Amazing Show

Went to an amazing show at the 9:30 club tonight. The Romany Rye, who opened for Ezra Furman & the Harpoons, who opened for Delta Spirit. I'd been wanting to see Delta Spirit for more than a year now, and it was WELLLL worth the wait.

This was one of my favorite songs from tonight (this recording is obviously not from tonight, but you'll get the general idea). The drums were amazing!!

Consumer Vigilante Rides Again

I live 6 houses away from the Exxon gas station on 2720 South Glebe Rd, Arlington, VA 22206, and fill up my car there on a regular basis. I brought my car in at 4pm today to get an oil change and my safety inspection. I gave my car keys to the mechanic and walked home to wait the 1/2 hour that he said it would take to complete the work.

I then received a call asking for my car keys, I let them know that I had left them with the mechanic. Then they took another hour and a half to locate my car keys that the mechanic had left in another customer's car.

I was perfectly fine with the situation, since I was pretty comfortable at home and I was just happy that they had found my keys....... until I found out that the oil change had not been completed because the mechanic had gone home. I have a busy holiday weekend ahead of me, and I will be out of town for the next two weeks. I specifically left work early so I could get an oil change and a safety inspection done on my car.

I then asked the manager if it would be possible to get a discount on the oil change if I brought it in the next day. The manager was incredibly rude and called me a nasty person and said that they had found the keys "for my convenience", as if he and his employees were not responsible for my property when I leave it in their care for work to be done on my car.

The manager also blamed everything on the mechanic and would not take any responsibility for the situation himself. I don't care what the organization is, the manager is responsible for what happens in their store/company/country.

This is the worst customer service I've received in a very long time, and it is enough to make sure I never use Exxon again. In the future I will be going out of my way to fill up my car at another gas station on the way home.

Jumping

Yesterday was all right, I just jumped out of a plane is all.


First we stopped and picked some blueberries. Aaron wasn't super excited about this side trip, but he was the best at picking berries (the berries have since turned into a pie for dessert tonight).

There was a lot of waiting around. The atmosphere reminded me of the ski school locker room at Brighton and it made me miss my ski instructor days.

This is Emily and me practicing arching (arching is important to make sure you fall correctly) in all of our gear.

Emily, Aaron and I getting ready to go up in the plane. Then we boarded the plane and got strapped in to our instructors (mine was Nick) and climbed up to 13,000 feet and waddled over to the door- it's hard to walk when someone is strapped to your back- and then out the door. I actually wasn't scared at all. The free fall lasted for about 50 seconds and 7,000 feet, then at 6,000 feet Nick told me to pull the rip cord so I did and then we floated and spun around the rest of the way. The landing was a piece of cake and I came down very softly right on my bum.

I can't wait to find a sugar daddy so I can go again and again and again.

Happy Day Pops

I just want to give a shout out to my Dad. He's pretty amazing.
He runs marathons
He runs Westminster
He knows that it's smarter to pay other people to fix things before he breaks them further
He likes to steal shoes
He's an amazing skier- on the snow and the water
He takes very good care of his kids
He always buys flowers for my mom


I love him, he's the best.

The List Update

This was yesterday.

She's actually the same lady that did my hair two years ago at the Hon Festival in Baltimore. It was a great day- I unexpectedly got to cross two things off my list when we also came across a henna tattoo tent at the festival. So much better than a real tattoo, how in the world could I expect to like the same thing more than five years in the future.
So here's an update on what I've done so far. If you do the math, I'm only 3 behind where I should be at this point in the year, that's pretty good.

update resume~go to iskandar's restaurant~restaurant week~download google chrome~get a visa in my passport~learn how to knit~go on a pentagon tour~volunteer~tie a longer string to attic light~go to a caps game~get a sweater shaver~watch lost on a bigger tv than mine~make a road trip cd~skinny dip somewhere new~learn to cook a new ethnic food~see a sundance movie~travel international for work~march ski trip~watch old clash of the titans~make a peep wreath for easter~see terracotta warrior exhibit~cherry blossom picnic~detail inside of car~see wicked~buy sexy shoes~be somewhere really cool on my birthday~tim burton exibit at moma~hamburgers at shake shack in nyc~fix car radio~bob and edith's~steeplechase at great meadows~make sushi~sleep in a treehouse~go to scottish festival~learn all the words to gilligan's island~camp on the beach~national arboretum~kayak on the potomac~dc united game~go to hon fest~get a henna tattoo

NAFSA '010

I spent the first week in June in Kansas City, Missouri for a conference. KC surprised me with some of the cool things it had going on, like this rooftop bar with a pool that looked like it would have been more comfortable in Miami. But I was also surprised at how few people actually seemed to live there. I might have seen seven people the whole time that weren't connected to the conference.

Also, the cab driver made sure the doors were locked four times within a mile of getting to my hotel. That certainly inspires a lot of confidence.

This is Behzad and Matt- two of my favorite travelling companions in India this spring.

It took me till the very last day, just before leaving for the airport, but I finally got some real KC bbq ribs. MMMMMMM, they were tasty.

Ma and Pop Gates- They sure do make some good bbq.

PS- I did do some work while I was there too :)

Quack

Something strange happens every Memorial Day in the Outer Banks of North Carolina- hundreds and hundreds of single Mormons descend on the narrow strip of land and mingle and flirt and go to house parties to hopefully find their eternal companion. It's not actually my favorite scene. But, I do like the beach and my FOMO condition (fear of missing out) dictates that I must go.

I vowed this year that I wouldn't go to any house parties, and I didn't, but one did show up in my house and I survived. I did however swim in the ocean at night which is always on my list :)



I also got a new best friend- Jodi. She was staying in my house and is super fun and she's going to meet me in Philly for a concert and a cheese steak in a few months. That's her on the left, and me on the right, and Derek in the middle. This is actually the only picture that I took the whole weekend- I don't know why Derek has such a strained look on his face.

I thought about taking some pictures at Kittyhawk, alas I left my camera back at the house. It was fun to see where manned flight was born, and it made me miss my Grandpa Morgan because he would have loved it too.