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Wednesday, May 30, 2007
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Memorial Day Weekend, a Photo Essay
(not really)
Uncovering Pulp Fiction, one of the exhibits Kathy helped put together as part of one of her Public Humanities classes at Brown:
Here's the part of the exhibit Kathy worked on:
Students for Democratic Society: A Graphic History (Kathy's other exhibit - this one is touring):
WaterFire in Downtown Providence (the guy in the green shirt is Demetri, and yes, I realized the lens on my camera needed to be cleaned):
WaterFire is when they light a ton of bonfires on the rivers. There's music and food and some festival-type things with lots of people. As Kathy said, it's art. Demetri was whelmed.
You can take a variety of boat rides around the bonfires! We considered doing this, but never followed through. Kathy and I also wanted to buy funny hats, but Demetri wasn't willing to go along with that.
Monday night at the Red Sox game: Curt Schilling pitched, which is always a treat.
A servicewoman sings "God Bless America" during the 7th inning stretch:
Monday marked Trot Nixon's return to Fenway Park (he's an Indian now). I swear he could do no wrong (single, strike, score, bat, catch a fly ball, etc...), and for awhile, Kathy and I were counting the number of "9's". Jonathan Papelbon is warming up in the background.
Now Jonathan Papelbon is pitching, and making us sweat out the 9th inning:
Our seats were supposedly "obstructed" but all I really couldn't see was home plate, and I could see it if I leaned forward (as you can see from this photo):
Red Sox come away with the win in the end (and I finish playing with the digital zoom on my camera):
This weekend also involved making nearly a gallon of marinara sauce (some of which went into baked ziti last night, and the rest is hanging out in the freezer), finishing some awesome kneehigh socks/stockings and poker at Jeff and Kristen's Monday afternoon (Kristen made my couscous! Jen brought raspberry lambic!). There were seven of us, and when I had to leave for the Red Sox game, there were still four of us - Natalie took over for me and I hear she came in third (no money but still better than if I'd just forfeited my chips when I had to leave).
Thinking back, it was the most laid back Memorial Day weekend since the one right after my freshman year of college. That is insane.
- Lizzardie, at 4:17 PM
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Tuesday, May 22, 2007
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Whatever it was that made me feel so terrible for five days seems to have passed, though I am still pretty damn tired. That is less unusual, though.
Because I was sick, though, I have very little to report. I spent pretty much five solid days on my couch. I stayed home Wednesday and Thursday, and then managed to get myself into work on Friday - only to leave after lunch time (four hours is a respectable day, right?). I skipped Kim's Sushi Party on Saturday, because I was pretty certain I would have a lousy time (and I didn't want to risk contaminating anyone). I did a lot of knitting (shocker).
Yesterday I did have a fantastic time catching a mouse. My roommate and I decided to at least initially use catch-and-release traps for our exterminating needs. These are the stupidest traps ever, but I put them out Sunday night anyway, pretty certain no mouse would be dumb enough to fall for them, even for some delicious peanut butter. Yesterday morning, one of the traps was closed, but it felt light, and again, are the mice really that dumb? I opened it up and a mouse was staring at me! Yikes! That thing got closed pretty quickly (and I screamed, I'll admit it). So, despite running late, I took the trap outside, ready to free my new little friend. Apparently, he liked that trap, though, because he wouldn't leave! Really? I buy traps that cause no harm, and then bring the poor thing out into the sunshine, and he does not want to leave his small little cage? I should have just killed him. Not knowing what to do, I brought the trap back inside (I had to get to work and could not quickly think of a way to keep the trap open). My coworkers think I'm insane. Luckily, all day in that dark, tiny space seemed to freak the mouse out enough, because he seemed to be shaking when I picked the trap up after work. I waited until dark, and he pretty quickly fled the trap. Unfortunately, he fled straight towards the house, so I'm sure he'll find his way in again (there's got to be some opening that allows them to come in through the basement - I wonder if it's just a reality of living on the first floor of an old house). We might have to kill the rodents, after all.
Today was a department lunch to celebrate the end of the reporting period. We all had some sort of drink with lunch (Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc for me, to go with my Calypso Shrimp) and split a dessert eight ways. Very strange to be having a drink during the work day like that. Apparently we're planning to start cocktail hour really early on Friday, which will be fun.
It looks like Saturday could involve a trip to Providence to see Kathy's exhibits, with other guests and festivities. Should be fun. I otherwise have no Memorial Day Weekend plans right now.
Life otherwise feels pretty dull lately. Not sure if it's just a lull, or me feeling kinda down, being sick or something else. Hopefully it'll pass soon.
- Lizzardie, at 4:27 PM
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Friday, May 18, 2007
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Hahahaha, this is what I get for thinking my life sucks. Of course, it sorta started to suck even more! I've been sick since Tuesday night, and haven't really slept since then (or eaten solid food, come to think of it), which is not helping. Sore throat, swollen glands, fever (which finally broke yesterday, but came back briefly this morning), fatigue, nausea, etc... You know things must be bad when I have some really delicious chocolate cake in the fridge that I cannot eat because of the sore throat. I am HOPING that I'm finally coming around to being better, though I was hoping that yesterday and it turned out not to be the case. I was "working from home" Wednesday and Thursday, and only made it through four hours today. I'm glad it's the weekend. It's unfortunate that normal drugs don't knock me out, because I could use some sleep. And a clean apartment - everything here is a mess because I spend nearly all of my time on the couch (television and knitting, I guess it could be worse).
I will stop complaining now, and get back to resting...
- Lizzardie, at 8:28 PM
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Tuesday, May 15, 2007
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A few brief things... it looks like (at least according to the website) the dates for the Italy trip are guaranteed, so everything should be set. I'm looking forward to my passport arriving. I ate at Out of the Blue in Davis Square with my roommate on Saturday, cute little place. I had a Caprese-like salad and seafood risotto, and we enjoyed a nice white whine from Crete. Interestingly enough, I drank the red Greek wine I had from a Christmas present later on that night, so it was a very Greek wine filled night. The red wine had an aftertaste of marshmallows. I went back to poker last Wednesday for the first time in a month, which was nice, and I took second place, which was nice, but I won't be going back again for at least a few more weeks. I'm seriously wondering if I should give up the game entirely, even though I really love it.
Other than that... I am having a really tough time with some things. I will not be going into any detail at all here, and honestly, have realized that I shouldn't go into detail with anyone, really, just because of the nature of my problems. But yeah, things are rough. So if I seem out of it or distant or reclusive, you'll know why. I wish I knew how to make things better and when that can happen. But I don't.
- Lizzardie, at 5:22 PM
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Monday, May 07, 2007
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This weekend was rather dull, but I did manage to get a few things done that had been on my list forever....
First, I submitted my passport application. I am not sure why this was causing me so much stress, because it was rather painless. I went to the Somerville Post Office and I think it took all of 5 minutes. It has been the one thing that has really held me back from wanting to do international travel, and, um, I'm not sure why. Anyhow, I should have my passport in 6-10 weeks.
I also broke down the giant box in my kitchen from my wine fridge. Again, this might not seem like much of an accomplishment, but that box had been sitting there for over a year. Yikes. I replaced the box with the wine fridge, so it now sits right next to my roommate's wine fridge, and makes us look like alcoholics. This may not be so far from the truth - Saturday night I drank an entire bottle of Chianti on my own, and I wasn't even trying to. At one point, I went to pour myself another glass, and realized there was only one glass left in the bottle, so I might as well finish it. Ahh well.
And some of you may remember me talking about donating all of my loose change to charity. Well, it took several months, but I finally got around to taking all of the change to a Coinstar machine (also a ridiculously easy errand, given that they are in every grocery store I go to). Here is what $10.36 looks like in pennies:
And here's what $75.90 looks like in quarter, dimes, nickels and a single dollar coin:
So a total of $86.26 went to the American Red Cross from approximately 2 years (maybe a little less) of my pocket change.
So nothing terribly exciting this weekend (I did go out for a couple of glasses of wine last night, making me not quite a total hermit) but things got done and that's fine by me.
- Lizzardie, at 10:50 AM
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Friday, May 04, 2007
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All right, I need to stop spending money if I want to have money for the Italy trip. Not buying yarn during Lent worked pretty well, so, after a month of a complete free for all (lots of books and yarn), I'm grinding it to a halt again. I apply for my passport tomorrow (hopefully) and that's supposed to take about 10 weeks. So no yarn until my passport arrives. I will then allow one yarn purchase for myself as a birthday present and a few skeins to make other birthday presents (what I have in mind won't require a lot of yarn). And that should get me through until the trip.
The other shopping vice I have is clothes. I don't think I need anything right now (just ordered a bunch of flipflops and a long-sleeve cashmere t-shirt), so we'll also say no clothes until my passport arrives. Then I'll reassess.
- Lizzardie, at 3:16 PM
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Thursday, May 03, 2007
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There's not a whole lot to report here. I have been trying to maintain a schedule that consists of sleeping, working, cooking, eating, knitting and walking. I watch a lot of TV, too. I know it's not exciting, but it's what I need right now.
This weekend I did try to venture out of the apartment. Friday night I went over to Corinne's for a small little party. We ordered pizza from Pizza Regina and played Apples to Apples. Saturday night I went out with my roommate and her college friends to PA's Lounge in Union Square - her college friends apparently follow this band called Township that we saw. The balance was off, but the band was pretty good. Since we were in Union Square, Steph and I stopped into Sally's for a little bit. I hadn't been in there in weeks, and Jeff and Kristen happened to be there, so in a way it was good to be back, but it was also a little weird. And Sunday I went out to dinner with Corinne and others to Kowloon (we had a gift certificate to spend from when we went to the Phantom Gourmet Food Festival). When we went for Ron's birthday, he got all this sushi that looked so good, so that's what I got - Spider Maki (with soft-shell crab) and Black Rolls (plus a set of tuna rolls). I really enjoyed the sushi.
That's about it. This weekend is Somerville Open Studios, so I may try and check some of that out, but I'm not sure. I am aiming to get my passport application taken care of on Saturday, so hopefully I can get myself out of bed and dressed in time to do that.
- Lizzardie, at 11:13 AM
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