Written Monday night...

Sorry I haven't been updating, but we (Mom, Dad, and the brothers) were in Providence, Rhode Island for Memorial Day weekend - it was Mom's med school reunion at Brown University and she marched in the Commencement parade. She got to carry a baton, though she didn't get the cadeuceus (sp?). She enjoyed it very much, although the academic hood was a bit uncomfortable.

We stayed in a suite in one of the dorms. It was fairly comfortable, except that on the second night some students (although Dad said they might not have been students) decided to have a party in the parking lot below. They started playing loud music at 1:00 AM and at some point started smashing lightbulbs and bottles on the pavement. This went on for quite a while - and me without my earplugs. I'm kind of a wreck now (Monday night) because of this whole business.

I'm also a wreck because Mom has been pestering me about my weight and my lack of appropriate clothes for my internship, and Benjamin has just been pestering me. I'm trying to stay on my diet now so I can lose enough weight for Mom to stop turning every conversation into a discussion of how I need to lose 10 or 15 pounds. When I told her I thought I looked fine (I worry about it sometimes, but I don't think I'm that bad), she said it's a good thing that I have high self-esteem, but I'm deluding myself - like I don't have the right to be content with how I look just because I'm slightly overweight. This is one of the reasons I like being at college better.

I read about two thirds of my first volume of the Sherlock Holmes collection. I'm enjoying it a lot, although some of the stories are a bit flat. I found the one that put Mark Waid (creator of Ruse) off Sherlock Holmes for life - The Adventure of the Speckled Band. Why didn't he like it? Well, the solution was based on a falsehood, or, as he put it, "snakes can't hear!" Heh. But seriously, reading this has given me some ideas about how to refine my story, both in terms of the mystery and Simon's character. Although, much to my relief, the protagonist of Ruse and Sherlock Holmes are not really too similar. Holmes may be egotistical and gets a kick out of leaving people hanging for a while, but he usually makes an effort to be pleasant or at least tolerable. Occasionally he makes some sour (but funny) comment about the police or a pompous client. Simon, on the other hand, hates just about everybody and makes no secret of it. He's also less obviously eccentric than Holmes - as in, he doesn't shoot at objects on the mantel-piece in the sitting room. I think the phrase "dangerous when bored" applies to him, although mostly he's just a danger to himself.

I have also gotten from the collection a list of Victorian-era terms - types of coaches and clothing, mostly - that I am going to look up at some point.

Tomorrow I start my internship. I have clothes, lunch, and a chart (for my project) ready. I go in at 10, and I'll probably go out at 5 or 6, though really I need to discuss my hours with Sarah. Maybe I'll meet some of the other interns. I'm not sure what to expect, but mostly I'm looking forward to it.

Olly wolly poggily-woggily ump-bump fizz!

They came! They came! Woo! Oh yeah!

That is, my Babylon 5 DVDs arrived today, and the Samurai Jack first season DVDs that my friend Diana ordered for me. I don't know which to watch first - though actually I should exercise and write a letter to my friend Marjorie before I do anything else.

I started at Decatur House today. Julia, my fellow research intern, was glad for the chart I made. The other two interns so far are Tammy, who does tours, and Melinda, who works on inventory. I met some of the other permanent staff, including Denise, Carla, Tony, and Jenine (sp?). I met others but I forgot their names...

Julia and I got the official house tour from Tammy before starting our work. We each picked out four Decatur House residents to work on. I'm doing Benjamin Livingston, Joseph Gales, Judah P. Benjamin and Edward Beale. I looked through some primary source documents for Livingston today, and marked some books to start on tomorrow.

About Livingston, he was the Secretary of State for Andrew Jackson. During the Nullification Crisis of 1833, when South Carolina declared government tariffs on imported goods unconstitutional and threatened to seceede if they were executed in the state, Jackson made a speech against nullification, stressing that the United States was a country, not a loose confederation, and that states did not have the right to nullify laws imposed upon them by the federal government just because they didn't like them. The speech was written in great part by Edward Livingston. That's going up in the exhibit.

As for the work environment, Decatur House is a surprisingly relaxed place. This afternoon we had a little party for Melinda, who was celebrating her 20th birthday, and Carla, who as of today has been working at Decatur House for six years. We had some cookies from the Firehook Bakery, and talked about various stuff and things. So far I'm getting along well with everyone. Julia is fun to work with, since she's really interested in the subject. I hope our third intern will be as enthusiastic.

I used the big journal book given to me by tempus_aeterna last Christmas to take notes for my work. Since I have this Livejournal I don't think I need to write a diary by hand, and it's fun to use this little book for something. I'm considering getting a fountain pen to write in it with, just to be more special.

Decatur House and Dad's office are near the Farragut North Metro stop. When I went down there after work, I saw a young man playing a violin, with the case open for donations. He was playing Vivaldi's Spring, I think, and pretty well, too, considering that it's supposed to be a multiple-instrument piece. I've seen people playing saxaphones, flutes, guitars, lots of things in and around the Metro, but never a violin. I wonder if he'll be there again tomorrow. If I see him again I should probably put a dollar in the case.

Dad needs the car after work today, so though I drove to the Metro with him this morning, I had to take the bus home. The walk was fine, except for the cicadas. Now Mom wants me to go out again delivering flyers to all the houses on our street, which means braving the cicadas again. I guess I'll count that as my exercise, though.

Oh, take a look at the comment I left for Neil Gaiman's recent Livejournal entry, if you're interested...