lyric of the day:

i swear when i grow up i won't just buy you a rose, i will buy the flower shop and you will never be lonely.

five reasons why i am part of the happiest group of sisters in the world

1. we laugh a lot:

2. sometimes we play dress up with glasses and popped-out lenses and big black hats.

3. we have a creek in our backyard.

4. rosie always makes gross faces in the backgrounds of pictures. (sorry for calling your faces gross, rosie, but there really is no other word for it.)

5. sometimes, on really special nights, melissa will dress up in a zorro costume and chase grace through the house. her eyes often flash red on such occasions.

awesome story:

so i'm at the outlet mall. i'm doing my thing, buying stuff, you know, and i'm walking across the hall to another store. out of the corner of my eye, i see this girl that i know from somewhere--

(sloowwww dowwwwn for mental dialogue)

you know how sometimes when someone is familiar to you, you have some emotion tied to them, that kind of helps you place where you met them before? for example, i re-met this guy since i've been out here in d.c. and we have NO IDEA how we know each other, but i have really negative latent feelings towards him. (i haven't told him this yet.) the odd thing is, he is the nicest guy...so i can't figure out why my subconscious has tied such things to his face. maybe he stole my parking place or something once. anyways, this girl at the mall--i have totally positive feelings towards her. like long-lost-friend feelings. subconsciously i feel really excited to see her again! not that i can quite place where i know her from, but whatever my history with her, it was a good one.

(speed up to real time)

so being the friendly person that i am, i smile and wave at her. i'm about to say hi when i realize i am looking in a mirror. the girl is ME.

A-MAZING.

and that's all i have to say about that.

the grand old seat of precious freedom and democracy

adventures lately:

antique & boutique shopping in old town alexandria

breakfast at eastern market with kim and chris, my shakespeare friends

(as i was walking around eastern market, guess who i spotted! "husband", walking kingsley! i did one of those, "oh hi!" as if you're running into an old friend, and then realized where i knew him from and that he would have no idea who i was....awkward. p.s. taza and husband, i think you two are darling.)

library of congress

(sidenote: when i first walked into this building i started giggling i was so happy! the world's largest library! the building is breathtaking.)

the capitol building

(heather gave us a behind-the-scenes VIP tour: these pictures were taken behind the "no admittance" lines--you are getting priveleged looks at the inner workings of the capitol building!)

(the washington monument from the capitol building)

girls' night at ted's montana grill.

(after shopping the outlet malls, this lovely table of lovely ladies ordered plates and plates of chili cheese fries and downed them all. and then went to the parking lot to jump around.)

the fourth of lovely july

it is hard to take time to write when i'm having so much fun gallavanting around our nation's capitol! thus, two+ weeks late, i write about the fourth of july:

on the third, we went to the rehearsal of the capitol's fourth of july concert. there were so many people! and free water bottles everywhere. reba mcentire sang, and my favorite: lang lang played rachmaninoff's 18th variation from rhapsody on a theme of paganini. that is my song. i may or may not have squealed with delight.

with my good friend susie!

on the fourth, i met up with some friends on the national mall to watch the fireworks. there were thousands of people. we camped at the stairs of the lincoln early in the afternoon and did some crosswords to help pass the time.

the washington monument (if you look carefully, you can see the capitol building to the left!)

the steps of the lincoln

and we're off!

as for what it's like being here on the fourth of july, i'll just say this: add it to your bucket lists. there is an excitement and a patriotism as thick in the air as the humidity. to see fireworks over the capitol building and the monument to our first president, a man of true excellence, as you're sitting on the steps of the lincoln memorial--there is nothing like it.

review #5: inception

i have never

and i repeat

NEVER

seen a movie this good

in my entire life.

ENTIRE LIFE.

go see it.

(here's the trailer for your viewing pleasure)

(quasi)Professor Carter

look! i'm going to be teaching at a UNIVERSITY next year!

this means i might finally get to be on ratemyprofessor.com!

(and yes i've already looked at my class rolls to see if i know any of them. oh freshman. so precious.)

the etiquette of pepper spray

i find myself spending a lot of time thinking about the moment i first get* to use my pepper spray. i run through possible scenarios in my head so i'll be ready...

...but the more i think about it, the more concerned i get. i mean--what is the protocol before spraying someone with pepper spray? do i have to warn them that i can and will mace them if they take another step, or will "i'm warning you!" be enough? i mean, i want to make sure he/she is fully aware of the possible consequences of attacking me, but at the same time i don't want to take away the element of surprise. these are the things they need to put in the instruction manuals!

*i use the word "get" here. no, i do not actually anticipate it happening, thank goodness.

snapshots from today

three conversations today still have me laughing:

1) i'm sitting in the jefferson memorial, reading "the american scholar" (i know, my life is out of a movie right now), when this family sits down beside me. despite the "please be quiet" signs around the monument, they enlist in an animated half-hour conversation about which metro stop is closest. the dad sends the oldest boy (15 yrs. old?) off because he keeps chiming in with his opinions (i empathized with the kid here...teenagehood can be rough for the oldest, because we really do know everything), and then the boy comes back and decides to talk to me. the conversation goes like this:

him: "wow, family vacations huh. i mean, they're called vacations so we're supposed to relax but instead it's so stressful because everything has to be planned out."

me: "yeah, i'm the oldest of seven kids...our family vacations can be pretty crazy too."

him: "so my dad makes this special kind of coffee, it's like cappuccino, but it's different. you know? cappuccino? yeah, it's different. my dad makes it. so i have this business plan with my brother, see, and we're gonna make the cappuccino--we'll call it something different, obviously--and sell it here instead of lemonade. you think that's a good idea? to sell cappuccino? it's my dad's recipe."

at which point the little sister comes up behind him and put bunny ears on him.

him: "this is my little sister who never stops talking or bugging me."

at which point the little sister takes off her hat and puts it over his face.

at which point the boy is trying to swat her away, all the while explaining to me this different kind of cappuccino, while the sister is all the while inventing more ways to get in between her brother's diatribe on coffees and his new-found audience-of-one.

the family gets up to leave, pulling the little sister away, and he reluctantly stands up...

him: yeah, washington dc is great for politics. i like politics a lot, read a lot about them, but really economics are my thing.

all the while he's walking backwards away from me out of the monument

him: yeah, i'm fascinated by economics. ECONOMICS ARE WHAT I WANT TO DO!

this last statement he all but yells, as he is already on the other side of the monument, still facing me, still carrying on the brain-to-mouth monologue.

me: laughing uncontrollably.

wouldn't it be great if we could all talk to strangers like he did? just open our mouths and let spill our every thought? sitting next to a man on the subway, him holding an iphone, me holding "heart of darkness", both of us looking forward, neither of us iphone-ing or reading, i think about this. we wanted to talk, but neither could think of what to say. so we sat in silence and never met.

2) approaching the metro to ride home for the evening, i met a man at the elevator. swearing up a storm about how the escalators were broken (heaven forbid we use them as stairs), he welcomes me onto the elevator.

him: "you know what i firmly believe? they stop the escalators on PURPOSE. to make us think they really are low on budget. they keep raising fares, keep raising fares, and then so we actually believe their lies about "not having funds", they put out the escalators and don't repair them, so we believe they have to raise fares to keep the place running. i firmly believe that. you work in department of ag?"

3) and finally, walking home, i get passed by a two-year old chinese boy, running as fast as he can for the intersection, his dad chasing behind. once they're across the intersection, the boy takes off again. he finds a stump--no, an elevated manhole cover--in the grass, climbs up on it, and starts doing karate moves. walking past, i hear, "you wanna learn kung FU?!! hiii-YAAAA!"

i giggled all the way home.

canker my sore

this week i have two canker sores--a sure sign that despite how composed i might seem on the outside, my innards are going through some major stress. i attribute it to moving across the country with no job and very few connections. so, in honor of this canker-filled week, i will make a list of all the things that do not go well with canker sores.

--smiling

--talking

--trying to eat a very large sandwich on (scratchy) toasted bread

--pickles

--m&ms (and yet that doesn't seem to stop me)

--klondike bars

--honey nut cheerios

--tomatoes

--pineapple

--pineapple curry

--brushing your teeth