Thursday, January 31, 2008
I was in the kitchen and wanted to remember three things to buy at the store tomorrow, but I have such a bad memory that I knew I'd forget them before I walked upstairs. So I memorized that they all start with P: parsley, Profit melon, and pamplemousse.
Posted at 2:43:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
I am so enamoured with my sponge. I can't even describe all its wonderful qualities; the sponge is unfathomable.
Posted at 1:17:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
It does remind me of a sheep--the deep, texturey wool that you can sink your fingers into, amazing in its composition, so much of its volume air, the springy feel, the irresistible touchableness, its animalness. The sponge is such an animal. It's so obvious it's an animal, it blows my mind that lots of people don't know sponges are animals.
I must take a picture of my sponge--in the daylight, in macro mode, showing the wondrous construction, the tubes and towers, the branches and chambers and pores. It's as unlike an artificial sponge as can be. And no matter how much I rub it with soap, over and over--which, upon squeezing, forms a thick and creamy foam that has delighted me since I discovered it as a child--or how many times I sink it into the bath and listen to the champagne fizz of the last tiny air bubbles hissing free; no matter how many times I saturate it with fresh water from the tap, till the nearly weightless sponge is heavy and the excess clear water pools in my hands, and I rinse it back to bare spongin scaffolding, it still seems to smell faintly of salt, of the ocean.
I chose the sponge very deliberately, comparing it to all the others. It was the smallest and most perfectly shaped to fit exactly in my hand. The side that is cupped by the hand is curved just as the palm is curved, and the bottom, which has been cut from the larger sponge animal, is flat, so it's perfect for rubbing a bar of soap over without hurting the delicate intricacies of the sponge's natural body. The first time I used the sponge I could feel it growing in my hand. It happened slowly and steadily, and felt alive. It was a remarkable sensation. The sponge was larger than the hollow of my hand when it finished expanding, but still shaped to fit it. Maybe if I don't use the sponge for a while and it gets really dry, it will happen again. But I don't think that's likely.
My sponge loves soap. More precisely, it loves Bean Tree Soap, the best soap in the world. The Vaniglia brand. Right now I am trying Dolce Miel.
I really need a sponge bag. Maybe I will make one. Then, like Raffles, I can say, "It is a sponge bag. So called because it is meant for carrying sponges."
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
It's almost warm out today. Sunny. 45°-ish. But very very gusty. Feels like late March.
Posted at 3:40:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
This is an interesting blog meme, based on an exercise about class and privilege developed by Will Barratt, Meagan Cahill, Angie Carlen, Minnette Huck, Drew Lurker, Stacy Ploskonka at Illinois State University. (If you participate, they ask that you PLEASE acknowledge their copyright.) You're supposed to bold the things that were true for you.
Privileged childhood?
1. Father went to college
2. Father finished college
3. Mother went to college
4. Mother finished college
5. Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor (my brother is a professor, and so was my dad)
6. Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers
7. Had more than 50 books in your childhood home
8. Had more than 500 books in your childhood home
9. Were read children's books by a parent
10. Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18
11. Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18 (not that I liked them...)
12. The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively (I guess so...)
13. Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18
14. Your parents (or a trust) paid for the majority of your college costs (my tuition was free because I went to the university where my father worked)
15. Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs (pretty much... I had to pay for my own course books and clothes, though)
16. Went to a private high school
17. Went to summer camp
18. Had a private tutor before you turned 18
19. Family vacations involved staying at hotels
20. Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18
21. Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them
22. There was original art in your house when you were a child
23. You and your family lived in a single-family house
24. Your parent(s) owned their own house or apartment before you left home
25. You had your own room as a child
26. You had a phone in your room before you turned 18
28. Had your own TV in your room in high school
30. Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16
31. Went on a cruise with your family
32. Went on more than one cruise with your family
33. Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up (not art galleries or cool museums, but boring ones like homesteads of historical dudes and recreated historical villages)
34. You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Posted at 11:30:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
My new sea sponge is the cat's meow. (This picture has nothing to do with it.)
Tower and Ground both have nice firm handshakes and quiet voices. :-) They're the quietest people I've met who aren't related to me! I really liked that. The tower is cool... it has lots of metal stairs that go in a circle to climb up (but not a spiral/winding staircase... just a zillion levels of squares), and glass views in every direction, with dark translucent shade things over the upper halves of the windows, to block out glare. The front looks out over the runway, to the right is the end of runway 02, to the left is a super-fantastic view of our hangar, and to the back is Hartford. The guys sit in wheely swivel chairs (like normal office chairs) and pick up a little CB radio-ish looking handset on a spiral cord to respond when someone calls. There's also a microwave and a bunch of different mugs on hooks (like each guy has his own special mug), in the back of the room. IFR clearances come in on coded print-out strips, practically like some sort of old ticker-tape machine. There's a special skinny wooden slot where they shove the strips. All the built-ins are kind of '50s looking, with little wood drawers and compartments.
Posted at 2:54:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Tango's friend Tower is named John, and the second Tower guy on duty was Bob (he met us at the door at the bottom and showed us up, then showed us out again at the end). They are both so good at their jobs, it seemed like they could do it in their sleeps! (Both guys are former FAA dudes who used to work at really busy places like LA and New York when they were younger, so Brainard is insanely easy for them.) I asked how many tower guys there are, and they said there are five total right now. Usually there are six, but one recently died in a car accident and they haven't replaced him yet. During the day there are two guys on duty (one does Tower and one does Ground), but at night (seven-ish to midnight) there's only one because it's not very busy then.
There's a radar screen (not too huge... just large computer monitor-sized) where they can see dots for all the planes in the air. The ones that are in contact with ATC have their tail number written next to the dot, and the ones who are just up there squawking VFR have assigned numbers like "016" so they can keep track of them. The screen also shows other airports, the CT River, and the highways, so they can reference what the planes are flying over/near. There's also a computer with a really DOS-looking interface where they can look up planes when a pilot identifies what he's flying. It has every type of plane and shows a photo. And there's a weird-looking old-fashioned telephone that says "Crash Phone" all over it. It had at least three "Crash Phone" labels. It was a really strange phone, sort of stained-glass looking! (It seriously looked like a joke phone prop, but I figured a real tower would not have a joke Crash Phone.) It seemed like it should have been a red phone, but it wasn't. The tower guys thought my fascination with the Crash Phone was amusing. (When we first got up there, my eyes were drawn right to it because I love old-fashioned phones, and I said something like "I like your Crash Phone;" then right before we left I asked them what happens when they use the Crash Phone.) We talked to them/watched for about 45 minutes. They were very very low-key and not scary at all. :-) The tower is cool! Dean wanted to know what my favorite part about the tower was, and I said, "The Crash Phone." He thought that was silly, so I said, "The view of our hangar. And the stairs." He thought that was silly too.
We're going to meet Tower (Tango's friend Tower!). And Ground. In the tower. I'm nervous!
Posted at 12:08:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Monday, January 28, 2008
My vaniglia is here!!!!!
Posted at 6:22:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Last night I was talking to my mom on the phone, and she asked (sort of randomly), "Remember when you hated exclamation points?" Me: "Hmmmm... yes. I don't anymore." I don't remember, really. But I do remember that I wrote an essay about it.
I keep getting tons of e-mails lately, but they're almost all from me. Heh. It's really handy to send notes to yourself from Treo!
For example, I e-mailed myself about Bonus Foam Girl at Rocky. Yes, I am a fan of a new barista at Rocky (I guess she isn't actually new, because she knew me as a regular, but I don't know her...). She made me the most fantastic microfoam, and then, to top it off, suggested that if I wanted more, I could bring my cup back up after I'd devoured some of it, and she'd add more, because she had tons left in the pitcher. !!! Wow. I made a huge effort to convey my appreciation for her skill and effort, let me tell you. I even asked, only half jokingly, "When are you on duty?? I'll come in then." (She'd said something about how I was in all the time, and I said I used to be, but not anymore. And she knew that now I stop in about once a week these days. How do people notice/remember these things??) Then as I was leaving, one of the other baristas thanked me for my patronage (not in such formal tones). How am I supposed to dump Rocky when things like this happen? They even had spoons out today. Just a few, in a cup, like a peace offering. I'm delusional, but I was really touched by the spoons.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
I forgot to mention that when you land at Brainard you fly low right over the Connecticut River. It's really cool. I still haven't done it in daylight, though!
Posted at 4:01:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Last night we went on a really fun adventure, to Amityville, NY (yes, home of the horror) (it's in Long Island). We'd been there once before to pick up Dean's Gs from an event they went to, so we knew there was a Chipotle only a couple of minutes away from the airport. If it wasn't freezing cold and too highway-ish to be walking friendly, we could have walked there. But we didn't need to walk there, because Atlantic Aviation is ultra-nice and lets pilots borrow crew cars!! (We also knew this from last time, because we borrowed one to pick up Dean's Gs.) So we flew there, were given the keys to this nice car with a built-in GPS, drove two inches to the shopping center, and got to eat Chipotles without being in Maryland or North Carolina! Afterwards, we drove two more inches across the street and had drinks at Starbucks, where my cappuccino had GREAT foam. It was tons better than (current) Rocky's foam. We hung around enjoying our drinks, and then drove back again. It was very very cool. On the way home, we flew over New Haven and spotted Ikea from the air.
Oh, before we flew to Amityville, I took a photo of Brainard tower while we were getting ready at our hangar. (It's zoomed in slightly, but that's pretty much our view.) At quarter to five, the new tower guy drove up and parked at the base of the tower, so we got to see the changing of the guards. The shift must change at 5:00. When we took off, both guys were up there, and after the first guy gave us our clearance and we started to take off down the runway, the new guy who had just come on duty said to us over the radio, "Cooool paint job... I like," and, "I finally got to see you in the light." It was Tango's friend Tower!! He must work Saturday evenings since that's when we spoke to him last time.
