Today is such a beautiful day that not even my dead car battery, watery eyes and earth shattering sneezes, tripping on the way into work and sore muscles from yoga can keep me down. Looking out of my large window onto the city below me I feel like one of my plants, soaking up the sunlight. Okay, that sounds cheesy, but it's springtime, I'm allowed to go a little crazy.
The only problem is, I know this mood won't last. I'll start to feel trapped in this office, trapped in the apartment, trapped by my finances. I need a plan in order to prevent this malaise to start creeping back up. I think by reading more, getting a library card for my part of town and checking out parts of Alexandria that I hadn't known about before might be a good way to start. I need to get out more, but I want to save money, not blow it on drinks and going out.
-Find a recipe for Sangria, make a bunch, invite friends over.
-Go to the waterfront in Alexandria (I got lost here a few days ago. It looked beautiful.)
-Have a card night, as suggested by a friend.
-Have a board game night. I'm totally into Scrabble. But Trivial Pursuit is good too.
-Hang out at Gravelly Point. This has actually been on my 'Cheap Things To Do' list for awhile, but now I live and work so close that it makes a lot of sense.
-Dan's Cafe & Joe's Saloon. I'm going out for a drink on Friday with a friend and haven't got much money. Saturday means another drink for a friend going away. More money I don't have. But searching through my trusty friend Yelp I came across these two diviest of dive bars. And they look awesome. I'm down for dives these days. And summer makes me all the more eager to go. So I'll go and check them out. Dan's comes highly recommended because apparently when you order a vodka tonic they hand you a bottle of vodka, a bottle of tonic, a bucket of ice and a glass and you get to make your own. Awesome.
Any more suggestions????
One other thing I'm excited about today is the research I did on my grad professors today. Both of them look very promising and I'm starting to look forward to taking their classes. One of them is currently doing research on Leo Tolstoy, who I am currently reading. Is this a sign? I think so. The other one has a blog all about being an ex-pat in Mexico. Yeah, I know, how does she teach at Mason and be an ex-pat? I think she does both part time. Anyway, here's a link to her blog if you feel like looking. She was just on the Diane Rhem show. http://livingethnography.blogspot.com/
Now get off this computer and go out and enjoy the weather for me!
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary, How Does Your Garden Grow?
On our back porch there is a beige box that holds a fan (I think). On top of it I have begun my first foray into gardening. Or really, I shouldn't say my first--I had a patch of dirt once, outside of one of our houses, where I attempted to grow the pansies my mother gave me. Apparently pansies don't like full, blazing sun all day long because I succeeded in roasting them, but that was about it. And of course, there was the summer we had a vegetable garden in our backyard. All that remains of that is a ridiculously adorable picture of the four of us kids crowded around a squash. Apparently we grew tomatoes and squash and I remember pumpkin blossoms. And once we grew something we never expected because it grew from the compost we made.
My grandmothers were always tending to something they grew, my maternal one grew tomatoes and sunflowers in the little plots by her door. My paternal one had a garden with lemongrass, a koi pond and a stretch of vegetables staked out on the other side of the house. She was always tending to the garden. I even have a birthday card that says 'Oops, we forgot!' And inside her excuse is that the garden's been keeping her busy.
Ever since I was a kid I've wanted to try my hand at growing things, but I was always too busy reading a book, or going for a swim, or hanging out with friends to bother with it. And it seemed so antiquated. Who was I? A little old lady in a floppy hat with flower print gloves? Who gardens these days? When my mom was weeding it just looked like a pain, hot, sweaty and without much happening. She always got poison ivy all over her hands, too.
But now I have my own herb garden calling to me every time I make tomato sauce or a sandwich with chicken, mozzerella and tomatoes. A strawberry plant is producing little green sprouts that will turn into ripe strawberries if I can be patient, and I feel as excited and proud as if I was making them grow myself. I sort of get how someone could feel like a garden is a home, a child, a friend. Sometimes I go outside just hoping it needs watering. Or just to look at the blossoms on my tomato plant that haven't even started to open. And the visions of one day increasing my garden keep coming. I see beets and carrots and...other vegetable things. And raspberry brambles and blackberries, just like we had in our yard. But no cucumbers. Not ever.
My grandmothers were always tending to something they grew, my maternal one grew tomatoes and sunflowers in the little plots by her door. My paternal one had a garden with lemongrass, a koi pond and a stretch of vegetables staked out on the other side of the house. She was always tending to the garden. I even have a birthday card that says 'Oops, we forgot!' And inside her excuse is that the garden's been keeping her busy.
Ever since I was a kid I've wanted to try my hand at growing things, but I was always too busy reading a book, or going for a swim, or hanging out with friends to bother with it. And it seemed so antiquated. Who was I? A little old lady in a floppy hat with flower print gloves? Who gardens these days? When my mom was weeding it just looked like a pain, hot, sweaty and without much happening. She always got poison ivy all over her hands, too.
But now I have my own herb garden calling to me every time I make tomato sauce or a sandwich with chicken, mozzerella and tomatoes. A strawberry plant is producing little green sprouts that will turn into ripe strawberries if I can be patient, and I feel as excited and proud as if I was making them grow myself. I sort of get how someone could feel like a garden is a home, a child, a friend. Sometimes I go outside just hoping it needs watering. Or just to look at the blossoms on my tomato plant that haven't even started to open. And the visions of one day increasing my garden keep coming. I see beets and carrots and...other vegetable things. And raspberry brambles and blackberries, just like we had in our yard. But no cucumbers. Not ever.
Monday, May 12, 2008
I know I've been talking about growing up and doing all those unpleasant adult things while trying to also remain young at heart but I have to let you in on a little secret--I'm terrified.
Moving into our new apartment has been exciting, and decorating it just as I wish has been sweet, having all my friends over to christen it with a party was fun, but Sunday morning when I woke up puking it was as if all my fears came up with the alcohol I had so unwisely consumed. I had my mother over for Mother's Day brunch, and it gave her and my other sister a chance to check the place out. Then when they left it was nice to sit in the silence of my own home, not being bothered by anything my mother asked me to do. Doing dishes is much nicer when you're not nagged about doing them.
Jules and I made a run to Target, since I had a birthday gift card in hand, and then came home to watch About A Boy in the comfort of her down covered bed. Watching that movie gave me a voice for what I've been feeling lately. A little homesick, actually. Marcus, the little boy in the movie makes an insightful statement, about how a couple's not enough. You have to have more people to be your backups. Having a chain of people makes that frightening feeling of loneliness fade away a little more.
I've never really lived away from home, except that five months in New York and a year living in a freshman dorm I've always woken up to the sounds of my parents' house. There have always been an inordinate amount of people coming through our home, and sometimes I longed for silence, my own space where I could do what I wanted. But often I reveled in the boisteriousness of my home and my family. But things fall apart, as Yeats said, and my family crumbled a little. That safety net of grandparents fell away in a span of a few years, my parents seperated and divorced, my brother joined the army and went to Iraq, my sister got married and also joined the army. And now my mother's selling the house that we lived in for 13 years. By the time I was 11 my family had moved 11 times, but finally we stayed put and I grew up. And now that I am an adult, and supposedly ready to face going out on my own I really am being shoved out of the nest. Part of me is excited about being on my own and part of me is terrified at the prospect of being without that safety net, as restrictive as it could be sometimes, it was also comforting.
I think, like Marcus said, we need more than just two people, right now Julia and I are in the place by ourselves, and soon Kirbs will be joining us, more people will be coming too, someday I'll fall in love and start my own family and the safety net will be one I'm providing. But I wonder if the safety net I create for my children will be enough for me too, or if I'll see past it into the great unknown as I do now, and realize that being grown up means feeling a little unbalanced and uncertain.
Moving into our new apartment has been exciting, and decorating it just as I wish has been sweet, having all my friends over to christen it with a party was fun, but Sunday morning when I woke up puking it was as if all my fears came up with the alcohol I had so unwisely consumed. I had my mother over for Mother's Day brunch, and it gave her and my other sister a chance to check the place out. Then when they left it was nice to sit in the silence of my own home, not being bothered by anything my mother asked me to do. Doing dishes is much nicer when you're not nagged about doing them.
Jules and I made a run to Target, since I had a birthday gift card in hand, and then came home to watch About A Boy in the comfort of her down covered bed. Watching that movie gave me a voice for what I've been feeling lately. A little homesick, actually. Marcus, the little boy in the movie makes an insightful statement, about how a couple's not enough. You have to have more people to be your backups. Having a chain of people makes that frightening feeling of loneliness fade away a little more.
I've never really lived away from home, except that five months in New York and a year living in a freshman dorm I've always woken up to the sounds of my parents' house. There have always been an inordinate amount of people coming through our home, and sometimes I longed for silence, my own space where I could do what I wanted. But often I reveled in the boisteriousness of my home and my family. But things fall apart, as Yeats said, and my family crumbled a little. That safety net of grandparents fell away in a span of a few years, my parents seperated and divorced, my brother joined the army and went to Iraq, my sister got married and also joined the army. And now my mother's selling the house that we lived in for 13 years. By the time I was 11 my family had moved 11 times, but finally we stayed put and I grew up. And now that I am an adult, and supposedly ready to face going out on my own I really am being shoved out of the nest. Part of me is excited about being on my own and part of me is terrified at the prospect of being without that safety net, as restrictive as it could be sometimes, it was also comforting.
I think, like Marcus said, we need more than just two people, right now Julia and I are in the place by ourselves, and soon Kirbs will be joining us, more people will be coming too, someday I'll fall in love and start my own family and the safety net will be one I'm providing. But I wonder if the safety net I create for my children will be enough for me too, or if I'll see past it into the great unknown as I do now, and realize that being grown up means feeling a little unbalanced and uncertain.
Thursday, May 08, 2008
Flip That Apartment
The 'partment's coming along nicely. I'm all domesticated and shit. Seriously, I've always been into design and making my surroundings look nice but lately it's been out of control. I guess before my domestic side was resting dormant because I was in my mom's house and even when I did a little it was still her house and her way. I couldn't throw out the godawful furniture that I hated. Or keep her from going all country in the modern box of a house we had. I settled for painting my walls and buying furniture I liked, cooking meals in her (very nice kitchen) for friends on days she would be out so I could pretend it was my own home I was inviting friends over to. And it worked, reasonably well for a number of years. But now...I have my own place and like a little well spring that finally found an outlet I've been kirking out on cheap design ideas for the new place. We don't have a lot of money right now to spend on things so we've been making do with what we could borrow or steal from home. And a trip to IKEA tomorrow when my paycheck comes in...
Jules and I were looking around the place last night and we both sort of sighed in relief. It was ours, and it was looking pretty good. For obvious reasons we've gone with the eclectic look, not too hippie, hopefully. We have the flowery, cushionless kitchen couch covered in a tapestry blanket I had in my closet (I honestly can't figure out where it came from) and a folded down comforter acting as the cushions. Austin donated some end tables that an old roommate left. At first I wasn't sure about them, but I must admit they look good. Especially with Jules' blue Hindu goddess sculpture and the orchid plant she bought me. Pictures and artwork I've been hoarding has come out of the woodwork and found a place on our walls. A kitchen table donated by a woman who overheard Jules at work isn't perfect but it's pretty nice. And then I get to go crazy with all the Design It Yourself stuff I can imagine. Pictures will follow soon, I hope.
Jules and I were looking around the place last night and we both sort of sighed in relief. It was ours, and it was looking pretty good. For obvious reasons we've gone with the eclectic look, not too hippie, hopefully. We have the flowery, cushionless kitchen couch covered in a tapestry blanket I had in my closet (I honestly can't figure out where it came from) and a folded down comforter acting as the cushions. Austin donated some end tables that an old roommate left. At first I wasn't sure about them, but I must admit they look good. Especially with Jules' blue Hindu goddess sculpture and the orchid plant she bought me. Pictures and artwork I've been hoarding has come out of the woodwork and found a place on our walls. A kitchen table donated by a woman who overheard Jules at work isn't perfect but it's pretty nice. And then I get to go crazy with all the Design It Yourself stuff I can imagine. Pictures will follow soon, I hope.
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
My Silver Anniversary & the Golden Girls
Today is my 25th birthday. It's a little anticlimactic, because with everything else going on I almost forgot. I didn't have that thrilled feeling in my stomach like I used to. Ohh, I just remembered birthdays equal presents! How did I forget that?! Wow. Now I do sort of have that excited feeling. Actually, the government gave me the birthday present of the year. My federal tax return came in the mail. How did they know I only had $16 in my bank account and ate ramen noodles for dinner in my empty apartment? They could have sent a card too. Just saying.
Julia brought the check home with her after work, along with a little balloon and a chocolate cake, which we ate at midnight while catching each other up on the day.
Anyone? We still need a Sophia. Peas? Wanna step in? I think I could be a pretty good Rose.
Kirbs, you and Julia can fight over who gets to be Blanche and who gets to be Dorothy. I think in this photo there's another little old lady who's Sophia's sister, so Designer you've got a place with us too.
Julia brought the check home with her after work, along with a little balloon and a chocolate cake, which we ate at midnight while catching each other up on the day.
Anyone? We still need a Sophia. Peas? Wanna step in? I think I could be a pretty good Rose.
Kirbs, you and Julia can fight over who gets to be Blanche and who gets to be Dorothy. I think in this photo there's another little old lady who's Sophia's sister, so Designer you've got a place with us too.In the meantime, I'll be here, getting slowly older and older. 25 is a big deal. It feels like a very adult age. Fortunately I have an apartment and a pile of bills to make me feel like I deserve to be 25, and lots of fun planned in the form of a birthday/housewarming party to come. And lots of friendly notes to make me feel extra special. Thanks guys!
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