May 2009
May 12, 2009 at 4:41 pm
I thought only bums fell asleep on public buses, but evidently jetlagged Americans do too. At 11:00am London time, 6:00am PastaQueen time, and after 22 hours of consciousness, my body finally screamed, “SLEEP!” as loudly as the bus driver was honking at the gridlock on Trafalgar Square. I had moved to the bottom of the hop-on-hop-off bus tour because the top was too cold and windy, but the combination of warmth and stillness made me lean against the window over my bag and enter a state of not quite sleeping, but not quite awake.
Realizing it would be very bad to fall asleep on a bus in a foreign country, I jumped off at the next stop, Buckingham Palace, and discovered the proper treatment for jetlag is lots and lots and lots of walking. I’d started the day by buying my bus ticket and hopping on outside St. Paul’s Cathedral. We drove across London Bridge and Tower Bridge and past lots of landmarks, but after hitting the snag at Trafalgar Square I got off and never [...]
May 11, 2009 at 2:01 pm
I squinted behind my sunglasses to look at the dark-haired girl who was squinting at me behind her sunglass as if to say, “I’m from the Internet. Are you from the Internet too?” And indeed she was. As with all Internet people she looked kind of like her photo, but in 3D and with sound. I enjoyed reading SassyDemon’s now private blog (so no linky) and after we wondered around a three-block radius of Union Station in Chicago we finally gave up trying to find Marshall’s diner on our own and let a cabbie find it for us. There was an apple and cheddar omelet and good conversation and an offer of complimentary soft-serve ice cream, though I turned the last part down.
After lunch, SassyDemon walked me to the Blue line stop and after my luggage handle got stuck in the turnstile and then pried out, I got on my train with two and half hours until my plane’s departure.
Then there was the shuttle.
You see, construction work was being done on the blue line on [...]
May 10, 2009 at 8:43 am
Pack light! Pack light! Everyone has told me to pack light and that does not mean I should catch a sun beam in a jar and ferry it across the ocean with me. I have taken these warnings to heart, and disregarding any concern for stinkyness or being caught wearing the same pants twice, I have packed light. Laurie at Crazy Aunt Purl became my light packing hero after I read this post where she traveled to Madrid with two small bags.
It was there I first heard about packing cubes. I was perplexed by Laurie’s statement that she could pack more in her luggage with those little square bags. It seemed illogical because by bringing the cubes she was carrying even more stuff around, but then Rick Steves recommended it too. So I bought some packing cubes that were not technically cubes by the mathematical definition of the term, and what do you know?! They were right! It’s hard to explain why they work, but instead of trying to smoosh a lot of stuff [...]
May 7, 2009 at 10:06 am
Does anyone else remember the Scholastic Book Club?
When I was in elementary school, once a month the teacher would distribute the book club flyers. They were printed on flimsy paper, almost like tissues, but they were full color and advertised all sorts of books. There was something about flipping through the flyer, reading the descriptions and seeing the covers, that was almost more exciting than reading the books, perhaps because the book club combined two great things: reading and shopping!
Every promo listed the price of the book and an id number for you to pencil in on your order form to be submitted to your teacher with your payment. I had a budget, so I could not order all the books I wanted at once. Sometimes I would keep an eye on a book advertised in every issue until I finally marked it on my order form. Then the teacher sent in the orders and a couple weeks later the books would arrive! The best part however was the lovely anticipation, knowing books were on [...]
May 6, 2009 at 9:12 am
My friend Jen was getting married and I wanted to give her something handmade. This was solely because handmade gifts are more meaningful because the maker had to pour time and work into the product and not at all because I’d already spent money for a plane ticket and hotel reservations in DC and wanted to give her something inexpensive.
Thus, Mr. and Mrs. Butterstick were born! And betrothed! And hitched! Damn, that was fast. Butterstick is the nickname of the panda that was born at the Washington D.C. zoo a few years ago. Jen watched the panda-cam obsessively after the little bear was born, so a gift of Mr. and Mrs. Butterstick presenting her with a butter plate seemed perfect.
I started Mrs. B two weeks before the wedding and was halfway done with her body when I realized, “Crap, this bear looked a lot smaller in the photo.” For the next two weeks I crocheted as fast as I could, ran out of black yarn and had to go on crafting expeditions for black felt [...]
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"What distinguishes us one from another is our dreams and what we do to make them come about." - Joseph Epstein
