burning like matchsticks in the face of the darkness

( gym )

sexonastick, I saw a bit about Abby Wambach on ESPN's Sports Center this morning and thought of you.

CNN's This American Morning had Larry Elder (conservative) and Mike Papantonio (liberal) talking about Obama and McCain, and Elder talked about how Obama is a media darling, and Papantonio said that Obama has charisma, and I facepalmed.  I mean, do you remember wooden Al Gore in 2000?  I don't think you want to say that whoever has the best cult of personality should get to be Leader of the Free World.  He also said that McCain is just repeating the same Bush stuff that people tired of and that the media want someone with new ideas, but while he kept repeating that he also kept repeating the charisma thing.
      Elder also gave some stat about Obama getting 114 minutes of media coverage (in a given week maybe?) and McCain getting less than half of that and I thought, "But if it's all about the Rev. Jeremiah Wright furor, for example, does Obama really gain from that coverage?  I'm not sure that the Hollywood 'any publicity is good publicity' applies here."
    I was also really thrown when after like two minutes of this heated argument, Kiran was like, "Well it was great to have you with us."

***

MaryAlice had lunch in the Square today and when she came back she was all red and sweaty.  She said walking to the Square today was a bad idea.  I said that was, unfortunately, my afternoon plan (Prof.D. wanted a bunch of articles by Monday, and I couldn't find full text of some of them online).  She said to walk SLOWLY, that she knows I'm young and fit, but the air was like breathing through a sponge.  Now, we know that hot&humid makes me just wither, but while I was always pleased to enter the air-conditioning I was really fine.

    I went to Gutman, Widener (Pusey 3! -- also, sidebar, I saw E.Sherlock working there), and Countway (hi, mom -- and the M2 terminates at Sami's!).
    Countway has copiers with scanning capability so, like with our copiers, you can have your photocopies sent to your email address as a multipage PDF attachment (for free! win).  I chatted with the circ guy, who might well be gay (hi, he had two small hoop earrings in his left ear), and who is doing the Simmons library science program (he has "mixed feelings" about it and commented that it's hard to make the adjustment that this is not an academic program but a professional one).  Apparently academic libraries don't want you to reshelve books not just because most people are incompetent but also for tracking purposes, which I hadn't thought of but which makes sense when so much of your collection is noncirculating.
    On the way back I hopped off at Putnam 'cause it's where Nicole lives, so I figured it would be more efficient to just cut over to JFK from there rather than doubling back.  Except I took Putnam rather than Mt. Auburn.  After a few blocks I knew I must have done something wrong, but I wasn't gonna turn onto some street I didn't know, and I figured eventually I'd hit something I recognized.  Well, I hit Western, and I knew I didn't wanna deal with that, so I just turned around (I'd only been walking ~5min) 'cause I was not gonna just keep walking to Central (I recognize the jazz silhouettes on the white house from when MaryAlice drove me to and from Carberry's, so I knew I was headed to Central even before I saw the sign for Western).  I underestimated how far one has to walk on Mt. Auburn from Nicole's place to get to JFK, so possibly I wouldn't have saved myself any time anyway, but hey, getting a better sense of where things are in relation to each other . . . plus bonus scenic walk.
    Once I crossed the bridge, it was quite breezy and almost pleasant.

Oh, and speaking of navigating the environs of Harvard . . . within the past week or so, HBS put a campus map (complete with You Are Here) at the rotary at the parking lot finally.  Bravo.

I got back to the office at like ten past five (having left at like 2pm) and stayed for about twenty minutes, wrapping some stuff up but mostly just puttering and enjoying the AC before venturing out again.

I wanted a fruit smoothie and was trying to think of where I could get one.  I've been getting one of the $3.05 ones from Spangler like every other day recently, but summer hours they're closed at 4pm.  I haven't seen the fruit smoothie vendors in ages, and I only saw the spray paint guy like once this spring -- what up?  I remembered that Boloco has fruit smoothies (though I've only gotten their Nutella one).  Though once I was there in the AC I ended up getting a peanut butter based one ("Jimmy Carter," huh?).  I was hungry, so I also ordered a "Summer" burrito, which I ended up only eating half of.  There were onions, which I was not warned about, but I think the cilantro or something also made it too flavorful for me.  And as a sidenote I was underwhelmed by the rice.
    I also used a futuristic ATM (no envelope necessary for deposits) next door.

When I helped with the promotional mailing for the "Secret Knowledge of Water" [hey look, it does have a webpage of its own . . . way to fail at linking that from the gallery webpage] opening, Katherine had, um, strongly suggested that I attend -- I think she was worried no one would show up (and Karl curated it).  It was from 6-8 and I got there around 6:45.  There were plenty of people there, and I thought, "On a night like this, I'm not sure more warm bodies is really something you want," but I used the restroom, checked out the exhibit, and hung out 'cause there was food and drink.  Katherine was putting food on a table and I came up behind her and put my plastic cup full of ice water against the back of her neck.  She may have shrieked like a little girl.  I was like, "Hi O:-) "
    Later she was talking to a woman who was talking about a workshop she'd been in all week about interpretive Torah telling and I perked up.  She turned out to be one of the artists, but she had done one of the pieces I actually liked.  (I didn't actively dislike much if any of the artwork, but a lot of it I just wasn't impressed by, but I quite liked her piece in and of itself.)  I was pleased to hear it was part of a series about the Exodus story.
      The artist (Jane) asked if I was a member of this church, and I said that I was here because I went to this church but I'm actually affiliated with four churches and a member of none.  Liz facetiously said, "But we're you're favorite, right?" and I said, "No you're not."  I worried that it came out sounding harsher than I intended, but she totally loved it.  She felt bad that "I've known you for how long?" and she didn't know this about me (that I'm affiliated with a whole bunch of churches).  She was fascinated by this and asked if I had always been interested in faith.  I said not really, that my church growing up was nondenominational and had a pastor whose sermons put me to sleep so I rarely actually went to service, helping take care of the little kids instead, and my first year of college I didn't go to church but my sophomore year I felt like I should and I just picked a convenient one that said "Open and Affirming" on its front sign.  I talked about how words like "book" will totally win me and so I went to a book study that church was doing jointly with a church around the corner and I sometimes went to services at the college chapel when they sounded interesting and my senior year I attended RCFOS because I no longer had a conflicting commitment.  I've never actually told the story of the development of my churchgoing -- usually I just talk about church shopping when I moved to Somerville -- so I felt like I was discovering the story as I told it; I've gotten so used to being All Church All The Time, it feels so "me," that I forget that it's a really recent development.  She summed it up saying I'm very "curious," which makes sense to me.

There was an audio-visual program at 8pm in the sanctuary, also connected with the gallery opening, which I sat in on a few minutes of, but I wasn't blown away by it and was tired so I headed out around 8:15.

I walked by a house just two down from mine, and a couple was out front watering their garden, and I stopped to tell them that their garden looked lovely.  We got talking and the guy asked me where I lived and I told him (explaining that I was moving in just a couple weeks) and he asked how long I'd lived here and somewhat sheepishly I said two years.
    I'm so bad at being neighborly.  My DAD knew our neighbors, in both houses we lived in.  And my dad is probably the least socially-oriented person I have ever met.  Though I suppose having kids helps.
      Anyway, their names are Al and Deb, and they barbecue (she grills veggies, too -- I chose not to mention what a picky eater I am) and we were all sorry that we were only meeting just now but I will definitely be leaving my contact info and look forward to getting together after I move if not before.
    Edit: I forgot to mention that they've lived here about 12 years and the woman, who grew up Presbyterian, has been meaning to go to CHPC either for church or to check out the gallery like since she moved here. The guy grew up Catholic and said he had gone to a Presbyterian service with her once and loved the open table etc. stuff -- said when he was Catholic he was like, "Did I do confession last night? Did I eat within the last three hours?" I said a friend of mine had an interest in Orthodoxy and I came to appreciate the idea behind that -- that Communion is a special way that we connect with God and wanting to honor that, but that it's so easy for the intentionality (okay, I didn't actually use that word) to get lost and for it to become this thoughtless rulebound thing. /edit

I got home about 8:40.

***

I finished my reread of The Egypt Game and it held up really well.  Though I am very wary about The Gypsy Game.
    ( The Egypt Game: hardly even spoilers, but why not )

P.S. From phineasjones: coconut milk ice cream!  Doesn't that sound so deliciously decadent?  Plus, it has no dairy or soy.

Sarah Green's sports column in Thursday's metro opened: "This is more like it.  Recriminations, second-guessing, anguish --- this is what October baseball in Boston is supposed to feel like." ("Things are back to normal in Hub," p. 23)

+

Friday morning gym, elliptical: interval program ( times )

+

I did FreeRice.com more thoughtfully on Friday and progressed much better than I did on Thursday.  (I am also starting to learn some new words just because the site times out and they reuse words sometimes.)  At Level 47 I mostly had no clue (ditto 46).  I did get amaurosis [46] = blindness, because I thought of amanuensis1, which reminded me of the term "amanuensis" from my Milton class.

I correctly guessed that sprat = small herring, so the "Jack Sprat could eat no fat . . ." nursery rhyme now particularly amuses me.

I also correctly guessed littleneck [40] = quahog, because thanks to Family Guy I knew what a "quahog" was (have never heard the term "littleneck").

Heh, "cacography" = "bad handwriting" (like "cacophony" + "calligraphy").

+

I finally actually started looking at Simmons' library science program.  I know Jessie hated it, but I get the impression that nobody really likes their Library Science program, everyone just suffers through it to get the degree.  And Amy loves the kidlit portion of her dual-degree program, so that's a thought as well.

I don't feel excited looking at any of the classes, so then I ask myself, "Well what would I want to have a library science degree in order to do?" and I don't have much of an answer for that question.

+

My mom asked if I was coming to Singspiration, and when I said yes, she said: "We'll slaughter the fatted shells&cheese" ♥

It having been six weeks since the last one, I had to re-adjust.  Hymnals under the pews, sitting for the songs, none of the hymns have been PC-ified.  I actually enjoyed most of the songs, though -- which I don't always. 

( hymn list )

I was showing off my autographed copy of Da Book (complete with sticky note on the spot in the Acknowledgments where my name is), and I showed Joe F., knowing he would be pleased.  He said, "Nothing you could do would surprise me -- the sky's the limit."  I pointed out that that was poor phrasing -- "even if I became a godless communist?"  He just laughed.

Oh, and in showing Mike F. (who was the first person I showed that night), I realized there are whole paragraphs I haven't read -- the Advance Praise bits :)

I gave Mike F. a back/shoulder massage, and he did like the human equivalent of a dog wagging its tail.  I gave Joe F. a shoulder massage, and he was mostly non-responsive, but at one point he did say it felt good, to which I responded, "That's the point."

I was talking with George K., and he was saying how I used to be really shy but I've come into my own.

My mom and I were chatting with Joe F. later, and he mentioned -- which he had told me in a letter about a year ago -- how he was willing to become a JP to perform a civil union between two women.  He said that if two people want to commit their lives to each other, regardless of their gender . . . he just doesn't want the word "marriage" used.  I said that I would be happy to let churches keep the word "marriage" and have the legal term for all couples be "civil unions."  I forgot about the "separate but equal" analogy until I was writing this up just now, and I still don't entirely know how to parse his position on this issue (we've really only discussed the "let the people vote" aspect, and I make assumptions because I know he's longtime close friends with PB -- "I didn't jump. I took a tiny step and there conclusions were."), but I keep mentally replaying that phrase "regardless of gender."  And I really love that the couple in question is the couple who left UCN.

+

Last minute, Allie invited me to have lunch with her on Saturday 'cause she was gonna be in town looking at apartments, so I ended up at the Boston Vegetarian Food Festival basically only long enough to say hi to Heather.

We had lunch at Arrow Street Crepes with Kath.  I got a sweet crepe with bananas and stuff (Metro).  Tasty.

Her next apartment viewing was right near Central Square T, so we walked there (and I recalled various times with Nicole) and then Kath and I walked around while Allie and her mom looked at the apartment.  I've mostly only walked along Mass Ave., so it was neat to walk around some residential areas and parks and stuff.  And despite not really sharing fandoms we talked fandom easily.

Afterward, we went to Million Year Picnic and stuff and then had dinner at wagamama -- where Allie's mom was generous enough to treat all of us.  I was unimpressed with the vegetarian options (though pleased to see that they sell Riesling by the glass -- which I didn't order but which I always check for).

+

In Friday's metro I read a review of The Veiled Monologues, so Saturday night I went to see it.

The women interviewed were Dutch Muslims -- and all four actresses are Dutch, and at least two have Turkish ties.  They're all fair-skinned (three dark-haired and one blonde), but they all have meat on their bones.  Dance and song/music happened throughout.

It was really interesting hearing some stories of very positive sexual/nudity experiences as well as incredibly negative ones (one woman described her experience of her vagina as like that kind of torture where you're tied to the ground and a goat licks the salt off your skin until it cracks).  And the positive and negative contrasts between Muslim men/culture and Dutch men/culture.  I was also impressed at the amount of queerness.  Some women were raped by family members or family friends, and no one talked about it or protected them; others had their first sex with family members and were glad to have that first experience be one of safety and love.  Some women talked about wanting to be raped because then they would be freed of this burden of virginity but their honor would still be safe.  I really liked that there were so many stories of opposite experiences, because it meant you couldn't easily leave with a monolithic idea of what Muslim culture means for women's sexuality.  Female "circumcision" even got discussed.

A Moroccan woman used the word "cunt" [pronounced "koont"] -- said vagina sounded French, the language of where she was born.

+

This morning, OriginalRoomie said that when she moves out I can have her room if I want.  I'd actually been thinking about this, and wondering whether it felt worth moving all my stuff.  She said "walk-in closet," and if her closet really is better than mine I think I'm sold.

This means she'd be showing what's currently my room, which is added incentive for me to make it actually look presentable (though she's not moving out for like six months).  I'm already starting to feel the pressure, though, 'cause I find myself looking for things and forgetting where I've stored them.  I swear I still have my bartending book plus my massage class books/notebooks, and I can't find them anywhere.  I tore through 14 boxes and then realized I'd forgotten about the 9 boxes under my bed.  I still didn't find them, which means I'm gonna have to dig through the boxes more carefully, since they can't have vanished.  Though I will probably just beg Palmer for another copy of the Massage 1 booklet.  I have learned not to trust people's enthusiasm for being practiced on (I didn't get credit for Massage 1 'cause I didn't have the 30 credit hours -- I probably could have begged some sort of extension, but by that time I'd gotten an office job and didn't think I'd have the time/energy to continue the program, so I didn't bother) but I think I could probably actually make it happen a few times given the responses I've been getting recently, and I'd like to be able to do it for real rather than just the bits I remember.

Having numerous people actually be enthusiastic about being practiced on, I've been wondering whether I'd want to take classes at Palmer again.  I'm really not sure I'm committed enough.  Plus the scheduling is bothersome.  ( information for my own reference )

It's disturbing how much I'm catching in this my fourth read of the book (and the second/final page proofs round).

***

Katie was looking at extension school classes for the fall and I hadn't realized the 2007-2008 catalog was up yet.

Dude, last year I passed up RELI E-1325 Jesus of Nazareth and the Gospels to suffer through James Joyce and RELI E-1029  A Thematic Introduction to the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) for History of the Medieval Church and this coming year neither of the ones I passed up are being offered.  Nof air. /Karen Brewster?Claire Pike

In looking through, I think I actually wanna take Introduction to the Classics of Western Thought I & II (Fall&Spring) -- for credit.

ENGL E-165 Criminal Love and the American Novel (12888) reminds me that I still need to read Djuna Barnes' Nightwood.

***

I got a "chicken" sub from T. J. Scallywaggle's [the other vegan place on the corner by D.E.A.F. Inc.].  Meh.  I've really gotta come up with a better plan for dinner Monday/Wednesday nights.

I've also been hungry with great frequency today (though not excessively hungry at any given mealtime or anything) which is mildly disturbing -- plus kinda frustrating, especially since I don't often know what I actually want to eat.

***

The first ASL class we had a sub (Kirk's boss, apparently) but tonight we had our regular teacher, about whom Kirk had told us (in part): He's a great fellow and "family" to boot!  When I saw him, my immediate thought was, "Kirk, you didn't tell us he was hot, too!"  Not like distractingly so, but yeah.

About midway through class he taught us stuff like "again" and "forget" and "I don't know," which I think we should have learned at the very beginning.  Especially given that this isn't like high school Spanish where you can ask the teacher stuff in English.

Also: We took this "Deaf Awareness Quiz," and at the end it says that the answers will come up throughout the workbook, which, okay, but I feel like it's mostly stuff that would be nice to know from the get-go (like the polite way to get a Deaf person's attention if they're facing away from you).  I also continue to be weirded out by the concept of Deaf as a distinct culture rather than just a disability.

Sidenote: Not only is this stuff harder to practice since it doesn't lend itself to flash cards or anything, but even just taking notes on what the sign is for a given word/concept/whatever is hard.  Also, I was reminded (cf. beginning Spanish) that I don't do well with rote memorization and want to have a logic I can root the word in to help me remember it.

We learned boy/girl, (grand)mother/(grand)father, baby, child, man/woman and wow, incredibly gendered.  "Boy" is basically miming a baseball cap, and "girl" is basically miming lipstick.  (These actually seemed really familiar to me, not entirely sure why.)  I was tempted to ask the sign for "trans."  Highly gendered signifiers totally make sense (and the other words aren't as obviously stereotyped, though interestingly the upper half of the face is where you make signs indicating male persons and the lower half of the face female persons -- which immediately made me think of stereotypes of males as cerebral and intelligent and females as verbal and emotional and physical) but I of course wonder what progressive Deaf people (you know, the ones who would be concerned about gender-neutral/inclusive language in written texts) do with this and what kind of niche signage has developed.

Will and I chatted with Abigail (she of the cool surname and Smithie-appearance) waiting for the bus (and then on the bus).  She's a rising junior at Cambridge Rindge and Latin who has to fulfill a two-year language requirement but is dyslexic, so she successfully petitioned to have ASL count and is taking it at Northeastern (which program the CWM interpreters come from, Will says) starting in the fall and is intimidated and thus taking this as prep.  On the Red Line back we chatted some about Pride, and I followed her out at Porter (where she lives) to finish our conversation.

***

Since I was walking back anyway, I figured I'd check out Ian's new digs -- except that I forgot Cottage is parallel to Orchard rather than off of it, so turning onto Orchard off Beech and following it to Davis didn't really help me.  I did see where Hope Fellowship (the place which was giving out granola bars at the T some time ago) is, though.  (Sidenote: Waiting for the bus, a guy handed Will a copy of the Watchtower, and I was thinking later that despite living around the corner from a Kingdom Hall, in the year I've lived her I've had no JW solicitations.)  And wow, just moving one block parallel to Elm you're in this really lovely quiet residential area.

When I hit the end of Orchard I decided to take Mass Ave. all the way back (CAUMC!Michelle drove by me at one point, hee) which was mostly fine, except that Alewife Brook Parkway abruptly ceases to have a sidewalk.  Yeah, there were a few moments when I was uncomfortably aware that if I slipped on this hillside and fell into the road I would be toast.
::looks at map:: Note to self: If you do this again, take Woodstock off Alewife Brook Pkwy to Waterhouse to Broadway.

***

I was checking LJ pages hunting for some info for a friend and saw:

Updates/Enhancements:
[...]
* Going forward, you can view up to 1000 entries per tag (rather than 100). If an entry is no longer displaying on the tag view, you'll need to re-tag it so that it displays, but any future entries you tag will automatically be included in the tag view.

I don't understand this need for re-tagging or even how exactly it works, but seriously, ABOUT TIME.

I went to bed shortly after posting last night.  Bliss.  (Oh, and I was this close to opening a window when I went to bed.  Ridonculous.  // 67F at 3:45pm today!  I love spring as much as the next person, but it's January; I would like some winter before my spring.)

I hung out with Jonah for like six hours today.  We had lunch at the Blue Shirt Café.  It says "Gourmet wraps and juice bar," but it's really not excessively pricey.  I got a California Dreamin' sandwich and wasn't thrilled with whatever flavorings they had used in grilling the tofu, though it wasn't bad; I quite liked the (Red, White, Blue) smoothie I got.

Because it was crazy pleasant weather we went for a walk afterward -- just started down Elm Street and kept going.  We ended up in Union Square, walked to Harvard, and then took Mass Ave. back (turning on to Dover St. at Cafe Barada).

On the way back to my apartment we were talking about Ani lyrics (specifically as applicable to relationships in our lives) and I mentioned some Dar ones also, so I ended up playing him selections from her Mortal City album -- "As Cool As I Am," "The Pointless, Yet Poignant, Crisis of a Co-Ed," "Southern California Wants To Be Western New York."

He saw my computer desktop [second image], so then I showed him the most recent page or so of caladan_dd.  I must have been filtering her off my friendspage due to busyness, 'cause a bunch of the images were new to me; must go back and leave feedback.

We also talked about tv and he said he was recommending Six Feet Under to someone, talking about raw the characters are, and this person mentioned Sorkin, and I was really weirded out by this.  I think of the West Wing characters as "real," but "raw" wouldn't be a word that comes to mind -- not just because the show is about so much besides the characters' personal lives, but also because so many of them are rather tight-lipped when it comes to emotions, though in thinking of "raw" moments, some Josh and Leo moments came to mind ("Bartlet for America," "Noel," "The Short List"), the more powerful for their characters' reticence in speaking about emotional matters.  (Abbey and Jed also came to mind for "raw," particularly their fights.  Thinking about other possibilities gets me wondering about how one defines the difference between "raw" versus "real.")  [We're up to 3.11 at work, so no spoilers beyond that in comments, please.]

+

Tomorrow's Sunday, so I've gotta decide where I'm going to church (assuming I haul myself out of bed).  I think I should do a month or something in one place, am thinking Clarendon Hill and then the UCC.

This leads to thoughts of other planning issues:

* muskratjamboree: "A casual, multi-fandom, slash-oriented fan gathering. March 30th and 31st, 2007 [...] the Holiday Inn Boston/Somerville, located near Sullivan Square"
Nevermind; it's reached its 100 attendee cap, so that solves my dilemma.

* Boston Wine Expo: Feb. 10-11
I definitely want to go to this but would love company.

* remixredux
I want to do this but also worry about having the creative energy for it.

* Edit: Girls Program (a week from Monday)
Note to self: prep for this
[I'm leading a creative writing workshop for pre-teen girls.  If anyone has any suggestions, please share.]

I jotted down lots of stuff at work on Friday, but it mostly feels like space-filler.

I did mean, however, to post antheia's solid point about the... whatever we're calling the England plane thing from Friday:

"Based on the fact that a complex terrorist plot, involving an ingenious scheme and a large number of players, was discovered and prevented before any of them had a chance to begin implementation, I feel safer than ever. It means that someone is doing their job. That we are a target for these plots doesn't make us unsafe."

It also began being unseasonably cool (temperaturewise).  I was pleased.  [Overnight lows of low 50s!]

Eric brought Roseanne to watch during lunch.  He said he was gonna bring Medium (which he loves) but it's boring.  I suggested Firefly and he said he'd considered bringing that in, but we can't watch the same thing 2 days in a row.  (So I hold out hope for this coming week.)  Anyway, I was entertained despite myself.  We watched 3 episodes (3.15-3.17 -- "Becky Doesn't Live Here Anymore," "Home-Ec," "Valentine's Day").

Becky: "You're as bad as mom!"
Dan: "Hang on a minute.  [to Roseanne]  If I tell you I'm offended by that, would you be upset?"

*

Friday night I had dinner with my darling Jonah at Trident.  He got challa bread French toast, with strawberries, and I ordered a watermelon mimosa (it comes in a champagne flute!) -- well and real food, too, but the mimosa was the exciting part (though more in theory than in actuality).

We were gonna have further yumminess at Tapeo per Layna's sister's recommendation, but we were both feeling in the mood for ice cream, so we went to J. P. Licks.  We're gonna get together again on Tuesday, though, and go to Tapeo then.

Amusingly, we both ended up both getting coconut almond chip at J. P. Licks (he decided against pomegranate sorbet, I decided against S'World Peace).  We looked at the Newbury Street cows (and I also showed him the one above the Lenox at Exeter Street, which I had seen on my way in) and then walked through the Public Garden and the Common and back to South Station and he made his 10:35 easily.  Oh, and we saw a possum on the security grating outside Staples at Downtown Crossing.  Awesome.

He remembered that my apartment-warming was gonna be this Saturday (Aug. 12).  I was impressed 'cause I had partway forgotten.  (He was away for the discussion about moving it to September.  Which reminds that I really need to pick a Saturday for that.)

Saturday I did dishes, laundry, and grocery shopping.  And I met Downstairs Neighbor #2. Oh, and Cat called that night. How did I forget to mention that?

Sunday I went to see a Russian film (I wasn't a fan) at the MFA and then met up with Hilary for lunch.  We were gonna browse the MFA afterward. but we spent so much time talking that we decided to forego that (esp. since she would have had to pay to get into the museum).  When Cat and Kate attempted to get from Ruggles to the MFA on their own they got lost (as it is easy to do; I can attest from experience) and wandered to the Prudential, so I've been meaning to figure out exactly how to do that (as part of my broader desire to just learn the city better) so we just started walking in that direction and I learned that my mother was right that there really are places to eat in the area, and I was reminded of just how close everything is to each other, and the Pru is so sprawling that I would want to have a map in hand to try to get back to Symphony/Northeastern from there but it's totally doable.  We then moved to Newbury St. (and wow Hynes really is so close to Trident) and eventually she had to go home -- which now that I'm not South Stationing means going basically my route :)  It was really lovely to spend time with her, and I'm a bit sad that we didn't do this sooner.  It's also been interesting this weekend noticing/thinking about which people I'm at ease talking to (I basically monologued at Jonah, meep -- but I didn't mean to, and he said it was okay) and what we talk about.

*

OriginalRoomie's been cleaning the house -- both in the aftermath of the painter and also in anticipation of NewRoomie's arrival.

I can't believe I hadn't noticed that our stovetop was so filthy.  OriginalRoomie did a preliminary cleaning of it tonight, though, and I'll probably do some scrubbing tomorrow.

She cleared out some of the useless furniture we never use and got some welcome mats and stuff -- which reminded me that I really need to do stuff like decorate my door.  (P.S. Mom, do you have an estimate on Maureen's Boston painting?)

Oh, and she mentioned that she leaves her door closed so that the sound of her tv on won't bother me.  That's nice.

NewRoomie is arriving this Wednesday evening, so I feel like light is visible at the end of the tunnel in terms of all the acquiring-stuff-for-the-apartment.  (My brother's helping me pick out a tv and I've been looking at tv stands on craigslist, the cable guy's coming Thursday, I'm hoping to enlist NewRoomie to go get a recycling bin, she's bringing some kitchen stuff and then I'll fill in any remaining gaps, and I really wanna get a couch....)

Oh, and there are rumors of the landlord taking down the fence, which would be exciting. (The street I live on has all lovely two-family houses, and then mine looks it was transplanted from somewhere sketchy with its two colors and its metal fence and everything.)

*

LJ's new notification system?  known issues like whoa  [I'm still a huge fan of the system, and it's great that they're starting it on a small group of users while they get the bugs worked out, but those select few of you I wanted to make sure you were aware of the issues -- the following strikes me as the most important one: If you have the "Email" option enabled for "All comments in my journal, on any post.", you won't get the old comment notification email anymore for entries you post in communities or replies to comments you post. Unchecking this checkbox until we fix it would be the best thing to do right now.]

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And I seem to be writing fanfic recently. A lot of longhand while commuting places. Some previous WIPs as well as some new ideas. (Translation: Don't expect to see any ficposts from me anytime soon.) But it's really good to be in that space, after I wasn't for so long.

I've also been reading (and feedbacking) fic recently, which is also of the good.

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That was longer than I had originally expected it to be.