Mimiboo Too

I don’t particularly believe in reinventing the wheel, so I will just refer y’all to Danielle’s post if anyone is still curious what I was up to last week, and if you can get past the hysterical part about her recent visit to Columbus. She recapped our adventures it so well and so precisely that I have very little to add. She did fail to mention the woman in the booth across from us at dinner last Saturday who had so much boobage on display that we couldn’t believe her companion could carry on a conversation with her. Although I can see wanting to block that out. Also the waitress who forced her pens on us (they are nice pens, though).

I can’t recommend Danielle’s blog enough anyway. She’s awesomely funny, does great Project Runway recaps, and had me in giggle fits all day Saturday. And besides was nice enough to put up with me two weekends in a row. I would offer to return the favor, except that no one ever wants to come here. And with reason. Plus, we don’t have a guest room. (We have children.) But I will second everything she had to say about “internet friends.” She and Jenny spent all day with me last Saturday, shepherding me around to various DC tourist spots, with nary a complaint, just because I happened to be passing through, and had totally invited myself to hang out with them. She even let me back into her car after that freaking pigeon relieved himself all over my pants.

And Natalie drove down from Delaware so we could have lunch on Sunday before I went home — and she took me to the airport, and brought me a crapload of books which I hope to have time to read sometime this decade — during which time we realized we’ve known each other for TEN YEARS, longer than a lot of marriages last these days, and we’d never have gotten to know each other if it weren’t for the internets. Before Mimi came home three years ago, when Mark was working evenings and Kev was in bed by nine, I spent almost every night on AIM with Donna and Natalie and often found myself laughing so hard it was nearly impossible to type. And then there was TWoP, which led me to TARflies, which led me to a whole boatload of wonderful people I would never have otherwise known, people who open their homes to me, who share hotel beds and meet up for dinner on a moment’s notice, and who remind me both to be kind to myself and not to take myself too seriously.

I don’t have a lot of time to IM any more, and spend very few nights attached to the computer. I can hardly keep up with my blogroll (which is something I feel probably disproportionate guilt about, particularly when someone assumes I know what’s going on with them because I read their blog, and then I have to admit that nominally, yes, I do, but there’s reading and then there’s reading, and I mostly do the former these days when I have time to get to Bloglines at all, which is not as often as I’d like, which is why there are like 350 new posts on my feed that I have yet to get to).

Anyway. Before I get too maudlin and dissolve into tears, here are some pictures from my week.

Ok, so Danielle and I were sitting outside waiting to meet up with Jenny and Elizabeth for dinner, and we were vastly amused watching these birds stalk this dude who had an entire loaf of bread on his table. The birds were seriously flocking like a scene from a horror movie, and the guy kept shooing them away with his newspaper, and they kept coming back. I found it extremely entertaining, until the birds got their revenge by apparently instructing their friend, the pigeon with digestive issues, to crap on me.

Spike, of Top Chef fame, bad-assedly roasts marshmellows at his Good Stuff Eatery. We really wanted to go up and talk to him but by the time we had finshed eating, he seemed too busy. Sigh.

My historic but non-air-conditioned room for the week. The class was fantastic, the people I worked with were fantastic, the campus was beautiful, but it was hot, and I had no air-conditioning. And I had to go outside and down some stairs and around the corner to use the bathroom. There is a strong possibility I’ll go back next year, and I think I’ll be lobbying for a hotel room instead of historic campus accomodations. It was a neat experience, but I think it was an experience I only need to have once.

I became obsessed with the arches and columns and took a zillion pictures of them. The perspective and repeating shapes are a total amateur photographer’s dream. This is the one I think turned out the best.

Met up with Dania, a newish Tarfly friend, on Wednesday night. We had, no kidding, the Grumpiest Waiter Ever. We conjectured that perhaps he was just having a bad night, but then D asked him if he was having a bad night, and he said he wasn’t. Then we were horrified at the thought that perhaps he really wasn’t, and he was just always that grumpy.

Just one of dozens of panda pictures. I couldn’t help myself; they are just so freaking cute.

We soon discovered that misplaced apostrophes run as rampant in D.C. as they tragically do everywhere else. Danielle tried to erase this one because it seemed to be non-permanent, but alas, was unsuccessful.

They’re so polite at museums. As my sister observed, the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum doesn’t absolutely forbid you from placing your child in the bin of marbles, they jmerely ask you to please refrain from doing so.

Which is why Jenny only put her hand in, and not her entire body. Because she’s nothing if not well-behaved.

I’ve been fascinated by fossils and dinosaurs since I was little and saw my first dinosaur skeleton at the Natural History Museum here on campus. I thought this prehistoric turtle was particularly nifty.

This is Emmett, one of Danielle’s cats. He took a liking to me that was perhaps a bit slutty in its shamelessness and instantaneousness. He was pouting when I left.

So anyway, I got home Sunday night and have been trying to get back into some sort of routine ever since. The girls were happy to see me, but Mimi was also mad at me for leaving and that manifested pretty early Monday morning in tantrums and major acting out. I expected it, but still, I was tired and cranky as well and didn’t handle it as well as I should. So we’ve been dealing with the fallout, and having good and bad moments, since then. I’ve also been playing catch-up at work, going to the dentist (lost a filling, ugh), trying to update the shop, and catching up on Project Runway. Priorities, people. Priorities.