Fourth of July

It’s been a couple weeks since July 4th happened, but I haven’t written about it yet.

I had to work on the fourth, naturally. The day before we had had a going away party for Evie who is now working at Reagan airport. There was a ton of food and Megan came with her new baby.

 

Work was actually pretty slow on Sunday during the parade (which I didn’t know about), though it picked up considerably in the afternoon. I was working dog tags, and Shelly had given me festive eye shadow.

 

After work I went down to Alexandria and stopped by Whole Foods to get a salad for dinner. Then I met up with Stan and Carla (Jeff, by the way, was in Norfolk all weekend).

We went up onto the steps of the Masonic Temple, which seemed to be a popular option, including with this really absurdly muscle-y guy:

We were there at 8, and by the time the fireworks started it was very crowded. As the sun began to set, you could start to see fireworks along the horizon.

Finally the big show down by the mall started, and it turned out we were not at all in a good spot. We moved around so that we could take not-very-good pictures of the fireworks (which still looked big even from so far away).

We almost left but then suddenly a much closer, much more awesome fireworks show started in another direction. My camera ran out of batteries, so there are no photo attempts from it. We suspect it was from Ft. Belvoir, but we’re not sure. We were basically able to see two good fireworks shows as well as tiny bursts from many other ones on the horizon. It was a really cool place to be.

After everything seemed to be finished, we walked back to Carla’s place and watched the excellent (read: terrible) movie Troll, in which Harry Potter Jr. (seriously – this was from the 80s, too, so maybe it inspired JK Rowling…) helps a witch battle the troll that is possessing his little sister and taking over their San Francisco apartment building (it has a sequel too, apparently).

I then went back home, nearly running right into some fireworks being shot off down the block along the way. I couldn’t stay up to wait for Jeff to get home (he got there at about 3 in the morning) since I had the final day of the Folklife Festival to go to in the morning. Basically, it was a great fourth of July, and continued Jeff and I’s streak of usually not being together on July 4.

The Killer Mockingbird

Sunday, I walked home from work like it was any other day. I didn't know that this day had something special in store. Special like a bird attack.

I crossed Fairmont and turned to walk up it, like usual. I was looking at flowers and thinking about the temporary nature of beauty, like always. Suddenly, I felt an unusual light scratch against my left arm. I looked, expecting to see a branch or something I had absentmindedly brushed. But instead I looked straight into the beady, murderous eyes of a mockingbird.

At first, I felt like laughing. I thought, seriously, did that bird just bite me? But then it started flying at me again. I said "Jesus, what the hell is wrong with you?" and ran away a little. Then I thought about what this must look like (dumb; a little crazy) to anyone watching me out their window, and I stopped running.

But the bird was not done. I noticed its assaults seemed largely directed towards my purse, so I held it away from me awkwardly. I walked as quickly as possible and made sure it wasn't following me. Finally it did stop and I ran into my house and stood behind the door. I still felt a little like laughing, but I was a little freaked out, too. I realized then that I could have used my massive purse as a weapon if necessary. I also thought, this is going to make a great story. And indeed, I hope that it has.


It was like this, sort of. Also see this Guardian article.

Sidenote: Tuesday morning I saw the bird attack someone else. I have decided to walk on the other side of the street, and find myself flinching a little whenever birds fly near me. They could be out for blood, like this mockingbird. You can't be too careful.

Second Boyfriend

Zach and I in freshman year, with Tim on the side.

I'd like to share with you an anecdote I find amusing. At one point at Amnesty I was trying to tell my fellow interns something and I said "one of my boyfriend's brothers-" and I was interrupted by Warren saying, "wait, you have more than one boyfriend?" Immediately I lamented the ambiguity of the English language. But then I remembered my joke second boyfriend.

It all started my last semester at college (last fall). Well, I suppose it started in freshman year, when my main group of friends was mostly made up of guys. Sure there were some girls that we hung out with off and on, but the main group was Tim, Zach, Steve, Jeff (current boyfriend) and occasionally Trevor. As so many groups of friends are wont to do, this group drifted apart. Last fall, Tim was taking the semester off (and had already left the group mostly for a frat). Steve was, as was so often the case, mired in doing schoolwork, running, and playing video games, so he hung out less. Jeff had graduated. That left Zach and Trevor. I had drifted apart from them, too - Zach, mostly because of a girl, and Trevor, for various activities. Since many of the people I had been hanging out with had graduated, I decided to hang out with Zach and Trevor again.

Zach had a new girlfriend and we soon became friends. Then they broke up. I stayed friends with both of them. But Zach and I mostly hung out alone. At first, we just met up at the dining hall for dinner once a week or so. Then we would occasionally go out to dinner together. Someone assumed we were dating. We laughed. We went to see (500) Days of Summer together. I said, "Zach, I think we are dating." And thus was born the joke of the second boyfriend. Basically, a friend, who you go on dates with, but it's not romantic or anything, but everyone else thinks you're dating. I suppose we are now on-again, off-again, though Zach has asked to resume our dates via Skype due to him being in . He wanted to be my first Skype relationship, but I reminded him that my boyfriend and I were long distance for two semesters. Sorry, Zach. It will still be special.

Vacation

Last weekend I went to Ocean City, and this Monday I head off for Costa Rica - thus the lapse in posting, which will only be continued.

Ocean City was quite fun and relaxing. It was a cruiser weekend so there were lots of classic cars there. I picked up my car Wednesday, thinking I could just park at work and it would be easier than picking it up Thursday night. Well I couldn't park at work and had an awful time of finding a place to park. I did eventually though and picked up Jeff after work and drove to Melfa.

Friday we met my parents for lunch at the Harborside Bar and Grill, which they like. It was really good. They have a lot of seafood and the mahi mahi sandwich was awesome.

The view from Harborside

Then we went to the condo after some light shopping. We stayed at Somerset and 2nd and the condo was huge. It was 3 bedrooms and had a large common area, and 2 balconies. It was fun to watch people on the boardwalk. We didn't do anything noteworthy that afternoon, and later we had dinner at Shenanigan's. After that Jeff and I went to the arcades with my brother. We played a lot of skee ball. I was the champion, with this rockin' score:

forgive the blurriness.

We got some sweet prizes like 4 hacky sacks, 2 mini frisbees, a power squirt (aka squirt gun), and a magical fortune-telling fish.

The next day we went to the Sunset Grille for lunch and Atlantic Stand for dinner. In between we did some shopping and walked around and stuff like that.

Junk fries and a grilled cheese from the Atlantic Stand

The following day was pretty foggy. Jeff and I searched for bagels and found an okay place somewhere and misread the sign, thinking half a dozen were $4.99 but really that was for donuts. So we got too many bagels, I guess, but that was okay. Anyway we went to check out the car show which was cool but we didn't go in the parking lot because they were charging $10 for admission.

Still got some sweet shots though...

Then we went back to Harborside and this time I got nachos. And an Orange Crush, their signature cocktail. Which is rather strong. So we went back to the condo and played the game Red Dead Redemption for Xbox which is really great. My brother and Kristen left that evening and my parents and Jeff and I went to Tony's Pizza for dinner because it was pretty much the only place open at 9 on a Sunday.

Mounted police running down the beach - lucky.

The next morning we went to Bagels and Buns for breakfast (amazing bagels) and then headed home, stopping in Salisbury and at the Prime Outlets in - get this - Queenstown, MD. Jeff snagged a hat, hiking shoes, and pants, while I found... nothing. Oh well. Good trip!

And, like I mentioned, Monday it's Costa Rica! Stay tuned for updates on that trip.

It's really over

(Day 12 of the month of themed blogging is a whatever you feel like day)

Sunday morning I went down to Williamsburg to attend the Classics graduation ceremony. I wasn't going to participate, just watch and catch up with friends and professors. My mom and brother happened to be bringing my grandmother a TV so I got to see them and we went to lunch at Firehouse Subs, which is pretty good. Not long after it was time to drive onto campus to go to the ceremony at the Campus Center.

I got the program and noticed I was on the list of degree recipients! I should have written a paragraph and walked across the stage like everybody else.... oh well. I sat in front of Callie and got to talk a little bit of Doctor Who with her. Got to see people like Lauren, Maggie, Natasha, Lena, and Meg, and some other people I sort of know. What was mind boggling was there were classics majors there I didn't know! Out of 19 graduating students, there were at least 2 I'd never seen before. Crazy! Talking to profs was cool too.

After that I was just going to go home but was able to get up with Zach and went and hung out with him while he packed. Trevor was there for a bit too. Eventually I headed home after saying bye to my grandmother, and got gas at Wawa and dinner at Taco Bell.

But what this whole thing really drove home was the fact that college is really over. Sure, it's been over since mid-December for me, but the people in my year were still in school that whole time and I could visit and it was like a semester away, sort of; at least that's how it felt. But now that they've all graduated it really feels like I'm done. And I miss it. Mostly, the people. And the abundance of free time, and the proximity and availability of friends and all that. I didn't feel like I missed Williamsburg per se, or being in classes, but just the whole experience of being in college. It's a chapter of my life that has ended, and that's weird. Sure, high school ended but then there was just more school. Now, most likely, school is over. Even if I go to grad school one day it'll be different.

I'm a little bit sad. I'm a bit in mourning, you could say. I will miss my college friends - will any of us keep in touch? These are really good friends, great people, many of whom I've known for 4 years of my life or longer. Isn't it strange that suddenly, many of us will drift apart and possibly never see each other again? It seemed bad enough for the people I'd bonded with in one semester in New Zealand were gone from my life, but now I have to face up to that with even closer friends... but I've kept in touch with some people from New Zealand, so I'm confident that I can keep in touch with some people from college.

The other night I had a dream about riding and realized I miss that part of my life, too. I want horses to be part of me again. I think it was part of this feeling like I'm letting things go, and I just don't want to. If I try hard enough, I probably don't have to. I'm planning on riding in Costa Rica at least once. And I'll Skype with at least one person this summer. That's my goal.

Day 11 — A photo of me taken recently

This is me at Busch Gardens in the fall with a Guira Cuckoo cuddling on my shoulder. Such a sweet bird!

Day 10 — A photo of me taken over ten years ago

This one had to be early too, since I'm going down to Williamsburg for graduation tomorrow. Here you go:

This was with my cat Sassy, who despised me, possibly, it would seem, with good reason...