let us lay in the sun and count every beautiful thing we can see

I was supposed to work on job applications today, but honestly... who could bear to chain themselves to a computer on a warm, sunny day? I certainly couldn't, so I hopped in my little green car and zipped down the Lake Ontario Parkway to Route 18, then the Robert Moses Parkway to Niagara Falls. It's only about a 90 minute drive from door-to-door which, while not insubstantial, is completely doable for a half-day trip.

April is early enough in the season that the area isn't mobbed by tourists, so I didn't have to jockey for position at the popular lookout points. There were still substantial ice floes (you can see a mini-glacier at the bottom of the photo to the right), but thanks to the melting water the rapids were quite impressive. Walking along the gorge, there were a number of random cold spots where the air was 10 to 15 degrees cooler; it was like walking into air conditioning. Very bizarre. I considered zipping over to Canada for an hour at the casino, but decided that it wasn't worth spending the time waiting to cross the border. Anyway, I hadn't been to the falls in probably 5 years or more, so it was a wonderful outing. They really are 'one of those things' that simply aren't done justice by photographs (and certainly not by mine!) but there are some up on my Flickr anyway.

Even after a lengthy walk and drive, I was back home by mid-afternoon. I made a quick sweep of the grocery store and read a little of The Time Traveler's Wife. J had recommended this book to me a while ago, so when I was asked for suggestions for the next book club this one popped to mind. I'll be interested to hear what everyone thinks. I'm enjoying it so far--very much so, in fact--although I am only about 50 pages in. On deck are Black Swan Green (another J recommendation) and yet another Jeeves book (natch).

I watched "Marie Antoinette" last night, which was just OK. The soundtrack was great, though, and "Kings of the Wild Frontier" very well-placed. Yummy!

Was there something else I was going to mention in here? I can't remember. Oh well, I'll leave you with some things that make me happy right now:

*Sleeping with the windows open!
*Twining's blackcurrent black tea
*My new digital camera is so much better than my old one
*Thoughts of eating avocado- and hashbrown-laced breakfast sandwiches with J at Fred 62
*Rediscovering how good Clinique's face lotion is
*"Fidelity" by Regina Spektor
*The sun

a dreaded sunny day, so i meet you at the cemetery gates

It would seem that Rochester received my letter, below, and took its advice to heart. Today was absolutely pristine! 70 and unbelievably sunny. I was a little hungover from the copious amount of wine imbibed last night, but I didn't want to let the day go to waste. I wanted to stroll around outside, but wasn't sure I could handle the noise and elbows of a million people, so I decided that Mount Hope Cemetery would be ideal. I'd been wanting to visit again since I moved home, and I figured that it was the least likely place to be crowded (with living people, anyway) on the first beautiful day of the year.

The paths of Mount Hope meander lazily up and down hills, through valleys, between mausoleums and headstones nearly erased by the elements. The original cemetery is nestled essentially in a forest, with wrought iron gates entwined with brawny roots, and chipmunks scuttling about the crunchy dried leaves that cover the graves. It's also a bit marshy in some areas, so there are bugs to be battled, but it mattered little to me as my feet happily plodded along rough, brick roads and dirt paths. Photos can be found at my Flickr, comme d'habitude. Forsaken Places also has some absolutely fascinating photos of the insides of the abandoned crematorium and chapel that I certainly don't have the nerve to break into (although I'm glad they did!).

Now, however, the calming silence of the dead is replaced by the voices of the extremely loud and obnoxious people who live two doors down on the other side of the street. Just because you're outside doesn't mean you have to shout! There are, like, 10 of them yelling, and kids are crying, and dogs are barking. Grah. So much for the serenity of suburbia!

This morning, before heading to the cemetery, I stopped at a diner for brunch and had an excellent bacon and cheese omelet while I wrote a letter. My mood has lifted immeasurably with the rise in temperature... I feel as though the days will pass with a little more ease now that spring is here. Tonight, I'm going to work until maybe 8 or 9 on job applications, and then probably read with my window open (assuming aforementioned neighbors shut up at any point). First, though, I need to do a little cleaning!

Tomorrow's weather is supposed to be just as perfect as today's was, so I'll have to think of how I'd like to spend my Sunday. Definitely outside, of that much I am certain.

you can scoop out my brain, shape it into an ear, and then tell me your pain

Dear Rochester,
It is April now. Please stop snowing.
Kind regards,
C.

Ah, I had fun this weekend. Although, perhaps, a little too much fun!

I met L, H, and D at M (and her boyfriend B)'s apartment. We drank a small bit of wine and watched the end of Mean Girls on TV. An outing to Salinger's followed, where I ordered a Three Olives grape and soda and received... a pint of it. Soooo needless to say (after about 1/3 pint of vodka) I was drunk. Not wasted, but definitely drunk enough to do the Safety Dance with M:



We left before closing, so I came home and fell asleep after a lengthy phone call. There are a few more photos at my Flickr.

Easter was, as expected, a little rough. Not as rough as last Sunday, but last Sunday I did not have to be awake at 8 to prepare scalloped potatoes. I was a trooper all the way through dinner, but by the time I finished dessert I was about to pass out from sheer exhaustion. My brother was kind enough to drop me off on his way home. I climbed into bed and put on a DVD, but I only lasted until 6pm, I think, which means I slept for 12 hours last night. 12 hours!! I felt much better for it this morning, which is not usually the case after sleeping for so long.

45 days until LA. I can't wait. :)

suppose i kept on singing love songs just to break my own fall

The weekends where I feel unusually motivated to 'get things done' (i.e., clean my room, organize my clothes, do laundry, work on my resume) always end up being the ones where I have the least time to pursue those things. Last night MMac was in town, so we went for a beer (a rather short one, sadly, since I was totally beat) and caught up a little. Not that I would have managed to get a whole lot done on Friday night, but I was kind of hoping to also work some reading into my schedule and also get up early today. But whatever, it was good to see him so it's fine.

Today I did manage to wake up at a reasonable hour, and although I took my coffee and breakfast at a leisurely pace I have managed to do quite a bit of cleaning. I even parted with two full bags of clothes that I no longer wear, which is very difficult for me because I feel like most of it wasn't really that old. The other half of my wardrobe is currently tumbling or hanging to dry, as I hadn't done laundry in ages. This afternoon and evening I was planning on doing a little job hunting and cover letter writing, but I'll have to limit it to the next few hours as MW called to let me know that L is in town from Boston for the weekend. Sooo... girls night out, it seems. Again, I am certainly OK with this. It's just that I wish that either a) I was this motivated to be productive every weekend, or b) my social life was more consistent.

Aaaand, of course, tomorrow is Easter. This is the first Easter I have been home for in... oh, let's see... about 5 years? Definitely not post-HWS. I have been recruited to make scalloped potatoes, and I doubt I will accomplish much more than that. Between visiting two sides of the family and it being Sunday, I'm pretty sure that post-dinner will involve little more than sipping tea or wine and reading in bed.

On the plus side, I feel as though my resume has reached a point of development where I don't feel too iffy about sending it out. I just need to make a few kick-ass cover letter outlines and I'll be ready to send them flying! My work friends and I have been talking a lot about how we need to leave our job ASAP. This general consensus, combined with the realization I came to last weekend that I do not, in fact, want to stay in Rochester, has definitely lit a fire under the whole job hunt situation. I don't really want to put a time frame on it, but suffice to say that from this point on I am ready to leave when I am given the opportunity.

Oh! I almost forgot to mention that I'll be visiting LA over Memorial Day weekend (May 24th - 29th). I am beyond antsy, and not just because it's been snowing here these past few days! I am anticipating a nice, relaxing weekend.

It's amazing how promising and hopeful I feel right now, compared to this time a year ago, or two years ago. It was Easter weekend three years ago that I moved to New Haven, and Jenn and I had an Easter dinner of sushi. Amazing... it seems like a lifetime ago in a lot of ways. However, I'm feeling really good about the promise of this moment so hopefully it will deliver!

those were our times, those were our times

First, I'd like to add two more albums to my current obsessions list from the last entry: Beruit - The Gulag Orkestar, and Islands - Return to the Sea. So very, very good.

There was a lot to this weekend that I'm not sure I'm in the mood to detail, but it was a great deal of fun. After rocking out of work at 11 on Friday, I packed a bit while waiting for C to arrive from Syracuse, as he was nice enough to drive up and meet me for lunch. We stepped out for some noodles and bubble tea at KC Tea & Noodles and a brief visit to the record store. I had to run some errands after lunch, but en route noticed my check engine light came on, so I had to make a mad dash to drop off my car at the garage and shower, pack, etc before MB came to pick me up. Thankfully he was running late, and didn't make it to my house until a little after 6.

The drive down was excellent and, since we were going to end up arriving well before the NYC group, we stopped in Ithaca for some dinner and a brief meander. After being briefly lost, in the pitch darkness and without cell phone reception, outside of Pitcher, NY, we found the cabin and settled in. The New Yorkers arrived around 1 or 2, I think, as they'd been stuck in traffic. We chatted for a while, sipping Saranac and making introductions, and then crashed quite happily after the long drive.

Saturday involved brunch at a local diner, a wonderful hike around host JK's family's property, then some reading in the sunlight and a fantastic dinner. We drank quite a bit in the evening (or at least I did!) and trekked to a settler graveyard in the woods a little after midnight.

There will be Flickr links soon, once everyone shares their photos from the trip.

It was a weekend that was simultaneously taxing and restorative. I did have a lot of time to gather my thoughts, though, and try to work out what I really want. I think I do need to move, but I'm not so sure it's going to matter where. Not New York, but possibly LA again? Or DC? Oh I don't know. I really do not relish the idea of starting this process again, but it must be done. I can't let myself wallow in complacency.

I'm feeling pretty lost right now, actually. Or maybe I'm just hungry. Drinking too much tends to leave me feeling a little melancholy the following day or two. This weekend I am not moving a muscle until my resume is spit polished and fit to be seen.