Mixed Feelings on Social Media

Like most people my age, I'm fairly active on social media. As someone who had few people follow him from elementary school to middle school to high school to college, and then moved and stayed away post-graduation, I find social media a great way to keep up with people I knew in childhood. And I love seeing people's updates, even from people I haven't talked to in a long time.

I might not see them often, but I share in their successes in life and feel for their pains. I never know whether it's appropriate to "like" or "favorite" their posts, however. Will these people think I'm strange? Do I come across as a stalker? And that's the hate part of my love-hate relationship with social media. It allows me to connect with people from the past, but it also makes me feel weird when I do reconnect. I do it anyway--I like when people, especially those I may not have talked to in awhile, comment on my activities--but I am self-conscious about such interactions.

Anyway, this has been something I've been thinking about lately, especially because I read a post a former coworker put on her blog about Taylor Swift's new, absolutely amazing song, Blank Space. But she criticized the video, and rightly so. As she pointed out, Tay-Tay had gone Cray Cray. But I didn't know if it'd be weird to engage on the post.

And that's all for today. This song has been stuck in my head all day, and I think the general message is right on target. It can even be changed from talking about a girl to just life in general.

The Beauty of a Do-Nothing Vacation

I'm back on another vacation. In fact, I'm about two-thirds of the way through another jaunt in the US Virgin Islands (as beautiful as always) and I've done so little in my time here, it made me wonder if I do this whole "vacationing" thing wrong. I take two types of trips--exploratory ones and relaxing ones. Usually the former, but increasingly the latter. And this trip is very much the latter.

But on the exploratory ones...these are the trips I take to far-off lands and just see, do, and experience another culture. In 2011 I went to the Balkans and had an amazing adventure in Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, and Turkey. Two friends and I were constantly on the move, spending just a day or two in any one spot, and enjoying the variety of the terrain and the unique aspects of each of the cities we visited. Those vacations are the fun ones that require a relaxing vacation upon returning to home.
 

I am very much in the other type...the relaxing vacation. I've been on St Thomas since last Wednesday, and each day has been spent sleeping in, lying around, doing almost nothing. Could I do this at my house? Well, yes. except the weather here is much better than in Virginia, plus my parents are here so it's nice to see them in their place. I'm awful at staycations; I get antsy and find reasons I have to work or look up work things. Six days into this Virgin Islands vacation, however, I've read the news a few times, but I haven't thought about work or even felt a need to do so. And that's why I'm loving this vacation.
 

I know friends and others will be disappointed that I came to the Virgin Islands and didn't go to the beach or lay out in the sun. But I realized that that wasn't the reason I came here. I came here to clear my mind, to step away from the hubbub of the DC suburbs and just do nothing. And for that, this nothing was the most successful nothing I could've asked for. Successful nothing with breathtaking views :)

 For this post's happy video, I like Bruce Springsteen (the New Jerseyan in me coming out), and I love this acoustic version he does of No Surrender. Pure, raw emotion.

And A Crazy November Begins

Here's a short post, mostly just putting down a marker.

November is shaping up to be a crazy, crazy month. By my count, I will be spending more time outside the DC area than in it. It will make me appreciate my own place during December all that much more, I hope. And to top it all off, November got off with a bang. In my attempt to drive yesterday, I successfully blew out two tires last night, requiring a tow to the dealership to get it fixed first thing this morning. Not how I anticipated spending my Saturday evening and Sunday morning and afternoon. If two blown tires is the worst I encounter this month, however, I will be very, very happy. So here's to keeping my life straight over the next 28 days. I'll reevaluate come December 1!

And just because this is really, really cool. Love the song, love the impressions. :)

It's Been So Long Since Last We Met

This past weekend was Georgetown's homecoming, also known as Georgetown giving hundreds of students and alum a reason to day drink. Oh, and obviously to catch up with friends who I haven't seen in awhile. Very clearly, homecoming is not at ALL about football. To celebrate, a good friend came to town and stayed in my guest bedroom, so we had a full weekend full of fun activities.

Great Falls

We started on Friday with a hike through beautiful Great Falls National Park. It was an approximately 4 mile loop on the Virginia side of the Potomac, with stunning views of the river and rapids, and in general just lovely nature. It was definitely not a bad way to start a weekend. Friday continued with a game of Scattergories--I lost--and grilling baked potatoes and barbecue chicken. Deliciousness.

Perils of the Lost Jungle

Friday night evolved into epicness with the best 18 holes of mini golf I have ever played. There's a place near me that does "Perils of the Lost Jungle" that is basically an Indiana Jones-themed course. There's a sign at the start warning that players will get wet, but I did not take that seriously. The course was interactive--at one point we needed to put our hand on a mini pyramid to open a trap door--and the animatronics were well-done. There was a hiding gorilla, evil things in boxes, etc. So cool. Oh, and I got sprayed with water twice...once was a spritz by poisonous frogs, and the other was a volley of water from an alligator. And then there was the end. Unlike most mini golf courses where the final hole steals your ball, here when you reached to get your ball out of the hole, it used air to knock it out. It was completely unexpected. Ice cream obviously followed. :)

Hello, Georgetown!

Saturday was homecoming day. We started off by exploring all the new buildings on campus, and I was amazed by how nice campus is and all of the new study spaces. But then to the main event. Friends + Fun + Beer + 80s Cover Band = My Perfect Day. I did NOT stay for the football team and don't even know who won (at least I know they played Bucknell). It was an absolutely spectacular day, with temperatures getting into the 70s under a cloudless sky, so the next stop was obviously the grand lawns at the front of campus to take a nap under one of the big trees. It was college all over again, but the fun part, after spring finals, when there were no responsibilities and the weather was perfect. Eventually we decided to move on, walking along the C&O Canal towpath before catching a metro ride back out to the 'burbs.

Observation Tower, watching a plane land at Dulles

And then there was Sunday. I was already working on little sleep having had an action-packed Friday and Saturday, so we agreed to just wake up whenever and then went to the Udvar-Hazey Air and Space Museum near Dulles Airport. It has hangars of planes and is a nice complement to the museum stuck in downtown DC. Udvar-Hazey also hosts the space shuttle Discovery(!) and a Air France Concorde. I guess that's what you can do with unlimited space in the suburbs!

Before my friend departed DC on Sunday night, we played a couple rounds of Mario Party on Wii, a nice relaxing way to end the weekend.

And last week I saw this video and, well, I love every 80s slow dance song apparently. This video was better, in my opinion, than the 90s or the 00s version.

A Magical Journey to Orlando

Another vacation. I know, I'm getting crazy here. This time it was to Orlando and the magical world of...Universal Studios. Had you going there for a moment, didn't I? While Disney is the place to be a kid, Universal for me was the place for adults to be a kid but to pretend they're more adult-y. Boom. I should be in Universal's marketing department.

Hogsmeade

In any case, Universal was super fun, and not just because I got to experience the magical world of Harry Potter (boom x2...these are almost too much fun!), but the non-Harry Potter things were pretty cool too. Despicable Me, Jurassic Park, the Mummy, the Hulk...overall, a great set of rides to go on. But Harry Potter was obviously the biggest thing. Hogsmeade looks as amazing in person as it does in pictures. I know the snow is fake, but the atmosphere there is brilliant. Food at the Three Broomsticks was OK--nothing special--but again, it was the atmosphere. If I wanted great food, I probably wouldn't have eaten inside the park.

The dragon above Gringotts blowing fire

Other really enjoyable Harry Potter-themed activities were the journey through Hogwarts, which was really well done, and two trips on the Hogwarts Express (once in each direction). On the Diagon Alley side of Harry Potter World, I was most impressed about how they took minor details from the books and broadened them into something "real." This was most prevalent in the choice of stores. Not necessarily a minor detail, but even Florean Fortescue's ice cream shop made an appearance. How cool is that?

You may not believe it, but there's more to Universal than just Harry Potter. Obviously I was naturally drawn to the minions of Despicable Me. Not only are they funny, but they're super cute and I give the creators a lot of credit for not just making mindless robots but giving each individual minion a unique personality. (Side note: We watched Despicable Me again one night in Orlando because, why not?) It's amazing what moving seats can do. It completely felt like a full-fledged roller coaster, even though we moved at most a couple of inches in any direction. Gotta love it.


Yes. Of course.

The other fun rides were Jurassic Park, the Mummy, and the Hulk. All three were big surprises for me. The park employee told us that the Jurassic Park lagoon ride had an 85 foot drop at the end. Yet, somehow that drop REALLY surprised me. Definitely wasn't prepared. With the Mummy, I had set my expectations pretty low, but the storytelling and the twists and turns on the indoor roller coaster far exceeded my expectations. And with the Hulk, it was a standard roller coaster except for the beginning. You expect to slowly creep up and then begin your free-fall. But not the Hulk. The quick acceleration starting halfway up was unexpected. So three rides that were above and beyond what I would've figured.

Obviously there were some middling activities--Gringotts, Shrek--and some downright bad ones--Twister--but overall it was an enjoyable experience at Universal. Even if only for a short time over a few days, it was really awesome to be able to join the world of Harry Potter. Now if only my acceptance letter would arrive in the mail--or by owl--already. It's just 15 years late....

Not related at all to the post, but this duet between Jennifer Nettles and one of her contestants on the failed show Duets might be one of the best duets of all time. Really, any duet Jennifer Nettles does is amazing (also see her You and I with Lady Gaga), but this just captivates me. Every. Single. Time.