Sure, Why Not?

We’ve gone another round, right up until today, for today is…

As these 100 Days of Summer draw to a close, I marvel at what this seventh round has brought. This round was special, since 2007 days all land on the same days of the week as 2001 days, meaning all of these 100 days were the same days of the week as they were in the original. And I must say, with all that has happened since May 24, this one just about rivals the original in all that has gone on.

It started off with me thinking about flying out to Las Vegas for a weekend, after Memorial Day, to see my relatives. And I did. Got a very cheap ticket from JetBlue and flew off out there on Day 9. Even carried a sign with me one of the days about the hypocrisy of the 21 gambling age. That was sweet, though not sure anyone saw it. Just a few days before the trip I had first come up with a poster sign idea for my car.

I came home the following Tuesday morning, Day 13, and got lost in DC on my way back from Dulles. That sucked. The following weekend, get this, I actually got a cold. In June! WTF?! To fight it, I just went out and sat in my car (which as black leather seats) in the sun for a while. Try to sweat it out by cooking myself, hehe. Well, it didn’t last that long. Then was my friend’s baby shower, and that night was the Sopranos season finale. Wow! Those were both on Day 18.

At some point around this time, don’t recall when exactly, I ordered some more NYRA bumper stickers. These ones say “18: Old Enough to Drink”. Awesome.

Day 25, the quarter, was the last board meeting of last year, which ended in an amusing way with me and Alex getting into a fight about moderating and such. Something like that. But at least that morning I’d made an attempt at poster sign awareness at Congressional Plaza. The next day, Day 26, I went with Alex and some of his friends to a Nats-Tigers game. I totally kept stealing Alex’s hat the whole time and he was getting so pissed. That was awesome.

I had been reading the book “A Case Against Adolescence” by Robert Epstein, and around that time a controversy broke out when a lot of youth rights people realized he supported corporal punishment. Aside from that, it’s a good book, and thus was a worthy item to mention in this set of the 100 Days of Summer.

Day 29 was the Summer Solstice, so, like what I do on the Winter Solstice, I went outside at 1pm (remember, daylight saving time, so 1pm is the real noon) to see where the sun was. Just a teensy bit to the south, but damn close to dead center of the sky. Neat.

Day 32, my friend had another baby shower, sort of. Or just a game night. Went nicely, but got into a little argument with some of the people there when I said I didn’t find anything wrong with the idea of an 11-year-old watching South Park. But at least I gave my expectant friend a couple of nice gifts, since I didn’t have any at the previous one: a musical stuffed octopus (which everyone thought was awesome) and a copy of the John Holt book “How Children Learn”.

Day 38 we sort of had a DC chapter meeting at the Baja Fresh in Dupont Circle. It was me, Alex, and a couple of the interns we had at the time. Not bad. I wasn’t all there that day, though. There’s a reason. For that reason, unlucky Alex had to be around me. No, I’m not saying why.

Day 40 was the 26th birthday of our beloved executive director, so I decided to take a tasty snack to him. I had already posted a very bad parody of the Kinks’ “Lola” for him in his forums birthday thread, but I figured I could do way better. Hehehe. So I drove around for like two hours after work looking for some place that sold some kind of yummy baked goods. Eventually got to Balducci’s (formerly known as Sutton Place Gourmet) and picked up a thing of various cookies. Drove all the way back to Twinbrook to find his house to take them to him… and he wasn’t home! Oh, well. It was then I remembered that the Cleveland Park metro stop sits between Dupont Circle (where the NYRA office is) and Twinbrook. I later learned my theory was correct. Hehe. She foiled me again!

Anyway, tried to ask where he was, but he apparently took offense to the question and called me a stalker. I would later on find there was a bit more to this accusation than I thought.

Day 41, tried to take the cookies to him again, but he wasn’t there again.

Day 42 was Fourth of July, so I was off work. Finally just IM’d him telling him I had some cookies for him if he wanted, but he declined. Oh, well. His loss. I spent that day watching all six Star Wars movies back to back. Win.

Day 43 I took the cookies to work and my coworkers ate them. Alex missed out. They were good.

Day 45, my friend gave birth! Her son was born on 7/7/07 at 7 minutes before 7am. Seriously! The little guy’s name is… Alex. LOL. Aren’t there enough of them? Just funnier that his mother’s name is Kat (short for Katherine) which is damn close to my name.

Day 50, the Fifty Fifty, I went out to lunch. At this point, the poster signs hadn’t had a good day for being used yet, but I was instead using window signs. Had page protectors with print outs with youth rights messages, and taped them to the back seat windows in my car. Pretty cool though cheap and tacky. Never got much of a reaction, though. I went to lunch at a shopping center near Quince Orchard High School, window signs still up. Some young looking people walked by but I’m not sure how many saw the signs. Wouldn’t be many around anyway since it was middle of summer. After work was better. I was driving to Germantown looking for an apartment complex that I’m sort of thinking of moving into next year, just so I could look at it. Well, didn’t find it because turned out the map I had was wrong, but whatever. I was stopped at a red light, and I could tell this chick in the car next to me was reading my window sign (it read “Age Is Not an Accomplishment. Youth Is Not a Sin.” and had our web address). Then she chuckled and told the driver that she thought that was pretty good. Yay!

Day 55, or that night anyway, I got the hell off the forums and almost all of my online spots. Spoilers! Must hide from spoilers!

Day 56, I went to Germantown again after work and finally did find the apartment complex I’ve had my eye on. Place looks nice. Didn’t go into the office or anything, just drove around the area. Way too early to do anything more than that, hehe. That night, Dad and I went to the movie theatre to see Order of the Phoenix. Not bad. They make Umbridge nice and horrible. Kept with at least some of the youth rights points from that book.

Day 58, I got a call on my cell phone while at work. It was Lord Galen himself! OMG! Except, seeing as my reasoning for staying offline was to avoid spoilers, I tried to get off the phone somewhat quickly. Was still a pleasant surprise, though.

Day 59, the book arrived! Got reading. Yay!

Day 60, I continued reading. I was almost finished when my stupid family told me it was time to go to Frederick to see my cousin before she leaves for the army. Ugh. Couldn’t have picked a worse time! Whatever. Went to see my relatives, came back, and got back to that book. Finished it late that night. Mmm… good.

Day 61, was back online and telling everyone how awesome the book was. Although that night I had to move shit around in my room.

Day 62, we had new windows put in at our house. Ah, good, I had moved the stuff in my room out of the way enough. Although my poor cat was traumatized! He was hiding under the couch all day, even many hours after it was done. He was fine after a while, though. Poor kitty.

Day 66, NYRA Annual Meeting!!!! OMG, NYRA people! Yay! Alex, of course. Also Conor Nugent and Stefan Muller and Justin Graham and other cool people. Sucked that people who said they were coming dropped out at the last minute. Nonetheless, was great fun. People presented stuff. Alex read the annual report (and I shot him with the laser pointer, hat trick!). I kept to my promise and took everyone out to dinner. It was only seven of us. Found some cheap place in Dupont Circle. Then Alex and this one guy went looking for the guy’s car while I took everyone else back on the metro to Twinbrook. We all got into my awesome car and went to Barnes and Noble to kill time while we waited for them to come back. They never did find that guy’s car! LOL. So we went to Alex’s place, where I made them watch me do that evening’s leader board. Then we watched Fight Club, and called it a day. I dropped one of our guests off at his uncle’s house in Rockville somewhere and then went back to my house. It was like 2am.

Day 67, second day of the annual meeting! Had some more presentations, including that guy Micah from SSDP. Alex disappeared for a while that morning, but I had a theory as to where he was. Turns out I was right. He had gone to church. Hehehe. Later, we went to Union Station to have lunch and then saw the Simpsons movie. Yay! Then we walked around in the rain around the Capitol, and I had my backpack over my head trying to keep my hair from getting wet since it’s prone to getting frizzy, making me look, well, downright gross. Sigh. To no avail. And my hair band thingy fell off at some point so that didn’t help. We got to the Capitol South metro, and from there, we returned to Twinbrook and went to Alex’s house. We watched Space Balls and played some games, including this retarded one called the Animal Game. No, I’m not even going to bother saying what that even is. Later, for dinner, we went out to this pizza place called Cici’s, which I’ve always seen from the Pike but never actually been there. Not bad. While there, Alex kept picking on me about something and I’m all like “you’re such a jerk! why the hell do I like you so much?” and he’s like “you need to cut that out”. Hahaha. Good times. Anyway, when done there, we returned to his house and played Spiderman Monopoly until a little after midnight, when I realized I needed to get home to take the trash out, and Justin needed to get back to the metro before it closed for the night. Too late. Metro was closed when we got there so I returned him to Alex. Interestingly enough, that day was another day he was so unlucky to be around me.

Day 69, actually some interesting happenings at work. This gigantic assload of papers I’d been assembling and copying since like May was finally complete and ready to be sent off for approval. Yay! That night, though, I was having an ordinary conversation with Galen, in which he let slip a “theory” he had, leading me to believe he had more info on something.

Day 70, I talked to Galen again and asked about what I wanted to know. Oh, dear. He pointed me to someone else who knew some inside information as well. And I found out the whole truth. The whole devastating, heartbreaking truth.

Day 71, I was pissed! So I sent an e-mail.

Day 72, I realized I should have sent a nicer e-mail, so I did, requesting we talk later. Later on, Alex and I talked. Oh, man. Me and my stalkerish, obnoxious habits. The following him around thing. The taking his hat thing. Oy. That and a million other little incidents, it all had been snowballing without me realizing it. Well, apparently I’m crazy and obsessive. Wouldn’t you know it! I mean, I sure as hell have no romantic interest in the guy and never have, but seems the crazy and obsessive label I have anyway. So I told him I don’t want to see him again for a long time if that’s the way it is. Don’t need that.

Day 76, I got some words of wisdom from Chip. Who knew! Apparently drama isn’t my thing, as it’s only for “him and gay people”. Forgiveness. Well, I get the idea. Miserable and angry as I had been over the incident, the whole thing sure was stupid!

Day 79, well, stupid hiatus didn’t last long. That night I went to Dupont Circle and saw Alex, though I didn’t say much of anything to him. Instead, was quite glad to see Chip and Adam Zarnowski. Yay! Walked around. Went into a gay book store. Hahaha. Then Chip and Adam had to get back to their hotel, and I was stuck with Alex going back to Twinbrook on the metro. We didn’t say a word to each other until we got to the station, when I suggested maybe I should have gotten on the next train, so my presence on that train wouldn’t have made him so uncomfortable. He acted like he didn’t know what I was talking about, as if I were blowing this whole thing out of proportion. Sure, he’s the one whining that my mere presence makes him uncomfortable and he doesn’t know why I take it so personally, when just a week earlier he gave the impression it was the most horrible thing in the world. Whatever. After a short chat, I guess we were cool again. For now. Hey, get this! The evening continued even after that. It was kind of late and I hadn’t eaten dinner, so I drove up and down the Pike looking for anywhere that was still open. Ended up at the Silver Diner. Went in and got a salad and munched on that. This one guy sitting nearby, looked to be in his thirties at least, began chatting with me about stuff, mostly complaining about the Iraq War and talking about certain areas like Adams Morgan and Bethesda. Anyway, that was interesting. It was late so I finally went on home. What a day!

Day 80, I was supposed to see Kat and little Alex. Well, I got to their house to find they weren’t there. Turned out she’d double booked the day and forgot we were going to meet up. It’s okay. She’s a new mom so I cut her some slack, so I’m not offended or anything. She called me later all apologetic. Awww.

Day 81, oh, what a day! First went to Gaithersburg to put up a poster sign on my car at Kentlands. Yay! Finally did it! Except sign wasn’t very visible, it wasn’t a high traffic spot, and now there’s tape marks on my back window that I can’t get off. Sigh. Oh, well. After that, I drove north to Sugarloaf Mountain, where I drove up on to the lookout area, and climbed up the rocks to the top! Hard climb, considering the idiot I am, I didn’t bother to eat anything beforehand nor bring enough water. I’m lucky I didn’t pass out during the climb. Almost did! Had to take a lot of breaks. Maybe I’ll go back when it’s a little cooler. Go up when I can see all the fall foliage! That’ll be sweet! At least I did it, though. Yay me.

(goodness, are you still reading? I’m impressed!… no, don’t stop now, not too much more!)

Day 84, I went to a concert! Collective Soul, Live, and Counting Crows, at Harry Grove Stadium in Frederick. Yay! Well, not so yay. Collective Soul went on, sure, and they sounded great. They even played “The World I Know”. I know that because it sound great… from my car. Traffic! Why the hell was there a concert at Harry Grove right in the middle of the evening rush hour traffic?! Will call line was long as hell, so by the time I got in there, didn’t see Collective Soul at all. Damn it! I was pissed. At least I had heard a couple of songs even if from outside the place, and at least I had seen them before, two years ago at the 9:30 Club in DC. If this was supposed to be my first time seeing them, oh, I’d have been SO much more pissed. Well, anyway, also saw Live, who I’ve also seen before, but they’re damn good. Then saw Counting Crows, whom I hadn’t seen in concert before. Also good. Nice way to spend the evening, despite the traffic and getting there so late.

Day 85 was when I took my car into the dealership for maintenance and oil change and whatnot. Ah, warranty. Didn’t cost a cent. I love my car!

Day 87, more NYRA bumper stickers arrived. One of them says “Constitutional Rights Are Not Just For Adults”. The other two say “He’s Your Son, Not Your Property” and “She’s Your Daughter, Not Your Property”. The NYRA web address is quite prominent on all of them. And Alex actually liked them! Yay, he approved of something I do for once!

Day 93, Dad and I drove to upstate New York for our fifth time in a row attending the Travers, which is one of the major horse races. An event held by the other NYRA! That night we went to this restaurant in Saratoga called Wheatfields. Awful, awful service! Food took forever to be brought out, and they got my dad’s meal wrong. He was mad and yelled at the waiter and made this big scene. As much as I agreed with him, I have to say I was quite mortified! LOL

Day 94, Travers Day. The Saratoga Race Track is run, of course, by the New York Racing Association. All day there, I had my backpack on my back, with buttons from our NYRA showing. I wonder if I confused some people. I totally wanted to wander into some of the areas where it said “NYRA Staff Only” or whatever and be all like “you didn’t say which NYRA!”

Day 95, we came home, and I saw that billboard about underage drinking. I had some NYRA flyers with me I had intended to distribute somehow during the trip, but didn’t get the chance.

Day 96, got a car wash! Car was shiny for a little while.

Day 97, went to Bethesda to meet up with Alex and Scott Davidson. We were to meet Jim Pleger, and we did! Funny. There we were in Bethesda, which has all kinds of great restaurants and stuff, and we eat at some crappy little diner. Heh. And wouldn’t you know it! Third time in a row, not a good day for these guys to see me! (So have you figured it out yet? LOL)

Day 98, I was looking at a county map and realized there’s a library over by Quince Orchard High School. Sweet. So I went over there after work and put some NYRA flyers in a slot on a wall. Pwned.

Day 99, well, not a whole lot happened yesterday. Or, well, Alex had a Canadian radio appearance about that Kid Nation show. And Eddy pwned some asshole who runs a gulag school.

And, finally, today…

Day 100, I wanted to go out to lunch to celebrate the 100th Day, but didn’t get a chance because of having a lot of shit to do at work. Wanted to go out with the poster sign, too, since high schools are in session and I could put it near a high school when it lets out. No such luck. Not all bad, though. After work, I drove off to this one parking lot near a little lake off Darnestown Road. It was there, after lots of procrastination, I finally put the bumper sticker on my car, the one that says “Constitutional Rights Are Not Just For Adults”. Win. Why? Because my name is Katrina, I am a youth rights supporter, and I’m damn proud of it! Since I didn’t get to do the lunch, after dinner, I went out for some ice cream. And now I’m typing this.

So, yes, as these 100 Days of Summer draw to a close, I’m quite impressed with all that occurred, the good and the bad. Quite the ride! And now, looking into the last four months of 2007, I wonder what else is in store. July and August have been downright crazy. I wonder what September has in store. We’ll find out!

That’s it for Round 7. Tune in next May for Round 8! Let’s see what’s going to happen then!

This has been Day 100 of the 100 Days of Summer, Round 7.