QOTD: "Many interjections are called, but phew is chosen." - Norman Corwin
Reading: Sara Wheeler, Terra Incognita
Listening to: Pierre Bensusan, Musiques
Decluttering accomplishments: threw out the last of a box of magazines, got through a lot of household paperwork, finished federal and California taxes
There is a special department of hell for people who write state tax forms. Especially partial year resident tax forms. Especially the Virginia partial year resident tax form which is the last tax form I need to finish. I usually think I'm a reasonably bright person and I'm sure that I'm more or less fluent in the English language or at least in that variant spoken in the northeastern United States. But I cannot for the life of me understand what "fixed date conformity modifications" are. They have something to do with some tax laws for which you have to use the 2001 tax law versus the 2002 tax law and I'm reasonably sure none of it actually has anything to do with me, but they could not have written more convoluted explanations if they tried. I may yet finish the forms tonight but probably not as I still need to figure out if I can write off the cost of the aspirin consumed in preparing my returns. (Should any IRS employee be reading, that's a joke. Generic aspirin doesn't come to 2.5 percent of my adjusted gross income.)
On a cheerier note, I spent part of the week in Los Angeles at a conference. My brilliant plan on Monday was to drive to the West Falls Church metro station in the morning, as that's right by the Dulles access road and would save me time getting to the airport. The less brilliant part was thinking that, because I was driving, I didn't need a hat and scarf and could leave the book I was reading in my luggage. I still had a 15 minute metro ride to and from Rosslyn and I still had to walk between the Rosslyn station and my office. I survived, but was bored and cold. I also discovered that the Dulles parking lots still have huge snow piles blocking a lot of spaces and it took me a while to find an actual space. But I made my flight with no real trouble and got across the country and to the conference hotel without incident.
By the way, on the way to the metro station, I had the radio on to NPR and heard a news story about schizophrenic mice. The idea is that scientists want to induce schizophrenia in mice in order to use them as a model for schizophrenic humans. That would be very useful for testing new drug treatments, for example. The problem is, of course, that it's rather hard to tell if a mouse is hallucinating. It was an interesting story and I decided that "The Hallucinations of a Mouse" would be an excellent name for a sort of avant-garde rock band.
The conference was okay and I did learn a few odds and ends. I missed one morning because I figured it was worthwhile to spend some face time with colleagues who I talk to on the phone nearly daily. At any rate, we have educational goals and this gets me closer to the expected number of hours. And I did see several people who I haven't seen in a while, including some from one of our contractors, as well as some from my own company.
I also took advantage of being in L.A. to do some socializing. I had dinner with Penny on Tuesday night. We went to Typhoon, at the Santa Monica airport, which was interesting largely because I don't think I've ever seen a menu before which had a category for "insects." With a large enough group, I might have tried to talk some folks into trying the stir-fried crickets, but we stuck to more normal fare. My Indonesian noodle dish was okay, though not as good as the Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse. The ginger creme brulee for dessert was a let-down, as the custard itself was bland and flavorless and the crystallized ginger that topped the dish didn't quite balance that.
I had a more basic dinner (fish and chips at Hof's Hut) on Wednesday night, because I wanted to go to Long Beach storytellers. It was nice seeing everyone and I was glad I'd made the effort to go, despite the trauma of rush hour traffic on the 405. On Thursday, I left after the morning session of the conference, had lunch with Don at Szechuan (fish filet in garlic sauce) and stopped by his building to chat with a few folks before heading back to the airport. The flight itself was fine, with a particularly good movie to watch (The Emperor's Club). But getting in to Dulles at 11:30 at night is a pain. It took until 12:15 a.m. to get to my car and, while the drive home is fairly short (20 minutes or so), I first had to scrape ice off the windshield and pay to get out of the parking lot. So it was about 1 a.m. when I got home and I couldn't find a parking spot very close to my apartment. Somehow or other, I managed to get to work on time on Friday, but I was a total zombie all day.
The only other thing going on is a potential (probable) change in my vacation plans. It looks like they might not have the minimum number of people for the tour. My options are to take a different tour or to have them put together an independent package. I will probably do the latter, since that's more my style to begin with. The only reason for a tour is efficiency when time is limited. It's still annoying since I thought I'd figured out what I was doing and now I have to rethink things.
Copyright 2003 Miriam H. Nadel