i am sooooooo overtired,
sooooo
sooooo
sooooo
overtired.

i just literally drove home from the Giant blasting “Don't Mess Around with Jim,” singing at the top of my lungs. yep, and i have a Fatboy Slim CD on the seat beside me, so be careful – i might be sputtering the “Rockafella Skank” next. i scared the people doing roadwork, including the poor lady holding the “SLOW” sign.

today, i should probably be holding the “SLOW” sign.

anyway, BS doesn't like when i write about him, but pooh on him today. i am going to. i am going to tell the world how much i adore him. in spite of his faults (because you know i have none) and foibles (once again, i plead perfection), heehee, he is putting up with me so beautifully. i am not sleeping because i am so,so,so nervous about the biopsy, which won't be happening for over a week. so another week of my joyful self. he must be so thrilled.

but he is patient. extra patient. and kind. and so sweet. please make a note of it.

i am lucky i have the family and friends i have. they tolerate me in spite of myself.

Greetings,

Last week, my husband, three-year-old daughter, and I visited Milwaukee for the All-Star Game festivities. We are from the Washington, DC metropolitan area, but we flew in to see our dear friends (who live in Shorewood), and go to the Fan Fest, the Home Run Derby, and the All-Star Game together. I just wanted to share some observations with you about our experiences for your information and planning purposes.

The upside: Milwaukee is a lovely, family-friendly city. People were very courteous and friendly — and honest. When my husband accidentally left his wallet in the rental car, two hours later, it was still there (something that would never, ever happen here!) We took our daughter to the Betty Brinn Children's Museum and also to the Milwaukee Public Museum – she loved the butterfly room. I have developed a taste for Sprecher's Diet Root Beer and am exceptionally sad that I cannot find it anywhere out here. Not to mention Kopp's Custard!

The downside: Since there was no parking available at Miller Park, we parked our car at the State Fair Grounds and took a bus to the stadium. It worked fine on the way to the stadium. Unfortunately, the way back from the stadium was a different story. You might recall that there was an incredible, torrential rainstorm that took place soon after the home run derby. Roads flooded. Lots of lightning and thunder. It was not pleasant, to be sure, and certainly, you do not have control over the weather. However, there were not enough busses to take everyone back to the State Fair Grounds parking lot, and there was no shelter. We literally stood in that horrible rainstorm, with lightning all around us, for nearly an hour. Our clothes were soaked. My leather purse/backpack is ruined, as are most of the contents inside, including my wallet and several important papers. My leather sandals are toast. My husband also has to get another wallet, as his is ruined. Our Home Run Derby tickets, which should have been prized collectibles and mementos of the day are also ruined. There was simply no place to go to stay dry and safe. Morever, the drenched crowds became angrier and angrier as time went on, and people were pushing and shoving. It was clearly one of the most unpleasant experiences of my life. Perhaps Milwaukee does not possess the transportation infrastructure to hold a high visibility game like this?

I was also surprised at the lack of security at Miller Park. Frankly, the people working the gates hardly looked at us. I actually offered to open my purse/backpack to the security guard, and he waved me away. Perhaps I do not fit the security risk profile (and I am certainly no security risk, to be sure!), but I am more accustomed to security like we have it here in Washington, DC. Mercifully, all went well at the game, but if you are to have world-class events in Milwaukee, then these times we live in require security that is up to snuff. I saw some Milwaukee Sheriff's Office people walking around, but they were mostly joking with one another and eating. We in DC do not consider that to be serious security. Maybe we are more sensitive to this considering all that has happened here, but certainly it is something you might be more aware of in the future.

Will we return to Milwaukee? I don't know. I am a bit saddened by what has happened. I just hope that if there ever is another big world-class event in Milwaukee that better planning takes place.

Thanks very much for your time and attention.

yippee ki-yo-ki-yay.

my biopsy is next thursday at 1. which means i can't eat or drink from midnight the night before until after the surgery. which means no advil or motrin or aspirin for a week. which means i leave for the outer banks the next day and i won't be able to lift anything. the timing for me is so G-d awful. the surgeon is apparently on vacation this week, so this is the best i can get.

to quote veruca salt from willy wonka, “i want it NOW!”

i am in an awful, bad, no good mood today since i have to go get a biopsy next week. so, instead of barking at everyone, i share a link to a really funny page sent by my pal Jacks (thanks, Jacks!) of really awful, bad, no good bridal wear. i'll write about our trip to milwaukee to the all-star game another time.

in the meantime, enjoy.

ohy G-d, if you are out there, PLEASE don't make me listen to neil diamond singing “comin' to america” or lee greenwood's “g-d bless the USA” anymore!

rather than deal with the tremendous security and absurd crowds downtown yesterday, we went to mclean to see some fireworks. mclean, for those of you who are not familiar with the place, is a ritzy-titsy part of fairfax county. it is where a lot of members of congress live (like the kennedys, for example), a lot of people with a lot of money and not as many sensible ideas as to what to do with it. it isn't like i live in a poverty-stricken area — not by a long shot. but when you compare my neighborhood with mclean, we seem positively middle class. boo hoo. anyway, it is pretty close to where we live, and it sounded like a more down-home type of celebration, so off we went.

it was easily 100 degrees out on the football field where the festivities were taking place. BC bounced in the moonbounce, and BC and I were put in a plastic bubble and had to negotiation around cones in a perverse obstacle course. it was probably a thousand degrees inside the bubble, i might add. people must be completely spastic, or else BC and i must be an awesome team, because we easily negotiated the twists and turns with BC only falling down once. i saw grownups dragging their kids along in the bottom of the bubble. sheesh. BC also had something that supposedly looked like balloons painted on her face (which is STILL on her face, in bits and pieces, this morning.) The tattoo on her arm lasted all of maybe 30 minutes before she peeled it off. we all shared a snocone, and BC danced much of the evening away on the track. my lord, she is cute. anyway, you know, i only saw two people smoking the whole evening. as BS noted, smoking correlates with education, and this is probably a more educated populace than most.

however, you might have not known that thanks to the music that the DJ — Nards was their name! — played. you know, i could go another thousand years without ever having to hear lee greenwood OR neil diamond's “patriotic” fervor. and i love broooce — and everyone knows it — but you just don't put “born in the USA” on your patriotic countdown unless there is a bit of tongue in cheek going on. and judging from the intelligence level of the folks spinning, i don't think that would be possible. apparently, “surfin USA” and livin' in the usa” are also patriotic, in case you were wondering…

anyway, you know me — bitch, bitch, bitch about music. back to the fireworks. we said the pledge of allegiance (and BS and i both omitted “under g-d” just because we are annoyed with the supreme court) and off we went. the fireworks were lovely. of course, BC was fine with them, despite how close they seemed and how boomingly loud they were, until she heard this little boy behind me whimpering and crying through the whole thing. i think there is an unspoken rule in the world of preschoolers – if one of your comrades is in pain, then you must share the pain and cry, too. while she didn't cry, she was scared and after awhile, she buried her painted face into my neck.

and it took literally 30 minutes to get out of the dinky little high school parking lot. no one moved, despite the fact that i saw lots of glowing lights motioning people to go. what was up with the fairfax county cops who were working that night? i'm glad i don't pay their salaries or else i would probably be sending a nasty-gram out. and i have major, major respect for cops, so you know i must be pissed to even think that.

wah wah wah. i am glad that july 4th is over. i love patriotism, but let's get back to normalcy already.

so today, we are talking about work. an unnamed person says that his boss is really nice and supportive and wonderful (really.) in front of BC. so BC chimes in, “don't call somebody boss. that means he's STUPID.”

“what, honey?” i ask.

“boss. it means stupid.”

the person i was talking with was in hysterics. and although i have had some amazing bosses (some of whom i am still friends with to this day), i have had some that resembled that remark.

y
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well, i had a feeling it would be a good day. i mean, they only charged me $.03 for my gazpacho (the woman behind the deli counter was a little, uhm, inept, and i didn't look at the price tag she created until the checkout chick said, “uh, hahaha, GIRL! you are only getting charged 3 cents for this thing — Giant's fault!” — and you know, i offered to take it back and get it relabelled correctly, nerd girl that i am, and she told me not to bother). at kinkos, something wasn't going right with my copying experience, and so the she-man (Pat?) behind the counter just did it herself and did not charge me (ok, so not a huge expenditure either, but i was still pretty shocked that it was gratis.) i discovered the 38B bus that literally delivered me from Ballston straight to 22nd and K and back again — for FREE, since today is an horrific air quality day here in our Nation's Capitol and so metro is trying to get people into busses and trains and out of cars (once again, tree-hugger girl opted to do her share for the air)… and it just seemed like too nice a day for bad news, despite the 100+ degree heat and the #%$#@% tourists everywhere. maybe i should buy a Lotto South ticket?

i went to the radiologist. he did a really, really speedy check, but he couldn't find anything. i don't know whether i should be ecstatic or worried (i mean, 3 people HAVE found lumps there, so it is a little strange), but i choose to be ecstatic. so you should be, too 🙂 thanks for the support, jokes, and good wishes. this sort of thing really tweaks me, given my family history, and it is awful nice to know you are in my corner, regardless of how annoying i become 🙂

btw, taking the 38B was interesting. the homeless woman who is a fixture outside central library was on my bus. since it was free, i think she was just taking in some A/C and sightseeing, although she got off the bus near clarendon. i hope she stays cool. her skin is incredibly ruddy, and she was coughing up a lung, which was incredibly unpleasant, but hey, everyone needs to be somewhere. then, the man who had a little alcoholic halo around him boarded around rosslyn. sitting downwind of him was also incredibly unpleasant — i think a shower is probably in his plans somewhere around late october, by the smell of it — between his BO, his alcohol, and his cigarette smoke reverb. but, like i said before, everyone needs to be somewhere, and when its a free day on metro, it is party time on the bus.

was L'avventura, a masterwork by Antonioni. i am still thinking about it. very bleak – very empty people. and not a linear work, which is probably why people back in 1960 freaked out over it. you never find out what happened to anna (no, i am not giving anything away bu telling anyone that), and you never really grasp whether any of these people have any raison d'etre. they are intensely shallow, and that is intentional.

amazing.

i think we have kids for comic relief. you just can't have a good wallow when a three year old is around.

tonight at dinner, BC decided to try some interpretive readings… a la the Bugs Bunny school of drama. and i quote:

What's up, doc?

What's UP, doc?

What's up, DOC?

WHAT'S up, doc?