Looks like I don’t get to go to the next Deaf Professional Happy Hour after all. It’s a monthly event, and this Friday it’s going to be at eCiti which is reasonably close to where I live. I just called the bar, though, and the lady confirmed that I can’t get in if I’m under 21 - I didn’t bother mentioning that I’d be exactly two weeks short of legal drinking age. It’ll probably be a while before they hold DPHH at a place I can get to easily again, though, so I may not get to go for a long time.

Here’s a partial list of what I got, anyway, because they were stacked up by the stairs.



Out In All Directions: An Almanac of Gay and Lesbian America by Lynn Witt, Sherry Thomas, and Eric Marcus

Insight Guides: Turkish Coast by Bernhard Schlussel

The Life and Times of William Shakespeare by Peter Levi

I See A Voice by Jonathan Ré

Those are just the books, obviously. I’ll get to the rest another time, it’s late now.

I suppose I haven’t been posting much again. I’ve been fooling around a lot in Neopets (you can find me there as woofiegrrl) and also doing serious drudge work at ODP - thank goodness for the editable search. I’m mostly clearing out redirecting URLs…so far I’ve gotten through just over 150 of 694 go.to listings. They haven’t updated the search results in several weeks, so occasionally I encounter one that’s already been done but mostly I’m doing them all. My holidays were very nice, I got a number of really neat things - I’ll have to make a list and then post it. Still at work right now though - four more hours, bleah. Fortunately this entire week is nearly dead, I hardly have to do anything. I should make my New Year’s resolution “go back to posting in my LiveJournal every day.”

My trip to New York was mostly uneventful. I’m disappointed that I wasn’t able to get together with a friend from E2; there are a couple of e-mails from him in my inbox but I haven’t gotten to them yet. I’m planning to go up there again next month for my 21st birthday, so hopefully I can get together with him then.
Like everybody else visiting New York, I went to see Ground Zero. There isn’t much to see anymore, but it was really crowded anyway. I’d put something in the E2 node Christmas at Ground Zero but I haven’t figured out anything to say yet. Saturday was my friend’s birthday, so I took him out to dinner and we saw Lord of the Rings.
I can’t believe I’m at work right now. Everything else is closed and empty; I am going to resort to McDonald’s for my morning soda - I’d rather not patronize the place that puts beef in their French Fries - but I need the caffeine. I’m so tired. Also, people keep saying “have a great Xmas” and the like. I keep wanting to mutter “I’m Jewish” just to see how they react. They mean well, though, and I figure I might as well not rain on their parade.

I suppose my favorite term for last night would have to be “ordeal.”



I caught the 5:50 bus from Union Station and when we reached Benson Hall I got off and walked over to the library. I had planned to sit in there fore a bit while waiting for the bus, but as of last Saturday it started closing at 5pm so all I could do was drop my books in the slot and go. I walked around the “other” side of the library - usually I mostly see the HMB side because that’s where my class was - and was startled by how quiet and empty the quad area was. The parking lot had been nearly empty too, and it was strange to see the campus so tranquil. I headed for the bus stop outside the conference center, figuring I had about an hour to wait. Suddenly I saw the same bus (it was the icky old blue one; I much prefer the newer white one) approaching and for some reason I started to run for it even though I knew it wasn’t returning to Union Station. I made it to the stop before the bus did, but sure enough the driver signed “finished” as he passed. I sat on the bench - there was only one, but there used to be two - and pulled a rumpled newspaper from the bottom of the ashtray bin. I hadn’t been reading it long when I realized cars were coming from the driveway that leads to the parking garage, and for some reason I decided I could ask someone if they were going to Union Station and might give me a ride.



So I ambled over there and leaned against the lamppost. (As a side note, the Gallaudet campus is not as well-lit as I would have expected. I would imagine that most college campuses are well-lit for safety purposes, and I think many probably have emergency phones readily accessible in case of emergency. I am not too surprised that Gallaudet has no such phones, but while they lights there are reasonably bright, they are not well-placed. There are more than a few very dark areas, which on any campus is unsafe but here is also a communication barrier.) As I waited, I saw a man walking a dog around the quad area behind me, and I immediately knew who it was. It was dark and I could only see his profile, but knowing the president’s house was over there I could put two and two together. He was on the other sidewalk, but as he approached me he crossed the street and said “Hello.” I said “hi” and he asked if I was waiting for something, so I explained my plan to hitch a ride to Union Station. He told me the bus stopped over in front of the conference center, and I pointed out that it would be a while before it got there so I was just giving this a shot. He nodded and wished me luck and walked on. We had both been speaking and signing, mostly just accenting our speech with signs - his speech is excellent, because he didn’t become deaf until he was about twenty years old. But still I couldn’t believe I’d just talked to the president of Gallaudet! He is really a hero among the Deaf community, and while I’m sure students are used to seeing him around campus, I’ve only ever seen pictures and videos and read about him.



A couple of cars passed, but I didn’t have the nerve to say anything. I went back over to the bus stop, and then realized that one of the administrative buildings was still open so I went over and waited in there. It turned out to be Chapel Hall, and I looked at the little display case about its 1998-1999 restoration before settling on the floor and reading. After a while a man came around and started locking the doors, and without speaking (or signing, really) I asked if I’d be able to get out again. He asked (spoken, with very crude signs added) if I was waiting for the bus, and when I nodded he said I could just push the door and it would open. He went on and quickly encountered a hearing employee leaving for the day, and I was impressed that the security man had so integrated signs into his conversation that he included them even when talking to the hearing administrator.



I knew the next bus was due at Benson Hall around 7:00, so a few minutes before that I went back out to the stop outside the conference center figuring I’d have about a fifteen-minute wait in the cold. The bus didn’t come and didn’t come, and finally the man who’d locked up Chapel Hall drove by. He turned around and said “I thought you were waiting for a ride - oh, you’re waiting for the bus.” He checked his watch, said “okay” and drove off; I figured the bus would be along soon. It still didn’t come, and I’d read the entire newspaper (what was there of it) and decided to start hopping around to stay warm. Finally the big blue bus rounded the corner, but when I realized it wasn’t slowing down I starting waving at the driver. He stopped and said he wasn’t going to Union Station, and when I protested he said the bus would be there at 7:09. I yelped “but it’s 7:30!” and he said “it’ll be here at 7:09″ so I repeated myself and he finally caught on. He pulled the bus over to the curb and called the main base…turns out the evening shuttle doesn’t run during the intersession. I had wanted to cry while I was waiting on the bench, but by now I was sobbing uncontrollably from the frustration and the cold. He said he’d drive me over to Union Station, so I rode with him while he put the bus away and then waited in his car while he closed up. I felt safe because I figured Gallaudet wouldn’t let a child molestor drive its school bus, and when he got back he explained he’d just come from BWI where he’d picked up the basketball team after it returned from some championships in Las Vegas. We talked on the way over to the station, and finally I made it there. I’d meant to buy a ticket to New York but completely forgot and just went down into the metro.



(There’s more, but it’s time to start working.)

It seems Western Maryland College has an ASL immersion dorm now. Damn! They didn’t have that when I went there, or I would have begged and pleaded and done whatever was necessary to get to live there. I do have to run by the Gallaudet library tonight and return a couple of books; neither is more than a week overdue. When I get home I have to finish making the Xmas present for one of my friends up in New York, and then pack a bag and shower so I can leave from work tomorrow.

<unnamed_meta> etoile doesn’t need catmv, she’s a greenbuster

<etoile> I’m just surprised you call me a greenbuster - I suppose so, but I never thought anybody noticed!

<unnamed_meta> well, i don’t say it because i KNOW you do that, but we’ve discussed you in the meta forum a bit, and rdkeating thinks you do a fine job adding good sites to the directory. Greenbuster, in other words

<unnamed_meta> but several folks noticed

<unnamed_meta> I have always thought your editing was good.

Oh… my… !



I really cannot describe how ecstatic I am. I’m an editall! I got a note from a fellow editor (whom I met once at a dinner I organized) saying “Hey, lady, you’ve made it up to the big time! [...] Whatever you do, I’m sure you’ll do just fine. Feel free to ask questions if you need to…” And I thought “what on earth is she talking about?” So I went to look at my editor dashboard…and I’ll be damned! Finally, after years of working on this project, I get some recognition for my work. I’ve been there since October or December 1998, a few months after the project started, and I’m constantly begging for things to be fixed. Now I can just fix them myself!



Okay, I am being incoherent, I know. I’m just too giddy to get it right. This is all in reference to the Open Directory Project, by the way.



Wheeeeee!

Aha! Gotcha.
I was going through the unreviewed in International Introductions and I came across Mate Match. I took a look at the site, saw it had a lot of profiles, browsed around some more, and deemed it fit for listing in the category. A bit later Global Love came up in the unreviewed, so I went to the site and took a look around. Funny, the profiles were awfully familiar. So I looked at the source, and it turns out they’re both affiliates of LoveMe.com’s Reseller Program, which has own page of the same profiles. Of course both Global Love and Mate Match will be getting the axe from the directory.

I’m just a bit proud of my sleuthing, that’s all.

I don’t suppose anybody’s been wondering what I’m up to? I guess I’m not actually up to very much, though I’ve been continuing to play Lunatix and edit at ODP. My node-writing has fallen off significantly, except for the spectacular work I did on Joan Baez. I’ve been doing a little bit of work at MusicMoz too. Other than that I suppose not much is going on, though I’m planning to go to New York City the weekend before Xmas. I was last there on September 9th, and obviously quite a lot has been going on since then…I miss my friends there and I want to see them. It’s expensive to go, but it will be fun. Oh, I suppose the other thing going on is that last night was the first night of Hanukkah. I’m so disrespectful - I covered my head with a bucket hat and used a lighter to light the shammas candle! Oh well, I can still rattle off the prayer in Hebrew. I should return my books to the Gallaudet library tonight, we’ll see if I feel like actually doing it. Last night my girlfriend painted my nails for me again, this time they are a brand called Afterthoughts and the color is called “School’s Out” - why they picked that for a sort of indigo/blue I have no idea. I gave up reading The Tale of Murasaki for now, maybe I’ll try again sometime. Instead I’m reading Leonard Nimoy’s book I Am Spock - though I’ve removed the picture jacket and whenever there’s a picture I sort of cover it with my hand so people around me on the metro won’t see what I’m reading. Blah.