Lady Adventure

So, if you are like me and totally fail at following current events, Pakistan is kind of underwater at this point and definitely needs everyone's help. You can text FLOOD to 27722 to donate $10; the Department of State's website has more info.

In much happier news, Elizabeth got married this weekend! Huzzah! Highlights include:

-- seeing Natasha before she flees to Tibet
-- being able to tell people we got kicked out of a club at the bachelorette partay
-- STEAMPUNK ANTLER EARRINGS (thanks, Katherine!)
-- contra dancing with Laura and unexpected Mike!
-- the wedding ceremony quietly being crashed by random Turkish tourists
-- Meera's bf deciding to tell everyone he was an Ultimate Fighter at the reception

Sadly, I was not able to go down to the 'Burg on Sunday and see more people :(

However, I did make it to the last concert of the Folk Fest, which was awesome! Even if I DID miss Vienna Teng on Friday, alas. I particularly liked Malinky, Rockin' Acoustic Circus, and Richard Thompson. I also picked up "Book of Sparrows" by Tracy Grammer, but I don't know if I like it yet -- it's very mellow.

And then I made banana bread yesterday. Mmmm, banana bread.

( I like bananas! Bananas are good. )

In conclusion: I apparently missed the Back to School Meeting, which may or may not have been mandatory. Whoops? In my defense, I have received absolutely no information about it, aside from that the retirement plan rep would be appearing in the district at some point and other people were supposed to call him. I guess I am not included in the district's Psychic Information Network :(

"[John] Lennon, however, had been championing a Lord of the Rings project (he planned on playing Gollum with Paul McCartney as Frodo, George Harrison as Gandalf, and Ringo Starr as Frodo’s confidant Sam)." -- The Beatles Movies That Never Happened

...

WHAT.

I have returned from the folk fest! Lots of awesome bands this year, including fellow West Chestrians Hoots and Hellmouth, Judy Collins and Janis Ian from the old folk vanguard, Great Big Sea, and of course Tempest, who have further choreographed their signature "stand in a line and take one step to the left" move to "stand in a line, take one step to the left, spin around, shake butt, face audience and resume wandering around stage". Also, the double-necked electric mandolin will never stop being amusing. Rock on, dudes. Got a bunch of new CDs too, including Dave Carter and Tracy Grammar's last release, which so far seems very mellow.

I may have also saved my cousin from the grip of bad literature, since after she mentioned that she liked the Twilight series a lot, I gave her my copy of Sunshine by Robin McKinley, which is far superior and contains 100% less sparkle and 100% more cinnamon buns. So everyone else should read it too, in case you feel the need to indulge in vicarious vampirism but aren't, you know, TOTALLY LAME.

Walking around on steep hills all weekend did nothing for my ankles, and my right one started hurting AGAIN. Alas. Also, my family has abandoned me to take Kurt to Cleveland while I must toil and drudge at work, although admittedly the alternative would be to also go to Cleveland, and I'm sure you can see the flaw in that plan. However, the fact remains that we don't really have any food in the house. Curses.

Because I clearly have not had enough unintentional entertainment in my life (or EPIC FAIL as the case may be), I started watching the BBC's Robin Hood solely on the premise that it looked amusing in its badness. It turns out that I was entirely correct, and Robin Hood is in fact hilarious, sometimes on purpose. It's pretty much The Mummy of television, to the point where I would not actually be surprised if an evil undead mummy turned up and started terrorizing Sherwood.

( 5 REASONS WHY ROBIN HOOD IS AWESOMELY BAD, and then some )

In conclusion: Robin Hood wears a hoodie.

In a tragic turn of events, my iPod seems to be terminally ill and rapidly declining. I blame Kurt. Not just because he is to blame for everything, but because his iPod recently exploded into a fiery ball of shrapnel visible from space, and my iPod was fine until I charged it on our computer this morning, which just so happened to be logged into his account, and which activated his iTunes. Coincidence? I think not.

DON'T LEAVE ME HOLLY. I CAN'T DO ALL MY FILING ALONE AND MUSIC-LESS.

I am also somewhat concerned that Kurt (Kurtis for short) is on his third episode of Hannah Montana and shows no signs of stopping. Why?

3 words: CHRISTIAN DEATH METAL

As the boat began to rock
all the sin was washed away
100 years of real hard work
NOAH SAT DOWN AND HAD A COFFEE

Camelot in three words or less:
Proposition: Lancelot sucks.

Also signed up for Netflix. They are sending me bad King Arthur movies even as we speak. However, I will say it again: Camelot is awesome and everyone should watch it. I'll admit that I'm leaving my project kind of late, but hey, it could be worse. I mean, the paper's not even due until September, and I've started in JULY. I think that may be some kind of record for me.

In other productive news, I've decided to read honest-to-goodness LITERATURE. The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens. It's quite funny. I like Dickens, even though judging by the size of this monstrosity he was obviously trying to purchase some kind of yacht. It's a veritable celebration of getting paid by the word.

Also, I made lemonade yesterday. It was rather strong, so I guess I shouldn't use one lemon per glass. I like lemons. In retrospect, however, it seems that perhaps I shouldn't have stored the sugar syrup in an Aquafina bottle that is sitting next to other Aquafina bottles on a day where the heat index is somewhere around 115º. My mother certainly didn't think so. I assumed that people wouldn't drink a mysterious golden liquid without looking, but I was wrong.

On a completely unrelated note, I was listening to my iPod and noticed that if you switched the gender of the singer in "All Day and All of the Night," the song sounds ridiculously needy:

I'�m not content to be with you in the daytime
[...] I want to be with you all of the time
The only time I feel alright is by your side
[...] I want to be with you all of the time
All day and all of the night

[...]

I believe that you and me last forever
Oh yea, all day and nighttime yours, leave me never
The only time I feel alright is by your side
[...] I want to be with you all of the time
All day and all of the night

Gloria Steinem would spit on any woman who sung this. Somehow, there is a double standard here.

Although the Kinks are still awesome.