Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Roxie : Motivation :: The Pope : A Funny Hat
Clearly something freaky is going on--I've been saying that I'm going to take the GRE since probably half way through my fifth year at Centenary. I went to lunch with my Coworker Jana the other day and found out that she too is studying for the GRE and it's like something in my brain snapped. Apparently, all it took was having some one else to study with, to get me out of the apartment and whine with (and not to). I'm so motivited, FINALLY.
Jana and I went and studied after work on campus at George Washington and we studied almost 3.5 hours before I noticed. This was two days in row. Two things have come out of this:
1. I am SO relieved to find myself inspired and motivated. I've been stressing about the GRE, as a terrible chore. Instead, I find myself almost freakishly excited to see how well I can make myself do.
2. Spending the evenings back in that environment, around students, thinking in a totally different way (and for totally different reasons) than I have been at work for the past year, I am SO ready to be in school in again. I miss classes and professors and books and wearing a sweatshirt without feeling guilty.
All that being said, I had the day today all by myself (Tim's playing in a softball tournament) so I planned to spend it at the library, studying. I originally planned to go to the Library of Congress, but I felt like it might be a little stuffy so I went to the MLK library which is closer anyway. But I never really made it (not right away, anyway) because there was a GIANT street festival for all the local restaurants, galleries, artists, performers, museums, radio stations, colleges, newspapers... you name it. I had tenderloin, white cheddar mashed potatoes, and pork tacos for $4. I saw a troup of Bhangra dancers that reminded me of my mom's belly dancing troup.
It was just an awesome way to spend three hours. I'm bummed that Tim missed it, but I was fully entertained and well fed for pennies on the dollar.
Afterwards, I walked back past the library (at which point it was entirely too late to study, since they close at 5:30), but they were having a sale in their book store, which is usually closed on weekends. I bought 5 books and a t-shirt for $12 before heading home to watch Jeopardy and relax. An excellent end to the afternoon indeed.
I think this may have been the most awesome Saturday I've had since I've been here, which is good since yesterday was a pretty terrible day at work. Ahhhhh.... thank the Lord for Saturdays, motivation, art fairs, book sales and beef tenderloin.
Jana and I went and studied after work on campus at George Washington and we studied almost 3.5 hours before I noticed. This was two days in row. Two things have come out of this:
1. I am SO relieved to find myself inspired and motivated. I've been stressing about the GRE, as a terrible chore. Instead, I find myself almost freakishly excited to see how well I can make myself do.
2. Spending the evenings back in that environment, around students, thinking in a totally different way (and for totally different reasons) than I have been at work for the past year, I am SO ready to be in school in again. I miss classes and professors and books and wearing a sweatshirt without feeling guilty.
All that being said, I had the day today all by myself (Tim's playing in a softball tournament) so I planned to spend it at the library, studying. I originally planned to go to the Library of Congress, but I felt like it might be a little stuffy so I went to the MLK library which is closer anyway. But I never really made it (not right away, anyway) because there was a GIANT street festival for all the local restaurants, galleries, artists, performers, museums, radio stations, colleges, newspapers... you name it. I had tenderloin, white cheddar mashed potatoes, and pork tacos for $4. I saw a troup of Bhangra dancers that reminded me of my mom's belly dancing troup.
It was just an awesome way to spend three hours. I'm bummed that Tim missed it, but I was fully entertained and well fed for pennies on the dollar.
Afterwards, I walked back past the library (at which point it was entirely too late to study, since they close at 5:30), but they were having a sale in their book store, which is usually closed on weekends. I bought 5 books and a t-shirt for $12 before heading home to watch Jeopardy and relax. An excellent end to the afternoon indeed.
I think this may have been the most awesome Saturday I've had since I've been here, which is good since yesterday was a pretty terrible day at work. Ahhhhh.... thank the Lord for Saturdays, motivation, art fairs, book sales and beef tenderloin.
Saturday, September 06, 2008
Nothin' Doin'
Tropical Storm Hannah, as I'm sure you've heard, is bearing down on the east coast, and so it is incredibly rainy and dreary in DC today. It's been raining solidly since about 7:00 last night, which actually works out perfectly because Tim and I decided that we're going to go an entire weekend without spending a single cent.
(BTW: Naming a storm after a current teen sensation makes incredibly difficult to get information about said storm on Google, Thanks National Hurricane Center.)
Of course, this means I can think of nothing I want to do more than go out to a matinee and then to dinner, but the rain is helping. And to deter myself even further, I've put the lemon tree in the shower and sprayed it with bug spray that has to dry before I can move it, so we couldn't take showers and go out into the world if we wanted to. (A note on the lemon tree: It FINALLY has a lemon, which is about the size of a penny right now, BUT in addition the brown scale bugs it has--don't worry they only like citrus and tomato plants and don't spread to people or other plants--it's got some sort of weird almost microscopic spiders that may have come in on this stupid bamboo-type thing I bought. DAMNIT.)
Really though, I like wandering around on rainy days like this. There's something kind of nice about how everything looks different when it's rainy and the sky is gray. I also like wind, and although I love summer I'm looking forward to sweater weather. Also, I'm sure there will be plenty of elbow room at the museums today. Elbow room is remarkably important. Now, when I think of the Rosetta Stone, my first thought isn't of the key that unlocked the Egyptian language and opened up one of the richest and most important cultures to ever exist, but of the terrible woman in the British Museum who stood directly in front of the case talking about some television show and blocking the view of literally 45 people who wanted to catch a glimpse. Classy. Thanks a lot awesome American Tourist Lady.
Anyway, apparently, there's a new ocean exhibit at the Natural History Museum--although I'm not sure if it's open now.
Mostly, I think the plan is to stay in and finish our current books. I lent "A Confederacy of Dunces" to Tim over a month ago and while I'm really happy that he'd finally reading it, I'm officially never, ever, EVER, lending a book to anyone ever again. So don't even ask. It look like it got run over by a thresher. I know there's that philosophical argument that book-manglers make that if a book doesn't look like crap when you're done with it, then you haven't appreciated it. Bullocks. That was the kind of philosophy that might have been ok when I was I was 12 and my parent bought all my books for me, but now, thank you very much, I have to buy them all with my own money, so I'd rather not have them falling apart at their literal seams. (Ahhhh, now that was a cheesy book pun.)
Anyhoo, I'm reading "Falling Man" by Don DeLillo, which, like everything by Don DeLillo, is briefly engrossing, and then confounds me, and then loses my interest completely, and then engrosses me again, over and over, in waves. I don't know if I can finish it today but I hope to, because I'd rather be reading Harry Potter.
(BTW: Naming a storm after a current teen sensation makes incredibly difficult to get information about said storm on Google, Thanks National Hurricane Center.)
Of course, this means I can think of nothing I want to do more than go out to a matinee and then to dinner, but the rain is helping. And to deter myself even further, I've put the lemon tree in the shower and sprayed it with bug spray that has to dry before I can move it, so we couldn't take showers and go out into the world if we wanted to. (A note on the lemon tree: It FINALLY has a lemon, which is about the size of a penny right now, BUT in addition the brown scale bugs it has--don't worry they only like citrus and tomato plants and don't spread to people or other plants--it's got some sort of weird almost microscopic spiders that may have come in on this stupid bamboo-type thing I bought. DAMNIT.)
Really though, I like wandering around on rainy days like this. There's something kind of nice about how everything looks different when it's rainy and the sky is gray. I also like wind, and although I love summer I'm looking forward to sweater weather. Also, I'm sure there will be plenty of elbow room at the museums today. Elbow room is remarkably important. Now, when I think of the Rosetta Stone, my first thought isn't of the key that unlocked the Egyptian language and opened up one of the richest and most important cultures to ever exist, but of the terrible woman in the British Museum who stood directly in front of the case talking about some television show and blocking the view of literally 45 people who wanted to catch a glimpse. Classy. Thanks a lot awesome American Tourist Lady.
Anyway, apparently, there's a new ocean exhibit at the Natural History Museum--although I'm not sure if it's open now.
Mostly, I think the plan is to stay in and finish our current books. I lent "A Confederacy of Dunces" to Tim over a month ago and while I'm really happy that he'd finally reading it, I'm officially never, ever, EVER, lending a book to anyone ever again. So don't even ask. It look like it got run over by a thresher. I know there's that philosophical argument that book-manglers make that if a book doesn't look like crap when you're done with it, then you haven't appreciated it. Bullocks. That was the kind of philosophy that might have been ok when I was I was 12 and my parent bought all my books for me, but now, thank you very much, I have to buy them all with my own money, so I'd rather not have them falling apart at their literal seams. (Ahhhh, now that was a cheesy book pun.)
Anyhoo, I'm reading "Falling Man" by Don DeLillo, which, like everything by Don DeLillo, is briefly engrossing, and then confounds me, and then loses my interest completely, and then engrosses me again, over and over, in waves. I don't know if I can finish it today but I hope to, because I'd rather be reading Harry Potter.
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