Quodlibets

Archive Meme

I saw this over at frogblog.

1. Go into your LJ’s (or blog's) archive.
2. Find your 23rd post (or closest to).
3. Find the fifth sentence (or closest to).
4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.

It was sort of a refresher course for me, because working in a bookstore is somewhat like working in a library.

Oh, the beginning of the hell that was my LTA certificate.

El Frankenmuth

Yes, I ate the chicken.  It was very good, but I think that the amount of food on the table for three people was slightly ridiculous.  I really enjoyed the cole slaw as well, but I enjoyed it the last time we went too.  The food is good, there's no two ways around it.  I'm slightly incredulous by the amount of food that the kitchen must pump out.  The lines to eat the chicken were INSANE.  And the Sunday buffet looked quite grand too--lots of piles of food.  So yes, the chicken dinner was lovely.  (And we had a great drink with dinner--a pretty basic alcoholic lemonade slush.  The waiter [very young man] said, "So that's three non-alcholic ones?" and my mom said, "No, we want alcohol." and the waiter said, "Really?"  Yes, Kate and I look so young our high school age waiter thought we looked too young to drink.  When my mom told the waiter that I was 26 and that Kate was 23 [while we whipped out our IDs] he said, "Really?" again in that bewildered are-you-pulling-one-over-on-me voice.  Alas.)

Bronners was, well, Bronners.  I don't have any money right now, because you know, the job situation isn't really resolving itself, so I tried to keep it in hand.  The spending, that is.  I bought some nice ornaments for myself, and I found some GREAT presents for S.  I also saw some things that I really liked (because these women might make the Frankenmuth trip bi-annual.), that I might want in the future.  I did not see a black fake Christmas tree, Kelly, so apparently Bronners doesn't have everything, as I previously believed.  I was slightly put off by the fact that everything seemed to have moved to somewhere else, so my internal map of Bronners was off.  I hate that. 

I don't have much else to say about the trip, except that it was pretty damn fun, all things considered.  (Such as, Moodge, could you not have a cold next time?)  I think that we did pretty well, per the bickering that normally accompanies Kate and I wherever we go.  We're sisters.  Bickering happens.  There were some funny incidents, and I remember thinking to myself during one of them, "Oh, this would make a FANTASTIC blog post."  And now, I cannot for the life of me remember what I thought that about.  Oh well.  Next time, because there will be a next time, I think, we're going to stay at the new, splashy (literally) Zehnder's hotel.  It's got this CRAAAZY waterpark inside of it, and 28 isn't too old to enjoy a nice waterpark.  Right? 

(Oh, some bad things did happen this weekend--I'm not exactly sure what the worst thing is.  All I know is that my doctor (new, have never seen her) had to go on emergency medical leave (she is/was pregnant) and so my appointment got cancelled.  It's a bitch to get an appointment with a female doctor on short notice, so this sucks.  However, it's good to know someone in the OB's office.  My aunt works there, so I do have an appointment right around the same time, with a female doctor, but only because I know someone, I'm sure of it.  Still, I hope that the other doctor and her baby are okay.)

:::::Sniff:::::

I'm too tired to be coherent.

Yestiddy

Yesterday was my one year "blogiversary".  For the record, I hate that word.  And I honestly don't think it's that big of a deal.  I just thought I'd mention it.  There's a small chance that I'll do some meta-blogging sometime in the next week, because I've been wondering lately what exactly this blog is.  I know that sounds ridiculous, but I was thinking about it in the context of journaling, and what exactly I hold back from my blog (the answer is actually A LOT).  This certainly isn't a journal.  So what is it?

I don't know.  Maybe I'll answer the question, or maybe I'll never mention this again and you'll wonder forever.  Regardless, if the hotel we stay at has wi-fi, I'll be happy to blog about the trippy-ness of the Frankenmuth experience tomorrow.  Otherwise, might not be 'til Tuesday. 

Friday Random Ten

1. Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels) -- Arcade Fire
2. No Reason -- Ben Kweller
3. How Many More Times -- Led Zeppelin
4. Parachute -- Guster
5. Fill It Up Again -- Indigo Girls
6. Shy (Live in Houston, TX) -- Ani DiFranco
7. Hangin' Around -- Counting Crows
8. Kit Kat Jam -- Dave Matthews Band
9. Baby It's You -- The Beatles
10. If You Leave -- Nada Surf

Okay, the fact that this random ten happened at all is a testament to how much work I did.  On Saturday night (Sunday night?) my iPod DIED.  I mean, it wouldn't work at all.  It wouldn't work on my computer, it wouldn't turn on.  S figured out that something had gone wrong inside of it, and it had to be wiped and the software reinstalled.  That means that all my music (1900 or so songs) was gone.  And since I'm an idiot (and no one told me!), I didn't have playlists made in iTunes.  I transferred music from the hard drive directly to the iPod.  So I had to start at square one.  This meant that effectively, I had to dig through 43 days of music on our hard drive.  Sound silly?  It took me hours. 

The upshot is that now I have 2500 songs on my iPod, and playlists saved in iTunes.  I like my iPod a whole lot better, because I think it's actually better organized.  So, out of that mess came this first random ten.  I like it.

Oh! Sweet Nothing

I'm living.  I suppose we can definitively say that.  (Of course, due to my hypochondria, most days I think I'm dying of one disease or another.)

We're going to be doing some dogsitting this weekend; I'm going to be doing some roadtripping with the mom and sister.  (To Frankenmuth MI, no less.  This should be good.)

That's about all I can muster right now.  I know there are plenty of things I SHOULD be talking about.  But I can't be bothered about that right now.  I'm busy being not busy.

When a book is really rewarding

The last line of the Rome book:

I looked down with gratitude upon the city where I had learnt many things: but one does not say goodbye to Rome.

I'm not sure I could ever say it better.  Thank you, HV Morton.

More Katrina

I'm pretty sure this is real.  I found it linked to over at Bitch PhD, and I think it's very, very worthy reading.    It's about hurricane survivors, and I think it's pretty upsetting.  Still, I think that you should read it to get some idea of what turned the Superdome and the Convention Center into squalor and horror.

It's compelling, is all.

Truly Delightful

I had a delightful experience this morning.  At about five, sometime after he got up to get ready for work, S came into the room, stood over me, and said, "Are you okay?"  I'm pretty sure I looked up at him, said "Yes" and started laughing.  I think I was laughing pretty hard, and S told me that he thought I had been crying, at which point I told him no, I was probably laughing in my sleep, because (and here I laughed again, very hard) High School Best Friend faaaarted.  I then laughed some more.  S left, and I continued to laugh for a few minutes.  Something about the dream was just THAT funny to me.  I'm just delighted, too, that I was laughing in my sleep.  Because I remember laughing in the dream!

HSBF and I were in an office with five or six of the boys from our high school, and they were starting competing graphic design firms.  We chose to work for/with the one that Adam started, instead of Pat's, because deep down, we knew Adam would be a better graphic designer.  The office was sort of like a dorm, because there were a few lofted bunk beds in the room.  HSBF and I were on the top bunk, and Pat was on the bottom bunk, so were trying to whisper about how bad of a grahpic designer he was.  Later on, HSBF was on a sort of day-bed somewhere else in the room, and I was in a row of chairs against the back wall the room.  HSBF farted.  And then she looked at her ass like, "Whaaaaaaa?"  I think she might have even said, "Where did that come from?" and giggled.  Anyway, I found a really old book about the first bowling alley in our hometown and started looking at it.  My cousin Bee walked into the room, and immediately, she came over to sit near me to look at the book.  But HSBF wanted in too, so she took the book and sat in between us, so that we could all look at it.  At this point, HSBF let out the biggest, smelliest fart, at which point Bee and I started laughing hysterically.

That laughter is what S heard, and came into the bedroom to make sure wasn't crying.  It doesn't seem so funny right now, but dude, I cannot express how funny it was at the time. 

New Music

For the first time in a long time, I added a CD to my music list on the sidebar.  I wanted to mention it because I feel very strong about the CD, by Over the Rhine, called Ohio.  And I feel very strongly about it having only listened to snippets of the CD, and three full songs.  But it's one of those albums that I felt an immediate connection to, listening to 30 second intervals of song on iTunes.  I'm not quite sure why, except that I have a hunch that when listened to in full, the CD is awesome.

Possibly, it's the voice of the singer, which is quite lovely.  It's a her, of course, which is mostly what I'm drawn to when it comes to music.  Anyway, if you know my music taste, and trust it, you should check the CD out.  (And if it comes down to it, if the CD is awful, I'll tell you as soon as I know.)