James: You know, if you don't feel like sorting your clothes, you could probably fit all your clothes in the UAB and not go overweight.
Me: But, um, what do we wear then?
James: Oh... I mixed it up.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Adieu, Washington
Final weekend in DC (with Mom):
1. French Festival at Hillwood. I think they may have missed the whole revolutionary aspect of Bastille Day, given they appeared to be celebrating pre-revolutionary France, down to using the old flag (no tri-colors here!). But it was fun, we got to hear some eighteenth-century French opera, and in totally non-Bastille-Day-related news, my mother loved the museum's Russian collection--between her and James, I was the only one there without a degree in something Russian-related.
2. Dinner at Proof. Mmmmmmmm. They really do get it right.
3. Brunch at Vermilion and shopping in Old Town Alexandria. New favorite shop there: Chinoiserie, which sells great modern tableware and other knickknacks. Kind of CB2-esque, but more independent-shop-that-you-want-to-support-y.
4. Definitely not getting ready for the move. And have you noticed the uptick in blog posts today? Procrastination is a beautiful thing.
All in all, a success!
1. French Festival at Hillwood. I think they may have missed the whole revolutionary aspect of Bastille Day, given they appeared to be celebrating pre-revolutionary France, down to using the old flag (no tri-colors here!). But it was fun, we got to hear some eighteenth-century French opera, and in totally non-Bastille-Day-related news, my mother loved the museum's Russian collection--between her and James, I was the only one there without a degree in something Russian-related.
2. Dinner at Proof. Mmmmmmmm. They really do get it right.
3. Brunch at Vermilion and shopping in Old Town Alexandria. New favorite shop there: Chinoiserie, which sells great modern tableware and other knickknacks. Kind of CB2-esque, but more independent-shop-that-you-want-to-support-y.
4. Definitely not getting ready for the move. And have you noticed the uptick in blog posts today? Procrastination is a beautiful thing.
All in all, a success!
A month late
From maybe my favorite novel of all time:
In people's eyes, in the swing, tramp, and trudge; in the bellow and the uproar; the carriages, motor cars, omnibuses, vans, sandwich men shuffling and swinging; brass bands; barrel organs; in the triumph and the jingle and the strange high singing of some aeroplane overhead was what she loved; life; London; this moment of June.
-Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway
This is the feeling I miss in DC: the feeling of being in the center of the world, in a place with energy, where the bustle adds up to something greater than the sum of its parts. Perhaps Beijing will feel that way...Poetic Sundays: Notes
Because sorting things for the movers tomorrow is driving me nuts. Because I need a moment outside my own brain. Because it's beautiful.
An excerpt from Czeslaw Milosz's "Notes":
An excerpt from Czeslaw Milosz's "Notes":
ON THE NEED TO DRAW BOUNDARIES
Wretched and dishonest was the sea.
SUPPLICATION
From galactic silence protect us.
HYPOTHESIS
If, she said, you wrote in Polish to punish yourself for your sins, you will be saved.
PORTRAIT
He locked himself in a tower, read ancient authors, fed birds on the terrace.
For only in this way could he forget about having to know himself.
Calm down. Both your sins and your good deeds will be lost in oblivion.
THE PERFECT REPUBLIC
Right from early morning--the sun has barely made it through the dense maples--they walk contemplating the holy word: Is.
HARMONY
Deprived. And why shouldn't you be deprived?
Those better than you were deprived.
STRONG OR WEAK POINT
You were always ready to fall to your knees!
Yes, I was always ready to fall to my knees.
A GOD-FEARING MAN
So God heard my request after all, and allowed me to sin in his praise.
AIM IN LIFE
Oh to cover my shame with regal attire!
MEDICINE
If not for the revulsion at the smell of his skin,
I could think I was a good man.
LONGING
Not that I want to be a god or a hero.
Just to change into a tree, grow for ages, not hurt anyone.
IN REVERSE
On the ruins of their homes grows a young forest. Wolves are returning and a bear sleeps secure in a raspberry thicket.
MORNING
We awoke from a sleep of I don't know how many thousand years. An eagle flew in the sun again but it didn't mean the same.
Friday, July 15, 2011
Holding it together
Pre-moving crazy lady blogging fail. Sorry, guys, but you probably don't want to be along for this ride. You can catch me again in a few weeks, when the cheery grinning photos on the Great Wall start, when I inevitably photograph every dumpling in China and post it here, when things are lively and exciting and fun.
These weeks are not always those things. Oh, of course there is some fun--I had a great time last night with many friends at a happy hour I planned (with a final trip to Ray's Hellburger afterwards), we went to Restaurant Eve in Alexandria for my birthday (amazing special occasion restaurant--the food was tremendous), saw a sweetly amateurish play at the Capital Fringe Festival ("Between Takeoff and Landing"), ate incredible spaghetti and meatballs at Potenza (a favorite Italian restaurant near our apartment), tried Shake Shack for the first time (in DC! Heresy, I know. Also, you may notice there is a little too much burger action going on lately.), and celebrated America's birthday with hot dogs and fireworks.
But somehow, these weeks are much more defined by the constant calculations (how many bottles of contact solution to put in my air shipment? How many boxes of Ziploc bags? How many Ziploc bags should I first remove from said boxes to put my toiletries I'm traveling with in? Why am I thinking so much about Ziploc bags? Who am I? What is the purpose of my life? etc.), the worries, the feeling of being behind in pretty much everything.
Add on top of that my eventual realization that I don't really like being in training. Oh, sure, the Foreign Service Institute has a pretty campus; the cafeteria recently added sushi as a lunch option; the things we learn are mostly useful and occasionally interesting; but somehow a long stint in training makes me grouchy. I am ready to be off and doing something, to actually feel gainfully employed.
(At my college reunion recently, someone I was talking to was complaining about having to go back to work and see her unpleasant boss after the weekend was over. And I said something like, "Yeah, it's weird, I don't really have a boss now." And she gave me this look of sympathy that I assumed meant she thought I was unemployed. So I start rambling about how, actually, I do have a job, really, I just don't really have a boss for this year, I mean, I don't really answer to anyone exactly. And then she just shot me a look of hatred.)
So really, it's better I blog less now. You'll enjoy Great-Wall-climbing, dumpling-eating, Beijing-exploring Katie, I swear. She's great! Ziploc-bag-counting Katie is not really the one you want to hang out with.
These weeks are not always those things. Oh, of course there is some fun--I had a great time last night with many friends at a happy hour I planned (with a final trip to Ray's Hellburger afterwards), we went to Restaurant Eve in Alexandria for my birthday (amazing special occasion restaurant--the food was tremendous), saw a sweetly amateurish play at the Capital Fringe Festival ("Between Takeoff and Landing"), ate incredible spaghetti and meatballs at Potenza (a favorite Italian restaurant near our apartment), tried Shake Shack for the first time (in DC! Heresy, I know. Also, you may notice there is a little too much burger action going on lately.), and celebrated America's birthday with hot dogs and fireworks.
But somehow, these weeks are much more defined by the constant calculations (how many bottles of contact solution to put in my air shipment? How many boxes of Ziploc bags? How many Ziploc bags should I first remove from said boxes to put my toiletries I'm traveling with in? Why am I thinking so much about Ziploc bags? Who am I? What is the purpose of my life? etc.), the worries, the feeling of being behind in pretty much everything.
Add on top of that my eventual realization that I don't really like being in training. Oh, sure, the Foreign Service Institute has a pretty campus; the cafeteria recently added sushi as a lunch option; the things we learn are mostly useful and occasionally interesting; but somehow a long stint in training makes me grouchy. I am ready to be off and doing something, to actually feel gainfully employed.
(At my college reunion recently, someone I was talking to was complaining about having to go back to work and see her unpleasant boss after the weekend was over. And I said something like, "Yeah, it's weird, I don't really have a boss now." And she gave me this look of sympathy that I assumed meant she thought I was unemployed. So I start rambling about how, actually, I do have a job, really, I just don't really have a boss for this year, I mean, I don't really answer to anyone exactly. And then she just shot me a look of hatred.)
So really, it's better I blog less now. You'll enjoy Great-Wall-climbing, dumpling-eating, Beijing-exploring Katie, I swear. She's great! Ziploc-bag-counting Katie is not really the one you want to hang out with.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Party party
Wow, pictures from a Pool Party in Beijing recently.
Toto, I don't think we're in the Muslim world anymore...
And, while I don't think I'll be breaking out a bikini at a rooftop party anytime soon, I am REALLY excited to go live in a place where I can wear a tank top and not single-handedly scandalize a few thousand passersby.
Toto, I don't think we're in the Muslim world anymore...
And, while I don't think I'll be breaking out a bikini at a rooftop party anytime soon, I am REALLY excited to go live in a place where I can wear a tank top and not single-handedly scandalize a few thousand passersby.
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