The weekend so far

I seem to be procrastinating (Wow! How did it get to be 1:30am? I thought it was 11 or so!), so this is a good time post an update.

Friday: Perseids.

golux_org had reminded me that this weekend was the Perseid meteor shower was this weekend, so on Friday, I met him, cathijosephine, and zzbottom at Sol (the Brazilian buffet near cathijosephine’s current apartment) for dinner. Then golux_org, cathijosephine, and I got in the car and (after some pondering and telephone consultation with golux_org’s father about the weather), headed out west in search of clear skies. Somewhat after midnight we found a spot somewhere around Belchertown with relatively clear skies that wasn’t too wooded, pulled the car over by the side of the road, and got out to look at the sky. We saw maybe four or five bright meteors, and a fair number of faint ones. I’d guess we spent a bit under two hours watching. After dropping golux_org off, cathijosephine and I got to her place around 4:20am or so.

Saturday: Trip to faerieschylde’s and movie with Dreaming.

Then Saturday I drove cathijosephine up to faerieschylde’s in New Hampshire. We got up around 11, and didn’t even pause for breakfast, which was a good thing, because the traffic was terrible. As I was approaching Boston on my way back, I got a call from Dreaming, who had just moved back to Boston. So after a desperately-needed shower, I met him and went to see the Willy Wonka remake. (I can’t say I was terribly impressed with it — Johnny Depp did a good job as far as he was able, but his character came off as a lot more hollow and two-dimensional than Gene Wilder’s, which I think was probably about the script and direction. I loved the depictions of Charlie’s home, though.)

Sunday: No interview, but more driving.

I had an interview scheduled with a reporter who wanted to do a story on Poly Boston this afternoon, but he didn’t show up — or if he did, we weren’t able to find each other at the café we’d arranged to meet at. Hopefully we can reschedule that. The annoying thing was that since it was so hot, I’d left the windows of my car cracked, and while I was in the café, a huge thunderstorm hit. So the drive up to pick up cathijosephine was somewhat damper than I might have liked. On balance, though, I’m really grateful for the thunderstorm, because the heat and humidity broke. On the way back, Zeph played me some Flogging Molly, which I always love when she plays them for me. I have to buy some of their CDs. Then this evening, I’ve been working on my (extended, due in the mail tomorrow) taxes, but it’s astonishing how much that looks like cleaning my bedroom, organizing files on my computer, ripping CDs, paying house bills, and doing laundry. I need to procrastinate more often; I get an awful lot done. :-)

Lest anyone worry about all the driving I’ve been doing, I really love driving (even when the traffic is as bad as it was on Saturday). Zeph is perfectly happy to take the train, but I like to drive her because that gives me time to drive, time with her, and the opportunity to see faerieschylde. And Friday’s adventure was just a lot of fun. (It reminded me of the previous time I’d gone searching for clear sky to watch the Perseids with golux_org, which was a very similar experience.)

I’m a very happy and very lucky ’wabbit.

Oh, and I’m still slowly making my way through the new Harry Potter book. I’m sure I need to turn in my Harry Potter Fan ID card since I didn’t stay up all night reading it the night after it came out, but the fact that it’s temporarily displaced the Aubrey/Maturin series at the top of my list of things to read really says something.