Hillary Ping Pong

I had a fantastic trip to Washington D.C. this past weekend! The trip included seeing much-missed friends, catching the Museum of the American Indian (which far surpassed my expectations of it), and seeing Hillary Clinton's campaign headquarters, where my friend Ryan works. I call it Hill HQ for short. My posse and I got a personal tour (not from the lady herself, sadly, I think she was in Wisconsin, but I'm sure she'd take time out just for us to show where the staff does yoga if she could) from Ryan. We stopped on one of the floors, where there's a ping-pong table, a podium (practice debates!), and not much else. To amuse ourselves for a few minutes, how about a game of ping-pong? To which I proceeded to swiftly whack the only ping-pong ball up into the ceiling through an open panel where the tile had been removed. I eventually found the ball with the help of a Hillary Flashlight and teamwork, but thank goodness no one important saw us, or the scene might have looked like this.
On a side note, Mark wondered if the ping-pong paddles had Hillary's face on them. Sadly, no, (though Photoshop could make that happen) but we did decide that "ping-ponging" would be the "flip-flopping" of the 2008 election.

Study in Shapes and Colors

Random colorful strips of paper with overlaid squares, and in the squares, circles.

HVD2008?

As my good friend Peter pointed out, Valentine's Day shares an acronym with another nagging part of love, venereal disease. All the more reason to celebrate being single. To the right: my Valentine's Day card for this year.

Copy Mayhem

Today was the day that I finally turned in all the instrument parts and the score for the reading of my orchestra piece! The Pittsburgh Symphony now owes me 1.5 hours for time spent in four different buildings, searching for a copy machine that functioned. That's right, not one, not two, but four copy machines I tried to use had some defect, including:
1. totally broken and parts were on order
2. weird red lines of waxy substance on glass made stray marks on every copy
3. toner lines across every page
4. paper jam, and yet no paper in the machine

In addition, there were other copy machines that worked, but I couldn't use cash. I could, however, put money on a card which I could swipe on the copier. The catch is that the cards can only be purchased with five dollar bills. And I only had ones. Curse you, George Washington!

In any case, an angel descended upon me in the form of Amy and her architecture office, who let me do all the copying, which went smoothly from there on! It's a huge relief for me to be done with the prep work, but now I'm just nervous that there are mistakes that went unnoticed. Such is life- I'm not overly anal about meticulous details, but I certainly don't want a page from the harp part in the saxophone folder. How does one play pres de la table on the sax?

Photo: not related, but putting papers together nonetheless. Photo credit: Sally Bozzuto.

Chili

And God said, "Let there be no more eating of thine delicious chili,
for I will make thy jejunum very angry."

Mama's Pizza

That last post was a little serious. To return to something lighter (and doughier?), let's take a look at what I think the ideal pizza parlor would be called. Mmmm?
The byline is the kicker, but an added bonus is the bright ad I'd put in the window.
The next comic is missing this fabulous ad in the window, but the signage is the obvious natural progression:

Virtues and Vices

It's difficult to talk about one's vices without 1. sounding complainy, or 2. inviting a pity party, where your friends feel obligated to say something nice to you. That being said, I think of all the vices or 'deadly sins' I could be held accountable for, jealousy (also categorized as envy) is at the top of my list.

As much as I try to live my life without comparing myself to others, it's pretty much impossible for me. (Sloth, on the other hand, would be on the bottom of the list of vices, but sloths are on the top of my list of 'Thank God These Animals Exist!!'). Jealousy is a clingy bitch I just can't seem to shake. I admire people for their expertise in their field, but because I often lack mastery at one particular area, and I'm still 'young', I somehow find myself coming up short, and being too self-critical. I can write music pretty well, but there's so many musical things I haven't learned which I feel that I should know by now. I can talk about art history a bit, but I can't draw a figure that doesn't look like a comic. I love design, but I'm only beginning to learn what it actually takes to choose a good font.
I can be very organized, but I can forget small details, and I envy those who have excellent retention of facts. I'm also really jealous that other people have money. Not just disposable income, sure, but things like, oh, steady jobs, and careers. Retirement account? Pshaw. I would probably shoot myself if I had to work as an investment banker, though.

Things that I am also jealous about, to a lesser degree:

-muscles
-boyfriends, girlfriends, and the men/women who love them (more of a disgust+envy mix)
-people who buy clothes at regular price, thus, finding the right size, clothes fit properly!
-CD collections
-kids who have no college debt
-boys with lots of hair (and not lots of shoulder hair, like I have)
-classical piano skills

Things I don't have, but I'm not jealous about:
-expensive cars
-quality of housing
-big television
-breasts

But there is good news! I read an article by a Vassar grad (Dawn Deisbach, '90) who called herself a 'Generalist': she wasn't interested in any one field in her lifetime, but instead, drew the different parts of her life together, from writing a play to playing the violin, acting, and writing feminist papers. She writes that "there's never enough time to do all we're capable of...and burnout is often one rehearsal or revision away...yet [I] can remain ridiculously busy and feel energized." I think the key to overcoming my jealous vice is to recognize that I have talents which are diverse, and where some areas of my knowledge might seem incomplete, I am also interested in pulling together many other areas where many people focus in just one field. Many people I know don't care about contemporary art, but that shouldn't make my interest in art any less valid.

Like the Vassar grad, I'm optimistic that I too will be able to pull my interests together to pay the rent and not end up a crack whore. I don't expect it to happen overnight, so until then, I work as much as I can at random jobs (excluding crack and prostitution).

Second on the list of vices would have to be lust. But I'm down with lust.


Above: green-eyed monster, with black eyebrows.
What is your deadliest sin, viciest vice?