Tuesday, August 17, 2004
Long time no post. France is fun: I had a blast in Paris. I was staying with the son of one of my mom's college buds whom I met 3 years ago when we were both staying with another of her buds from college out near LA. Anyway, I was able to finagle staying at his apartlment for most of a week and since he works during the day I had time to run around the city and do touristy things like the Eiffel Tower, The Arche de Triomphe, Place de la Bastille, the Louvre (with mandatory viewing of La Jaconde) although the Salle de l'Etat was under construction and I was denied viewing of The Last Supper. I saw three paintings and one sculpture of Saint Sebastian who was Martyred vai shot through by several arrows. If I remember it was about 6 or 7 that it took to finally pin him to the tree where he was left to die. Okay, I stand corrected: he survived being shot and ended up getting beaten to death. I think I want to name my first son - given that there is one - Sebastian, and call him 'Bastian for short.
Back to Paris. I did climb the Eiffel Tower, but only to the second level. Somehow it wasn't worth Euro 10.50 to take the elevator to the top, especially with the exchange rate right now. It has been a major case of Sticker Shock the entire time I have been here. And money goes quickly. Lunch time.... mmmm... tomato salad.
Back to Paris. I did climb the Eiffel Tower, but only to the second level. Somehow it wasn't worth Euro 10.50 to take the elevator to the top, especially with the exchange rate right now. It has been a major case of Sticker Shock the entire time I have been here. And money goes quickly. Lunch time.... mmmm... tomato salad.
Tuesday, August 03, 2004
Long time no post.... oh well.
Yesterday I began my final month long vacation as a college student: I will be spending a week in DC with a friend that graduated in May and then off to France to visit more friends and family until the end of August. This is going to be sweet.
Leading up to the fun, however, has been some pretty crazy stuff. I interviewed for my first after degree job last Tuesday about two hours from where I work(ed) and that went pretty well except for spending all my time prepping for that instead of moving. By Wednsday I was feeling amazingly unmotivated to do anything, so I would go to work, come home and nap or something instead of getting all my stuff packed up. Not so much. Friday night I got invited to go have a beer or two with one of the guys from work, but he works second shift so we didn't start until midnight and two beers turned into 3 beers... and a shot of bailies.... and a blue kamikaze... and a shot of goldschlager. Man I was trashed on top of not having eaten enough to mitigate the overdose of alcohol.
Dave and I stagger up the next morning (he had as much to drink as I had) to attempt to pack up the apartment before one of our friends shows up with his trailer to help us move all our (read 'my') crap back to the Haute. We were supposed to be ready to load up at 10 to leave at around 1pm. We arrive back at the other apartment around 7, after buying me jumper cables and jumping my car since my lights had been left on the night before and the battery was beyond dead. We went to wal-mart and I basically looked at the 4 kinds they had and bought the nicest/most expensive ones - for all of $19.99+tax. Buffs b-day is this week, and since I wasn't going to be around, I took the guys out for dinner to say 'happy b-day and thanks for helping me move my crap.' We went easy on the booze, though I was not feeling like my head was made of soggy cotton balls anymore which was a major improvement.
Sunday we emptied the trailer, took a shower, goofed off at the mall and watched the Big Lebowski. Then yesterday I caught a flight out of Indy a little before noon to arrive here in DC. Little tiny plane too, only 3 seats per row and I somehow ended up with the single on the left. Turned out to be a good thing since as we were coming down along the Potomac to land at the DC airport all the neat stuff like the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, Georgetown and whatnot were along that side. I was picked up by the aforementioned friend, and given the quick and dirty tour of the city. The weather sucked, but this looks like a pretty neat place to be. I took another nap (flying tires me out) and we went out for dinner. As we were moseying along across the street from his apartment, I hear movement to my left and look down to see a rat that had to be at least 14" from nose to ass scurry across the sidewald. Blech. Dinner was great. We picked up the car and then went to see 'Harold and Kumar go to White Castle' which turned out to be hilarious. I was not expecting much, but I laughed my ass off most of the movie. Definately a 'Funny more than once' kind of movie.
Yesterday I began my final month long vacation as a college student: I will be spending a week in DC with a friend that graduated in May and then off to France to visit more friends and family until the end of August. This is going to be sweet.
Leading up to the fun, however, has been some pretty crazy stuff. I interviewed for my first after degree job last Tuesday about two hours from where I work(ed) and that went pretty well except for spending all my time prepping for that instead of moving. By Wednsday I was feeling amazingly unmotivated to do anything, so I would go to work, come home and nap or something instead of getting all my stuff packed up. Not so much. Friday night I got invited to go have a beer or two with one of the guys from work, but he works second shift so we didn't start until midnight and two beers turned into 3 beers... and a shot of bailies.... and a blue kamikaze... and a shot of goldschlager. Man I was trashed on top of not having eaten enough to mitigate the overdose of alcohol.
Dave and I stagger up the next morning (he had as much to drink as I had) to attempt to pack up the apartment before one of our friends shows up with his trailer to help us move all our (read 'my') crap back to the Haute. We were supposed to be ready to load up at 10 to leave at around 1pm. We arrive back at the other apartment around 7, after buying me jumper cables and jumping my car since my lights had been left on the night before and the battery was beyond dead. We went to wal-mart and I basically looked at the 4 kinds they had and bought the nicest/most expensive ones - for all of $19.99+tax. Buffs b-day is this week, and since I wasn't going to be around, I took the guys out for dinner to say 'happy b-day and thanks for helping me move my crap.' We went easy on the booze, though I was not feeling like my head was made of soggy cotton balls anymore which was a major improvement.
Sunday we emptied the trailer, took a shower, goofed off at the mall and watched the Big Lebowski. Then yesterday I caught a flight out of Indy a little before noon to arrive here in DC. Little tiny plane too, only 3 seats per row and I somehow ended up with the single on the left. Turned out to be a good thing since as we were coming down along the Potomac to land at the DC airport all the neat stuff like the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, Georgetown and whatnot were along that side. I was picked up by the aforementioned friend, and given the quick and dirty tour of the city. The weather sucked, but this looks like a pretty neat place to be. I took another nap (flying tires me out) and we went out for dinner. As we were moseying along across the street from his apartment, I hear movement to my left and look down to see a rat that had to be at least 14" from nose to ass scurry across the sidewald. Blech. Dinner was great. We picked up the car and then went to see 'Harold and Kumar go to White Castle' which turned out to be hilarious. I was not expecting much, but I laughed my ass off most of the movie. Definately a 'Funny more than once' kind of movie.
