Thanks, Wendi!

Here's a great post from our friend, The Happy Booker, starring Dallas Hudgens and our beloved Scott Berg. Yes, beloved.

This topic has come up often in conversation this week. And I've told folks this, too: I'm proud to be a writer from George Mason University and have been since the day I started school there in 2003.

P.S. Wendi-- I still care! [giggle giggle]

This Weekend is going to be Crazy.

Here's a wonderful article by Liam Callanan for NPR. An graduate alumnus and professor, Callanan helps 'outsiders' understand what Mason is. Only qualm: Although George Mason University is classified as a communter school, we have over 4,500 students living on campus.

Go Mason!

"Can George Mason keep it going, beat Joakim Noah and Florida Saturday and then beat the LSU-UCLA winner for the NCAA championship? Of course not. No chance. Just as the Patriots had no chance to go on a four-game Tournament winning streak over Michigan State, North Carolina, Wichita State and Connecticut." King Kaufman

We're off to the Final Four! Go Patriots!

Bike Season

I went on my first twenty-miler of the season today. I took the W&OD from my house out to Reston and back.

Highlights:

• two tandems in a row (still need to try one out)
• someone left a stuffed animal on one of the benches and every one thought it was a real hedgehog
• keeping up with the guy in the orange jersey (who was hauling ass) for three miles
• being outside
• seeing a dog being towed in one of those bike trailer thingies for kids
• sweating
  
• seeing a kid I had seen before riding with his dad taking a nap in his dad's lap at one of the rest-stations
• dogs and dogs and dogs and dogs
• kids and kids and kids and kids
• hearing all the frogs and creepy things in the swampy area between Vienna and Reston
  
• calling Aaron and telling him I was doing a twenty-miler
• not getting hit by a car
• using the orange lenses in my sunglasses since it was overcast--wow, helps a lot.
  
• not falling off my bike and/or forgetting I'm snapped in (still getting used to being clipless)
• feeling like I had a great workout
  

This evening I watched The Graduate. Excellent.

Hooray!

My best friend from Oklahoma is coming to see me next week!

Adriana and I met when I was 14 (she was 13) and we've been best pals ever since. I haven't seen her since February 2002. Man, it's been a long time.

News.

Are our country's morals making its ethics obsolete?

Washington Post
New York Times
BBC.com
CNN.com
Christian Science Monitor
NPR



and
FOXNews

To-do list.

-Drive to McLean and get new badge
-Lunch with Theresa
-Back to work
-Figure out why I decided to wear a skirt today since it's so nice and FREEZING!
-Ironing
-Watch High Noon. I'll take Gary Cooper any day.

Oh, and....
More reasons why Wal Mart is awesome (or not). via nytimes
More reasons why James Frey is awesome (or not). via kottke

This too...
"Picking Up the Lyric but Missing the Beat"

Sushi

I had sushi for the first time when I was 18. My friend Courtney told me I had to try it and explained to me that New Orleans was closer to the ocean than Oklahoma, so the fish would be fresher. I thought, OK, why not. It's one of my favorite foods.

Theresa hopped on over after her Yoga class and we had dinner at this Sushi place in McLean that she likes (and I do, too). I love good sushi for cheap. Afterwards we came back here and munched on some cookies from Trader Joe's and watched Nine Lives. The movie was excellent. I liked it a lot better than Crash. I hated Crash. I think that's the only recent movie to which I can compare it. My apologies to the Academy.

Huh. Weird.

But not really. Work's been quite busy this week, which I guess is pretty weird.

Last night I started reading Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I've tried to finish Lolita, and I am still reading it (as my 'at work' read), but I need something a little faster. I picked it off my bookshelf last night and in fifteen minutes was twenty pages into it.

I saw Spider-man 2 for the first time this week with Curtis and Carl. Not as good as the first, I have to say. I had more fun during the first Spider-man movie (two guy-friends dragged me to the 10am showing the day it opened). This time, it was more, "OK, we know you're awesome, but lose the 'woe is me' attitude, mister." Highlight: Melissa's hair dryer blew a fuse at the most climactic moment in the movie. My spidey-senses didn't see that one coming.

Going out with Theresa tonight for Sushi, I think.

And just for fun: Aaron had told me about this when Blue Collar Mountain Biking first posted it. I couldn't quite believe it until I saw the pictures. If you're a cyclist, it's a little painful as the guy's front fork broke, but still kind of rad.

Cuteness...

Can be found here.

Update

Sunday, February 12, my new friend Olivia and I went to the Supergrass show at the 9:30 Club. I wrote a piece about it, but after having it online for roughly half an hour I got an "Oh, Kate, we need to work on this," so I took it down. I'll rework it and hopefully have it up by the end of the week. We'll see. I haven't written anything 'big' in a while and I'm definitely losing my grip on well, words. Grrr.

This past weekend:

Friday: Went to La Tasca in Clarendon with Kari for tapas and sangria. MMMmmm sangria. Afterwards we started a bottle of wine at my house and met John L. and the gang at the Bowl America next door for beer and bowling. Then, John, Kari, and I came home, finished the wine and had a great time chatting it up.

Saturday: Aaron and I went and saw the new (the only?) Tristram Shandy movie. We had to read (although I ony got to page sixty-ish) the book for our 'Novel of the Seventeenth Century' class. The movie was great, I highly recommend it. It captures the essence of the novel very well. And the sixty pages I read was very funny. After the movie we came home and watched Curling on the Olympics. I like Curling.

Sunday we woke up, watched more Curling, and went mattress shopping. Aaron hasn't had a real bed for as long as I've known him and the twin mattress he has on the floor of his room has got to go. We went to Mattress Discounters on Lee Highway. We knew we could bargain and knew what we wanted. They guy wanted to give us a double, factory-made matress for $500. I was like hells no. Then he got it down to $450, but with delivery it would have still been $500. The guy wouldn't even give us a frame, he had us paying for that, too. Yeah, right, he was giving it to us for cost. We told him we were only shopping around and that we may be back later.

Marching back to the car and feeling victorious, we found ourselves locked out. Aaron has to walk back into the matress store and look around for his keys that may have fallen out of his pocket. Oh, no-- The keys are in the ignition, and he hasn't a spare set. After calling a few locksmiths, we get set up with Pop-A-Lock, "We'll be there in 45 minutes to an hour," they say. Thankfully, we were in a shopping area, so we get lunch at Chipotle (which is always too spicy for me, so Aaron has to finish my burrito), browse books at Borders, sit in ergonomic chairs in the Back Store, and look at kick-ass refridgerators, washers, and dryers at a high-end appliance store.

We get a call from the locksmith and he rolls up in a beat-up black Mazda. The hood was dented and popped up over the engine. It looked like it had to have something tying it down. Had the kid (I swear he was only 16) not called, we probably would have been like, what the hell are you doing to our car? Aaron got his keys back and we went home. Mattress shopping for the day was over.

Monday I slept in, but went back to Aaron's to change my oil in his garage. All went well, and I didn't spill-- even the oil filter.

Aaron also bought a mattress on Monday at Mattress Warehouse-- across the street from Mattress Discounters.

The Strange Ones

Gaz Coombes is turning thirty next month. It's funny becauseI've been in love with him since I was fifteen. I remember thinking that seven years really isn't that big of an age difference.

With their new album, Road to Rouen, the band I was a kid with has grown up. Somehow it makes perfect sense-- at this point in both our lives, we've grown to a more complex and mature sound. Granted, I'm now out of college and living on my own far away from the small Oklahoma town in which I grew up and Supergrass are now married with children, it seems like we both deserve that new adult sound.

We all loved their catchy and bright "Sun Hits the Sky," and everyone seems to know "Moving" and "Pumping on Your Stereo" from their popular X-ray album-- but it was when Gaz and Mick sang their first single (1994's "Caught by the Fuzz") that I realized I might have been part of a different crowd. I was so excited to sing "fuzz"-- which Gaz wrote when he was 18 or so-- that I didn't care that there were very few people in the audience under thirty that knew the words. Maybe they did, but it was me at 15 again singing a song about weed that I had never smoked.

---

There's a place where the strange ones go, where nobody here could know... Walking down U street in Northwest Washington late on a Sunday night with a girl I had barely met, I was excited. I was going to see a band I had been following for eight years for the first time. The ice crunched under my feet and I wondered, Would Gaz look the same? What about Danny and Mick? Would Mick wear his glasses? He really doesn't look very good in them...I hope he's not. My date and I joked about how all rockstars are hot-- even the ugly ones-- and if they're British, well, then they become infinitely hotter. Supergrass is a band of three (well, four since 2002 when Gaz's brother Rob joined) unattractive men from Oxford. And damn, if they weren't sexy.

In line to get my hand stamped, the usual 9:30 Club staff is hanging out: The girl with the pale blue eyes and blonde-blonde hair that I can't tell is dyed or not, the huge bald and tatooed man with ear plugs the size of my fist. Yeah, we're here. I show Liv around the club since she's never been: Here's the floor, the stage, the two bars down here, what, you're not 21? I knew that, it's cool, no worries.

We head back towards the entrance and hang a right to get up the stairs. There aren't many people on the balcony, but there aren't many people here in general. We take my usual spot, where the balcony curves from parallel to perpendicular. This is my spot, on stage right. I like seeing. Leaning over the wrought iron railing, I look around and know that I'm totally OK with using a vacation day for this. No Monday at the office for me.

The opener did just that and opened. Pilotdrift-- and they did live up to their name. I couldn't quite grasp their sound- every song sounded like a different band-- Spiritualized, Starsailor, God Speed-- we could pin every song to a band we'd already heard. But they did like the key-tar. So much so that it was passed around to three of the five of them. Their drummer was good. He didn't play the key-tar.

It was getting closer, my Strange Ones on stage. Wait a sec, is that Danny on the balcony with us? Oh my God, it is.

And then it's quiet. My heart's beating faster. Liv and I are people-watching and thanking God that the creepy guy dancing sporadically behind us has left. Grasping the iron railing again, and thankful for the return of my personal space, I look backstage, Where's my Gaz? The lights go down, Liv and I look at eachother, giddy, of course, and turn back to the stage. There he is, standing on a dark stage, his microphone is the only thing lit. He walks up, singing beautifully, "St. Petersburg" from the new album.

Leave town for pity's sake you know
It's time to make a move on
Cos in three days I'll be out of here
And it's not a day too soon
Yeah, three days I'll be out of here
And it's not a day too soon

Gaz is just as I knew he would be- shaggy hair, cut like so many other British rockers; long, long sideburns (his trademark); thick yet sharp eyebrows. He wears a black sport coat and black dress shirt-- blue jeans and white socks-- walking around in his stocking feet; Gaz isn't the tallest of men. Mick comes out with another acoustic guitar- jeans and another dress shirt, too. It looks pink from up here. His round face framed by unkempt black hair. It was "Caught By the Fuzz."

Gaz, Danny, Mick, and Rob play all my favorites and the crowd's favorites, too. A guy my age, maybe a couple years older, leans in with his elbow, a beer in one hand, his cell phone in the other. He gestures with his elbow since both his hands are busy. This guy, telling me how much he loves Supergrass, is on the phone. We've found the concert ass-hole again.

I see kids walking around and talking-- waiting for the song that I know they all love the most. The one everybody knows. And then it hits. By this time, the concert ass-hole is on the floor, close enough to the stage to try to touch Gaz, right next to the red-headed head-banger we didn't quite understand. The sound stalls. I know it's coming, the crowd knows it's coming. Gaz's voice is hovering over the crowd. It's time to dance. "Moving" is much like The Jam's "Town Called Malice"-- You have to dance or clap or move or do something-- in which ever ridiculous way necessary. Danny brings in the drums, his black t-shirt soaked. He looks ready for bed.

Getting home early Monday morning, I couldn't help but think that, you know, we're all right. I'm all right. I don't have to be 22 going on 40. And it's Supergrass that have helped all along the way, for a third of my life and some. It'd be better if we were alright, instead though.


We are young, we run green
Keep our teeth nice and clean
See out friends, see the sights
Feel alright!

We wake up, we go out
Smoke a fag, put it out
See out friends, see the sights
Feel alright!

Are we like you?
I can’t be sure
After seeing as she turns
We are strange in our worlds
But we are young
We get by
Can’t go mad, ’aint got time
Sleep around if we like
But we’re all right

Got some cash, bought some wheels
Took it out, ’cross some fields
Lost control, hit a wall
But we’re alright

Are we like you?
I can’t be sure
On the scene as she turns
We are strange in our worlds

But we are young, we’ve gone green
We’ve got teeth nice and clean
See out friends, see the sights
Feel alright!


It's Monday, July 9, 2007 and this post is getting published for the first time. I was told my writing sucked, and I believed it. No more.

Friday Night 'til Sunday.

I swear, if I ever write a book, it'll be called Fridays at Carl's House.







Saturday, Aaron and I went to Viet House for lunch and then watched Woody Allen's Manhattan. It was my first Woody Allen film and I really liked it. Diane Keaton was wonderful.

Later that evening we bowled two games at the bowling alley near my house.
Game One:
Aaron 102
Kate 94

Game 2:
Aaron 60
Kate 102

Yeah, neither of us are really bowlers (I got lucky), but it was fun. Gutter balls are awesome. Seriously.

Sunday I spent the day at Carl's house with the guys and Audrey and Melissa. I gave Carl a haircut (which was cool since it was the first time I had ever 'faded' with different sized combs on the clippers) and watched the Super Bowl. The game was kind of humdrum, but it's the Super Bowl and gave us an excuse to hang out.

I started Lolita (borrowing it from Aaron while he reads The Slaughterhouse Five) on Saturday morning since I finished Wonderboys Friday afternoon. I really like Nabokov's narrative style and I really look forward to finishing the book. I saw the Kubrick film this summer and it's one of my favorites-- I guess this is why I hear James Mason narrating the book as Humbert Humbert (Oh, Captain Nemo).

Things One Should Not Eat in Their Cubicle at Work

Pears
Apples
Mangoes (for the same reason as Pears)
Ice
Chex Mix
Popcorn
Sauerkraut
Anything that smells like burnt hair


(To be continued...)

Ground Hog's Day (Among Other Things).

Happy Ground Hog's day! Punxsutawney Phil predicts more winter weather, but at the rate we're going with highs in the upper 40's and 50's (Fahrenheit), I have no problems with his prediction!

Work was supposed to get busy this week, but everything keeps getting pushed back. I finished All Creatures Great and Small (again) and started Michael Chabon's Wonderboys on Tuesday. I'm about halfway through right now. I'm a big fan of Chabon's writing style and I love his characters. It's the only fiction I've read in a long while.

This past weekend Aaron and I went into Washington. For some reason I wanted to see the dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum (I think I had seen something on the Discovery Channel -- EDIT: Actually, I remember, it was after we saw King Kong). I love dinosaurs, always have. I think I still have my fossil collection at home.



Then we went to the Hirshhorn.



And then the National Building Museum.



I had never been to either the Hirshhorn or the Building museum, but both were a lot of fun. We ended our Saturday in Chinatown for dinner.

I've been trying to finish a roll of Fuji Velvia 100 for the past weeks and haven't been able to since I get home from work after dark every day. I almost finished it in Washington, but I have a few shots left. I'll try to finish it and get it developed this weekend. I'd like to see how the color turns out.

What rights?

What will be taken away next? I wonder.



From insomnia. Some Georgetown law students protested Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in class this week.

"In light of this, I'm proud of the very civil civil disobedience that was shown here today."
- David Cole, Georgetown University Law Professor

Wow.

Insert Lord's Name in Vain Here.

(Or the F-bomb.)

After yesterday's post, Aaron and I went to eat at P.F. Chang's.

This was my fortune:



I've decided to take up a hobby. Like spelunking or this.

I am an Editor.

As such, I have to be thorough, finicky, complete, and demanding. I am trained to pick out punctuation (or lack thereof), misspellings, grammar, and logical missteps. I correct, revise and adapt according to dictionary.com.

I am anal-retentive and obsessive-compulsive*. On my resume I call this "detail-oriented" and "well-organized." Tables of contents, appendices, indices (not indexes), sections, chapters, lists-- I do them all. "Cross-reference" should be my middle name.

I like to use the semi-colon in informal writing and emails; even like this, sometimes. I seek (and destroy) typos. (There are two typos in my favorite book, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Not bad for a 650-pager.)

I read the English language as formula. X's and Y's-- like math: If this, then that.

I almost hate it.



*I have not been diagnosed with either anal-retentiveness or obsessive compulsive disorder, nor do I mean to lessen the impact these disorders have on people with them.

Exciting.

My friend, Jason is back (and has been) from grad school in Rochester, NY for the break!

Happenings.

So, the past few weeks have been eventful.

-Christmas with my Grandmother and family was fun (and yummy with all the goodies). I came home Christmas Eve and slept on the couch. It worked quite well because all I had to do was wake up, sit up, and then PRESENTS! Mom, Dad, and I all woke up around 6am. I think all of us couldn't sleep or something. We made a pot of coffee and waited for the boys to wake up to unwrap (or tear violently) into our gifts. Aaron came over later in the afternoon for Christmas dinner. Highlighted gift: Stainless steel colander from my brother Danny. Awesome.



-New Years' weekend Aaron and I drove up to Massachusetts to see my family in Pittsfield (two sets of Aunts and Uncles and cousins!). We had tons of fun playing boardgames, geocaching, and playing airhockey. And yes, we slept through the New Year (again), bringing our stats to 1:2 for New Year's kisses.


Andrew, Heather, and Uncle Bill digging into the "Mother" geocache in Pittsfield State Forest.


Aaron went sledding with Uncle Bill, another dad, and what seemed like all the kids in the neighborhood.


I stayed home and took a nap.


We also played loads of air hockey.


Our last night there, we spent the evening with my Aunt Addie and her family (I don't know where Uncle Tom is!).



One last pic from the trip: Going back into Aunt Diana's house to check for our stuff. Which I guess didn't work since Aaron left his coat.

-And in other news I start my graduate degree in a couple weeks, but the Commonwealth of Virginia is treating me as an out-of-state student. I've technically been a resident here for five years (actually living time, three- high school, college), so my domicile is VA and has been for that long. The transition from undergrad to grad student (at the same college, mind you) requires that I prove my domicile again. It's tricky this time because I've gone from dependent to independent. And somehow I have to prove it. YAY paperwork!

-Still playing Sudoku. Still totally rocking it.