15 posts tagged “april”
Hmmm it's been quite a while since I updated! I'm socially busy as usual, knitting up a storm (am working on the first of two arms for my sweater.. no, not making a three-armed sweater!), and am really excited about my pending trip.
I'm thrilled at the itinerary - roughly thus:
Friday: get rental car, drive to my friend's cousin's country cottage in County Clare
Sunday: drive to Galway
Tuesday-Friday: work our way around northeast Ireland, and Northern Ireland, ending in Newry in time for the wedding that is the main cause of this trip.
Saturday: head to Belfast, Sunday fly out of Belfast to Scotland
Which looks like this:
Tuesday: take the train to Inverness, pick up rental car
Tuesday-Thursday: drive around, mostly west, to the Isle of Skye and wherever else we feel like going.
Friday: train to Glasgow
Sunday: small-town Highland Games west of Glasgow, then back to Edinburgh
Monday: mom leaves
Then I have three days to do whatever I want, as I leave from Dublin on Thursday the 14th. I currently have a 50-dollar plane ticket from Glasgow to Dublin on Wednesday. I'm not sure what I'll do in the meantime. I could go to Aberdeen, I could go to other-random-place-in-Scotland. I'm also thinking I could hop a plane to London for a couple of days, and just scrap the $50 ticket I've already booked. I wonder how late I can make that decision? I'd kind of like to see how I'm feeling - will I want Big City, or Small Town, or Quaint Seaside, or what? I spent two weeks in London in 1999, I think, so I don't feel like I *have* to go.
If I had it all to do over (it seems early for hindsight for something that hasn't happened!) I might not buy the rail ticket I have, since I'm going to have a rental car or will be in a city most of the time. That's one vote in favor of taking the train to Someplace, Scotland on Monday/Tuesday.
I'm trying to figure out luggage options. I think that I'll be a LOT happier if I travel with a small carry-on size. My one friend can view lots of options as abundance, but I think I get oppressed by too many options to sift through (probably why I prefer to Just Decide, now that I think about it), and that applies very much to clothing - especially since I'll be packing up at least every other morning.
Costs:
So far this is coming in under my wildly made up budget. I'm sure whatever I wind up not spending on lodging will be spent on food and drink, but that's okay. I've been saving for this trip since October, I think.
Transportation:
Airfare, train pass, and two shared rental cars = $1280. Add in gas and I should have all three weeks covered for $1400
Lodging:
I'm doing really well with this so far. I guesstimated $75/night and I'm averaging $45/night instead (woo!) That's not counting the two free nights, either! A couple of nights are in fancy places and several nights are in more low key spots That leaves me with ten nights that are unbooked, so I do have a lot of opportunities to blow the budget all to hell, but so far I'm feeling pretty good about this aspect of the trip.
Excitement Meter:
Pinging hard
At the end of May I'll be attending a college reunion: my fifteenth. Which, frankly, isn't possible. I'm sure there's been a mistake somewhere!
At any rate, I have extremely mixed feelings about this event. On the one hand, I'm single, childless, and still in an apartment: therefore a failure (before my Dear Readers leap loyally to my defense, I don't really believe this.. but I think you know what I mean). On the other hand, I've lived in three cities, packed up my life and jumped to a Scary New Thing not once but twice, traveled a bit, gotten my master's degree, pursued a successful career, met lots of interesting people, and experienced a lot of great things. Therefore, clearly, a success.
For the most part I'm really great with where I am in life. I feel good about where I am and who I'm becoming, and I am aware there are things I'd have different, if I ever found that magic wand, but all in all things are great.
I'm excited about the people who I'll get to see:
- J, with whom I shared an apartment for three years in Boston post-college. I recently spent a week having her here for a visit, after way too many years of brief Christmas visits.
- S, with whom I traveled up the West Coast in a rented car in 1995. He was the one who told me that Portland existed and was the perfect answer to my quest. He was so right! I got to spend another trip with him in 2005 when he came to visit and we drove/took the ferry to Victoria BC. I hadn't seen him in ten years, but it was as if no time had passed. I guess I should bookmark 2015 for another trip with him.
- J, who went on to law school, a great husband, and four (four!) daughters, three of whom are reportedly as hell-bent on destruction as she was, which is only fitting. She loathed Hillary Clinton back then, so every time they bring up Clinton, I think of J. It'll be great to see her and see how she's doing (and how she feels politically these days). I visited her in Chicago twice while she was in law school, but haven't seen her since her wedding in (I think) 1997.
- M, who still lives near Boston and claims that he has become quite fat. I don't know what to expect on this one! He was sooo skinny in college.. perhaps life IS fair and he will be pudgy now.
- M, who is married now and participates in something like the organ transplant recipient Olympics. They're adopting twins soon.. which is a crazy thought.
- M (yes, another one!) who apparently has 3 kids. I don't know anything else... I seem to think when I worked in software I actually went to her company in the Boston area, and we met up.. but that is so vague a memory I can't pin anything else on it.
- D & T who met at our school and have two sons.. who are probably, um, 8 and 9? 9 and 10? I missed their wedding as it was in 1996 or 1997 and just didn't fit into my schedule, but I regretted missing it, and I think it's the only friend's wedding I've missed (when invited, of course... I'm not a wedding crasher!)
- D, who was last seen on Who Wants to be a Millionaire? She called Regis "dude" and lost pretty quickly.
- K, who was the editor of the paper; I was the copy editor. He was a cool guy and hooked me up with my first real post-college job.
See that short list? You know why? I was shy in college. Stupidly shy. The kind where I engaged with the people I knew, and flat out ignored/"didn't see" the ones I wasn't already friends with. The kind that comes off as snobbery. I went back for my five-year reunion, all blossomed and changed and stuff, and reverted immediately to my former behavior. So, I don't know how it'll go this time - I'm only going to be on campus for a few hours so I may not even have time to try to reach out to new-old people.. but hopefully I'll have the inclination, and I'll make the opening. I guess time will tell!
It's still a full month away, so I'm rather premature on this. But oh, the agony of never fully growing up, huh?
Last night I went to see a digitally broadcast version of Puccini's Madam Butterfly at the lovely Castro Theater (they spell it Theatre, but that convention really bugs me... is that wrong of me?).
It was a pretty full house, as well it should be - this was an airing of the version performed in December at the SF Opera. Castro Theater tickets cost $20; the nosebleed seats at the SFO cost $25 and leaped sharply upward from there. I really enjoyed the production, even though I went in knowing nothing about it.
I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as the guy next to me. The minute the lights dropped and the music swelled, he started breathing funny. First I thought: That's odd. Maybe he has a cold. Then: Maybe he's hyperventilating? Having a panic attack? Finally I realized he was ... crying. Weeping, even. For basically the whole thing. It was really beyond bizarre.
First I worried that he was going through a bad breakup, and the themes of love and passion were hurting him. Then, I thought, well, he's gay, so maybe the themes of familial rejection are breaking his heart. Then, I wondered if he'd had an affair with one of the principals and painful memories were flooding him.
Nope, turns out he just really really loves opera in general, and Madam Butterfly specifically. He told his friend he always weeps at the show, and I asked if he saw it at the opera in December. He had, and I reflected that I'd be pretty pissed if I paid $100+ and this guy was audibly crying the whole time.
But since I'd only paid $20, I thought it was charming bordering on hilarious. My friend poked me once when he started up again and I almost burst out laughing. On the other hand, I think it's really cool that he finds the experience of attending opera so incredibly moving, and that he had no real problem with the fact that he was a basket case in such a relatively public arena. Rock on, weeping guy!
whew, back from my trip to Key West. It already feels like a MILLION years ago.. even though it was less than a week. I flew into Orlando on Thursday, and drove to KW with my sister & brother on Friday... it's a loooong trip but we made it in time for the sunset:
Saturday we hung out, visited a cool old cemetery
which has a famously amusing plaque:
The rest of the day included birthday presents for my sister and hitting a few bars... including one that doesn't require clothing. It was awkward... a lovely rooftop bar, a bunch of people dressed, a few people naked, and no one really knowing where to stand or how to look. We didn't stick around too long, but it was a very novel experience.
Sunday included yummy food at a tropically-decorated restaurant. If I lived somewhere like Key West, I'd love to have my home decorated this way:
But all in all the high point of the trip was hanging with my sibs:
I just bought more yarn. And I'm about to go out of town for a few days (Key West recommendations, anyone?). And I'm traveling to two cities in May/June (seeking recs for NYC/Boston...). And though my car is paid off as of a few days from now, AND my raise will hit soon, I'm already seeing my spending creep back up beyond the nice healthy place it was for several months.
But, you know, it's hard to not just spend spend spend. Plus it's not that much fun to be smart with my money! So, my goal for April is to spend LESS than I bring in (this should be easy, folks, but I blew it in Feb & March). In May I'll actually stash some money a little out of the reach of my oh-so-profligate hands.
I really want to buy a new bike seat but I think I'm going to have to actually save up for it, and then get it. I've got a couple of months before I really HAVE to have it (want to have it a few months before my weeklong bike ride).
In the meantime: here's me with my tiara helmet! I'm tempted to leave the tiara on... but not really. Only a little.
For the first time ever, I'm not going to bring a ton of books on my trip. I've got three knitting projects and an ipod to keep me occupied. And, back to the top of this post.. I now have enough purchased yarn for two sweaters, a market bag, and three gift/swap projects, plus some bonus yarn. True, some of those projects will require that I purchase needles, but I *think* I'm on the downhill side from my yarn spending. For now.
Look what I did yesterday! (well... try to look - it's a bit blurry)
I rolled over four THOUSAND miles on my bike! That represents a hell of a lot of sweat and discomfort, but also SO much that is rewarding: fresh air, sunshine, friendship, and meeting challenges. Go me!!!!
The breakdown of those miles is roughly thus:
270 miles so far this year, 88 miles in 2007 (so shameful), about 300 miles in 2006 (the majority of those ridden in the spring before I moved), and the remaining 3342 were pretty evenly split between 2005 and 2004 (I got the bike in March of that year). I've ridden that bike on two Cycle Oregons and a host of informal rides.
Yesterday I participated in a women-only bike ride, capped at 2,000 riders, called the Cinderella ride. Women wore tutus, boas, dresses, and all manner of sparkles. I had a tiara on my helmet!
... when you get a shot of anesthetic at the dentist, does your heart pound? Mine does. And it's not a needle phobia, though it could be my body wondering why the HELL I'm holding still for this abuse. Seriously though, I wonder if they stick some adrenaline in the shot to get the stuff circulating faster.
So anyway, I had a root canal today. Nope, not fun. Yeah, it's feeling achy. Actually, you can make that:
Yeah, I've got stabbing pain in the jaw area. Owie. Guess I fell behind on the advil.
Yeah I've been quiet lately - super busy! I had five houseguests in my one bedroom apartment recently, and lived to tell the tale. I may do another post with pictures and everything at some point, but suffice to say: I live! and ouch.
Whew, the weekend was a lot of fun, AND very productive: Lisa got to meet a few of my coworkers, I finally got to check out my neighborhood bar, Lisa helped me pick out curtains (and she did most of the work of getting them hemmed with fusion tape-stuff) AND we went on a hike. Throw in some yummy meals, a cameo visit by her husband (who rode his motorcycle down, so arrived at noonish Sat and left at 4 am Sunday), and a bottle of wine, and you've got a great weekend.
Curtains:
And hike & flowers:
... and so was my fruit tart - not bad for a first try!
Portland-friend Lisa is in town, and her husband Ken is meeting us in a few hours (after riding his motorcycle down) so there MAY be pictures, there may not... stay tuned for rampant sum-uppage.
Oh... and speaking of rampant sum-uppage, I posted a full photo set of my trip to Yosemite, with explanatory captions, notes, the full works. So head on over and see how my trip was! But there are 146 shots, so it might be good to look when you've got some down time.
In this post I began describing my new love affair with XnView which is freely available photo management software. I just learned how to use the batch rename tool, and have given standard names to all 183 pictures I took this weekend (down, I might note, from 400+ - I did some heavy editing last night and will take another pass before posting them).
So, to recap: XnView lets me batch name photos - I wanted to prepend each name with 2007Apr_ and then give it an accession number. But I didn't want to have them numbered 1-183; no, I wanted to leave some gaps to make them easy to rearrange later. So the first batch of six are numbered 100-106, then the next chunks of photos (separated by day) start at 110 and are numbered with every other number: 110, 112, 114, etc. That will make it fairly simple to renumber them so they appear in narrative order, not necessarily chronological order.
AND it lets me add tags in a batch. AND if I want I can create a controlled vocabulary list for future consistency. And I expect there is even more I don't even know about yet.
So why don't you use it yet?
