good: 4th of july, apartment, being paid
Jul. 7th, 2003 02:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
awhyzipNo internet on weekends, but what a full weekend it was.
Fourth of July this Friday, so I took that day off. Boston fireworks, from the Cambridge side -- we were right across from the barge and had a great view, including the ground-works. Those were some impressively-good fireworks!
I didn't think much of the guests in the Pop's concert before. I enjoy Leann Rimes on the radio, but apparently not in concert. And the Mormon Tabernacle Choir did not combine well with the show. I caught a view of the Choir on the jumbo TV screen across the water -- they look exactly like I imagine a Mormon Tabernacle Choir to look like. Confirming this, right down to the bright blue robes, was bonus. I didn't recognize many of the tunes for the firework show, but I was impressed by the successful job at co-ordinating the fireworks to the music.
It was Friday night, so Mira, Danielle, and Dan, and I exerted ourselves to make a Kabbalat Shabbat. The wind blew out the birthday candles I had bought just a moment after we lit them, so we didn't have to worry about where to hold them. My challah had defrosted in time, and was fine. For wine (since no alcohol would be permitted at the site), we each poured a cup of water with a delicious grape dropped in. Then there was the problem of finding time to make Kiddush in -- every few minutes during the concert they would break for a commercial or a set-change -- but we never knew when these breaks would come, or how long they'd last. So, we missed at least 5 of them for one reason or another, once we had decided it was time to start. Finally, it was almost the scheduled time for the fireworks to start, and the announcer fell silent for a second. We lept at the chance! Grapes were distributed and poured, then I started to sing. Not halfway thru the first paragraph, the loudspeaker came back on; psych! that wasn't a break at all. So I had to keep going, trying to lead the kiddush from memory, while first voices, then music came in our ears. All of us four standing in a tight circle singing some other tune, while the orchestra performed to everyone else around us. A shabbat to remember, hehe.
There was other excitement that evening too, a woman had a seizure right in front of our seating-spot and Danielle rushed to the EMT's station. Also a car decided to drive down the closed-to-traffic road, and park just beyond us. When the police arrived, no one claimed to know how the car got there... They eventually did dig out the owner, who had to drive it away, accompanied by two police cycles.
There were so many people there, and wonderful weather. After the sun goes down, it cools enough to be pleasantly warm. (I hate the summer. Ooo, I hate the summer.)
Also, this weekend all of us who will be living together next year got together. We agreed on a fairer plan for dividing the rent, and went swimming in Jill's pool. I am so glad this is settled. We all picked what rooms we will be in, too.
Then we went to take another look at the house and found some jolting surprises. The landlord has finally begun getting to the renovations he promised, but he threw in some new ones! The former is good, but the latter was an unpleasant shock. So, now I've got to track him down, and convince him to UNDO certain changes that are clearly in progress. They took out a door, and look to be on the way to taking out another, that really should have stayed in. Plus, added a useless door at the top of the stairs that gets in the way of moving around. (No big deal, we can take it off it's hinges after we move in.) And most shocking of all, they've put walls across what used to be a very large L-shaped living-room and made a small enclosed room in the front of it. We're not to happy about that either, but not going to make waves about it. We'll deal, but our old plans for that space are in trouble. It is his house, but I am shocked that he would change the floor-plan in such a significant way without even alerting us. Just to let us know! He had mentioned his idea for changing the doors, but nothing about breaking up the big living room. In fact, he had sort of put forward the extreme size of that room as a selling-point.
In other news, I spoke with the Human Resources department, and at last I will get paid. My papers had been sitting in a pile waiting for more department's signatures for over a month. Finally finally, they're in, I signed forms, and the woman told me I could expect a check by next Friday at the latest. Oh, good.
Fourth of July this Friday, so I took that day off. Boston fireworks, from the Cambridge side -- we were right across from the barge and had a great view, including the ground-works. Those were some impressively-good fireworks!
I didn't think much of the guests in the Pop's concert before. I enjoy Leann Rimes on the radio, but apparently not in concert. And the Mormon Tabernacle Choir did not combine well with the show. I caught a view of the Choir on the jumbo TV screen across the water -- they look exactly like I imagine a Mormon Tabernacle Choir to look like. Confirming this, right down to the bright blue robes, was bonus. I didn't recognize many of the tunes for the firework show, but I was impressed by the successful job at co-ordinating the fireworks to the music.
It was Friday night, so Mira, Danielle, and Dan, and I exerted ourselves to make a Kabbalat Shabbat. The wind blew out the birthday candles I had bought just a moment after we lit them, so we didn't have to worry about where to hold them. My challah had defrosted in time, and was fine. For wine (since no alcohol would be permitted at the site), we each poured a cup of water with a delicious grape dropped in. Then there was the problem of finding time to make Kiddush in -- every few minutes during the concert they would break for a commercial or a set-change -- but we never knew when these breaks would come, or how long they'd last. So, we missed at least 5 of them for one reason or another, once we had decided it was time to start. Finally, it was almost the scheduled time for the fireworks to start, and the announcer fell silent for a second. We lept at the chance! Grapes were distributed and poured, then I started to sing. Not halfway thru the first paragraph, the loudspeaker came back on; psych! that wasn't a break at all. So I had to keep going, trying to lead the kiddush from memory, while first voices, then music came in our ears. All of us four standing in a tight circle singing some other tune, while the orchestra performed to everyone else around us. A shabbat to remember, hehe.
There was other excitement that evening too, a woman had a seizure right in front of our seating-spot and Danielle rushed to the EMT's station. Also a car decided to drive down the closed-to-traffic road, and park just beyond us. When the police arrived, no one claimed to know how the car got there... They eventually did dig out the owner, who had to drive it away, accompanied by two police cycles.
There were so many people there, and wonderful weather. After the sun goes down, it cools enough to be pleasantly warm. (I hate the summer. Ooo, I hate the summer.)
Also, this weekend all of us who will be living together next year got together. We agreed on a fairer plan for dividing the rent, and went swimming in Jill's pool. I am so glad this is settled. We all picked what rooms we will be in, too.
Then we went to take another look at the house and found some jolting surprises. The landlord has finally begun getting to the renovations he promised, but he threw in some new ones! The former is good, but the latter was an unpleasant shock. So, now I've got to track him down, and convince him to UNDO certain changes that are clearly in progress. They took out a door, and look to be on the way to taking out another, that really should have stayed in. Plus, added a useless door at the top of the stairs that gets in the way of moving around. (No big deal, we can take it off it's hinges after we move in.) And most shocking of all, they've put walls across what used to be a very large L-shaped living-room and made a small enclosed room in the front of it. We're not to happy about that either, but not going to make waves about it. We'll deal, but our old plans for that space are in trouble. It is his house, but I am shocked that he would change the floor-plan in such a significant way without even alerting us. Just to let us know! He had mentioned his idea for changing the doors, but nothing about breaking up the big living room. In fact, he had sort of put forward the extreme size of that room as a selling-point.
In other news, I spoke with the Human Resources department, and at last I will get paid. My papers had been sitting in a pile waiting for more department's signatures for over a month. Finally finally, they're in, I signed forms, and the woman told me I could expect a check by next Friday at the latest. Oh, good.
