Hometown Travels

An Antique Land

I'm a nerd. Not in that computer-genius, off-the-charts-IQ, Big-Bang-Theory-way because I'm not actually that smart, but in the boring, like-to-go-to-museums, addicted-to-Firefly-and-Doctor-Who-way.

When I travel to new places I like to visit museums, see the sights, take in culture and art as well as walk the streets to participate in daily life. As contrasted with most of my peers who go to bars, drink, have random drunken hookups, and wander around drunk.

So when I visited New York for the first time during one all too brief weekend last year, of course one of my priorities was to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

One of my good friends from high school (and middle school, and even college too -- we went to the same one) who now lives in DC came up and met me in New York. She had been there several times before but being less of a nerd than me, she had never been to the Met before. She sounded pretty doubtful when I said that I wanted to go but, being a good sport and a good friend, agreed without any argument.

We spent several hours on a Saturday morning wandering through the museum looking at any exhibit either of us was interested in, me with my ever-present camera constantly snapping away and her patiently waiting for me (she's a great friend).

I really enjoyed it and my friend did too, which rather surprised her. When we left the museum she told me that she had thought it would be boring but actually ended up having a good time. And trust me, she's not the type to say things just for politeness' sake. If she says it, she means it, which is yet another reason why we're friends.

I particularly liked the exhibit on ancient Egypt. Again with the nerdiness: I've always been fascinated by ancient civilizations, and Egypt was one of the largest and most influential, not to mention seeming particularly exotic and strange to a small town girl growing up in Iowa. So even as a kid I read a lot about ancient Egypt -- about their cultures and traditions, gods and goddesses, myths, architecture, art, etc. When I was younger thought it would be fun to learn to read hieroglyphs, but so far it hasn't happened yet.

My interest is actually strong enough that early last year after I had decided to return to school but was trying to decide which discipline to pursue, I was seriously considering archaeology, possibly with an emphasis on Egyptology.

I've always wanted to visit Egypt, and I still hold out hope that someday I will be able to go. But for now I'll have to content myself with visiting museums like this and dreaming.

"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

Lantern Waste

Nothing is either good or bad but thinking makes it so

I presume everyone has heard about the new zodiac by now? I have to admit, I was rather surprised by the impact it has had -- most of my friends profess to be upset by it, with reactions varying from being a little thrown off to proclaiming to no longer know who they are anymore.

As for me, well, let's just say that I'm not much of a believer.

One of my friends from college is really into all that astrology stuff and used to talk about it all the time. Surprisingly enough, a lot of what she told me was really interesting and actually did seem to be right a large percentage of the time. However, just because I think it's interesting certainly doesn't mean I believe in it, at least completely. It's just something that's fun to play around with and think about.

So even if my sign had changed (which it has not -- I'm still a Virgo), it wouldn't really affect me because basically I agree with Edmund in King Lear:

"This is the excellent foppery of the world, that,
when we are sick in fortune,--often the surfeit
of our own behavior,--we make guilty of our
disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars: as
if we were villains by necessity; fools by
heavenly compulsion; knaves, thieves, and
treachers, by spherical predominance; drunkards,
liars, and adulterers, by an enforced obedience of
planetary influence; and all that we are evil in,
by a divine thrusting on: an admirable evasion
of whoremaster man, to lay his goatish
disposition to the charge of a star! My
father compounded with my mother under the
dragon's tail; and my nativity was under Ursa
major; so that it follows, I am rough and
lecherous. Tut, I should have been that I am,
had the maidenliest star in the firmament
twinkled on my bastardizing."

Or in other words, you are what you make of yourself and the stars have nothing to do with it, except as a convenient scapegoat to blame when things go wrong. And that I do believe.

Sinister Staircase