ODDEST THING I'VE SEEN ALL WEEK: Def Leppard performing their new single on the US equivalent of 'Strictly Come Dancing'
It's been something of a tough week and I have been quite down, which is annoying.
I've been asked to do a week's worth of writing/thinking work for a TV company back in London, spread across the next two weeks.
This is obviously good news, because it is a rare opportunity to earn some money to spend on Gap dresses and not rely on Maxy's hard-earned cash. However, I've found it really difficult to get my head around everything and won't leave the house to have adventures so long as I know I should be working.
As a result, I've become the Queen of Procrastination and have seen many irksome tasks ticked off my 'To Do' list, having spent the past few weeks avoiding them! So I now have a cellphone, joined a gym, bought a bike and caught up on lots of letters and emails.
It's just an odd paradox that, despite having work to do for the first time since getting here, I feel more than ever like I don't really have much of a purpose and am little more than Max's appendage. It doesn't help that the only inspiration to've struck is that of choosing between the myriad cellphone operators and their various offers, rather than anything that might help with work. I miss being with people who know me and have really enjoyed having chats with friends and family back home this week (as I do every time, but particularly at the moment).
Anyways, other highlights of the week have included making a new friend called Jane. She's a BBC freelancer who popped round to borrow Max's work camera. She's super-friendly and her husband is an FBI agent. She does bits and pieces for the BBC, but is mainly a lady of leisure, so very keen to meet up for daytime larks. She directed me to this site of concerts, talks and tours, so I can't wait to get this work out of the way, so that I can properly become a lady who lunches with my new friend.
When I haven't been hitting my head against the brick wall of work, I've mostly been trying to get my new bike roadworthy. It's a thing of great beauty - if not quality - that I bought off the internet but which has become the bane of my life. The only reassuring thing once I'd assembled it was that it appeared to have two wheels in roughly the right place - everything else wobbled, slid or fell off. So I took it to a snooty bike shop up the road (and hill), to get it made safe, so that I could start tearing up the streets of DC.
I shan't bore you with the details, but if I did, then you'd know all about the mean beardy men at the bike shop who treat me like an idiot for buying such a girly bike, the many times I've had to trudge up the hill to the shop to get yet another thing fixed, the fact that something quite crucial fell off the very first time I rode it and that I've now spent more on getting it fixed up than I did on buying it in the first place. So much for a cheapy bike that would just do for the year!
Anyway, it's now as fixed as it'll ever be and I'm pootling around the city on it and do like it very much - it is very pretty and makes me whistle in a carefree way whenever I ride it, belying the pain in the ass it actually is. It will come in most useful for my adventures.
observe the starry handles!
I also plan to use it to go to the gym a lot. Max and I have joined the YMCA gym, which is half the price of all the other places (I've done extensive research, in my capacity as Queen of Procrastination!), has the biggest pool in DC and offers pilates, boxing and aqua-aerobics classes, which are my favourites. I have great plans to go there a lot, though my track record of gym membership tends to involve a fervent month of going regularly right at the beginning, followed by a prolonged period of never darkening its doors and watching the monthly fee leave my bank account for no reason.
The YMCA also has volunteer opportunities in community projects, which has excited me and is another thing to the join the 'list of things I'll do when I've finished my work'.
Obama's press conference renouncing Rev Wright made me worry. It's obviously a good thing that he's stepping back from the loon, but he looked soooo tired, like finding every word was a real effort. I'm also frightened that this indirect issue has the potential to sink his campaign (only because of the fuss that the media and Clinton are making), which is frustrating when I think of the number of things Hillary Clinton herself has done or said/'misspoken' that by rights should torpedo her hopes for the nomination. It's great that Obama is all about not slinging mud or sinking to the other person's level, but it'll just be crazy if his integrity becomes his downfall. I also hope he gets to have some sleep soon.
We had another excellent meal at the El Salvadorian place around the corner this week, during which Max told me all about the Scoville Scale of piquancy of chillies, as I was eating something unexpectedly spicy. He's so brainy.
