Tuesday, January 22, 2008

random stuff

It's snowing again, whee! It's difficult to enjoy snow when you're living in cities like DC and New York. You really appreciate nature again - blankets of snow on the ground as well as the valley, and tree branches covered in snow.

One year from today - Hillary or Barack residing at the White House (If Republican again, I accept McCain.. grudgingly..)

Ten years ago last Saturday - I was unaware of Monicagate because I wasn't following the news for two days. I called the White House to inquire after information about interning there. I couldn't understand why the woman on the other line was so confused with my interest (they did send me an application package) . Once I got home with take out dinner - I turned on the TV. Boy, was I mortified. Ten years sure flew by.. the other night, Dad and I caught "Primary Colors" on cable. It just occurred to me to think about "War Room" - good way to see how the campaign works and boundaries a human being with or without a conscience can do.

my rant today - why, WHY was the federal rate cut again?! this time, three-quarters a very deep cut. Bernanke is a slap happy cutter - and our money is much more worthless. Sooner or later, we'd end up like Argentina.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Settling in...

I'm at the Schoharie Library enjoying its hotspot. My wi-fi doesn't work at home and for a change, the library is a pleasant setting. Perhaps because it is smaller and more quieter than a NY public library and the location is a converted house. Each room and hall is filled with books, magazines, some and reference local and faraway; and upstairs - a community meeting room and two rooms filled with historical artifacts of the house. Furniture, paintings, old style wall papering and stencilling adjourned the rooms and some lovely wood moldings.

While my laptop caught up on its virus check I read an older edition of a Nancy Drew book (a black woman was described as 'colored') but fret not as there's plenty of literature in current print. Far as I can see, I mean. There's a Thursday Next pre-sequel hard cover, published last fall. I know of it because I bought a copy around then. So there's hope for me and this library.

Hopefully I'll utilize this library several times a week so I won't go insane being confined to the house studying and reading school materials. That was the mistake I made last semester in NYC - basically staying in my apartment and not going out for days, unless I needed to restock the kitchen of food.

I've been walking around my home town on a nearly daily basis, becoming familiar with it again. It's not the same without a bike back when I was a kid. My house is located in central part of the village with access to Stewarts, schools, and a couple bars. The post office had moved to northern part of the village almost close to the village boundaries so It's almost a mile and a half round trip. I needed a set of stamps because I couldn't find the ones I'd packed and walking is a better excuse than going through my parents' stuff looking for stamps. It was snowing when I walked so it was rather pleasant, but much to my irritation the desk was closed for lunch hour and it was only 20 minutes into. There wasn't even a stamp vendor machine like the ones back in NYC. I wasn't keen on standing between walls of post boxes for the next 40 minutes and the neighborhood consisted of houses, a shut down ice cream place (it just occurred to me now that a diner is located couple doors down) and a sort of garden mill and tractor store place.

I returned the next day in the morning and got a full book of stamps. Some more adjusting to do but I'm in a relatively good shape except for some food withdrawal such as sushi. Hopefully will go to the city this weekend and grab a plate.

Thursday, January 03, 2008

Living out of the city now

I've been here upstate since Monday evening - it hasn't hit me yet that I've actually moved back into my parents'. I think it'll sink in once I receive an annoyed e-mail from my old property manager about the state of the apartment I left it in.

A bit of the trip down the memory lane - I cleaned out part of my closet so I can make room for a temporary storage closet, found quite some stuff I'd stuffed in there over the years: a Kirk Cameron poster couple years before he became born-again, a "fashionable" pair of puffy blue boots with wedge heels (must be when I was 13?), a box full of Baby Sitters Club, Sweet Valley Twins and High (I sure don't miss my pre-teen years!) in mostly good condition. Same for a few stacks of Archie comics I collected as a kid. I emailed my brother seeking his advice how to dispose of them. The books, I'll donate them to the village library when I get my hands on either of my parents' cars.

Cars. That's one thing - I miss the public transportation. What qualifies as public transportation here is for senior citizens shuttling between here and few other villages.

Ed note: few days after I posted this, I paid a visit to the village library - Schoharie Free Library - and found several phamphlets on routes and schedules of public transportation for *everyone* not limited to senior citizens. Last night, my mother informed me that she read my post and we agreed that I should correct this. There's routes to towns outside Schoharie County to Schenectady and Amsterdam.

Two things to get used to around here which are good. My parents are big on routine doing this and that regularly and I'm happy to report that it's slowly rubbing off on me. And the dogs - they have to go out few times a day, so I have to go outside too. The sub-zero cold is plain awful - once I'd gotten used to having two dogs outside with me at once, instead of turns I enjoy the outside better. Five minutes is the max once the dogs start eating snow and sniffing around for the neighbor's cat.

off to finish couple chores before mom gets home..