30 April 2008

Movie -- Young@Heart

Last night we saw a truly heart-warming film, Young@Heart. It's a documentary about a senior citizens' chorus from Northampton, Massachusetts, that changed its tune from more traditional "oldies" pop music to classic and modern rock songs from artists like Jimi Hendrix, the Ramones, Talking Heads, the Clash, and Coldplay. The film opens a few months before their next big tour and the exasperated chorus director is trying to teach the group some new songs. We follow the chorus's progress over those months as they struggle with Sonic Youth and James Brown. Can they pull themselves together in time for the big show?

There is nothing bad to say about this film. It's innocent fun. You'll laugh, you'll cry... all that good stuff.

I've been trying all day to embed the trailer from YouTube but either something's wrong with my copy/paster, Blogger, or YouTube. The next best thing is a link to the trailer: Click Here.

It's still playing in D.C. at the E Street Landmark Theatre, next to Metro Center.

22 April 2008

Earth Day Shmearth Day

I can't help feeling about Earth Day the way I feel about Valentine's Day -- nothing. If you really love someone you should find ways to express that on a regular basis, not just one day in February when people get irrational over chocolates and teddy bears. If you care about the earth, doing something on one day isn't going to make a difference. You have to make many small changes over a long period of time. (And don't say it's about awareness--being aware for one day and forgetting the next doesn't do any good. After the Lights Out For an Hour night, who has continued to reduce their electricity usage on a daily basis?)

So today hasn't been any different from my regular routine. I walked to a nearby grocery store with my shopping bags. I took the stairs 3 out of 4 times instead of the elevator. I dropped some bottles in the recycling bin.

I'm not saying I'm a great green person. I think I'm pretty low on the green scale, actually. I don't wash and reuse every single bit of plastic or glass. I occasionally forget to turn off lights and unplug chargers.

I wonder what recycling will be like in Burundi? If Americans weren't so frivolous and consumer driven, would we even need an Earth Day?

21 April 2008

Catching Up

Last night, about a week after leaving our little studio hotel room for a two-bedroom apartment, we found ourselves crammed into one room. Me in bed reading, Mike at the desk online, and the cats dozing nearby. So why did we upgrade to a bigger, better apartment if we're going to continue all living together in one room?

Oh yeah, because now we live in Georgetown and it's so much better than Falls Church. There's stuff to walk to! Metro stops, restaurants, post office, Dunkin Donuts... the possibilities are endless.

We are just beginning to feel settled here. The day after we moved in Mike's mom arrived and we accompanied her on a road trip to Roanoke for a couple days. Then Mike headed north to spend some time with his brother and friends in Philly and New York. Last night was only the third night Mike has spent in our new digs. I spent my time alone scouting out the neighborhood but by yesterday I was so incredibly bored. I wanted Mike back to show off all the stuff I discovered.

Now he's back, but had to go to work this morning of course. And I'm bored again. And it's raining. And I'm bored.

16 April 2008

Michelle Obama on Colbert Report

This is pretty entertaining.



I will return to regularly scheduled blogging shortly. I've been away from my desk for a few days.

09 April 2008

What would you do?

For the last two days I've been taking an emergency first aid course. Just another perk about moving to East Africa. What do you do when there's a fire, car accident, earthquake, explosion and there's no 911 to call? At the start of the class the instructor gave us a scenario and we all sat dumbfounded, thinking about what to do. She asked if anyone felt overwhelmed and almost all of us raised our hands. At the end of the class the instructor went back to the same scenario and we were all able to triage the situation. I now know how to stabilize a chest flail with my shoe. (I also now know what a chest flail is!) I feel a little like MacGuyver. I hope that at the very least, if faced with a traumatic situation, I've learned not to panic and freeze and if nothing else provide good bedside manner if I can't remember any of the physical patch-ups.

If you witness a car accident, if you see someone faint on the sidewalk, if your kid impales himself with a pen, if your grandma spills boiling water on herself, do you know what to do? It's amazing how learning a few simple tricks can alleviate pain and hopefully save a life. I didn't know an organized way of responding to a scene. Now I do. The instructor pointed out that if there was an explosion in the building we were in in Fairfax County, Virginia, it could take several hours to get all the victims to the hospital. Even in first-world suburban and urban neighborhoods, ambulances take time and the more victims you have, the more ambulances you need. It's easy to take calling 911 for granted when that's what we're trained to do from the time we first learn to use a telephone. But whether you're in Georgetown, D.C., or Georgetown, Guyana, you don't have to sit helplessly.

My course was set-up through Mike's employer but the American Red Cross offers courses for everyone.

05 April 2008

We're moving again

We get antsy. And we are at the point where we hate our hotel room. It's nice enough, but we're sick of it. It's a studio and after 3 months it's driving us both crazy that we can't close a door and get some alone time. The other person is always there. And the cats. Oh the cats! They are driving us crazy too. The smaller the living space, the more we have to listen to their shenanigans all night long. Plus, this northern Virginia suburb has nothing to do unless you want to eat out at chain restaurants every night. We like to walk places and we can't walk to a darn thing from here. Our souls have been sapped.

So we are moving to two-bedroom suite smack-dab in the middle of D.C. We feel we deserve some nice digs for a few months before heading off to Africa. We've always wanted to live in D.C. rather than Virginia. We'll be able to walk everywhere! And the weather's finally getting decent enough for walking without bundling up and looking like a Sta-Puft Marshmallow Man.

We have a busy week ahead of us as we figure out how to check out of one place and into the next in one day, making as few driving trips as possible, while Mike's at work all day long. We need to get a storage unit for storing stuff that we'll need in Africa but not D.C. We need to weed out the winter clothes that we didn't actually wear this winter and drop them in a clothing bin.

(And finish our taxes. Oh, and Mike's mom is coming down for a visit next weekend. And I wanted to get B-52s and Cure tickets. So much to do!)

On moving day I'm going to have to drive in D.C., which I've never done before, and I think I'm more nervous about that than driving in Africa.

04 April 2008

Climbing a Mountain

Last week we went to REI to hear a woman talk about climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro. She and her mom climbed it a couple years ago and they've been talking to people about how anyone in good shape can do it. It's not a technical climb. You just need to be fit and have the right clothing and shoes. Most of what she told us is the same as what's in my Lonely Planet Tanzania book, which she recommended, but it was nice to hear that information from someone who had done the climb and could validate what the book said.

The talk quickly spiraled out of control and became an annoying mess due to a guy who piped up early on and said he'd just come back from climbing it and he'd done a bunch of other mountains, so he could offer advice to anyone. Um... we all came to get advice from this woman and you don't even know her so you're going to hijack her talk? He was an insufferable know-it-all who wanted to show off and after awhile I felt bad for the woman. She just couldn't say, "Thanks for your input, I'm sure people will want to ask you questions when I'm done." Instead people kept interrupting her to ask questions that he would jump in and answer. We left after about an hour, getting more information from the handouts she'd prepared than her actual talk.

What I got out of it: It's going to be cold and wet. In my "old age" I've become something of a weather wimp and I'm going to have to get over that if I want to summit this mountain. What better time to work on that than April on the East Coast? We've already had enough cold, wet weather in the last week to start me thinking "Keep going for Kilimanjaro, keep going for Kilimanjaro," when I'm uncomfortable.

Today, though, I think I might hit the treadmill rather than battle the elements. It's still mental preparation if I overcome boredom instead of rain, right?

(Image from Wikipedia.)

02 April 2008

Cherry Blossoms!

It's that time of year when people go bonkers for trees with little white and pink blossoms. Cherry blossom time in Washington, D.C. Yes, we went down to take a look and yes, it's very pretty. We actually went last Friday afternoon, the day before the festival started. We wanted to avoid as many people as possible. We like to Metro to Arlington Cemetery and walk across the bridge to the Tidal Basin. It's a great walk. You get a nice overview of the trees from afar. And it gets you off a crowded train sooner than if you took it all the way into the city. (I've been trying to map our walks around D.C. See here.)

Officially, the National Cherry Blossom Festival runs through April 13, but the blossoms are at their peak right now. The festival includes activities for kids and traditional Japanese food and drink. (Like a Sapporo beer garden?) There is very little parking available and isn't driving in D.C. a pain in the butt anyway? You can take the Metro to various stations and take nice walks through D.C. and around the Tidal Basin.

You can see our photos at flickr.