We Are Men of Action, Lies Do Not Become Us.

So, I came back from North Carolina safe and sound... like a month and a few weeks ago. It was lovely and relaxing, and I learned about myself. And then I worked for all of July and then 2 weekends ago I went to Long Island. I visited a friend and we drove all around and talked and watched Sherlock (some things never change) and I learned about myself. I also took this picture.

 

That is 1 (one) house in the Hamptons. On the other side of that house is the ocean. It was a gorgeous house and one that I could easily fit all of my family and friends (and probably a few of their families as well) inside of. To stop myself from going completely crazy, I imagine that at least 15 people live there at any given time. If, by chance, the person who owns or lives in that house sees this blog and gets annoyed that I posted a picture of the top of their huge house on the internet, I'm letting you know now, I will gladly remove this picture from my blog post if you let me stay in your house for a few days. It's so big and I am so tiny, you wont even notice me.  I could even stay in the winter when you probably aren't there anyway. Just a thought. 

I have been so blog-neglectful, I don't even know what to say really. If this blog were my child, it would have been taken away by child services ages ago. In an attempt to prevent that from happening, let me write a list of potential future blog ideas (knowing full well, I'll only come back to them if I really have nothing to write about or stay un-busy):

• How I am frighteningly similar to Lumpy Space Princess and how so many people in my life are like cartoon characters.
• How 80% of the time I think writing a blog is totally silly in the first place in much the same way that I think writing a diary is silly (they are both things that I want to be able to do and keep trying to do and then I call them silly when I manage to do neither consistently.)
• Weddings!! (exclamation points here denote equal parts excitement and terror. Note: I am not getting married, nor will I be in the forseeable future. All potential wedding related blog posts will be about upcoming weddings to which I have been invited. The danger and likelihood of  such posts going back to nil once September has passed.)

That should be quite enough to be getting on with. Oh, but, since I am so behind the times, I feel like I also have to mention something about (the Olympics, Batman, New Singles from The Killers and Mumford and Sons, Republican Running Mates, The Hobbit being three movies instead of two, and that new J.K. Rowling book.) Man, crazy business, right?

XOX

Currently Reading: Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon & Alex and the Ironic Gentleman by Adrienne Kress

P.S. This post had nothing to do with Princess Bride. Sorry, that's my favorite quote from the film, and I have no other reason for posting it.

Prepping for North Carolina

Remember how this was a blog about travelling? Well, starting tomorrow, it is again!

I'm leaving tomorrow morning to go to North Carolina with my boyfriend and his family. Where in North Carolina? Apparently, I can't be bothered to find out. I also can't be bothered to pack. And what do I do when I can't be bothered to pack? Blog about it.

Unfortunately, I don't have enough time to not be bothered anymore. See, I put it off for so long, that now I really need to pack, so that I can sleep, so that I can be in the car by 7 AM to be at the bf's family's house by 7:30 AM. We have a 5 or 6 hour drive ahead of us tomorrow, which is long. It isn't long enough to get us to South of the Border though, which is somehow both a shame and a relief. Whenever I think of driving south down the coast I always end up thinking of South of the Border. People who live on the west coast have no idea what they're missing:

This is the least offensive SotB image I could find. 

I am really excited for this trip though. I love my boyfriend's family. Last summer we took a trip to Florida that was rad. We stopped in Savannah and Charleston also, and I took bushels of pictures. This is one of my favorites:

Because I'm not above sticking my camera through fences and taking pictures of people's backyards. Their verandas! I swear to the Lord. So gorgeous. Looking back through those pictures, I have a ton of ones that could be captioned "someone's backyard." I can't help it. I lived in Georgia for four of my formative years. Give me some big porches and palmetto trees and I'm a happy girl. We'll see what I can come up with on my way to the beach tomorrow. Time to go pack... and shoo my boyfriend away from the car snacks.

XOX

Emilia

The ravings of a deranged bibliophile (bibliophibian?)

Things that take up too much time that I don't have:

• ironing
• eating
• blogging
• the internet
• work
• writing
• reading

I can only do so many of these things in a day. And I don't get paid to do the ones I really want to do, so instead I have to cut back on doing them so I can eat and iron and be ready for work. So that I can get paid. Life is dreadful and confusing.

I'm having to come to terms with "giving up" on a book for the first time in a long time because 1. it is a library book and 2. other things (see: EVERYTHING FROM THAT STUPID LIST UP THERE) are preventing me from finishing this book. Yes, even other books. Because working at a library is a temptation the likes of which I have never experienced before. I used to think toy stores and book stores and ice cream shoppes and boys were all bad, but that was before I became a librarian. I can get any book in the state of Maryland. Any book I want. I dare you to try and stop me. (Power like this should never be given to a deranged bibliophile. I literally love every book. And now have means to get to them. It's a dangerous time for books everywhere.)

This is my life. Real and true. (www.wondermark.com)

I've started referring to things like this as "librarian problems." But I'm sure I need to develop a more general term for it. For now, I'll have to settle with "crazy book people problems"

Time to go iron and eat and get ready for work.

XOX
Emilia

Review: Why We Broke Up

First of all, I need to preface this by saying that I really love Daniel Handler's writing style. It's one of the best most fluid things I've ever experienced. He leads you into a character's thoughts and actions with this wonderful almost stream-of-consciousness style of verbs and adjectives and nouns that is absolutely a pleasure. You get glimpses of it in A Series of Unfortunate Events, when the narrator will go on a bit of a tangent, but in Why We Broke Up it is the main method of exposition. And I love it. And if you don't love it and can't get over it, then you should go away because there's nothing I can do for you here.


I wish I had read this book when I was still a teenager. It is really the perfect coming of age story, and more than that, it is a perfect story of a person discovering herself, which is something people can and should be doing at any age. To talk about any specific parts would almost be giving it away; besides, it all flows so beautifully, why would you want to spoil it? I will say this: the way the main character Min handles herself, she is accessible to anyone at any age. Of course, the scenarios and experiences she has are relevant to anyone who ever went to high school or fell in love or was abandoned or abandoned someone else. If you haven't done any of those things ever you should probably reassess your life or get off the internet or something. Anyway, Min is a wonderful mix of insightful and foolish and her diatribes and discussions are really enjoyable. You know how the story ends when it begins, but the way you're drawn through it is an incredible testament to strong characterization, writing style and conceit. 


Each "chapter" starts with an illustration by Maira Kalman of an object in Min's box of things that she kept during her relationship with Ed. And Min chronicles each object and its part in the tale of why they broke up. Instead of being vignette-ish, these objects work chronologically to paint a complete picture of a relationship gone sour in ways that are both predictable and heart-wrenching. We all make mistakes, and often, we make the same mistake: the mistake of not being able to see what's right in front of us and eventually discovering it. Sometimes the thing we missed works to our detriment, and sometimes to our benefit, and that is part of what Why We Broke Up was about. 


I also really would like to leave quotes from this book all over this review because they're so good. But I don't want to spoil anything (like I said) and pulling things out seems wrong. You need the whole flow to get the power of the emotion behind it, so I'll give you this one instead: "Chestnuts in stuffing tastes like someone chewed up a tree branch and then French-kissed it into your mouth." This is true and not a spoiler. Everyone should be warned.


Read Why We Broke Up. Really really do. You should check it out at your local library. Or come to my local library and check it out from me. I'm returning my copy today, so you can have it then. And then we can talk more about it once you've read the end.

XOX

Reading next: This Dark Endeavor by Kenneth Oppel (I couldn't help it. I sat at the circ desk at the library for at least 45 minutes reminding myself that I had told my brother I would read World War Z so we could talk about it, but the cover of this book is so appealing, and guys I seriously judge books by their covers... It enticed me, and now I'm here reading a book about teenage Victor Frankenstein instead of one about our apparently inevitable zombie doom. Oh well.)

Gatsby, Good Omens and Catching Up

Guys, I am behind on blogging about stuff! I am very behind! This is a catch-up post. After you read this, you will be up to date on my goings on and we can all be goings on with our lives. And I will blog more frequently. Promise.

• I finished my librarian training and I start work tomorrow and I am SO EXCITED.
• I finished reading Good Omens by the illustrious Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. It was VERY GOOD. I finally understand what all the fuss is about. I don't know if I should go through the trouble of reviewing a 22 year old book here, but I will just say it was: very funny, very poignant, very very clever, and extremely enjoyable. A unique take on Revelations and the apocalypse and so nice to read when all we seem to get these days are zombie apocalypses. Guys, the Bible did the apocalypse first, and it was scary as all get out. And Good Omens made me think about the apocalypse again, but in a new, cool and interesting way. Zombie apocalypses just don't hold a candle in my mind.
• ...that being said I'm about to start World War Z by Max Brooks which is about... the zombie apocalypse... *sigh*
• Also reading: Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler. I can't get enough of Daniel Handler. I just started this and so far so good. This one I absolutely will review. 
• Also also reading: The Adventure Time Comics. Just finished issue 4. These comics are so well written (by Ryan North of Internet Comic Fame, and my first internet celebrity crush) and capture the tone of the TV series so well, I challenge you not to fall in love with them. I hope you accept. 
• The end of Sherlock Series 2 just finished airing in the US and now I finally feel like I can talk about the ending out in the open to everyone. If you haven't seen it yet, don't talk to me about Sherlock. I might spoil it. Even if I try not to, I still might. It's a bad habit. To be fair, my whole relationship with that show could be categorized as a bad habit.

I think that's it. I can't come up with anything else. Now I'll act like a real blog. This is the trailer for a movie titled The Great Gatsby:

I have very mixed feelings about every frame of this trailer. I will say that Leonardo DiCaprio looks more like Gatsby than I thought he would. And Carey Mulligan looks like she might make a good Daisy, even though I think she's a little young ( I did just watch her play a silly, frivolous Isabella Thorpe in 2007's Northanger Abbey; she played naive and foolish very well and that may bode well for her as Daisy.) Toby McGuire is just not my Nick. At all. Or my anyone for that matter. And I'm worried about the trapeze artists, and the glitter, and Gatsby throwing his shirts. And hopefully it will all come together and be one big beautiful Baz Luhrmann film and not.. a mess of symbolism and excess and flapper dresses. I'm not above bringing my heavily annotated copy of the novel to the theater and getting up to go read it somewhere if the movie goes horribly awry, that's all. Ugh. 

XOX

P.S. Northanger Abbey was so good! It was introduced to me as "fluffy and silly and wonderful" and it was all of those things. I'll be sure to write something up about it later, as it will give me an excuse to talk about JJ Feild as Henry Tilney who is very nearly my favorite Austen leading man. 

-Em

Today Was Weird

Guys, I just have some stuff to get off my chest. It's all ridiculous. Ready?

• At the gas station, I got to watch an underage girl smoke a cigarette while she was pumping gas. Girl, you are an idiot. Straight up, no lie. There is nothing cool about being stupid enough to get yourself blown up. All your friends at high school aren't gonna be like, "Man, it's such a bummer that Shelby died. At least she died looking cool, smoking by the gas pump." They're going to be like, "Man, what a fucking idiot Shelby was. Bummer about her blowing up the cheapest gas station in the county." There should be a law. Against stupid teenage girls. 
• I cannot CANNOT remember my Apple I.D. password. Ever. I've changed it every time I've logged in in the past 5 months. I don't know why it wont save my password, and maybe this slight inconvenience is the iTunes store's way of getting back at me for using the Amazon mp3 store, but it is slowly driving me crazy. 
• I got off Facebook. I didn't realize how much I used it until I stopped using it and now... I'm just dicking around on the internet wishing I could find out who's going to be bringing their kids to our 5 year high school reunion. Because, as it turns out, that's what Facebook is best for. I reconnected with more people in my leaving Facebook than I really did when I had it. But spying on people I've done much less of. I may have to invest in a telescope and become unduly interested in my neighbors. 
• The Avengers
  Starring: Everyone
  
  Really fantastic. I can't say anything more than that because then I'll end up giving you a play by play of the whole film because I loved every second of it. I went to a prescreening last Wednesday, and at one point during the film I thought to myself, "Wow, I can't wait to see this again." Really, if you liked any of the previous Marvel movies (maybe not Spiderman... did people like Spiderman? He is my least favorite superheroes so my opinion is very biased) you're almost guaranteed to like this one. Acting is on point, the script is good, the action is great, overall, just a really enjoyable movie. When you go, don't forget to stay after the credits... and then after the next set of credits as well. I've seen it twice now, and it only gets better with a second viewing. It has tied for first in my mental list of "Best Action Adventure Film" with Raiders of the Lost Ark. For anyone who has never heard me talk about it: I LOVE Raiders of the Lost Ark. The Avengers, ladies and gentlemen:

From: http://gingerhaze.tumblr.com/
All actual lines from the movie. Also, if you like amusing art, this comic and others like it are all done by a lovely lady named Noelle.  Go to her tumblr. While there, make sure you also look at Broship of the Ring. It is incredibly incredibly good. 

Movie Reviews and Life News As Seen Through A Haze of Cold Medicine

At home, sick with the sniffles. Thus, not too too much to report except all the lunatic ravings that develop in your head as you cocoon yourself in fluffy blankets, tea-drunkeness and tissues. Instead, how about a movie review:

A Dangerous Method

Starring: Michael Fassbender('s moustache), Viggo Mortensen('s cigar) and Kiera Knightley('s jaw)

Interesting but not engaging. The acting was solid and the story was interesting, but I've always had a problem getting behind something where I actually hate every character. Even the characters who are being wronged are sort of generally unlikable due to their inability to see that the are obviously about to be wronged. The movie just ends up being a sort of "who's the most petty psychoanalyst?" contest, which, while perhaps historically accurate, isn't the most engaging topic for a film. In case you're interested, I think Freud wins; he was a huge dick (and I'm sure he's have worlds to say about that phrasing.) If you're interested in psychology, Kiera Knightley getting spanked or horrible people being horrible to each other, this is the movie for you. Otherwise, I don't think I'd recommend it. (Oh, by the way, I watched this at a friend's house, and he was kind enough to note when you first see Kiera Knightley's boobs- 1 hour and 13 minutes in. However, he also said that said boobs were not enough reason to watch the movie. So, there's the masculine opinion.)

Oo! How about another? Just remembered that I also went and saw The Pirates! Band of Misfits this weekend. This one featured the vocal stylings of Hugh Grant, Martin Freeman, David Tennant, Salma Hayek and tons of other talented actors. And it was very good. It was done by Aardman animations, and their absurdly lovable humor is potent here. It was a very fun hour and a half and I would highly recommend this to anyone. Particularly though if you have a love of claymation, redemption stories, or have ever thought that Queen Victoria might have been a bit off. Also, a fantastic soundtrack, which I will say no more about here, but you should really go see it. And -another bonus- no obnoxious psychoanalysts!

Also, I said I was going to blog about things, and so here I am blogging along without mentioning something that is pretty important to me: I just got a job as a librarian. This is something that I think I might really want to do, and I am beyond thrilled to get an opportunity to try it. Hopefully I will be admirable at it and will grow up to be a sexy librarian, a sassy librarian and then a sweet old librarian (as this is what I assume the life-cycle of a librarian is.)

There is other stuff that I could say but I'm a bit grumpy due to the whole strange gravelly sound my vocal cords are now appropriating. Guys, I thought we sounded good before. There's a reason I've never taken up smoking, okay? Self prescribed antidote: more tea. Surely this will help.

Other things that I'm doing today: reading Good Omens by Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett, posting stuff on a friend's Etsy site for her, sleeping. Oh man, I am gonna sleep so good. We'll talk about Good Omens once I've finished it. 

XOX

Tea-drunk and Writing

Guys, I am sleepy and tea-drunk. Originally, I was going to post some thoughts on writing and they were going to be good and clever, but then I drank too much tea. Now my head is all warm and fuzzy, and all I can think about is how I wish I had been closer to certain people when I was in college. I wish I could Facebook chat them and find out how they're doing without it seeming weird as hell. Tea-drunk is not close enough to real drunk for me to feel confident in my ability to say, "Hi! What's been ups?" without feeling like a creepy stalker who shouldn't still be trying to be friends with people I only had 2 classes with.

Drinking too much tea, or maybe thinking too much, has also given me the sort of stomach ache you get when you're anticipating something. My brain receives these "I-drank-too-much-tea" signals and interprets them as "oh God oh God I'm so nervous right now!" Sometimes bodies are incredibly stupid. Mine in particular.

Here are my thoughts on writing that I drafted half an hour ago. There is a dramatic shift in tone between these two blog sections. During this second part, I'm sober:

First of all, let me start off by saying this: I don't know shit about writing. Really. I try to and the more I read and listen the more I learn; college and workshopping and everything like that, it all helps. But when I sit and put pencil to paper, everything I've learned about process and craft works together in unconscious ways that I don't pay attention to. It's a bit like driving. You don't always pay attention when you're doing it, but you make it home safe from work every day.


Sometimes something that I love comes out of it, and other times it is absolutely awful and I look at my notebook or my computer screen and sigh and tell myself that this is why I need to find a real job. But I do love writing. When I start working on something it's what I imagine being addicted to drugs is like. It's all I think about, it's what I breathe, I try to get away from everyone at work at lunch time so I can sit in a corner and script dialogue that I wont ever use because it makes me feel something.  When people come near me I snap at them and am basically really rude and awful, but it doesn't matter because I need the words to be on the page more than I need people to like me (this is not very nice, but it is true. The fact that it's true really lends itself back to the drug metaphor well, because when I'm not writing I am a very dependent person. When I'm doing it, it changes me.)

God, that was so much more coherent than this. All this writing talk started because I've been feeling really inspired lately, and I believe it's because of all the good writing I've been steeped in. Sometimes reading or listening to writing that's better than yours is discouraging. That used to be how I felt all the time. I'd write stuff and I'd be like, "Ugh, this is nowhere near as good as Shakespeare!" and then crumple it up and start over. But I'm at a place right now where good writing (Adverbs by Daniel Handler {again}, Sherlock {yes, that fucking TV show again}, Adventure Time {the comic by Ryan North and the TV show}, Travels With Myself and Another by Martha Gelhorn, everything by Frank O'Hara, and the collected works of Paul Verlaine {in both English and French}) is just pushing me. The more I listen and read, the more I want to create and do. Tonight it's all sort of jumbled up in my head and I can't really manage to get any of my own work done because I keep Googling poems by Frank O'Hara and Paul Verlaine. Seriously, everyone else: stop being so fucking amazing. You are driving me to drink. Too much tea.

XOX

(Click the pic to check out its source. Should be your go to for AT screen-cap needs.)

ALL THE FEELS!

Guys, this is going to be a post about feelings. I'm sorry. I know it's lame, but I'm working through some stuff right now, and it might help to write it all down and my notebook is in my purse and my purse is on the other side of the bed and the bed is a queen and there is a full human lying between me and the purse side of the bed! This is a post about growing up and change. If those topics don't interest you here is a picture of Chris Hemsworth without his shirt on:

  

And for the gentlemen, here is Scarlett Johansson and her boobs and an explosion(!):

You're welcome. I can't wait for The Avengers. NOW, onto my feels:

I graduated from college nearly a year ago, almost 11 months to the day, and it was great. It is great. Getting paid for working hard, having all your time to yourself, never having homework, all of it is fantastic. But after a bit, I guess about 6 months in, all of that stuff didn't seem so great anymore and I started to miss school. Not just college, but school. For 18 years of my 22.5 years, I have been spending a majority of my year, every year, in school. 80% (really about 40% considering we got half a year off every year) of my life I have been being taught things. Which is really wonderful, if you think about it. Think about how much smarter I got; it's probably why I feel so fucking smug and know-it-all-ish all the time now (or because I am a bit arrogant about my knowledge, maybe both.) But honestly it's great and it is so easy. It doesn't seem easy when you're there, but if you take the socialization part out of education, really all you're being asked to do is learn things. Like, "hey man, here's something you should probably know." and then it's taught to you. What? That's the best! And then there's the socialization part, which over time evolves from "you should share" to "you shouldn't say mean things about other people" to "just because someone says something nice to you and shares with you doesn't necessarily make them a good person, or someone you should want to have sex with" and you learn all of these things, either through experience and the experiences of the people around you. Socialization is, I think the trickier part of education, but its not so bad and its not half as bad as what comes next which is... you graduate.

You graduate and now you have to apply all the things that you spent 80% of your life (40% knowledge, 40% socialization -or wisdom, if you're playing D&D) learning to real things. Real fucking things, like paying your taxes, finding a job, buying groceries. None of this is hard. But no one is there to teach it to you anymore. The world, at this point, sort of assumes that you know how to handle being out in the world. It educated you and the rest is on you now. And there are still people you can ask for help from, and there are and should be people you still look up to. But as you grow up you realize that these people have their own lives too, and while you are asking them to help you figure out how to do your taxes, they are actually trying to figure out how to do their own taxes. Sometimes this is good and you can work together on it. Sometimes it isn't and you have to go different ways because you realize that doing your taxes is just something you have to figure out on your own. Maybe the person you went to for help doesn't look for deductions the same way you do. And then you realize that you can't talk to them about taxes; they don't understand your taxes! And then you feel alone. You aren't, but you feel it in a real meaningful way. The people who used to understand you are gone or far away now. Everything shifted around you and you saw it happening but didn't quite realize what it meant until later. You accepted the change, embraced it even, because you knew it was what was supposed to happen. Now sitting here with your taxes spread around you like so much documented chaos you realize: this is the result of change. It is horrible, and I am so lonely. I miss a place that doesn't exist anymore, and people who probably already don't remember me. There's no going back, and progress comes in waves. Finding a job, going to see the world, buying a new computer, moving forward, moving on... it takes time. It's not like moving on to the next grade, or changing your major. It's not instantaneous. You're in flux. For 6 months, I've been in flux. A place where you know change is happening, but you don't know what the world is doing, or why, or where you'll end up. Kind of like editing in photoshop. Applying a fake moustache pixel by pixel, hoping that when you zoom out after 20 minutes of color matching it looks right. If loneliness is the first result of change that you notice, then realizing that you aren't alone might be the beginning of finding stability again.

I'm curled up in bed with my boyfriend right now (eww T.M.I, amirite?!) I still feel sort of alone, but not so much as I did a few days ago. And going to the Fountains of Wayne concert with a new, but already very close, friend was what first brought me to the conclusion that I'm finding very comforting now: Change is painful, but when you can finally glimpse where all of your change has brought you, when you can finally see a new place to fit yourself into, you start to understand why you had to go through it all in the first place. I imagine what some people see when they first look at where their change has brought them is probably pretty scary, and not at all what they wanted. Maybe that means you just aren't done yet. Back into the swirling space time vortex that is being pushed and pulled by your decisions and the decisions of the people you care about. Change never really stops, but graduating from college is a time where your life is changing, compounded with lives of all the people you care about changing too. Everyone just swirls about like the TARDIS in the opening of Doctor Who, and we ping off each other and rocket all which-ways. It's uncomfortable and scary. But it just is. And really, it is okay. We'll all figure out where we fit eventually. And there are always people who will be there when you need them to be.

XOX

Concert Going! What what!

Guys, this is essentially what I'm wearing to the Fountains of Wayne concert tomorrow night. And due in large part to my current Sherlock obsession, it screams gender-swap John Watson to me. Not in a lame CBS way, but in a cool chase-after-Sherlock-but-I'm-not-his-girlfriend way.

Also, I'm going to the Fountains of Wayne concert tomorrow night in D.C. and I am EXTREMELY excited. I've had to be very careful, because I got a stress fracture in my foot when I went to Venice, so I've been wearing a walking boot ("lovingly" referred to as Das Boot, partially because it is like a boat and partially because it is like an 80's German war film) all week just so I can wear my super cool new oxford pumps to the show. They are so freaking cool. 

For any of you who are not even remotely entertained by the idea of fashion, have this excellent cover of Baby One More Time by the illustrious Fountains of Wayne:

   

See you after the show.

XOX

 

Love, Wine and Music... all you could want in a blog post

All right there my lovelies? Sorry for no return from Italy post. It was all a bit of a blur with the last minute shopping and the 4AM bus ride to the airport, although I do I have one thing that I wanted to share. On the bus to the airport there was a set of grandparents taking their two granddaughters to the airport. The girls were little, maybe 11 and 7 and the bus was crowded, so I was standing beside them in the aisle. The grandfather and the younger girl were in front of me, and the bus was fairly quiet but you could still hear whispered conversations and the clicking of people texting. As I tuned in and out of different conversations I realized that the grandfather was talking to the little girl, and as I eavesdropped further (this is how I operate) I realized that he was reciting something to her. He was reciting the words to Good Night Moon to her as she fell asleep in his arms. On a crowded bus full of people at 4 in the morning, it was so tender and sweet; it makes you miss everything about being a child, and long for everything all at once that brings you that same sort of comfort. It seems to me that love is that sort of perfect, gentle care for another person that brings you to the point of memorizing something you know will bring them comfort. It was a lovely end to an amazing trip: everything was incredible and delicious and I am so so sorry that it's over.

Still, not that things around here have been awful or anything. Yesterday I went to a wine tasting in Annapolis at   Wine Cellars of Annapolis which was fantastic. Everyone there was super knowledgeable and nice, and I would highly recommend it if you're in the area. The barrel room also has a passageway to a little cheese and food shop called Tastings Gourmet Market where they had cheese samplers to go with the wine. My recommendation: Gorgonzola Picante. Holy cow (HAHAHAH), it is the very best blue cheese I have ever had in my whole entire life. As for wine, I ended up with a 2011 1 x Spaceman Rose which is incredibly sweet and light and has a label that looks like this:

 

I defy you to find a cooler label for wine. It's not possible. The wine itself is light and sweet but not too sweet. Perfect to chill and drink when it's warm outside. I also bought a delicious bottle of Terre Gaie Moscato, which is dangerous because it tastes like sparkling grapes and is so sweet and bubbly you could down a whole bottle without thinking about it and you would be on your ass. This hasn't happened to me yet, but when it undoubtedly does you will be the very first to know. After all the people I drunkenly text. 

In other news, I am off to Ikea because they seem to have reasonably priced frames. While I had popped off to Italy, I also had my room painted (dark blue grey on two walls and light slate grey on two walls), and it looks lovely. But because it's painted, I shouldn't, you know... thumbtack a thousand posters and printouts to my walls anymore. And I'm a grownup now anyway... and what do grown-ups do? They fucking frame their posters. SO, today I am going to go buy some nice frames for my posters and prints. To be fair, I probably should have done that back when I started buying nice posters and prints... but you know... oh well. If it looks nice, I'll post pictures when I'm done (I know that's exactly what you wanted.)

Stray Observations:

• Realized recently that I have started changing my wardrobe... all changes seem to point to a desire to be a 20-something, hip, crime-solving, scarf-wearing, book-wielding woman of mystery. It is getting a little out of control. I may pretend to be a fashion blogger and make a post about it. It's my blog, I do what I want!
• When I try to download things and they aren't on Pirate Bay, my first response is *cry* and then my second response is *give up.* Neither of these responses are effective when you're in the middle of a radio series that you feel you absolutely MUST listen to the rest of. What on earth are my other options?
• Everyone should listen to the band The Head and The Heart, particularly this song, Honey Come Home: 

                                 

Their debut self-titled album is totally my jam. This live version is fantastic, but their studio work has more instruments and stuff... if instruments are your thing. *sigh* Some people. Seriously though, the ENTIRE album is great. It's a little like Mumford and Sons album Sigh No More. Every song is incredible. It's just not fair. Go buy it now.

XOX

Fashion and Churches: Venice Days 3 & 4

I was about to start writing this and I looked out the window while I was trying to figure out what to say; I looked up just in time to see the woman who lives across the street (who I've also watched doing her dishes and smoking) taking her top off.... and now she's shut the window. Lady, it is too late for that sort of precautionary measure. Not that any Italians I've ever met have particularly been bastions for decorum, bastions for fashion maybe and exciting gesticulations most definitely. Speaking of Italians, I want to talk for a minute about fashion; all of them have the most incredible sense of style. No matter how tall or short, wide or skinny, they know exactly how to dress and look fabulous all the time. It's not fair.

 What have I done the past two days besides ogle the local folk? Took a trip to Murano (where they make the glass), bought some shoes, visited the Santa Maria della Salute, the Scuola de San Rocco, and the Basilica Santa Maria Gloriosa Dei Frari. Most of the churches wont allow you to take pictures inside, which is both good and bad. I understand why they do it; churches are sacred places and besides all the tourists coming to ogle there are actually people there praying. Still, it's sort of a bummer because they're these incredible 500+ year old buildings with these amazing paintings and chandeliers and carvings and you really just want to take pictures of everything. And they wont let you. And if you're me, you sulk about it. And then go outside and take pictures of the outside. 

This is the Santa Maria della Salute. And it is huge and beautiful.

These ladies were about 8 or 9 feet long each, and are chilling out above the front door of the church. The front door is probably about 15 or 16 feet tall. These numbers seem accurate in my head now, but you probably shouldn't call me on them. I did not bring my tape measure with me to the church, my bad. I promise I will tomorrow (not really though) when we go to the Academia. 

Stray Observations:

• Foods I have eaten: Yesterday was a soup day: tortellini soup for lunch, followed by a cappuccino and a slice of lemon cake which was divine. Dinner was vegetable soup, which here comes in a chicken stock broth which was different and really good. Today, a mushroom and prosccuito panini (which was not a panini like American's think of. If you're American, picture a stromboli... that dough tube filled with yummies... that's a panini.) And my favorite gelato so far: pistachio. Holy crap it was so good. The creaminess of the gelato went fantastically with the salty taste of the pistachio. For breakfast, cheerios... Cheerios taste the same everywhere. They taste like sad bland circles.
• I did a lot of shopping in Murano. Glass is cool, glass blowers are cool and giant glass sculptures are also cool. 

                                                      

Gelato and Spritz: Venezia, Days 1 & 2

Venice is beautiful. This is something that many many people have said before and that they will continue saying until people, or Venice, no longer exist. That's because it is entirely true. There isn't an alley to walk down where there isn't something fantastic or enticing on the other side. And there's incredible art and architecture everywhere. It's unbelievable that people live here, I mean, really. We just got back from Ca Rezzionico, which is an 18th Century Palace that is now a museum; most of the rooms on the first 2 floors have their original furnishings (they don't let you take pictures inside - if they did the rest of this blog would be pictures of chandeliers from the 1740s.) But while we were there I realized that in America, we design our museums to look like 18th Century Venetian palaces. At first, when you walk around you think, "Oh, well that's just what museums look like: ornate walls, marble floors, high ceilings," and then you realize, "...this museum is a big deal because its furnished as it was in the 18th century when it was a house. Someone lived here and it looked exactly like this."  We have entirely stolen their design aesthetic and applied it to our museums.

Today we went to the Piazza San Marco, which was huge and also a huge draw for tourists. They (we) were EVERYWHERE. Tons of people speaking TONS of different languages, with maps and cameras and fanny packs. This picture is from earlier in the morning, about 10 or so, and its mostly of the Basilica de San Marco, but you can see the crowds starting to form below it. If we spoke Italian we could have listened to the Palm Sunday mass; they broadcast it live over loud speakers into the square.

Yesterday was relatively uneventful. We got into the airport, took the boat to the city (I have seen at least 15 boats to every car this entire trip), came to the apartment, ate a snack, went out for dinner and gelato, and then came back and went to sleep. Beautiful, beautiful sleep. On the plane I hadn't managed to sleep at all  and after about an hour and a half of scooching around in my seat I gave up and listened to Cabin Pressure for the next two and a half hours which was lovely but not quite as revitalizing as a nap. However, in my quest to entice myself to stay awake until 10:00 PM Venice time, I went a little food crazy. Delicious hand-made ricotta and spinach ravioli, Nutella and caramel gelato, and the drink which all the hip cool young Italians drink- Spritz.

Spritz (or sometimes spritze) is very orange and mine was rather bitter; you can have it mixed with a less bitter bitter than I chose. The drink is white wine, sparkling water, and something else, generally a bitter (I went with Campari.) These drinks are everywhere. Sitting in the Campo di Santa Margherita, orange glasses littered the tables at the cafes. Apparently, it's so popular some people call it the official drink of Venice. I will definitely be trying another.

Tomorrow we should be headed up to the Isle of Murano where murano glass is made. The rest of today will be spent exploring the area around the apartment, relaxing and drinking wine. Also, I'll be around on Skype if anyone wants to chat. You can see the canals from out my window in the apartment, and I'd be more than happy to hold my computer out the window for you. 

Ciao!

Stray Observations:

• Also, spent a good portion of the day walking along Riva degli Schiavoni, which borders Saint Mark's Canal. Bought a few watercolors of the rivers from a painter who was setting up outside a restaurant. He did a fantastic job capturing the colors of the city. Venice is incredibly bright and the light reflects off the buildings and the water to make the most stunning colors. 

Canale di San Marco

• Other food I've eaten: Spaghetti in Squid Ink sauce with calamari, stracciatella gelato, and tiramisu mousse. Also, Frosted Flakes which, in Italy, they call Frosties.
• Boats: People take boats everywhere. It is the most convenient way to get around. Their boat system is like a metro system(they're called water buses, but really, it's like a metro) However, for tourists, besides the water metro and water taxis there are also gondolas. The locals can ride the gondolas too; however, most choose not to parody their city's history by paying their kinsmen too many euros to push them around the rivers in a straw hat. Despite how cynical that last sentence was, the gondolas are decked out to be historically accurate and are cool to look at.   Today in gondola news: there was a gondola traffic jam between two bridges. 4 gondolas full of tourists were trying to pass each other and the gondoliers were yelling at each other in Italian and angrily pushing their gondolas around. It was very exciting. Also, unlike in the movies, there aren't people lounging in the gondolas with parasols or with guys with accordions singing to them... oh wait... 

Technically, he's not the one playing the accordion, so... 

Getting Out of Bed is Hard... (Prepping for Zurich and Venice)

Day of travel, here I come!

Not really though, as I am still lying warm and cozy in my blanket cocoon. I did, however, manage to do most of my packing last night while listening to/watching fantastic Alfred Hitchcock film Notorious. It is one of my favorites and is notoriously... good. Hahaha... I am tired still.

I realized that I still haven't said anything about Hunger Games (da film), and that makes it seem like it was bad or forgettable. It was actually very good. A little on the longer side coming in at 2 hours and 20 some odd minutes, but all minutes well spent. The thing that surprised me the most (in a good way, mind)  was how little the characters talked. Given that the book is mostly told in Katniss' internal monologue (I just typed "brain narration" and thought: no, you're an English major and there's a word for that) there were a lot of ways they could have shot the film to handle that. I think the fact that they chose a "few extra lines and y'all better act good" as their strategy was great. Some very nice cinematography and overall a very close follow of the books. I thought it was good fun.

Now, this trip... Before I go on trips I get nervous. I get nervous in the same way that I get nervous standing in line for the biggest roller coaster at the amusement park. I'm excited and I know it will be fun, but I'm also afraid I might die. It's mostly unfounded because generally people don't die on roller coasters (or airplanes), but ohmygodwhatifIdie! Still, if I really think I'm going to die before I get there I shouldn't waste my time packing but, guys, I have packed so many things. I have packed a ton of stuff because in my head Venice might be so great that I will decide to stay there forever, and I'll need extra clothes and books for what will become a transitional period in my life. Also, you will all be needing passports to come visit me.

I'm going to get up now and take a shower. Unless I get extremely bored in the airport this is the last time you'll hear from me until we reach Zurich, where assuredly things will be nice and Swiss. Hoping to find cheese, hot chocolate and someone who can point me toward the gate to my transfer flight in at least 3 of Switzerland's 4 national languages. Will try to learn Romansh during the layover! I promise my next post will have pictures too. I know words are so dull all on their own.

XOX


Books I'm taking with me, in case you were wondering (not counting the ones on my PC Nook reader thing, which are all the ones that it came with anyway; I just cant convince myself that eBooks are something I want to involve myself with yet. ANYWAY):

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

I started this book several months ago and then got distracted by life and other books and had to put it down. Very ready to pick it back up again. Sherlock Holmes mysteries are some of my favorites.

Travels with Myself and Another: A Memoir by Martha Gellhorn

Similar to Hound, I was reading this book right in the middle of a lot of things and I had to put it down and attend to life. But now I have time and I'm so looking forward to it. I'm in the middle of an early chapter where she's in China with an unidentified companion (my guess is Hemingway) and her descriptions and stories are incredible. She was a travel writer and novelist and so fascinating. When I read this book I always feel like I need to don a shirt dress, get some of that 1940's verve, and go on some grand adventure for greater purpose. Martha Gellhorn was a bad ass.

The Best of Nancy Drew: Classics Collection Vol. 2 (including The Hidden Staircase, The Ghost of Blackwood Hall and The Thirteenth Pearl) by Carolyn Keene

I love Nancy Drew. I have since I was little and I will until I die. Her mysteries are fun and not so scary that I can't read them before bed (I'm looking at you Hound...) And, as a character Nancy is just so charming and absurd at the same time. Her dad buys her everything, she gets into trouble and no one cares, she hardly ever goes to school and she solves mysteries with her two best friends who aren't as smart or pretty as her. She's like the Barbie of YA literature.  If you have any love for Nancy Drew then you should check out these comics with haste. Kate Beaton's interpretation is hysterical(ly accurate.)

Quick Hits on Some Absolutely Fabulous Things!

No time for travel lately (and with a jaunt to Venice just around the corner I have no money to travel, even if I did have time); however, I have managed to immerse myself in a few things that I need to recommend to everyone who stumbles across these lonely little posts. Ready? Here we go:

1. "The Art of Video Games" exhibit at the Smithsonian American Art Museum (Category: Sort-of travel): This exhibit at the Smithsonian was a lot of fun. It was very interesting to get a glimpse at games that have defined and redefined video gaming and art. The exhibit isn't very big; there are only 3 rooms, one of them is specifically set aside for game play (only 5 games are available to play, in no particular order: PacMan, Super Mario Brothers, The Secret of Monkey Island, Myst and Flower.) There are plenty of interesting videos with interviews from designers and creators, and there are plenty of soundbites about individual games themselves. I'm not sure they form the most cohesive exhibit I've ever seen, but if it's a topic you're interested in there is probably enough information to satiate you. Is it worth a trip all on its own? Maybe not. It just isn't big enough to be its own day trip. If you're game (aha ha!) though, and headed to the city, or looking for an excuse to get out to a museum, it will certainly do. It leaves DC and heads on the road in September. For more info, click here:  http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/archive/2012/games/
   
2. Sherlock (Category: Television Show): Dear Lord in Heaven. There is no end to the good things I could say about this show. If you haven't seen it and enjoy fantastic writing, great acting or a wonderful mystery, then you are missing out. Set in modern times, this Sherlock Holmes retelling is practically perfect in every way. It has just enough inventiveness to stand out and allow its actors and creators plenty of room to play, while still pulling enough material from its source to please even the most voracious Conan Doyle fans. Steven Moffat (of Doctor Who fame) and Mark Gatiss (author of the Lucifer Box series) write and co-create like a dream, somehow managing to make every episode harrowing and heartfelt. I could gush all night about this show, and if it becomes clear to me that no one reads this blog, one day I may do an episode by episode review of it to satiate my own need to watch and rewatch this show. You can watch the first season on Netflix Instant Watch. The second season has already aired in the UK, and begins airing on your local PBS station in May in Masterpiece Mystery.
   
3. Johannes Cabal: The Fear Institute (Category: Novel): This novel is third in what will hopefully be an extensive series by author Jonathan L. Howard. If you haven't read the first two, you should (Johannes Cabal The Necromancer, and Johannes Cabal The Detective, respectively); however, you'll be able to manage this one just fine if you haven't. You do need a sense of humor and an appreciation for the macabre; once you have that, you'll be ready to go. This third foray into fiction with our eponymous antihero is steeped in the lore of H.P. Lovecraft, and it comes out all the more delightful because of it. Having not read much (hardly any, though it is on my list) Lovecraft I still felt perfectly at ease in the world Howard creates/borrows. While the plot twists and turns, it's easily graspable and by far one of the most fun I've had reading in quite awhile. Though surly and sarcastic Herr Cabal is, it doesn't take long to realize that there is no better guide to the Dreamlands, and no one you'd rather have take you. You'll have to order this one from the UK though because (as of this writing) there hasn't been a US publish date set yet. It is entirely worth the extra $3.00 shipping. 

Well, that is it my darling darlings. I have to pop off to bed now, as I will be up late late tomorrow for the midnight showing of The Hunger Games. Expect a review to follow, and then that will most likely be it until I am en route to Venice. So good night all, and enjoy!

With all my love. XOX

The Case of the Maple Syrup and the Mysterious Box in the Lake

I saw my ex-boyfriend while I was stuck in traffic on the beltway on Friday. This is in no way pertinent to the rest of the weekend, but it did make me giggle an inordinate amount. I tried to look at him as much as I could without him seeing me, while we passed each other over and over again in the stop and go traffic. It's a strange experience watching 5 years of your life drive past you in a raised pick up truck, smoking a cigarette with one foot out the window. While I'd like to draw some grand conclusion about what it means about life and traffic that we found ourselves trapped together on an inescapable beltway of 5 PM on a Friday doom, I don't think there are any conclusions to be drawn. Much like this whole weekend, it just happened. A blur of giggles and trying to avoid being seen by the bitter eyes of responsibility shirked. And who drives with one foot out the window, honestly?

The Maple Syrup festival was DA BOMB! It was full of tiny children, pancakes, syrup and big rocks to climb on. I love climbing up onto big rocks. I love it. The pancake and sausage breakfast was fantastic. The pancakes were big, thick and covered in sweet light Maryland Maple Syrup. In the dining hall, seats were scarce and everyone crammed together at folding tables. We ended up sitting next to a grandma and grandpa and two little kids, a boy and a girl who were determined to manage gigantic pancakes without the help of their adult caregivers. Not pour the syrup all over everything? You may as well not eat pancakes. The dining hall was only heated by a giant round fireplace in the middle of the building, and the cold mountain air ate the heat like it was an extra sausage patty, but it hardly mattered. Eating a delicious pancake breakfast surrounded by many (mostly tiny) strangers was more than enough to give us the warm fuzzies. The food was good. In spite of a 2 hour drive to get there, everyone was happy, and we had a fantastic time. 

After breakfast, hot coco in hand, we wandered over to the maple syrup making demonstration. Watching people boil syrup is about as interesting as it sounds (read: its exactly like watching anything else boil,) but we did learn some maple syrup facts. 

1. This has not been a good year for Maryland maple syrup. So far this season, they've only managed to collect 40 gallons of sap. Boo.

2. Vermont is #1 in maple syrup production in the US. New York is 2. Maryland is 10 (or 18th, depending on which sap boiler you talked to.)

3. One gallon of sap will only get you a baby food jar's worth of actual delicious syrup. It's a lot of work for not a lot of pay off, but man if syrup is your thing, this syrup is some of the best damn syrup I have ever tasted. 

After the demonstration sort of petered out we went and climbed on some rocks by the beach and wandered around the area in general. We spent a good portion of time hopping around on rocks in streams, climbing big rocks, and sitting on rocks (I am not over-exaggerating the number of climbable rocks we experienced.) As we made our way around the lake and rocks, we found a mysterious box in the shallows of the lake. It was just sitting there, water drifting lazily over it, tempting us. Good Lord, I have never seen a more tempting mysterious wooden box. Our theories about its origins (aliens, pirates, old man Jenkins who runs the abandoned amusement park) were endless, and eventually, in spite of the temperature (icy chill) and due in large part to our cajoling, Mitchell agreed to wade into the lake and get the box. 

Look at how shadowy it is! We couldn't just leave it.

I almost don't want to tell you what was in the box. Isn't it better to have this level of mystery in your life than find out that we found a cache of abandoned pirate gold in the lake in Cunningham Falls State Park? We couldn't leave well enough alone, we had to mess with what wasn't ours and now we're cursed forever by... a block of wood with two screws in it. According to Mitchell, "As soon as I was in the water I could see what it was." I doubt that sincerely as he did go further in, grab it and bring it back to shore, but if that's what he's telling himself to mask the soul crushing disappointment, then so be it. It was disappointing, and we had long since finished our hot chocolate, we left. 

The rest of the weekend was spent hanging out, eating dairy queen and cheap pizza and making each other laugh, mostly with impressions of one another. Sam and I always get intense giggles when we're together, and Mitchell generally has to tolerate the two of us giggling and trying to explain why at the same time. His impression of this action, which I will at some point videotape, is enough to set us falling all over each other in fits of laughter which generally end in tears. The drive back to Baltimore (read: Responsibility Land where your ex-boyfriend lives) was far more somber, but the end of trips always seems to be that way, doesn't it? 

Stray Observations:

• Sam is an art teacher in training, so when we weren't driving or climbing on things, we were helping prep projects for the kids in her class. I got a blister from coloring. This makes me feel like I am an incredibly good, intense, master color-er. Crayons are my medium of choice. 
• All the men in Frostburg and at Maple Syrup Festivals are very hairy. Particularly in the face. This has led to the coining of the acronym WMDM (Western Maryland Moustache). Finding one, much like finding a regular WMD, is often both horrifying and exhilarating. Occasionally, you can find them on ladies.
• Eww, what? I just found traces of maple syrup on my Blackberry!

Rock Climbing!!

The Scoop

Tomorrow, I head up into the wild blue yonder (read: Appalachian Mountains) with my compatriot laptop and fellow adventurer Sam G. We're going to Frostburg to visit fantastic boyfriend Mitchell and partake in the Cunningham Falls State Park's 42nd Annual Maple Syrup Festival. The website promises sap boiling demonstrations and pancake breakfast, which is really all I need to entice me out of bed at 8 in the morning.

I feel it's only fair to note that I have been to the Maple Syrup Festival once before when I was younger. I don't remember much about it, except that my family forgot our coats. A dreadful mistake because March is one of those months where, though it may be relatively warm where you're sitting, it probably isn't very warm on top of any nearby mountains. Then you have to stumble around on top of a mountain with nothing but someone else's dad's windbreaker and a tiny disposable mug of hot chocolate to keep you warm. Thinking back, on some level I was probably mortified, although I might have been too busy pretending to be a hobbit to take much notice of any cute preteen boys around. Pretending to be a hobbit was (is) generally my M.O. whenever I end up hiking anywhere. All of my unfortunate friends can attest to this.

So far I have done absolutely nothing to prepare for this trip, excepting this blog, which should really be last on my list of ways to prepare for a trip. Somehow it's at the top of the list, and here we are. All I've done is remind myself to pack a coat, and gotten a little excited about being able to pretend that I'm a fictional creature. That's exactly the sort of spirit I was hoping to infuse this blog with. General unpreparedness and misplaced enthusiasm. Instead of making a list of things to pack, I'm going to chat about my impending trip to Italy (which I am also unprepared for) with this friendly (and chatty) military veteran sitting near me at Starbucks. Huzzah and cheers all! 

XOX,

Em