fauxklore | Entries tagged with calendar

Weather: It's March and it is 70+ degrees out right now, which is absurd. Of course, they are talking about possible snow for Friday, sigh. I'd rather we had unseasonably warm weather on the weekend, when I could take advantage of it.

Calendars: Except, really, I can't as my weekends are completely booked up all month, even if I color-coded one of them incorrectly on my calendar. (I have a ridiculously complicated method of coloring squares on a year-long calendar, with multiple highlighters intended to show everything from holidays to vacations to travel that I don't need vacation days for to local commitments like theatre tickets. This is supposed to keep me from double-booking myself. In practice, it creates an attractive product, but I still double-book myself.)

General chaos: I pay most of my bills automatically, but there are a couple I write checks for. In order to pay the bills, alas, I first have to find the bills. I used to be so organized. I think I never really got things back together when I bought my condo. Which was, admittedly, several years ago. I really need to devote some time to getting things together. I did go through a bunch of unopened mail last night, but only made it about halfway through. I will, however, note that for dead people, my parents sure get an awful lot of life insurance solicitations.

I was going to write a real entry last night, but LJ was being flaky and I am too busy to fuss with it. So you are getting a brief note this morning and will get something more substantial tonight.

That being too busy has something to do with the holiday season, but as much to do with the end of the secular year. The seasonal part is the need to: 1) finish making something a friend commissioned (which is going well, but still takes work) and 2)get cards written and mailed. I also realized that the potluck next week is complicated by my having another party to go to (this one related to the Artisphere Yarn Bomb project) the night before.

I also have all the end of year begging letters to sort through, plus a massive amount of filing I have been ignoring. If I were staying in town, there would be lots of time to do all that. But if I were staying in town, I wouldn't be me.

I have gotten three invitations this week to things this coming Saturday night. I am already committed to a storytelling event - and, in fact, the department of shameless self-promotion needs to remind you to come to the Better Said Than Done Holiday Show at Epicure Cafe in Fairfax Saturday night at 7 p.m. Note that I will also be going to the Voices in the Glen story swap at the Beltsville Library at 2 p.m. that day, ensuring that I will not manage to read the entire Sunday Washington Post before, say, Tuesday, never mind going to any of the three other events I'd like to be at.

Now it appears that everybody in the known universe is scheduling things for the last weekend in April. I would like to do the one day hike of the C&O canal towpath, which is insane and might not be possible, given the foot problems I have been having, but I still want to.

I would also like to go to the local edition of Frequent Traveler University. (And, yes, I still have to write up the L.A. FTU.)

I would also like to go to the Northlands Storytelling Conference in Wisconsin.

Today, I found out that the next USA Science and Engineering Festival is also that weekend. Aaaargh!

I also found out that the travel show is the same weekend in March as the VASA Gathering, though I suppose I can do both if I manage to get myself to leave Lynchburg early enough Sunday morning.

Somewhere I also have to find a moment or three to spend at home. Or have fewer interests.

I actually had a quiet week last week. That is, quiet for me, meaning I only had things to do on four days.

Restaurant Week: On Tuesday night, I went out to dinner with friends from flyertalk. Greg always makes a couple of reservations for Restaurant Week and, even though it was the less exciting menu, the one at The Prime Rib was the one I was free for. The food was about as expected (classic American food, prepared well), the atmosphere is nice (albeit a bit stuffy) and the restaurant week deal is good value. But the service was indifferent. For example, they didn't ask if we wanted drinks and, in fact, did not bring a wine list until explicitly asked to. More egregiously, they didn't ask if anyone wanted coffee or tea with dessert. Overall, things felt rushed. On the plus side, they did offer us separate checks. Still, we tend to remember the service deficiencies and they certainly influence our decisions on where to go in the future, including non-restaurant week meals.

Women Who Changed Things and Died Last Week: That drink I practically had to beg for was a Campari and soda, which I ordered in memory of Helen Gurley Brown, who had once recommended it as classy. (It is something I get from time to time, more often at Italian restaurants.) I have mixed feelings about the her. I think that making people aware that women actually like sex was a good thing. And some of her work emphasized the need for women to take responsibility for various areas of their lives, including finances. But I also think she (via Cosmopolitan) never challenged too many aspects of gender roles in our culture.

I also have mixed feelings about Phyllis Diller. I recognize that she was one of a very few women who were successful as stand-up comics in her day. But so much of her comedy was self-deprecating. I'm not a fan of insult comedy and it can be painful when the person being insulted is the one telling the jokes.

The Men of Celebrity Death Watch: Harry Harrison wrote science fiction. Ron Palillo played Horshack on Welcome Back, Kotter. William Windom was a character actor who starred in the much funnier sitcom, My World and Welcome to It which was based on James Thurber's work. Scott McKenzie performed San Francisco (Be Sure to War Flowers in Your Hair), a song I am vaguely embarrassed to admit I like. I also like Kokomo which he wrote for the Beach Boys.

The death of Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, raises interesting questions about the political future of that country. Mr. Meles had initially helped Eritrean rebels and then, when in office, pursued the border war with Eritrea, so there could be some more turmoil in a region that has plenty already.

Finally, Johnny Pesky was a Red Sox hero, as much for his continued support of the team after he was no longer playing as for his performance during his career. That kind of association of a baseball player with a single team is rare in this day and age. And, by all accounts, Pesky was a true gentleman. Times are sad enough at Fenway this season (sigh).

Speaking of Baseball: I went to watch the Nationals play the Mets on Friday night. This was a case of divided loyalties for me, as I grew up an ardent Mets fan but I live here now and I am happy to see the Nats doing well. The game wasn't brilliant on either side, frankly, though I was pretty favorably impressed with Ryan Zimmerman's fielding. I had a good time and most of the rain held off until the game was over. It was also retro cap night, allowing me to add to my collection of ballpark gimmes. By the way, I am leaning towards getting season tickets for next year.

As If I Am Not Busy Enough: Speaking of season tickets, I ordered a subscription to the Washington Ballet. Those of you who have heard my rant on the subject of Swan Lake, the most nonsensical story ever to be immortalized choreographically, may now faint. Those of you who have never heard my rant on Swan Lake will have an opportunity on September 19th when I am performing the story it is part of at Friendship Heights Village Center in Maryland. Note that the series I subscribed to does not include any Tchaikovsky.

Story Swap: I hosted this months story swap on Saturday night. That meant spending most of my spare time during the week and all day Saturday cleaning up my place. Amazingly, it is possible to fit 20 people into my living room. We had a good mix of stories, including a lovely Ethiopian version of The Lion's Whisker told by Chris, who came all the way from Baltimore. I told Sawing Off Manhattan for the first time in a while and I think it went over fairly well. As always, storytelling continues to be fun.

Knitting Group: Finally, I went to knitting group on Sunday. I worked a little on each of two projects. I also showed off the pearl yarn and the merino I'd bought in Australia. The conversational highlight was the rather diplomatic statement regarding one person helping another which ran, "You didn't screw it up. You just didn't do it right."

I've been absurdly busy but I did want to post at least a partial update before I go off-line for a few days.

Celebrity Death Watch: Major celebrity death of the past several days is Sidney Harman. Aside from having made lots of money in audio equipment and then gone on to buy Newsweek for a dollar, his major claim to fame in the D.C. area is that the theatre used by the Shakespeare Theatre Company is named for him. He and his wife, former Congresswoman Jane Harman, were long term patrons of the arts here.

Random Trivia: 14% of our troops who have been medically evacuated from Afghanistan have had altitude sickness.

Taxes: Virginia ended their free file program after last year. The idea was that people with lower incomes would get to use commercial providers free, while others could pay to file electronically. Being a cheapskate and noting that the feds at least have free fillable forms, I intended to file on paper. But Intuit saw a marketing opportunity and provided a prepaid code for all Virginia taxpayers, making it free to use their turbotax product. This meant that I used turbotax for the first time in my life (for both federal and state taxes). I found it fairly annoying that things are arranged in a different order than they are on the forms and call for more information. For example, I don't have to enter the info from 1099-INT and 1099-OID forms in separate sections on Schedule B, instead of just separate lines. Nor do I have to list each of my charitable contributions with the exact date. Overall, I wasn't super impressed and wouldn't bother to pay for the software. People who are less compulsively organized or more intimidated by tax forms may find the experience more satisfying.

Social Media: I've been getting some odd LJ comments. They aren't obvious spam, but they just say things like "this was an interesting topic." Which, of course, is completely generic and doesn't bear any particular relationship to anything I wrote. In all cases, when I look at the commenter's LJ, they have no entries, no friends list, and just a bunch of comments. Has anybody else experienced this and what could somebody be aiming to gain out of it?

House Envy: I went to a friend's housewarming party this past Sunday afternoon. He bought a condo in Crystal City towards the end of last year and moved in right at the beginning of January. He has already replaced the dining room floor, decorated with his vast collection of antiques (e.g. hung several old maps, arranged a lot of glass objects in curio cabinets he inherited from his greatgrandparents, etc.), arranged an assortment of stuffed animals on the guest bed, and so on. More to the point, he appears to have actually unpacked everything. Now, admittedly I didn't open up closets and maybe he has a messy storage locker somewhere, but I've lived in my condo for over 3 years now and my den remains the Black Hole of Vienna and I haven't hung most of my pictures. (Partly that is because I am looking for some display cabinets and haven't had time to find ones I like.)

He also has an awesome view of the airport, the river and much of the District. There's a part of me that envies the view but I made a concious choice of where to live and I prefer my neighborhood. I realized that much of my envy had to do with the orderliness of his place. And that is something that is within my control. I'm not going to ever achieve a clutter-free life (nor would I really want to) but I can do better.

Travel Planning: I believe I've mentioned before that I am planning a trip to Iceland and the Faroe Islands. The news this week noted that the Phallological Museum in Iceland has finally gotten a human specimen. This sounds like such a bizarre museum that it may be worth adding to my itinerary.

Reviews to Come: I saw Pink Martini (with the NSO Pops) on Wednesday night. Last night, I drove to Herndon for the Elden Street Players production of the musical, Thrill Me: The Story of Leopold and Loeb. Expect reviews some time next week.

Upcoming Calendar Items: I have mailed in my registration fee and made my travel arrangements for Convidence. On a completely different note, I have almost decided to enter the 2nd annual Virginia Tall Tales Championship.

I stumbled upon a note I wrote to myself that says, "You can't stop people from thinking." This may be the least puzzling note to myself that I have found in months.

One of the things that annoys me is that everything happens at the same time. That is why, for example, I will be nervously trying to finish a briefing dry run on Friday morning in time to get over to the Department of Commerce. But the specific things that are happening at the same time that I may have found a solution to are the Virginia Storytelling Gathering and the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. (Those are also the same weekend as Sharing the Fire, which I really need to get to one of these years, especially given how many New England storytellers I know.) Being on the board of VASA makes this a no-brainer and I am committed to the Gathering. I've even already paid my registration.

Today I got the registration reminder postcard from the ACPT. And it reminded me that one can play online or by mail. It doesn't quite count, of course, but it would be useful for the practice since there may actually be a year that I don't have a schedule conflict.

If we only had teleportation, these situations would be much easier to deal with. But I am constrained by current technology.

1) I am taking a redeye home from the left coast on the evening of November 5th. I'll get to IAD about 7 a.m. Which is fine since the reason for taking the redeye back is that I have tickets to a show at the Kennedy Center at 7:30 p.m.

The dilemma comes in because the 6th is also the day of the VASA Saturday Storytelling Series in Lorton. I will miss the evening concert, but I can make it to the daytime workshops. The tricky question is whether I should attempt to go for the whole daytime part or just a little of it. Right now I am leaning towards doing two workshops or, more precisely, the afternoon (1 p.m.) workshop and the story swap which follows it. The afternoon swap is scheduled to end about 4:15 and it is, theoretically, about a half hour drive home, so I that should give me plenty of time.

2) The thornier dilemma involves Gilbert and Sullivan. One of my life list goals involves seeing every G&S operetta. I don't count Thespis since it was lost and whatever productions there are of it are attempted restorations with dubious origins. But I do count Utopia Limited which is not performed very often.

The dilemma is that the New York Gilbert and Sullivan players are performing Utopia Limited for one night only at Symphony Space. It is November 21st and I don't actually have anything on my calendar that day. The problem is that it's a Sunday and I do have a commitment on that Saturday night. Going up on Sunday is no problem, as the show is at 5 p.m., but a train back here that night afterwards would get in after the metro stops running, meaning a very pricy cab ride home. I could come back in the morning. In fact, there is a 3 a.m. train which would work. But what would I do between the end of the show and when the train leaves, which is hardly enough time to make a hotel room worthwhile?

I could, in theory, fly and an early flight in the morning would be okay, but the fares are rather absurdly high right now.

Complicating things further, I am going up to NY later that week anyway, since my mother coerced me into a Thanksgiving visit. So coing into work late on Monday is something of a non-starter, especially since that week is traditionally a very hectic one here, with a high probability of lots of last minute reviews of lengthy budget documents.

Because I was hosting a story swap last night, I spent much of the day going through the scraps of paper that seem to accumulate on my dining room table and, alas, the floor of the study nook. I was trying to be good and actually handle them, instead of just tossing them in the box of shame to deal with later.

So here are some odds and ends from things I scribbled down for some reason or other.

1) I have no idea why I wrote down the word "perissodactyla." I just looked it up and it refers to odd-toed ungulates, e.g. horses and rhinoceroses and quaggas. Was there something in the news about them roughly a year ago July?

2) I also have no idea why I wrote "Bellhorn 2004" in my planner a few weeks ago. Yes, Mark Bellhorn played for the Red Sox starting in that year, but I can't imagine why I was thinking about him. (He was an interesting player - led the league in strikeouts that year, but became a real hero in the World Series.)

3) I have become a big fan of Christoph Niemann's Abstract City blog in the NY Times. His August 3rd visual diary of a flight from NY to Berlin via London is brilliant.

4) I missed seeing Red Green talk in Frederick a couple of weeks ago, but I was amused that he also made an appearance at a hardware store in Bethesda, where he autographed rolls of duct tape.

5) Most of the strange, unexplained numbers in my planner are phone numbers. Some are not. I am fairly sure I wrote down 16,000,000,000 because one of my colleagues could not figure out how many zeros there were in billion.

6) I was reviewing a document (having to do with an international joint project) recently that included a requirement to "repatriate data." I understood what it meant, but I found the usage to be a bit odd. On the other hand, I'm not sure I could think of a better way to say that the country that provided the sensor should get the data from that sensor.

7) I have completely lost control of my calendar. (Admittedly, that assumes that I ever had control of it). Does anybody know why I have blocked off the weekend of April 8-10 next year?

8) Speaking of the absurdity of my calendar, I need to find a weekend in November to go up to New York so I can see The Language Archive at Roundabout and The Scottsboro Boys. The former is about a subject (saving dying languages) I'm interested in. The latter is a Kander and Ebb musical with John Cullum.

9) Here is a language related link - the OED in limerick form. That the "O" stands for "Omnificent", not "Oxford" does not lessen the charm.

10) Moose can get arthritis. I have no idea why I think that is interesting, but I do.

11) I am not sure whether the credit card lightbulb is absurdly brilliant or merely absurd. It would probably need to produce more lumens than it does to be absurdly brilliant.

12) Lori Berenson is back in jail, the Peruvian government having bowed to public opinion. I'm okay with that, but her son is apparently with her for the remaining five years of her sentence. I admit that I don't really know how Peruvian prisons work, but what about the boy going to school?

13) I had this rather amusing conversation with Alaska Air (abbreviated AS below) this week:

Me: I'd like to make a partner reservation on Air France.

AS: Where would you like to go?

Me: I'd like to do an open jaw. I want to fly from Washington Dulles into Bamako, Mali and return from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

AS: Are those both in France?

I explained that, er, no, they are both in Africa. (And, yes, I got the tickets on the dates I wanted and am well on the way to making my land arrangements. I am actually going to Timbuktu, which is something I have wanted to do my entire life!)

14) The Wall Street Journal had an interesting obituary on July 16th of the traditional mariner / navigator, Tau Pilau. Unfortunately, I can't find the article on-line.

By the way, the story swap went well, despite a phone problem meaning I had to go downstairs to let people in. (The buzzer system is tied to the phone, which hangs up after about 3 seconds.) Ten people is not a huge number, but is just about what is comfortable in my living room. There was a good mix of traditional stories and personal stories. I told "Why I'm Not a Millionaire" which went over well. One person left his backpack behind and I had to make a quick call for him to return for it. I only just now realized that another person left a tupperware behind and I'll have to see what she wants me to do about returning it.