In Which We Remember To Press Rewind

There are a few movies I only have on VHS--and, of course, I don't have a VCR.  Jamie has a VCR but no tv.  Clearly, it's a match made in heaven.  We had to cannibalize the DVD player for cords, but it was worth it.  When I discovered that Jamie hadn't seen the entirety of either Singin' in the Rain OR Dead Poets Society, we dove in with those.  Discoveries: it is impossible to watch Singin' in the Rain without singing along, and DPS still makes me cry, even when I close my eyes and cover my ears.

Maybe you don't have a VCR or either movie on VHS, but here are my favourite scenes from each, for your consideration.

"Moses Supposes."  This was accompanied by this actual conversation:

Jamie: What are those shoes called?
Me: Saddle shoes.*
Jamie: Oh, right.  I want to go as them for Halloween.
Me: As...saddle shoes?
Jamie: What?  No.
Me:  Oh.  Um.  Oh, you mean dressed like them?
Jamie: (laughs) Yes.

*I was wrong, James, they're spectator shoes.  Also, here's this handy girl's guide to dressing as Don Lockwood!

After we got our dose of musical, we put in Dead Poets Society, which I fervently adored about 10 years ago, but hadn't seen since.

Skip to 2:38 for the best part.  O Captain, My Captain.

I find it odd and a little enchanting that the more advanced our technology gets, the more thrilling the older stuff is.  Who knew getting a VCR could be such a treat!  Of course, I started reminiscing about my family's old BetaMax, and no one knew what that was (plus I got the distinct impression they thought I was making it up).  And I just felt old.  Or crazy.

To Brooklyn and Back

This past weekend's trip to Brooklyn has been months in the making.  Laura dragged herself all the way out to Marlinton in July; returning the favor was the least I could do.  Plus, I like Brooklyn!

 When Laura fretted over not having planned anything to entertain me, I told her that I needed only three things: art, photobooths, and her.  Which pretty much sums up our weekend.

I took the Bolt Bus (which I love) up from DC.  It's easy, cheap, and stops not too far from where Laura works in Manhattan.  On Saturday, we brunched at Bubby's in Dumbo, which is a pie shop.  It also has a photobooth.  As far as I'm concerned, pies/brunch/photobooth is the trifecta of awesome.  Brunch was AMAZING (I had an omelet with apples, bacon, and aged cheddar cheese), and then we gleefully monopolized the photobooth.  I haven't scanned the strips yet, but they're coming.

Dumbo is an area of Brooklyn where both the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges end, (Bubby's is almost underneath the Manhattan Bridge--the above photo was taken just outside of it) so after brunch we decided to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan, which Laura had never done.

It was a beautiful, clear, cold day and the walk was lovely.  We could easily make out the Statue of Liberty, which I'd never seen in person before.  I didn't think it would mean anything to see it and was surprised to find myself rather moved.  Well done, Lady Liberty.

In Manhattan, we decided to head to the Neue Galerie, which I had heard about but never visited.  I was thrilled with their collection of decorative arts works (mainly pieces by Josef Hoffman and Koloman Moser--they're the museum of German and Austrian art), and especially impressed with the decision to use a Moser-designed jewelry display piece to actually display jewelry.  I love it when museums use decorative arts for their designated purpose.  We also caught the tail end of their "Postcards of the Wiener Werkstätte" show, which I loved.

We tried to go from there to the Cooper-Hewitt Museum (the only Smithsonian branch in NY), but found it was closed until February.  Saturday night was a movie night.  We caught The Green Hornet, which, I'm sad to say, was just okay.  And made Laura very angry.

On Sunday morning(ish), we decided to face the crowds and headed to Tom's.  Tom's has been open since 1936 (and even had a song written about it), and is extremely popular.  Like, line-around-the-block popular.  However, at Tom's, the line is part of the experience.  We waited something like an hour to be seated (most of that outside in the cold), but were fed cookies, oranges, sausage, and toast with honey while we shivered.  The food is just a step or two above your basic hearty diner food, but includes some unique options, including throwbacks to its seltzer-era founding.  I had a Cherry Lime Rickey, and learned what a Rickey is.

We decided to spend the afternoon lounging and reading, in the best Kelly-and-Laura fashion, grabbed dinner at a nearby Mexican joint, and then settled it to cast snarky comments at the Golden Globes.  All in all, a good day.

Laura had Monday off, so we went exploring in Park Slope.  The Brooklyn Museum was sadly and shockingly closed (Laura lives so close to it that visiting is practically tradition), so we strolled and munched on goodies from Sweet Melissa (Laura had a truffle, I had a madeleine).  On our way home, we grabbed burgers at Dutch Boy's (medium, with bleu cheese and fries for both of us--SO good), packed me up, and sent me home!

All in all, every visit to Brooklyn makes me love it more (though I can hardly afford to).  Seeing Laura in her natural habitat is always a treat, and as she works in publishing, I was sent home with almost more books than I could carry.

Now I am home, from NY and VA both, and for the next month (or so) will be sitting for the dog and cat which usually live with my parents.  It's been an odd sort of experience for all of us so far, but hopefully we'll settle in.  Vista is (of course) loving it.

Christmas in Virginia

Extremely late holiday post, ahoy!  I apologize for the belatedness of it, I do.  My only excuse is that the holidays ended on a serious down note, so I've been living vicariously through other people (which has shown up on this other blog), rather than dwelling on my own life.  Case in point: all of my clothes from the holiday trip home are still packed.  I've been back in WV since the 4th.  I leave this afternoon for a trip to NY.  Serious avoidance issues over here.

Anyway: Holidays!  Much was accomplished.

 Vista destroyed her crate once and for all, so we are now operating as a kennel-free state.  So far, it's going pretty well.  Se chills in my room when I'm gone, and only makes a few horrendous, godawful noises.

 I smacked the lid shut on my not-so-short story (it came in at just over 40,000 words) and began another.  Sam helped, sort of.

 Vista got toys.

 So many toys.

 My Chinese family educated me in the ways of Rock Band.  Here are my sisters, totally schooling me.  Seeing this troupe (all 5 siblings) all together for the first time in forever was so amazingly great.  The gaming was totally the icing.

 My lovely mother insisted my hair be cut, and friend Sam (non-feline Sam) gave me the glasses that went with his Halloween costume (which I discovered back in October).  My love of plaid shirts and sweater vests knows no bounds.

At the beginning of the holidays, there were 4 dogs and one cat in the house, and man, was that cat unhappy.  By the new year, we were down to two dogs, and the cat decided the interloper wasn't so bad.  Which is great, since he'll be living here with us for a little while.  Here is the video that goes with the photo, taken the night before we drove back to WV.  Warning: it's epically adorable.  Hold onto your hats.

Overall, the holidays were fun.  I saw six, count'em, SIX movies, hung out with basically every single person I love (notably absent was my little bro, who was trapped out west this Christmas), and it even snowed on Christmas (before going back to being 60 degrees a few days later).  The downer at the end was the sudden death of my Great-Aunt Dinny.  She was 96 years old, so it wasn't exactly a shocker, but  a week before her death, she was in excellent health for a 96-year-old, so yes, it was sudden.

Vista and I drove down to Winston-Salem, NC for the burial before turning around and heading back to Marlinton.  It was a long, emotional day.  Dinny was the last of my grandmother's sisters (my grandmother passed away 4 years ago), and it felt like the end of an era.  I was left with the haunting knowledge of all of the things I never asked them, all of the stories which will go untold.  They were some amazing ladies, the Maslin girls were.  The world was better for them, and poorer for their absence.

So far, 2011 has been pretty disappointing, but I'm holding out hope.  It can only go up from here, right?

Snapshots of December

I have been scolded for neglecting this blog.  And Jamie shamed me by posting a whole bunch of December-in-Marlinton photos last night.

(Random side note: before moving away, Jamie kept a blog about her home town, Los Angeles Love Affair, and it's my new favourite thing online.  Whether you've been there before or, like me, have never even been to the state, it's a great read.)

I haven't done much wandering this month, as it has been cold, and snowy, and COLD, but I do have a few to share.  They are completely unedited, just snapshots.

The lovely signs we made for the Opera House float in the Christmas Parade.

The float ahead of us in the parade.  It was from the Gesundheit Institute, and you can't see them well, but it had great, flapping wings.  Very cool.

The woman of the hour, Opera House VISTA Jamie, treated her carolers to homemade cocoa generously laced with Peppermint Schnapps.

Then it snowed!  This is from the first snow, which you can tell because the tops of my shoes are still visible.  We got a good foot of the stuff a week later.

Vista looks quite lovely in the snow.

So, we've been keeping warm.  I baked cookies for six hours the other day, but that's pretty much the most physically exerting thing I've done in weeks.  Mostly, Vista and I are staying bundled up inside, watching movies, writing short stories, and listening to music.  I've been loving "Treats" by Sleigh Bells, "Doolittle" by the Pixies, and "Oracular Spectacular" by MGMT.

Sunday Mysteries

My roommates had a party on Saturday night.  I was involved, but only peripherally, in the sense that I live in the house and was therefore present.  Don't get me wrong, I know and like the people who were gathered, and I like the concept of a tacky Christmas sweater party.  But the house is really small, and I get nervous when there are lots of people in my little house.

I've mentioned that I'm a bumbling mass of neuroses before, haven't I?  Because--hoo boy!--am I ever.  So I was at the party, but in and out.  I've been pouring my soul into writing short stories lately (which I kind of want to share here because I'm ridiculously proud of them, but probably won't because the subject matter is SUPER DUPER NERDY), and spent most of the evening curled around my laptop, tapping away.  I drove the last of the guests home around 3 am, collapsed in bed, and naturally assumed that life would return to normal, all of my mental ducks back in a row, on the morrow.  Instead, I was confronted with a series of mysterious events over the course of the day.  They went something like this:

1. Why are there people shouting in the kitchen at 8:30 on a Sunday morning?
2. Why are there people shouting in the kitchen at 10:00 on a Sunday morning?
3. Who unplugged the mini-fridge?
4. Where'd this gigantic amp come from?
5. Why is my bathroom hand towel in the kitchen?
6. Why are people shouting in the kitchen at 1:00 on a Sunday afternoon?
7. What was that crash in the next room?
8. Why does the shower smell overwhelmingly like feet?
9. Why is the yellow ducky bath mat on the far side of the living room?
10. Why is there a fellow playing a bass guitar in the middle of the kitchen?
11. Why are all of the DVDs on the rack turned around backwards?
12. Why does the dog have bits of broken candy cane stuck in her paws?

So many mysteries.  Most were solved over the course of the day, though I still haven't figured out where that amp came from.  OR why it took precedence over the perishables in the fridge.

Anyways, on the upside, I got a full three chapters written over the course of the party and the next day, and feel very good about that.  Later this week, probably: posts about snow and Christmas.  In the meantime, here are recent posts from my other blog, about Christmas music and how to buy gifts for nerds.  Enjoy!

If anyone is at all interested in reading my super nerdy thing, let me know and I will send you the link.  But, a warning: it's super nerdy.

Wheeling Part 2

One of the best parts about the Create WV conference was that they took us out and about in Wheeling.  In fact, the entire afternoon on the first day was given over to it.  We had box lunches in the Capitol Theatre, which is, to put it simply, stunning.

Then the various tracks took tours of various parts of the city.  My group happened to be a walking tour, which I loved, since it meant I could dart all over snapping photos while still hearing the talk.  I discovered that Wheeling is a city of beautiful and desolate facades.  I would have loved to see it in its heyday, at the end of the the last century.

I don't know the history of this building (I believe it was a bank), but if anyone else does, I'd love to hear it!  I was not expecting to find something so gorgeously art nouveau in West Virginia.

This is inside the Orrick Global Operations Center.  It's the old Wheeling stamp factory, and the process of turning into what it is today--from renovating the building to convincing Orrick that locating their offices here was a great idea--was a massive community effort.  The building is seriously amazing.

A flower shop near the Centre Market.  Didn't venture in.

We did venture into The Paradox Book Store.

We were pretty excited about it.

I'm still sort of mad at myself that I neglected to buy this.

The next day, after the morning sessions and lunch, Jamie and I hit the road.  We stopped in town to snap more photos, many of which were of doors.  They'll be showing up on my other blog in the next week.

These were all in the little Victorian district.  Really, really pretty stuff.

We headed directly home, aside from a stop for groceries.  It was uneventful until we saw the BEAR.  It was a first for both of us, and we reacted accordingly.  All in all, a really great trip!  I definitely recommend Create WV, Wheeling, and traveling with Jamie.

To Wheeling

Warning: There are mummies in this post.  It's just one photo, but if you'd rather not see mummies, you might want to skip it.

This week I attended the Create West Virginia conference in Wheeling.  The conference was a blast, and very helpful once I figured out what panels it would benefit me to attend.  I loved Dan Roam's keynote speech, listening to Option 22 perform, and Dr. Nicole Cutts' diversity track.  But that's pretty much all I'm going to say about the conference itself.  Mostly, this is about getting there and being in Wheeling.

I drove with Jamie, who was also attending the conference.  The best part about driving with Jamie is that she sings along to every song, regardless of whether she knows the words or even if she's heard it before.  It's fantastic.  Here are some things we saw on the road:

(I found this really creepy.)

We drove through Philippi to see the covered bridge, which is the oldest and longest in the state.  And still in use!

This is the old train depot and current museum.  It's got plenty of neat things, but we ventured in to see the MUMMIES.

You didn't believe me, did you?  You didn't think I was actually going to show you mummies.  These two ladies passed away in a mental asylum and were then acquired by a man who had invented an alternative method of embalming.  Clearly, they've held up pretty well.  They even spent four days under water during a flood.  So, there you go.  Mummies.  In West Virginia.

We traversed the covered bridge, leaving Philippi and its mummies behind.

After arriving in Wheeling and enjoying a tasty welcome dinner, we ventured into the downtown area.

We were rather taken with the Victoria Theatre.

But slightly baffled by the large wooden hot dogs in the windows next door.

The Wheeling Suspension Bridge connects Wheeling proper with Wheeling Island.  It's pretty incredible all lit up.

I really liked this bridge.  Here is a video of driving over the bridge.  Because.

Roller Derby And Rocket Bars

I don't know why I decided to check and see whether the DC Rollergirls had a match this weekend, but I did, and they did, and Sam got roped into it, and much fun was had by all!  If you're unfamiliar with roller derby, here's a quick video introduction into the flat track variety:

And here's what the bout looked like from where we were sitting:

That's Scare Force One out there.

The DC Demoncats.

The Demoncats versus the Cherry Blossom Bombshells.

The score late in the game--the Demoncats won!

Sam rocking my shades on the way back to Alexandria.  After the bouts, we went back to Sam's stomping grounds for a dinner of delicious crepes at Fontaine's.  During our brief stop at his condo, I got into his Halloween costume, and Sam was stuck with this ridiculous creature for the rest of the night:

The day's last stop was Rocket Bar in Chinatown, which was huge and fun, despite the disturbing presence of big game hunting arcade games.  I tried to get a game of Clue started, but it didn't take.  My companions were right to fear me, for I am the best at Clue.

Adam, Sam, and Peter.  They are the best dudes I know, just the best.  I managed to completely fail to get a photo of the birthday boy David, but let it be stated for the record that he's pretty rockin' too!

And that, my friends, is my weekend in two posts.  Basically.  My mom and I did our usual (which is not to say boring--this stuff is the best part of coming home) British murder mystery-watching and movie-catching thing, and Dad bought us dinner, too.  And yeah, it was animal cuddle central, but that will be covered in the third weekend post--the one about Vista's visit with the cousins.