Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

The bad news: I stupidly/carelessly burnt a skillet this evening. The not-as-bad news: since it's cast iron, I've only cost myself time and effort, not money, to undo my mistake.

My weekend scheduling is getting more complicated. Oh well. Some good comes from it though. Unfortunately, I didn't make it to the nail salon earlier -- I was hunting high and low for some negatives that I know were at the top of one of these stacks a week and a half ago -- so I need to find a place that's open on Sundays and get out of the house early enough to deal with that before other things are scheduled. Either that or I get to do my nails myself, which takes six times as long (or more), doesn't look as good, and doesn't last as long before they need attention again.

Remember that photo that I got arrested (oh, excuse me, "detained", which as far as I can tell means "arrested politely") for taking just before Thanksgiving? It's on the web now, as part of the January Pentax Users Gallery. Unfortunately the commentary I wrote to go with it didn't get posted. Y'all know the story ... well if you look at the left-hand edge of the photo for some faint dots a little more than halfway up, I think those are windows of the building the police thought I was pointing my camera at.

I really need to get more of my photos online. Like my portfolio, at least.

I heard a really cool tune on the radio that I'd never heard before. Listening to what I think of as a rock station (though it's not, really -- their slogan is, "Everything, in no particular order", and while most of it is rock or rock-based, they really do play pretty much everything, though I haven't heard any opera yet), I had the volume a little low for the speed I was driving ... so the Eastern scale sort of snuck up on me. I turned up the volume a bit and heard, "There ain't no snow in Istanbul, and everybody's having fun," and suddenly the radio had all of my attention that wasn't required for driving, minus a little corner of my brain that was going, "Istanbul -> Turkey -> Ankara -> silmaril -> {smile}". The song turned out to be "I Wanna See You Bellydance", by The Red Elvises, and it's an interesting blend of different musical styles. I've got to listen to it again, but as I remember it from the one hearing, it blends rock and Eastern in some places, and alternates between them in other.

At the next few red lights, I tried to figure out snippets of the guitar melody on the soprano recorder I had in the car. I didn't get it. Yet.

I've got small-in-area but intense sharp pains in several places in my right shoulder and all across my back (mostly just to either side of my spine, but they're elsewhere in my back as well). I'm waiting for the drugs to kick in and make the pains go away, or at least go down a couple of levels and change from what I would call "shooting" if they travelled more than an inch or two to some less distracting form. It's going to be difficult to sleep feeling like this.

It's a still, clear night in Baltimore. There are stars out. Not many -- it's the city after all -- but they're there. It looks like a much colder night, but I just leaned out a window and noticed that it doesn't feel all that cold. (I'm sure it's below freezing because I passed a time-and-temperature sign two and a half hours ago that said it was, but I'd swear it felt like about 275K when I leaned out the window just now.) Anyhow, it's very clear, and the downtown skyline is looking especially pretty tonight. Someday I'm going to have to get up on the 3rd floor roof and see whether I can get good shots of downtown without the streetlight and the roofs of the other houses on my block in the way. That won't be as easy as getting onto the 2nd floor roof (my 3rd floor is only half as long as the other floors) to shoot the buildings along the harbour, the Domino sign, and so on, but it probably makes more sense than trying to stick a camera out over the middle of Lombard street on a long pole from my 3rd floor window.

I'm not a city girl -- I grew up in the suburbs and I like having space around me -- but there are certainly some aspects of the city that I can appreciate. There is beauty, or at least prettiness, to some sides of some cities. I like the view of the Baltimore skyline that I have from my house. And there's something reassuring about knowing that two shopping centers (small ones, but they count) are within walking distance if I'm feeling halfway healthy. Unfortunately I have to drive a little ways to get to anything that's open all night (Union Square isn't exactly Charles Village), but it's still neat to notice how many things are close.

Okay, it's been more than an hour and a half since I took my drugs and the pains are still distracting -- improved, but not improved enough. Time to try a different type of painkiller and see whether the combination does the job so I can rest. Good night.

Just woke from a dream, 10:40 or 10:45.

I took a moment to decide whether to write the dream down here or in my paper diary, decided I'd probably get more of it out before forgetting it here, leapt out of bed, and noticed the snow falling past my window. Gee, maybe I should've checked a weather forecast sometime in the last two days. I don't remember their mentioning snow for today a few days ago (though I do recall hearing something about rain late in the day). Of course, my memory of forecasts from a few days ago could be faulty.

Right now it's sticking to cars and to the cracks in the sidewalk but mostly just making pavement wet. Oh bother! I needed to go to the grocery store today, and now it's going to be full of people doing snow shopping! Bleah.

I definitely have not slept long enough. But my back does feel somewhat better. I should find something breakfastlike.