Great Caesar's Ghost!

Wednesday night Mike and I went to the Shakespeare Theatre Company's production of Julius Caesar.

Caesar is a Shakespeare play that I'd never seen or even read before. It was pretty good! The production wasn't that impressive. It was what I think of as traditional American-style Shakespeare, with guys all wrapped up in white sheets and leather sandals. And the fighting was bad -- it was like modern dance interpretive fighting.

But there was a stand-out performance by the actor playing Antony. He was fantastic. You don't think of Antony as the comic relief, but he injected some humor into the role while still maintaining himself as a serious military man. And I enjoyed the actual play. It's hard going into Shakespeare when you don't know the play, but this one really wrapped me up and kept me intrigued throughout the evening.

Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra are playing throughout the spring at Harman Center for the Arts Sidney Harman Hall. (The theatre is across the street from the Gallery Place/Chinatown Metro stop.) The Shakespeare Theatre Company's free Shakespeare in the Park production is Hamlet.

No vaccinations for you!

I had all my childhood immunization records in hand and I cleared my afternoon schedule so I could sit and relax with my jacked up arm. But I was denied my vaccinations yesterday. Because of my gluten-free necessity I have to get a note from "my regular doctor" saying that it's okay for me to be vaccinated.

Let me tell you how many ways this sucks.

I don't have a regular doctor. We've lived in 4 different cities in 4 years. When did I have time to get a regular doctor? I can't go to one of the doctors Mike's employer uses. They have to have my note from an outside doctor.

Vaccinations don't even have gluten in them. I mentioned gluten on the questionnaire they gave me because there's a chance it will be in the malaria pills I'll eventually have to take. I was hoping the nurse would know which pills were gluten-free.

But it's not a question of ingredients to Mike's employer. It's a question of liability. In no way can it be their fault if I have a bad reaction to anything they give me. On one hand, I can understand that. But if this was going to be an issue, I think it should have been brought up during my medical clearance exams (back in November). I mentioned this to the nurse at the immunization clinic, and she said medical clearances are a different department. But they're both medical and they both affect me getting overseas. They are different departments.

So now I'm trying to get a letter. The nurse printed out a list of the immunizations I need (just about everything you can think of; she seemed incredulous that I hadn't had any vaccinations in the last 10 years). I took it to a pharmacist and the only information she could give me was the names of the manufacturers of the malaria pills, so I can call them myself. Not the phone numbers. Just the names for me to look up online myself. (Yeah, she said that. And I was too annoyed to ask, "So every time you need to call Glasko you have to do a Google search first?" I just wanted to get out of there and go home.)

Then I called the doctor in San Francisco who did my medical clearance exam. A receptionist wrote down the long list of vaccines and the 3 different malaria pill options and said she'd talk to the doctor. She remembered me from the 10 visits or so I had to make within one month, so hopefully the doctor will too and will be sympathetic and write this letter for me. The letter has to be specific. It has to list every vaccine and pill and say whether or not I can have it.

But at the end of the day, she's not "my regular doctor." I kept explaining the situation to the nurse at the immunization clinic and she laid a bunch of bologna out about my regular doctor knows what's best for me and it's in my best interest to get the letter written from my doctor. But at the end of the day, all the bureaucracy cares about is that I get any doctor's signature outside of their system so that they're not liable. The doctor's signature is meaningless if I'm the one who's done all the research because I've yet to find a doctor or pharmacist who even knows what celiac's disease is. And you know what? If I have a bad reaction to the vaccines, it's not going to be from gluten.

Confidence Man 2

On Sunday Mike and I went out to hike Old Rag, a small mountain, but a toughy. We did the circuit route, starting with the Ridge Trail rock scramble up to the summit. Mike's done the hike twice without me and thought that the rocks would build up my wilderness confidence. I have to admit, I was freaked out in a couple places. You can't see all the footholds and have to just put your foot down and hope it sticks to something. I didn't have the arm strength to pull myself out of every crevice. At one point boy scouts gave me a boost from behind. (Thank you, nice boy scouts!) Eventually you get to a beautiful vista, only to notice that there's yet another pile of rocks in your path. You're not at the top yet. (That happens at least 3 times.) But eventually I got to the top. Mike was proud of me and I was glad I did it.

The trail was crowded and there were lots of back ups along the rocks. We decided to take the easier path back down toward the fire road rather than climb down through the rocks. It was kind of a long and boring walk though, after the trek up.

Two days later and I'm still a bit sore, but in a good way.

Old Rag is less than 2 hours from D.C., in the northeast part of Shenandoah National Park. The entrance fee is $8/person and you get a permit good throughout the park for 7 days .The circuit route we did is 8.8 miles, not including the walk from the parking lot to the trail head. It's challenging. You need a small pack (for squeezing through narrow passes), but lots of water and snacks. Long pants are good for protection from the rocks. You can do an out-and-back route of the fire roads if you prefer to skip the rock scrambling.

More pictures at flickr.

("Confidence Man 2" is a part Tobias auditions for on Arrested Development.)

Programming Note: This afternoon I'm getting my Burundi vaccinations! Stay tuned for news on how that goes. There's bureaucracy involved, so I'm sure it will go smoothly.

Rationing the Kleenex

I've been in Rhode Island for a week and now I'm home and I have a crappy cold. The one advantage to being sick while you travel is that if you cough and sniffle enough, no one will sit next to you on the train. Until it gets so crowded that some poor person has no choice but to sit next to the sniffling, coughing mess. (I tried my best not to cough directly on anyone.) Mike, sweetheart that he is, ran out to CVS this morning the moment he saw me take the last Kleenex from the box.

Rhode Island is one of those places, especially the more rural parts I inhabit, where cell phones and internets don't work reliably. Sort of like Burundi I guess. I ran past cows, who stopped munching to look up and moo at me. I ran to the beach. It was great to be away from the city.

Goth-n-Roll High School Forever

Last night I saw a show I've been wanting to see for, oh, 16 years I guess. Ninth or tenth grade, that neck of the woods. The Cure. It was awesome. They rocked solid for three hours. They played a lot of newer stuff that I'm not as familiar with but they also reached far back into their discography for all the old crowd favorites. They freakin' finished with "Killing an Arab"!

I felt very much the way I felt when I finally saw Morrissey a few years ago. The voice and the lyrics and the music and the persona that I've been absorbing since I was an impressionable youth is standing right in front of me. And it's not a disappointment. Robert Smith, the Original Adorable Goth, jumped around in what looked like his pajamas and made the fans happy. We noticed that he can't really sing and play guitar at the same time. For the most part he does one or the other, and when he plays guitar he's really concentrating hard. (That explains why a lot of songs are strong guitar, then singing, then strong guitar, then singing again.)

I was actually surprised by how great they sound live. Their albums seem to have a lot of production and rather than replicate the album sounds onstage they've created powerful live versions of their songs. And the have great lights and cool graphic elements. (Mike thinks some of the images are the same from when he saw The Cure in highs school. And why should they change? If the spider man graphics are a crowd-pleaser, keep 'em.) When you think about it, they've been touring for a long time so they've had a lot of practice and know how to rock the audience.

They did four encores. That's right, four. It was the first night of their U.S. tour and I think they were experimenting with the lineup and encores and grand finales. We got to see them all. I kept toying with the idea of leaving because it was getting late and we have a busy day today but I was resolved to stick it out until my favorite song, "Boys Don't Cry." Finally, I think in the middle of the third encore, they did it. I could go home the happiest little goth. I'm glad we stuck it out to the end though, because they kept reaching back with "Lovecats," "10:15 Saturday Night," and "Jumping Someone Else's Train."

Even if you're just a casual fan, you should consider checking out the show when it comes to your town. Some songs I never liked that much on the albums had a totally different sound on stage. And the lights and graphics really enhanced the vibe. We saw them at the Patriot Center at GMU which was a pretty good venue. Noesebleed seats, but with a clear view of the stage and small enough so that Robert Smith was bigger than a speck. (Thank goodness for his big hair.)

Today I'm tired, but happy. I can't wait for Mike to wake up so I can blast some Cure tunes.

I Sewed!

(Also posted at Sew Retro)

I've finally gotten around to not just finishing something, but taking pictures of it too. I bought this pattern from Lanetz Living a few months ago.

The waistband is supposed to be made from elasticized grosgrain ribbon, according to the instructions. But I couldn't find any of that (I'd never heard of it before!) so improvised with elasticized belting. It's not too stretchy, but stretchy enough. It's sort of stretched out and settled on my hips now.

I love the pockets and the piecework. This would be fun to try with stripes and create chevrons.

I cut out and sewed the longer version, thinking the short one would be way too short for work. But after the elastic settled on my hips the longer one was way too long. I chopped it off to the shorter length and did a narrow hem so it's now the perfect knee length.

I made this as a wearable muslin with a cotton from Repro Depot. I'd like to make it again with some tamer, conservative, office-wear fabrics. I may adjust the waist to using a zipper instead of the elastic though. Finding that elastic is difficult.



(Click on photos to enlarge them or see them on my flickr page.)

I Achieve Housekeeping. And Toilet Paper.

We're having a gathering of folks on Saturday night which means we have to clean the house (or, rather, the apartment). We are lazy house cleaners. It seems like there's always something better to do. (We can't wait to get to Burundi, where we'll have domestic help!) On Monday I had to start battle with the cat fur. I put on my Achiever t-shirt and vacuumed the hell out of the wall-to-wall carpeting. And I did the same think yesterday. Today I'll dust and clean the bathroom so that on Saturday I just need to give everything a brief once-over.

I've also been surprisingly organized about food and drink for this event. We actually wrote down a menu and from that I made two different shopping lists--one for perishables and one for non-perishables.

You know what? This post is kind of bland. What I really want to say is that I hate toilet paper commercials. They are so stupid, trying to turn your brand of toilet paper into some sort of lifestyle choice. Bears going to the bathroom are not cute. They're just bears going to the bathroom. And I just saw a new commercial that I thought might be for hair care products, moisturizer, or perhaps the stylishness of cotton. Nope, toilet paper. It's toilet paper! I also believe that feminine sanitary product commercials are stupid. We don't need commercials for these products. Choosing one tampon over another doesn't make you cool and a particular toilet paper doesn't make you a better mother.

Hiking and drinking wine!

Yesterday we headed to Maryland for sugarloaves... Sugarloaf Mountain and the vineyard next door. Sugarloaf is a small mountain about 40 minutes from D.C. You'd think that on such a sunny, but not too hot, day, the trails would have been crowded. No so. We were surprised at how few people there were. We hiked the blue blazed trail around to the White Rocks (which is the view in the photo). There are some hills and the trail is a little over five miles long. It was a very pleasant hike. In summer it's mostly shaded by trees. There are lots of bugs and critters and birds. I wore my new hiking boots (and new hiking socks and new hiking shorts) to start breaking them in, in preparation for our Kilimanjaro trek.

After our hike we traded our boots for flip-flops and stopped at the Sugarloaf Mountain Vineyard. They have tastings with cheese plate snacks. We tasted all six wines and had some delicious cheese from a local goat farm. We ended up buying two bottles of wine and they wrapped up the rest of our goat cheese to bring home. It was a great way to end our excursion.

Sugarloaf Mountain and the vineyard are just off of I-270 at the Hyattstown exit. The mountain is on private property and there's no admission fee. Tastings at the vineyard are between $2 and $4 and cheese prices vary.

More mountain pics at flickr.

Reading vs. Television

I joined the Goodreads group 50 Books in 2008 thinking it would be fun to keep track of the books I read this year. I have to admit that having a list has made me put aside some tv and computer time and read instead. But I look at my list with a measly 7 or so books on it and other people's, some who have already surpassed 50 books this year and I wonder where they find the time and what they're reading. Sure, if there were 50 books in the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series I'd be able to read them all in one year. But I'm reading a lot about Africa this year and some of those books are long and dense.

At some point I have to believe my brain is better off watching Discovery Channel or Animal Planet than reading Shopaholic. And I'm considered somewhat of a bookish person. (Mike's probably going to read this so I'll admit here that I often opt for Seinfeld or Family Guy reruns over books, too. But I like to think that since some of my reading is so heavy my brain needs the vacation.)

Anyway, here's my sad little list. I have a long mental to-read list and with all the train and airplane rides I have coming up this year I hope to knock quite a few more off that to-read list.



Reading books should probably be the last thing I worry about this year, what with all the other stuff we have coming up. (I have to get vaccinations soon!!) 99% of our book collection is in storage, waiting to be reunited with us in Burundi, and I miss my books. Oh yes, we're taking the whole collection with us. (Anyone who's been to our home know we have an insane amount of books. More than just about anyone we know our age.)

Recycled Clothing

Okay, so maybe Earth Day awareness isn't such a bad thing. Maybe it's just a coincidence but for the last week or so I've been thinking a lot more than usual about recycled clothing. Thrift shopping, whether it's for ready-to-wear garments or raw materials to make new garments is recycling. Recycling isn't just bottles and cans (and just clap your hands).

The internet is a weird, wild place and I happened across this article this morning, How to make a baby romper from a t-shirt, which reminded me that there are some thrift stores in my new neighborhood that I've been meaning to check out. Also, I know about a hundred women having babies this year so used t-shirt onesies, in theory, sound like good gifts. In reality though I can't think of anyone (except maybe Vicky, eco-conscious supermom -- let me know!) who'd actually want onsies made from t-shirts.

I set out to visit those thrift stores this morning. I had my canvas shopping bag filled with items to mail from the post office and once it was empty I was anxious to fill it with "new" stuff. Both stores were a bust. One wasn't open and I was tired of wasting time waiting for it to open. But judging from the window displays it didn't look like there was much inside I'd be interested in. The second one turned out to be for high-end consignments and they had absolutely no clothing. A nice woman showed me a tiny selection of cute linens, but nothing I felt like buying. I did, however, find a used bookstore so I filled up my bag with books. (Like I need more books, but they were $2 each. How could I resist? And one has already given me a recipe to try for dinner tonight.)

So, I'm not a garment recycler yet but I'm working on it. I'm still interested.