Riding with the Geek Squad October 31, 2005 ~ 10:34 am
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Joe-devil. He doesn’t like his costume, either.
Happy Samhain to all you Pagans out there…Happy Halloween to the rest of you. 
When I got on the subway after rehearsal last night, I noticed a large group of teenage boys in my car. This is something that will cause any seasoned MTA rider to groan inwardly and sit quietly; often teenage boys are insane on the subway, shouting, pushing each other, egging each other on, and generally trying to draw attention to how great they are. I hate large groups of teenagers on the subway.
So I sat down, pulled out my knitting, and pretended they weren’t there. At the same time, I couldn’t help listening to them. And after a few minutes, I realized they weren’t your average group of teenage boys.
“Remember when you guys were all decorating the church, and he made me go home to get the permission slip? Why did I need a permission slip? It was Sunday, I can be in a church.”
“Yeah, he’s an asshole of a scout leader. He’s mellowed out, though.”
Yes, that’s right, these boys were some of the geekiest of geeks: teenage Boy Scouts. And since they were traveling in a large group, they let their geek flags fly.
“Okay, people, listen up. If you are ever given the choice between Scout Camp, Eagle Camp, and CLT [note: I have no idea if these are the right letters, he was effectively speaking Greek to me], these are how you rank them. You want to go to CLT, Eagle Camp, and then if you can’t do those, Scout Camp.”
“But I have to go to regular summer camp!”
“That’s okay, all of those camps start the week after summer camp ends. I checked.”
And just when I thought I couldn’t be swimming in more geekiness, out comes this gem:
“Guys, for my birthday, we aren’t going to be riding a subway someplace. For my birthday, you can all just come over and we’ll play Risk.”
As if this were the funniest thing ever, the other seven guys in the group immediately let loose with the loudest bray of a geek laugh ever heard. Think Arvid from Head of the Class multiplied by seven, and you will have it.
They got off at the next stop, which was good. I don’t think the windows in the car would have withstood another laugh like that.
Piss Crusader and the Vet of Doooom October 28, 2005 ~ 11:47 am
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The Piss Crusader’s alter ego: Bat Cat!
Yay for Target for making “small dog” sized costumes that can be used to torture cats as well as dogs. Note that Jesse has no ears, because he wouldn’t hold still long enough for me to stick his ears through the ear holes. Crazy cat, it’s Halloween! Don’t you like your costume?
The answer to that is no. Or “About as much as I like the vet.” Mom and I thought that we had outsmarted the animal by putting Wee-Wee Pads in his carrier so I wouldn’t have to ruin anymore towels when Jesse peed on them from terror. (Have I mentioned how much he hates the vet?) Yesterday the little bugger did me one better, though. I brought his carrier into the bathroom, and as soon as he saw it he started crying. Then he ran away from me, lifted his tail, and peed on the bath mat because he was so scared. Of course after that, the Wee-Wee Mat stayed dry. Fuckin’ cat. I don’t know what his problem is - our vet is nice to him, but I guess he associates going to the vet with getting his blood drawn now, which can’t be fun. Yesterday Doc didn’t do that, so Jesse was okay. He’s on Baytril and Metronidazole, in the hopes that the two of them together will do what the Metro couldn’t do alone. If he’s not better in 7 days, I call Doc back, and we talk to an endocrinologist. Keep your fingers crossed that it doesn’t come to that; that sounds expensive.
In non-cat news, I’ve finished Big Brother’s Scarf (picture soon) and have moved on to a Harry Potter scarf for my favorite teenager. It’s knit in the round, so is promising to knit up fast, which is good. I’m going to spend some time this weekend with the Faroese Fuhgeddaboudit to see if I can make some progress on that and distract myself from these socks, which I now desperately want to make. Damn Rockstar socks.
And now I’m sitting back to see how Friday Indictment Day shapes up. I’m hoping for major fun, but no doubt I will be denied. I want the entire Administration to go down in a flaming heap, much like a pile of dominos being knocked over after being set afire with lighter fluid, but that’s probably too much to ask for. Still, a girl can hope…
Buh-bye, Harriet October 27, 2005 ~ 10:08 am
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Half-Nekkid in the rain - Rick at the Kissing Bridge, Ticonderoga, NY.
Happy Half-Nekkid Thursday, kids.
Another sunny, albeit cold day out. I’ll take it. I can wear more clothes to stay warm, I cannot manufacture sunshine out of my ass, sorry to disappoint.
Harriet Miers has withdrawn her nomination for the Supreme Court. Asshat is claiming that this is because Senators were asking for papers that they had no right to ask for, and Miers said she wanted to protect the independence of Executive Branch. That just gives me one more reason to be glad she stepped down. If she’s so worried about protecting the Executive Branch, wouldn’t that affect her judgments? Another Dubya crony is not what I want on the Supreme Court bench. And I still don’t see how being White House counsel prepared her in any way, shape, or form to be a Supreme Court Justice. Doesn’t matter now, I guess, but we’ll see what jackass Dubya nominates next.
In the meantime, I’m tired and in need of caffeine. This rehearsal schedule is wearing on me, and I’m glad I won’t be going in tonight after the Piss Crusader’s vet appointment. I think the cats, Rick, and I need a nice evening at home. Watching Degrassi.
Ahhhhh….Bach. October 26, 2005 ~ 3:49 pm
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Ticonderoga Falls. Brought to you by those guys that make pencils.
Remember the episode of M*A*S*H where Radar is trying to impress his date but doesn’t want her to know how uncultured he is, so his comment is “Ahhhh…Bach”? People ought to stick to that comment, because the stupidity is showing around here.
Today was flu shot day at our health clinic. Fat Ass came into my office after she had gotten hers and said “It protects against bird flu!” Um, no. No, it doesn’t. “But it’s a flu shot!” Which protects against certain strains of the flu, not all of them, and certainly not bird flu. I need a shot to protect me against rampant stupidity, that’s what I need.
Since they didn’t have one of those, I settled for the flu vaccine. I don’t really consider myself sickly or fragile (even though Rick insists on telling me I’m a “delicate little flower”), but I do seem to get sick a lot in the winter. Probably because I get whatever his kids bring home from school in addition to whatever is going around the college. I generally don’t realize how often I’ve been sick until someone points it out, mainly because I don’t let it slow me down. A cold? Oh, well, still have rehearsal to go to. The flu? Yep, gotta get another list of graduates approved. I’ll take the day off that I feel the shittiest, but I’ve got too much to do to slow down. Besides, I’d rather use those sick days to do something fun. I believe in using them for mental health days instead of sick days.
Speaking of mental health, mine is improved today. Of course the only person who would appreciate the reason behind this is Gooch, and I haven’t seen him around lately. But I will risk everyone else’s ridicule and admit that my improved outlook is in part due to The N showing reruns of Degrassi Junior High and Degrassi High late at night. My TiVo overfloweth, and I get a little fix before I have to be at rehearsal and then again when I come home. I watch that show and remember when polka-dots were in, when high hair was stylish, when girls wore biker shorts under their shirts; ahhhh…the 80s. Rick has made fun of me repeatedly for watching so much Degrassi, but that’s what happens when your boyfriend is old. He just doesn’t get as excited about 80s television as you do. Damn generation gap.
Grey and depressed October 25, 2005 ~ 4:05 pm
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Lake George, NY
It’s grey and rainy outside, I woke up to a puddle on the couch (thank Goddess for the couch condom) and a puddle of nastiness on the carpet courtesy of the Piss Crusader. It’s official, he’s still sick, and we have an appointment with the vet on Thursday to try and figure out what’s going on with the diarrhea. Is it too much to ask that he get better? I try to take good care of him, but this is getting depressing - I’ve lost count of all our vet visits in the past year. It’s really frustrating.
And now I’ve got an email in my inbox informing me that we’ve just passed the 2,000 mark on American troops that have been killed. I know too many people who have been sent to Iraq, are there now, or will be going within the next six months. It’s pointless, and yet the Bush camp and the war hawks still try to pretend that they’re not sacrificing these lives for oil. There is no other reason for us to be over there - democracy for the Iraqis? Bullshit. WMDs? Bullshit. Rebuilding the Middle East? Bullshit. No matter what spin they put on it this week, the stench of bullshit remains.
And it’s still pouring outside. October 2005 is now officially New York City’s rainiest month ever. EVER. This is not helping my mood.
Pain and stupidity October 24, 2005 ~ 2:58 pm
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A little fall color. Lake George, NY
This morning my supervisor told me that Martyr’s son, who shall henceforth be known as Paranoid, had decided that I was giving him forms without the proper signatures on puprpose. You see why we’re calling him Paranoid now. He is convinced that the world is out to get him, mostly because he goes through life purposely trying to screw everyone else over. I explained to my boss that I am not like him (which she knew) and that if I did give him a form without a signature, it was probably a form for a student who is dying, whose graduation we are trying to push through before she dies. Then I thought about it, and I realized that “Dipshit, the form I gave you didn’t have to go through the Graduate Dean’s Office because the student is in the School of Education, they sign their own forms, and you stupid fuck, the School of Ed’s Dean signed off on it and gave it to me personally and you saw her do it. Gaaaah. The stupidity really gets to me sometimes.
Another thing that got to me this weekend was rehearsal. Hours and hours of blocking. And adjusting the blocking. And adjusting it again. I wanted to slit my wrists. I’m in the rehearsal to watch the progression of the script, not to watch blocking. And even our Assistant Director, Lori, bailed out on the blocking rehearsals. I knit throughout, since I can watch rehearsal and knit at the same time. I think it irritated the director a little bit, but since in the end I could recall more problems with the script than he could, and more accurately at that, he couldn’t say too much. I ended up getting most of my brother’s scarf done, so that was one good thing to come out of the painful process. Hopefully this week will go a little bit faster. Or else I will kill someone.
Knitting Friday October 21, 2005 ~ 2:50 pm
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My sister-in-law’s Christmas present, The Sophisticated Scarf from Stitch N Bitch Nation
After almost two weeks of no knitting because of the cold from hell and a visit from mom, I am back on the ball. I’m trying to regain ground so that I can actually get everything in the sidebar done by Christmas, and I’m starting to believe I might. I finished Lori’s Bitchy Beanie this week, and am 1/3 of the way through my brother’s Christmas scarf. I actually knit all through rehearsal last night - they were setting blocking so there was no need to look at my script, and I can knit this scarf and watch other stuff at the same time, so I wasn’t missing anything. I like the way it’s turning out - it’s a simple k2, p2 rib, striping two shades of blue together. A manly scarf, and more important, a scarf that my red-green colorblind brother will be able to really see. He told me blue is his favorite color, so hopefully he’ll like it.
Blue is also my favorite color. Here’s a scarf I made for me:
That’s Jesse’s tail in the picture with it. He would wander through just as I was taking the picture. Got the pattern from Knitty.com, and it’s a 44-line repeat pattern. Believe it or not, the wave pattern comes from moving the knits and purls a little in each line. I’m digging it, and since I made it out of merino, it should be plenty warm this winter.
This weekend, a trip to the cheap LYS with a yarn enabler friend of mine. We ran into each other at the theater last night and only talked for a few minutes before realizing that we were both going to P&S Fabrics on Sunday, both had to be at the theater around 1 (me for rehearsal, she to stage manage a show), and it was a really short jump to “You wanna meet there and then go to lunch?”. It’s good to have friends who knit.
Tonight, alone time with Rick for the first time since we got back from Lake George. I cannot wait. Hopefully a nice dinner out and a movie this evening, and then tomorrow my first chance to sleep in all week. Life will be good.
Thoughts October 20, 2005 ~ 9:19 am
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The belly ring leans a little to the left, just like me. Happy Half-Nekkid Thursday!
- Mom gave me a gift card for Starbucks when she was up here. I used it last night to try a Pumpkin Spice Latte. While it didn’t taste like either Pumpkin or Spice, when I took off the lid and looked at it, the color was reminiscent of something I scooped out of the litterbox when Jesse was having intestinal problems.
- Speaking of things that look and smell foul, the Harriet Meirs nomination is getting worse at every turn. Not only does this woman have absolutely NO experience as a judge, not only has she represented the White House and Bush as a lawyer, not only does she freely admit that she would overturn abortion rights, she thinks she can get away with answering the questionnaire the Senate gave her with “No.” I’m sorry, Harriet, but those are not Yes or No questions. They are questions about your philosophy and affiliations. Answer the damn questions, bitch.
- Mom and I saw Good Night and Good Luck while she was up here this weekend. It’s short, to the point, and brilliant. I think every American should watch this and realize that we’re going through another era of McCarthyism, it’s just masquerading under the name “War On Terror.” Now where’s another Murrow to speak up for all of us “traitors to America”? Go see it NOW. And listen to this NPR interview with George Clooney and find out how brilliant he is. I had no idea.
- Rehearsals are going well, but I am tired. I wake up at 7 to give the cat his shot and don’t get back to bed until 1 AM. I am too old for this work one full-time job then go into rehearsal for five hours shit. Good thing I’m getting paid. And that I’m taking tomorrow night off.
- My ten-year high school reunion is Thanksgiving weekend: a dinner-dance at the town fire hall. Oh, Western PA idea of formal occasions, how I haven’t missed thee. Julie will not be attending, due to rehearsals for an off-Broadway play. That sounds important, doesn’t it?
Bribery October 19, 2005 ~ 11:52 am
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The Tiki Hotel - Lake George, NY is full of such oddities. What you’re not seeing is the 25′ tall metal palm trees in front.
How my boyfriend’s mind works:
Julie: Maybe Friday night we can go see a movie. Wanna see Capote?
Rick: NO.
Julie: But it looks interesting!
Rick: I hate that actor. We can go see another movie. Like maybe that new movie with Mr. Darcy in it.
Julie: He said to bribe her.
Rick: Well, yeah.
Rush, rush October 18, 2005 ~ 2:31 pm
Posted by Julie in : Daily Grind , comments closedNo, not the Paula Abdul song. That phrase sums up my weekend - a constant rush that was over in the blink of an eye.
Mom came up Friday evening, and brought me a carload of stuff because she’s good like that. Kitty litter, a little cat-bench so the bastards can sit in the window, a shower organizer, and my LitterMaid electric litter box - oh, how we love that thing. So of course I spent Friday night assembling various things.
Saturday we went into Manhattan to collect Rick and the Youngest (the Oldest was at a bat mitzvah) before we met up with Vince and his family. New York City transportation apparently hates Vince, so we finally got together an hour or so after we had planned, but after nine straight days of rain, the New York City contingent was happy to sit in the sun and soak up the rays while we waited. We had a fun jaunt through the Museum of Natural History together before we had to pick the Oldest up, although I had forgotten that kids do museums differently than adults do. Kids rush from one thing to another, looking at whatever interests them, disregarding the rest, and not stopping to read about the exhibits. As a result of the three kids driving our expedition, we got through at least half of the museum in two hours. Not bad, although we didn’t get to talk a lot as we followed in their wake. We did, however, get to take blogger meet-up photos, kids included:
The Youngest got bored waiting for her father to take the second picture.
The next day was spent doing laundry, grocery shopping, and the Queen concert. We left well ahead of time to get to the Meadowlands early (or so we thought), but because of a huge traffic jam to get into the Lincoln Tunnel we didn’t get there until 7:15. Vince had been waiting there for an hour by that point (sorry, Vince!) but the doors didn’t open for another 15 minutes, so we got to chat a bit more. I bragged about the concert yesterday, and the photos will be up in Flickr soon, but here’s a preview:
Brian on the big screen
We got more of a chance to talk after the concert when we drove Vince back to his hotel, with a slight detour, but I could’ve easily chatted with him for a lot longer. Vince is funny, nice, and has seen more heavy metal concerts than I have, which is saying something. I didn’t get much of a chance to talk to his wife (Saturday morning on the Intrepid wiped her out), but she struck me as very sweet. Both Vince’s boys are cute and friendly, and were very cool about meeting up with perfect strangers for the afternoon. The Youngest was excited to find out that they don’t live that far from one of her grandmothers, and they seemed to get along fine. For my first blogger meet-up that involved both kids and a concert, it went amazingly well. I’d love to hang out with all of them again, which just goes to prove my belief that all bloggers are good people. None of you have disappointed thus far, and I’m looking forward to meeting more of you in the future.
