Beth's Contradictory Brain

Dead Ends

I can't remember when we've had a lazier weekend. I was so happy that it rained all day Saturday. I mean, all day. It started raining at about 10 in the morning and didn't stop until really early Sunday morning. Then, Sunday was just beautiful.

Saturday night after cooking and eating a decent dinner, Nerdstar had a beer and I had some rum and coke and we just hung out at the table and talked for a while. She talked about work and her concerns. I talked about mine.

I really didn't expect that I'd go almost a month without working at all for my current job. The few days they wanted me to work were ones we were either traveling or babysitting. I went by the office I like working at to see what was up, and she said it just hasn't been too, too busy. I don't really like the idea of working for Quest or LabCorp, hard to say why. And the hospitals close to here just aren't hiring.

I've applied online to a couple of things. One was being an instructor for phlebotomy at the local community college network. Didn't hear anything back. And I applied for what sounded like a really neat phlebotomy supervisory job, again, didn't hear a thing.

Nerdstar's always thought I should go to law school. Funny thing is, if I'd done it when we first talked about it I'd be finished with it and working in the field by now. But it just doesn't really appeal to me. Hell, who knows if I could even get into any of the law schools around here. (And in reality, if I had been in law school back then who knows what would have happened if we hadn't been able to move to advance her career.)

But, I did decide to look into maybe getting my master's in sociology and doing research or something like that. George Mason looks to have a really neat program. One of my biggest problems in applying is reference letters. I haven't stayed put or stayed in touch with people to have three good references. So, I sent an email through the program's website stating my interest and such. That was over a week ago and I haven't heard a thing.

It takes me a lot longer than it probably should to get in gear and look into things. So, when I finally do and they all end up seemingly dead ends, it really sucks.

I feel a little guilty that Nerdstar has to get up early every morning and sit in traffic twice a day and go to work all day and I don't. I'm trying to be a good housewife, but cleaning isn't my strong suit! I do at least try to keep her well fed!

And there's always that job I really want - being a mom - that I'm still waiting on. Hopefully we'll make progress on that soon. If not, then I think I'll start seriously looking into if being foster parents is an option. It's something I've wanted to look into for a long time, and now that we finally have a house it's more feasible.

Lame

I actually kinda miss blogging. And I've opened up MT several times and looked at the blank space and wished I had something to say. I guess not working and not having kids leaves me with little blog fodder.

We did have several busy weekends in a row that helped offset my boring weeks. Last weekend we played host to a five year old boy and his year and a half old boxer. I picked him up after school Thursday and then got up and got him ready for school Friday. Can I just say elementary schools creep me out. Yes, a long time ago I spent time in some being a sub before I switched to junior high and high school subbing. But in teacher circles, you can spot the elementary teachers a mile away. It's an overload of forced cuteness and regiment.

Anyway. I think we did a good job. The weather was amazing so we spent a lot of time in the backyard. We also managed to only watch each movie once. We watched Finding Nemo, Kung Fu Panda, Coraline, and Monters Inc.

Nerdstar and I are pretty different in our handling of children/pets. But I think our styles are complimentary. Sometimes it's like good cop/bad cop.

One of these days I'll make a decision about what to do with my days. It still sucks that the job I'd like to be working doesn't have the money to give me some hours.

Oh well. This is a totally lame blog post. But I guess that reflects my totally lame life these days.

Recent Reads

One of the best things about flying vs driving is the time to read good books. Reading is still my preferred way to kill time during flights.

I think I mentioned that seeing Inglorious Basterds made me more curious about the occupation of France. As I've been reading about various parts of WWII for over a year now, I've been amazed at just how little I knew about any of it. So I've been putting my local libraries to good use and checking out a few books at a time. The latest was Occupation: The Ordeal of France 1940-1944. I didn't realize just how much Britain and France hated each other before the war. I didn't know just how quickly France surrendered, or that Hitler didn't really know what to do with France - other than drain it dry of resources - once it was occupied. I understand better why everyone makes so much fun of the French for being surrender monkeys. But I also can't imagine what it does to a country's psyche to be occupied.

I'll also never cease to be amazed at how quickly neighbors turn against neighbors in such situations. Something the movie The Lives of Others really made me think about.

To lighten things up a bit, I read David Sedaris' new book When You Are Engulfed in Flames. I've read some of his other collections of stories, and this was my favorite.

I also decided to read Clarence Thomas' My Grandfather's Son. Wow. I cannot tell you how impressed I am with this man. To go from true poverty in the rural south to a member of the Supreme Court - good for him.

I checked out three books by George Pelecanos, one of the writers for The Wire, but so far have only read The Sweet Forever. Now that we live in the DC area, it's really cool to watch movies, tv shows, and read books set here and kinda know where they're talking about.

I'm thinking of trying to tackle Churchill's six volume set on WWII, we'll see how far I get into them.

Austin Recap

We made it back home safe and sound about 1:30 a.m. Poor Nerdstar had to get up and go to work today. I got up and retrieved Ramen from the kennel. He's already all crashed out next to me.

It was a good 48 hours in Austin. Wish we'd had another day. Unlike Nerdstar's, my stomach just can't handle all the food we'd like to eat.

We got in early Saturday evening and went straight to Coco's. It's a little Taiwanese restaurant that Nerdstar really likes because it reminds her of the food she had growing up. Then we did some browsing at Cheapo and down along South Congress. I bought my desk at Off The Wall down on Congress many, many moons ago.

Then, because we'd hate a late lunch/early dinner, we decided we'd just get some Amy's ice cream and wander around Book People for a while.

We love traveling to new places and seeing how life there would be, but as I've said, it's really nice to vacation in a city you know your way around and is familiar.

We love how Austin is so urban and yet so open and country feeling.

They've had a really hot and dry summer. It was at least 99 degrees the three days we were there.

Saturday we got up and headed to Magnolia Cafe for breakfast. MMMMMM is all I'm gonna say about that. Pics of breakfast.

We decided to go check out this hiking/biking trail that has a creek running through it and a natural pooling area to wade around in. We were really sad to see the whole thing was bone dry. We lived in Austin in years where it flooded, so this was something really different to see. Pics of dry creek.

We got all hot and sweaty and so we headed over to Barton Springs - a natural springs they built into a swimming pool area where the water is always 68 degrees. Where the pool overflows and leads down to Town Lake is where people with dogs congregate. Pics.

We had really wanted to see Extract at Alamo Draft House. But due to Mike Judge being a big deal in Austin, all the shows were sold out for Sunday.

Dinner Sunday night was at Hoover's. But Nerdstar was pretty heart broken when they told us they were out of wings. Sigh. It was still a damn good dinner though.

Monday before heading home we wanted to gather up some food to bring back and try to find some art for house. Nerdstar had the bright idea to get some glad containers to bring stuff back on the plane in. Mostly she just ended up bringing back some stuff from CoCo's. We tried going back to get some wings - but they were still out.

We we lucky that Art on 5th St. was open yesterday. They had this really cool collection of Dr. Seuss artwork. Most of them were out of our price range. We did buy a set by this artist - although I don't see pics of the one's we actually got. And we bought one other print. I'll post pics when they're delivered and we get them on the walls. I just really like having original art in the house. Many years ago we bought two paintings that were being "shown" in the little restaurant I waited tables in. I'm still glad I bought them. The new ones will be nice to have, too.

Our last two stops were for food, of course. There's this new to us thing going on in Austin with people using the old, small streamline RV's to sell food. The one - Sushi-A-Go-Go was the one Nerdstar tried. She says it's good sushi! Then it was lunch, or for me dessert, at East Side Cafe.

We were both a little sad to leave. There are at least 25 more restaurants we could name off the top of our heads we wish we'd had time for. And at least another 25 we've never gotten around to, even when we lived there. And we just love the atmosphere of the place. Yes, sometime's it's a little too hip, but it's friendly and laid back and creative. It's a city of dogs and flip flops.

Missing "Home"

We've finally made it back down to Austin for a short visit. Most of our travels are either to visit family or are military related. It's kinda weird to vacation where we used to live. Coming out of the airport it struck me that we actually had to go check into our hotel instead of just going "home." Weird.

Last night I was checking out The Austin Chronicle's website to see what's going on in town this weekend. Man, I had forgotten just how much there really is to do here - and then have been sad realizing just how lame life in the DC suburbs is.

There are at least four or five really good film festivals: SXSW, AGLIFF (gay and lesbian), Jewish, Texas, and Austin - those are just off the top of my head. There's the annual Hot Sauce Festival. Eeyore's Birthday. There's Alamo Draft House and all the crazy movie things they do all the time. The dog parks. Barton Springs. The music venues. Sigh.

I wrote a long time ago I'd rather live among liberals than conservatives because they have more fun things to do. I don't think I've changed my mind on that.

I've also been thinking about the idea of making where I live more like where I want to live. But even the challenge of starting a dog park near our new house seems crazy. It's kinda about the type of people in our "neighborhood". My general feeling is that if they wanted those things they'd already exist.

So, we'll enjoy a couple of days here and do what we can to make our current home as fun as we can.