Oink oink

Edited: It turns out that while the infected person works in D.C., he/she lives in Maryland, therefore it doesn't count as an official case in D.C. Whatever, influenza obviously doesn't respect state or national boundaries, so it at least semi counts.

Today brings reports of DC’s first case of swine flu. I guess the man I saw yesterday coming off the metro wearing a surgical mask knew something the rest of us didn’t. Or he’s taking this more seriously than I am. I’m just not completely convinced it’s any more serious than the avian flu hysteria from a few years ago. I’m still steering clear of coughing people on the Metro, and washing my hands like crazy, but you won’t see me in a mask anytime soon. Except, perhaps, if I could get my hands on one of these designer ones:

I personally think one with a pig snout would be hilarious. I’d buy one of those just for fun.

There are also sad reports of a backlash against pigs. The Time article says Egypt has ordered the slaughter of more than 300,000. I feel bad for them. It’s not like the birds, who are pure evil and who I absolutely believe are plotting to take out humanity, these are just little piggies! I mean, does this look like it could ever cause you harm?
(If you haven’t read this article from Britain about the little pig who is scared of mud, you must. I actually had the picture as my desktop background for awhile last year. If it doesn’t make your heart melt, you aren’t human, sorry.)

I am, however, very interested to see them discover exactly how it started. I took an environmental ethics class my senior year - which has come closer to making me a vegetarian than anything else - and we talked a lot about animal conditions, including the Smithfield company, which was cited in one article as a possible source.

In the meantime, I will continue to remind the people who cower around me as I sneeze and cough, that it's allergies, and not the flu. I hope.

Picture Dump: Hirshhorn

A few weeks ago I took my first trip to the Hirshhorn with my best friend from high school and one of her friends. My friend was an art major in college and a talented artist, and I loved going with her because she knew a lot about different sculptures and artists. I also liked going with her because we can still be silly and make each other laugh. And she has the same confusion as I do about a lot of modern "art" pieces, and all three of us tended to dislike/mock/ponder the same ones.

Stamp carousel. I worked at a library in college and we had a smaller carousel with stamps for the books. Yeah, I'm weird, this sculpture made me dorkily happy.

Weebles wobble but they don't fall down:

I thought it looked like a Dalek. Genie decided it was a "penguin of death." Read the explanation on the plaque, turns out it was modeled on a penguin. That's why she was the art major.

The main reason we went was to see the Louise Bourgeois exhibit. She had some interesting stuff, some crazy, and a lot of big metal spiders in cages. (But the guards caught me before I could take any pictures of those.)

Silver surfboard type things surrounded by chairs, intended for people to sit and ponder their reflections, except you weren't actually allowed to sit and ponder.

My favorite, though I can't remember the name. But it had to with how people used to classify women as "hysterical" when they were just having typical human emotions or reactions. Feminist statement, hell yes.

And that's all. I do occasionally get some culture.

Picture Dump: Demetri Martin

Ok, not using the Flickr for everything. Few pics from Demetri Martin at the Warner Theatre from a few weeks ago. Had never been inside this one and was surprised at how pretty it was. Hope to be back at the end of May to see Rent.

Stage:
Trying to get a picture of the chandeliers:
Woodworking and other details:
Man of the hour:
The majority of his material was new, but he also took suggestions from the audience and did a lot of jokes from his Comedy Central special and his cd, both of which I own. The special is where I first heard of him. The only other real comedy show I've been to was Lewis Black, twice in college, and they are quite different in their delivery and style, but both still very good. Love smart comedy, love love it.

By the age of 25...

"By the age of 25 she had survived the Nazis, almost starved to death, kissed Gregory Peck, met Givenchy, been scared as hell, won an Oscar, won a Tony, been engaged, been alone, grown up without her father, been discovered by William Wyler, charmed Colette, posed for a soap ad in London, and been on the cover of Time magazine. In short: she was not like us."
-Pamela Keogh re: Audrey Hepburn in What Would Audrey Do?

In short: I have a lot to do before I turn 26. (Minus the whole Nazis, starvation, absentee father stuff. No one wants that.)

Visit to the big house

On Sunday I got up at the should-be-illegal time of 7 a.m.* in order to stand in line at the White House for a ticket to their bi-annual grounds tour. I had never heard of this before, but after reading about it on the DCist, knew I must see what it was all about. So to the other end of Pennsylvania I went, yet again. Twenty-five minutes after entering the line, I had my ticket, a grumbling stomach, droopy eyes, and three hours to kill. Ugh.

After a trip to Starbucks and a nap in front of the Washington Monument, where a security guard woke me to make sure I wasn't dead, finally, I was off to the president's humble abode with free reign to...stick to the path, stay off the grass, and try not to draw the attention of the many, many Secret Service agents standing grimly about. (Even though there was a really cute one I wouldn't have minded attracting the attention of, but I'm thinking that only would have happened if a felony was involved. And I'm just not that desperate for a date. Yet.)

It was absolutely wonderful, in a subdued, lazy Sunday, surrounded by trees and flowers sort of way. But it's exactly this type of thing that is why I live in a city in the first place. I will definitely be back.

I have finally decided to use a Flickr account and hope to slowly move the approximate 10 other online albums I have to here. I have so many pictures I never share because it takes so long to upload them here, so hopefully this will help me be less lazy. So go here to see some from Sunday's tour. Titles on all, captions on most. The first few might be kind of boring, but they get better, I think.


*I don't get up until at least 8 a.m. for work. In the words of my roomie: "You get up insanely late for a working person." Yes, I do, just another reason why I love my job. (I might have already posted that quote on here but it makes me laugh.)

All I Want In Life

I really would like to find an allergy medicine that doesn't knock me out or make me feel like a balloon. AKA high, I guess. I've never done drugs but thanks to allergy meds I don't need to. I don't know if it's the Claritin or the Zicam or the combination. Or the fact that I haven't been to bed before 1:30ish this whole week. I really hope it's just months of insomnia combining with the meds. I like to breathe and not want to claw my eyes out, but I also like to not feel floaty and weird.

I also like to not regret leaving North Carolina, but since these allergies didn't start until I moved up here, I have no choice but to add it to the list of why home can (not always) be so much better than here.

Speaking of which, I am very close to killing someone for a good biscuit.

Beautiful Day

It's hard enough just to be happy! At my happiest, it only takes about four minutes and then I have to take a nap! (Lewis Black)

So true, Lewis. I don't consider myself a Debbie Downer, but I'm not exactly Mary Sunshine either. Happiness doesn't always come easy, and truth be told it can be exhausting. But since I am in a good mood and have been since yesterday, I feel I need to capture this moment while it lasts, which by my estimate, is only for another 3.2 hours.

1. First, did I mention that a week ago my beloved alma mater reigned supreme over college basketball in a game and moment that will lead me to spontaneously smile and hold my head high for the next year, if not longer? Ok, good, I did. (I also should mention that I am in love with the DTH's headline for the day after: "LEGACY FULFILLED." Except, if I were allowed to write it, despite what I was taught in my newspaper editing course at the previously mentioned beloved alma mater, my headline would have been "LEGACY FULFILLED, BITCH." With a subhead of "And by bitch, I mean Dick Vitale. And Coach K. And the heinous 2005 nat'l champ SI article." It's long but it really captures my point.)

2. Thanks to the beauty of presale, I just secured two lower-level side-of-stage seats at the U2 concert in Raleigh in October. Sing it with me now, "it's a beautiful day/don't let it get away/it's a beautiful day-ay-ay-ay."

3. Demetri Martin on Saturday night at Warner Theatre was wonderful. I laughed so hard my face got tingly and my abs hurt. I made the mistake of listening to his CD at work yesterday and kept having to cover my mouth to stifle the laughs. Whatever, totally awesome and worth it.

4. I successfully gave up pizza for Lent! And naturally, to make up for the lack of cheesy pepperoni goodness in my life for the past 40 days, I've been unnaturally gorging on it. Oops.

5. I finally had the money refunded from a cashier's check that was lost in the mail! Thanks to my bank, for while they are still woefully inadequate compared to the customer service in NC, I'll stick with them for a bit longer.

6. I've been on a project at work since the day I started, last February. I worked on other things too, but have been solely on the project since September. But yesterday, I finally started on a new one, with subject matter I am really, really interested in, and a chance for more writing and creativity than the parameters of the previous project allowed. Hooray! (And yes, I've already had one minor freak out at my desk, but only one for me this early is good.)

That's it for now. I'll be sure to update later when the mood is gone, presumably after I run into a pole, mess something up, or get uncomfortably hit on on the metro. (And I just realized that my excessively long run-on sentences and liberal use of commas here are probably why I've been getting so many style QC comments back on my work work, damn.)

Blossompalooza!

All of the basketball excitement made me forget to post about the cherry blossom "excitement" of last week. (Sorry, the two just don't compare.) Last year I went at the end of the blooming period on a gray day. This year I went on the second day of the blooming period on a gray day. Pretty much the same. (Except this year I wasn't lazy and walked to see my man TJ, and around further up to FDR's park.)

Sadly, no sign of the CNN cam so my plot to propose to an anchor will have to wait until another day.

This would be so much better with a Carolina blue sky:Crossing bridge to get to TJ:

Love the shape of the branches. Would be better without the concrete barrier:Pagoda:

Attempting a self-portrait with blossoms in the background. Nine attempts later...

Some megatron pre-historic type bird creature thing showed up, meaning it was time for me to leave.

One Shining Moment

Because it's my blog, a little me in the midst of the MADNESS and HAPPINESS and JOY at 2 a.m. to try and explain it all...

When I was 6 years old, I decided I was going to go to UNC...

When I was 18 years old, my parents, after suffering through 5+ years of teenage angst and stress, came to my high school to take me out of class and present me with the acceptance letter that would validate approximately 12 years of stress and put me on the road that would change my life...

When I was 21 years old, in the middle of a semester that found the bell jar descending day after day for seemingly no reason at all, my home away from home's basketball team won a national championship game that for some reason had the power to make me remember why I love what I love and do what I do...

When I was 22 years old, the place I loved that held the people I adored made me leave, i.e. graduate, and I knew I'd never be the same...

When I was 25 years old, I had a great job and a great home and a good life and my team won again and somehow the motion of putting an orange ball in a white basket reminded me of how much I still want to do and have left to do...and just how damn lucky I am...

I can write and write and write and I will never be able to explain the hold that this place has over me...congratulations, boys, you beyond deserve it. I will go and do and you will always have the power to make me burst into tears and scream with joy and not care that it's 2 a.m. and I have to wake for work in six hours.

To Tyler and Ty and Danny and Wayne and Deon and Bobby and Ed and ROY and oh my goodness everyone...#1 BABY!!!!

No one deserves it or wants or will enjoy it more than ya'll. Ahhh...you did it!!!

Carolina Dreaming

Just one more...

I don't care what happens, I just want them to play their hearts out and enjoy the moment. There is no place like Chapel Hill, there is no feeling like a Carolina feeling, and some days there is nothing but Carolina basketball. But some days it's just a game and I'll love them no matter what. And either way, everyday, they represent the University of North Carolina and that's more than enough. So, God bless those Tar Heel boys.

But please, if it's not too much to ask, let's kick some Spartan ass and bring that trophy back where it belongs.


(All pictures taken from Yahoo/Getty)

Smartest Purchase Ever

Last week I bought my smartest purchase ever: black Wellies from Gap. (And they rang up as Wellies on the receipt, not rain boots, so it's not me being faux-British. Except that, like quite a few British words, their word is far superior to ours so I would call them that anyway.)

Mine look a lot like these, except with a hot pink lining. And yes, it does make a difference.

I should have bought a pair years ago. College would have been vastly different, and far drier, with a pair of these babies. I wore them yesterday to see the Cherry Blossoms, since the Tidal Basin was muddy and puddley and yucky. And I wore them today on my way to work in the torrential downpour. And I did not have to ring out my jeans, dry off my shoes with paper towels, or buy new socks. I was so happy about dry feet that I went and bought a bagel...in the rain!

So thank you Gap, for having them in my size and on sale for $5. And thank you especially to the Duke of Wellington, for deciding it wasn't enough to defeat Napoleon at Waterloo or twice serve as Prime Minister. No, you would have dry feet as well.