Radio Silence

Wow, so sorry for the radio silence. It's been...a lot. I was sick for a while in DC, then came up to Boston for a nice little vacation and ended up in the hospital for a few days. Dream vacation. Better than a cruise. No really, the hospital is less confining than a cruise ship, minus the whole being sick thing. At least there was no rocking. But there were vital sign check-ins every four hours. My favorite one was the regular 4 am check-in. It didn't lead to a lot of good sleep, let me say.

But now I am out and healthy(ish), regaining my energy and having a "real" vacation. I had to postpone my DC return, and in doing so I missed the DC earthquake. Too bad, I have never been in an earthquake. It sounds exciting. Added bonus: none of the stuff in my apartment broke or fell. My roommate reports that some of the pictures on my walls are askew. Damn you, earthquake! But really what is this, California? We don't have nearly enough actors to cause earthquakes in DC.

My time in Boston is going pretty well. I am just hanging out, relaxing...shootin' some b-ball outside of school. Alright, maybe not that. More like going to the outlets with Shaked and Ron and trying to convince Ron to buy argyle sweater-vests. But if you are in Boston and want to see me, I suggest you let me know. I'm looking at Erica right now. That's right, getting called out in a blog post. Which you may or may not read. I understand after the long silence, people may have thought I sunk after hitting an iceberg. Not the case. It's summer - there aren't icebergs. Idiot.

I'm sorry, but I really do not get the appeal of Mad Men. I am on the Season 1 finale, and there is still no concrete plot line. A lot of things just kind of happen. So what? Do people like it because it is breaking the traditional Aristotelian plot progression? I doubt it. Is it the 60's style? Or is it just that the actors look pretty? I just don't get it. And yet...I've watched season 1 and the question remains - why?

I wish that I had my class schedule figured out. But I don't. I would love to know how many credits my internship will give me. But why would the school want to tell me a silly thing like that? Oh yeah, I got an internship for this semester. It should be fun and more importantly minimize the time I have to spend in a lecture, reading a textbook, or taking a final.

In other news, I got an offer from my firm. It happened the same day I got out of the hospital. That was...a very good day. I don't think the impact of it has quite sunk in, but I am happy and consider myself very lucky. I would say the odds are about 95% that I will take it. Deep breath. Very lucky.

Get the Suit that Fits

To prepare for work this summer, I went outlet shopping with Enoch and Reza all the way out in Leesburg. Where? I don't know, I hadn't been either, but it was pretty nice. I got a few things: a couple of shirts, socks, a spatula. But the big purchase was a suit at the Joseph A Bank outlet. I had my doubts, but the fast-talking salesman assured me the suit would be easily tailored to fit me. I forgot a cardinal rule: never trust the fast-talking salesman. Upon returning to DC, I took my newly purchased suit to my local Joseph A Bank for tailoring. The tailor and the salesman took one look at it on me and pronounced it the wrong size. For a minute or two I was fairly unhappy - I was either going to have to work something out with the tailor or I was going to have to go all the way back to Leesburg (where?) to return it. I was mentally trending towards the latter option when the salesman thrust a correctly sized suit in my direction and told me to put it on. I did and expressed my regret over owning the wrong size when the salesman said he was just going to "exchange" the suits. There was roughly a $300 price difference between the purchased suit and the suit that was my actual size. But this did not stop the (slow-talking?) salesman - he was happy to help me out by "exchanging" suits while bemoaning my initial incorrectly-sized one. He did everything but admonish the first salesman. To this second salesman, my hat is off. I certainly thank him and I put in a good word for Joseph A Bank (which may be slowly going out of business), although not for its outlet.

I do not put in a good word for Calvin Klein's "Body" line of dress pants. Reza described the pair I tried on as looking more like tights. What's your deal Calvin? Are you designing clothing for starving Russian peasants? Most normal shaped men, plus me, cannot fit into those without looking foolish.
Another negative from the trip. At the Levi outlet, I was unable to continue my shopping due to the multitude of foreigners with vastly different conceptions of personal space. A man literally stepped on me without noticing while trying to buy jeans. How do you not notice that? How can you be so self-centered that you refuse to see or in this case feel other people around you? Sometimes I wish I had an airhorn to announce my presence. Or a personal lighthouse. Ships would never crash on me that way. How's that for a superpower!?

I went to the Nats game tonight. In an epic battle between two bitter rivals, the Washington Nationals shocked the Pittsburgh Pirates with a come from behind victory. There was plentiful sarcasm.

Do You Know What the Midwest Is?

Outlet shopping today was a disappointing but relieving. I didn't buy nearly enough clothing to feel ready to tackle being a "lawyer" or even an "adult," but I also didn't spend the bank. I ended up buying some practical things and some necessary things. No suits, however, so that still has to get done. It's a rough job suit shopping, but somebody's gotta do it. Ron contemplated both seersucker and white suits today. I encouraged him to go for it. So cheap. Alas, the peer pressure didn't work this time. Meanwhile my shoulders inhibited my suit shopping, as did some ugly suits. I'd say the real let down was the Banana Republic Outlet. Some people know that I am pretty much in love with Banana Republic (or Nana Pubs as some have been known to call it). Nevermind the fact that their dress shirts really aren't sized for me or that they constantly above my price range. The quality, the comfort, and the look are what I'm all about. Unfortunately they had just about nothing I wanted today. What the hell Nana Pubs, you are supposed to be my favorite, my rock. Today, you were a total let down. Your little brother, Gap, was far superior. You ought to be ashamed.

This evening, I politely declined to go to a strip club. I am certain I made the right decision. It is an experience in life that I am still lacking, but I am comfortable letting it remain that way.

I've been watching Heroes, season 1 on DVD. (Thanks Library!) I like it, but it's so repetitive and very little happens each episode. They follow so many character plots that it takes three episodes for anything coherent to happen and any event to resolve itself. It doesn't help that they do a "previously on Heroes" then they re-show the entire scene were a character left off, then some character has a dream where you see the same thing, then they have a flashback to that dream, then there's a painting of it, then it actually happens. By the end you have viewed the same scene twelve times and wasted half the episode. I understand that Peter is going to explode! I got it after the first three times I saw it! I'm looking forward to the next episode where small strands of plot will further be revealed, two questions will be answered, five new questions will pop up, and I'll get to see Peter explode again. Had to get that out there. I really do like it, but if it moved a little faster and had a little more confidence in viewers to figure it out, I would appreciate it.

On Friday I saw "Johnny Baseball" with Eva. It's a musical about the Red Sox, race relations, and a love story. Two of those areas they covered well; one they covered poorly. You can guess which was the poor one. Now you can check your answer: it's the love story. I'm not crazy about musicals to begin with, but adding an ill-conceived and ultimately irrelevant love story with mundane songs didn't help anything. The rest of the show, however, was lots of fun. It is very Boston. They rhyme with Scituate and Methuen, make fun of Worcester, and capture the baseball culture of Boston very well. Part of the plot takes place during Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS, codename the best baseball game ever played. So of course you have to love that. Also, I didn't know that the Red Sox were the last baseball team to integrate and declined to sign Willie Mays. Go team. Yes, the Red Sox have made some (understatement) mistakes, but at least....ummm....they've been playing well this week. And at least....they aren't the Yankees!

Heading off to Chicago tomorrow, land of Bears, Cubs, and White Sox. Also Matt, Mike, Leor, Obama, and others (I'm just assuming other people live there - I don't have firsthand experience yet). But I'm excited. Do you know what the Midwest is? (David Ronn's answer was "Yes.") Well I'm going to find out tomorrow.

Bet the ranch

I did not succeed at gathering all of my holiday gifts. Despite two days of going into stores and looking at merchandise I still couldn't find the perfect gift. A lot of that has to do with limited funding. If Bill Gates wanted to sponsor my holiday shopping then this could all go completely differently. A lot more holiday gifts would be for myself, and they would involve expensive cars and weekend getaways to Las Vegas in addition to the small knick-knacks and clothing that I've been ogling. The good news is that from my experiences the past few days, the economy seems to be picking up. There have been tons of people out shopping. Good for the U.S., bad for me (in the short run). Long lines, small children running into me, and an apparent Asian invasion (alliteration then rhyming - I win!) have made shopping less pleasurable than it might have been.

Rebecca's birthday is today, but facebook listed it as yesterday. Dozens of people wrote on her wall wishing her a happy birthday...yesterday. Whoops. Facebook has, sadly, replaced most of our knowledge regarding birthdays. There are maybe five to ten people whose birthday I am certain of without needing to consult facebook. Part of that is me being bad at remembering birthdays, but the far larger part of that is facebook governing my reality to a certain extent. And I am clearly not unique in this manner. Exhibit 1: Rebecca's wall yesterday on her non-birthday. In retrospect I wish I had posted the lyrics to "A Very Merry Unbirthday" (from Alice in Wonderland, the Disney version) on her wall as a warning to the perceptive on facebook. Or at least sung it to her mockingly yesterday. But alas, I did not. Instead I got tapas and sangria with her, Jessica, and Vanessa yesterday, which was pretty good also. And by pretty good I mean delicious and normally out of my price range. But I didn't even have to sell the ranch! I like that phrase. But I'm sort of glad I don't have a ranch because if I did I'm sure I would foolishly and needlessly put the deed on the table in the midst of some high stakes poker game which I stupidly sought out. Just to fit into a cliche. It would be awesome. Until my ranch was owned by the other guy from the saloon poker game and all I had to my name was a six shooter and a taste for revenge. Now I'm just mixing generic Western movie things together. But I like it that way.

This Nigerian guy tried to blow up an airplane. Thanks, jerk. Now there will be even more increased security. It's bad enough that I have to take my shoes off and tread through the metal detector barefoot every time I board a plane. I wonder what the next step is. But props to the other passengers and the crew who jumped on him. It's becoming quite perilous to pull some crap on an airplane. I'm glad everyone is on edge, ready to put you in a full nelson the minute they see you mixing suspicious liquids and powders. Or trying to light your shoes on fire, looking like an idiot.

Lady Gaga is very catchy. Make a note of that.