Blank brain!

I'm trying to write some text for the exhibit we're putting up at Decatur House. Right now I'm concentrating on Robert Livingston. What I want to do is write a side note about the interpretation of the Constitution before the Civil War: back in those days, there was some disagreement over whether the Union was a nation administrated by a central government to which the states were subordinate, or whether it was a league of sovereign States that participated on a voluntary basis and could selectively enforce federal laws within their borders. According to the guidelines, I should try and avoid the passive voice, and use simple language so everyone can understand. Most importantly I should try to be concise. Maybe I'm giving our visitors-to-be too little credit and dumbing it down too much. Whatever it is, I've begun and erased it several times. This is going to take some thinking.

At least I managed to reach someone in Florida who can help me get stuff on loan from Gamble Plantation. This is for Judah P. Benjamin, now. He said he had a curator working on it and would send me a list of available items. I'm still trying to reach someone else about Judah P. Benjamin stuff. I also need to get in touch with Princeton to see about reproductions of some of Livingston's papers.

Yesterday when I went to the LOC I figured out that the letter I got from microfilm is not the one I'm looking for, the LOC does not have the paper it was originally printed in and, though the biography says the letter was later picked up by other major newspapers, I didn't find it in the Philadelphia Inquirer or the New York Times from that period. Sarah says I should call the Chester Historical Society of Pennsylvania, since the letter was in the Chester Republican, and ask them to find it for me. It'll probably cost us, since institutions like that generally charge by the hour for research, but I know what date it was published so they won't have to look too hard.

I left a little early and stopped at the health club, so I got there about 20 minutes before I usually do. It was relatively crowded but emptied out to just a handful of people not long after, the way it usually is when I go in. When I went home I tried to schedule an appointment to take the GRE in Philly, but that didn't go so well. First, the dates I wanted were taken (there's another site in Philly, though, and I might try them) and the software was designed by a moron. The guy on the other end of the phone taking my info said that once he started filling out the test form, he had only three minutes to finish before the system threw him out. We had some problems finding a time for me, and though he filled it out and submitted it, the system tossed him out right after. Apparently he couldn't open my file again to check and see if it was there without a risk of double-billing me by mistake. He said I should call back the next day and ask them to check, so I will when I get home. It wasn't his fault - he was the one who said the software was designed by "some moron," although he doesn't know if that moron was working for ETS. I wouldn't be surprised.

Martina is going home this afternoon, so I made her peanut butter cookies last night. They turned out pretty well. The hassle was, as usual, my mother, who was in and out of the kitchen, getting in my way, trying to clean up things that would have been better left for after I'd finished and bugging me for not putting certain things away properly even though I was putting them away just as I found them (which was wrong in the first place, but I didn't know that). I got the cookies done and cleaned up. This morning I said goodbye to Martina, although I'm not sure whether I'll see her this afternoon before she leaves or not.

I connected my laptop to the Internet for the first time yesterday and downloaded FireFox (to replace IE, at scifantasy's suggestion, updated my virus software and tried to download Spybot, which didn't work. I also downloaded a Cowboy Bebop desktop theme which I ended up removing later. Some of the cursors looked slapdash and the sound effects were not edited well. I left the computer downstairs for a while with the password lock on. Benjamin took a peek at it, though I told him not to. He guessed my password because it was Babylon 5-related and the password clue was a line from the series. He told me he'd figured it out. I changed the password and made a more cryptic clue, so he won't get the reference and find the password again.

This morning Dad dropped me off at the bus. Mom needed a car, and so did Martina to finish a few things before she left. Dad has to go to Baltimore today so he wasn't taking the Metro in. He'll be back later today, though - meaning he will park near Farragut North - so we can go home together.

I still have to print and send a letter to Marjorie and there's the thank-you note to Grandma and Grandpa. That took me a long time to write, too. I feel like I have at least partial writer's block or something. I just hope it passes soon.


----LATER----

I didn't call the testing place because I went to Dad's office after getting out of work. I managed to contact someone at the Chester Historical Society who will look for the letter I want. She didn't say anything about research charges, but since I know the date of the letter and what paper it was in she might just think it's too small to bother with.

At Dad's office I played some Deus Ex on the laptop. I had to tweak it a bit to make it work. I can get a good resolution, but if I don't set it for Windows 2000 compatability it runs way too fast. I didn't realize quite how old the game is until I had to do that.

Dad made me drive the car out of D.C. I hate driving in and around D.C. Makes me nervous. Now we're home and he's gone to the neighborhood pool to get in some exercise. I need to print those letters soon. I should also work a bit on my fic.