Things in Omaha That Made Me Laugh (or Smile or Otherwise Happy)

When I go to Omaha, as I now do at least once a year, the impression that is given is that I go to visit my Poodle. Which is true. Why else would a person go to Omaha, Nebraska for vacation if not for a Poodle? But there is something else I get from it. For me, being in JP's beautiful Old Market loft apartment is like a spa vacation. First of all, JP is just the consummate host. He insists on paying for everything. (Sometimes I force him to let me pay for things but it always involves threatening to create a scene). Second, he's the sort of host who says, "Wake me when you get up". Like, if he were by himself he'd wake up when he freaking wanted to but he doesn't want me to have to fend for myself. (I don't wake him up. I get up and make coffee and he hears me and comes toddling out). Which leads me to #3: he makes sure there is coffee around because he knows I love it; even though he doesn't really drink coffee. (His friend Minogue also knows this about both of us and when she came over she brought a bag of coffee from Scooters, the local beanery). And that parenthetical statement leads me to No. 4, which is that JP has some really nice friends and they are all super nice to me. Actually, they make me feel a little like a local hero.

But most of all, it is a spa vacation because the whole time I am there we do whatever we want. We eat when, where and what we want, drink when and where we want, watch stuff on TV if we want, sit around talking if we want, entertain if we want. There is not a smitch of obligation about the time and it feels languorous and restorative - a total break and the complete opposite of my real life, which is full of obligation and deadline and expectation and responsibility. (Not that there is ultimately anything wrong with that but lordy, a girl needs a break once in a while).

The other thing about being in Omaha is that there is a lot of laughing. And laughing is a very healthy thing.

Miss Smay, holding forth. Always amusing.

The birthday boy received a lot of gifts to ease his transition into his golden years. Like reading glasses and adult diapers.

They were pretty comfy.
They also provided a source of endless amusement for Miss Smay.

Here he is, using a diaper to assist his Lady Gaga impersonation.
Jon (pretty much all JP's friends are required by law to have a name that begins with "J". I was grandfathered in) wasn't any good at the Kung Fu dance on the Wii so he used the controller as a microphone and rocked out instead.

Then we danced.

Minogue, the most photogenic woman in the world. Also one of the sweetest. Provided, that is, she does not receive crappy service in her favorite restaurant. You do not want to be on the receiving end of her ire in that circumstance.
My Poodle...who I love very much.

Things in Washington DC That Made Me Cry

This is me, striding the Halls of Power. We had a meeting with an aide in Senator Murray's office. You have to go through security (of course) to get into any of the senate office buildings but once in you can walk through the halls, passing the large and impressive offices of the senators. There was something magnificent about that.

When we had our meeting in Senator Murray's office we acted very professionally and cool. Until the aide offered us tickets to the galleries for the House and Senate, giving us passage into the places where laws are passed. I can't tell you why, but I lost it.

They were debating amendments to the Wall Street reform bill when we were there. Only 2 senators were on the floor at the time but it was quite something to look down on all those desks (which we weren't allowed to photograph), desks that are as old as the Capitol itself. And it was restorative to listen to the remarks of the senators, who were thoughtful, well-spoken and not remotely hysterical. It was a reminder that the sound bites we get may be full of clamouring partisanship but the real work is conducted without fisticuffs.

The trolley was moving quickly through Arlington so it was hard to get a good shot. But that was appropriate because I was blubbering like a baby.

Julia's pots and pans. 'Nuff said.

No photography was allowed in the exhibit where the Smithsonian displays the flag that flew over Fort McKinley...the flag that inspired the "Star Spangled Banner". So this artwork will have to fill in. But seeing that tattered old mess with it's smattering of hand-sewn stars blew my mind.

The lunch counter from Gainsborough, North Carolina; site of one of the sit-ins from the Civil Rights movement.
These beautiful young people did a 20 minute program about the importance of song in the Civil Rights movement. It was incredibly moving and by the time they wrapped up I was once again embarrassing MAB with my weeping.

This is me (with -from the top- Rachael, Mary and Lisa) on the staircase at Gadsby's Pub, the oldest tavern in Alexandria. All the big names from the birth of our nation used to get their drink on here. (We were there for the final feast of the conference). These stairs lead to the room where Thomas Jefferson held his inaugural dinner and dance. Thomas Freaking Jefferson walked on these stairs, people. Thomas Jefferson!

Betcha Thought I Had Run Away from Home, Huh?

I learned a few things in May. One of them was that while traveling can be veryvery fun and veryvery educational and veryvery stimulating, it also plays hell with your real life. A week in DC, 5 very busy days at home and then a long weekend in Omaha just threw me right off course. It's simply amazing how well established habits can be blown all the bits by that much disruption, however pleasant, to the regular course of things.

I'm trying to get back on track. I just have to find the track.

Emomaha

There are still things to say about Washington D.C., like about all the hobnobbing with Senators and watching democracy in action and almost-but-not-quite seeing POTUS and about the times I cried because something moved me so much.

But then I went to Omaha.

Considering how little I enjoy flying, I've done quite a lot of it lately. Plus, if you fly to Omaha on Frontier Airlines there is a good chance that at some point you're going to get on a plane that is so small they can't hook up one of those accordion tunnel things to it so you have to cross the tarmac and climb the stairs into the plane. Or, my favorite, deplane down steps before crossing the tarmac to the terminal, which allows you to pretend that you are the President or royalty or whatever as you come down the stairs.

Although- travel tip here- I do not recommend flying if you have a head cold. Not that I would have done things any differently even had I known what was about to happen to me but it's still good advice. Because if you are in an airplane (especially a small one) and you are stuffed up from a cold you will probably, at some point, experience gut-wrenching, eye-popping, little-freaky-animals-with-talons-searing pain throughout your head and you will think that you are having an aneurysm and while one part of you fights to keep from screaming like a little girl the other part of you will regret all the Bret Michaels jokes you ever told and then the plane will finally land and the pain will subside but you'll be nearly deaf for the rest of the day.

So instead of looking all pretty and happy and let's-celebrate-your-40th-Poodle giddy when JP picked me up I was red of face, teary eyed and kept saying, "Huh?"

Fortunately, after a very nice Italian dinner (which he allowed me to buy for him because he always pays for everything when I'm in town which is nice but come on now, it was his birthday) and some advice from a diver about how to clear your ears and after we watched "The Office" and after he made me tea and built me a tent and set up the humidifier and I slept the sleep of the righteous, I woke up the next morning with my hearing restored and ready to party.

Tuesday in DC

Tuesday was spent in meetings, being tortured on chairs left over from the Spanish Inquisition. But all that was redeemed when evening came and I got to finally meet my long-lost cousin, Doralong!

We had dinner at the Ritz Carlton, which was fantastic (fried goat cheese & beets, among other things....yum).

But even better was sitting across the table from someone who, once again, proved to be exactly as warm, witty and fun as her blog had led me to believe. It was just delightful.

It was also too short as I had to go back to the hotel for a Monuments by Night tour. I was looking forward to that because, let's face it, Washington D.C. is kinda all about the monuments. And it was beautiful.

The Capitol and "the monument" at dusk.The Iwo Jima sculpture is way, way bigger than I had thought. Semper fi!

I just brought the little family point-and-shoot camera so it didn't do super well with the night photography but I like this shot anyway.

The monument to FDR is quite something....a long walk leading up to a plaza composed of walls (with some of his words carved on them), fountains and wonderful statues of both FDR

and Eleanor.

When we first got to the Viet Nam wall I was disappointed. By then it was very late and dark and the black of the wall just slide into the darkness. But then we started to walk along it and the power of that monument was just as strong as if we were seeing it by day.

It is quite something...all those names. That's probably the eternal strength of this particular design. A statue can't convey the cost of war the way thousands of names can.

The Lincoln Memorial is like a church. Not just because it is so large but because it is so quite. People stand there, hushed, looking up at the Great Emancipator (who would be 27 feet tall if he stood up (freaky), and reflecting on, well, I guess on what greatness looks like.

Beginning Snapshots

Washington DC was superfantastic. Just wanted to say that. It was very humid the first couple of days, then it rained, then it was clear and warm. The hotel was nice, the conference was enlightening and the food was yummers. (Really, is there anything better than a hotel buffet breakfast? I'm serious).

Sunday
Took the (very efficient) Metro out to Maryland where I was met by Ann, who took me to her house and fed me rhubarb pie.

We went to her church, where I met the effervescent and just-like-you-imagine-her

Mom. There was a lot of hugging.

Then it was off to Baltimore with Ann and her kids (plus a boyfriend) to roam the streets and snap pictures of really old stuff. We had tapas for lunch. Fan.tast.ic.

Evening cocktail party and a session with Dr. Donald Davis, a fantastic storyteller.

Monday
Another session with Dr. Davis and then an afternoon scavanger hunt. Our team was at the Capitol. Must say, the moment the dome came into sight I got all varklempt. There is something very majestic about it...something that says, "Hey, I was here when you were fighting about slavery, I was here when you were aguing about civil rights and I'm still here. Deal with it."

Then we had a meeting with one of Senator Murray's aides. It was all very professional and then she invited us to the constituent coffee with the Senator and gave us gallery passes for the House and Senate. And I cried.

Had dinner at the Monocle, where everybody who is anybody dines (except we didn't see anybody) and did some shoppng at Union Square. I bought some wonderful yellow heels.

More later.

First off, I neglected to blog the finale of "Project Runway". Seth Aaron, deservedly, won. Emilio, who demonstrated his snarky, I'm-better-that-everyone self-absorption lost. And was a real baby about it. When you see his uninspired sportswear in Target walk on over to the Jessica Simpson department.

Speaking of Jessica Simpson, she "designed" the new roll-y suitcase I bought for my trips. It's really cool. I didn't know it was Jessica Simpson until after I'd bought it. So I'm ok with it. Plus, it's commodious.

I leave for DC tomorrow morning and I have 412 things to do today. Including dying my hair, which I'll have to do at work. (Which will be fine because I dyed MAB's hair at work the other day. Priorities). And I have to get a mani and a pedi and buy some insoles for my black flats and I need to pack. It's really too bad I have to work today. Good news on that front, I'm this close to finishing up the things I need to finish up before being away from the office for a week. And that includes having finally written an outline for the presentation I'm giving on Tuesday. Now I just need to design a useful and alluring hand-out. (I totally decided against a Powerpoint presentation. So last decade).

86 that about the hair. I'm doing it now.

I will be able to blog, I expect, from DC but the photologue may have to wait. But there will be lots of pictures. Me on Lincoln's lap, me in Julia's kitchen, me with blog buddies, like that. I can't wait.

Everyone be good while I'm gone. Do your homework and eat an apple every day.

Love.

And Away We Go

In less than a week I will be in Washington D.C.

I have never been to our nation's capital and I'm demmed excited. You might not know this about me, but I'm one whimpy arsed patriot. I never get all the way through the National Anthem at a ballgame because I start cryin' like a wee bairn. So the thought of being in D.C., only blocks from the Capitol, wandering around a place rife with history and meaning, well, it gets Mama just a little bit varklempt.

But that's not all.

Sure. It's just freakin' swell that I get to go to a conference with my peers to exchange information and knowledge and all that hooha. It's dandy that I get to spend time touring the monuments and sites of DC, reveling in all that is gloriously Americana.

But it turns out, I got peeps. Peeps in da 'hood. So, for example, on Sunday I'm hooking up with Anne to go to church and maybe if I'm lucky Mom will be there, too. Then later in the week I'm having dinner with my darling-cousin-who-I've-never-met-but-who-I'm-purty-sure-I'm-related-to Doralong. And if all that tweren't enough, I'm also hooking up with my college room-mate, Shelley, who I last saw before I met The Spouse. (She's an opera singer and her husband conducts the Navy band or some such thing).

Now all I have to do is:

get everything on my desk at work under control so that I can

prepare the FREAKIN' notes for the discussion I'm leading on website development and then

figure out what to wear on the day that requires me to participate in a scavenger hunt at the Smithsonian before attending a meeting in a Senator's office with no time between events to go to the hotel and change

which will happen around the same time I buy a bustier to fit under the superfantastic dress I'm wearing to the fancy arsed dinner the last night of the conference (in a joint that used to host the likes of, uh, George Washington and Thomas "Freakin'"Jefferson).

I do have a new superfantastic bit of luggage on wheels that doesn't remotely look like all the other (black) bags that will be on the carousel at baggage claim. (And don't even start. Mommy has to check her bag. WAY too many costume changes in one week for a carry-on). I'm going to start packing it tomorrow.

Ashes, Ashes

Ah, Lent. Permission to slow down, unplug, eat less, pray more....I need the formality of such edicts to do what it always makes sense to do.

This year I'll be praying for 2 friends on difficult journies and hope to enter in with them, to help share the load, to - as we Catholics like to say - be Christ to them. Because sometimes people need that.

For myself, I'm going to focus on being more, uh, focused. Perhaps "attentive" is the better word. Attentive to others, to the important things, making time to do what improves and stimulates me rather than just plugging into the mindless things that divert attention from doing. And I'm giving up sweets. Because I like to think that I'm not much of a sweetie person but I am and I'm still trying to get more svelte for all my big events in May, which now include The Child's confirmation and attending the Carole King/James Taylor concert with MAB. My trip to Omaha is officially firm and a'happenin', which delights me no end. A weekend in Omaha with JP is like going to a spa. Seriously.

So there you have it. I will be making an ash of myself later in the morning and then the season will officially begin. That makes me happy.

Why Blogging May be at a Premium for the Rest of the Month

Please note this list does not include the fact that I will be working, preparing my resume (it's getting to be time to apply to keep my job on a permanent basis), cleaning the house, or, you know, sleeping.

August 19 - Eye appointment, buy school books and finish back-to-school clothes shopping with The Child.

August 20 - Hello? Project Runway is back!

August 21 - 50th birthday bash for The Child's god-mother

August 22 - Dinner with Jane Austen & Mr. Darcy

August 23 - Begin pilgrimage to Forks, Washington in search of all things Twilight

August 24 - Forks

August 25 - Forks

August 26 - Take Child to registration then run back to work to prepare for a big ass tour of D.C. mucky mucks without MAB present

August 27 - Bloody Mary Thursday and Hello? Project Runway.

August 28 - Rehearsal for Big Wedding

August 29 - Ree & Jerry's Big Wedding ("big" in importance, not size - but The Child is in the wedding party so you see how it is)

August 30 - Get my bangs trimmed and recover from Big Wedding

August 31 - Baptism seminar with Kiki's parents

On another note, my 4th blogoversary has come and gone. Whoo hoo.

A Photo Essay

I saw all this in Omaha. Nebraska.