We're off to Vermont for my cousin's wedding. Unfortunately, it's supposed to be rainy. Fortunately, it's also supposed to be ten degrees cooler. Plus, summertime Vermont has been so ridiculously beautiful the last few times I've visited that I'm confident a little rain won't get in the way of its scenic onslaught.

Blogging and shitty cameraphone pics to follow.

two decidedly different views of the city from two smart, lawerly-type girls. amber has had a positive experience here; zoe, apparently, not so much.

i wonder how i'll feel about d.c. after i move to chicago and will have another american city (beside collegetown; who couldn't adore charlottesville?) to compare it to. right now, it's coming off pretty well, but i suspect that may have more to do with the people i choose to hang out with than anything else. i've been pretty lucky in that regard.

well, i'm done with work. i had lovely coworkers, and a nice office atmosphere, and i'll miss it, but i'm too excited about northwestern to be very sad.

anyway, here's to a month full of debauchery! susan and i both realized last night that we'll have at least a week where we're both a) unemployed b) bored out of our minds and c) hankering for some alcohol. so we decided we'll be all "ladies who lunch" next week, except it's more like "bloggers who get drunk and fall over and terrorize the city." you know how it is.

there's a thread on the 9:30 club forum about your top five favorite belle and sebastian songs. i was only recently reminded of how much twee ass this band still kicks (when i randomly put on dear catasrophe waitress) so i thought i'd jump in...though it's oh so hard. they have so many good songs.

in no particular order (except maybe the first)...

seeing other people
judy and the dream of horses
the boy with the arab strap
the state i am in
if you're feeling sinister

though i could easily probably pick 15 that i thought were excellent.

for kicks, i'm going to do this with radiohead too, except top 10 cause i can't just pick 5. don't fault me for my lack of post-okc songs. you know it's true in your heart.

the bends
just
stop whispering (the live version)
you
street spirit
paranoid android
let down
idioteque
how to disappear
my iron lung

what do you think?

veiled conceit is back, and better than ever!

does anyone ever get the feeling that lois smith brady, author of the wedding column that VC snarks, is writing REALLY BAD fiction in her spare time?

Ms. Reid, 48, grew up in Dongan Hills, Staten Island, playing lacrosse, wearing her brother's bluejeans in the most stylish way and lying under the copper beech trees in her backyard, dreaming of sitting on the edge of the Grand Canyon at midnight, under a full moon.

and then this jem:

They were married on the Upper East Side at All Saints Episcopal Church by the Rev. C. Hugh Hildesley, the Episcopal priest turned Sotheby's auctioneer. The creaky wood floors and sit-up-straight seats were reminiscent of a schoolroom. Afterward there was a dinner party downtown at Balthazar, where the bride, in a sleek blue gown, slithered into each crowded burgundy banquette like a mermaid.