This was sort of a short week, in that the Air Force declared Friday to be a "family day." It's not like that gives me a day off, but it meant things were quieter than normal and I could catch up on odds and ends. Except that the rest of the week was quite insane, with a last minute swirl over why we weren't funding something that anybody who had been paying attention for the last year or so would have already seen we weren't funding. Because when you're begging for an extra billion and a half dollars, it doesn't look good to be asking for even more for things that aren't part of your baseline. That's the simple version, of course, and it didn't get us out of writing umpty ump point papers explaining things.
On Wednesday evening, I went to see Fahrenheit 911. Let's just say that I was glad I used a free movie ticket (courtesy of my mother's obsession with refunding) and didn't pay to see it. Michael Moore has often irritated me in the past, but he's usually at least been funny. Here, there were only three or four laughs in the whole film and they were all cheap ones. There isn't exactly anything in there that hasn't been widely reported before and I felt that he exploited a number of the people he interviewed. Oh, well, I expected to be annoyed and had gone largely because I like to know what all the buzz is about.
My other big activity of the week was a bit of retail therapy yesterday. It was too hot to do anything that wasn't air-conditioned and I need several odds and ends. The one thing I did manage to get was a skort, i.e. a combination shorts/skirt, which is a very useful travel garment. I didn't manage to find decent shoes (i.e. ones I can actually walk in) or new linens at a price I'm willing to pay.
I'd wanted to go into the District today and watch the reenactment of the reading of the Declaration of Independence at the Archives and go to the Folklife festival and maybe look around for some of the panda statues and all. But the weather was dreary - hot and humid and heavily overcast. I was glad I didn't go when there was a torrential downpour just around noon.
Instead I spent much of the day napping and reading trashy novels and the like. I'm fatigued, but it's the sort of the fatigue that has more to do with not getting enough exercise than with not getting enough sleep, though I don't get enough sleep either. What I need is a week or so of being away, walking around something ancient and interesting, alternating with sitting on a terrace overlooking the sea drinking iced mocha. I am going on vacation in just about a month, but I need it now. Then I can work on my need for about six months off.
Copyright 2004 Miriam H. Nadel