Saturday, July 12, 2008
We bought three Squamscot
Posted at 9:57:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
sodas Old Fashioned Beverages at Kimball Farm (in bottles, to bring home). It was established in 1863 and is made in Newfields, New Hampshire. We got Half & Half (half grapefruit/half lemon), Maple Cream, and Yup. Had to get Yup (although it should be "ayup") because of Uncle Willie, of course. The store lady said it tastes like "7Up with a kick," although the description on the website says "Lemon, yup, just lemon." Only tried Half & Half so far (at the hangar) and it tastes old fashioned. Jaffrey was great!
Wow, we're listening to the radio in Tango and they're playing "Learning to Fly"! Did Tang call in and make a request?
Posted at 6:07:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
The blimp is back!
Posted at 5:30:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Oh boy oh boy, we're going to Jaffrey!!
Posted at 4:30:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Last night at Nancy's Airfield Cafe, after reading a great e-mail from Jan:
Posted at 3:11:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Dean: Is the [LC] still in existence?
Laura: Sure--it was never disbanded! It's just not very active.
Dean: Wow... Like an inactive volcano?
Exactly like an inactive volcano.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Solstice sunglasses store has excellent customer service!! I thought I'd have to send my sunglasses in to Maui Jim to be repaired/replaced, but they gave me a brand new pair! When I walked by the Apple store, there was a GIANT
Posted at 5:43:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
lion line stretching past J. Crew and all the way into the Lord & Taylor wing. I guess they released the new iPhone today. The superlong line was still there (different people I hope/assume) [edit: wow, maybe not...] when I left, which was quite a bit later since I went to the sunglasses place then bought Dean ten thousand pairs of new pants since all the department stores were having crazy sales. I'm going to have to hem one of them (eek!) but it was really nice so I couldn't pass it up.
I did manage to take a decent photo of my new skirt, using the timer mode on my camera! It doesn't have my head, but you already know what that looks like.
I remade a skirt while Dean was at the hangar installing Tango's new LED wingtip lights, and I think it's going to be one of my favs! It's one I got at Uptown Consignment last year that was 1) way too big on me, and B) had a really weird thick tall white waistband that I didn't like because it showed through my shirts.
Posted at 12:15:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
I really liked the fabric and length and cut though, so tonight I took in the sides and cut off the weird waistband and replaced it with elastic (the kind that can go right against your body and doesn't need a casing). I have no experience installing elastic, so I did a really sloppy job, but I followed the directions on the package about spacing and length and stuff, and it turned out perfect other than the stitches being incredibly messy looking (I even broke a needle!). I don't really care because I never tuck in my shirts, so it won't show anyway. I love my new skirt! It's green silk with abstract white leafy patterns and is really soft and flowy and fits perfectly now. It even has a built-in lining underneath so it isn't clingy. Love LOVE. I will try to take a picture tomorrow but I will probably fail.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
:-) :-) :-) The Gs just called on the phone and had me talk to Hunter so he could tell me what book he just finished reading. It was Ferdinand and the Frog-Jumping Contest (written by yours truly), and he really liked it! My dad said he read it straight through, all absorbed, without ever looking up. (It's pretty long, too...) I told Hunter I miss him because I don't have anyone to talk to about Lucard, and he said, "Aw." I do miss him. He was really fun to play with! He even made me be a lion. :-)
Posted at 9:20:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
I was/am so proud of Duke for liking the Lucard Show. His favorite character is Max. :-) When the David family showed up at the Gs on Saturday, David said something like, "Laura, did you have to inflict that Alexander Lucard show on us?" and I was like, "Yes, I did!" :-) (And he did an impersonation of how there's an endless "Drac-drac-drac-Dracula!" repeating at their house.) Hunter has watched all the episodes twice already! I gave him the DVDs for his birthday about a month ago. Later when we were watching the fireworks Marilou said something about Lucard being a very handsome man. Hahahah. And Hunter said he was Max so Marilou had to be Sophie and David Chris. Ha hahah!! I said something like, "Poor David!" but David defended, "I like Chris!" Awesome!
On Sunday morning before Dean and I had to leave, Hunter and I lay back on my bed batting the breeze about all the cool parts from various episodes. I haven't watched the show in a long time, but everything he brought up, I remembered vividly, and I was like, "Oh yeah, and then such-and-such happened! Leaf of the philemon tree! Turned into a rabbit! Bowl of popcorn! 'Can I borrow your neck?' That was so funny/cool/weird! What did you think about blah blah blah?" It was great.
(Okay, I have never actually heard the expression "bat the breeze" before, but the dictionary says it means "to converse aimlessly; chat," so I just had to use it!)
Wow! Jack Womack is a fellow Intimist!
Posted at 6:55:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
1) Start with yourself. All of my characters are ultimately autobiographical, unlikely as it may seem. Each of us has many parts. Sometimes the parts to which you don't admit (or are in fact unconscious of) are the most useful.
I would've been all over that quote for my thesis (although he hadn't yet said it at the time). This is a really interesting interview. (But don't look at it if you haven't read Random Acts and don't want to get spoilered.)In a nutshell: put yourself as deeply inside the character as you possibly can. I always find first person narration to be the best way to go about doing this although some are able to do it with third person. But consciously be your characters while you are writing them, as ultimately they are you, anyway.
Maybe this is part of why I connect with his writing so much. I finished Random last night. The ending was so good. The final entry took place on July 10, and when I glanced at my watch as I started to read it, it was July 10. I found a copy of the next book in the series (chronologically) on eBay last night and it shipped today! It's Heathern, which I have never read because the library system doesn't carry it. The other one I haven't read is Ambient, which is next-next chronologically, so I will have to find a copy of that too. I want to read/re-read them all in order and I bet they'll make a lot more sense then when I first read them anti-linearly. The language will probably be a lot easier this time, too.
Posted at 5:12:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
I'm feeling back to my rubber-chicken self (as Robert would say) today, even though my beloved irreplaceable wonkyeye-preventing wraparound bendy-armed magic sunglasses SNAPPED again when I was putting them on, and they're only eleven months old! Fortunately, I have (had) two pairs. Unfortunately, it's still a huge bummer because I use both pairs constantly. I hope they still sell the same style (even though this style is prone to snapping...).
[Edit: They do! And mine are still under warranty! And I am wildeyed over the color of this pluot! It's so summer.]
I still don't feel writeful. I made some notes regarding things I want to record about our 4th of July visit to N.C. and saved them as a draft but I can't finish it yet.
Posted at 2:14:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
I've been feeling kind of unsettled and withdrawn and foggy and hungry this week (since back); not sure why, unless it's from re-reading Womack's Random Acts of Senseless Violence. It's such a good book but it sure isn't cheerful. But probably getting the urge to re-read it in the first place has to do with a state of mind that began before I even started.
I know it's silly to not just tell the barista immediately when they've screwed up my drink, but they think they made something I'll love and I don't want to hurt their feelings or be a pain. The other thing is, when I do go to Rocky these days it's not every day but mostly only when I'm especially feeling like wanting a nice comforting warm curl up and spoon it velvety cappuccino. I have an internalized idea of what that's like, from before. And when I'm in that mood, it's when I least want to have to confront someone about anything. I just want to be alone and wrap it around me. That's all. And since this is my anti-linear brain if I want to write about how I feel about Rocky, I will. If you're sick of it, then skip. I want to think about it and I want to record to remember.
I want to record G visits too but sometimes it seems like I can't. I never did write about last 4th of July properly, or the birthday bash either, even though I had every part of it memorized fresh in my brain for a month. I probably don't now. Reticence. Reticence.
I like getting submerged in reading sometimes but it doesn't combo well with articulating. Which one's chicken and which is egg?
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
So anyway, I was sitting at my table at Rocky staring dolefully at my cup yet again, trying to figure out what to do with it since it was completely undrinkable. I couldn't work up the nerve to say anything to the cashier or barista, because the problem isn't that they mis-made what I asked for, but that they don't even allow me the chance to ask. They just think they know what I want, so they cheerfully make it and present it with a flourish, like I'm supposed to be all happy and honored that they have my drink memorized, and then how can I complain, when they were so sweet and so solicitous, even though they have it all wrong it's not at all what I wanted?
Posted at 8:53:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Never in our interactions does the cashier speak out loud what my drink actually is, either to confirm it to me or to call it out to the barista. He/she is all smiles and recognition, surprises me with my spoon, swipes my card, and asks me if I want my receipt. Then I pick up my drink, and instead of a tall dry cappuccino in a for-here cup, it's a grande extra extra extra dry cappuccino in a for-here cup (it even says this on the little sticky-back piece of paper on the side). A grande has two shots of espresso instead of one, so it's twice as strong as what I wanted, and the extra extra extra dry in a grande cup has at least three inches of solid foam sitting right on top of the espresso, with no steamed milk at all. You can't drink the liquid through the wall of foam, they don't mix at all, and the underneath layer is incredibly hot, strong and bitter. I ate a little bit of the foam (it didn't even taste good!) and then had to pour everything else out. Great. Stuff like this is why I avoid SBUX since the regime change.
Anyway, I finally did something about it in a non-passive-aggressive way. I wrote a note to the store manager on one of those feedback forms, then went up to her (I noticed she was there today) and asked her if I could give it to her (I told her I'm not very good at talking, so I'd written it down). I didn't go on and on about the awfulness of the cappuccino in the note; I barely mentioned that. The note was about the (lack of) ordering procedure and how it leads to me getting a drink that the baristas think will make me happy but which makes me very unhappy (I didn't express it like that). If only the cashier had to say the name of my drink (or allow me to say it first), all this could be avoided. Just a simple little, "For-here tall dry cappuccino?" "Yeah, thanks!" Well, it wouldn't guarantee that I'd like my drink, but at least I'd get the right one or could legitimately complain if it was the wrong size or whatever. Anyway, what I wrote was pretty straightforward and nice, so I hope something will come of it.
Well, it was scary but I finally did something about it at Rocky. We'll see if anything actually changes.
Posted at 5:01:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Posted at 1:44:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Yeah, I'm still alive and everything! We got back from North Carolina Sunday evening. It was a good trip! I'll post more soon; I'm just not in a writeful mood (I'm in a readful mood instead). I took some pretty photos of Tango at the little airport we stopped at in Cambridge, Maryland for fuel and lunch on the way back. The sky was nice and cloudy, so the lighting was good. Here's Tango from my side and from Dean's side. (The difference is that there's a door on the passenger side, and a tiny little window that opens so you can scream "Clear!" before starting the engine on the pilot's side.)
Oh, tragic news: the shirt I'm wearing in the photo above (taken at the same time as the Tango photos) is starting to fall apart because I've worn it so much!! It's my most reliable shirt. :-( I got it at Uptown Consignment, natch.
