, before, when I was waking up with that kind of pain every night; I went and grabbed a handful of ibuprofen (and brought the bottle in to leave on my nightstand against the same issue tonight), and then lay carefully still until it kicked in and I could sleep again. This morning it feels definitely bruised, hard to say if it's swollen, and I was so bewildered at breakfast time that I had to remind myself not to pour the coffee into the toaster.
I don't have anything intelligent to say about London's burning. It breaks my heart, and when I see headlines or hear sound bites from David Cameron it makes me furious - as if wagging one's finger and saying "You lot stop being oppressed right this minute" could possibly help.
I don't have anything intelligent to say about London's burning. It breaks my heart, and when I see headlines or hear sound bites from David Cameron it makes me furious - as if wagging one's finger and saying "You lot stop being oppressed right this minute" could possibly help.
another "royal" wedding
Jul. 30th, 2011 11:35 amI see from the WaPo that Zara Phillips is getting married today. (Scare quotes in the subject line on account of she's the queen's granddaughter but, as you know, Bob, doesn't have a title of her own because her folks turned it down when they got married.) And I'm drinking my coffee and tootling around so I clicked through to the photo gallery of her wedding rehearsal, and good gracious, that child looks alarmingly like her mother, doesn't she. (I mean, it doesn't seem to have hurt her much. But, yikes.)
a varied assortment.
Jul. 22nd, 2011 05:49 pm1. I'd like it if someone hadn't tried to blow up Oslo. Of course it's not that I think New York and Washington and London are particularly deserving of violence (nor, especially, are the people in those places) - but really, Oslo?! What did the Norwegians ever do to you, you bomb-wielding bastards? (Hang in there, Oslo.)
2. So the guy I met on Wednesday e-mailed me on Thursday all eager to get together again some time next week. This morning I responded with, almost, word for word, the best (least judgey, most short-and-to-the-point) rejection I've ever received: "I'll have to pass, thanks." He replied, which was neither unexpected nor unacceptable - when I get explicitly bounced after one or two meetups I usually wish the bouncer good luck in the future, for example - but Wednesday did not do this. He asked me for an honest critique. Said he wonders if he's doing something wrong in general.
/o\
Okay, look. We've all - haven't we? - had times, when we've been turned down, especially if we've been repeatedly turned down (repeatedly by different people, in this scenario), when we think The only thing all these bad dates have in common is me; I am the weakest link. What is it? What am I doing? And we want to talk to someone about this, get to the bottom of it. But you know whom we ask these questions? Our friends. Ourselves. Maybe our families.
You know whom we don't ask? The people who just said they don't feel the need to see us anymore.
What it means when someone doesn't want to be with you isn't (necessarily) that something is wrong with you - it's that that isn't the person for you. But if you really do feel like you need to change something about yourself, why would you change it based on what you're told by someone who doesn't want to be with you? When you were done, you wouldn't be yourself anymore and you still wouldn't have a date. If you really feel like you need to change something about yourself, what you need to do is a lot of soul-searching, work out what you might not like, change that as and if you can, and try again. With someone else.
Honest critique. No, you cannot trouble me for an honest critique. This is not a workshop.
So the answer, asellen_fremedon said, to the gentleman's question is "No." It is to be hoped that my continued silence will convey this and I won't hear from him again.
3. I am off to the Stratford Festival! ... Anyone want anything?
4. I just went to get my passport out of the drawer and all I found was the old one with the hole in the cover. Panicked for about two seconds until I remembered that I'd bought a safe and put Important Documents (passport, lease, Social Security card) in it. Then I opened the safe and while I was digging around for my passport I dropped the lid on my fingers.
5. Weather tag in use because it is stupid hot today. 105 with a heat index of 126. And yet only Ellen took me up on my offer of a lift home from work.
2. So the guy I met on Wednesday e-mailed me on Thursday all eager to get together again some time next week. This morning I responded with, almost, word for word, the best (least judgey, most short-and-to-the-point) rejection I've ever received: "I'll have to pass, thanks." He replied, which was neither unexpected nor unacceptable - when I get explicitly bounced after one or two meetups I usually wish the bouncer good luck in the future, for example - but Wednesday did not do this. He asked me for an honest critique. Said he wonders if he's doing something wrong in general.
/o\
Okay, look. We've all - haven't we? - had times, when we've been turned down, especially if we've been repeatedly turned down (repeatedly by different people, in this scenario), when we think The only thing all these bad dates have in common is me; I am the weakest link. What is it? What am I doing? And we want to talk to someone about this, get to the bottom of it. But you know whom we ask these questions? Our friends. Ourselves. Maybe our families.
You know whom we don't ask? The people who just said they don't feel the need to see us anymore.
What it means when someone doesn't want to be with you isn't (necessarily) that something is wrong with you - it's that that isn't the person for you. But if you really do feel like you need to change something about yourself, why would you change it based on what you're told by someone who doesn't want to be with you? When you were done, you wouldn't be yourself anymore and you still wouldn't have a date. If you really feel like you need to change something about yourself, what you need to do is a lot of soul-searching, work out what you might not like, change that as and if you can, and try again. With someone else.
Honest critique. No, you cannot trouble me for an honest critique. This is not a workshop.
So the answer, as
ellen_fremedon said, to the gentleman's question is "No." It is to be hoped that my continued silence will convey this and I won't hear from him again.3. I am off to the Stratford Festival! ... Anyone want anything?
4. I just went to get my passport out of the drawer and all I found was the old one with the hole in the cover. Panicked for about two seconds until I remembered that I'd bought a safe and put Important Documents (passport, lease, Social Security card) in it. Then I opened the safe and while I was digging around for my passport I dropped the lid on my fingers.
5. Weather tag in use because it is stupid hot today. 105 with a heat index of 126. And yet only Ellen took me up on my offer of a lift home from work.
you heard it here last
May. 1st, 2011 11:18 pmI understand from the internets that the news of the evening is the death of Osama bin Laden. I note it here just for the record, so when I'm looking at my own journal in five years I won't think I missed it completely. (And it couldn't have happened to a nicer fellow, as far as I'm concerned.)
"A CIA operation", the AP is saying. And you know what that means I'm thinking of course, immersed as I am in popular culture. It means I'm thinking of something CJ Cregg once said, to wit: Some of these guys are going to be taken out by a busboy with a silencer.
"A CIA operation", the AP is saying. And you know what that means I'm thinking of course, immersed as I am in popular culture. It means I'm thinking of something CJ Cregg once said, to wit: Some of these guys are going to be taken out by a busboy with a silencer.