I Made It Home Alive

....so you said that only proves that I'm insane.

Yeah, but you all knew that already. So, the concert? Fantastic, as was the weekend overall. A synopsis of events:

• Traffic through northern Virginia and at the bridge tunnel by Norfolk Friday night...grr. Still better than the Beltway, though, judging by the traffic reports.
• Copious amounts of alcohol at Kasi's house. And also a pool. I love Kasi's house. *waves at Kasi if she figured out how to get here from Facebook*
• Kasi's daughter saying to me, "Miss Leah, you have a lot of matching bags." Child has no idea.
• Getting to see Maura on Saturday before the concert, even though I managed to get lost (well, not lost, but there were many illegal U-turns) both getting there and getting back. *waves at Maura if she got bored enough at work to come read this*
• Billy Joel. There are no words to describe the awesome. There might be pictures later, though, if I can photoshop any of the ones I took enough to be clear.
• Scaring people with my ability to remember all of the words to Billy Joel songs. Not the easy ones like Only the Good Die Young or Piano Man, but the hard ones like We Didn't Start the Fire and Angry Young Man. Apparently they didn't read the last blog entry I wrote.
• Being very surprised that he didn't play Goodnight Saigon, especially in such a military-heavy area. He did sing Miami 2017, though, and there was much rejoicing at the part about Norfolk. Sadly, no Summer, Highland Falls either. I fear it is my destiny to never hear him sing that one live.
• My flip flops chewing up my feet Saturday night at the concert. I thought I'd be smart and wear plastic, easily cleanable flip flops rather than the nice ones with ribbon straps that don't bite my feet, since it had been raining earlier and we had lawn seats that might be muddy. This was not a good decision.
• Finally finding Williamsburg Winery wine on Sunday. It was...an experience, getting to a place that sold it. Trust me. Good thing that wine is so awesome.
• Visiting many new Targets on the way there and back. Although none of them had the cups that I was looking for in their clearance sections, which makes me sad. If anyone goes to their Targets and sees the little plastic cups from the summer merchandise, let me know. I need the blue ones with boats on them and the green ones with fireflies on them. You will be favorite person of the day.

But yes. All in all, a splendid weekend. Song titles from the last blog are in the comments section of this one, in case anyone cares. And gold stars to whoever gets the two lyrics I used in this one!

So before we end, and then begin,
We'll drink a toast to how it's been...
A few more times that I can say
I've loved these days.

Where Have You Been Hidin' Out Lately, Honey?

You will all be happy to hear that I just sent away the project I have been slaving over the last few weeks. As my boss said, "Now you can enjoy Billy Joel without thinking of malaria!" An odd sentence, to be sure, but true, as I am going to see Billy Joel in Virginia this weekend with Tricia.

Come on Virginia, show me a sign

Send up a signal I'll throw you the line.

Not that Virginia. Virginia Beach. But yeah...last weekend, and most evenings this week, I took the project home with me and worked on it, and had I not finished, would probably have ended up doing the same this weekend. But yes - I would much rather see Billy Joel than write about malaria.

You don't want to deal with the future
You don't want to make any plans
Oh baby, all you wanna do is dance.

There will be further changes to be made to this project, especially once the doctors in charge of the study get ahold of it, but for now, it is their problem, not mine. They probably will have changes, though. I don't mind.

Well, it's no big sin to stick your two cents in

If you know when to leave it alone.

But yeah. Sometimes they get a little...adamant, shall we say, about things.

So we'll argue and we'll compromise

And realize that nothing's ever changed

For all our mutual experience

Our separate conclusions are the same.

And they will end up doing what I want them to, because I am awesome.

She looks sleek and she seems so professional

She's got a lot of confidence, it's easy to see.

There is one problem, though. I am leaving work today at 2:30. I don't want to start another project just to abandon it in a short while.

So let me lie and let me go on sleeping

And I will lose myself in palaces of sand

And all the fantasies that I have been keeping

Will make the empty hours easier to stand.

I have, however, wasted a good half an hour writing this blog. Yay for me!

And the story of your latest success

Kept 'em so entertained....

I'll give you one hint, honey

You sure did put on a show.

(Whoever guesses the songs those lyrics came from first and without cheating wins!)

The Sopranos

So, The Sopranos is a good show. Everyone knows that, and it's true. But something that no one mentions is how awesome the '90s Jersey fashions are in the early seasons. Horrible bangs, wretched ass-enlargening pants suits, tucked-in t-shirts, etc. It's worth watching for that alone.

On a side note...I want to learn to speak Italian.

Because I didn't already watch enough TV...

...I have decided to subscribe to Netflix. Tricia is a bad influence. But at least now I don't have to pay $1.99 per episode of TV shows that Hollywood Video doesn't carry on DVD. (About that - how on earth do they justify carrying the first season of Extras, but not the second? Which has been out for months? I think they're prejudiced against British people.)
Related note - any show recommendations? I think this is going to be The Summer of The Sopranos. But that's an HBO show, I'll be through that in a couple of weeks.

Everyone else is doing it, so why can't I?

Because I am a big copycat, I have decided to follow in the footsteps of Mary and Taryn and start a blog. As they are much more exciting than I am, with their spawn and their Rat Zapper 3000, I am sure their blogs will prove to be much more entertaining. But blog I shall, nonetheless. Given that I spend much of my spare time at the aquatics facility of my esteemed alma mater, I'm sure swim lesson stories will be plentiful. Goes well with the blog name :-)

Today's installment is about the weather, with a bit of everything thrown in. Now, I have very little patience left for this ridiculous weather. I spent the weekend at a wedding, the reception for which was held in a hotel that had mediocre air conditioning. My room was all right, but apparently the bride's parents' suite, in which all of the children were being babysat, had no air conditioning whatsoever. Not a good time. (Disclaimer - other than the heat, and one other tiny problem, the wedding was freaking fantastic. Pictures'll be on Facebook eventually. My mother did the polka with the bride's grandfather.) So yes, am losing patience with the heat. But I am also losing patience with people who are cancelling things because of the heat!

Incident #1:

We were to have a retreat for our group at work tomorrow. It was rescheduled (for the second time - last time was rain) because of the heat. Now, this is slightly understandable - no one wants to be outside all afternoon in the heat. But I have a ton of cookies and watermelon now that were to go to the retreat tomorrow that will not last until the new date, which is at the end of June. People in Frederick - want some cookies and/or watermelon?

Incident #2:

A swim lesson parent called me this afternoon at work. Now, today was crazy busy. The Party Planning Committee (don't ask) hosted Diversity Day (again, don't ask), which took up a good bit of my time. I have a gigantic project that needs to be done, like, yesterday. And it was Monday, so I had tons of people procrastinating their work to talk to me (like I usually do on Mondays too). I had very little time for swim lesson parent stupidity. So this lady calls me and wants to cancel because of the heat. She doesn't want to go to a swimming pool. With cold water. That she can get in. And there are umbrellas. And water fountains. And, hell, an air conditioned indoor baby pool in which she has no problem letting her other kid run amok all last summer! No one else had a problem with the heat. And by no one else, I mean the two other parents whose kids had lessons tonight, both of whom have newborn babies that they brought along. Arrrggh. I rescheduled her for Wednesday (which, if I had realized why she was bailing at the beginning of the conversation, I would've made her wait a week), so I'm sure more stories will follow after that.

So, first one. I promise they won't all be me complaining about stuff. Well, they probably will. But maybe the next one will have pictures.

OK, maybe this one will too. This is my mom doing the polka with the grandfather of the bride. Because it's cute and it makes me happy.