It Never Fails ...

I really will do anything so that I can procrastinate as long as possible from doing work. In this case, it's Statistics homework which I really didn't like the first time as an undergrad.

You may have noticed my sudden rash of new posts. If you came to my apartment, you would see that I have about half my 12+ boxes of books unpacked and stuff strewn about while I figure out where to put everything.

And still I have homework waiting for me ...

Below is a picture of the beautiful Toffe Crunch Caramel Cheesecake I baked from scratch last week. It was my first one and the people at work scarfed it up in a few hours, so I can safely assume it was good.

This is a picture of me driving to Virginia wearing my dog walking hat. All I can say is, I sweated while moving 2 boxers and 2 cats over 1000 miles in the middle of summer during the heat wave to hit North America. I really didn't care what I looked like.

I donated my waist length hair to Locks of Love which makes wigs for kids with cancer. Here's the new do which still feels too short. But my hair grows quickly, and in a few months I should be able to put it up nicely while in uniform.

I'm finally living somewhere that plays Car Talk, Whad'ya Know, This American Life and Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me on the weekends. Greatness.

Man Push Cart

On meetup.com, I joined a Film Club group that meets at a local independent movie theater to watch pre-run movies and join in on a discussion afterwards with a film critic.

*Spoilers*

This past Sunday, I met up with some folks and watched Man Push Cart. It's a story of a Pakistani immigrant who works as a breakfast cart vendor in Manhattan and tries to survive in the big city while morning the death of his wife. Ahmed gets different opportunities to break out of the isolation and emotional cold he lives in, but somehow, things never work out.

I'm not one of those people who has to have a happy ending in a movie. I loved the ending to the the director's cut of the Butterfly Effect. It was sad but stayed true to the spirit of the movie. However, Man Push Cart has no redeeming qualities, no hope and no resolution for Ahmed. It felt more to me like a slice of life film which can be a meandering, slow film with little plot since many times the lack of action or plot movement is the point of a day in the life. But Ahmed's story is just plain painful without every explaining or letting the audience know enough to join in on the pain and loneliness. Instead, we are subjected to his misery without ever having the chance to understand how he got to that point in his life and share his emotions. We just get beaten over the head with it.

If two plot points were revealed, I would have happily joined Ahmed in his journey. But, unfortunately, these plot points were not revealed, and so I was left feeling sad, depressed, unsettled, confused and wanting more information.

** out of *****

Observations from Northern Virginia

Today marks my 1 month anniversary checking into my new unit in DC. Trekking back and forth to work has afforded me the opportunity to notice some differences between DC and New Orleans.

Mainly, people at work tell me about the ghetto that I have to drive through to get to our building. The area is so terrible, people break into the cars, etc. However, I've noticed that the small yards in front of the tongues have nicely trimmed bushes and vegetation, and some even have blooming flowers. There is no garbage strewn about willy-nilly, and people's garbage cans are nicely upright and actually contain garbage with the lids securely fastened. Some laundry hangs from the clothesline, but there isn't any random junk stored outside. All in all, if this is a "bad neighborhood" in DC, then at least they are courteous and tidy neighbors unlike the "bad neighborhoods" in New Orleans.

Drivers in Northern Virginia like to go, on average, 5 to 10 miles below the speed limit. This wouldn't be such a driving travesty if these slow drivers stayed to the right. But no. The Slow Drivers of Northern Virginia like to foster this law-abiding speed amongst us all, and like to drive 10 miles below the speed limit in all lanes of traffic, including rush hour.

Conversely, on the weekends, people will drive at a minimum of 80 mph on the highway when there is no traffic. Perhaps they feel that since people can actually drive on the highway instead of crawling during rush hour, they have to get there as fast as possible to make up for the hours spent on the road during the week.

So if you drive in Northern Virginia, go about 50 or 80. But don't drive in between. They'll run you over.

Houma, LA to Alexandria, VA via Jacksonville, FL, Orlando, FL and Santee, SC.

I finally made it to the Washington DC area late last week with two boxers (Maggie and Trouble), two cats (Beaumont and Ballard), and one 4' x 8' U-Haul trailer in tow. The following is a list of things I learned on the one-way 1600 mile trip.

1. If you think you might need the 5' x 8' trailer, get it. Don't look at it and say, "There is no way I'm going to fill that, give me the smaller one" like I did. Mine was freaking packed and I even threw out some stuff mid-trip in the La Quinta dumpster midway in Jacksonville, FL. La Quinta's natiowide accept dogs in their hotels. And La Quinta is spanish for a lot of things.

2. Stopping every two hours to pee is mandatory when drinking my favorite beverage: Arizona Green Ice Tea. Unfortunately, this doesn't match up with the gas fill up I needed every 2-1/2 hours.

3. I suck at backing up a trailer. Enough said.

4. My dog Trouble does not like other dogs. In fact, I have a very nice skidded knee from wiping out in the concrete while the 75 lb monster literally hopped around on hind legs trying to say "hi" to an Alaskan Husky. It's nicely scabbed over by the way.

5. I've reduced the time I can spend around my parents from 2-1/2 days to 1-1/2 days (this visit) to probably about six hours for the next one. I've done lots of prayer and meditation on this, worked steps and looked at my part. Sometimes, the best thing I can do is not put myself in harm's way and around toxic people. The upshoot from this visit was that I got very punchy and hysterically laughed (not in a rip roaring good way. More like an Airplane! slap me across the face way) at not funny things in the La Quinta parking lot when my sister finally caught up with me. This was while I realized just how much crap I lugged with me from Harvey and tossed some.

6. Eating 1 lb of cherries on a road trip is a very bad idea.

7. I really really did not want to leave Louisiana. I blubbered like a big baby for five minutes when making my going away speech at work in Houma, cried at Sinai, my last regular meeting in New Orleans, and avoided doing any packing or sorting until the last possible minute. I guess living in New Orleans for 7 years allowed me to put down some roots which I had avoided my first four years sober. I hate saying goodbye, I'm horrible about staying in contact with people, and I guess HP wants me to learn how to do both since he gave me the opportunity to move out of the area despite my wanting to get transferred from Houma back to New Orleans. Well, HP and the Coast Guard assignment officer anyway.

8. Sometimes Mapquest's directions are not accurate.

9. When a billboard says, "over 1200 rooms and 20 restaurants available," this means that one hotel will allow dogs. I had to smuggle in the cats, but they didn't do any damage.

10. Asking the Jefferson Parish Water Department on Thursday to turn off your water on Monday means they will turn it off on Friday morning at 0600. I unfortunately discovered this when I took my morning pee. At least I didn't get naked and in the shower first. But there is no way I will be getting back my deposit since I couldn't do any cleaning other than vacuuming. Oops.

11. Visiting my sister and getting her head cold as soon as I got into Virginia really really sucks. I did nothing but sleep, drink tea, and walk the dogs every four hours for a week. I very stupidly went into work anyway to get settled and start the process for the DC housing money versus Houma, LA (which is significantly more money) to kick in, and I apologize to anyone I passed sickness and germs too. This was also when I wiped out on the concrete with Trouble and Maggie.

12. Hmmm. I think that's it. Oh yeah, I had to buy a laptop since the computer wrapped up in a carpet and stowed (very securely I thought) in the trailer doesn't work now. I will get all my work done from MBA 530. Really.

13. Monk and Psych are the best things on TV in the summer. When the heck is Battlestar Galactica on again?!?

14. I have no idea who Dane Cook is, but I watched all episodes of his Tourgasm, and he is freaking hilarious. And cute.

Okay, my list degenerated to just ramblings. Oh well. I'm here, I'm connected, and I'm awake. I'm keeping my expectations very simple right now.

Jennifer