LolaGeek

I need to catch up with the blog! I was away for most of this week, and then when I got home I was so busy, plus our internet was down at home until this morning. So here we go!

Sunday night through Wednesday night I was on yet another business trip in New England. For a trip that went so well, a lot of little things went wrong (or were just inconveniences). For example, my train ticket was just “reserved” and hadn’t actually been purchased, and even though I’d been told I could use the electronic kiosk to finish the transaction, I apparently couldn’t. So I had to go wait in line and get tickets from a human. And then the train was packed! I didn’t realize Sunday nights were so popular! And I was stuck sitting near this mom with two little kids who wouldn’t shut up.

Every time I go up there it’s pretty interesting. Driving to work at home is so boring – it’s mostly highway, and then you get off the highway and there’s the office. Up there, the office (both offices where I was, actually) is sort of in the middle of town, and you get to drive through cute historic neighborhoods and stuff. Now, I imagine the traffic of thousands of people driving through little neighborhoods is not great, but the place is adorable. Also, they have awesome views out their office windows – even the cubicles!

I was actually at the office where the other half of my department is located on Monday, and it was nice to meet with people in person, meet co-workers I hadn’t met yet, and just be “present.” I went out to dinner on Monday with a member of my new group and another co-worker from PA who came up that night. Then on Tuesday and Wednesday my PA co-worker and I were at another office a few miles away for a two-day class. The class was interesting, but sort of left us depressed – it was about a methodology for implementing successful changes, but in the positions we’re in, we’d never have the authority to do the types of things they prescribe (e.g. assembling a team of the right people – since when do we get to put together our own teams?!).

The train ride home was nice, and it goes much faster when you’re not traveling by yourself – my co-worker came back home with me. For the first time I’ve ever experienced, our Amtrak train arrived at it’s destination on time! So I got home around 10:30 on Wednesday night.

Thursday I worked from home, cleaned, did laundry, and caught up on stuff around the house. Friday I went to my office for the first time all week. We went out to lunch to a new restaurant called Zoup!, which specializes in soup – they have 100 different types, 12 per day. They also have salads and sandwiches. My meal was okay, but I don’t think this place will make it on my list of top favorite restaurants. They’re also opening an Elevation Burger in the same shopping center, I’m excited to try that when it’s open! Friday night I called my mom to see if she wanted to get dinner, and she’d already eaten, but she told me she was meeting my brother and his friend to buy him a new computer (an early Christmas present, since his laptop just melted!), so I met up with them and then we had dinner after that. His friend was a vegetarian who wanted to go back to eating meat, so we went out for burgers!

On Saturday, GG and I had a nice day together. We went to the Farmers’ Market in the morning, where we ran into some friends and stocked up on fruits and veggies for the week (there was pretty much no food in the house since I’d been gone for most of the week). We spent the afternoon relaxing on the couch, then went out for dinner and to see Dinner for Schmucks. The movie was cute! Pretty funny throughout, and generally better than I’d expected. The cast was great! Loved Paul Rudd, Steve Carell, Zach Galifianakis, Ron Livingston, Kristen Schaal, Nick Kroll, Jemaine Clement…

Today we went to GG’s friend’s mom’s house for a Labor Day party. It was catered! It was actually mostly their family and a few of their other mutual friends. It was fun! The main attraction was that they rented a PA system for GG to entertain everyone with stand-up comedy. I don’t think he’s ever done more than a 10-minute set, but today he went through every joke he had and did at least half an hour. I recorded him. 90% of his jokes are really offensive – the other 10% are stupid puns :o) But they actually wanted him to blast the offensive humor over the PA because their neighbors play loud music all the time.

Not sure what I’ll be doing on actual Labor Day, but it’s nice to have a bonus day off before another busy week! (The fun of being in two departments now – careful what you wish for when you wish for a job, I guess!)

Thursday was GG’s actual birthday, and he seemed to be having a really hard time with the fact that he was a year older (even though I kept telling him, he was just one day older than he was on Wednesday). In an effort to really embarrass him, I showed up at GG’s office on his birthday with cupcakes to share with all his co-workers. I’d never been there before, so it was neat to see where he works, and nice to meet the people he works with. I think some of them didn’t believe I existed :o) And everyone seemed to appreciate the cupcakes.

On Saturday, GG went to work some overtime for the day while I cleaned the house and got ready for our party that night. The house was looking good, and even though we’d gone food shopping at Costco and I picked up more stuff at the supermarket that day, I was still worried we wouldn’t have enough food to serve everyone. Due to some people’s flakiness, and the casualness of Facebook RSVPs, we weren’t really sure exactly how many people would show up. Only a few people actually came at the start time (which was fine, it’s not like we had special activities planned, and I’d told people to just show up whenever). But then all of a sudden, everyone showed up! It was crazy! Suddenly the house was packed (and hot). GG and a couple friends had to go on a beer run (luckily we’re walking distance from the distributor!), and I ended up cooking three or four batches of hot hors d’oeuvres. We had a really good mix of people, and it was cool to get various facets of our friends together – one of my favorite parts about having a party! We have some of the coolest friends. Some of the conversations that were going on were just awesome. I wish we could see a lot of them more often! Anyway, GG got really drunk and everyone ended up leaving by around 11, and then I cleaned up and finally collapsed in bed by midnight.

I didn’t have any big plans for today, and didn’t have many chores to do, considering everything was pretty much cleaned up for the party, and we ended up with enough leftover food that I didn’t need to go food shopping. So I did some things around the house that I’d been putting off, and did eventually go out to the supermarket because we do need our regular staples for the week. And I had a much-needed nap.

We had a fun and busy weekend. On Saturday we spent the day cleaning the house – really cleaning. Later, we went to New Hope and met J and S for dinner. That was really nice, except it was like 100 degrees with 99% humidity or something crazy, so it was basically like sitting in a sauna. And we were eating outdoors on a deck by the river. Then we walked around a while, and J and S got the full GG experience, how he looks at every item in a store and talks the shopkeeper’s ear off, even if you’re on your way somewhere (to get ice cream, in this case). However, they got to see his mural, and we went to the Jerry Garcia gallery, which we’d never been to before. And then we went to an ice cream shop (well, it’s a hot dog place but they sell ice cream) where we’d never been, and had a delicious treat – in the air conditioning!

On Sunday GG and I went out for lunch, and then went to see Inception. It was really good! I’ll put my thoughts at the end of this post so you won’t be spoiled if you haven’t seen it yet. Afterward, we went to Home Depot to get supplies to fix up a couple things around the house we’ve been meaning to take care of. And then we relaxed at home. I’m now all caught up on Work of Art, which I just started watching on OnDemand this weekend. It’s like Project Runway but with artists. I love it because it reminds me so much of college! The dumb projects, the lame explanations, and the characters: the old lady “real artist,” the guy who draws everything like comic books, the girl who uses naked pictures of herself for every assignment…

Speaking of dreams (or, I will be, in a minute), I had a dream last night that I had to stop somewhere before work, and then there was a road that would take me from there to the town I work in, so I figured I’d just follow it. So I was driving and driving along this road, and it was getting later and later, and before I knew it, the day was half over and I was still not at work and didn’t know how much longer I’d take. I ended up stopping at some office and calling in to say I was just going to take the day off, and then I had to figure out how to get home from there anyway. If I had to interpret this dream, I’d say it’s telling me that I shouldn’t just continue following a road and hope I eventually end up where I want; instead, I need to take charge of my own map and make sure I’m going where I want to go, getting there when I want to get there. Or, you know, something like that.

SPOILER ALERT: Okay, my thoughts on Inception… The theory I like most is that the whole movie was basically one giant inception of the audience. The tagline is, “Your mind is the scene of the crime” (“your” = you, the audience?); the film starts without a title or credits (do you remember how we got here?); the last scene in the airport is the same as what is about to happen as the audience leaves the theater, strangers sitting next to each other and having the same dream. However, if you’re looking for resolution to Cobb’s story, the point isn’t whether he’s still dreaming or not, or even whether the entire thing was a dream (even though I hope it wasn’t that lame – I think there were some scenes in “real life”). The point is that in the end he chooses to stay with his kids, rather than with the memory of his wife, or on the run and working his “extraction” business. Also, there are two sets of actors playing his kids (and they are listed specifically with their ages in the credits), so some people are taking that to mean that the kids at the end of the movie are older, and therefore real. But I think maybe the older set of kids are just heard, and not seen. The kids he talked to on the phone from Paris sounded older than the little kids playing that he remembered – especially the girl. So maybe that part was real, but the end scene was still a dream. Even though it sounded like it was wobbling, we never saw the top fall, so we’ll never know! As soon as the movie ended and the screen went black, someone in the theater went, “What?!”

I finished up my busy weekend by going out to Lancaster for our second (hopefully) annual Polo Party. You might remember when I went last year. A bunch of us got together to watch a polo game and tailgate. We actually had quite a large crowd there, and a good set-up with tables, a tent, a grill for burgers and hot dogs, and tons of food! Luckily, the humidity of last week went away, as did the rain and storms of the previous two days. Yes, the grass was a little brown, but we had a nice shady spot and it was a gorgeous day, and lots of fun to get together with my friends!

Some of our group (including Winnetou [Vinny], Dan’s new puppy)

Apparently there was some sort of game going on while we were there

“The Bubble Queens” had a reserved spot next to us – their set-up includes tablecloths, coordinating colorful food displays, games, a blender for making drinks, and a pool in the back of their truck

This is totally juvenile, but during the game, the horses all came running past where we were sitting, and one of them passed gas, really loudly. It was right in front of our group and everyone heard it and started laughing. Later that night, when GG and I were about to go to sleep, he started talking about it again. He said it was something he’d never forget: the Challenger blowing up, 9/11, and the horse farting.

While we were out there, Jess called to tell me she’d heard there was a big fire in our town. She didn’t realize we were an hour away. So then she kept calling me with updates from the local news. It was at a candle factory (how ironic) a few blocks from our house, about a 1/4 mile away. By the time we got home, the firefighters had things pretty much under control, but there was still lots of smoke and hoses and trucks and stuff everywhere. We walked over to check it out. The latest we heard was that it was a 13 alarm fire!

Lots of fire trucks from all over, and hoses running through the streets

As we moved further from the scene, you could see more smoke in the sky

I’d been looking for friends to join me at our town’s annual Italian Festival on its opening night, Friday, and J and B told me they’d come. It poured on Friday afternoon and I called J and suggested that if it was still raining at party time, we could just go out to dinner. But it cleared up a few hours later and by the time they came over it was just super humid. We walked over to the festival, which was only just getting started, and took a quick spin through to see what was up. I thought we’d get some Italian foods there for dinner and make it a night, but we ended up just having lemonade and some pizza fritta, did some people watching, and then walked back to my place. We decided to go out to Rock Bottom Brewery for dinner – beer for B, water and iced tea for J and I, and we split a couple appetizers. Then I went back home to relax for the rest of the night.

This morning GG and I got up early to go out and do some things before I had to leave for my evening concert. It was pouring this morning, but I figured the rain would pass and the weather would clear up in time for the concert. So we went to the farmers’ market, which sucked in the rain. I felt really bad for the vendors – there were just a couple brave people shopping, and they had to squeeze all their displays under their tents. And the baked goods were probably all soggy from the humidity. We just dropped off some empty containers to our favorite cherry farmer, talked to him for a bit, and left. Then we went to Ikea for a couple things – for example, a new small laundry basket to keep downstairs to help with the increase in towel laundry I’m expecting :o)

We were going to go to Redstone for lunch, but we got there a little before it opened, so I suggested we walk into the mall, since it was still raining. We ended up walking around, and got Chick-fil-A instead. It was here that I saw a poster for something I hadn’t heard of before. I knew Truett Cathy, founder of Chick-fil-A, is really big on Christianity and such (the whole “closed on Sundays” thing, approving of all restaurant managers, etc.). But there was this poster for the WinShape Foundation, which explained that they had camps that taught kids “character qualities” (oh no, very Gothard-y right there!), marriage retreats, wilderness programs, and foster homes for kids! Ugh, why did they need to advertise all this via a huge poster right next to our table? I really like their food, but man, they make it really hard for me to eat there and want to support them…

After lunch, we checked out the many shoe stores – seriously, this mall is like 50% shoe stores! – and I ended up getting a couple pairs of sturdier flip-flops than my regular little Old Navy ones. I was going to get some Nike ones, but although comfortable, they were a little sportier than my usual style, so I ended up going with these classic looking Tommy Hilfigers. Also, GG discovered possibly a new favorite shoe store: The Shoe Department has a special section of men’s size 14 and up! And I was happy to see they had a good selection of shoes for my big ol’ feet, too!

When we got home, I checked my e-mail and saw that even though the rain was clearing up, and there were a few hours until a decision had to be made, our concert had been canceled! GG already had plans to go out with some friends tonight, and I considered going with him, but decided instead to take advantage of my unexpected night off to take care of some things, and let him have a night out with the guys.

Oh, and then I read this depressing article.

This has been a very busy but fun weekend! It started on Friday, when JM and I went out for lunch at work to the local pizza place, followed by Rita’s water ice. I left work a tiny bit early so I could get home in time to get changed, pick up my grandmother, and go to Longwood Gardens (wasn’t I just there last week) for my band concert. It was supposed to be really hot, but it turned out to be such lovely weather! The concert was fantastic, and the crowd was really awesome.

GG and I got up early on Saturday and went to the farmers’ market, where we got some produce for the week (no cheese this time, boo), as well as a couple pies for later. Then we did a couple other errands, came home and unpacked, and went back out to catch the train. I’d heard that our local public radio (and television) station was having a “spring cleaning” sale and open house, so we thought it would be neat to check out. We actually ended up buying a few things: a couple CDs, DVDs, and books, plus a new coffee mug (“This American Life” in Chinese!) for me to keep at work. The tour they were offering was actually just of their new public areas, but it was really neat. They have a couple classrooms and editing studios for regular people to learn how to edit their own audio and video for broadcast, as well as a huge studio/classroom/lecture/event space. It was really interesting to see. Then we stopped by the Reading Terminal Market for a bite to eat, before catching the train back home.

I thought we’d be back a little sooner than we were, so we just had time to get cleaned up and changed a little, before heading north to JM’s house for an informal “deckwarming” party. They have two little girls, plus a 1-year old boy, and this baby loved GG, especially after they brought out a guitar for him to play! A few of their neighbor friends were also over with their kids, so it was nice, just sitting outside, enjoying dinner, with the kids running around playing and being very non-annoying. Later on they lit up the fire pit (I made a video, just in case it exploded, so we could send it to America’s Funniest Home Videos) and we roasted marshmallows and made s’mores. We also had the pies GG and I had bought at the farmers’ market. I had figured the party would wrap up when it was bedtime for the kids, since people got there around 4:00, but they just set the kids up inside with a movie and we sat out there talking until 10:00! So it was about 11:00 by the time GG and I got home, and after such a long and busy day, we went right to sleep!

This morning GG got up early to go to work, and I went out food shopping. Then JS and I had a little girly day out – we had a nice lunch, then went for pedicures, checked out a couple houses for sale, and got ice cream :o) It was so hot and humid again. We had a very fun afternoon, though. And tomorrow I get to babysit her child for a couple hours..!

Let’s see, where did I leave off in my life? Last Saturday was the opening day of our new local farmer’s market. I’d been looking forward to it for weeks, since I heard about it, and apparently everyone else had too, because the place was packed! We got there about 15 minutes after it started, and there was no parking, people everywhere, and some stands were already running out of whatever they were selling! Jess came with GG and I, and we met Julie there. It was so nice to hang out with both of them! We just sat and talked for a while – it was a beautiful day, and we found a shady spot to hang out. The crowds made me really uncomfortable, I hate big crowds like that. By the time we left, there was almost nobody there, and I think a lot of vendors had sold out of stuff – and there were still two more hours to go! Hopefully it’s not like that every week, because it’s much more convenient to get to than my other farmer’s market, but seriously, I can’t take those crowds. Also, everything seemed kind of overpriced. Maybe I’ll try again in a few weeks.

That night was my 10-year high school reunion. That is nuts, no way has it been ten years since I graduated! It was in a really loud, echoey private room at this trendy bar, and cost $50 per person, because they had a top-shelf open bar. There wasn’t even any food. (Well, at one point they brought out two tiny trays of appetizers that were instantly devoured – that was all the organizers had ordered because hardly anyone registered in advance, so they didn’t think many people would be there.) Besides all that, though, it was nice to see some of my old friends! There were people I wish would have been able to come, but they couldn’t or didn’t. And seriously, the majority of people there, I had no clue who they were. GG was very well behaved and we had fun, though. We left a little after midnight, and pretty much crashed when we got home.

On Sunday I got up early and got to work on the final step of fixing my wall, repainting! I was worried that my paint wouldn’t match the rest of the wall, having spent the last five years sitting in the basement, but we shook it up really well and it matches perfectly! You can’t even tell! I’m so happy with how the whole thing turned out. While I was home yesterday, GG and I moved the furniture back into place, so it feels like a real room again. I just have to drill holes so I can hang the curtain rod back up, and then I’ll be finished.

Other things I’ve done this week include booking a hotel for our one-night vacation this summer, cleaning the house for what feels like the first time in forever, watching Observe and Report with GG, getting our new band Secretary up to speed after the last one suddenly announced he’s moving away and leaving the band, and thinking about how Lost could possibly end. (Check out this video, regarding that last one – though I have to disclose that the AP guys are comedian friends of ours, and the radio show at the end is the only thing I listen to on the radio besides NPR. “Jin was Sun!”)

Last week I finished Bringing Home the Birkins which was recommended by Karen of Reasons To Be Happy That You Don’t Have Kids. It was semi-interesting, but really it just seemed like the author was bragging about his fabulous life, traveling around Europe and buying and selling handbags that cost more than my car. (I wrote a longer review on Goodreads, if you want to know more. Now I’ve just started reading Slow Death by Rubber Duck, and already I’m planning how I can get rid of everything in my house and start over from scratch with organic everything. Seriously, I’m barely a chapter in and I already know that my carpet, sofa, shampoo, cleaning products, and most other things I put on my face and body are killing me.

On Saturday I drove by myself through the wilds of New Jersey to MB and A’s house for MB’s birthday party. It was fun, very low-key (especially since GG wasn’t there – he was out with his friends seeing Norm MacDonald). I got to meet some of MB’s friends from home, and some MU students I never met because we traveled in different circles. The main event was playing games from the TV show “Minute to Win It,” which was actually pretty fun, except we did it on the back deck at dusk, and despite the citronella candles I’m still covered in bug bites! (They got the backs of my legs, even. I was wearing jeans – how does that happen?!)

Yesterday was my band concert. The week leading up to the concert is so stressful, with preparing everything to be printed, dropping off and picking stuff up, extra rehearsals, etc., and I was mostly concerned with the logistics of the concert, rather than caring how we played. We sounded fine. We had a reasonable turn-out. Thanks to some new procedures, we got a pretty accurate count of the number of attendees and our earnings. And I am super glad to never have to play that concert again! Some pieces will be nice to add to our summer repitoire (March to the Movies, For the Love of Three Oranges, Trombone Rag), but others I’ll be very happy not to see anymore (Beethoven’s Military March in D, mainly).

I’m not sure what this week has in store. It’s going to be very hot, and thanks to the rain, very humid. I really hate setting up the air conditioners before it’s even Memorial Day, and I don’t mind sweating it out at home, but I worry about the cats – they all have fur coats, and two of them also have thick layers of blubber. So GG and I might put them in on Wednesday. Other than that, no big plans.

Last night was our third (I think) “Bad Movie Night.” This time we had an animal theme to our movies, so I served all animal-named foods: cream cheese penguins, gummy bears and fish, animal crackers, pigs in a blanket, ants on a log, and buffalo dip. I was worried because GG ended up inviting a lot of people (in addition to the folks I had already invited), but luckily none of his friends showed, so we had a comfortable group of about ten people, and everyone had a place to sit and there was exactly the right amount of food. We watched Gatorface, which was awesome and perfect for making fun of, and Karate Dog, which was also a bad movie but somehow didn’t lend itself to as much joke-making as Gatorface.

Today I went out to Target and discovered that they are giving out a free reusable shopping bag with your purchase! Not sure if it’s just for today or this weekend, or all month in honor of Earth Day. Also, you get $.05 off your order for each reusable bag you bring, and the one they give you counts as one of the bags, so I got $.10 off since I had also brought my own bag. I hope that’s something they’ll continue, and isn’t just for Earth Day. (It’s a nice bag, too – cute pattern, and it’s made of recycled plastic bottles.)

Leaving soon for my imaginary nephew’s first birthday party! …Better wrap his gifts!

This past weekend was really nice. On Saturday, MB and A came out for the day. GG took A, who is a huge beer fan and makes his own beer, to Monk’s and McGillin’s, where they met up with his brother and another friend. Then they came home (via train!) and had more beer!

Meanwhile, MB and I went out to our alma mater for PSP’s induction ceremony. There was a new addition to my lineage this semester, which makes her my great-great-great-great-grandlittle! At the ceremony, I was the second oldest Brother there (the oldest was significantly older, though, he joined in the early 80s). One of the current brothers asked when I joined the fraternity, and when I told her 2001 she said, “Oh, I was in 6th grade then.” Eeek, I am old! After the ceremony, we had some time to kill, so MB and I checked out some spots on campus (the SMC, the art building, the dining hall, etc.). There’s lots of construction going on. We also drove over to our old house, which apparently has some children living in it now.

Later we met up with a bunch of the Brothers for dinner at Ruby Tuesday. (Half the fraternity was going to Ichiban, but my great-great-great-grandlittle doesn’t like Japanese food, so the other half went to Ruby Tuesday, which was fine with me.) We had a very large group, so we ended up at different tables, but actually it was really cool because my table was my whole lineage (minus one, who is away at grad school), another older Brother who I at least knew who she was, and another Brother who is a “cousin” of our lineage.

It might be about time for me to stop coming to activities like this, because I felt really awkward about being the oldest one there, and felt like I was the creepy older Brother who hangs around. (Though my grandlittle kept telling me: “You may be older, but you’re not creepy.” Aww, thanks dude.) Anyway, it was really fun and good to see everyone and see how the fraternity is doing. And it was nice to spend a bunch of one-on-one time with my MB!

Oh yeah, I got another quote on Overheard in the Office! Speaking of the office, we’re having a birthday party in ours right now, so I’m going to head over there…