The Goings On

Graves at Arlington. Kind of surreal...

Natalie, suburban, and Dubya's temporary housing... Unless he figures out a way to get another presidential term.

Lumpy, a white suburban, and Dubya's temporary housing.


Lumpy and Natalie. Nat is from Lille, France. We were scavenger hunt partners. A man, who I swear was either drunk, or high on life, took this photo.

Uzo and Lumpy. Uzo is originally from Nigeria. She's hilarious!


Self Explanatory




View of a memorial to women at Arlington National Cemetery

Boot camp ended Friday.
Everyone was glad when we all gathered for drinks at Guapos that afternoon.
Hot, sweaty, and tired we were… some from scouring the city looking for our scavenger hunt clues… and others just plumb worn out from carrying Vicky's and shoe store bags.
Folks say "pimpin' ain't easy," but hey, neither is shopping! Carrying all those bags will have you "on swoll" as we say in the hood… which essentially means you're super-buff.

I'm determined to keep this journey chronicled with photos included so that my family and maybe two others will actually read it. They're posted above. I'm still trying to figure out a way to get this program to do my will instead of what it tells itself to do.

Shopping and Organizing

I never thought I'd say this, but I'm tired of shopping.
Money can be flighty if you don't tell it the proper things to do. Sometimes the things you tell money to do for you are necessary… sometimes those things you want money to do will keep you from looking and feeling like a disorganized mess. Sometimes those things you tell money to do will hopefully keep visitors from thinking (then knowing) you're a first class pig because you're not just feeling like a disorganized mess… you ARE one.

So you are stuck. Either you hide all your things in a junk drawer, or you hit the dollar store for storage solutions because too much shopping at the Container Store will break your bank. Or, you look at Ross, because you think the storage at the dollar store is cheesy and loud and doesn't match your bathroom color scheme… and you (I'm so talking about myself right now) find some really cute baskets at Ross that are on clearance! Who cares if they have fire trucks embroidered on the little cloth liners… Face that liner to the wall, out of sight, and organize those toiletries!

I wish I could say "The Basement" is complete. (That's what I affectionately call my current dwelling-place. It's a basement, but not dungeon-like in any way. I have a separate entrance, bathroom, kitchen, and it even came with some furnishings! I think it's a cute setup!)

This week, I've been re-organizing The Basement. I want to find a frame for a poster I got from my Spain days. I'll hang it so The Basement will have even more of a LumpyLiz touch.

I also plan on visiting a high school friend later in the week.

Entertainment News

I remembered my computer has a DVD player!

I don't have to sit around wishing I had a TV anymore!

I rented a couple of movies yesterday and watched them both.

(Actually, they both watched me for some portion of the movies... that didn't change in the cross country move...)

Familiar Places and Faces

LumpyLizard (above) Point Vicente Lighthouse (below)

Bitting one of Bens' Veggie Burgers


Faces that have become familiar!

Familiar Places and Faces

By LumpyLizard

I’ve been in the D.C. area for t a month. My days are full and my nights late, and I haven’t been lonely…
It’s still great to see familiar places and faces.
The places I don’t actually visit… They’re just photos of those spots I’ve loved so much I had to take them with me.

The Point Vicente lighthouse is one of those places. It’s located on the constantly shifting Palos Verdes Peninsula which is south of Los Angeles.
http://www.palosverdes.com/pvlight/

The fact that the PV Peninsula shifts (and I can tell with each visit where the road has been re-patched) doesn’t really bother me. I always recall when I drive the coast in PV a story announcing the 18th hole at a PV golf course just fell into the ocean one day.
http://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2005CD/finalprogram/abstract_85433.htm

It doesn't bother me very much maybe because La-La Land is known for her occasional tectonic shivers.

Anyway, while home, I loved to break away from the noise of La-La land and take a drive to PV every now and again, especially on sunny days… Just to feel the wind, see the ocean sparkle, see the outline of Catalina Island… http://www.destination360.com/north-america/us/california/catalina-island.php

On a couple of trips, I would drive by to view the remains of Marineland, which used to be the Southern California alternative to Sea World, until it closed down roughly 20 years ago… http://employees.oxy.edu/jerry/marineland.jpg

http://www.surrealcoconut.com/urban_ruins/southerncal/marineland.htm

Now, they’re putting up some ritzy hotel/condo hybrid thingamuhjiggey. I actually went there once and got a brochure, as if they’d let my broke tail up in there.

I don't have so many favorite familiar places in this area… yet. I’m taking applications, though. *smile*

I'm glad the faces are becoming familiar.

I got to visit a local joint on Friday with some SOC ladies. Ben’s Chilli Bowl. Now I am always on the late freight, and had never heard of the place, and realized that it’s one of those Aunt Kizzy’s Back Porch (http://auntkizzys.com/ )or Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles (http://www.roscoeschickenandwaffles.com/) or Pink’s (http://www.pinkshollywood.com/) kind of places. Ben's is not all ritzy by any means, but it has some good food, great customer service, constant traffic, and hey it has those autographed photos of famous folks on the walls. Who can resist James Brown, Bill Cosby and Bono as wall paper?

soc 2007

today is the first day of class. just completed a writing assignment. i know the first thing i need to do is take all the different directions that my mind can go and reign them in for the sake of the assignment. i always have fifty million ideas. some good, others that just need to keep on moving out of my mind and down the street. i'm going to learn a different form if discipline here, but that's alright. growth in writing is what i desire. and it looks like i'll have that desire met.

it's official... i'm making this the blog of my SOC experience. why not? it needs some attention. i've neglected it for months!

beauty of difference

today was the first day of journalism boot camp.
*breakfast
*meeting folks
*in the theater
*going around doing intros
*the beauty of it all... different names (minus the two fredrickas, and catherines (one with a k and one with a c)... different countries and cities... is our sameness...
our desire to better our journalism skills. the au connection, language differences but similarieies... the beauth of human interconnection.