it never ceases to amaze me

how much better I feel about life after I clean up my living space.

dishes. two loads of laundry. cleaned the bathroom. swept the floor. (the amount of hair that I shed each week never ceases to repulse me). clean sheets, folded the laundry. made real food for supper.

now it's writing time, I think! hooray. 

and maybe time to listen to the third period of the Blackhawks game online. which, here's my thought process for which NHL team I should be a fan of: I'm from southeastern pennsylvania, but let's be real, no one likes philly. my dad is on record as saying, "can't we just give Philly to New Jersey?" (which did make me think of Infinite Jest, yes, and the near-future dystopian US government forcibly handing over part of New England to Canada. but I digress). aaanyway. Philly teams generally are terrible and/or heart-breaky [although I admit, I've been stockholmed into caring about the Eagles - it's nearly impossible to escape WSMC unscathed in that regard, haha] and the Flyers seem to be no exception. I started watching hockey games during the playoffs last year when the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup, and they have this guy, not to mention the best PR people ever. (Yes, I clearly have too much time on my hands right now). So I think I'm just going to call myself a Blackhawks fan, and continue to amuse and befuddle my friends who still can't figure out why I care about hockey at all.

***

Some pictures from my walk in the McCrillis gardens today:

i'm feeling witty

and hopeful. got an email today about an NIH book club from a post-bac in the NIMH. I responded! maybe I will make a friend! haha.

why witty, you ask? well, the email was funny [Are you a closeted reader? Do you cringe when people ask you what you did Saturday night because you realize you huddled in a blue polyester beanbag in the corner of your apartment next to the only good reading lamp and pored over Aurelius's Meditations (or some similarly nerdy book) and have to explain this fact in a way that doesn't seem pathetic (WHICH IT ISN'T!)?] and said something about a character from Infinite Jest, and when I replied, I changed the subject line to 'you had me at Hal Incandenza.'

what can I say. it's the little things. 

200th post

I thought about doing some kind of epic "200" list for my 200th post, but that seemed like a lot of work for a small payoff. But then I thought, 20 is kind of like 200, except... pleasingly small.

So, I bring to you:

20 things I want to do (in no particular order) before I write 100 more blog posts

1. read Infinite Jest again, this time in chronological order.
2. submit a poem to a literary journal, just for fun.
3. gain greater guitar skills. this is actually going to happen, unless I somehow manage to write 100 blog posts in the next 3 weeks.
4. go to an NHL game, try not to feel guilty about the violence of the game, etc.
5. read The Brothers Karamazov; attempt to build a friendlier relationship with russian literature.
6. go on a date. ...one recent trip from harrisonburg to bethesda included a conversation between 4 women on the merits of online dating. which was hilarious, I tell you what, but a less creepy option might be to find a guy from hyattesville to go with me to a poetry reading at busboys and poets.
7. make pumpkin soup in a pumpkin. this also will happen, thanks to The Housemate.
8. memorize another Eliot poem. 
9. meet Christian Wiman. this will never happen, but a girl can dream.
10. go to a political protest. surely something interesting will happen near me before I reach 300 posts.
11. sleep a lot. this will definitely happen.
12. make something edible with The Housemate using the foraged acorns. hopefully be pleasantly surprised.
13. get a pet. a turtle? give said creature a name relating to particle physics (charm? lepton? yes.)
14. send more mail. this is not altruistic. I would like to get more mail.
15. go to an art museum. maybe after the government un-shuts itself.
16. visit baltimore & hopefully run into the crazy americorps people again. oh, and hopefully NOT get lost.
17. gain public transit skills. DC Metro, I'm looking at you.
18. start a fiction-writing group? this probably will not happen, given my neuroses about my writing + how busy all my writing friends/acquaintances are. 
19. re-henna my hair. or something.
20. grow an avocado tree. seedling. whatever. it's in the works.