Looks like I'm going to have to start copyrighting quotes as soon as they come out peoples' mouths. There are new kids on the blog -- um, block -- and they're not afraid to snatch up witty comments and market them on the web. The monopoly is a thing of the past, but I guess this is America -- a little friendly competition never hurt anyone.
I recently noted that Heaven will be like eating gelato while wearing sandals. I'm afraid I'm going to have to change my answer.
Heaven will be colorful shorts and Rainbow flip-flops, an iced soy latte while waiting in line at the Market, and learning that (YES!) the Mexicana omelet is the special. Heaven will be big sunglasses and laughing (jealously) at Patrick's summer job as a Civil War Conservationist, and the best limeade on earth. Heaven will mean I'm no longer sighing regretfully at KMK's huge stack of reading material, because I will have read them all too. Heaven will be big dogs and girls in sundresses and cameras and frisbees. Heaven will mean a sense of actually knowing where the frisbee is heading and (possibly, even) being able to catch it. Heaven will be frozen lemonade and toasted shoulders and having to stop and gasping for breath after laughing too hard about nothing. Heaven will be people-watching and 78 degrees and knowing all the perfect settings on my Rebel. Heaven will be not rushing and laughing at the menagerie and knowing the tractor-driver-Earth Day-setup-guy.
These things I know so far. I also anticipate knowing that,
Heaven will be wine in a Nalgene and Casablanca on the Mall. Heaven will be potted daisies and Tuesday morning scones and jogging to the Lincoln. Heaven will be rainy afternoons and crowded metros and well-read commutes and the Newseum. Heaven will be jazz and "Get Low" and live U2.
These are what I mean when I say, "patches of Godlight."
PS: If you walked through the Gallery toward around 11:02 this morning, you probably already overheard the following --
LC: "I want to be the First Lady."
HS: "So this whole Human Rights thing is all a scam?! You're just here to pick out the most promising Hill Staffer you can find, and marry your way to the top?!"
LC: "Yeah. It's kind of like the secular version of those girls who go to Christian colleges so they can marry a pastor..."
And yet, somehow it's me who's always judged for my t-shirted sorority ways in college. At least my college choice and lifestyle choices have not been made based the potential ladders to climb towards marital power.
21 April 2008
05 April 2008
A mystery solved, and A SMALL TENT.
First, the mystery of the cubicle-gifters is solved:
It was Lerae and Ana. They are so nice.
And now,
I have always wanted a small tent.
I am not sure when this wanting began, but it has gone on for the past few years. Only a choice few people, who (sorry!) got dragged through the small-tent aisle at Target every time we happened onto that side of the store knew. One time, I seem to have mentioned that, "It would be, like the best gift ever if someone got me a small tent."
Ryan seems to have remembered.
Really, this has been a great week. Despite a few breakdowns about, "How am I going to make money?!" [wailing] "What if I just have to go work at an insurance agency?!" and my credit card being rejected a Baked and Wired this afternoon (Red Velvet cupcake #3 this week), life has been lovely.
When Meriweather and I were cruising home on 395 last night, I flipped on the radio and rolled her windows down and sang (loudly) to the tune of "Great Day to Be Alive." The sun was still shining when I closed my eyes (although I passed on both getting a new tattoo and growing a Fu Manchu).
Today was also a great day to be alive for several reasons:
a) Starting The Great Gatsby for the first time ever on the metro.
b) Seeing my perfect future family on the Mall.
c) A chihuahua wearing jeans and a sweater.
d) Celebrating the anniversary of the end of Prohibition at Dubliner's w/the Budweiser Clydesdales.
e) Utilikilt guys at the bar in Dubliner's.
f) The "Perfect Man List."
g) Metroing to the Waterfront for Cherry Blossom Festival fireworks.
h) Seeing Parrish Hardy in the throng of 6 million at the Cherry Blossom Festival fireworks.
i) Pirates
j) Two little girls in pink coats singing "God Bless America" (interspersing original lyrics on occasion) while wearing balloon hats at the fireworks show.
Some of these are self explanatory. Some warrant further comment:
a) "I was rather literary in college -- one year I wrote a series of very solemn and obvious editorials for the 'Yale News' -- and now I was going to bring back all such things into my life and become again that most limited of all specialists, the 'well rounded man.'" - pgs. 8-9
b) Dad is wearing old Redwings, a Polo and fleece vest when he turns to two golden haired cherubs probably named Jack and Mary Cara and shows them to "put out their wings" (Southern brawl, obviously) and "fly after Daddy!" as they went 'flying' across the Mall. Precious.
c/d/e) Only in Washington.
f) The collaborative (and potentially ongoing) masterpiece of six savvy ladies -- his traits will give Achilles/Brad a run for his money.
g/i/j) We and about 6 million others enjoyed the mostly normal show and the fantastic finale. We (LC and I) are still trying to figure out what the association is between the Cherry Blossoms themselves and the large city-wide events that are taking over Washington. Like LC says, "It's like, we have cherry blossoms -- let's teach origami! We have cherry blossoms -- let's have fireworks! We have cherry blossoms -- let's have pirates at the fireworks!"
h) The last time Parrish and I 'ran into' each other was in an orphan summer camp outside of St. Petersburg. I should have expected to run into her at Waterfront station.
To top it off, I got home and remembered that I own a small tent.
Again, the sun's shining as I close my eyes.
It was Lerae and Ana. They are so nice.
And now,
I have always wanted a small tent.
I am not sure when this wanting began, but it has gone on for the past few years. Only a choice few people, who (sorry!) got dragged through the small-tent aisle at Target every time we happened onto that side of the store knew. One time, I seem to have mentioned that, "It would be, like the best gift ever if someone got me a small tent."
Ryan seems to have remembered.
Really, this has been a great week. Despite a few breakdowns about, "How am I going to make money?!" [wailing] "What if I just have to go work at an insurance agency?!" and my credit card being rejected a Baked and Wired this afternoon (Red Velvet cupcake #3 this week), life has been lovely.
When Meriweather and I were cruising home on 395 last night, I flipped on the radio and rolled her windows down and sang (loudly) to the tune of "Great Day to Be Alive." The sun was still shining when I closed my eyes (although I passed on both getting a new tattoo and growing a Fu Manchu).
Today was also a great day to be alive for several reasons:
a) Starting The Great Gatsby for the first time ever on the metro.
b) Seeing my perfect future family on the Mall.
c) A chihuahua wearing jeans and a sweater.
d) Celebrating the anniversary of the end of Prohibition at Dubliner's w/the Budweiser Clydesdales.
e) Utilikilt guys at the bar in Dubliner's.
f) The "Perfect Man List."
g) Metroing to the Waterfront for Cherry Blossom Festival fireworks.
h) Seeing Parrish Hardy in the throng of 6 million at the Cherry Blossom Festival fireworks.
i) Pirates
j) Two little girls in pink coats singing "God Bless America" (interspersing original lyrics on occasion) while wearing balloon hats at the fireworks show.
Some of these are self explanatory. Some warrant further comment:
a) "I was rather literary in college -- one year I wrote a series of very solemn and obvious editorials for the 'Yale News' -- and now I was going to bring back all such things into my life and become again that most limited of all specialists, the 'well rounded man.'" - pgs. 8-9
b) Dad is wearing old Redwings, a Polo and fleece vest when he turns to two golden haired cherubs probably named Jack and Mary Cara and shows them to "put out their wings" (Southern brawl, obviously) and "fly after Daddy!" as they went 'flying' across the Mall. Precious.
c/d/e) Only in Washington.
f) The collaborative (and potentially ongoing) masterpiece of six savvy ladies -- his traits will give Achilles/Brad a run for his money.
g/i/j) We and about 6 million others enjoyed the mostly normal show and the fantastic finale. We (LC and I) are still trying to figure out what the association is between the Cherry Blossoms themselves and the large city-wide events that are taking over Washington. Like LC says, "It's like, we have cherry blossoms -- let's teach origami! We have cherry blossoms -- let's have fireworks! We have cherry blossoms -- let's have pirates at the fireworks!"
h) The last time Parrish and I 'ran into' each other was in an orphan summer camp outside of St. Petersburg. I should have expected to run into her at Waterfront station.
To top it off, I got home and remembered that I own a small tent.
Again, the sun's shining as I close my eyes.
02 April 2008
01 April 2008
I believed it, for like 2 seconds.
The people at Google must love their lives.
Where else is it corporate tradition to pull the biggest (arguably) April Fool's prank on earth and pull the legs, so to speak, of millions of cock-eyed Gmailers. I'll admit: I'm not always the quickest person alive, but I like to think of myself as generally aware, in most cases fairly skeptical and even um, cynical, at times.
But last year, they got me.
Somehow, I fell for that whole "paper backup for all of your Gmail folders" thing. This morning when I was logging in at my desk and the back-dating feature flashed onto the welcome screen, I did have to read through it once, check what day it was and read through the intro again before yelling triumphantly, "Oh Google. Them and their April Foolery..."
I'm not that great at pranking, but if I were, I'd want to be Googlish. They are just so cool.
A note in explanation (as promised) of the previous post entitled, "How did everyone find out that I LOVE SURPRISES?!!"
If there's one thing I really do love, it's surprises. This, generally is something that only a few people know about me. But somehow, my newly acquainted work friends, my 'family' in Arlington and Ryan got the memo. (Although Ryan obviously falls into the "few people" category.)
In terms of surprises this week has been easily the best of '08, perhaps of the millennium. They fall into three categories:
a) Packages that are long-awaited and of a mysterious nature
b) Unmarked gifts left in my cubicle
c) Cupcakes
Now, unpacking this list:
a) It started at Jim's, sometime around 12/19, when it would be a natural time to be receiving a birthday present. Ryan had just lost the bid on eBay, so there was the dilemma of whether he should just tell me what it had been and laugh or wait to win another one and ship it off to DC. Obviously, loving surprises, I picked Option B. Then there was the issue of whether to send it to work or home or whatever, all the while interest/curiosity building.
Coming back to the issue of April Fool's, I got home today to a perturbed-looking Chris who, with an annoyed voice said, "Your package came, and Hanna, I think it's alive. I just didn't have time to deal with it -- my in-laws just got in, but it's on the back porch. It's yours to deal with." I kept repeating, "I AM GOING TO KILL HIM," in my mind.
Then, she smiled.
I believed her for longer than I believed Google, she should get a job with them.
b) This is a mystery yet unsolved. It involves rubber duckies and it involves potted ferns. They arrive at various times throughout the day. This is a creative and appreciated individual.
c) This week, cupcakes deserve a category of their own. My first cupcake story was, like, the epitomy of love-to-be-surprised-ness. It involved a few key elements: background knowledge of something I greatly enjoy (i.e. cupcakes), timing (i.e. the doldrums of late afternoon in intern row), and of course, shock.
KMK introduced a few of us to Baked and Wired a few weeks ago, but I kept not going because it's in Georgetown and I drive and Georgetown generally puts me over the edge of inability-to-find-parking upsettedness. When I finally had gone, there were no Red Velvets left. The key to the Red Velvet, is of course, that it is a vehicle for the cream cheese icing (which I once wrote an entire blog posting about, in the olden days). So, to cut a long story short, there was a phone call, that led to a curious trip to the lunchroom fridge, which led to a cupcake-sized box, which led to a Red Velvet and a Chocolate Doom.
Heavenly.
When I got home and expressed to Chris my unbounded delight, she smiled and said, "Well, looks like you're getting cupcakes from two people today," and produced a bag from Heidelberg's.
Was it national Make-Hanna-Happy week and no one told me?!
Where else is it corporate tradition to pull the biggest (arguably) April Fool's prank on earth and pull the legs, so to speak, of millions of cock-eyed Gmailers. I'll admit: I'm not always the quickest person alive, but I like to think of myself as generally aware, in most cases fairly skeptical and even um, cynical, at times.
But last year, they got me.
Somehow, I fell for that whole "paper backup for all of your Gmail folders" thing. This morning when I was logging in at my desk and the back-dating feature flashed onto the welcome screen, I did have to read through it once, check what day it was and read through the intro again before yelling triumphantly, "Oh Google. Them and their April Foolery..."
I'm not that great at pranking, but if I were, I'd want to be Googlish. They are just so cool.
A note in explanation (as promised) of the previous post entitled, "How did everyone find out that I LOVE SURPRISES?!!"
If there's one thing I really do love, it's surprises. This, generally is something that only a few people know about me. But somehow, my newly acquainted work friends, my 'family' in Arlington and Ryan got the memo. (Although Ryan obviously falls into the "few people" category.)
In terms of surprises this week has been easily the best of '08, perhaps of the millennium. They fall into three categories:
a) Packages that are long-awaited and of a mysterious nature
b) Unmarked gifts left in my cubicle
c) Cupcakes
Now, unpacking this list:
a) It started at Jim's, sometime around 12/19, when it would be a natural time to be receiving a birthday present. Ryan had just lost the bid on eBay, so there was the dilemma of whether he should just tell me what it had been and laugh or wait to win another one and ship it off to DC. Obviously, loving surprises, I picked Option B. Then there was the issue of whether to send it to work or home or whatever, all the while interest/curiosity building.
Coming back to the issue of April Fool's, I got home today to a perturbed-looking Chris who, with an annoyed voice said, "Your package came, and Hanna, I think it's alive. I just didn't have time to deal with it -- my in-laws just got in, but it's on the back porch. It's yours to deal with." I kept repeating, "I AM GOING TO KILL HIM," in my mind.
Then, she smiled.
I believed her for longer than I believed Google, she should get a job with them.
b) This is a mystery yet unsolved. It involves rubber duckies and it involves potted ferns. They arrive at various times throughout the day. This is a creative and appreciated individual.
c) This week, cupcakes deserve a category of their own. My first cupcake story was, like, the epitomy of love-to-be-surprised-ness. It involved a few key elements: background knowledge of something I greatly enjoy (i.e. cupcakes), timing (i.e. the doldrums of late afternoon in intern row), and of course, shock.
KMK introduced a few of us to Baked and Wired a few weeks ago, but I kept not going because it's in Georgetown and I drive and Georgetown generally puts me over the edge of inability-to-find-parking upsettedness. When I finally had gone, there were no Red Velvets left. The key to the Red Velvet, is of course, that it is a vehicle for the cream cheese icing (which I once wrote an entire blog posting about, in the olden days). So, to cut a long story short, there was a phone call, that led to a curious trip to the lunchroom fridge, which led to a cupcake-sized box, which led to a Red Velvet and a Chocolate Doom.
Heavenly.
When I got home and expressed to Chris my unbounded delight, she smiled and said, "Well, looks like you're getting cupcakes from two people today," and produced a bag from Heidelberg's.
Was it national Make-Hanna-Happy week and no one told me?!
How did everyone find out that I LOVE SURPRISES?
More will follow, but for now, anyone living outside the DC metro area, be j...
Additionally, if anyone knows anything about these mysterious objects or how they appeared on my desk, please contact me.
(Extension 9984)
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