Sentimental Seadragon

hoT DaY In ThE CiTy

On a day so hot that there was a severe weather advisory (yesterday), J and I decided it would be the perfect time to traipse around downtown and run a few errands.

Our first stop was to Pearle Vision for an eye exam and a contact lens refill for me. I knew the prescription from the cranky optometrist at Sears Optimal in Baltimore (Security Blvd) wasn't quite right, and today's optometrist agreed with me. But then I blew her mind by one of my eyes completely rejecting a contact which she was sure was the same in every way to the one I'd come in wearing except instead of calling it Biomedics (what they call it through 1-800-CONTACTS) they're called something else. The prescription for my right eye hadn't changed, so the only difference was the brand name on the box, but yet looking through the contact was an experience I'd never had before. Everything had sort of a glowy drop-shadow effect which bounced around whenever I blinked my eye. It was kind of cool, but also kind of disorienting, so I ended up having to switch brands and now I feel like I just applied an unsharp mask to the world.

For lunch we stopped at Qdoba, which is suspiciously like a Chipotle, but doesn't actually seem to be related. And they have more variety - I got a poblano pesto burrito which was only ok, but J's mole sauce burrito was much more interesting.

After lunch we walked into the shiny world of Verizon Wireless, and got a family share plan and two new phones. I had been due for a new-every-two phone for over a year, and J got his phone free since we were getting my phone. Originally, I was going to take the cheap free phone and let him pick out whatever fancy-schmancy phone he wanted, but in the end, all he wanted was a phone-phone (you know, one that makes calls and that's it) and so did I, but I got swayed by the 1.3 MP cameras on the more expensive phones. Truthfully, I am not really interested in a camera phone since there's no way it could ever compete with my camera and I have my camera with me almost all the time, but hey if it's going to have a camera on it, I'd rather have a 1.3 MP camera than a 300K one, right? So I ended up with the fancy-schmancy phone with V CAST and all that other stuff that I'm never going to use because you have to pay for it and I am too cheap to even pay to upgrade from the horrible default ring tones. But it's very a cute phone.

    

I mean, I'm a little sorry to part with my old phone because it was my first cell phone, but it's three years old and the battery hardly lasts a whole day and now it doesn't even ring any more (occasionally it rings just at the last second, when it's too late to find the phone before it goes to voice mail).

And then...

We went to Trader Joe's.

Now I've been to Trader Joe's before, but for some reason I was just enamored with this one. Could it be that I'd just been fitted with new contact lenses moments before and everything just looked better? Or maybe I was just happy to be out. (Seriously, sitting at home all the time is depressing. Who knew.)

Anyway, I had talked J into a trip to Trader Joe's on the premise that we needed food in general, but really my secret goal was to pick up some of the deeeelectable ginger ice cream I had at ViSuaLLy MiNDeD's house this past week. It's got real ginger pieces in it, yet it's not as piercing as you might expect. And interestingly enough, it's really good when paired with coffee ice cream, so I picked up a pint of that as well.

Today I'm headed outside again and it seems just as hot as yesterday, but it will be fun because I'm meeting up with one of my college roommates. Coincidentally, her sister is moving in about four blocks away from me. Given the number of people I know who live here, I'm starting to think that maybe Philly (and not NYC, as I previously thought) is the center of the universe... my universe anyway. :) And that's ok, because so far I'm really liking it here!

aRe ThoSe PartiCulaTes In mY Air?

On the street yesterday, the air around me was suddenly warm and heavy and filled with soot-like particles. As I choked on the air, I looked up to see what could have possibly brought about this change to what was a hot day, but yet a hot day with breathable air.

Ah yes, a city bus. As diesel as it wants to be.

Though, if one bus is the equivalent of 40 cars, I'd hate to think of what it would be like to be standing there, trying to breathe, when all those cars went by...

Dr. J

Our trip to Baltimore this week was full of meetings, dinners, and ... J's successful dissertation defense!

His two-hour defense went very well, and his advisor was all smiles and praises afterwards. J had been so nervous, in spite of being extremely well-prepared and having a well-crafted presentation ready. Even after the defense I could see that it took a while for the tension to dissipate, and it wasn't until much later in the evening that he began to look genuinely happy. But then he was happy - legitimately pleased with himself, with the work he did, thinking back over the past two years of struggling to get his proposal accepted and then running a series of experiments that weren't working out, and running into technical problems with the experiments he really wanted to run, and eventually he turned the whole thing into a very cool project.

I have to say that I'm really, really proud of him.

SpARe chAngE

I made $50 yesterday on a photo sale!

I am participating in a start-up stock agency that is still invite only and the owner is currently running photo challenges in order to buy images to put on the site and to smooth out any kinks in the programming. The latest challenge was "currency", so I pulled out my spare change (it's all I have these days anyway), my camera, and tripod, and started shooting, and I turned that $23.40 into $50. :)

(See my image here.)

Before uploading my photos, I had asked jkirlin for his opinion on whether to submit a color image or a monochrome blue-toned version. He told me that he thought that even though U.S. money is pretty bland that the color was still important, and given that my photo won the challenge, his advice seems to have been good. But I'm still curious - what do you the rest of you think of the monochrome version of that photo?

CaT PiCtUres

After seven weeks (!) at my parents' house, our cats are back home with us.

I had prepared myself for the cats to be terrified of their new surroundings and to completely ignore us. As much as we missed them, I wasn't sure that they would have missed us quite as much.

But I was thrilled to find out that I was wrong. They were so happy to be here, were perfectly at ease, and they seemed to miss us as much as we had missed them.

For the first couple of nights, we slept on the futon in the office while giving my parents the bed, and the cats spent the nights in the room with us, alternately playing with each other, cuddling with me (Tako), or just meowing loudly either to get our attention or each other's. At one point I woke up to see Tako sitting on J's desk, head pointed up to the ceiling, wailing. I have no idea what he wanted, but if it was to wake us up, it worked. So that wasn't so much fun.

But since then they've calmed down and have made themselves quite at home.

Tako still wakes me up in the morning by patting my face with his paw, licking me, and settling in for a cuddle if I don't seem to be getting up. And he loooooooves this window in the office.

     

Koji still chases his tail in circles on the bathroom mat and stretches out on my desk to sleep near me while I work. And for some reason, most pictures I take of him has him with his head upside down. He is not bound by gravity, that one.

     

HoT ChinEse FooD

Yesterday we ordered lunch specials from Jade Garden, but I didn't pick up the food until after I'd run to the grocery store across the street. By the time I went to pick up my food, the guy behind the counter was concerned and said he was just about to call me. He said "Chinese food is best when it's hot."

And then, as if he was imparting age old wisdom, he repeated solemnly, "That's a little tip. It's best when it's hot."

Now you too know the secret of good Chinese food.

BroTheRly LoVe

Talk about brotherly love - this city is so friendly! Especially online.

I was delighted to get comments on my very first post from some of the Philly bloggers I had been reading since before I moved here.

And last night I met up with Marisa from Apartment 2024. (She's as sweet and nice in person as she seems on her blog, totally welcoming, a great source of info about Philadelphia, and a great writer too, so be sure to check out her blog if you haven't already.)

And today one of my Flickr contacts suggested meeting up for a group photoshoot sometime.

Last night Marisa asked me how my introduction to Philly has been, and it occurred to me what a contrast this is to someone who moves to a new city alone and has to figure out ways to meet people. I have a constant companion in J, friends who already live here, a job lined up, another friend (jcm) coming to work at the same place, a happy hour to go to next week, a work party next week should I choose to attend it, etc. And then the online contacts I have are such a bonus. In fact, I might almost be too busy, if that's possible. (You know, I still have that dissertation thingy.)

Anyway, I'm headed back to Baltimore this weekend for J's defense on Tuesday. (!!) Gotta plan a dinner for that, meet with my advisors, work... I think it's going to be a busy week, so don't be surprised if my recent bout of blogging subsides for a little bit.

aN InConveniEnT TruTH, LiVe wiTh Al GoRe

Still no kitty pictures because I have other stories to tell right now...

We just got back from seeing An Inconvenient Truth at the Ritz East, and yes I know that everyone and their mother has already seen it, but let me ask you, how many of you had Al Gore come to your theater and answer your questions for half an hour after the movie?

Well, even if Al Gore isn't speaking at your local theater, if you haven't already seen it, you really must. It is really fantastic and informative and moving and depressing and hopeful. (And it was sort of ironic that we saw the movie on one of the hottest days of the year.)

Much of the movie was really depressing and scary. But I think that one of the most hopeful things I took away from the movie was that America contributes over 30% of the CO2 to the atmosphere, which on the face of it is just alarming, but that means that if we do something about it we can reduce a huge chunk of the problem. That's enormous power, and if America takes action, imagine the impact that would have on the rest of the world.

When I got home, I checked out climatecrisis.net, mainly because I wanted to see whether I could still use my dishwasher in good conscience. The advice is to use it only when there’s a full load and to use the energy-saving setting, and I think I can manage that. (Actually, the website lists 6 pages of things you can do and I was happy to see that we already do several of them.)

After the movie we walked around and eventually ended up down at 15th and South Street where we decided to stop at Pico de Gallo for dinner. I had an average chile rellano burrito*, but J had the coolest and yummiest burrito ever - shredded pork and fried plantains (all of it IN the burrito). (I know, I was skeptical too, but it was really quite good.)

And then, noticing the wind picking up outside, we had them box up the remainder of my meal, booked it out of the restaurant, and ran the 15 blocks home, only to get soaked by the rain during the last few blocks.

* Update 7/19/06: That average burrito turned out to be really, really good when heated up for lunch.

ThE LiGhT At tHe EnD Of tHe LoNGeSt TunnEL in ThE WorLd

I know I promised you kitty pictures today, but those will have to wait until tomorrow. The pictures are still on my memory card in the camera, and believe it or not, they're going to stay there while I spend my time on things like my dissertation.

And incidentally, my dissertation is actually going well. I haven't felt this way in months and it is such a relief. Part of me wants to explain everything here, as sort of a cathartic release, but I also don't really want to archive it all here on the internet. The short story is that personal doubt is surprisingly crippling and paralyzing, and realizing that maybe I'm not the worst researcher (and by extension, person) in the world is quite affirming and motivating.

And I mean, really realizing it. Myself. Not hearing it from other people (like J, who has been working himself into convulsions trying to tell me this), but starting to believe it myself. I can't believe how the world has changed for me in the past couple of weeks, but I'm already much happier with myself, and lo and behold, I'm able to write.

I'm still dreadfully behind, and I still can't sleep more than six hours without waking up in a near panic about the unfinished state of my dissertation. But, I'm happy to say that I am feeling much more like myself. And I even caught myself realizing the other day that I am actually going to finish this dissertation. It was a scary thought, not because I'm going to be finished, but because apparently I actually stopped believing it. But I do believe it, I can see that the end is in sight, and things are finally starting to look up. :)

FiVe MiLe WaLK

My parents came down this weekend to return our cats, bring the wedding gifts (yay, new dishes!), and of course, to visit! My dad hasn't been here since he went to college here (1962-1967) (or at least, he hasn't been here recently), so it was fun to let him lead us around to his old dorm and his old frat house.

When we started walking, it was overcast and we thought it might rain. Five and a quarter miles later, the sun was out full blast and all we could think about was finding food and water. We walked over the South Street Bridge, wandered around Penn, walked back over the Walnut Street Bridge, headed up towards the Art Museum (in the direction, but thankfully not all the way, to the boat house where my dad used to row when he was in college), and then walked all the way back down to South Street where we finally collapsed for lunch at Ants Pants Cafe. (Very yummy and creative breakfast dishes.)

    

After lunch, no one wanted to walk any more so we went back to the apartment and started looking through the wedding photos that ViSuaLLy MiNDeD, Chiaroscuro, and Mike had taken. All five DVDs. Eventually we are going to pull out some pictures for an album, but what a huge task that is going to be. I'm starting to think maybe we should have hired bad photographers, because then we'd just pick the best ones and be done with it. But what you do when they're all good?! And it's true, they are all really good. I really hope they had as much fun taking pictures as they say they did, because we have the best wedding pictures ever.

Tomorrow... pictures of the kitties. (You didn't think my new blog would be cat free, did you?)