To give you some idea of how behind I've been lately -- I've been wanting to comment about Monday night's Studio 60 episode. I think it's amazing how much politics Aaron Sorkin works into the Studio 60 script. Maybe that's off putting to some people, but I think in the current political climate it's great. The allusions to the slow strip of personal liberties that this administration has instigated (habeas corpus anyone?) and the reminder of McCarthyism and the hollywood blacklist is great. I love how there are strong characters that you empathize with from the left and the right. My favorite quote so far is from the previous week's show, where a writer from Vanity Fair, who's been collecting information for an all-access backstage article says something like, "I don't know what the story's going to be about. What I do know is that one half of America hates the other half ... but for 90 minutes a week, religious and secular America find common ground here." It's sad and uplifting at the same time.
Please remember to get out and vote this November.
I finally posted some new (old) pictures this weekend, including food from three very nice restaurants and a few pictures of The Ring. All told it took me about and hour and a half to do, which is particularly pathetic since it took me so long to get around to. Truth be told, this past week I've been preoccupied with my brother's surprise party and trying to put together a slide show for that. But that's not much of an excuse for the many, many hours I wasted procrastinating in other ways.
Lately our washing machine has been leaking water. At least I think it's the washing machine, I can't really tell. I put some kitty litter on the floor in the area, but when I checked this morning the kitty litter was soaked in a manner which suggested that the water was coming from elsewhere. One of these days I'm going to have to camp out in front of the machine while it's running and figure out what's going on, except that I think that it's happening after the machine's finished spinning. It's really disgusting though, mushrooms have started to spout out of the cracks in the concrete. Disgusting and somewhat amazing.
We've been to the new Bloomie's twice now. I have to say, it's a pretty amazing space. If you go though, don't drive, at least not on a weekend. The traffic going there the first time was absolutely insane. I doubt it's going to get any better either; there simply isn't enough parking in the area. Also, be forewarned, the stores are much pricier than your average Westfield. Maybe not quite the level of Santana Row, but well above my comfort level.
The second most common question following the revelation of our recent engagement was, "So how did it happen?" For posterity, here it is:
After coming back from NY in February (you might recall the blizzard of 2006) I started thinking that I was quickly running out of time to get things moving -- figuring a month each to design and have the ring made and a month of slop -- so that the ring would be done around graduation time. Things were slow at first, looking at different ring designs (Solomon Brothers was a great help), searching for jewelers that are known for their custom ring work (Diamondtalk and pricescope were good forums to search), and trying to find a good place to get a diamond (In the end I went Canadian). By the time I knew it, it was already May and I hadn't quite settled on a ring design, though I had discarded a thousand or more. Realizing that continuing to do this with C. at home would be impossible, I finally started the arduous process of getting a diamond on-line and settled on a final design.
C. moved back in late May, coincidentally the same day my diamond arrived. I drove the package into the city and handed the stone to the jeweler (Union Street Goldsmith) to start the fabrication. The ring was actually completed in June and I picked it up and hid it in my clarinet case. We were painting the house during most of our free days in June and July was unbelievably busy. I had to abandon my first attempt in August because I wasn't ready to ask her parents for their blessing (fortunately so, as one of my friends had already suggested to that I might surprise her on this particular trip). C. was ill after our anniversary dinner in late August, which proved to be less than ideal. Finally in September, on a fairly random Friday, I called her parents to ask for their blessing. I had planned to drive into the city with C. that Saturday, but it turned out she had already made plans. We drove down to Cupertino to visit her sister's family and do some wine tasting, but there was a wedding at the winery we visited. Finally, on Tuesday, on a half-truthful trip to get a 30-year old bottle scotch for a good friend, we drove out to the Palace of the Legion of Honor. It was surprisingly sunny day and the view of the Golden Gate was spectacular. And it was there, in the setting light, that I asked for her hand in marriage.
And so here we are, in mid-October, rushing to find a location for next year, and now I'm thinking I really should have started this entire process a little earlier.
My ability to keep this journal updated is crap. I promise nothing better this week, fair reader, it's another packed week of projects, classes, concerts and whatnot. Add to this I am seriously considering doing Nanowrimo again this year and I wonder why anyone checks up on me. That last bit is a peculiar insanity considering we have two trips planned for November, a consider amount of wedding planning to do and, of course, the dreaded Christmas shopping. Complaints aside, there is something that I've been meaning to write about.
I am scared. Maybe I'm being foolish, I'm no political historian, but it seems to me things here in America are getting worse and worse. Mid-term elections are coming up soon and I don't know if we'll be able to change the direction we're headed. For those of you not in the know, the writ of habeas corpus will be suspended, for aliens, as soon as President Bush gets around to signing the Military Commissions Act into law. What that means is that the United States can take anyone who is not a US citizen, throw them in jail, and keep them there indefinitely without charging them with a crime. That includes people not on US soil, by the way.
I think this is all crazy and I just had to say it.
Monday nights have become TV night for C and I. She and I have had, for the last year, only one show each that we watched religiously. For her it was Project Runway, for me it was Battlestar Galactica. Unfortunately, I've canceled my subscription to the SciFi channel so I'll be getting my fixes via iTunes. This season, we've picked up Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (and to a much less extent, Heroes on my part) I feel this is a wedge in my staunch defense of, I don't really watch that much TV. I'm now wondering now if 30 Rock is going to be good, if I should tune into watch The Nine, if I should try to catch up on reruns of the Shield and Rescue Me. Most of all, I wonder if we need to get a DVR (or TIVO as has become the eponym) to complete our switch to the dark side.
The saddest thing is that leaves me with more things to write about and less time to write. The ridiculous number of things vying for my attention at work and my inability to keep up don't help much either.
It's October now and everything seems different. I managed a pathetic three entries last month. Some might say that it's an indication of living in RL instead of dreaming in LJ. I'd like to think that I just had too much to say and not enough time to say it.
We got back from Hawaii last night. Security changes meant that baggage carousels were extremely congested. I imagine that this has been the case since they started banning liquids and gels on flights. Sadly it's very difficult to get along without liquids or gels when you're traveling and some things just don't come in 3 oz. sizes (try finding contact lens solution that small). I started thinking about all these security measures: the heightened awareness (of arabic t-shirts), the screening (as random as buying a one-way ticket), the precautions (allowing banned substances into terminals but not onto flights). One part of me thinks of it as unnecessary and ineffectual losses of liberty, another thinks that flying in the US is a privilege and that the government gets to make the rules. I figure both are true and that's just a fact of life in this nuanced world of ours.
We're heading out to the East Coast for another wedding next weekend. Time to do much needed wedding planning is short in supply. I suppose it's all a product of the very full life that I've always wanted. A side benefit of all this traveling is that I made my way through the bulk of The Economist that C. has a trial subscription to and i caught up on a lot of sleep. A silver lining for a growing cloud.