Busy
Uh oh, I started slacking again here. Keep on it, keep on blogging!

I had a nice Easter weekend with my parents, who came down last Thursday. We spent Friday up at Longwood Gardens in PA, which is truly an amazing place. I'd been there once before and knew I had to bring my mom - the gardener extraordinaire. They were having an orchid festival and I can't even describe how beautiful all the thousands of orchids were. I wish I could go to this place every week, or that I lived closer so I could apply to be one of their volunteers.

But since I can't, I instead enjoy tending my own plants at the house and now at my office. I got a goldfish plant (named for its goldfish-resembling blooms) for my office since I have a window that gets great sunlight. I'm also now trying to revive two near-death plants my coworker left behind when she switched offices. That seems to be a trend with me - reviving plants that others leave behind or neglect, and I'm getting pretty good at it.

I've now got some daffodils coming up in the front yard - and all the cherry blossoms in DC are blooming, which is beautiful. Hooray for spring.

In other unrelated news, Tuesday night saw me watching one of the most amazing movies I've ever seen - "The Warriors." Wow. I had been talking to some guy friends about our love of action movies, be the movies stupid or not who cares, we just like watching people fight or watching things blow up from time to time. These guys then asked if I'd seen the 1979 classic gang film "The Warriors," and when I said no, they gasped in shock.

And so I rented it and was thus amazed. (Here is the trailer on YouTube) I have a hard time describing it, but I'll try. All of New York's gangs (in what they call "sometime in the future," but which actually represents late 70s NYC) gather to unite around one leader, the leader is shot and the gang called "The Warriors" is framed. The Warriors then have to get from the Bronx back to their home turf on Coney Island by wading through all these gangs trying to kill them. There's a lot of great fighting and corny lines, but the best part is the costumes. Just watch the trailer and you'll know what I mean. Truly epic. I could watch it again and again.

Rude Awakening

Last night on my train ride home from work I was drifting off a little bit. I was noticing how little bits of green were starting to become more frequent on the bushes and trees we passed, along with the beginning of some flowers blooming. We passed this one area that makes me happy each day because it's a wetlands where there are a bunch of large nests with cranes and herons roosting in them.

Ah, nature, and the coming spring...zzzz.

AHHHHHCHOOOOO!! - comes the loudest sneeze ever sneezed in the existence of man, and right next to my ear.

FUCK!SHIT!AHHHH!!! runs through my brain as my eyes pop open. I am jolted from my doze by some ass who thinks it's necessary to sneeze at a volume audible from 10 miles away. It wasn't just me either, everyone around me was staring at him, obviously jolted from their post-work daze on the train ride home. He just continued doing his sudoku.

Douche.

Spring Cleaning Plan
Amy and I discovered a clever way to spring clean this weekend.

Step 1: Flood your basement.
Step 2: Clean.
Step 3: Profit?

Okay, that third step certainly isn't the case, especially after seeing how much the plumber charged us to fix the small hole in the pipe that caused so much trouble.

Thankfully we didn't lose much. We had a moment more than a year ago where a day of heavy rain partially seeped into the basement. After that we bought shelves and put all the storage onto it. That saved us this time.

Not that cleaning up 1/4" of water in half the basement was simple. We had to drag everything outside, remove the carpet (thankfully just a big unattached rug) and remove some baseboard. Thank you Jesus for inventing the wet-dry vac (yes, Jesus invented the wet-dray vac, it's in the Bible...somewhere in the back...maybe Black & Decker 4:15-17).

There was so much stuff set out in our backyard to dry that the neighbors asked if we were having a yard sale. Sure, $50 gets you all these waterlogged boxes! It's a steal!

As we mopped and wet-dry-vacuumed up the water, we thought about the fact that we used to move about every two years, and so maybe this was a sign to go through everything again and get rid of crap we don't need. We did that and now have some more space in the basement.

The rest of the weekend was a lot of fun. We had a fun improv show on Friday night. Saturday morning (before discovering the pipe leak) we went to a farmer's market. Saturday night we went to a party. Sunday was church and then a big meal and then romping around in the dirty and mud at the local state park. So, all in all, it could've been a lot worse.

Clothing that insults

Two clothing-related names that have bothered me for some time but I am only commenting on them now even though I'm sure others have done so 100s of times before me:

#1- Dress Barn. Why would you name a women's clothing store that? It brings up images of large livestock, or the idea that your ass is too wide to fit into a dress of normal size, so you need a dress the size of a barn.

#2- Sag Harbor. I know this is a real location up in Maine, but that doesn't mean you should attach it to a clothing line - and especially not to a line of women's clothing. This could be a used as an insult as well: "Man, that conference on menopause was a total Sag Harbor!" Try using it in a sentence today.

That is all.

Boogie Down

While I was driving to improv practice last night I passed a walking path around a large lake. Normally I don't think much of it except that it's nice to see some trees and grass and water in the city. Last night was different, I had that thought and one that revolved around one of the walkers I saw.

This woman was obviously out to walk for exercise, she was dressed for it. But what made it noticeable was her not actually walking but dancing. She had come to a complete stop on the walking path right by the busy parkway full of drivers, and she was getting her groove on hard-core to whatever awesome music was on her headphones at the time. I honked to wave and give her a thumbs up, but she was too into her own music to notice.

It was my smile of the day.

Another quote of note

Yesterday's had one fan, so maybe today's will hit another good note. From Walt Whitman in "Leaves of Grass."

This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul; and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body...

To balance that out, here's the best insult I heard yesterday. It was used to describe Dr. Laura, that old windbag who is blaming Eliot Spitzer's wife for him using prostitutes. A commenter on this blog called her a "cave-dwelling sea hag." Truly epic and beautiful.

Recent quote of note

Above all, do not lose your desire to walk. Every day I walk myself into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness. I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it.
-- Soren Kierkegaard

Head meet desk
You ever have one of those days where nothing you produce is at all what your supervisor wants, not matter how much you change it and make it look like what they say they want? Yeah, having one of those today. At some point it's just not even worth me doing it anymore because the time we've spent going back and forth - the head honcho could've done it.

Foul mood continuing...

Train Station Nicknames
Since I see 95% of the same people at my train stop every morning, some have earned nicknames based on how they dress or on their mannerisms.

Here's the list of nicknames I have thus far:
-The Player: This way this guy dresses always looks like he's trying way too hard. His glasses are the fancy style gold frames similar to what MC Hammer used to wear, only not as huge in front. They're just very wide on the sides. He also wears his bluetooth headset at all times and knows a ton of other people at the train stop, greeting the guys with the long, intricate handshake-hug-whatsup manner and greeting the women with a,"Hey girl, howyoubeen?"

-The Head-Shaker: The head-shaker shows up at the exact same time every morning carrying the newspaper. Once situated in the same spot he stands in every morning, he then starts his pattern of reading the paper, then folding it down to walk up to the tracks where he looks down the tracks to see if the train is coming. Because the train never is coming when he looks down the tracks, he looks down, shakes his head, sighs and returns to his spot, re-opening the newspaper to fake read it until 30 seconds later, when the pattern restarts.

-Mouth-breather: This woman, sheesh. She pulls her hair up into a ponytail on the top of her head, which effectively stretches her face out way too far. She also never closes her mouth, which may or may not be because of how tight her ponytail is on the top of her head. I always wonder if she when takes the ponytail out each night, if her face then drops into a bunch of folds, sort of like one of these puppies.

-Tiny Foreign Lawyer: This man is no more than 5'1" tall and dresses impeccably everyday. He's foreign and a lawyer because I heard him talking to a friend at the stop one morning. I cannot place his accent. He always walks up to the stop with a purpose, as if he's about to hand someone a summons or object to something. His nickname makes me think he might be a superhero.

-Intern McShortpants: This young man is not at the train station every morning, so it's a treat when he does show up. If he's not still in college, he's only a year or two out. He's very tall but still looks like he's 17. Also he's not upgraded his wardrobe since his last growth spurt because his khakis rarely touch the top of his shoes. He wears a backpack with his suit coat.

I can only imagine what sort of nickname I have from other people's observations. Obvious Lesbian? Casual OfficeWear Girl? Nickname McMakeEmUp? Who knows?

Reading Challenge
Tara was asking me to update everyone on what I've been reading this year, so here we go.

What I've read so far this year (in order):

1. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. This is a great memoir, I recommend it. It's sad, but also very well-written. This gal had a rough upbringing and parts of it are heart-wrenching, fascinating and beautiful.

2. The Nymphos of Rocky Flats by Mario Acevedo. This guy writes a great action/mystery novel. His main character is an Iraq war veteran who was turned into a vampire. It's very modern and funny, and doesn't make me feel too creeped out by being someone who's reading a vampire book.

3. Point of Impact (The Mark Wahlburg movie "Shooter" was based on this book) by Stephen Hunter. Much, much, much better than the movie. Follows a Vietnam War sniper who gets duped by the CIA. Lots of action, intrigue, mystery, suspense - just an overall good read.

4. Playing for Pizza by John Grisham. A nice non-law-related fiction novel from Grisham. It tells the story of a washed up football player (who blew a Super Bowl for the Browns) who gets a second chance to be a football hero in Italy. Easy to read and pretty entertaining, I enjoyed it.

5. Serpico by Peter Maas. The great true story cop novel. Got a bit slow in the middle, but the story overall was very interesting and had some good action.

6. X-Rated Bloodsuckers by Mario Acevedo. The second novel in the series, almost as good as the first one (#2 on my list).

7. A Million Little Pieces by James Frey. Despite Frey being forced to admit that he made up and embellished a lot in this story of his drug rehab, it was still really good. The writing style is jarring, but I think it helps tell his story. I just really enjoyed it and it opened my eyes to a lot about drug rehab.

8. The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Oh god creepy. I stayed up very late two nights in a row to finish this sucker. It's really, really good. The writing is amazing and dark, almost haunting. It's about a father and son walking a road to who-knows-where in a post-apocalyptic world.

Two books that I just started trying to read but could not get past page 30:
-Island of the Sequined Love Nun by Christopher Moore and Rant by Chuck Palahniuk. I thought I would like the Moore novel because I loved his book Lamb, which was all about Jesus' childhood pal Biff. I was wrong - this book was trying way too hard to be Moore's style of quirky and silly.

As for the Palahniuk book, I like most of his books (Choke, Survivor, Fight Club and Invisible Monsters are all awesome), but this was was also trying too hard to be edgy like his other books. The writing style had real potential - it was about the life of a guy who was now dead, all told through interviews with his friends, family, acquaintances and more. The story was just too lame, though.

I am currently reading three books:
Powder Burn by Carl Hiaasen, A Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf by John Muir, and the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu.

The Hiaasen book is really good. I was worried it would seem dated because it was written in 1981, but it's not. It's all about this regular guy in Miami who gets caught up in the crossfire of the cocaine dealing world.

The Muir book is because of where I work, and it's pretty good. I could stand to be without his racist descriptions of black people he encounters, though.

The Tao te Ching I'm reading because James Frey alluded to it frequently in his book A Million Little Pieces. He reprinted some of its sayings and I found them quite intriguing. Of course, the religion of Taoism is based on this book, too. In any case, it's all very thought-provoking and paradoxical. I think I will soon start occasionally putting some of the sayings on here along with my thoughts on them. It's just really interesting.

This is not the first time I've read one book because it was referenced in another. I also read The Way of a Pilgrim (which is very interesting) a few years because it was frequently alluded to in Salinger's book Franny and Zooey.

So yeah, I'm already blowing away last year's number of books read by March 7, meaning I'm well on my way to beating last year's grand total of 46. Anyone else reading anything good?

Spring
Ugh, thank you spring for finally starting to show up 'round these here parts! I've done some spring cleaning on this blog, too, obviously.

Yesterday morning while waiting for the commuter train (which was on time for the first time in more than a week), I looked up into the lovely blue sky and noticed several huge flocks of geese flying home from their winter vacations. They were really high and I'm pretty sure I'm the only one at the train stop who even noticed. People at my train stop are grouchy in the morning - which is understandable. It's early, the train's usually late - especially when it's colder than cold out. Their heads are frequently in a newspaper or they're distracted by their Blackberries.

Our stop is also devoid of any real comfort measures. Yeah, we've got a few benches, and they're under some shanty-like pieces of metal - but nothing enclosed that's near the tracks. We have a trailer set back about 100 feet or more from the tracks. Thankfully it has a bathroom and is heated, but it's not really convenient for waiting unless it's really frigid outside. I used a few times this winter when the train was delayed and it was less then 20 degrees outside.

The best part of the trailer is that the commuters literally pack themselves into it - moreso when there's a delay. This means when you open the door to squeeze yourself in, you are greeted with the faces of about 100 people all staring straight ahead at the door. I wish there was some way I could take a picture of it, it's hysterical. Just a sea of eyes staring forward, and it's about dead silent. No one says a word. The best comparison I have to it is this photo of the seagulls from "Finding Nemo."

Once I get to DC and start walking to the office, there are also a lot of interesting sites. Union Station is still beautiful to me even though I see it every day. The way the grand hall looks in the morning when the sunlight comes in at just the right angle - it's gorgeous and the whole place glows. Here's a photo of it, I walk through here every day. Here's another. And here's one more. I will also never get tired of getting to ride a train every day. It's fun and I get to see the Acela speed by our train stop at full speed twice every day. Call me simple.

I still think my favorite once-in-a-lifetime sight I had walking to work one morning was the tourist on her hands and knees crawling into the underbrush of a pinetree, all while holding a digital camera. The reason? She was trying to get a photo of a squirrel. Seriously. And this was on the nice lawn in front of the Thurgood Marshall Federal Judiciary Building (seen here, the lawn is unseen because it's to the right of this main entryway).

Anywho, that's what I got for now. Let me know if you folks need any squirrel pictures. I can hook you up, I know a lady.