Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Point Shoes

Check out this fascinating mini-documentary called "Point Shoes" that Galen Summer edited and directed for the New York City Ballet.


Then, when you're done, go to Galen's website and check out his other videos... my favorites were the one about making tutus and the one about a pas de deux from the dancer's perspective (obviously) but the others were pretty awesome too!

p.s. LOVE the guy from the "Whisky Stones" video and the scenery from that video is beautiful and has officially cemented my desire to move to Vermont.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Maybe King Louis XIII Had the Right Idea.

The Shower Window
Did you know that King Louis XIII only took five baths in his entire life and Louis XIV only took three?! Eww...

But I'm starting to think maybe they had the right idea, because I witnessed something super awkward yesterday.

I saw one of my neighbors in the shower.

Awkward.

Granted, I only saw the person's silhouette, but still, that was more than I wanted.

Let me explain. My apartment, and all the other apartments in my complex have a window in the bathroom—a window that looks right into the shower. The window is pretty nice, mostly because it lets lots of light into the bathroom and provides an awesome ledge to store stuff on. It's also kind of annoying because it leaks cold air in while you're showering and let me tell you, shaving your legs with goosebumps is not any fun.

Well yesterday's sighting confirmed another big downside to the window... the shower silhouette. It's something I've always kind of wondered about. The shower window is a privacy window, so it has that crazy pattern thing going so you can't see through it, but I've always kind of wondered if someone looking in my shower window would be able to see my silhouette—which while not as creepy as my actual birthday suit is still pretty awkward, no? To that end, I generally try to shower when it's bright outside (morning or afternoon) and not when it's dark (since that would require me to turn on the lights and internal lights + darkness outside = perfect window peeping conditions). But I'd never seen proof that my suspicions were correct. Until yesterday evening, when on my way into my building I looked to my left and saw the top half of my neighbor through the backlit shower window.

I think never taking a shower again (a la Louis XIII and his son) may be a little extreme (and smelly), but I also think I'll stick to my morning and afternoon showering schedule. Besides, then I won't have to worry about going to bed with wet hair and waking up with a crazy mess on my head.

Thursday, April 19, 2012

And We Always Thought Staunton Was Lame...

I guess we were wrong!

Smithsonian Magazine and Travel+Leisure have both named my hometown on their respective best small town/main street lists.

That's right. Staunton was #10 on the Smithsonian's 20 Best Small Towns in America list and #5 on Travel+Leisure's America's Greatest Main Streets list!

Both magazines highlighted the Blackfriars (which is very cool, but the bane of many high schoolers' existences), Woodrow Wilson's Birthplace (an elementary school field trip staple), downtown's awesome brick facade, and of all things, the camera museum... I'm not sure I even knew we had one of those.

They just forgot to mention one thing though... Grandma's! Make sure you stop in the next time you visit... It's even on the way from the camera museum to the Blackfriars.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

The Discovery Flyover!

One of the perks of working (ahh that's right, WORKING... more on that later) pretty close to the Dulles Airport presented itself yesterday. I got to see the Discovery Shuttle! 


In all honesty, I think that just about everyone else in DC/Northern VA saw it too, but it was pretty exciting moment in history nonetheless. We saw the Discovery (and its plane and fighter jet escort) when it flew over Dulles on its way to the DC/Alexandria flyover. The fighter jet is the teeny blip to the left of the plane that looks a tiny bit like a missile... not so weird here, but it did look kinda strange when I saw pictures of it over the monuments... but anyway. Here's another, unzoomed picture. 


Can't wait to see it up close at the Smithsonian sometime soon!