eruthros

So it's just after 3 pm. No-one can come up with anything more for me to do today, so I will sit here and surf the net and get paid for it. Actually, I spent an hour this morning without anything to do because the server was down, and finished reading Le Guin's Planet of Exile. Then I spend another half-hour minimum before anyone could come up with another job for me, and read many news sources. Then at about 2:30 I stymied everyone and there's nothing more for me to do. Lalalalala. *twiddles thumbs*

A typical exchange between me and my supervisor goes like this:
*supervisor hands me work* Thirty minutes later:
Me: I have nothing else to do. Supervisor: You finished xyz? Me: Yes. Supervisor: Already? Me: Yes. Supervisor: You need to slow down!

*sigh*

***

Anyway. They're marrying gay folks in Portland. Awwww. Go Portland, it's your birthday! *does happy dance of Portland* Now if Seattle just gets on board... Well, I would be happy, that's all.

The Attorney General of New York, Eliot Spitzer, has decided that NY law bars same-sex marriage based solely on the fact that marriage laws use the terms "groom" and "bride" or "man" and "wife." He can bite me. Er, I mean, it seems a rather flimsy argument.

***

I'm going to the Philadelphia Flower Show with lysimache the weekend of March 13-14. There are going to be 100,000 orchids! And other flowers as well! I will probably take an ungodly number of pictures and be tempted by potted plants of many varieties. But then I won't buy them, because really, I can barely keep windowsill herbs alive, let alone orchids. Also, the ticket comes with a discount coupon for Reading Terminal Market, so I will be eating well that weekend.

And then soon after that, m_shell and I are planning on going to Longwood Gardens again during the spring flower display, and then again during the lily and tulip show for Easter. And therefore we will be buying year passes, and hopefully going a lot a lot.

There are many green growing things in my future. This makes me happy.

***

And m_shell and I are going to NYC this weekend, too. She's never been to NY, really. We're staying overnight, and then she's flying out to CA Sunday. We are Total Geeks, for our choices of places to go are the Cloisters, the Met, and the Midtown Branch of the library.

... I really don't think Philadelphia loves me back. I mean, I was dubious from the start; the state allows discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. And the closest real hot-tubbing place is 42.3 miles away, in Princeton, NJ.

But now I'm sure. Philadelphia's not merely neutral on the subject of pedestrians. Oh no. Philadelphia hates pedestrians on a deep and personal level. I had my suspicions before, of course. But they were confirmed yesterday.

Yesterday I walked 4.5 miles to cover the same distance as a 2-mile drive.

Why? Well, because Philadelphia, in its infinite wisdom, has decided to stick a damn big road in the middle of the route that a pedestrian cannot a) walk along or b) cross without getting killed. Philadelphia could put a pedestrian tunnel in. Maybe an overpass. Possibly it could have gone so far as to put in a real, honest to god, pedestrian crosswalk, with one of those little blinking lights that turns from a little man to a hand. (I realize that's asking a lot, since there's only one other crosswalk in the whole damn city with an actual pedestrian light where you can take your turn and be reasonably certain of not getting killed.) But did it? No.

So instead I got to the corner of Wissahickon and Lincoln, after walking a mile down Wissahickon with no sidewalks, because rich people are allowed to not have sidewalks, thus absolving them of having the shovel anything to make allowances for pedestrians. I'd already gone out of my way a bit, since the straight-line route would have been Lincoln Drive, which doesn't really make space for pedestrians, unless by "space for pedestrians" you mean "the right lane, if you're willing to share it with large and fast-moving vehicles." And I had to cross that intersection to keep going. I noticed a little "no pedestrian crossing sign,' but that wouldn't have stopped me. If they're not going to give me a crosswalk anywhere along Lincoln Drive, they can bite me and I'll cross wherever I damn well please. What did stop me was watching traffic for a few light cycles and realizing that there really was no way to cross without getting killed.

And I really do mean that. I've done some incredibly stupid things as a pedestrian. I've crossed Highway 1 at its widest during rush hour while carrying surveying equipment. I've crossed Market Street in San Francisco during a blackout -- no light, no traffic dude. I've climbed fences. I've taken short-cuts. I accidentally crossed Mission Street against the light during rush hour when I was sick. I've walked the overpass between the Pinole and Hilltop shopping centers. Which is technically legal, but no less stupid for all that -- two freeway on-ramps spin off that overpass, and neither has a light, and as a pedestrian you've got to attempt to cross them. And I'm sure I've done stupider things that I just can't remember right now. This would have been stupider than all of those things put together.

So I turned around, and walked back up the hill to Walnut Street so I could take the Walnut Street overpass over Lincoln Drive. Only way to get on this overpass for a pedestrian on that side of Lincoln is two blocks from the Evil Intersection of Doom, so that wasn't far out of my way. Only then it takes you about a mile in the wrong direction and dumps you down on another street going in a wrong direction and eventually you make a giant two-mile loop in order to get around one. damn. street.

See? Philadelphia can claim it all it wants, but it clearly doesn't love me for who I am.

A week ago, m_shell and I checked out Longwood Gardens, a giant landscaped garden built by Pierre Du Pont. He may have been the father of modern corporations, but he was a conservationist about trees. They have deciduous conifers, and a female ginkgo*, and 150 foot male ginkgos, and a carillon tower, and a fifty foot waterfall, and Italian Water Gardens, and a topiary garden, and fountains choreographed to Souza, and all sorts of neat stuff. This time of year is their Chrysanthemum Festival, which features 20,000 chrysanthemums in a greenhouse, trained into spirals, and balls, and lamps, and curtains, and bonsai, and borders, and all sorts of stuff. One of the curtains is 150 sq ft of chrysanthemums. It's incredible. We're thinking of getting frequent visitor passes.

*Note for non-gardeners: female ginkgos produce fruit which most people think smells foul, like something rotting. Or some people say it smells like rancid parmesan. Thus, it is very rare to find female ginkgos. Anywhere.

Entryway into the Chrysanthemum Festival. The hanging globes are chrysanthemum lamps, the yellow flowers around the pillars are trained into stars, and the red against the far wall is chrysanthemum curtains. You can see some of the reflecting pool below the lamps.



( +5 )

So there was this whole dsl thing. And there was this thing where they charged us for the time since late august, despite the fact that we didn't get the equipment until early September and didn't get the "go ahead and install your stuff" phone call until two weeks ago. Plus the first month was s'posed to be free but they charged us for it. Whee.

So then there was this "being on hold for an hour" thing, followed by the "being transferred and being on hold for another hour thing" thing, followed by the "wow, we almost never have that problem" thing and the "um, we can solve one of those problems but it won't go through for a few months, so you have to call another office and tell them you have a credit coming so they don't cut off your service" thing, followed by a "the second problem I'm not so sure about and so I'll call someone and call you back" thing. Also, we had a postman come with a package while I was dressed in basically rags, didn't have my keys, and was on hold on my cell, and of course the customer service person picked up just as I was at the bottom of the stairs, taking the package, and attempting to smile and look non-psycho and thank the postman. All in all, very much on-holdy. Whee. Don't you love big utility companies?

Now I need some Trader Joe's brand trans-fat-free-faux-oreos to relieve the stress. Or maybe I'll eat some of the Ben and Jerry's. Mmmmm, ice cream. On the other hand, I'm supposed to get a call back "sometime today," which probably means "just when you've stuffed your mouth." Whee.

... It just started raining here. They're predicting winds up to 30 mph. I may be on crack, but that doesn't seem bad at all. I mean, I've surveyed on sand dunes with a nice 300 foot drop off to the Pacific in 30 mph winds.

Still, it's really weird to see rain, gray skies, and wind rustling the trees, and instead of thinking "mmm, hot chocolate and fireplace" thinking "do we have any more mango sorbet?"

The apartment's still a mess; I've been putting furniture together. Today I went by the Laurel Hill Cemetery, walked around, got hit on by a guy with a gold front tooth (who was very blunt, and after I said no asked if I had any sisters or girlfriends), looked at old memorials, and left before I got rained on.