earthquake nonsense

so, as i'm sure you all know, there was an earthquake on the east coast yesterday. it was a 5.8, which is strong enough to warrant concern but not strong enough to warrant panic. it's the second earthquake that DC has gotten in the last year or so, and i think i need to retune my earthquake radar because it's also the second earthquake that i HAVEN'T FELT. for the first one, granger woke me up really early one morning and told me that he thought we'd just had an earthquake. i told him that it was just a dream, that DC didn't get earthquakes. because, obviously, we just don't. well, i woke up that morning to learn that granger hadn't actually been dreaming. and yesterday? yesterday i was walking from safeway back to my office when the earthquake struck, and i didn't feel anything. like, nothing. i got back to my office and everyone was outside going "did you FEEL that???" - "uhhh, feel what?" i felt like the uncool kid in class, everyone was talking about something that i had been left out of. i was secretly hoping for an aftershock to hit*** so that i could be cool again, but alas, no such luck.

so yeah, i still can't cross "earthquake" off my list of things i want to experience. even though i technically have, it would feel like cheating.

also, here's a picture of the post-earthquake devastation.

***not really, especially after being informed that there were nuclear reactors near the epicenter.

burning out...

i have a paper to write. 10 pages. not too difficult of a topic. i even know, generally, what i want to write and how i want to structure it. the problem? i am completely unable to make myself work on it. i have zero motivation. actually, i can think of nothing that i want to do less right now. and the worst part? i told myself i was going to have it turned in yesterday. as in, the day before today that has already ended. hmmm... whoops. granted, it was a self-imposed deadline that is somewhat flexible (which might be part of the motivation problem), but i don't think i've ever missed a deadline that i could have made, if i had worked hard on it. sure, i've asked for extensions before when i really NEEDED them. this one? didn't need it. i totally could have finished my paper yesterday. i just didn't. and i'm even having trouble caring that i didn't.

this is bad. i have a 50-75 page thesis to write this fall. i need to find this motivation, and fast! i can't burn out this close to the end!

88 days

granger has been gone for 88 days. that's equal to 2,112 hours, 126,720 minutes, or 7,603,200 seconds.

as of today, there are "only" about 150 days remaining until he comes home. that's 3,600 hours, 216,000 minutes, or 12,960,000 seconds.

in other words, i'm almost halfway there...

meeting the President of Serbia

so while i was working in Prague this summer, i got the chance to meet the President of Serbia, Boris Tadic. Here's a picture of me meeting him, followed by a group picture with him (to the left of me) and my colleagues.



pretty cool, huh? sure, it's no granger meeting obama 3 TIMES, but still...

jury duty

so, i had jury duty this morning... it was for some special trial, and the only information that given about the trial was that it could last 3-4 weeks. honestly, i was kind of excited about it, and i was hoping that my number would be called so i could see what being a juror was like. sadly, no such luck. it seemed like everyone's number BUT mine was called, and i was excused by 11:15am so i could go to work - JOY! it's ironic that probably the one person who wanted to serve was not called, especially considering that more than half the people there were called. sigh.... next time!!!

art, also known as a wasted sunday

below are two drawings that i did in paintbrush (the mac version of paint). i just started doodling with the first one, and then i liked how it looked so i kept going (it took a while to cover the whole page!!!). the second one was originally much lighter, and had all sorts of purple hues in it, but when i saved it, all the colors got very dark somehow. so now it sort of looks like the emo sibling of the first one...