abka | Entries tagged with travel

I'm in Vegas!!! We arrived yesterday. This weekend is the con and then vacation is the rest of the week.

Sat next to a chatty conservative guy on the plane who kept drinking beer (he bought B. one and kept offering us more, but we passed). I don't usually talk for so many hours with people whose life view is so opposite of mine. Given that it was pretty interesting and respectful. We discussed politics, taxes, abortion (we have opposing views), the NEA (I got a pretty animated on this one, the stewardess may have asked us to quiet down), and eventually movies (thank goodness).

B. and I did some education:
guy: [discussing the Strauss-Khan thing] "well she was a whore"
me: "it's still rape even if she's a prostitute"
B.: "a woman can withdraw consent at *any time*"
me and B.: [more explanation on this point, it's rape even if it's your wife, etc.]
him: "Huh. I didn't know that."
me: [internally: OMG That Women Are People Is News to You, 45 Year Old Man!!!]

To his credit he did seem to get it; it was like he had just never considered the issue before. ::facepalm::

Then later:
guy: "I believe that Americans are morally superior to people in other countries."
me and B.: "We disagree with you."

[There was more discussion, qualification, etc. but you get the point.]

-----

Back to Vegas!

We've been pretty chill so far. Drove up the strip and checked into the time share. It's pretty nice. The bedroom has an adjoining area (before the bathroom) with a whirlpool tub. Awesome. There are weird shutters you can open so you can chat with the person in the tub from the bed. A little strange (but maybe that's just a failure of my imagination?).

We hung out with people last night. I saw part of the vid show and then hung out with people in the pool.

This morning B. and I had breakfast and then I chilled for a couple hours. I just started The Girl Who Played with Fire. Attended a pretty good Dr. Who panel this afternoon. I think tonight we might go see the movie with everyone or gamble a little.

Current Mood: relaxed

Tags:

travel,
vacation

I spent a long weekend in Cleveland at my youngest cousin’s graduation party/family reunion. I couldn’t afford plane tickets so my parents graciously offered to drive B. and I. It went pretty well despite 24 hours in the minivan. It was really nice to see my family and introduce B. and I had plenty of time to talk with my parents. I only wish that my sister and the baby could have been there.

Friday my parents ditched us to visit some college friends and B. and I went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. B. was really thrilled and I liked it a lot. The permanent exhibition in particular was really well done. The food options and gift shop were disappointing, but we had a good day overall. Friday night we had an excellent dinner with family at The Greenhouse Tavern. I had a delicious veggie and farro fricassee. Sadly, we couldn’t order half a pig’s head for my dad who didn’t really believe that was a menu item and kept harassing the cute, tattooed waiter.

Saturday me, B., my mom, and uncle went to the Cleveland Art Museum. They’re under construction so it was a bit twisty and turny to navigate, but their collection is top notch. I saw some wonderful things!

Then we went to my aunt’s house for the graduation party. We stayed about two hours longer than I would have preferred, but it made my dad happy to have as much time as possible with his family.

Sunday we drove back. B. took a shift driving and my mom didn’t freak out (she’s a very nervous passenger). Mostly though B. and I watched West Wing episodes in the back seat. (On the way there we mostly slept.)

All in all a nice, yet somewhat tiring, weekend with family.

Current Mood: sleepy

Tags:

family,
travel

I had a fantastic weekend in Provincetown! We stayed at the beautiful and quirky Land's End Inn in the Tiger Lily room. It was so nice to have wine, cheese, and fruit in the early evening at the inn. There was much time spent lounging, hanging out in the livingroom, visiting with other guests, and wondering around the adorable downtown looking at art and jewelry. I bought a beautiful necklace at the Dancing Turnip and bought B. a ceramic duck that we have named Javier.

We got massages here and spent a good deal of time in the outdoor hot tub, sauna, and dry sauna. They also have fun themed rooms (named for writers), and we might stay here in future trips. It has the advantages of being downtown, more modern decor, and use of the spa, even if it's not as fun and quirky and doesn't have the cozy livingroom and out-of-this-world view of Land's End.

The food over the weekend was delicious, if a little pricey. We especially liked The Mews. B. had really good bison shortribs and I had the most amazing lamb dish ever. Other food highlights included the hot chocolate at the Purple Feather (with real chocolate I believe) and the parmesan and truffle fries at the Pig (I think it has a longer name but all I can remember is the Pig). We found Napi's to be a bit overrated, our dinner was fine, but nothing fantastic.

We tried to go to the beach Saturday night, but it was dark, windy, and super-creepy, so went back Sunday morning and it was windswept and lovely. The weather was perfect "warm" and spring-like in the 40s. It was rather windy, but sunny! Such a change from rain at home, and then a snow storm at work today. We are already thinking of going back to Provincetown for either party time in the summer (maybe with B.'s cousin), or perhaps in the fall, we heard October is beautiful.

It was such a nice, restorative weekend.

Current Mood: content

Tags:

travel

In short:

-

afrikate and her awesome kitty S. are staying with us. It's really fun. I am a little bummed that they are leaving, but very happy

afrikate is getting her new place!

-I now have 8 students in my class and we're past add/drop. This means I get my full salary. Awesome!

-We're doing Renaissance art this week. It's fun.

-Good thing I'm getting paid because I went to this woman's basement in Severna Park MD last week and bought two very expensive bellydance costumes.

-And then brought them to class and were told how much they did not fit properly.

-So I went back today with backup (

afrikate and L. from bellydance class) and have 2 different, more expensive, costumes that I hope will be better.

-I am still undecided/ambivalent about performing in the class recital next week at Mem Sahib.

-Two weeks ago I did a 2-day Ravenchase in rural VA. It was pretty awesome. Especially visiting yogaville. That big lotus shrine out in rural Virginia. (We had to run around it looking for information to break our codes, not very yoga-like, still awesome.)

-We also spent way too much time in Farmville, VA. Yeah.

-Last weekend we went to Brooklyn to Come Out and Play.

-There were many awesome games. My favorite was one put on by the Disney imagineers called Unwritten Storybook. We were the elves (complete with ears) and had to join with other groups (royals, outlaws, etc.) to complete tasks (testing out the castle's defenses with a big ball and water balloons, "jousting" with balloons, archery with nerf weapons, etc.). After each battle or event we went back to these tables and filled in storybook pages with our own narrative (eg the elves went to the thief's forest and battled the fairies in an archery contest...) and decorated the pages with stickers and glitter! Games with art and crafts. We have a book. It was awesomely fun and they fed us a tasty ~~lunch~~ feast afterwards. Did I mention the entire event was free. Fantastic.

-We also played:
Shabbat-put! Olympic games, Sabbath rules. (Fun, funner if I had been the fastest, lightest, or strongest of my team.)
Cross My Heart + Hope to Die A game inspired by the labyrinth of Daedalus, set in a life-size maze. (Interesting. Lots of running and confusion, would have been better if the room hadn't been so hot. The maze "walls" were hanging strips of fabric.)
It Lurks in Gowanas. Solve the canals mystery before you're whacked. (A fun mix of using microsoft tag reader, walking to different locations, and a story told through youtube videos, with a little "chose your own adventure" thrown in.)

-Sunday we played The Time Traveler's Knife Brave time travelers take man's first tentative steps into the future, but before they can see the future, they will have to iron out the knots of the past. (Incredible concept, game play could have been streamlined. I had more fun than most of my team because aside from our main mission I was a secret cyborg. I had to meet other cyborgs, and together we brought about the cyborg revolution in 1965).

-The best part of Sunday was being in Green-Wood cemetery. If you're in the area you should totally check it out. Beautiful with lots of famous people buried there as well.

-This weekend I'm going to a family reunion in West Virgina.

-The next weekend it's con.txt (yay!)

-The next weekend is Adam Lambert, although I am only going to 2 of the 3 of the east coast shows that many of my friends are attending.

-The next weekend in July 4th.

-The next weekend is the end of my summer class and mid-July. WTF.

For You: The BP Oil Spill Re-Enacted By Cats in 1 Minute

Current Mood: exhausted

Tags:

Last night was interesting. Had to drive by myself from MD to Schenectady for the Keyser bonspiel. This was through the *massive snowstorm*. I left at 4pm. Up through NJ Turnpike was pretty good. Then I went from clear roads with some blowing snow to freakin Siberia. 2-3" on the roads, and snowing heavily with less than a quarter mile visibility. I drive a corolla. No 4-wheel drive. Went slow and followed people. Almost bailed on the little section of Garden State Pkwy (unplowed, the tracks had several inches of snow nevermind the rest of the road, tree branch in the road! also lightning which is always scary in a snowstorm).

Made it to NY Thruway where a plow had been by. At some point. Thought I could make it if I drove slow. 100 miles away from my exit my wipers started to ice over badly. "Pulled over" (stopped in the middle of the highway just off the tracks in the snow) twice to de-ice by hand. Realized that if I kept the heat at 80 blaring at the window the wipers wouldn't ice. Visibility is shifting between a quarter mile and IDK 50 feet?. I'm nervous enough to tell my teammates if I don't show by 2am to call highway patrol, my cell phone has less than one battery bar and is starting to beep. But I'm reasonably comfortable, tense and alert, but reasonably comfortable. I know how to drive in the snow. I wish the guy in front of me would *stop breaking*, omg, break only if absolutely necessary, idiot.

74 miles away from my exit (near New Palz) got a little cocky and tried to go 35-40mph (instead of 20-30) fishtailed, corrected, fishtailed again, over-corrected, spun out and did a 360 which threw the car into a snowbank in the median. Stuck. Can't open the driver's side door (due to snow bank). Cell phone dying. Called teammate to contact someone. Guy showed up to cinch me out. Suggested I give up and get a motel room. Took an exit. Motel was full (as were all the other ones in the area). Hung out at 12:30am in the lobby of the motel with the night manager while the cell phone charged and I tried to get my nerves settled. I was so happy to use their bathroom, I had entertained depressing thoughts of peeing in the snow on the highway while stuck with the car.

Got back on the freakin highway. About 10 miles up the road the snow turned to rain. Relieved. Drove slowly to the hotel, got in at 2:30am. Very sore and tired.

Bright spot: our game this morning was at 10:15. We won! And we play again at 6 tonight.

The car and I are both fine. Last night just sucked. Hope the drive home is better.

Current Mood: relieved

Tags:

Oh I realize I never posted about the end of my epic roadtrip with

bayleaf. It was awesome, mostly because it was filled with women like

giddygeek,

misspamela, and

afrikate.

Saturday:
-Worcester art museum with giddy
-afternoon and evening with giddy, bayleaf, and misspamela
-food at Red Robin
-Sherlock Holmes! Slashy and fun.
-dinner at The Citizen. It serves cheese, wine, and chocolate. And brilliant mixed drinks. Genius!
-good evening chat with giddy

Sunday:
-time with afrikate!
-grocery shopping! dinner!
-but mostly laptop party time!
-yay afrikate!

Monday:
-an easy-traffic, good-weather, stress-free drive home :)

I needed this entire trip more than I realized. Thanks everyone.

Current Mood: satisfied

Tags:

friends,
travel

24 hours in NYC:

-Ethiopian food with old friends
-briefly seeing some (relatively new) girlfriends
-sleep
-brunch at Popovers with lovely women
-another adorable baby (they seem to be a theme during my winter holidays)
-conversation and job advice
-a walk through Central Park
-the Met
-dinner at Mole with fangirls
-drive home
-sleepy email checking with kitty on lap

:)

Current Mood: content

Tags:

friends,
travel

tribecon was awesome this year! I am too tired to post details, but here's some random cool stuff (there is plenty that I'm forgetting, this is off the top of my head, in no particular order)

( listyness or listiness, I can't decide )

I think I needed this weekend more than I realized and am very happy I went.

Dartmouth folks, I wish we had a similar thing. I miss all of you!

Monday

bayleaf and I headed to Niantic CT to see a friend of hers and then to

giddygeek's for the night. Yesterday I drove to NH/VT to see family. Last night I hung out with one aunt while she manned the refreshment table at the junior high basketball game, and then we went out to dinner. Today I saw my other aunt and uncle. We met at the place and fed my grandmother lunch (she is doing okay), and then chatted for a bit before I headed south.

bayleaf,

giddygeek, and I had dinner at an awesome Irish restaurant tonight, so good and I am so full.

Tomorrow we are going to NYC for the night (I hope to see nonemorecomic, grumph, and toran)! Then we are back north to see

afrikate, then back home before my spring semester class starts. Whew. :)

Current Mood: thankful

Tags:

Denis is here! He arrived last night after taking a 4-hour later flight that resulted in his bags being stuck in Munich and a $250 euro travel voucher that is helping us destress after the Orbitz fiasco. We also had an anticlimatic initial attempt to pick him up at the airport, but it all worked out.

Thursday Slavica and I spent a ridiculous amount of time on public transportation. (So you're supposed to buy bus and tram tickets, but most people do so on their cellphones, so you don't see a lot of people using the punch things.) When I asked her about this she said "they check rarely" so because I'm not sure exactly where to buy a paper ticket (not with the driver) I'm riding public transportation illegally (like Denis did when he was a teenager). This makes me somewhat nervous, but apparently not enough to go buy tickets.

Anyway the time spent was good because we went and saw my SIL at work at the bakery and she gave us lots of tasty baked goods and then we went swimming at the lake. Amazing how good swimming and lying on the beach (in the shade on chairs!) is for your soul. We also actually swam across the little man-made lake and back which was more cardio exercise than I've had in a while. It's been really hot here. (The heat has been in the front page of the papers, I think it's been around 37 degrees C. which is in the high 90s). So the air was hot and dry and the water was cool and wet and that worked out just fine.

Of course Denis came and last night it cooled right down and today is cloudy and breezy and some temperature where you could wear jeans out and not die. The only bad thing about Denis being here is that I don't sleep half as well with the snoring (and he sleeps better when someone isn't waking him up multiple times a night telling him to stop snoring). But it is so nice to see him again!

Current Mood: happy

Tags:

Gah I am stressed about this :( I'm getting a little homesick despite having some nice days here. A couple days ago Slavica and I went to Bundek, a park in town. The next day I wandered around by myself (which was really nice). I sat in a park, read a book in a cafe, went to the 19th-20th c. art museum, and met up with a friend (Zeljko). It was really relaxing. Yesterday I hung out at my BIL's again. They had finished s. 2 of Flashpoint (but gave me the rest of the eps) so we watched movies: Transporter 3 (I will watch anything with Jason Statham no matter how bad--like Crank, this was definitely worse than Transporter 1 and 2 which were pretty entertaining), and Wolverine (which was interrupted by hearing from D. about travel suckage). Today I think Slavica and I are going to see my SIL at work (she works at a bakery) and then swimming? I think? My comprehension's getting better but it's still hard when they talk really fast. Last night Slavica stayed at my MIL's and tonight I'm staying at my BIL's (like a big extended sleep over :) )

Oh Zeljko tipped me off to a great firefox add-on that will show me the croatian dictionary entry for any english word and the english definition to any croatian word that I hover the mouse over. It's really cool.

Also I had forgotten that people still wear fanny packs in Croatia! I saw several in the last couple days, one on a woman directing traffic (so an official fanny pack?), one on a young guy (it was black but looked like would expect), and then a more fashion-y one on a woman (like a clutch and a skinny belt were melded together).

Current Mood: awake

Tags:

croatia,
travel

Conference was indeed awesome. Day 2 was filled with 4 sessions of good talks, another interesting keynote, and dinner at Pelham House (including Brecht musical numbers, sort of strange--not the songs the set up, but interesting).

Day 3 started with another morning session and then I presented in the very last session of the conference. (I was first in my group of three so I wasn't the last talk.) I was pretty nervous and I heard my voice shake. I also went a little over, but I got good questions (could answer 2 including a translation question, but not a really provocative one about national identity), and good feedback at the end. I know some of the feedback was honest. Before my talk I ran into a woman I recognized, but couldn't place. During my talk she figured it out, she had been a Williams undergrad while I was doing my MA and we had been in a seminar together. Anyway before recognizing each other we had talked about the importance of honest feedback (everyone at the conference was super nice, respectful, and laid back, maybe just a smidge more than you might want). So after I asked for her honest opinion and she was pretty positive (and I didn't get a "just being polite" vibe at all). So that was reassuring.

After the conference I met

rhaegal. Coffee turned into chatting turned into dinner with more chatting turned into a hunt for the car (with chatting). It was a great evening and I'm so glad

treewishes introduced us!

Slightly nervous about all the travel logistics tomorrow, but happy to be going to Croatia! Internet maybe sketchy for a while (or not) so potentially goodbye for 2-3 weeks. If there's anything critical you need to tell me email is best.

Current Mood: jubilant

Tags:

friend,
travel

Conference so far is awesome! The first woman I met has a chin piercing so no worries about the tattoo. We had lunch together. Then at various other session panels we picked up two more cool women and a Polish guy. We went out to Brighton for dinner and had fish and chips and then a drink on the beach. On the way back we ran into another group of 3 women one who is my mysterious suite-mate and another who's Bosnian (moved to St. Louis as a child).

The actual conference is great too. The papers have all been really high quality (I'm getting nervous!) and the 1st main speaker today was really good. I'm looking forward to the talks tomorrow and have my strategy all planned out. :)

Current Mood: impressed

Tags:

school,
travel

I'm here!

( travel details )

Current Mood: optimistic

Tags:

Busy busy weekend cut-tagged for your convenience.

Friday night D. and I went to see Iron Man.

( Non-to-very-mildly-spoilery thoughts )

Saturday I decided to drive to New Haven.

Back in 2004 I interned for a curator at WCMA who was working on a show about Gerald and Sarah Murphy. They were a wealthy American couple who entertained a lot of famous artists and authors in France during the 20s (think Hemingway, the Picassos, Dos Passos, Dorothy Parker, Fernand Leger, the Fitzgeralds). They inspired characters (the Divers in Tender is the Night) and created a social convivial atmosphere that seemed incredibly awesome (until they lost a bunch of money in '29 and their 2 sons died). Gerald was a modern painter (imagine Picasso giving you painting tips) and his 7 surviving canvases were brought together for this show.

The exhibition opened last fall in Williamstown. I missed it, but I knew it was coming to Yale this spring before going to Dallas this summer. Well Sunday was its last day at Yale and since it seemed unlikely I'd make it to Dallas I decided to drive up to New Haven.

( some lists of awesome things )

Unrelated, but also I've been watching Angel (for the first time) the last few months. ( Condensed thoughts )

Misc. awesome things:
-met with my adviser today, his notes on my latest dissertation proposal draft were more editing than anything else so I should be able to turn the final into my committee tomorrow
-finally have my proposal defense schedule (with a room and a projector and everything) for next week
-found a fellowship to apply for to study in Romania next spring (cross your fingers for me)
-making enchiladas for the first time, smells good so far, we'll see
-going to MCR concert in Philly tomorrow with

bayleaf and friends!!
-bellydance class tonight

Current Mood: optimistic

Tags:

Yummy food (have decided not to include boring food)
-excellent ribs with 2 okay BBQ sauces and 1 fabulous sauce
-cornbread pudding
-real mac and cheese

Today's real excitement was going to the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve and walking some of the Barataria Preserve Trails.
Interesting flora and fauna sighted:
-the transition from river bank to swamp to marsh including the "ground" that's really floating stuff
-cyprus trees
-palmettos
-that hanging moss stuff I've only seen in the movies
-several white egrets (do they come in other colors?)
-many, many little brown lizards (so cute)
-several yellow-striped snakes
-two turtles getting it on in the water (seems extra difficult if you're trying to tread water at the same time)
-mosquitos
-fish jumping out of the water to eat the mosquitos
-some random little birds
-an alligator sunning himself/herself on the bank

Bonus fact: Jean Lafitte is a famous early 19th c. pirate.

Other accomplishments:
-making good progress on desert themed cross stitch for mom
-won at Scrabble

Current Mood: recumbent

Tags:

Food for today:
-cheerios, milk, oj
-baked oysters (new!, not my favorite, just kind of mushy)
-crabcakes (different than the ones from MD, spicier, v. good)
-fried crawfish tails (I'm starting to think that the seafood is best fried, will try with oysters)
-pralines (new!)
-beer: Red Stallion (local) and Abita Amber (regional)
-cheese plate
-beignets (fried dough, by any name you are yummy)

Toured French Quarter today. It was nice, beautiful weather. Found our hotel and enjoyed a break at the Hookah Cafe.

Current Mood: tired

Tags:

I've been in New Orleans for seven hours now.

New foods tried:
-red beans and rice with an incredibly phallic sausage (lunch)
-crayfish etouffe (dinner) I was nervous because I don't like a lot of seafood, but it was yummy.
-jambalya (D.'s dinner, we traded entrees half way through)
-bread pudding (taste of Dan's)

Other food enjoyed:
-super-delicious pecan pie

New experience:
-watched football game during dinner and was actually entertained/into it. (I'm apparantly only traveling during big football games this January.)

Question of the day:
-am I brave enough to try oysters on this trip?

Current Mood: full

Tags:

So far the trip to Arizona has been good. It started out a little stressful, but then has continually gotten better.
( Read more... )

Current Mood: content

Tags:

Amelia

Vegas!

Cleveland Rocks (more or less)

Provincetown

omg June and July with bonus: bp oil spill reenacted by kittens

travel suckage, keyser yay

end of vacation

New York

mid-road trip update

Denis in Croatia!

travel woes

Brighton conference day 3

Brighton conference day 1.5

Brighton conference day 1

when you think road trip I know you think New Haven

NOLA day 3

NOLA food day 2

NOLA food

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