9.18.2006

Italy photos

Johnny asked me to post the links to these Italy photo albums for her:

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

9.17.2006

pow-pow

Saturday I was corralled into volunteering at the Ohio Lez Fest with the promise of free entry. Sony and I showed people where to park for four hours and then we were treated to hours of folk and "women's" music. The food was pretty good though - we went and got a couple of beers and hung out until we got fed up and cold.

Today, though, was an entirely different story -- Scootking's Birthday Paintball Extravaganza!! I'd never paintballed before and I was feeling a little anxious about it. I considered backing out several times due to the following preconceptions:

Notion 1: I will be in the woods being chased by scary people like in that movie where they hunted humans.
But actually... This was not the case. We were split into teams and given clear rules about what we could and could not do, and hunting people was not allowed. Out ref/guide actually said, "I may be a teenager, but I know that the rules are important." We gave him a tip at the end of the day.

Notion 2: Paintballs are the size of a raquetball and splatter housepaint-consistency substance all over your clothes and when you leave your clothing will be all stiff
But actually... The paintballs are quite small (about 1 in. in diameter) and the "paint" is just a yellow greasy goo which (they say) will wash right out.


Notion 3: Paintballs hitting your body will hurt.
I was right on about this. Here's a photo of my leg where I took a couple hits.

Here's the same leg, a few hours later:

See how the bruise is beginning to spread out? It reminds me of some doodles that Johnny likes to draw when she is bored.

Notion 4: I will have some serious reservations about playing with guns and shooting at other humans, especially my friends.
But actually...I liked it. It was fun to hit my friends, especially after I got hit that first time. I was really motivated after that.

I also got to work in a little Rambo-roll-over-behind-a-pile-of-sticks move, which felt pretty exciting. I was all proud because I wasn't even thinking about how dirty I was getting, or whether I was laying on a slug, or whether I had brought lip gloss, or anything like that.

9.14.2006

trauma drama

we replaced the server at work, and it has been one of the most harrowing experiences of my work life. it is not yet over.

on the good side, though, i have been able to talk to Johnny several times over the last week, which has been great. did you realize that she is actually living in a medieval village? Here's a photo:


There are more photos here and here.

I also bought my plane ticket to Philly!! See you in just a few weeks, city!

9.11.2006

garfield mornings

i made the best cup of coffee EVER today.

it's a good thing too because I had a hard time getting going this morning. I stayed up a little late to be sure that the Colts beat the Giants.

It was really a football weekend. I watched the Opener at my brother's house, then went to my friend's for the Ohio State game on Saturday. Yesterday, the Eagles wasn't on regular TV here, so I went to this bar that claimed to have the Sunday Ticket, but it wasn't working and they didn't tell me until after I got a drink!! So, I drank it really fast, then went two other places before I found somewhere to watch. There was a roomful of Eagles fans there (probably about 15 or 20 people) so I guess I went to the right place. I missed the 4:00 game because I was talking with Johnny and then went to the Ohio Roller Girls Championship game.

I promise I won't talk about football all the time for four months, but I am really excited.

I'm also excited about learning some Italian. I feel really motivated about it right now, so I am trying to incorporate some language learning into my schedule. I have a podcast to listen to on my way to/from work and then some online lessons to do at home. I requested some parallel text and kids books from the library, so I'm hoping to work up to some reading. Does anyone have any additional suggestions?

9.07.2006

Thursday night lights

Football season officially starts today.

But then, I had this dream last night that I was trying to watch this Saturday's OSU v. Texas game and I was stuck at the Mets stadium. I was asking about how to watch the game and some guy dressed up in Mets gear said, "Football doesn't exist in New York."

What could that possibly mean?

9.05.2006

pictures

Here's the promised photos from the exhibit I went to:

DSCN5775
(Click on these to go to Flickr and view more)

I found out today that we might be moving out of the library a little later than originally thought, maybe a month or so later. I decided to go up and take some photos of the disappearing books. Now, for those of you who haven't been there, there are 11 floors of books. This is just a couple of them (from the lower floors). There's this semi-creepy mini-staircase that goes all the way up and the quite scary old elevator, so I just got a few photos of the lower floors. I will venture up further as things clear out more.

This first one is from the 3rd floor, looking down on the gallery with empty cases.

DSCN5806

9.04.2006

From the coffee shop

Internet still not working at home, but at least I got in touch with the company and they think they'll have it back up tomorrow. woo!

Saturday I watched the first Ohio State game at my brother's house. The whole thing is really crazy and they start early. Here's my niece.
(.wav)

Before the game I went to the Russel Wright exhibit in Lancaster. It was beautiful, and I'll post some photos tomorrow. There were a few images of his house in Garrison, NY which is now on my list of places to visit when I'm back on the east coast.



Yesterday I went to visit my grandma. She's so great. It's always nice to have some time to visit with her, she's got great life perspective and really helps me see all the great things that I have in my life. I hope I'll be that kind of person when I'm a grandma.

9.02.2006

The computer is still broken.

The computer is still broken. I can't even startup from disk. On top of that my ISP is having server issues so i'm posting by txt.

9.01.2006

she's gone... oh-wah

I took Johnny to the airport yesterday morning. It was emotional and sad, but I know she's going to have a great time. I think, by now, that she is probably in Italy, but I don't think she'll have computer access until Monday sometime.

Afterward, I went home and got on the old computer to try and get some work done, but something happened and I think I sent the computer into kernel panic because it wouldn't start back up (I just printed out a bunch of help information, so I have some things to try later tonight). I'm supposed to be getting a laptop from work to use for a while, but right now I am computerless, and it's weird. I don't want to have to go back to the library to use the computer, although it is really nice to have that option.

I got my second article proposal accepted! Now, neither of them are done and accepted for sure, but it is pretty exciting to be on the way to publication and fulfilling my tenure-track requirements. I have two impending deadlines now, so the extra free-time will certainly be put to good use. On that, and my fantasy football team - Go Busters!