Heat

I mentioned extraordinarily early spring flowers the other day, yes? Well today the temperature (on my car thermometer, anyway) hit 91. On March 18th. It was odd to drive with the windows down and not feel any lessening of the temperature inside the car. It was odder still to be doing so with a winter coat on the floorboard of the passenger seat, and to know that I'd probably be wearing the coat again within a week.

Chloe and I went back to Carytown--

Oh yes, I never posted that did I? Thursday Chloe and my mom and I used our massage-and-manicure vouchers from Christmas. Now my nails are red and awesome. While waiting for our turns to be rubbed down and painted, Chloe and I went to Ten Thousand Villages and commenced drooling over scarves and such. So today we went back with (on my part, at least) scarf purchases in mind. I dissuaded myself though, and bought a messenger bag and a change purse/wallet that looks like an owl. It is rather adorable.

My mother sang in a concert performance tonight of John Rutter's "Requiem," so we all (except my brother, who was working) went. Relatedly, I have made a mental addition to Dream House Extraordinaire: a singing room. Or a music room, whatever. This doesn't necessarily mean a room to play musical instruments in so much as it means a room with COMPLETELY AWESOME acoustics. I'm such a sucker for them. When I was exploring ruins alone in Scotland I found myself in a domed stone room and I couldn't help but sing. And then (tonight) I remembered the acoustic "echo spots" at Mary Wash and decided that maybe, in addition to the singing room, there should be sweet acoustics hidden all over the house. Yes. Yes, there should.

I have forgotten what else I meant to write, as usual, and also as usual I don't really feel like uploading pictures. (Don't be too disappointed, dearies--just cell phone pictures of things I bought and considered buying at the store.)

It's nearly 1 am again, so goodnight.

Happy independence day.

This, the sixth day of March, marks one year from the day that we hugged and then said goodbye. I am not sure how I feel about this. It varies.


It was suggested by my grown-and-married friend Lael that I do something to celebrate this day--something that I can do because I'm single. I couldn't really think of anything other than random hookups, and I don't really do random hookups. (Incidentally, she did suggest going to pick up some random guy at a bar. I don't even go to bars, much less pick up strange men. I think I was in a bar once in college, and my five-year reunion was at a bar, but I'm not sure that counts.)

So I've decided that I will celebrate/mark this day by enjoying it and feeling good about myself. Possibly this will involve taking myself to a nice restaurant. I'm sort of in the mood for Italian ice, but I'm not sure we have a good Italian ice place in Richmond. Anyway, hopefully I'll figure something out. However! Even if I don't go eat nice food, I am set on enjoying March sixth and feeling good about myself. I have decided that I will wear my favorite underwear, which, in case you were wondering, are not that interesting except that they have stars. I planned to wear my favorite skirt as well, but then I realized that I don't have one. It was going to be a day of favorite clothes until I realized that I don't have favorite clothes, except for the stars thing. So. Yes.


Tonight, as it was/is after midnight and so I am obligated to enjoy today and feel good about me (darn) I ate a Hershey's special dark chocolate bar with Lael and worked on my dream home description* and The List (which I have made because people keep telling me to, though I can't ever remember what's on it), then came home and finished the last few sips of somebody's sweet white wine and ran out the door with Miley. Luke had been texting, but texting ruins my night vision and I haven't walk-talked for a long time, so I called him and we talked for 25 minutes or so, until I got home. I tried to find the rest of the wine, but I suspect that the bottle may have been finished. I disapprove of this. I guess I might just have to go get another bottle of whatever it was. And now I am writing this. Also, I am making a profile on one of those crappy free dating sites because a) I am bored and b) it has occurred to me lately that I have no idea what kind of people are in this town, because I never talk to anyone. I don't want to find some random person to date online, but I would like to look at a cross-section of the community. And apparently you can only look at four profiles before having to make your own. Lame. So there that is. Someday I should figure out how many profiles I have created and abandoned on various websites. Quite a few. It would be interesting to do a study and figure out how much server space is wasted by such ghost profiles. I mean, on the one hand, it's sort of nice that the blog I made in seventh grade is still there, and I can go look at it even if I've long since forgotten the password and lost the attached email account--but on the other hand, collectively, these things are a huge waste of resources. I wonder at what point it will become a big enough issue that companies will start clearing them out. Think how much money could be saved, and how much space could be freed up! Man.

























*New additions: pool room and pool room; laundry chute; dumbwaiter (strong enough to hold people); possible secret passages/tunnels; pulley-operated message system to the tree house; cupola and/or tower(s); angry room (which I've described before but don't feel like describing now, esp since it makes me sound even more insane than usual), and a "making cool shit" room.

Daydreaming, and also the relatively near cosmos.

Kelly just posted this on my facebook wall, which prompted yet another (visibly escalating) brainstorming/daydreaming session about the greatest, most awesome, most utterly childish and wonderful house ever, which was recorded thus in my comments on her post:

-Dibs. I wish they'd shown more of the house though than the slide and the bookshelves. I mean those are awesome things. I'm just saying. Five (out of nine) slide pictures seems a little excessive.

-My slide would have more colors.


And maybe a water feature.

-Facebook just reloaded in the middle of the best house description ever. I will kill it.

Now I have to retype the whole thing! Please stand by.

-...Also, the floor of the "courtyard" would be a trampoline. And there would be a rooftop garden. And a fireman's pole. And a room made entirely of mattresses. And the hallway of bookcases (ZOMG) would include a reading nook. And windows all along one wall. Also, there would be a double (treble?) wrap-around porch. And there would be a shower-bathroom like the one at my cousin's house, where the whole bathroom is also a shower. And there would be a hot tub someplace. Probably in a corner of the rooftop garden. Also, hammocks aplenty. Hammocks for all! All the times! Different types of hammocks, even, with different colors and some with tassels. Possibly the floor(s?) would be painted with the yellow brick road. That is undecided. Also there should be a bathroom with enough plants in it that when you shower it is like showering outdoors in a jungle. Possibly this could be accomplished by the installation of a shower amidst the greenery of the rooftop garden, but clearly that would be seasonal. Additionally, there could be a swinging rope bridge going from one of the porches across the yard into the most epic fabulous tree house of all time ever. I would consider the installation of a moat, only probably not crocodile-infested. Duck-infested, maybe.

[end quotes.]

It's fun to get carried away with absurd dream-home dreams. Don't judge me.



On another note, it seems that they have found (or believe that they may have found) another planet in our solar system. Once you get that far out, of course, you're using the term "solar system" fairly loosely. It is in our solar system because it orbits our sun. From a long, long, long way away. Anyway, apparently rumors of this planet have been circulating for some time. There was evidence that was debunked (irregularities in Neptune's orbit), and now there is more possible evidence that is being analyzed. So we'll see. What gets me though is that this "ninth" planet is going to be called Tyche if, indeed, it exists. I know I'm being unreasonable, but I want them to call it Pluto.

There are, at the very least, three reasons that that is a stupid idea. I know this. You do not have to argue the point.

Here is the dictionary.com article on the name "Tyche," and (ish) on the planet. The comments are especially good. I particularly liked "is it safe for astronauts to go there?" The state of our educational system... it's just not very good. In case anyone is unclear about the distances of things in our solar system, here is some information for you. Light travels at approximately 186,282 miles per second. It takes the light from the sun eight minutes to reach the surface of the earth. By contrast, it takes the light of the sun between four and seven hours to reach Pluto, depending on its location in its orbit. Tyche, if such a planet exists, would be significantly further still from the sun even than Pluto. Considering that our astronauts have never even been to Mars, the question of whether they would be safe on Tyche is a moot point. And anyway, the answer is no. Tyche is/would be a gas giant with roughly 4x the mass of Jupiter. Any astronauts would be crushed rather quickly.

For reference, here is the NASA article on Tyche.