Princess Sparklefists

Chocolate covered pretzels are one of the best foods ever invented. Crunchy, salty, and sweet all in one. You just can't go wrong!

I'm back from Toronto (more about my trip later) which means no more mini-vacations for awhile and more getting up early in the morning (at least for the remainder of this week). I'm aiming to get to sleep early tonight since I need the rest, but in the next few days I'll be answering comments and catching up on my flist.

Sooo... I'm really tired. But I am having a pretty good time in Columbus.

My flight yesterday was way too early, but otherwise not bad. Everything was on time, and I pretty much just sat and watched Green Wing. Mom and I had lunch at DaVinci's and took Murray for a walk in the Park of Roses (on a hot day, getting hit by the sprinklers feels pretty good). After that I came home and crashed.

I think I might be turning my mom into a Doctor Who fan. I was watching "Turn Left" on SciFi last night (they cut out the bit with Wilf and the saluting!), and Mom came in and asked what it was. She said she thought Doctor Who was an old show (I think she saw some Tom Baker episodes on PBS at one point), so I explained the basics of the show. Then we watched "Rose" and "The End of the World" since I conveniently had the DVD in my computer.

Today was the big family party out in West Jeff. Dad's entire extended family is in town for the weekend (this is including cousins and even some second cousins and their children). I got to explain the whole yes I'm living in Kansas but I'm moving to Virginia in four weeks thing many times over. I had too much food and too much rum punch and got in a swimming pool squirt gun fight with my cousins. Yes, we're all dignified adults and stuff. My brother and I were talking on the way home about how weird the huge family stuff must be for our cousins spouses. We're used to the various, um, quirks of our relatives, but it could definitely be overwhelming if you didn't know everybody. Tomorrow we're all going out to dinner, which should be crazy.

Mom just got her cable reinstalled last week, and I've just discovered that we apparently have a DVR. I can fast forward through the commercials!

Free Wi-Fi in the airport!!! A-woo!!!

My flight is actually about to start boarding, so I don't have time to make a real post about what I've been doing in Columbus, but I just had to play with the Wi-Fi and the special new armchairs with electrical outlets in the waiting area. I heart you, Southwest.

And just so this entry is about something: here's a fun video my brother showed me. It's from the website willitblend.com. I can't figure out how to embed it, so here's the link. As it turns out, you can blend Weezer's new single "Pork and Beans" with a can of pork and beans. Remember kids, DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME. :D

My late birthday presents came from Amazon yesterday! Dad gave me cash, so I ordered Doctor Who Series 1 on DVD and Duffy's new album Rockferry. :D

Five day weekend coming up! Mom is moving back from Phoenix, and since she's coming through KC on the way, I decided to go home with her. Monday is Memorial Day and I'm taking Tuesday and Wednesday off to spend in Columbus. I haven't seen any of my family since I moved here in February, so I'm pretty excited.

David Brooks writes today about the cultural cachet of geekdom. He says, "in a relatively short period of time, the social structure has flipped. For as it is written, the last shall be first and the geek shall inherit the earth."

This morning I discovered GraphJam, thanks to a post at The Park Bench. The graphs there are more fun than anything that I remember from math classes. (Calculus, if I recall, was all about a man walking away from a lamppost.) ( Tears for Fears as a Pie Chart )

Sadly, there is no Battlestar Galactica or Doctor Who tonight, and no more Moonlight ever! Whatever shall I do? There is that Bollywood movie from Netflix though... :)

Today was my first big touristy day in Washington, D.C. I started out the morning with a tour of the Capitol. I’d been there once before on the Inaugural Parade trip with the OSUMB. That time we waited outside (in the snow) for over an hour, then we sped through the building in less than ten minutes. Our guide had lost her voice, so she didn’t say much. Today’s tour still wasn’t particularly lengthy, but it was much more interesting. I think my favorite bit was the cool trick the guide did with the crazy acoustics in the original House chamber. He stood at the other side of the room and spoke in a normal voice, but the strange acoustics amplified his voice.

After the Capitol, I headed across the street to the Library of Congress. The official tour at the Library of Congress is much more satisfying than the Capitol tour. If you’ve never been there, you should go. The interior of the library is incredible. There are mosaics, paintings, and sculptures on pretty much every surface. It’s great to look at, but on the tour, the guides also explain all the symbolism involved. Among the many quotes that are painted around the great hall, my favorite is “Art is long and time is fleeting” from Longfellow’s “A Psalm of Life.” We also got to see the main reading room (from above, the tours don’t actually go inside), which made me want to go be intelligent and studious. I also, inexplicably, almost fainted again, but I'm pretty sure that had nothing to do with the tour.

I had lunch at the cafeteria in the National Museum of the American Indian, which serves Native foods. Best lunch on the Mall, seriously. (The museum itself is worth a trip, too.) I walked across the Mall and through a big anti-abortion rally on my way to the National Archives. I was amazed to see how many of the protesters were high school or college students; it kinda seemed like a giant high school field trip, but with more banners and leaflets. Once I made it through the crowds to the Archives, I was pleasantly surprised by how deserted it was. Again, the only time I visited before was Inauguration week, and it was packed. This time, I actually had time to read the displays. Aside from the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, the Archives also has a fun and interactive permanent exhibit.

After all that walking, I was pretty tired, but that didn’t stop my aunt dragging me to the gym with her. (I have now been to the gym three days in a row. I think that’s some sort of record.) I went to my first ever yoga class, at which I discovered that yoga with an instructor is much more enjoyable than yoga with a video. The instructor said yoga could help with fibromyalgia, so I’ll have to think about taking more classes in the future.

So far, no plans for tomorrow, but there are plenty more free museums to visit. Later in the week I’m heading the University of Maryland to check out the library school. Yes, I may actually be getting my life back on track! :D

ETA: Pictures may follow once I get un-lazy and load them from my camera.

This morning I had a strange dream, and even more strange, I actually remember it.

I was at the airport checking in for a flight to Barcelona. I went to the United counter, and the woman who took my luggage started ragging on me for arriving late, because my luggage should have been checked five minutes before. (I had apparently arrived only one hour prior to my international flight.) Then I had to go to a second counter to check in and get my boarding passes. That's boarding passes, plural, because I was continuing on to London. I'm not sure why I would have a connection in Barcelona instead of Detroit or New York, but I guess even in the waking world I wouldn't put it past an airline to do something ridiculous and illogical like that.

I thought it was very strange that in the entire check-in process, no one had asked to see my ID, and then it hit me... I forgot my passport. I checked my watch and saw that I only had 20 minutes before my flight departed, not nearly enough time to make it home and back again. (How one hour became 20 minutes is beyond me. Dream time is just tricky like that.) I was standing in the airport freaking out about how I was going to miss my flight to Barcelona, and lost all that money from my expensive plane ticket, and how could I have been so stupid to forget my passport...

And then I woke up.

You know that scene in Home Alone where they’re all running through the airport to get to the gate on time? I think that scene gives a pretty good idea of what my day was like. We got stuck in traffic on the way to the airport because of a car accident on 270. We finally arrived at the airport half an hour after I was supposed to check in for my flight. Luckily (sort of) there was a delay, so I wasn’t actually late.

Thursday was our final day in Ottawa. We checked out of our hotel in the morning, but luckily we were able to check all our bags in the cloakroom at the National Gallery. Roaming around Ottawa with a rolling suitcase all day did not seem like a very fun plan.

I thought there was a lot of interesting stuff to see at the National Gallery. They have a large section of Canadian Art, which was very cool since it was mostly artists I'm unfamiliar with. In addition to painting and sculpture, the Canadian Gallery includes some First Nations art and an entire chapel that was relocated to the National Gallery. I'm not usually big into contemporary art, but there were several pieces in that gallery that I enjoyed. One was a multi-room installation; one of the rooms had a disco ball on a see-saw operated by a pulley attached to the door. Pretty crazy! European and American Art had its own gallery as well, where I saw some works by artists I know and lots of St. Jerome's. Was someone in acquisitions at the National Gallery really into St. Jerome?

In between two stints at the National Library, we walked out to Rideau Hall, where the Canadian Governor General lives. Tours of the house aren't offered during the week, but the grounds are open to the public. We mostly admired the fall foliage and played with our cameras before heading back downtown.

All in all, it was a good trip, even though everything didn't necessarily follow the original plans. I saw some interesting new sights, learned a little bit more about Canada, and, of course, got to hang out with friends. I'm glad I decided to go instead of just sitting around my house for the entire week off!



That's me and Meghan standing in front of Parliament. There are some more photos (including the Alexandra bridge sign!) at my Flickr page, which I think you can access by clicking on the photo.