megan29
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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in the "megan29" journal:[<< Previous 20 entries]
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12:35 am
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Happy Birthday, Sandy!
I hope you have a fun and relaxing day, and that the new year of your life is a happy, healthy, injury-free one.
Congratulations on your many accomplishments in the past year - finishing the course, planting a garden, and of course, nurturing those three rambunctious kids.
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01:14 pm
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Please say a prayer
for the soul of my Grandmother, Natalia-Elena. She died last night (early morning in Romania), probably in her sleep. She died 7 years, almost to the day, after Grandpa Ioan.
Three days before, she had a vision. My Mom was with her, and she says that Grandma suddenly looked scared. She was staring at the icon, and she kept saying, 'no.' This happened several times, at intervals of 2-3 minutes. Afterwards, my Mom asked her what she'd seen, and she said she saw an angel. Mom insisted: a luminous one, or a dark one? Grandma said he was luminous. Still, I'm troubled by the fact that she was scared. I hope it was only the scare of the unknown. She didn't want to die, even though she was extremely frail, and had been bed-ridden for the past 6 months. I hope she was at peace when she crossed over.
She and Grandpa raised me from a wee bundle of joy, until I was ready to go to school, and afterwards I spent most of my summer holidays with them. I have a thousand memories of being loved and cherished and nurtured by them. Of Grandpa staying for hours in line so he could buy difficult to find food items for me (in communist Romania, lots of items were in this category). One time, he managed to find candy canes - I will never know where! Of Grandma cooking me all my favorites, and inventing some more. Of both of them telling me stories and singing me songs. I will miss them as long as I live. I hope they are together now in a good and loving place.
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11:54 am
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Happy Birthday, Kate!
Dearest friend, I hope this new year is filled with laughter, good health, and lots of family time. You bring joy to everyone who knows you - online or in real life. Stay cool!
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10:37 pm
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Happy Birthday, Mary!
Although there are still 2 days to go, I am anticipating the day by wishing you now a joyful new year and the very best of luck with your literary endeavor! You are a dear friend and a talented writer, and I hope with all my heart that you will get the recognition you so richly deserve.
In honor of your finishing the first draft of your first original romance, this year we are doing a community called "The United Kingdom of Fluff." Literary couples that have pet peeves against their authors come to get a better life in this kingdom. For example, Romeo and Juliet may feel that, had they only been written by you, they would have communicated better and ended up alive and well in - say - New Zealand.
We have all chosen a literary couple who wish they could be re-written by you. Hopefully, we've made it clear who they are, and what book they're from. But just in case, I'll post the list of characters at the end.
I have put up the community here: http://community.livejournal.com/ukf/
It is now open for posts. I would like to ask TDU to post her entry right after mine, if possible.
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11:19 am
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BFF
Did I ever tell you that my office building sits in the middle of a park? We have all sorts of wildlife around - though I use the term "wild" loosely. I see deer, rabbits, squirrels, and geese as a matter of course.
A couple of days ago, walking towards my car, I saw a rabbit and squirrel munching on something near the parking lot, squatting rather close to each other. That didn't unduly surprise me. When they saw me coming towards them, both animals bolted, as expected. What did surprise me was that they were not only running in the same direction, but together. The rabbit was much faster, so after a few yards he stopped and waited for the squirrel. Then they both reassessed the situation. Since I was still walking towards my car - this big lumbering menace making such a racket their pointed ears were twitching - they looked at each other, hesitated a second, then jump-ran a few more yards into the grass. There, they squatted again next to each other, keeping beady eyes on me and their interrupted dinner. After all, you never can tell what someone of this huge strange species will do! Better stick to your own kind.
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11:00 am
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LA Multi Ani, Annette!
Happy Birthday, dearest friend! I hope you have the world's biggest birthday cake too feed the 300 hungry recyclers in the garage.
My best wishes go out to you today: health, joy, and good luck - may they all show at your door today! (make sure there is some cake for them, too!).
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12:01 am
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Thank you, New York Times!
And thank you, Gail Collins, the author of today's Op-Ed column.
"Semihysteria is the easy political path." And, I might add, it makes for great TV ratings.
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01:45 pm
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Dummies Guide to Swine Flu: the CNN edition
The CNN anchor and senior medical correspondent are sorting out the following two issues on TV:
1. The difference between flu vaccine and flu treatment: After a lot of babbling, they summarized it as follows: the vaccine is a shot, and Tamiflu/Relenza are pills (thank goodness they're not shots, b/c then where would we be?)
2. Virus transmission: This is not a food transmitted disease, like when you go to a restaurant and *medical correspondent mimes eating*. This is an airborne disease, "you know, like when someone goes *cough cough cough*."
For all your information needs, tune in to CNN - the self-styled best team in television.
(This completes today's public announcement service).
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04:15 pm
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Going to England
I'll be in England between May 11-18, mostly in London, with a possible side-trip to Cambridge or Stonehenge. This is our first time there, so we'll be doing the top tourist destinations. However, if any of you has suggestions about things we MUST see, whether or not they're official top attractions, please feel free to suggest.
Also, if you have suggestions for a nice place to stay, I'd really appreciate it. We're looking somewhere central or close to subway, and trying not to break the bank. Restaurant suggestions are great, too!
And finally, if anyone wants to meet while I'm there, drop a line in the comments.
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05:33 pm
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Info
Here's an interesting short video about brain injuries, apropos of Richardson's freak accident. The link is to a Diane Sawyer interview, and she asks all the right questions, and precisely the things I most wanted to have clarified.
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05:25 pm
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Happy March 1st!
Hazel's post reminded me that today is a special holiday in Romania. We call it The Day of the Mărţişor. "Mărţişor" is a word derived from Martie = March. It refers not just to the day, but also to a special little gift which people pin on each other. You should see teachers walking between classes on March 1st (that is, when it falls on a school day). Their clothes are completely covered in such gifts.
( Read more about the Mărţişor )
Happy March 1st, everyone! May you have a lucky spring!
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11:11 pm
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Bursting with wifely pride
For the past year, my husband has been working in a 2-person team on a major overhaul of Google Maps interface and the systems behind it. If you've never used Google Maps before, here's what used to happen: you would type in something like "french restaurant in ny" and get the top 10 results. You type the same thing now, and you get them all. (OK, maybe this isn't the best example, since you might be willing to travel all the way to Brooklyn for the best restaurant; but say you're looking for pizza places in NY... you woudn't want to go farther than a block, would you?)
You can read a blog written by hubby's colleague here. And you can play to your heart's desire on Google Maps.
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05:05 pm
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Going to China
If you have recommendations on what we should see/not see/do/avoid doing - please let me know. We'll be there for 2 weeks, mainly in Shanghai and Beijing. I think TDU mentioned that her SO goes to China often, so if he has some rec's on hotels in Beijing, I'd be grateful. (We already have a hotel in Shanghai). Also, any tips on money managing (ATM? credit cards? cash?), food, etc. We got several guide books, but I'm not satisfied with their info.
Also, we're looking into flying to Xi'an to see the Terracotta Warriors, and into visiting Huang Shan mountain west of Shanghai. Both trips are long, appear to involve at least 2, possibly 3 changes of transportation, and I'm somewhat worried how that might work with the language (and sign!) barrier. So if you've done either, or have an opinion on which one is more interesting, please share. Timewise, we would probably have time for both, but I think it would be too exhausting to try. Thanks!
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11:10 pm
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How I spent my birthday
First, thank you to everyone who sent me birthday wishes, and especially to those who gifted me with a collection of OC's to take around at parties. You guys are the best!
( My birthday treats )
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11:04 am
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Meme
Cool meme, gakked from Ros. Of course, just b/c I know who's the leader of what doesn't really make me informed on the election. I thought the questions would be about the 2 candidates' plans on taxes, health etc., and I was quite curious to see how tough I would find them. Gah. The good thing is that it will be over next week.
( Test results )
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11:08 pm
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While the country is burning, the old lady combs her hair
( Musings about this week )
ETA: President Bush just addressed the nation about the crisis. He said several of the things that I was hoping to hear from a leader. But he stopped short of a rallying cry for individual investors. He merely tried to calm jitters. Is that enough? I don't know. But at least he tried. I was glad to hear him speak, and that's a rare event. :-)
His speech interrupted a transmission from Obama's rally in Ohio, in which he was talking about a plan to help small businesses through the crisis. I never heard that plan before - it might be brand new. Obama was starting to sound like a leader, too. Maybe this country can rise to the occasion again - God willing.
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02:27 am
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Fun meme
Countries I've visited (notice the glaring omission of the British Isles - unless you count changing planes several times in London; it's an omission I plan to rectify next spring).
( World Map )
States in US I've been to - though I haven't actually visited all of them. E.g., I was driven to Kansas City airport from Omaha, NE: so I'm counting Missouri. And I interviewed once in Austin, TX: check Texas. Of course, the "least visited" prize goes to CO - in which I set foot once, at the Four Corners point. Well, at least I'm not counting Iowa, which I could see across the river from Omaha. You can guess my politics just from this map, can't you? :-)
( US Map )
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12:04 am
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My PIF to all of you
A few months ago, my lovely friend ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) rosathome offered to send a PIF to anyone interested in signing up. Strictly speaking, though, she wasn't offering PIFs, as she did not ask anyone to Pay It Forward. It was more in the nature of a gift, though she did remark that anyone receiving it could write a story as a sort of pay it forward, or back, kind of gift.
( The backstory... )
So here it is, my PIF to my entire flist, and anyone else who cares to play (though you do have to know some things about my flist to enjoy it all!). It is a game called "Ship StMargarets".
( Credits and remarks )
With all my best wishes,
Megan
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03:22 pm
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Yay for Tomescu-Dita and Torres!
Constantina Tomescu-Dita won the marathon at 38, and did so in an impressive manner, beating her competitors by almost a whole lap. They said that she's the oldest winner of the Olympic marathon. Of course, the fact that she's Romanian didn't hurt any, when I was cheering for her. So double yay!
Dara Torres won silver in the 50m freeestyle, missing the gold by 0.01 s. She's 41, and the oldest swimmer ever in the Olympics.
The best long-distance runner and the (almost) fastest swimmer are both gals that are considered elderly by the standards of high performance sports. And yet here they are, and it's such a refreshing contrast to those gymnasts in diapers. It certainly gives me an extra impulse to keep in shape. These women show that it's possible to have high endurance, as well as high power, well past your 20's - and after giving birth (they're both mothers).
I was so happy, it was as if I had a personal stake in their races.
Funny bit of trivia: According to the American commentators, Tomescu-Dita is nicknamed "Pusa" (pronounced Pusha), and they made a pun about how she pushed herself (or was pushed by the other runners?) to take the lead. The silly part is that this nickname in Romanian is a short form of "Papusa", which means doll. It's something you'd use with a little girl, to emphasize that she's sweet, tiny, fragile and all those other girly characteristics. For whatever reason, Constantina's nickname survived childhood, and is most ridiculous. She should be nicknamed "iron woman".
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02:58 am
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Gymnastics musings
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