the baffled king

on the way home from work, i text john to see if he wants to have dinner. we usually get together a couple nights a week because we live in the same area. so we agree to meet at open city. i was there for 5 minutes or so before he got there, and i was sitting at a little tiny table next to a man who was also sitting at a tiny table by himself. he was 40s, balding, glasses, businessman.

i don't know if it's apparent on this blog, but i've become obsessed with mussels. i had them at marvin a month ago, had them at gram's, had them at home. so i was deciding between the half order ($8) and a whole order ($12). and while i was sitting there, i asked the man, who was eating mussels, if he got the whole or half. he says half.. he can never finish them, much less the whole. i say nonsense! the whole is $4 more, and i can eat hundreds of mussels in a sitting.

then john got there and i stopped talking to the man and started trying to talk john into splitting a big order of mussels with me so i wouldn't have to eat them by myself just to save $4. john isn't having it. he wants a burger. meanwhile, i'm arguing with myself outloud about whether or not i'm going to order the half or whole.

SO then the server comes to take the man's mussels away and give him a sandwich that he also ordered. the server is holding them and the man says 'before you take those, this young lady might want them'. i look over (totally blushing.. story of my life) and say 'weeeelll actually if you're just going to throw them away, yes i'd love them.' BUT the server didn't hear me, so he starts walking away and all 3 of us yell 'SIRRR! excuse me!' and we explain that i'm going to eat them. he was very confused.

so in the end, i got to eat 10 mussels, which totally hit the spot, and i ordered a side of baked macaroni and cheese which is really a giant plate full of it. so, lesson of the day: talk to your awkward restaurant neighbors. they might give you the leftovers you've been craving for weeks.

this is halloween

i cannot. stop. blushing. at work. literally a couple times an hour i just turn bright red if someone speaks directly to me. i try to remember that i'm a teacher! i'm confident! i tell people what to do! but i think the nature of being an intern is that you always feel a little unsure, you smile a little too much and laugh at a few too many bad jokes.

i was telling my roommates how a lot of the time i feel like people probably think i'm a little dippy because i get excited easily and i'm bouncing around a lot of the time when it seems like the staff is so even-keeled and serious. but that's me, so. and they definitely know that i get a lot done. not tooo worried about it.

miriam and i made [reheated] dinner tonight. spinach manicotti, salad and crescent rolls! now we're watching the nightmare before christmas on VHS from the condo collection of '90s tapes. claymation is amazing. i know i'll be singing these songs all week though.

p.s. there's a new boy on the horizon. updates as they happen.

p.p.s. from yesterday - it was 'a really cool guy'. his name might rhyme with lodburt fibs. :)
and turns out that the screening was full so i didn't get to go afterall.

all these places feel like home

p.s. no swine flu for this girl! and my arm isn't even sore.

a girl worth fighting for

this is the contents of my purse right now which i just found amusing. a wallet, keys, lotion, chinese candy and black beans.

well miriam's been in north carolina on a great halloween adventure tour with her friends who fly in from everywhere all weekend. there are 7 or 8 of them and they dressed up as oregon trail one night (it was a computer game that every kid who grew up in the 90s played at school) and peter pan one night. so i've had the room to myself, and i have to say, i much prefer having her here. even though most of the time either one of us is just sleeping, it's nice to have company in here.
(this is where miriam's air mattress bed usually is).

i think i'm getting back into the american swing of things or my biological clock is going off or my love of interior design grew a lot while i was in taiwan, but i keep getting the strong urge to nest. i've been admiring lamps, thinking about decorations and kitchenware. i almost forgot that i have an entire apartment of stuff packed up in the shed at round rock. so maybe i'm ready to settle here for a while.(funny how a messy room somehow seems more organized if you just pile everything in one spot.)

oh i forgot to tell you.. at the halloween party at work on friday, i was talking with a volunteer of asian descent who was dressed up as a chinese farmer and we got talking about how i taught in taiwan for a year and how i might want to get fluent in chinese and use it for whatever i do next and she said "don't EVER think your chinese will be able to go up against a native speaker. you will NEVER be good enough to get to that level unless you devote your whole life to it, which you don't want to do."

!. it was a pretty hurtful moment for me. she wasn't commenting directly on my accent or anything, it was more of a general attack. but it still left me feeling like i had been kicked in the stomach. i don't understand why a stranger would ever say something like that to someone.

that's my weekend update. i'm excited to go back to work tomorrow.
time for shantaram! i borrowed it from nirav and i'm super excited.

monster mash

this is a nice slideshow of the events that went on in washington for halloween tonight. the house was lit up with orange lights, there was a giant spider and spiderweb in front of the north portico, and bazillions of painted actors in costume to take pictures and shoo kids along. afterward, there were parties for military and staff families.

pretty fancy.
this evening i went to a party with friends from high school and new friends from DC. you wouldn't believe the number of guys in spandex or leggings. at least half of the guys there were in either makeup, spandex or otherwise nontraditional halloween wear. pretty amusing.

i am so exhausted i can barely keep my eyes open. time for bed. happy halloween!

it's all or nothing

in honor of it being friday and perfect napping weather, i'm just going to post a picture of my costume and say farewell until tomorrow.
i wish i had taken a picture of super mario, a hippie, a couple of switcheroos, and some inside jokes.

i should tell you

man. i was going to be too early to work, so i stopped at this little coffee stand on the corner and ordered an iced raspberry mocha. it had two shots of espresso and a lot of raspberry syrup in it. the thing is that i neeeever drink coffee. usually i get a big can of arizona raspberry iced tea. yuuum.
but the coffee made me minchy and i felt like my heart was going to beat itself right out of my chest. so no more coffee for this girl.
today we took a little field trip to the farmer's market across from the white house. we got a little tour which was pretty cool. i bought a loaf of sourdough, a honeycrisp apple and some dill cheese.
they're usually around on thursdays, but this is the last one until spring, if they have it again. i guess they need to get all kinds of city permits and have it approved. here's a fun fact: this is the first time there's been a white house sponsored farmer's market in that location since JEFFERSON.
lafayette park is all decked out for halloween. i resisted the urge to jump in the piles of raked leaves. there was a cop car parked on the side walk.

that's kind of an interesting thing about downtown DC. you'll show up one morning and all of the flowers on a whole street have changed. two weeks ago they changed from ..not daisies but something like them, all yellow.. to pansies. and i saw them planting bulbs underneath so hopefully in spring there will be pretty tulips or daffodills or something. hopefully i'm around to see them!

i am SO excited to wear my costume tomorrow and see what everyone else came up with. what mine lacks in imagination is made up for with handmade goodness.