Anyone know anything about arthritis? I got a ton of it all over. Was just talking to the lady that cleans our apartment and she was complaining about her knee and it being arthritic...said she ate some beans that aggravated it. What? I love beans. She tells me that beans, potatoes and peanuts all cause arthritis to get worse. I eat at least one of those three things every day, and sometimes all them at once. Gonna have to do some research.
Someone asked me if I miss the Boy now that he's at school. Of course, but have to share something weird...maybe a bit dark and definitely twisted. Over the last few nights, have had college themed dreams. Can't remember much about any of them except one. In it, was visiting Boy-o and he introduces us to a girl, which if he ever introduces us to one means it is his "special friend". This woman is one of his teachers, and she asks him if he wants to come over for some "Netflix and chill". Will let you Freudians out there dissect the meaning of that one.
Am sure I mentioned it before, but I really love the In Our Time podcast. A BBC thing for 15 years, the host invites three scholars on for a talk about everything from Aesop to Zoroastrianism. Always learn something from each and they are a great way to escape from the daily grind of politics while bettering your brain. They talk in subdued British accents, which is great for nap time. Heard a great quote that sums up the Chinese and their mentality towards life on an episode about Taoism. An allegory about building a path and coming up against a thousand pound stone. Instead of fighting it, they wait a 1000 years for it to erode and then just flick it away. I wonder who is their 1000 pound stone is these days?
Big news in town this week are the Universiade Games. A mini-Olympics for college athletes held every two years since the 50's but no one has ever heard of them. Guessing they aren't a huge deal to anyone but the participants, but to the Taiwanese, international recognition of any kind is huge and they have been scrubbing the city and fixing up the venues for the last 2-3 years in preparation. I can only hope that they are holding it now, during the peek of sun stroke season, and also during the most dangerous of Chinese months...Ghost Month...as it was pre-ordained from the Universiade governing body, cause being les miserables does not help put Taiwan's best face forward.
That ghost month link was in the local paper and recaps most everything that we've shared about it here in years past, with the exception of # 19. "Do not step on or kick the offerings left on the roadside". I have been wanting to kick the roadside offerings for years but now know I can do so the other 11 months out of the year without spirit reprisal.
At the local Sports University across the street, they have official basketball, diving and baseball events. The ticket sales are confusing at best and I can't buy them even thought the venues are half full/empty when watching on TV. Think it has to do with tickets being good for the whole days worth of competition and people come and go. While I'd like to check it out, with the aforementioned heat and entrance frustration, and that I have enough sports to occupy my mind at this time of year, am not broken up about missing out.
I do see some Universiade happenings as I take my walk around campus, and the other day stumbled on the US soccer team as they practiced on the schools (newly installed artificial) field. As it is a hundred and teen-something out, ask them how they are liking the weather and they can only look at me incredulously. I add, "Hydrate fellas", which got me thinking that I am doing so a lot. Not a counter of water intake, these days it has to be gallons a day, and one would think that I'd be peeing constantly, but realized that I am hardly urinating at all and figure that I must be sweating it out before it can get to by bowels. When I do manage to evacuate my bowels, the urine is the color of Tang.
A little further along, see a group of athletes and find they are some diving contingents getting a tour of the area where their competition will be. Never realized that divers are really short with the tallest of the dudes being my height. And their bodies (boys and girls) were all very smooth. Anyway, I watch for a bit as a local guy explains the facility in English to groups from Finland, Mexico, Italy and North Korea. Sports can save us all. Probably shouldn't go here out of fear of objectifying women, especially in the current environment, but I'm a dude and feel it safe to say that we all check out the opposite sex reflexively. Out of those four countries, the Finns were blond in the usual style, the Italians were spicy meatballs, and the Mexicans...aye Chihuahua, but the hottest ones for my money were the North Koreans. Why? Because they are forbidden.
Last I left off on the summer travelogue, we were done with SF. Kids and I drove to LA for a 24
hour stay to visit Betty's mom and her sister's family. Not much to say about the visit with them other than her mom looked really fit and good. I did budget time to eat at my two LA must destinations. Vim on the way into town and Taco Lita the next day. Boy and I even got an extra burrito to share on our flight outta town. I don't take a ton of photos, but always take them of Vim and Taco Lita and didn't this time cause of camera issues. Lucky for you, have been going to these places for 25 and 35 years respectively, so have a portfolio of pix to share.
Vim was really good this time...had felt them slipping last couple of visits, but it was vintage and delicious.
We took the red-eye outta LAX to spend a week in the DMV. Not that I need a reason to visit DC/Baltimore, but we planned Paul's orientation for this week and built in a few days at the end to visit friends/eat food in our old stompin' grounds.
Must say that the west to east coast red-eye, while efficient, messes up your mind and body something fierce. I was sorta out of it for the 2.5 hour drive down to the University of Virginia (UVA) and got caught by one of the Commonwealth's finest for a $200 speeding ticket. Virginia is not a state and you'd better not call it that cause you'll get corrected immediately. What's the difference between a commonwealth and a state you ask? Why they changed it I can't say, people just liked it better that way.
We spent 4 nights in a conveniently located B&B and two of the days we had there were spent at orientation. We split up as I went with the parent group and the Boy went off with the incoming Freshman, excuse me, First Year. All these schools have their own lingoes and traditions, and UVA has a ton. They don't use Freshman-Senior and prefer First Year, etc. as they say that a persons education shouldn't be limited to 4 years. We learned about some of them during our stay and am sure we'll hear about more, but the best was that in your time at the school, everyone has to streak "The Lawn" at least once. The Lawn is 421 yards long and you have to go down and back. I tried to start a naked tradition at my university back in the day...being pictured peeing on a vacuum. It didn't take.
The Lawn is the center of the university that was founded by Thomas Jefferson. He designed the Rotunda, which caps one end of it and the whole area that surrounds the grass is called the Academical Village. How an institution of higher learning can get away with calling it Academical is beyond me...that isn't even a real word. I took zero photos there, but let me tell you that the entire campus is the prettiest I've ever seen. My sister and dad went to Princeton, and have been there a ton, and I've seen hundreds of schools in my day, and will say without hyperbole that it is the most attractive I've ever visited. Uniform styling (based on Jefferson's original design...think Monticello if you've ever been there), huge yet still cozy and accessible, facilities from sports to science are all modern and state of the art. It's like a movie set and as Thomas Jefferson used to say, "Who's the cute light skinned girl over by the butter churn?" Thanks to (UVA alum) Tina Fey for that one.
Speaking of Monticello...have never been. Not during college or on visits to the area since. It's only 3 miles off campus and we didn't go this time either. Told the Boy that the thing to do is to never go. Just like never seeing an episode of Game of Thrones, or thinking the Beatles are overrated, take a stance against something everyone else does just to be obstinate, and never give in. The kids asked 'what is wrong with you?", but after a while, they came around and have signed off on this stupid action.
I don't know about other orientations, and the Boy really enjoyed his portion, but the parent one was completely worthless to me. Maybe it was fine for people that have never had a college experience, but I learned literally nothing. There was some communal events and then they offered seminars around campus based on interest. Listened to a shrink explain a chart that shows depression in college students is dropping while anxiety skyrockets (due to too much helicopter parenting apparently), while encouraging emotional resilience.
This was a topic that we talked over dinners throughout the summer. Many of our friends have kids that just went, are going or are about to enter into their college application process. I bristled at the expectation that parents these days go to these orientations and take their kids to school to drop them off/set them up in the dorms. My position was that my folks didn't do any of that stuff and that wasn't a must do in those days. They put me on a red-eye to the east coast and said see ya later. They sent me to BWI airport cause the flight was cheapest but was the furthest and least accessible to the school, and had to figure how to get to campus on my own (and without Google). Two trains and two buses with all of my gear. And due to me coming back from senior year of high school in Australia, my first semester was in January, so I had no orientation or anything. You know what? I survived. Will have to ask my sister if they dropped her off. She went to my dad's precious Princeton, so likely. They talk about helicoptering and emotional resilience while simultaneously advocating for parents to baby their brats. You can sign up for drop and fold laundry service for your kids so they don't even have to do their own damn washing. Was just talking to the Boy (after his first week there) and he was lamenting that the food is boring. You know, same old options at the multiple cafeterias of Mexican, pasta, sandwiches, Asian, vegetarian....that they sometimes have to use their swipe cards to go to Chik-Fil-A or one of the other dozen or so chain stores the have access to out of boredom. Shit, we were so happy on the day that they had dried out hamburger patties that were served by the cafeteria worker whose name tag read Sweet Thing, but we renamed Sweat Thing due to the unbearable working conditions at the lone cafeteria on campus . We stole Cap'n Crunch just to make it through the day. The only other option we could use our swipe card for was the on campus Roy Rogers that served the exact same dried out hamburger patty. Yes, they are coddled, but is it too much or is being dropped off at the airport without any assistance better or worse. My folks didn't even make the trek to DC for my graduation. Yes, I survived but the consensus as we talked with the other parents was that I was emotionally scarred for life.
Regarding coddling...they do make the college transition so much easier to both kids and parents. Best example is Bed, Bath & Beyond. We had time to kill so went by to get the things that he'd need and they told us to come back that night as they were having an event to do just that. We go back and they are throwing a party...they had food (from Popeye's knockoff Bojangles) and then give you a scanner to go around the store. You identify your items, bring the scanner to the counter and they will pack and hold them until the day you move in. Fantastic service...you don't have to lug them around or mess with them during the busy moving in week. Plus, at the event, we didn't need to collect a bunch of coupons as everything was 20% off. The kids and I were almost done, and Betty's mom radar must have been going off cause she calls us and then starts questioning all of our choices. Boy and I, but mostly me, are getting irritated by the interrogation, and then Babydoll decides to show her what's in the cart and she starts going off...Why are you buying so much soap and what are you thinking buying that color of sheets? We ditch Babydoll and the cart and hide on the other side of the store.
Back to orientation...also went to a seminar as to why you should consider a semester abroad. A lot of "no duh" moments in that one and wanted to crack wise about it. Pretty sure they offered the mind numbing events to parents to give them something to do while the kids were off doing their bonding thing, but I abhor the small talk, where are you from BS. Being a huge introvert when it comes to meeting new people, and add to the fact it was stinkin' hot, the events were all about campus and I was using a cane cause my back was at its worst that week and pretty much went into a shell and didn't speak to anyone. One of the first things the Boy and I noticed when we were together at the beginning is that in conversations we overheard, during the 'where are you from" portion of the gettin' to know you phase, we heard, I'm from NoVa a ton. Quickly figured out that meant Northern Virginia. When we met up again in the afternoon on the second day, he told me that a girl explained that saying you're from NoVa is code for "educated, rich and liberal" That means if you're from the south, east or western portion of the state, you are dumb, poor and a Trump supporter. It adds up.
We all thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Charlottesville proper. Right off campus is an area called "The Corner" and it is a convenient hot spot for students with bars and a damn fine bagel shop. Boda Bagels refuses to toast your bagel cause they are still warm from the oven. And their toppings range from traditional cream cheese to roast beef or whatever your heart desires. Always a line out the door, but they have it down so the wait is 5 minutes tops. Every UVA person we met before and after mentions in the first three sentences when talking about the place. After eating there, very well deserved. Down the street about a mile (with free trolley service) is the towns Downtown Mall, which is a pedestrian only street with hip shops, music/theatre venues/restaurants. Quaint in just the way you'd imagine, it is the spot that will forever be etched in the American psyche as the location where the nut job ran down the protester during the Confederate statue protest.
We had three more nights/days in the area and spent them with friends and eating our brains out. Made a return to DC Indian food joint Rasika (where the Obamas go) and had two fabulous Maryland crab meals in Baltimore. The crab cake place we ate the last couple of years closed and they opened a new location about 40 minutes north of Baltimore, so we had to go. As we're coming from the south, that meant an additional 1.5 hours of driving to the day, but we did not regret it. Maryland crab is a life changing experience.
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