here goes nothing

I want to be happy today, but I can't get Prop 8 out of my head. It saddens me to no end that so much money and fear mongering went into--ah, I can't even finish the thought. You know what I mean. The pictures of pro-8 people celebrating this victory are just so repulsive and depressing. I hope they all live long enough to understand that the only thing they protected today is bigotry. Fucking homophobic douche bags.

Okay, I had to get that out of my system.

Luckily, hearing the phrase "President-Elect Obama" on the radio still makes my heart flutter.

DC is going crazy! It's 1:30 in the morning and people are in the streets in droves. Cars are honking like mad, traffic is stopped, random people are giving each other high fives, everyone is smiling, my face hurts from smiling. I saw a city bus full of people dancing. It was awesome.

So yes, this is my second post in a row that involves a video about the election. I have no plans to turn my LJ into the next Huffington Post, but whatever election-news-junkie tendencies I had before moving to DC have definitely been augmented by living here and I'm sort of going with it. The election, for better or worse, is constantly in the ether here. One example: I was walking home on the night that Obama was going to speak at the Democratic convention and passed several bars that were packed with people waiting to watch his speech. On another level, people seem constantly tuned in to the daily micro-developments in each campaign. Is that happening back in LA?

Anyway, this video is of McCain on today's installment of The View. My housemate told me about it. I generally have mixed feelings about this show (although I heart Whoopi), but I have to say they really put the screws to McCain and tried to cut through some of the bullshit. I'm posting parts one and two but am leaving out part 3, which includes Cindy and is sort of fluff (not surprisingly, part 3 is where Elizabeth Hasselbeck takes over).

In all, I think McCain comes off as an ass.

Part 1: Sarah Palin, Misleading Ads, Rhetoric of "Reform"


Part 2: Separation of Church and State, Roe v. Wade

...for anyone who thinks Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are brilliant and is as worried as I am about the possibility of Sarah Palin as VP.

I was just offered--and then accepted--the first and only place I looked at in DC! The whole thing took less than 24 hours. I can't believe it, but of course I'm totally relieved.

I'm going to be living with two other people in a three-story row house near Howard University and U street. My bedroom is on the third floor and is really spacious with a little sitting area, an office nook, a walk-in closet, and my own huge bathroom. The kitchen is pretty great (hello, dishwasher) and there's an actual dining room with an actual dining room table. There's also a pool table, cable TV, central AC, and a washer and dryer! There's a gay sports bar (called Nellie's) three blocks away and it's only two stops on the metro to where my office will be. The only real downside is that the bedroom comes unfurnished. But I'm hoping to be able to find some basic and affordable furniture.

I still have to meet with the landlord to sign the lease and pay my deposit, but the search itself is over. Now I'm not quite sure what to do with myself since I'm scheduled to be here until Monday evening. I might come back early, or I might just hang out and be a tourist, or I might look into going to New York for the weekend.

I leave tomorrow morning for DC and have reached the point in routine travel preparations when you're reminded of how much work is actually involved in getting you and your stuff on the plane. There's a very particular temporality--or maybe just stress--to the day before leaving town, especially if you're setting out on any sort of mission.

At least my laundry is done. I woke up really early this morning (involuntarily) and decided to make an early trip to the laundromat. I was worried they wouldn't be open, but indeed they were and I now know that they open every day at 6 a.m. (jesucio take note.) Nothing is laid out or packed. Later, I need to procure lunch for the plane. Boarding pass is printed out.

As of this writing, I have three apartment leads, two of which I need to follow-up on as soon as I land because they are looking to make a decision soon. I wonder what sort of dillemma will overtake me if I end up really liking one of these early places and they end up liking me. Would I take a place having done relatively little comparative shopping? Or press my luck, turning them down only to regret it. These are the scenarios rolling around in my head today. The thrid appointment isn't until Saturday, which is not ideal since I hope to have or be close to a solid decision by then. I need to look on craigslist a bit more and maybe respond to a few ads. I need to check the weather. Okay, just did that, tomorrow is supposed to be 93 degress, someone please shoot me in the face.

I need to email a bunch of people, call my grandma, and tidy up around the house. It occured to me that I might want to go buy a laptop sleeve or new laptop bag--one more amenable to excessive urban shleping--but that seems like an impossibly monumental task for today.

I have a middle seat, yuck. At least the flight is direct.

Despite it all, I'm excited for the trip.

Estelle Getty died today. Very sad. She lives on in our hearts. (NYT Obituary)

Not for good, not for long, but I'm going. This is a trip to check out/secure housing for later in the fall. Consider it a first date. I just finished making the arrangements. I have a ticket and a place to stay. Now I just need to line up as many go-sees as possible (yes, I learned that term from America's Next Top Model and I am fully appropriating it) so I can hit the ground running.

Thanks very much to everyone who has been processing the logistics of this move with me (on LJ and in real life). For some time it seemed the "go all at once and make it work" plan had the most appeal, but lately that just seemed a little too scary. Hopefully I will line up something great in the seven days I will be there and hopefully that will make moving at the end of August a little less anxiety producing.

It was 97 degrees there today. Oy.

I love how in this picture the girls range, reading right to left, from enthusiastic to really excited to totally terrifying.

That's my deep thought for today.

I got a dollar bill today that had this written on it:

Do NOT confide in them yet, throw self away! Nourish self. Get out of fantasy. Disengage totally--don't abuse powers again. Non action!

Okay.

So it's been a really long time since my last post. As for the last few months, let's just say I've been pretty happy, I had a really nice birthday, and my winter/spring has entailed going to a (somewhat embarrassing) number of warm beach locales. I'm not getting very much work done, but I'm not sweating it since I figure next year will be really productive, which brings me to the heart of this post: the immediate-ish future.

As I think most of the people reading this already know, I'm moving to Washington, DC, at the end of the summer. I've been saying this to myself and other people for a while now, but it doesn't feel quite real yet. I'm just so content sitting here in my little place in LA that the idea of my having a whole new home in a new city on the other side of the country in only a few months just seems ludicrous. Aside from the varied emotions that go with that, I'm struggling with some logistical issues and hoping that some of you brilliant people can offer advice.

Here's the deal: My residency starts September 1, so I need to be in DC in either permanent or temporary housing as of that date. My fellowship lasts for 12 months, so ideally, if I were shopping around for a one-year lease, it should also start on Sept. 1.  Since I don't think it's advisable/possible to rent a place online, site unseen, I need to make a trip in mid-August to find a place, then fly back to LA and return with all my stuff by Sept. 1. (At least I think I need to--but is there another way?) Do I go on Aug. 15? Sooner? Later? Do I buy a one-way ticket to DC, stay untill I find something, then at the last minute buy another one-way ticket home (or a roundtrip DC-LAX ticket returning Aug. 31?) It's hard to predict the cost of one-way tickets in advance, but they are definitely not the cheapest strategy. How many days do you think I should budget for finding a place? What if it ends up taking more than a week!?

I could also try and get a one-month sublet for September and do that online so I wouldn't have to make an extra trip, but then I would have to be looking for a place while I was working (not so bad) and it would leave me in the market for an 11-month lease. Did I mention that rents in DC are ridiculously expensive? Good times. Thankfully, things here in LA will be much less involved: jesucio will be taking over my apartment, which makes me very happy. I like visualizing him living here and it is immensely comforting to know that, at the end of my DC sojourn, I will have a home to come home to.

Advice?

I'm back in LA from Miami, where I had a terrific time hanging out with jesucio, relaxing on the beach, and seeing the sights. It was a really great trip and I'm so glad I got to take it. More pictures after the cut.


jesucio making his way to the beach

I always forget how stressful CAA is. Seems like a million little things always come up right at the end and my "To Do Before Leaving List" turned out to be longer than I had hoped. But I am actually looking forward to it. The wanky hotel, the wanky hotel bar, academia at its finest. My outfit is still a work in progress, but everything for my panel is written and (except for a few lingering A/V issues) pretty much squared away. If anyone happens to know any good places to eat in Dallas, pray tell.

In the meanwhile, here is me as a Simpsons character.

This explains a lot, actually. In case you haven't seen the original, super creepy leaked (then suppressed) Scientology video featuring Tom, watch it here. It's the most incoherent, difficult to understand thing since that Miss Teen USA debacle.

Breaking news! I was just sitting in the Pinkberry at Hyperion and Rowena when the place was egged by a passing car! No one saw it coming, just splat! splat! all over the glass facade and then it was over. The woman sitting next to me said, "Someone just egged Pinkberry! That's awesome." Perhaps it was insurgents from Red Mango or a radical faction from Fiore. Or maybe just the neighbors sick of all the hype and traffic. Only in Los Angeles could fro yo turn so ugly.

mommycat78 and I just enjoyed a smashing meal at Osteria Mozza here in Los Angeles. We had the seven-course pasta tasting menu, a meal that took nearly three hours from start to finish. But with such yummy food and good company, the time flew by.

Before starting the tasting menu (as if seven courses were not enough) we ordered something from the mozzarella bar, this being a house specialty. A lot of things sounded good, but we settled on burrata with escarole, caramelized onions, and bacon. Delicious!

Our first course was farfalle with stridoli, noci e funghi. Sadly, the picture did not come out, but this was a great dish. Stridoli, I have only learned since eating it tonight, is "an old-world leafy vegetable often used with pancetta in pasta dishes from Tuscany and Romagna."

The next dish (above) was pumpkin mezzalune with amaretti. These "half moons" were filled with silky pumpkin and covered in a buttery, sagey sauce. Rich and satisfying, even if not super inventive in my opinion. At first we couldn't identify the crumbly substance dusted on top, which had the consistency of breadcrumbs, but was sweet. But I now see those were breadcrumbs made from amaretti cookies. Crazy!

Next up was gnocchi al pomodoro, basil e ricotta al forno. I almost never order gnocchi, but I liked this. The flavors were clean and subtle, nice after all that butter. Here you also see our wine, one of the least expensive bottles on the very extensive list and quite tasty--good job mommycat78!

And now to my personal fav of the night, orecchiette with salsica e chard. The first bite sent my eyes rolling back into my head. Tender bits of spicy sausage, the chard, and a nice kick of fennel all colluded with the beautiful orecchiette for a devilish dish. All of the other pastas so far had been given grated cheese at the table, but for this our waiter sprinkled on toasty buttery breadcrumbs. Carbs on carbs forever.

Our final pasta was another savory juggernaut, pappardelle with ragú Bolognese. This was mommycat78's personal fav and I have to admit it was damn good. Makes you realize how good "meat sauce" can be.

We entered the home stretch with meyer lemon sorbetto. Definitely more tart and less sweet than your average sorbet.

And finally the real dessert, frittelle di riso with banana gelato and Nocello raisins. Okay, so maybe some of you know how much I love rice pudding. Well, this was basically fried rice putting! It kicked ass and the banana gelato went perfectly. Heaven!

So that was dinner. And it seemed that everyone wanted to take our picture, reading us a happy hetero couple...

...which was pretty amusing...

nuff said.