burning like matchsticks in the face of the darkness

( gym )

On CNN, Jason Wright (from PoliticalDerby.com) talked about Do's and Don'ts for picking a VP and said Don't pick someone just to get their state 'cause that doesn't always work and Don't pick someone with more starpower -- said that's not so much an issue for Obama . . . he'd have to pick Hannah Montana to have someone with more starpower than him.  Heh.

On SquawkBox, a former Shell bigwig [John Hofmeister, former Shell CEO] was talking about Arctic drilling and said other countries will drill if we don't, so we need to develop infrastructure to ensure that we do it and do it in an environmentally safe way [CNBC video].  He sounded genuinely concerned about doing it in an "environmentally safe way" and protecting the "marine mammals," which was interesting to me since earlier he had said that some environmental groups want to stop Arctic drilling "for their own narrow purposes."  The guy was a very calm speaker and sounded like he always knew exactly what he was talking about (watching live video conferences on CNN, I've gotten a sense for how often people fill their speech with "uh's" and etc.), but some of his sentences I thought, "I'm really not sure what that sentence is saying at all."  At least stuff like this I can follow -- as opposed to some of the stock market etc. stuff which is just way too much jargon and concepts I'm not familiar with.

***

I was debating a second breakfast (I had a light breakfast of cereal before I left the house) but by the time I was seriously considering it Spangler had closed (they break between breakfast and lunch for an hour or so).  However, folks brought in leftover sushi from last night's jr fac party and there was indeed some vegetarian sushi.  Score.

Later in the day, Katie changed the Description section of the Work Info on her facbook to say, in part, "i work at the edge of a bottomless money pit which provides a never-ending supply of sushi and chocolate cake. that's in the summer."

There was talk of going to the Square for lunch, but then it started to look threatening and then was in fact threatening.  (Greg had cacti on his windowsill and got attacked by them thanks to the wind.)

***

Rest and Bread ("Nation")

Psalm was Psalm 9:9-20
"Sacred Text" was Langston Hughes' "I, Too, Sing America."
In the Reflection, Laura Ruth talked about working with the deaf community in Athens, Georgia.  She talked about keeping in mind both the good and the bad things about this country.

Althea lives right near Seven Hills Park and basically invited me and Becca over for dinner (though I couldn't actually stay as I had an apartment to see).  I have new friends?  (I was touched when Althea introduced me to someone as her "friend" -- I mean, I know most people don't say things like, "my casual acquaintance of a few weeks," but still.)  I had thought she lived near Central Square, but I must have been conflating her with someone else because actually she lives right by Seven Hills Park.  Becca's moving to Worcester and mentioned a MetroWest bi women's network, and Althea has rainbow magnets on her fridge and mentioned something about an ex-girlfriend.  I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that I found a queer tribe at the UCC.

***

I was telling Katie that I kind of hoped the apartment I looked at tonight (Cate's friend Melissa's) would be like, "This is awesome, you're awesome," 'cause I was tired of looking at apartments.  And I was thinking later that I don't usually fall in love with things right off the bat -- both my current apartment and my current job I accepted initially feeling like, "Well, this is good enough," and now I'm big fans of them . . . so that's good to keep in mind as a balance for my pickiness.

Anyway, Melissa was very chill about my lateness in arriving (oh bus schedules -- and it turns out the 96 takes an indirect route, so I could actually have just walked up College Ave [it took me about 20 minutes to walk home (downhill) ] but I didn't realize any of that at the time) and I remembered her from Cate's green party, and she was so relieved to not have to explain about "alternative lifestyles" ('cause hi, I already knew Cate) and it seems like it would be a good fit.  It's not perfect, but nothing is.  I want to take a day to sit on it, but I 99% think I'll take it.

( gym: Wed.-Fri. )

***

I feel like I've been on summer vacation since Wednesday.

Friday was the now traditional "Light Lunch" followed by an afternoon off.  Peter and Greg walked over to lunch with us.  I picked up a small whoopie pie for dessert, and Nicki was asking me what the filling was, like was it flavored, and I was like, "Um, it's a whoopie pie... it's just cream."  Katie reminded me that we'd had a conversation before about how whoopie pies are a New England thing.  (Greg didn't know what they were, but we're used to that 'cause he spent a good chunk of time in Israel.)

Cate joined later, and some I ended up telling her about due South fandom.  I don't think I'd really realized before that CKR was in due South and that's where everyone initially knows him from.  (Yes, apparently I think of The Canadian Actor Mafia as its own fandom.)  I've never seen due South, but I was recalling that I did sporadically watch some tv show with Mounties when I was younger, and really, how many tv shows about Mounties aired on broadcast American tv in the 1990s?  Dad, do you remember anything about this?

Speaking of fandoms I'm not in...
via monkeycrackmary: Steph in Africa (on scans_daily)

Anyway, we hung out for a couple hours and then went our separate ways.  I did a couple errands -- though not as many as I should have.  We reconvened for dinner at CPK at the Pru.  Cate was running late, but we still had our food (I got the mushroom pizza.) with enough time to eat and not feel rushed.  (We ended up getting to Park St. like right at 7:30 -- minor T delays was something of a theme with me that afternoon -- but ASP never starts on time, so we were okay.)

That morning, I bumped into Layna on my way to the T and Allie at the T, and on the Green Line to Prudential I saw Meredith.

***

ASP's 4th season wrapped up with King John, which neither Cate nor I had ever seen/read before.  (And I didn't look at the synposis, opting to just go with the flow of the play)

Turns out it was really good.  Both the play and the production.  It was very modern -- people in suits, drinking martinis, brandishing pistols, etc. -- and that made SO MUCH SENSE.  And the play itself is interesting and engaging (and okay there were a few bits I could have done without, but that's usually true of me and lots of the comedic bits Shakespeare sticks in the histories).  I told Cate afterward that it was probably my favorite of the season, definitely made me excited about giving them money for my subscription for next year.  She commented that the other productions this year had schticks, like the all-female Macbeth, the Henry V with only five actors, and she was like, "See, when you have a multi-gender cast of more than half a dozen, you can do great things."  I commented that while this one also had a "schtick" (the contemporary, shades of mafioso, setting) it was more of a theme -- we agreed that this was like Titus, which was the play we saw last season and which was also awesome.  I also said that they didn't overdo it, which she agreed, and she commented that ironically, she thought if they'd done more with the schtick in their production of Tempest this season it might well have worked a lot better for her.

( spoilers )

***

As I expected, I had mixed feelings about the apartment I looked at this morning.  It's a two-level two-bedroom condo.  The woman living there is looking for someone quiet, and part of me is like, "I'm never home, and when I am I'm mostly just playing on the internet," but part of me worries that I would be on edge, worrying.  The two bedrooms abut each other, and she mentioned that for example, "If I make a late-night phone call I go downstairs" (the upper level is the two bedrooms and a full bath, the lower level is a living room and eat-in kitchen and half-bath) and yeah, that kind of quiet consideration feels maybe excessive.

It's got a nice basement I could use to store some of my boxes (though yes I know I should purge before I move) plus washer-dryer.  She has RCN wireless internet; I would need wired Internet and would like cable tv.  The bedroom is good-sized (11x14... my current one is about 11x11) and with a good-sized closet.

There's a nice little playground across the street, including checkerboard tables with attached seats.  It's something like a 15-minute walk to Harvard Square, and I could pick up the 86 (direct to my campus) like five minutes from the house.  It's near a Market Basket, plus the FoodMaster by Inman and the Union Square Farmer's Market and it's a 5-10min. walk to the 87 to Porter (Shaw's).

She rents from the absentee landlords (they're in California, but apparently there's a local repairperson who's good... and the condo was built in the 1980s and is in good shape) and was talking about a month-to-month lease, which makes me nervous, though it also provides flexibility should I decide it wasn't working out and wanted to move (and I do trust that if she decided to move -- she's been flirting with the idea of buying a place herself, but doesn't think that'll happen any time soon -- she would give me plenty of notice).

I'm not under pressure to decide SOON, which I appreciate.

Part of me feels like I should just wait until July, when the bulk of the August 1 openings will be posted.  And part of me thinks I should actually check out July 1 openings 'cause if there's something that's a great fit then it would be worth double-paying rent for a month.

***

I went to Gusti's graduation party (at the Nave Gallery at CHPC).  The official start time was 4:30, so I left my house at 4:30.  (I live about a five-minute walk away.)  It was really nice that so many of Gusti's communities were there (people from her neighborhood, people from CHPC, people from school -- including her undergrad [she just graduated from HDS]).  I actually chatted with people I didn't already know.  *proud of me*

SarahD. was talking about Adam Sandler's new movie (the Zohan one), which apparently includes Israel-Palestine issues.  I now feel like I need to see this movie.  (She also mentioned how she walked out of Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11.  I was so pleased.)

***

I was chatting with mjules after I got home, and it's good to have someone who knows what you're talking about when you wtf at "The Devil Is Bad" by the W's (Track 8 on Disc 1 of WOW 1999 The Year's Top Christian Artists and Songs).

Track 12 is the Supertones' "Little Man," which brought me back to the Supertones concert Tim took us to back when I was in high school, which I had totally forgotten about until now.

***

I was okay in the heat today, and my apartment still feels decent.  I am very pleased by this.  (Though I expect it will get worse as the days continue to high near 90F and it only cools off to like 70F overnight.)

I walked like 5 miles today.

First apartment: $800 studio, utilities (except electric) included; coin-op laundry in basement
~20min. walk from Davis Square (down Highland).  On the 2nd floor.  You enter into the kitchen.  This whole the-kitchen-is-its-own-room is a definite step up from yesterday.  The bedroom is good-sized.  (And I actually enjoy seeing a place while it still has the previous tenant's furniture in it 'cause it helps with the visualizing of how my stuff would fit.)

Second apartment: the one people liked -- $533 for 1of3BRs, electric and utilities not included; laundromat a 5min. walk away
Walk back on Highland to Davis Square, then head onto Holland and walk ~15min.
2nd floor again.  Large living room, and what I imagine is intended as a dining room (it has the lack of doorway that my parents' place has).  The "dining room" is basically wholly empty.  Good-sized kitchen -- lacking any table or chairs.  Apparently a folding table is in storage.  It's a 3BR and the one person who is staying is very much an open-space person, and grew up eating in front of the TV.  She's big on change, though, and seems amenable to compromise -- certainly says bringing the folding table back in to the kitchen wouldn't be a problem.
I said I was gonna sleep on it, but I think I'm gonna take this place.

On my way back, I got out at Harvard.  The spray paint artist is back.  I also bumped into Susan N. and we caught up for a bit.  I got a strawberry-banana smoothie from OlderSmoothieGuy and it was zyum.

I stopped at the library on the way home to pick up books for my mom.  Told Terry about my drunken hit-ons.  'Twas amusing.

Picked up Rieslings for tomorrow's Easter dinner.  They were having a free wine-tasting, so I got a sample of a Pinot Gris and a Pinot Noir.

My mom and I were gonna go to Easter Vigil tonight, but today neither of us were feeling all that into going, so we're staying home.

Fought with PowerPoint today.  That was probably the big accomplishment.

During my down time I had difficulty focusing, so I didn't really make any dent in my To Read (and respond to) List.  Did do some more entry-tagging.  Love the tag rename function so much.  It means I can put descriptive tags on and then later figure out how to systematize them.

P.S. I had the best white board evar.

My major non-work accomplishment was remembering to check housingmaps.com
I'm excited about this.

P.S. Reminder: Adam Baldwin (Jayne from Firefly, Hamilton from Angel) is on Bones (i.e. that show Angel David Boreanaz is on) tomorrow [Wednesday] night (9pm Eastern, on FOX).

I left my house this morning and started walking to the train and a white-haired woman walking in the opposite direction stopped and asked me, "You through college already?"  I didn't recognize her at all, but with Food Pantry and everything else I don't really question stuff like that in my small town.  I said yes and she asked me where I was working and I told her and she asked me if I was planning on going there and I said no and she said it was a good place for a young woman like me to be working and that she wouldn't make me miss my train, so that was the end of that.

A few seats ahead of me on the train were a bunch of grownup people who were really annoying me.  The guy was talking about how he's so incapable of saying no, but if you have headphones on the homeless people don't ask you because they figure you can't hear them anyway.  One of the women said, "They're just gonna buy liquor with it anyway," and I so wanted to get up and fight her/them [verbally, natch], but I just couldn't bring myself to be that confrontational with a group of people in a crowded public space at eight in the morning.

I already posted about the morning cellist, but one thing I want to mention, which is in some ways connected to the previous anecdote, is the fact that you need an MBTA permit to perform.  I can sort of understand it (and I imagine you have to pay money -- I vaguely remember reading about this a while back -- which makes it suddenly make more sense why so many people have albums for sale . . . though that's also just a legitimate way to capitalize on your audience) but I really like the idea of sort of free market street performance (and yes, they're on MBTA property so asking for permits is legit -- and Harvard's spray paint artist had a permit displayed as well, though I think that was from the city -- but it's the principle).  And yeah, I'm really not articulate, but discuss.

Amanda's back, though still coughing and stuff.  (And a bunch of other office people have the beginnings of possible illnesses.)

Do you know how expensive it is to fly business class Boston to Kuwait roundtrip?  I learned today.  I also learned that British Air has quality hold music.  Their webpage tells you "Please wait a moment whilst your chosen itinerary is being quoted" on its processing page, which I enjoyed muchly.

I went to see the Kendall/MIT area apartment tonight after work.  I got disoriented coming out of the Kendall T station as I often do, and then I misremembered the map and went too far, and then I overcompensated coming back (so that makes twice I didn't/couldn't see a street sign for the street I needed).  So it took me about 35 minutes to get there.  I'd forgotten that the Kendall area is predominantly former industrial.  It's not sketchy, just not how I'd imagined my neighborhood.  The part where the apartment I looked at looks nice and quaint, though.  Quiet, too.  The apartment's kinda weird.  You come in to a living room area, which has two closets, and off of that are bathroom, kitchen (gas stove!), and bedroom (no closets).  The walls are all that sort of dark cream or whatever that Baker's is and which I'm not a huge fan of.  Nothing articulably bad about the place (though damn, coin-op washers and dryers?  I got spoiled like whoa when Smith implemented OneCards) but I don't think I'll be taking it.  Good to to generate experience, though.

So I knew better what I was doing coming back and it took me 15 minutes to get to where the T station should have been.  I figure I'll just keep going and pick up the train at Charles/MGH.  The walk over the water is nice, though I had forgotten how long it takes -- 10 minutes and I'm at the T station.  I knew early on I was on the other side of the bridge from the last time, and when I got to the end I couldn't figure out how to get up onto the station, so I figured I'd just keep walking.  When I did this last time I was following a woman who knew what she was doing, so this time I was thinking, "I feel like I should turn right to get to Park St. -- but these are dark one way streets, and what if I get more lost?"  So I just kept walking.  Eventually I hit Government Center.  At this point I admitted defeat.  However, they have been having wire problems, so they were running a one-track operation and doing lots of shuttles and there were probably 30 people waiting for the Green Line to Park St.  After 10 minutes I admitted defeat in this arena and was fairly certain I had effectively missed my train (7:15, 7:25 train) and figured at least heading to Park St. would be doing something.  People had been leaving in clumps, so when I left I followed a woman and soon saw the Beantown Pub light sign and thought, "Government Center is really this close to Park St.?  I suck."  So I go in to Park St. -- and push past a woman who is standing pratically in a turnstile rifling through her purse -- and when I get to the Red Line pull out my schedule just to check.  7:35 train.  I make it after all.  [After ~50 minutes of walking.]  (Which is good, as I didn't have anywhere near enough reading material on me to last until the 8:50 train.  Plus LJ always keeps me up until near midnight as it is and I'm adjusting to ~6 hours of sleep but less would be pushing it.)

Looking at the cheap studio this afternoon I began deciding against it as I can't find a regular T station nearby.  (Bus lines are fine, but I'd like regular T stations for people coming to visit me -- among other reasons.)

burnalive informed me about the fabulous http://www.housingmaps.com (the yellow icons have pictures -- took me far too long to figure that out) and I have found some Allston studios, which sound good both price and locationwise, so we shall see.
- $850 studio apartment w/ heat & hot water
- $800 1br studio all utilities included
- $875 oversized studio apt.

Now, um, bed?  Hope to continue the Ari discussion tomorrow.

So, gishmi1ish thinks I should post more about the minutiae of my life.  *waits for the convulsions of laughter to cease*  *wonders if she will need to coax people back with chocolate*

So, I've already posted about the cold weather, which was the highlight of the day.

I spent most of the day's commute napping and people-watching.  I got into the Red Line this morning and the woman in front of me was reading Brokeback Mountain -- the paperback that came out recently -- and someone farther down in the car was reading A Tale of Two Cities (Oxford Classics edition, I think).  Other passenger reads were Tom Robbins' Even Cowgirls Get the Blues and Mona in the Promised Land.  My commuter rail made an extra stop to pick up passengers 'cause another train was broken or something, and then my Red Line was going out of service at Park Street and I got on the second Red Line that came after that 'cause the first one was too crowded.  And somehow this ended up with me arriving at work a couple minutes after 9; I'm usually at least 10 minutes early.  In contrast, I had a bunch of last-minute things at work plus a slow computer so I left work at 5:04 by the computer clock and hustled but not hardcore and got to the T at 5:15 as per usualish and got to South Station ~5:30, which is early.  The Red Line on the way home had a thrift store bedecked woman across from me, sitting next to a woman reading a Gideon Bible, and a woman next to me reading Plays in One Act.

Not much to report in the day itself.  Tired.  I honestly didn't have all that much to do, but just felt kinda fuzz-headed.  Amanda's still out (and Prof.B. left early feeling ill).  Eric was out, too, 'cause his great-grandmother was rushed to the hospital last night :(

Jill is so cute.  She was explaining something to me and asked if I knew [the main professor I supported when I first started at HSB], and I opened my mouth to explain and then she said, "Oh of course you know [that prof]; what was I thinking?"

I made the upgrade list for this month.  Sometime next week.  Rock on.  I complained about the slowness of my computer back in I think December and the TechGuy said I wasn't on the upgrade list, but then earlier this week he was syncing the Palm Desktop and suffering through the slowness he said, "I'll see if I can get you on the list" and lo I am.  (The computer isn't always that slow -- for which I am grateful -- but I was glad it was slow while he was working on it since apparently that's what it took to get me on The List.)

I did manage to get some apartment hunting done.

- Dear self: Call about this one bedroom tomorrow.  [Note to self for mapping: Kendall/MIT T-station is near Broadway&Main.]
- Oh and this studio.
- Also e-mail about this bedroom in a 2BR [condo unit].  "Lease term negotiable" makes me nervous, but I think I'm just spoiled by my parents' (AFAIK) indefinite rental agreements.
- Thoughts on this one bedroom "in a nice 3 bed / 2 bath townhouse near Porter Square"?  The first paragraph gives me a bad feeling about them, but I think that's just a failure of tone to communicate through print, and I feel less put-off in rereading.  And yes it has occurred to me how bizarre it would be were they HBS students.
- And a general query: What does one say when one contacts a person who has listed an apartment one is interested in?  *feels inexperienced and woeful*

(Oh and because it came up and got me curious, my brother's 4BR in Troy, NY just blocks from RPI is $1200/mo.)

---

Meme via ranaeressea:

Look at my icons. Pick which ones you would like to see written into drabbles. There is a limit of five that you can choose. Likewise, in five days the drabbles must be completed and posted from the date they are requested. Any icon may be chosen, even if it is just a picture or only comprised of text. An icon can only be made into a drabble once. Should an icon be chosen twice or more, be sure to provide a link of the finished drabble to everyone who requested it.

I keep thinking it must be later than it actually is.

I went out today wearing my new coat.  I'd forgotten just how far down to my ankles it falls.  I'm stopping traffic, cinemagraphic, with my long black coat hanging down in the dirt, and my hair clinging to my face in the rain, like a goddess from the cult of beautiful pain, I don't wanna be another mystery.  I also felt kinda like I was wearing a leather trench coat, only without the ickiness of actually wearing leather.

Speaking of: Nathan Fillion. in a leather skirt kilt

And speaking of Firefly pretty: banners for each crew member

It makes me sad that there's no way to find out the identity of people who sign a Graffiti Wall -- though certainly it's interesting guessing based on content etc.

My brother's looking to live off-campus next year, so he was craigslisting on my computer ('cause it's faster than the family computer).  So of course I had to pull up Boston for myself, even though I really shouldn't seriously think about this until I have actual signed paperwork from HBS.

* $1050 studio incl. heat & hot water @ Beacon Hill
* $690 + utilities for 1 (of 3) bedrooms in a Davis Square apt. (w/ washer/dryer in apt.)

dorrie6 has started forksuit, for discussion of religion as myth etc.  It doesn't quite feel like something I wanna be a part of, but I thought it might be of interest to some of you folk. And I'll probably be checking in on it from time to time.

Okay, CSI: Miami and then bed.  (I actually have to go back to work tomorrow.  What's up with that?)