last night, for the first time, i was truly frightened by the whole sniper thing.

i was at home, going through the various and sundry cards, pictures and theater things i had brought back to d.c. with me (having just finished watching the biography of james dean on a&e--score!), trying to figure out how to decorate my room, when i heard that there was yet another shooting, this time in falls church at a home depot. i don't know what in particular it was that freaked me out--besides the obvious, naturally--but i couldn't stop watching the news, i was scared by even the idea of going outside, and i didn't even really want to stand near my window (although i had my curtains drawn like normal). the lack of rhyme or reason to the selection of victims is what's so frightening--at least with the whole son of sam thing, blondes could dye their hair brown in an effort to not be targeted--and i suppose i had hoped, whether realizing it or not, that the sniper would be caught while i was back in vermont.

everyone is talking about it constantly--you hear it on the metro, in the hallways of my office building--and people are scared. and frankly, i'm pretty angry about it as well. i mean, here i am, just moving down to this new city, one that doesn't exactly have a stellar rep when it comes to safety anyway, and now i get to freak out over this too. selfish perspective? absolutely. but i have to be selfish from time to time.

now that i got that off my chest...nice weekend in vermont. after the four hours of quality time i spent at bwi, i flew to fair albany, where i was greeted by my parents and--bonus!--my brother. since i'd woken up so early friday, i was pretty close to incoherent by the time we got home at 2 a.m...but i spent saturday relaxing at home and waiting for various members of the family to arrive, as well as make a visit to the becca girl.

saw "rules of attraction" with beth and michelle saturday night...whoa. i don't think it's one of those movies you can say you liked or didn't like unless you truly loathed it with a passion--but, then again, i think that is how a lot of bret easton ellis' work is anyway, and since the film was based on one of b.e.e.'s books...well, you do the math. i think the movie did b.e.e. a great deal of justice--i felt the same way watching "rules of attraction" as i felt when reading "american psycho"--disturbed by what i was seeing, but enthralled nonetheless. the cinematography was brilliant--absolutely brililant--but it took a minute to get into the groove of it. i'm still thinking about this film and know i will continue to do so for awhile--which is, as i'm well aware, exactly what the intention was. so from that perspective alone, the film was a success.

the great burlington trip occurred on sunday--after piling into red, we drove up and met with danelle at muddy's (i still need to find a place like muddy's here--i've missed the atmosphere), where i had a heavenly mug of hot apple cider (i've been missing hot cider and i swear it was the greatest glass of it i've ever had). we spent awhile wandering various church streets shops before making a brief stop at st. mike's on the way to papa franks before coming home.

i picked up a copy of the defender while i was on campus and am proud to say that it looked great--skye's making me proud. but i'm not going to lie about it--it's a little hard to look at the newspaper and not have any part of it anymore...just as it was strange to drive on campus and see random new buildings and see the ryan lot changed and all that jazz...it makes me feel as if i've been gone for longer than i have...but at the same time it really feels like i've been gone for a long time now...randomness.

sunday was spent running all over the place, packing, trying to get last-minute things to bring back with me, getting to the airport, arriving back at bwi, waiting for a bus, waiting for the metro, then dragging my things back to the apartment. ran into the apartment around 7:45, said hi, dropped off my things and ran to get groceries and food (as i hadn't exactly had time to eat and was...well...absolutely ravenous). finally was able to crash around 8:30, and it felt so nice to relax.

so yeah. crazy weekend, but pretty good, all in all. it was nice to see foliage--even with the less than stellar weather, it was still absolutely gorgeous up there. and it was great to be surrounded by people who love me. so thank you.