At least this week has definitively proven that extreme levels of stress will not kill you.
My final Chinese test was last Thursday. Obviously a stressing experience. And it went well, and I got the score I needed (plus a bit extra on reading), and that should be a happy thing, and it is, but let me just say, the test was really just as unpleasant as I could have imagined. I sort of perversely ENJOYED the language tests I took during A-100, but nothing was on the line then. This one just left me rushing through the final paragraphs of the articles I was reading trying to make the whole ordeal end sooner.
And then, of course, there was the 45-MINUTE wait for my score. Goody.
But finally it was over, and Thursday night we saw Bridesmaids (which rocked! I kind of want to recount the entire movie to you all, but maybe you should just go see it yourselves) before meeting up with George and Annalise for beer and dessert at Fireworks, which continues to have obscenely good desserts.
And the next day continued well with delicious sandwiches at Earl's with Lady Andrea and Sir Jack. But then that evening it took a turn for the worse, in that I had to fly.
My aversion (illogical) has been documented here before (ad nauseum). We won't go back into it, but suffice to say it didn't brighten my day. Nor did the fact that our flight was 1.5 hours delayed due to weather. Nor did the fact that when we got to Boston, so did, like, a gazillion other people whose flights had also been delayed due to storms right outside Boston.
But finally, just before midnight, we were on our way in our rental car. There was rain and fog but little traffic, and we had almost made it to our hotel in Lexington, MA (near my brother's graduation), when I got into a tangle with some wildlife.
I.e. I hit a deer, my first accident ever, and it was pretty traumatic, though I was proud of myself for staying pretty calm (a husband who shall not be named, on the other hand, was screaming bloody murder). We were literally less than half a mile from our hotel at that point. Curses.
So between phone calls and mental trauma and jitters and a terribly, terribly uncomfortable mattress (Aloft Hotels, I'm looking at you), we really got almost no sleep that night.
My brother's graduation was great nonetheless--I enjoyed seeing him pass this milestone, and his school seemed like a very nice place. And then we zipped over to another part of Massachusetts for Lizz and Giselle's insanely beautiful wedding. Just lovely.
So that day, despite some nagging exhaustion issues, was pretty successful.
But the next day we spent ages looking for parking in Cambridge, got terribly lost trying to find the airport/car rental place, and discovered James had left his messenger bag with all his Chinese books he needs to study in advance of his test on Friday in my mom's car, which was, by that point, back in New Jersey. At this rate, we figured, the plane was probably going to crash.
Thankfully, it didn't. But Jetblue did lose our luggage. Another win! Plus we got the only two seats on the plane with broken TV sets.
Today, all is looking up. Our suitcase was delivered to us safe and sound, after a jolly foray to San Jose (do you know the way to San Jose? A place I have never been, but now my luggage has). I am at peace.
Let's hope we can say the same for the deer.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Friday the 13th
Yesterday was kind of a roller coaster of a day.
9:40am: wake up wayyyyyyyy too late, get ready really fast, quickly check email and see a note from the GSO in Beijing saying: "Congratulations! Your re-assignment was approved at a recent Housing Board meeting." My re-assignment? Congratulations? This left me concerned and anxious but no time to investigate further before class.
1:30pm: go on the intranet at lunch. Discover that the new place is the BEST PLACE EVER and I am thrilled to have been re-assigned. Feeling all sorts of on-two-metro-lines-and-attached-to-a-luxury-shopping-mall glee. Quickly proceed to become attached, ensuring that, in the event of any future re-assignments, I will be totally crushed.
5:41pm: miss the last shuttle from FSI after my class runs late. Proceed into meltdown territory after weeks of Chinese-related tension building up.
6:13pm: the cab we called finally comes. Cheer myself up thinking that this will be over in less than a week. Unless I fail the test. Proceed to dinner and a bar to try to recover from Chinese-induced unhappiness. (Yes, I am incapable of long-term focused attention. So even though I am about to test, I still haven't trained myself to study in any usefully consistent way.)
11:30pm: after coming home, I look at my credit card statement and see two charges from Saks Fifth Avenue from two days earlier, totaling around $700. Had zero memory of shopping at Saks. Walked myself through what I had done that day, and it definitely did not involve Saks or department stores of any kind. Even checked the Saks website to make sure I didn't have a pending order that I'd purchased in my sleep or something. Nothing. This has never happened to me before, and I call the credit card company in a panic. Thankfully, it's USAA, so I am confident it's getting resolved.
The end. Today it's after 3pm and I really need to try to learn every word in the Chinese language. I am so behind.
NOTE: things I was doing when I should have been studying: Follies is, in my opinion, Sondheim's masterpiece, and the production at the Kennedy Center right now was lovely. Bernadette Peters and Elaine Page sharing the same stage? My diva-meter was going up to 11.
9:40am: wake up wayyyyyyyy too late, get ready really fast, quickly check email and see a note from the GSO in Beijing saying: "Congratulations! Your re-assignment was approved at a recent Housing Board meeting." My re-assignment? Congratulations? This left me concerned and anxious but no time to investigate further before class.
1:30pm: go on the intranet at lunch. Discover that the new place is the BEST PLACE EVER and I am thrilled to have been re-assigned. Feeling all sorts of on-two-metro-lines-and-attached-to-a-luxury-shopping-mall glee. Quickly proceed to become attached, ensuring that, in the event of any future re-assignments, I will be totally crushed.
5:41pm: miss the last shuttle from FSI after my class runs late. Proceed into meltdown territory after weeks of Chinese-related tension building up.
6:13pm: the cab we called finally comes. Cheer myself up thinking that this will be over in less than a week. Unless I fail the test. Proceed to dinner and a bar to try to recover from Chinese-induced unhappiness. (Yes, I am incapable of long-term focused attention. So even though I am about to test, I still haven't trained myself to study in any usefully consistent way.)
11:30pm: after coming home, I look at my credit card statement and see two charges from Saks Fifth Avenue from two days earlier, totaling around $700. Had zero memory of shopping at Saks. Walked myself through what I had done that day, and it definitely did not involve Saks or department stores of any kind. Even checked the Saks website to make sure I didn't have a pending order that I'd purchased in my sleep or something. Nothing. This has never happened to me before, and I call the credit card company in a panic. Thankfully, it's USAA, so I am confident it's getting resolved.
The end. Today it's after 3pm and I really need to try to learn every word in the Chinese language. I am so behind.
NOTE: things I was doing when I should have been studying: Follies is, in my opinion, Sondheim's masterpiece, and the production at the Kennedy Center right now was lovely. Bernadette Peters and Elaine Page sharing the same stage? My diva-meter was going up to 11.
Monday, May 9, 2011
Extraordinary ordinariness
This weekend we had a new adventure, one that most people would consider quite ordinary: driving around, running errands.
There were some things we needed to take care of and wanted wheels, so we rented a car for the weekend, and while I am still a public transportation devotee (though much more so in New York!), I must say it was very nice.
Except, perhaps, for the time when we had no GPS or map and James forgot to get directions from Chevy Chase back home in Rosslyn. If we had just stayed on Connecticut Ave., it would have been easy, though slow and terribly indirect. So I had the great idea that I wanted to cut over toward the west to go some more direct way. This was a terrible idea and left us going in circles in a number of small residential areas somewhere vaguely near Woodley Park before giving up and finally just going back on Connecticut all the way past Dupont Circle.
You can tell me are not drivers. Or navigators.
But we did do some fun and useful things, like raid the Tyson's Galleria mall (okay, this was only fun or useful for me, not for James--J.Crew was having a huge sale!), load up on favorite Trader Joe's products, and eat some Guatemalan fast food chicken (an improvised stop at Pollo Campero since we were right around the corner shopping. I am pretty sure the negative reviews on Yelp have a lot to do with people wanting to avoid chain restaurants--the grilled chicken, beans, and plantains were all really tasty).
On the cultural/sightseeing side, we finally (at James's request) visited the Air and Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center, which is basically a giant hangar out by Dulles Airport packed with historic airplanes, plus a space shuttle. James loved it; I thought it had some cool stuff, but my eyes glazed over about 40 planes in, and I just reminded myself that James had put up with the mall the day before.
And for our ballin'-suburbanites-out-in-NoVA-with-car date night, we hit Peking Gourmet Inn for some tasty Peking duck to get us into the mood for Beijing. Their other food was pretty bad, but the duck was really tasty, and plus, the place is a trip--it makes me think of a Chinese place in the '60s in Hollywood or something: a huge place with high ceilings, all red carpets, gilt, white tablecloths, pictures of celebrities on the walls, huge plates of spareribs and wontons being dished out, and a giant full bar. It was packed and bizarrely festive.
There you go, folks: our thrilling adventures doing what most Americans do every weekend.
P.S. Pre-car, we also spent Friday night with friends listening to bluegrass at Tiffany Tavern in Alexandria. Homey, divey, delightful. Highly recommended.
There were some things we needed to take care of and wanted wheels, so we rented a car for the weekend, and while I am still a public transportation devotee (though much more so in New York!), I must say it was very nice.
Except, perhaps, for the time when we had no GPS or map and James forgot to get directions from Chevy Chase back home in Rosslyn. If we had just stayed on Connecticut Ave., it would have been easy, though slow and terribly indirect. So I had the great idea that I wanted to cut over toward the west to go some more direct way. This was a terrible idea and left us going in circles in a number of small residential areas somewhere vaguely near Woodley Park before giving up and finally just going back on Connecticut all the way past Dupont Circle.
You can tell me are not drivers. Or navigators.
But we did do some fun and useful things, like raid the Tyson's Galleria mall (okay, this was only fun or useful for me, not for James--J.Crew was having a huge sale!), load up on favorite Trader Joe's products, and eat some Guatemalan fast food chicken (an improvised stop at Pollo Campero since we were right around the corner shopping. I am pretty sure the negative reviews on Yelp have a lot to do with people wanting to avoid chain restaurants--the grilled chicken, beans, and plantains were all really tasty).
On the cultural/sightseeing side, we finally (at James's request) visited the Air and Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center, which is basically a giant hangar out by Dulles Airport packed with historic airplanes, plus a space shuttle. James loved it; I thought it had some cool stuff, but my eyes glazed over about 40 planes in, and I just reminded myself that James had put up with the mall the day before.
And for our ballin'-suburbanites-out-in-NoVA-with-car date night, we hit Peking Gourmet Inn for some tasty Peking duck to get us into the mood for Beijing. Their other food was pretty bad, but the duck was really tasty, and plus, the place is a trip--it makes me think of a Chinese place in the '60s in Hollywood or something: a huge place with high ceilings, all red carpets, gilt, white tablecloths, pictures of celebrities on the walls, huge plates of spareribs and wontons being dished out, and a giant full bar. It was packed and bizarrely festive.
There you go, folks: our thrilling adventures doing what most Americans do every weekend.
P.S. Pre-car, we also spent Friday night with friends listening to bluegrass at Tiffany Tavern in Alexandria. Homey, divey, delightful. Highly recommended.
Friday, May 6, 2011
Culinary activity report
And another note:
Bayou Bakery was really, really tasty. I heartily approve of their muffaletta, and also their beignets, except for the fact that James managed to burn himself on hot oil squirting out of them. The next day we also enjoyed Lyon Hall brunch; while I always enjoy Lyon Hall meals, this was my first time at brunch, and let me tell you, donuts + shortrib frankfurter = joy.
I continue to cook with gusto. This week:
Sunday: dinner chez Micheal and Stephanie. We brought potato salad.
Monday: Sea bass Cuban style; rice and garlic bread
Tuesday: James met me at Lebanese Taverna in Pentagon Row. I end up eating there every time I go to the mall based on the strength of their lebneh alone.
Wednesday: Bean burritos; watermelon and feta salad.
Thursday: Pork tenderloin with red and yellow peppers; more watermelon and feta salad; garlic bread. (BTW-- Cooking Light has been on a roll lately. We haven't made a single one of their recent recipes that hasn't been perfect.)
Bayou Bakery was really, really tasty. I heartily approve of their muffaletta, and also their beignets, except for the fact that James managed to burn himself on hot oil squirting out of them. The next day we also enjoyed Lyon Hall brunch; while I always enjoy Lyon Hall meals, this was my first time at brunch, and let me tell you, donuts + shortrib frankfurter = joy.
I continue to cook with gusto. This week:
Sunday: dinner chez Micheal and Stephanie. We brought potato salad.
Monday: Sea bass Cuban style; rice and garlic bread
Tuesday: James met me at Lebanese Taverna in Pentagon Row. I end up eating there every time I go to the mall based on the strength of their lebneh alone.
Wednesday: Bean burritos; watermelon and feta salad.
Thursday: Pork tenderloin with red and yellow peppers; more watermelon and feta salad; garlic bread. (BTW-- Cooking Light has been on a roll lately. We haven't made a single one of their recent recipes that hasn't been perfect.)
Consumerist exercise
Notes from my shopping trip:
1. Wide-leg jeans only work if you don't already have actually wide legs.
2. Me buying heels always puts me in mind of Oscar Wilde's comment on second marriages: "the triumph of hope over experience." Seriously, how many pairs have collected dust in my closet waiting for me to be ready for to suffer pain in order to wear them? Nonetheless, I got a cute and surprisingly comfortable pair, so we shall see how that goes.
3. The Gap seriously needs to hire a few more cashiers.
4. Why is no one selling the clothes I've designed in my mind?
5. If you take a school group to Washington, DC, I can guarantee there are about 50 billion more culturally enriching places to take them than the Pentagon City mall.
6. While shopping for shoes, a disembodied voice shrieked through my mind, "真的好看吗？" This no joke seriously freaked me out. I became convinced that Chinese was making me lose my mind. But no, there were just a couple of Chinese ladies further down the sandal aisle.
7. It is SO CRAZY that I can just understand Chinese being spoken around me! There were Chinese tourists on the metro too. I don't even have to struggle to figure out what they're talking about (nothing revolutionary: directions, who should take the one available seat, etc.). It blows my mind.
8. Eight bullet points from a trip to the mall: can you tell I need to get out more? My test is two weeks from today, and I am so ready to be done.
1. Wide-leg jeans only work if you don't already have actually wide legs.
2. Me buying heels always puts me in mind of Oscar Wilde's comment on second marriages: "the triumph of hope over experience." Seriously, how many pairs have collected dust in my closet waiting for me to be ready for to suffer pain in order to wear them? Nonetheless, I got a cute and surprisingly comfortable pair, so we shall see how that goes.
3. The Gap seriously needs to hire a few more cashiers.
4. Why is no one selling the clothes I've designed in my mind?
5. If you take a school group to Washington, DC, I can guarantee there are about 50 billion more culturally enriching places to take them than the Pentagon City mall.
6. While shopping for shoes, a disembodied voice shrieked through my mind, "真的好看吗？" This no joke seriously freaked me out. I became convinced that Chinese was making me lose my mind. But no, there were just a couple of Chinese ladies further down the sandal aisle.
7. It is SO CRAZY that I can just understand Chinese being spoken around me! There were Chinese tourists on the metro too. I don't even have to struggle to figure out what they're talking about (nothing revolutionary: directions, who should take the one available seat, etc.). It blows my mind.
8. Eight bullet points from a trip to the mall: can you tell I need to get out more? My test is two weeks from today, and I am so ready to be done.
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Saturday blues
So, not that I want to use this blog to air my own crankiness, but I am having Saturday afternoon rage issues. I went down to the gym to use the (ONE AND ONLY) elliptical machine. Only one other person there, a guy holding some weights. I get to the machine and realize at the same time that said guy has also approached the machine. He informs me that he was going to use it and I can come back in 35 minutes. So I left.
But I came back to my apartment and was FURIOUS. Why hadn't I just started using it? Seriously, he was holding weights when I entered the room. I really wished I had told him off, but then I thought about how I'm at Oakwood, and the older white man in the gym is probably going to be my next DCM or something, so probably better not to. But still.
Anyway, on to happier thoughts. The Royal Wedding came and went, and now I have all sorts of useful vocabulary in Chinese that I plan to use daily (monarchy, queen, prince, duke, royal, etc.). Less embedded in my mind are the actually important words that I sure could use for my test (I love the sinking feeling I get sometimes when it's clear that everyone in the class but me know a word and I just nod and smile and act like I'm going with the program). Test is now in less than three weeks, so I guess we're coming to go-time.
That wasn't that happy a thought. Maybe I can come up with some others. Thursday night I convinced a good group to go to the piano bar at Morrison House in Alexandria. It was a quiet night, but I think the people who were going to be into it got into it. We also had tasty fish and chips at Eamonn's Dublin Chipper (owned by the same people who run the storied Restaurant Eve). The cod was perfect.
Tonight we have going-away drinks for my friend who is moving to Warsaw. I think now I will work on compiling a list of Warsaw favorites for her. I am so jealous! I think we'll also stop by Bayou Bakery in Courthouse, which we've been meaning to try for a while, for a bite to eat.
But I came back to my apartment and was FURIOUS. Why hadn't I just started using it? Seriously, he was holding weights when I entered the room. I really wished I had told him off, but then I thought about how I'm at Oakwood, and the older white man in the gym is probably going to be my next DCM or something, so probably better not to. But still.
Anyway, on to happier thoughts. The Royal Wedding came and went, and now I have all sorts of useful vocabulary in Chinese that I plan to use daily (monarchy, queen, prince, duke, royal, etc.). Less embedded in my mind are the actually important words that I sure could use for my test (I love the sinking feeling I get sometimes when it's clear that everyone in the class but me know a word and I just nod and smile and act like I'm going with the program). Test is now in less than three weeks, so I guess we're coming to go-time.
That wasn't that happy a thought. Maybe I can come up with some others. Thursday night I convinced a good group to go to the piano bar at Morrison House in Alexandria. It was a quiet night, but I think the people who were going to be into it got into it. We also had tasty fish and chips at Eamonn's Dublin Chipper (owned by the same people who run the storied Restaurant Eve). The cod was perfect.
Tonight we have going-away drinks for my friend who is moving to Warsaw. I think now I will work on compiling a list of Warsaw favorites for her. I am so jealous! I think we'll also stop by Bayou Bakery in Courthouse, which we've been meaning to try for a while, for a bite to eat.
Apparently, I don't have a life.
"Blogs are for people who don't have a life. I have enough to do w/o writing for the benefit of perfect strangers [sic]"
-My mother, encouraging my endeavors since I was a small child and told her I wanted to be an artist and she told me that actually, only doctors, lawyers and investment bankers led nice lives.
-My mother, encouraging my endeavors since I was a small child and told her I wanted to be an artist and she told me that actually, only doctors, lawyers and investment bankers led nice lives.
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