Because spring is coming, I am a bit distracted

Things I'm excited about:

• cold press coffee
• sitting on my front porch with no shoes on
• sunglasses
• walking Raleigh after work and having it still be light out
• toenail polish
• sleeping with the windows open

Things I need to do in anticipation:

• buy flip flops (the national shoe of BRAZIL)
• put the screen back in that window (yeah, screw you mosquitoes)
• buy something that falls between heavy down comforter and light cotton blanket

In case of zombie attack

Elise laughed out loud while reading my most recent post, and I feel obligated to mention that I wasn't just "wondering what would happen if the next train that arrived came full of zombies" -- I was decidedly wondering out loud. Thanks for putting up with me, E-girl.

They're zombies! They're strippers! They're zombie strippers!

I finally saw "Zombie Strippers" with Elise over at Sarah's place tonight (tagline: "They'll dance for a fee, but devour you for free").

It's pretty much what you'd think: a zombie infection gets out of a lab and finds its way to a strip club. There, the strippers become infected one by one, where they become huge hits with the clients because when they become zombified, in addition to craving brains, they have an overwhelming desire to strip.

We left a bit early because we wanted to be sure to catch the train back to our house before the stations closed at midnight. I confess that I spent much of the wait for the Green Line to Ft. Totten wondering what would happen if the next train that arrived came full of zombies - where would be the best place to run to? I thought that we should run down the other track to the next station, but Elise pointed out that that station could have already been infected, which case we'd be cornered. We think there must be some sort of exit hatch between stations from underground. Then we'd pretty much hightail it to the woods. I wondered what would happen if zombies took over the entire world and turned everyone zombie - can zombies survive without eating? I mean, obviously they're dead already so "survival" is a moot point, but then why the desire to consume flesh in the first place? What drives the need for brains?

These are the important questions in life.

Here's where the adventure starts. Turns out Metro was closing 20 minutes early tonight, THANKS FOR THE ADVANCE WARNING. By the time we got to Ft. Totten to catch the Red Line, there were no more Red Line trains coming. In fact, a horde of cops had already arrived to help shut down the station. Additionally, there were no 80 buses predicted, and the cab company was experiencing an extremely high call volume, probably due to people all over the city being stranded when Metro closed 20 minutes early with no notice. We called a cab, and eventually got through, but had no idea how long it was going to take to actually arrive. Also, NO ONE we know has a car, so we couldn't call and beg a ride from anyone. Ft. Totten is also pretty isolated, so we didn't want to go wandering around in the middle of the night looking for a cab.

So we took the ridiculous route: I reserved one of the Zipcars at Ft Totten, drove us to Brookland, where Elise reserved one of the cars there, then we both, in our respective Zipcars, drove back to Ft Totten, dropped off the truck, and I got in the car with Elise. We had almost an hour to kill before the car was due back, though, so we went for a joy ride down North Cap, along the Mall, around the Washington monument and the Lincoln memorial, back along the Mall, past the Capitol, and up to Brookland just in time to get the car back without getting a $50 fine. What follows are some pictures I took from the car while Elise zoomed around. Crisp lines and clear colors are the main priority in the pictures I took. Obviously.

Then we came home and had milkshakes and a Dorito/sour cream & onion potato chip combo while we got caught up on 30 Rock and Modern Family. I call that a good night.

This fills me with glee

Do you see that? Do you see that it is 70 degrees right now? Is that legal? Can that possibly be allowed? Am I going to go to jail because I just walked around in 3/4 length sleeves and I was possibly a bit TOO WARM and I got an iced latte and it didn't make me shiver?

I found some numbers

I put them in a box with some shredded paper.
I wrapped the box in green.

I sent them to some friends who got married. Oh, but first I took some pictures.

Potty humor

Stephanie Wu: clashing morning schedules is the worst

me: elise showers at night which makes it all work

 also the fact that we know each other well enough for her to just pee and brush teeth while i'm in the shower

no pooping is my only rule

Stephanie Wu: hahah

good rule.

me: seriously. i don't want to have to smell it while i'm washing my hair

Stephanie Wu: oh but what if

your intention is to pee 

and then once you're on the toilet

me: too bad

   hold it

Stephanie Wu: you realize you need to shit

me: tough shit

(har)

I love it when the sky is already light when I wake up.

This morning made me so excited for spring: sunglasses, sandals, loose tops without an undershirt tucked into my pants, walking my dog in daylight... I'm trying really hard not to think about fruit yet because it's too early for what is an annual obsession of mine. See, I don't buy much fruit besides bananas and citrus all winter, partly as a cost-effective measure, a little bit out of a concern for buying things more locally and reducing impact on the planet (because bananas grow in Maryland, duh), and mostly because you want me to pay $6 for something that is hard and doesn't hardly taste like anything? What?

But fruit is my favorite food, maybe even before cake and Ethiopian food, so every year when there are flowers starting to bloom on trees and the sun decides we can be friends again I start thinking HOLY SHIT cherries and peaches and strawberries --

Shit, I got to stop. It's only February.  Let's just talk about how amazing it is that my west facing bedroom isn't 100% dark when my alarm goes off. And how pretty the early morning light is, and how it makes me not hate my life so much when I wake up in the morning.

I'll leave you with this, the overall sound of which pretty much sums up how I feel about spring. When you listen to it, pretend you can feel the sun kissing the back of your neck and that you're wearing a t-shirt and that you don't have to go to work and sit on the grass instead and drink ICED coffee because it's warm enough that you don't necessarily want hot coffee. Yeah, think about that.

(Does anyone know if you can embed songs on Blogger?)

Still sad

I recently made a donation to the Washington Office on Latin America in honor of Alicia Emelina de Garcia, co-founder of CoMadres. Today I got an email from them asking if I would like them to send a note to Alicia telling her that I had made a gift in her name, and I had to explain that no, that wouldn't be necessary, because she passed away over the summer.




Link to my Haverford blog from one of the summers I went to El Salvador.

Throwitmomthrowitplease!

This morning on my walk with Raleigh, I found a sodden, flat, falling apart soccer ball on the street. I had a crummy old soccer ball at the Channing house, and Raleigh played with it until I threw it out because he had torn off all the leather and was tearing it up and leaving little bits of black rubber all over the yard.

Anyway, I dribbled this soccer ball I found onto the sidewalk and my dog FLIPPED OUT. He was so excited. "Mom are you going to throw it just throw it mom kick it my way are you going to please please please?" He carried that ball in his mouth the whole way home. This is a dog who will happily carry his frisbee for me... for about 10 feet, until he smells something interesting and nonchalantly drops it on the sidewalk mid stride for me to deal with. But this ball, he carried it the whole way, across streets and everything. He looked ridiculous. I didn't have my phone or camera on the walk, but I put him out in the yard with it when we got back because he was still so excited. See:

Sorry for the crappy quality, I was shooting through the window so that he wouldn't spend the whole time thrusting it against my legs in an attempt to get me to try to kick it away from him.

Also, here are a few things that make me happy about my house:

Raleigh's crate, where he will only voluntarily go when he knows I'm leaving (because then I give him a treat), is one of Chloe's favorite places in the house. And why not? It's soft and right next to the radiator. So what if it smells like dog.

We have a lot of bikes.

Chloe also really likes to sleep on top of the radiator. She'll frequently curl up in a ball with her face pressed against the wall or partially under the little shelves we've got there. I especially like this picture because she looks really stupid.