Earth Day Irony

So, Earth Day in DC was beautiful. Sunny, warm...it just made me happy. I planted trees, spent some time with friends, and met some new people. ...plus cleaned the living room. Then, Steve-o and I took a little drive that night, and as we cruised around Dupont Circle, what did we see? Trash cans overflowing, with Starbucks cups, napkins, and general garbage all over the ground. One block away - trash cans with plenty of room for disposing of that Starbucks iced coffee cup. What's wrong people?! Can't hold onto that garbage for an extra block?! - instead, you feel compelled to place it gingerly atop the garbage pile and then shrug as it falls off onto the sidewalk?! Happy Earth Day people!

Sometimes, it just doesn't make sense

I've held off for two days, but I feel compelled to talk about what has happened at Virginia Tech. I went there for grad school a few years ago, and although I though it was a great atmosphere, I guess I always felt a little disconnected since I was a grad student, and not an undergrad, I lived off campus and I was in a pretty co-dependent department.

I am now struck with how hard Monday's events are hitting me. I walked by that building, had class next door....and I recognize all that Hokie stone. (We from VT are an odd bunch - the only people on the planet who understand Hokie stone, fighting gobblers, and why a cannon goes off during good football games).

In a way, I feel guilty feeling so upset about it. I'm about 10 years older than many of the kids (and that's what they are, essentially) who are dealing with this....or trying to. I'm several years out of school, and haven't been back there. Still - you know how everyone says college is your big life-identifying years....where you find yourself, etc. I didn't feel it then, but looking back, I can see it. And having this be a defining factor - Yikes. One powerful thing about VT, though - it's a tightly bound place....at least on some level. Something about being in the near middle-of-nowhere in the mountains with a turkey for a mascot, and cows at the front entrance to the school, does somehting to you. I once heard that VT had the highest number of alumni license plates in the U.S., not that it's the largest school or has the most graduates by any means. I guess what I'm saying is that VT people, on the whole, feel an obligation to that place...maybe not so much an obligation as a dedication. And people will fight back, and get through and come out ahead because of that.

Not that that's stopping me from checking cnn, the ny times and a myriad of other news sites countless times a day. It's that thing I think many of us experienced on 9-11, where you know the news isn't going to be good, and you know that you're only getting snippets, and maybe unconfirmed snippets at that, but you just need to know. You can't seem to stop. Sooner or later, I will. After all, I need to get some work done eventually. But don't stop entirely. Next week, when all this is eclipsed by some dumb thing Bush has done, remember what it was like to be 19 and worried about your chem lab homework....and be grateful.

I see baseboard

So, spring is normally a pretty short season in DC, but usually because it launches right into the heat of summer. But this year, it went in reverse, and we got winter back....complete with a bit of snow on Saturday. I was glad I hadn't done much planting so far.

The snow beat up my poor daffodils and put a kink in my plans for cutting baseboard on Saturday. In the end, that turned out fine, cause I spent some time on Saturday measuring walls, angles, etc. (Okay, okay, I had the engineer of the house do the angles). And then spent Saturday night having a fun time with Miss Rebecca, Mr Shawn, and some of Rebecca's pals from peace corps. Lots of eating tasty food and telling amusing stories. Grizzlies, lost skis, buff moms...the usual.

On Sunday, Steve-o and I spent the afternoon measuring, remeasuring (measure twice, cut once), sawing, double-checking, painting and re-coating about 100 linear feet of baseboard. Hey - that doesn't sound like much, except when I tell you that those 100 feet involved over 50 individual cuts....not to mention our mess-ups and re-cuts. We had quite the fiesta of high-fives. Now, we just have to borrow our friend R and his air nailer to install the baseboard, and then I have to crawl around on my hands and knees caulking all the tops and the seams. Wheeeee.

But seriously, it's all worth it (Remind me of this when my knees are numb). Even just leaning the baseboard against the wall in its proper place makes the room look so much neater and more finished.
Who-da thunk it? I guess that's why some guy invented baseboard. Plus, we gained back about 25 square feet of space where we had stacked baseboard on the floor in the living room. So, once the baseboard is up, we can push furniture back toward the wall and open up the space a bit. Hey - in my place, I can use all the spare 25 square feet I can find!

Unfortunately, on Sunday, just as we were packing up, three hooligans (I realize I sound like my grandfather) ran around the house next door. Then - the sound of broken glass. Then - the aforementioned three hooligans come running out, and one of them kicks over my planter of strawberry plants. Don't mess with a girl's strawberry plants!

They had busted the window of the neighbor's house. So, I call the cops and they show up eventually and tell us DC's laws suck for juveniles. Big surprise there! The kids came back later to check out their handiwork, but the police folk were nowhere to be found.

What did you do this weekend?

Kitchen v. Plants

Whoa - it's a busy time here in good ol' DC. Street cleaning days are back, cherry blossoms are blooming, and the tourists have arrived in full force.

And me? Well, the kitchen has been put on hold due to design complications. And due to the fact that, well - I've been assessing my time, and I'd just rather play outside than think about cabinet box construction. I think that's okay, as long as it's a conscious choice, and not a method of escapism. After all, my plants need me to amend their soil and build raised beds, and keep Smidgen from using them as her next snack.

Uncertainty is the name of the game these days. Steve-o's med school tour 2007 has had an unexpected tour date added. As it turns out, the reviews of prior tour dates are not turning out as anticipated. So, his uncertainty is my uncertainty, which means uncertainty about the house (how much to fix, to sell or not to sell), when (not if) to switch jobs, etc. So, considering all that's going on, I'd say I'm doing a pretty good job of dealing....I mean, I haven't gone postal yet. Perhaps indulging in a little too much Ebay and yarn shopping, but a little retail therapy is better than a lot of psychotherapy. :)