(friendswood) whimper

original post: empty

addendum

heros of the day: bessie and barry schroder

my neighbors (more angels) are taking south for three weeks until i can bring her back to dc after LPSC. she has her own little clubmed setup in their kitchen with her own hammock, catbox, food, and water fountain. they have 8 other cats (!) and still volunteered to take her. one more wouldn't make a difference, they said. unless that one more is south, i say.

this day was a day of never ending packing and a trip to the airport to show my face and delay my trip a day. i was supposed to be on a 7:10 flight. HAHAHA. that's funny.

(friendswood/heights/friendswood/heights/friendswood)

heros of the day: john paul and claire

these two angels met us in houston for dinner and then began 6 hours of moving (in the rain) and packing that didn't stop until after 3am. justin and i spent the morning finding him an apartment and the afternoon/evening renting and loading the truck. we couldn't have done it all without john paul and claire. claire packed my whole kitchen (and more). john paul helped me move the heavy furniture into the truck. justin was still feeling sick and collapsed around 1. after john paul and claire left, i continued packing and loading my stuff till around 8:30am (with an hour nap) because the truck had to be back by 9am. poor justin dragged himself to the storage locker with me to help me with the big stuff and then i tetrissed everything in for the next two hours. i had to rent extra space. i need to jettison stuff, but no time for decisions this weekend. oh...now the narrative is well into sunday, so i should move to the right journal entry.

(dc -> houston) planning the escape

highlight of the day: indian food with justin for probably the last time in league city. good food. good company. good last few minutes of denial before the storm.

(dc) hello from nasa

i finally made it physically into work today. i'm still trying to catch up. it will take weeks, if not months. there's a very large box in my office that i have not opened all day. i could fit in this box. i wish it was a clone of me that would pop out and start doing my work for me.

i've just tried to catch you up on the last few days. this coming weekend promises to be more of the same. i leave tomorrow to go back to houston to pack up the rest of my things and move them to storage. i won't have access to the truck till 5pm saturday night, though, and my flight back to dc is sunday morning.

this concludes the formal catch-up portion of this blog. this is more for my benefit than yours (obviously - sorry, this has been incredibly boring, i'm sure), so that i can refer back next year when i'm doing my taxes and remember when i was where (and why). this is always the hardest part of tax season, and i'm hoping this blog will lead to an ameliorated process.

(dc) delayed return

justin went home today, even though he is still sick as a dog. he figured the best thing was to get everyone who works at continental sick, since they were going to charge him another $50 to change his ticket again.

i managed to get my studio up and running enough to mix 8 songs for andy and fedex them to his dallas studio for a session tomorrow. i was still too exhausted to make it in to work, but worked from home as much as possible (without internet).

(dc) no rest

1am - continue unpacking truck. loretta home to bed.
2am - continue unpacking truck.
3am - continue unpacking truck.
3:30am - collapse
6:30am - ignore alarm
8:30am - up in a panic to retrieve trailer before it's stolen or towed.
8:31am - unpack large boxes, load empty boxes into truck
9am - drive truck to 15th street. employ random dog-walker's help
in backing truck up to trailer and putting trailer on hitch.
10am - drive truck to garage to unload empty boxes and other items for storage.
10:15am - get truck/trailer stuck in alley. nearly crush nice man's lexus.
10:30am - return home. empanada break. loretta back to help again.
1pm - finish carrying boxes upstairs from staging area
2pm - leave to return truck
4pm - return from returning truck
5pm - everything's kind of fuzzy after that....

(somewhere in alabama -> DC) marathon continues

7:15am - jump to the wheel, start driving. justin now too sick to drive anymore.
8am - drive
9am - drive
10am - drive
11am - drive
12pm - eat and pee
1 pm - drive. justin's fever hits 101.9
2 pm - drive
3 pm - drive
4 pm - drive
5 pm - drive
6 pm - drive
7 pm - drive. maybe some more eating and peeing in there.
8 pm - drive
9 pm - drive
10 pm - drive
10:30 pm - arrive dc
11pm - unload studebaker and park in newly acquired garage
11:30pm - pick up loretta. ditch trailer on 15th st.
12am - start unloading truck with loretta. justin out of commission.

(houston -> somewhere in alabama?)

6am - nap for 20 minutes
7am - continue packing
10:30am - put studebaker on trailer
11am - depart houston
11:30pm - arrive penske place (useless)
12:30pm - drop justin's car at airport
1pm - depart houston

justin drives, i collapse in the bed i've made in the back of the truck.
-------

i'm not sure where we made it to. i was somewhat groggy. we stopped and camped in the truck.

by the way, the roads in mississippi were unexpectedly good, especially when compared to texas and louisiana.

(houston) packing

begin hellish marathon with no sleep.

10:30am - meet new tenants
11:30am - get breakfast
12:30pm - back to rental truck place - replacing toyota with studebaker
2pm - shop for ipod transmitter so justin will come on drive
3pm - start packing
10pm - nap for 1 hour
11pm - continue packing

packing continues through the night.

(houston) lost day

this day was a wash.

4am - up to pack and get ready for trip to houston
6am - leave for airport via metro
7am - stop by work to pick up laptop charger
8am - arrive at airport for 8:25 flight
8am - flight delayed becuase plane was hit by a truck
[yes, hit by a truck, ed.]
9am - continental flight cancelled
10am - rescheduled on celta flight
11am - rescheduled back onto reinstated original flight
12am - replacement plane delayed from cleveland
1pm - board plane
2pm - depart
4pm - arrive houston
5:30pm - pick up rental truck and car carrier
6:30pm - arrive home
7:30pm - 4:30am .... severe depression

(dc) smiling progeny

this morning my fascination with the smiling washington express man deepenend when i watched him coaching a young boy.
"Now, say "good morning!"
The boy shyly said "good morning" to the indifferent commuter in front of me and was ignored.
sigh.
bravo.

(dc) writer/editor

"Express, The Washington Post Company's free commuter daily, is looking for a nightlife and features WRITER/EDITOR to help expand its coverage of fashion, dining, and local entertainment. She or he will have wide-ranging cultural and pop cultural interests, an eye for emerging fashion trends, a great sense of humor, and a proven ability to generate a hight volume of creative ideas and execute them quickly with flair and precision. Must be meticulously detail-oriented, thoroughly plugged in to D.C.'s cultural scene and able to juggle short- and long- term deadlines simultaneously."

i think this screams for a certain mr. justin crane, currently writing for limited readership at justincrane.com. all he's missing is being "thoroughly plugged in to D.C.'s cultural scene". but how hard can that be? so...(justin)...send letter, resume, and three writing samples to:

EDITOR, EXPRESS
P.O. Box 17370
Arlington, VA 22216
or by e-mail to:
dan.caccavaro@readexpress.com

(dc) well

i declare myself well.

(dc) please don't ignore the smiling man

i felt bad this morning as the commuters ahead of me actively ignored the smiling man who held out copies of the washington express and offered them his cheerful good morning. as i passed, i took a copy and met his eyes and smiled extra big for him, then hurried down the escalator. through the tunnel i could hear my train arriving, so i ran to the stile and shoved my card into the slot. the readout instructed me to see the station attendant, and i tried again with growing panic as my train stood below me, doors open. with frustration and dismay, i took my card to the attendant while my train left the station. apparently, it handn't registered my last exit (which might explain the bruises on my hips). now with the extra time on my hands, i couldn't help going back out to the smiling man. i had to know whether the washington express pays him extra (or requires him) to be so cheerful and kind, despite the indifference and grumpiness towards him. he said he was just treating people the way he'd want to be treated. i told him that his smile and his good morning a highlight of my day that i looked forward to and could count on, thanked him, and then went back down to wait for the next green line train to l'enfant plaza.

(dc) enough already

i am ready to be well now, please. please? pretty please?

(dc) i heart austin

Texas, Austin, United States, 0 returning visits

Date Time WebPage
14th February 2005 16:50:06 kellysnook.blogspot.com/

referred from:
search.yahoo.com/
search?p=%22cement truck%22&ei=UTF-8&fl=0&pstart=1&fr=FP-tab-web-t&b=21

(dc) toothache

i have what could only be described as a toothache. i've been wondering if it was real for a few days now (given all my other current ailments), but it's most definitely a toothache. i've never had a toothache (or a cavity) before. it concerns me for several reasons, but mostly because i don't know any dentists in DC. i should go to a dentist right away. does anyone know a dc dentist (a good one)?

(dc) diversity

i noticed today at brunch with kat and rahul in adams morgan that the diversity i love so much in my neighborhood disappeared walking just 3 1/2 blocks west.

i also noticed that i felt like death and (after consulting a doctor friend) decided to start taking antibiotics for my upper respiratory infection (pneumonia?).

(dc) hack

i don't remember coughing like this since i had pneumonia in high school.

i wonder if they invented cough syrup after enough people choked on cough drops while coughing.

(dc) bring back penelope

it appears that penelope dropped off the charts in the 80's. it has re-emerged and looks like it's headed for stardom again. that's good. i say, bring back penelope. if you've got java and high speed internet, check out this name wizard...it's ubercool.

(dc) ahhhhhhh

my fever is going down. it feels so GOOOOD. that's the best thing about a fever. when it goes away, it's a little slice of heaven.

(dc) out of commission

this no-internet-at-home thing is intolerable. being down with the flu is bad enough. but not being able to do anything else adds insult to injury. i'm way over my daytime minutes quota for bluetooth cell dialup, 60 of them having been used yesterday trying to download one email message with a 2 mb attachment. theoretically, i'm supposed to have a dialtone today on my new verizon line, but dsl won't be working for 8 more business days. grr.

i've decided to postpone my trip home for one week in favor of survival. the nice people at penske said i even have "one free postponement left." isn't that great? so if my health situation deteriorates even more next week, i have an out. thank god my plane ticket home is a govt ticket and infinitely changeable.

i've had 4 people today independently call and offer to bring me (vegetarian or figurative) chicken soup. i didn't take them up on it because i wouldn't forgive myself if they came down with this nastiness, but i feel cared for and part of a community here. it's something that never quite materialized in houston (probably because i was away so much, not because there aren't really wonderful people there). instead i ordered takeout thai coconut lemongrass vegetable soup and green curry from the place downstairs. that was a little ambitious. i ate the soup and the curry's in the fridge.

(dc) whimper

fever at 101 tonight. strange dreams.

(dc) smack

forget everything i said about escaping the flu.

(dc) mars roadmapping

today and tomorrow i'm sitting in on the mars roadmapping meeting at the carnegie institution. it is one of about 30 similar roadmapping, strategic planning, and capabilities analysis teams that are scrambling to get their heads around sending people back to the moon and on to mars. it blows my mind how many talented and brilliant individuals are working on this problem, and yet i'm not convinced we'll be able to integrate all this work into a program that gets us to mars. but we'll try. i promise all you taxpayers out there that we're working hard on it.

if you've never been to the carnegie institution, you ought to check it out next time you're in Washington DC. it's churchlike in its majesty. i made the mistake of trying to go in the front door today. the enormous metal doors were closed and have no discernable knobs or handles. i retreated and went around to the side door, aware of my insignificance.

(dc) flu free

i think i managed to escape the flu. we'll see...

(dc) more waiting

this time for the flu to hit, if it's going to. trying to work from home over bluetooth/cell. grrr. it's going to take two more weeks for my dsl to get set up, if it's even possible to get it.

right now i can't quite tell if i feel sick or just hungry. the trouble is if i'm sick and i eat something, it's going to come back up in a couple hours. maybe i'll just stick with water.

(dc) flu and friends

my friend nishi the doctor came down from baltimore to visit for the weekend. she woke up today with a terrible stomach ache, nausea, and vomiting, and by late afternoon had a fever and chills. at first she thought it was something else, but then she talked to her friends at the hospital, many of whom also had come down with the flu after treating a few flu patients on friday. apparently, it's highly contagious and nasty.

woohoo, sick day at home on my cellphone and bluetooth dialup. groan.

i spent saturday working on music for a children's show called "the kindly kingdom" that tommy and lakresha from new york city created about virtues. they were building the set at the studio so boyd could film it this weekend. sunday i was taking care of nishi, so i didn't get to see how it went. we discovered that i'd messed up the music a bit, but i think tommy was able to work with it anyway. he's good like that.

(dc) james cameron

slate.com on jim and the film

(dc) knots

i need someone to come up behind me and start digging into my right upper trapezius with all his/her strength.

my new boss, terri, told me yesterday that there is a massage therapist here in the building at NASA HQ, and i had high hopes of forking over my $1/minute for 30 minutes of trapezius abuse today. alas, i learned this morning that massages happen only on tuesdays and thursdays.

on a brighter note, the nice doctor at the health unit pronounced me fit enough to work out in the gym, so i should be able to start exercising on monday morning. this despite my abnormal EKG, which said my heart rate is 48 bpm. the doctor said a slow heart is likely to beat longer. we'll see what we can do about that.

(dc) in the post

the washington post express is a small free publication apparently designed for morning commutes or coffee. this is a good idea, but what's even better is the way it's distributed. they could just dump piles of these things around the city for people to pick up, but instead they have people (usually men) stand by subway entrances and hand them to you directly with a friendly "good morning" and a smile. i think this is a nice touch.

in today's express:

"Other Boston Schools Resent Harvard Even More

Catherine Zeta-Jones and Tim Robbins will be this year's recipients of the annual Hasty Pudding awards, given by Harvard's Hasty Pudding Theatricals, the nation's oldest undergraduate drama troupe. Zeta-Jones will lead a parade through the streets of Harvard Square on Feb. 10 with Harvard students dressed in drag.(AP)"

The caption under the photo of Catherine and Tim reads, "Why can't Cornell or Penn get Catherine Zeta-Jones to lead a drag parade?"

and my daily horoscope:

"Leo (July 23 - Aug.22) You learn what it feels like when it's all your fault. Fortunately, the issue at hand is barely more than trivial. A lesson is learned."

and just for kicks, since i'm on the virgo cusp:

"Virgo (Aug. 23 - Sept 22) You may be restless, as you search for something more stable to rely on -- emotionally, domestically or financially."

amen.

(dc) what is friendship?

are friendships over distances real friendships? are friends that live in different places from each other and don't get to see each other often real friends? justin says no. i say yes. does spending lots of time with a person or seeing someone every day mean they are close friends? i don't think so. but i propose that friendships are still real friendships, even if they have to be over the phone, mail, or email. what do you think?

(dc) hard days

hurry up and wait.

sigh

(dc) protesting myself

i am on a hunger strike, protesting my own lack of productivity. i started yesterday and i will not eat anything until i finish two big tasks that are long overdue. justin thinks i am nuts. but sometimes i have to resort to tricks like this to get things done. i don't want to do these particular tasks, but i really want to eat. it is working. i worked 4 hours straight last night on one of the two tasks and made good progress. hoping to finish by tonight. hunger is a good motivator.

(dc) bobcat for jenni

the good news is that the building next to me is going to be a bank. the bad news is that it's not a bank yet. every morning at 7am construction begins. apparently this week is Phase Bobcat. this is great if you're jenni and you go nuts over bobcats. it's not so great if you're kelly and you wish you could sleep that extra half hour. jenni, this is for you, although i'm pretty sure you don't read my blog.



i charged my ipod up last night and listened to it on the walk&metro to work this morning. the aphex twin song i started at the Ust station almost lasted me until my l'enfent plaza stop. then i listened to a little bluegrass. nothing like bluegrass in the morning.

but i have to say that the whole ipod thing makes me uncomfortable. until this morning, i couldn't put my finger on why i so rarely use it, given my passion for music. then i realized as i was sitting on the metro that it makes me feel disconnected from my environment, like walking around with my eyes closed. i listen closely to the world, and when i've got music in my ears i feel i'm missing something. it reminds me of a this american life story lela recommend to me once about a guy who listened to all the sounds in a room as music, and could tell someone what key their room was in. i need to find that story and listen to it. if someone wants to search the archives for me, i think it was sometime in 2001 or 2002.

(dc) slow news day

from the inside front cover of today's washington post express:

"Philippine police officers have something to smile about, after Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's husband, Mike Arroyo, put his program, 'A New Smile for the Toothless,' into action on Monday. Free dentures will be given out to toothless police officers and their dependents, Reuters reported, in an effort to help the police officers regain their self-confidence."

(dc) one down

got shower curtain.
life's small triumphs.

had to walk to 14th and P.
walked briefly into whole foods,
got overwhelmed,
left.
security guard at door looked at me suspiciously
as i walked past the checkout counter
without stopping.

my friend safa emailed me about his new blog. it made me conscious of how infrequently i write about my ideas and thoughts, and how small and trivial most things i write here seem to be. sorry. i guess my life is overwhelmed by trivial things right now. it will get better. i promise.

if it's any consolation, i mostly try to spare you the big weighty things. it's for your own good. really. maybe it's my way of pretending everything is fine.