Possible Halloween costumes:

• Daphne from Scooby Doo
• Librarian from Adam Ant's "Goody Two Shoes" video
• 1920s Miss America contestant (I'm thinking Miss New Jersey)
• ?

Greg is of course voting for the school girl outfit (again), but no thanks. As I just subtly hinted at, I've done that before, and it was very uncomfortable. (Note in the linked entry that I've also attempted to be the slutty librarian before — eventually, I will fulfill this destiny).

I need more backup plans, though. Here are some things I've been in Halloweens past:

• 1950s bad girl
• 1950s good girl
• beatnik/Audrey Hepburn from some movie/early 1960s French girl (I just wore black capri pants and a black top and went barefoot — the party was at my apartment)
• Rhoda Morgenstern

Hmm. Maybe I could be Mary Tyler Moore, since I have that coat that looks like MTM's. I'd need a wig, though. And perhaps a polyester skirt suit.

Of course, I welcome any other ideas that could be implemented by Friday with a trip to a few thrift stores.

File under DAILY. Posted at 12:00 AM

The past few nights, I've been climbing into bed early with a glass of wine and reading. It's great. I almost never relax so deliberately and thoroughly. And I adore autumn, as I may have mentioned before. So, while there's a little too much on my plate right now (and what's on my plate is nothing compared to a lot of people — I think I'm just bad at managing my spare time), I'm reasonably content.

I've lost some weight lately, which is a good thing, but now about half of my pants don't fit. I have a lot of pants, so a lot of them don't fit now. I liked some of those pants, you know? If I had money to buy new pants, everything would be as it should in the world, but no, I do not have money for the new pants. I was thinking about investigating thrift stores for pants, but then I remembered that, aside from a penchant for discovering Jordache jeans in my size, I have never found a decent, well-fitting pair of pants at a thrift store.

So, I'm going to have to stick to skirts, maybe, and that means investing in some warm knee-high boots. Greg highly disapproves of tall boots; he likens them to hooker attire. Me, I always feel like a go-go dancer or some other mod creature from the '60s when I wear tall boots, and I think that's fine. Or, if the boots are brown and have a slight western flair, I feel like I'm in a TV movie from 1975, and that's okay, too. Actually I've never worn brown boots, but I'm thinking they might be the ticket for me this season.

Two pairs of new boots would probably cost more than a few pairs of new pants, though. Hmm. What dilemmas this girl faces.

File under DAILY. Posted at 12:00 AM

It's almost 4 on Sunday, and I have not yet left the apartment except to stick things in the mailbox. I have, however, written thank-you notes, paid a few bills, responded to a wedding invitation, shopped online for Mom's birthday present, tried to figure out how to order new checks, cleaned the kitchen, and done my Illustrator homework.

For Illustrator homework, I had to draw an object using only shape tools. I drew my couch. The drawing (below) has a little perspective problem, but I am not going to spend any more time on it. I suspect the instructor won't care. It will look enough like a couch for him. Actually, I think the version on my zip disk isn't quite this bad, but I'm not going to bother digging that out for you. Not that you aren't worth it, just that I know you aren't interested.

So, I'm 24 now. Wheee. Now, if I achieve anything mindblowing (and that's so likely to happen), I won't be able to feel like a wunderkind. While I don't think I have to feel like an adult quite yet, I also think 24 is when the transition starts to take place. By next year, I'll be closer to 30 than to 20, and thus less impressive if I do anything that would be really impressive if done by someone in the throes of just-before-adulthood. Though, seriously, I think I could do something really impressive up till I'm about 34, and people would comment on how young I was to have achieved something so great. I don't even know what that great thing could be, though, so I'm neither going to worry about nor look forward to such comments.

Greg and I spent Friday and Saturday in Washington, D.C. The Hotel Rouge was a lot of fun. Our room was swanky. The bed was comfy. And there was a big red feather in the safe. We had lame Web TV access, though. It would let us search Google and Yahoo for free, but we would have had to pay to view search results or to go elsewhere within the sites. It would have been nice to have been able to use Yahoo's directions. The hotel touts its free web access and then delivers something useless, at least for those who have not brought laptops along.

The bar there was cozy and stylish. The waiter gave us a free brownie, and he didn't even know it was my birthday time. He said he felt bad because it took so long to arrive. Maybe I was really drunk, or maybe I'm just accustomed to shitty service, but it didn't seem to take long at all. Also, we got to lounge around in animal-print bathrobes. Not at the bar, though they probably wouldn't have cared if we had. In the morning, they had free cold pizza and bloody marys in the lobby. The bloody mary I mixed for myself was beyond bad, but I enjoyed it because it was free.

Also, the International Spy Museum is neat, but it is also very crowded. Worth seeing, though.

File under DAILY. Posted at 12:00 AM