quoted: "you were a monk in thailand? i want to be a pop star in lebanon" -new girl (aka i don't remember)

it is the feast day of st ignatius loyola (founder of the society of jesus), who died 450 years ago today... except that they were using the julian calendar back then (rather than the gregorian calendar, which was introduced in 1582).

they really delayed last night's fireworks until late late late. by which i mean i was inexplicably tired yesterday. and i have tons of work to do today, so maybe i'll provide a better update in august. sigh.

quoted: "I wasn't even invited to this wedding. i had to drunkenly demand an invitation at a strip club in palm beach." -MSY

i must again raise my most strenuous objections to july ending. no one seems to be listening.

there are fireworks and a symphony concert downtown tonight. might head down there. it's been a thrilling weekend, let me tell you. thai food friday night, followed by a bacon cheeseburger at arctic circle and two gay gay gay movies (rent and billy eliot). i've been getting a lot of work done, though. finished the final round of proper edits on the thesis yesterday. now i have to input them into the computer. that's the part i hate the most.

i also finished reading the kite runner yesterday. i feel like i was probably the last person in america to read it. i thought it was very powerful, but i'm not sure i thought it was a good novel. plot spoiler ahead: did anyone think at the end he was trying too hard? i mean, i'm not saying i didn't cry several times in the last 50 or 100 pages, but the bathroom incident at the end? tragic indeed, but a bit over the top in an almost comic way. i thought it could have done without that. it didn't deepen my understanding of the child's suffering. it just made me shut down a little to the ending.

sigh.

quoted: "as long as i stay cross-eyed, i'm fine" -becky, at a gay bar

quoted: "i wouldn't want a rabbit up there." -christine

quoted: "we've been friends forever. i can't just stop being friends with him because he spelled my name while he was having sex with another girl" -kma

i've been reading all sorts of newsmagazines during my times on the rexie at the gym. mostly i don't understand their purpose. it seems to take SO long between something happens and when it appears on those glossy pages. i guess they can have good analysis of ongoing news events. that's a good niche market. lots of stories about the end of cowboy diplomacy/the bush doctrine/the world lately. sometimes it seems like the democrats should have to work hard to lose elections. they seem to be very good at it. sigh.

why is it so close to the end of july? i tried to go to the GU library yesterday to do some work, which seemed like such a good idea. but then i ran into katie, which of course meant that i talked to her instead of doing my work. i might try the GU law library today instead.

yesterday i had the best hamburger i've ever had in my entire life. ever. just thought you should know.

quoted: "i can totally pick my nose with my tongue" -becky

quoted: "you can't put a tsunami in jail. it's just water" -amanda

quoted: "i have other inclinations" -will young. "oh. OH! how delicious!" -judi dench (mrs henderson presents)

quoted: "i wish i could shrink you down and keep you in my pocket" -joss

quoted: "silent dear: shut the buck up!" -manda

went out to camp again last night to visit bo (aka ganoush) with katie and amanda. it's always fun to go with former counselors, because nobody minds if you sit on the dock instead of playing kick the can (boys and JCs won, btw). and julie: everyone at camp is playing pointy this summer. hundreds of little kids falling on the ground and getting dirty trying to poke one another. it's a phenomenon!

anyway, we got home real late because we made an appearance at the couselors' ice cream social after campfire. there are still a few people my age on staff (shocking!), but chaos is a dreamboat. so i didn't mind being exhausted when we left.

i spent ALL of yesterday trying to outwit becky's computer virus. and failing. so hopefully the guy at work who's giving it a go will do a better job. on the plus side, i did realize that i remember dos prompts. i'm sure they're taking up part of my brain that could be used more productively, though. by something like proficiency as an historian, perhaps? nah.

today it's back to work. i'm horrified that we're about to enter the final 3rd of july. ack! summer is going faaaaar too quickly.

quoted: "sex follows me" -y2

the past twelve hours have been very good for food, but less good for sleep. last night i went to qdoba (chipotle's ugly stepsister), and not only was my burrito literally bursting (though not at the seams), but they wrapped it in another tortilla. free. oh so much food. and then amanda got home from seattle (where, i guess, she lives or something) at about 10.30 last night, so i just made us breakfast sammiches while she sits on some fancy pants conference call. sigh.

but yeah, didn't sleep so well last night. i should probably take a nap this afternoon so that i'm not too tired when amanda, katie and i head out to visit bo at camp this evening. that begs the question of how i'll manage to make it to the gym AND do some work AND solve my other sister's computer virus problem.

no emails today...makes it much more difficult to rationalize avoiding my work. i should get to it.

quoted: "you're very handsome. do you have a girlfriend?" -great aunt bea, after the wedding.

quoted: "i love beer" -barbecue

1,000 days
quoted: "do you ever cry a little when you poop?" -never have i ever, via amanda

quoted: "i wish i was a woman sometimes" -sean, at black tie dinner

my newest (nerdy nerdy) pet peeve: not being able to find notes i remember taking. like notes on michael braddick's parliamentary taxation in seventeenth-century england. where can they have gone? they can't just disappear! i hope.

i just saw ben stein on fox news. he's nuts. someone please remind me why i'm supposed to care about his opinions? any more than i care about...say...those of alek trebek.

i went to see that new pirate movie last night. arg! it was...compelling. but i'm pretty sure there was no actual plot. and the scene with johnny dep at the end...worst special effects ever. it was like some 1970s B movie. i'm just saying. still, i'm glad i went to see it.

workin on the st martin's chapter today. congrats to jack on making it to the next (final?) round of his bloomberg interviews. well done!

quoted: "if it comes to that, i'll just throw up in your lap." -AB

i'm going (to try) to be brief today. i'm going to head to the GU library here in a second (i hope katie is there) and then to lunch with the grandmatron. not sure where yet, but i'm sure it will be good.

you know, all this time outside hasn't yet made me sunburned, but it has started to bleach my eyebrows blond. and the tips of my eyelashes are going too. it looks a bit funny, but what is to be done?

no i don't want to talk about new york or georgia. at all.

i love spokane. i went to get a suit jacket altered last saturday when i got back from the beach. i had to buy a 42 because my shoulders looked like they were going to pop out of the 40. but that meanth that from the nipples (haha. what a great word) down, i felt like i was wearing my dad's suit. anyway, 5 days and $15 later, my jacket looks great on me. in fact i might not even wear a shirt to stephen and jen's wedding a week from today. j/k.

quoted: "i never thought about finding a job that paid well" -gramma k., who moved to LA from seattle after graduating from college in 1934 because she wanted to be a children's librarian.

i apologize for being a huge slacker. i actually did do a half-assedu update on monday, but then i apparently forgot to publish it. sigh.

happy birthday to my friend yannis, and happy independence day, one day late.

in celebration of the 4th of july, i went with katie up to her brother-in-law's family's place on diamond lake. it was a ton of fun. the water was warm, the food was good, the people were friendly. what more could one want on our nation's birthday? oh yes. fireworks. well, nature totally upstaged america last night. some of the fireworks at the lake were cool, but nothing was as cool as the cloud lightning that lit up the darkening sky every 2 or 3 minutes. so so cool. plus, while the storm itself hit spokane, up north at diamond lake we were safe.

has anyone seen the new national geographic? it got delivered here today. the cover story? panda bears. i'm in heaven. there's a photo of a dogpile of seriously like 18 baby pandas. cute overload.

went to visit ganoush at camp on monday night. that was fun, except for the mosquitos. definitely the best meal i've ever had at camp. use of the staff salad bar doesn't hurt either. and on the way back we got huckleberry milkshakes at the ram. that was followed for me by a 2nd trip to the ram yesterday for a cookies & cream milkshake and directions to diamond lake. the 17-year-old who helped us seemed as if he'd just fallen out of the womb. he was kinda disoriented. was i that clueless looking in high school? probably.

chapter 2 revisions: more or less done. but now i don't want to move on to chapter 3. my grandmother tells me i need more of a work ethic. what's more than 0?

quoted: "going through the back door is always a bad idea" -sister. "not in italy" -aunt