Beth's Contradictory Brain

Perfection

Today was the exact kind of day I dreamed of when I first bought a motorcycle. The weather was perfect. I met up with some other biker chicks in this area (one of them actually lives in my apartment complex and is also named Beth - way cool! I saw her in the parking lot with her bike and told her about the group a couple of weeks ago.) The age range of the eight women today was from 24 to 55, very cool! We road around some back roads that were also perfect - not too many sharp curves, lots of trees and then open fields and horses and cows. It actually reminded me a lot of riding out in the Hill Country around Austin. Sigh.

I'm telling you - if you've ever thought of getting a motorcycle and haven't yet - sign up for the nearest safety course and get started.

Today was a day of Zen for me - and after the week I've had - that's saying a lot.

Heh

If you're not reading this web comic - you're stupid.

Of Course

Most often, people tell me I'm funny when I say something serious.

Not A Bad Saturday

I had to work this morning, and really wasn't in the mood for it. Saturdays aren't too terrible, we had 50 patients, but they didn't all show up at the same time, so it was ok.

Nerdstar had been talking about going to Fogo de Chao for dinner, and we figured this evening would be nice.

It was good, but I can't say I liked it better than Les Halles.

We got to talking about how we're eating more upscale here in DC - but we'd both trade it for the more home style cooking we love in Austin. (Yes, I know - I sound like a broken record!)

Then we wandered around near the White House for a while to walk off dinner.

DC really does seem to be a strange town. You can tell the locals from the tourists usually pretty easily - although we might look more like tourists. It's weird to know there are people with power and/or money, but you'd never recognize them - unlike Hollywood or LA.

Good Reads

I'm feeling mostly better.

Not much really going on. I could blog about all the celebrity bullshit going on in the world - but why?

I've been meaning to write about some books I've read lately. I've finally gotten back into reading books, after not reading them for quite a while. I started taking them to work with me to read during lunch. It helps me to really get away from the hectic work day.

Probably two months or more ago I read that our internet friends Jeff and Eric in Asheville, NC sent us - Kafka on the Shore. It's set in Japan and that made it really fun to read after spending a way too short time there last summer. It's definitely an interesting read.

Then I read Crashing Through - it's about a man who was blinded in a chemical accident in his garage when he was 3 and when he was 45 or so a procedure was being developed that enabled him to regain his sight - although not in it's entirety. The most interesting part of the book deals with how vision is as much in our brains as in our eyes and how we learn to "see'.

On our trip to Texas I finally finished Riding the Iron Rooster. I loved it. Paul Theroux spends a year or more riding trains all over China back in the mid to late 80s, maybe early 90s. And I mean all over China.

That got me on a little China reading endeavor. I mean, my girl is Chinese after all.

One book he mentioned reading while in China was Chinese Lives - an series of oral histories conducted by to Chinese men. I'm about halfway through with this one.

It's interesting to see how they all dealt with the Cultural Revolution, to get a glimpse into any sort of "Chinese mentality."

I'd love to see how things have changed even more in the past ten years.

Another book Paul read while over there is one of China's oldest erotica books - although it's supposed to be more of a morality tale - The Prayer Mat. Nerdstar comes from a long lineage of perverts! I got a hardcover edition that even has illustrations.

He also mentioned one other very old Chinese book that's erotic - we can't remember the exact title, but when I told Nerdstar about it, she said her grandpa has a copy - even though it has always been banned in China. Unfortunatley - it's in classical Chinese text that she can't read. (Which is like me not being able to read Beawolf in it's original texts.)

Sick

Ugh, I hate feeling sick and tired. I was a little under the weather all week - which is a crazy phrase considering I LOVE the weather this week! I've got a cough which has kept me from sleeping well the past 3 nights. I was hoping to feel better for the weekend, but that didn't happen.

The only thing I wanted to do this weekend that I probably won't do is take the motorcycle out for a little ride. We're getting everything else done, I'm just not enjoying it as much as I would if I felt better.

I'm a little tempted to stay home from work tomorrow, but I probably won't. Partly because we're so busy on Mondays and it would really suck for everyone if I wasn't there - which is a stupid sentiment considering who all I work with. (Damn inheriting my father's work ethic!) But a bigger reason is because I'd just be bored all day at home with Nerdstar at work.

Coolest Motorcyle

While in Austin we went to Cheapo, the biggest, best new/used cd store ever.

When we were leaving this motorcycle was parked out front. I don't even know how to describe it. It's probably the coolest thing I've ever seen.

We also picked up some cds. I had a hard time deciding on buying some used cds of stuff I used to own or to download stuff on iTunes. But iTunes doesn't have a lot of stuff I'd like to have on my iPod.

Here's what I got:

Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
Dead or Alive - Youthquake
AC/DC Highway to Hell
Nirvana - Nirvana
Rush - 2112

Nerdstar got:
Lyle Lovett - Joshua Judges Ruth
Amy Winehouse

I didn't think I'd like Amy Winehouse - but Nerdstar said it's grown on her, and it's grown on me too. Love the phrase "what kind of fuckery is this?"

Car Tattoos

I'm really liking having a brand new car. But there's one small issue.

I drove a '69 camaro from age 15 to 35. That car was mine and everyone who saw that car knew it was mine. (It even got me in trouble a couple of times when people saw it parked somewhere I shouldn't have been.)

So I'm having a little trouble with the new Corolla feeling like mine. I don't really like bumperstickers. I'm not likely to bother with personalized plates.

I keep thinking there should be car tattoos. Not sure what I'd want mine to be - but there'd probably be more than one.

Yeah, I could probably find some expensive body shop and some cool dude to do some custom paint something or other. Not sure it's worth what it would cost...

9/11

I thought living in DC would make this anniversary of 9/11 feel different, feel more... but it didn't.

I'll never forget the anger and fear and dread for the future I felt after that day.

Thank God we haven't had a repeat of that day. And here's hoping and praying we never do.

First

I bought my first brand new car today!! It feels very weird. I'm almost afraid to drive it, I don't want it to get wrecked.

I've been thinking about this for a couple of months, comparing different makes and models and prices, things like that.

So I got an '08 Toyota Corolla in Indigo Ink blue. Nothing fancy. The LE didn't have exactly what I wanted, and the CE had cruise control, so that's what I got.

I even financed it all by myself - no Nerdstar as co-signer. 4.9% - which is lower than the 5.49 our credit union has going and only 1% more than Nerdstar got three years ago when she bought her Matrix.

I hate spending money - especially such big amounts of it, so this was a little hard. But my Buick was all done in. The driver window didn't like to go back up, I had that dent from the parking garage, a few weeks ago I got into it on a Monday morning and the rear view mirror was on the floorboard, and I'm pretty sure the brakes were going.

Yeah new car!!

Nice

Wouldn't it be nice if consequences were so fun and severe and fast...

http://xkcd.com/293/

A Trip In Food

Here are the photos of all the places we ate on our trip. Just putting this post together made us both want to cry.

Start here at Whataburger and work your way up...

Safe and Sound

We made it home - although I don't think DC will ever feel like "home." It was a good trip, but it had some disappointments. The Kid was scheduled to spend this weekend at his mother's - so we didn't really get to see him until this afternoon right before flying out.

All the food was good, as was the trip in general. I'll try to post the pics and a better entry tomorrow.