Snow Day

I have a snow day today. I slept in, (dreamed of sugar plums and stuff, obviously), woke up late and have since listened to all the Christmas music I could whilst cleaning my bathroom and getting clothes ready to pack for my trip home. You might have heard, but the DC area got about 2 feet of snow this past weekend. It was magical! Here's how it went...

Friday at work everyone was placing bets on how much it would snow. "Oh come on," one person said, "they always predict feet of snow and we never get it...I say we'll get 4 inches, max." Another two guys made bets over and below the 8 1/2 inch mark. Well, we got everything those weather peeps predicted. On Friday night I left my church's Christmas party about 8:45 and it was snowing. The drive home was fine because nothing had accumulated yet, but by Sunday morning my car was snowed in completely. All Friday night and Saturday and Saturday night it snowed. There wasn't a moment when it wasn't snowing. It was amazing, I tell you! Roomie K and I went for a walk to the park, played on the playground equipment, met a neighbor for a snowball fight (even the snow was really too powdery for packing) and enjoyed the great outdoors. It's amazing how astronomical amounts of snow (for this area) bring out the nicest and friendliest in people. I said "hi neighbor" so many times my throat was sore. Okay, I didn't really say that. How cliche. What I really said was, "Hi, looking good [referring to anyone who was snow shoveling or cross country skiing or perhaps sledding], keep up the good work! Lots of snow, eh?" It was great. Saturday night when Roomie K and I walked to our old neighbors' house for movies and hot chocolate, we just walked right up the middle of all the main roads, singing Christmas carols and waving to passers by. There were more pedestrians on the road than there were cars. The snow was so soft and beautiful and piled up so high and we pretty much wandered through a winter wonderland all day. Of course now the snow has been plowed and salted and it's started to melt a wee bit so it doesn't have that picturesque quality anymore, but at least I don't have to be at work! Here are some pictures from the best snow day of the year, Saturday, December 19th.

This is our 5th roommate, Diego The Cardinal. Well, he wants to be our 5th roommate. He tries every day to break into our house through the windows. After months of trying, he has yet to be successful.

This is our newest roommate, Roomie W. This picture was taken about 2 minutes before he gave up on freeing his car from the mounting snow drifts.

You think this is a lot of snow? We haven't even experienced half of it at this point.
My phone's ringing and it takes a lot to get to it. Roomie K and I are headed to the park to play in the snow. Play ground equipment is so much more fun when there are 15 inches of snow on the ground. Especially twisty slides.
Maybe I fell off this thing a couple times. Maybe. Doesn't mean I'm too big for it! Errrr...
Ah tranquility. Snow, I love you forever.
It was delicious, as you might imagine. Thought about making those snow drinks Mom and us kids would make on a good snowy day, but it never happened.
Time to go home after a good afternoon of rough housing in the snow. My pants were really wet.

Brosef

I guess he can play...

Cause It's Pretty

Here are the pictures I promised. House for Christmas. Weeee!

Too Hot to Trot

T-day. It happened. It was awesome. My pumpkin pies were delicious. Okay, they weren't perfection. To be quite honest, the crust (I made from scratch) was overdone and the filling was made with Splenda cause I was too lazy to go to the store for real sugar. However, I worked with what I had and it turned out just fine. Fine enough for me to have consumed almost a whole pie in the span of four days. Boy did I eat. But that's for later. For now I relate to you the semi consecutive adventures of the Thanksgiving weekend.

Wednesday was pure bliss because The Secretary let all us non-essential Smithsonian workers out three hours early. Now that's what I'm talking about. Thanks, G. Wayne! You're a good man, Charlie Brown! So Wednesday I got home, made some pies, made some pizza pie with Roomie B and just hung out like it was my job. However, I couldn't get too rowdy because I was poised to wake up at 6:30 AM Thanksgiving morning to drive out to Centreville, VA, for the Virginia Run Turkey Trot 5K. Me and the two Roomies B & K were running proudly as the PHC (penthouse club - cause we all live on the second floor of our house, natch). Disclaimer - I'm NOT a runner! I know I've mentioned this mutliple times in the past, but let me reiterate. I'm not a runner, peeps. I had never in my life run a full 3.2 miles and I did not anticipate starting on Thanksgiving morning. My last and only other 5K took me about 48 minutes or so cause I walked half the time. So I wasn't about to run the whole thing this time. And let me tell you something else, I made it known. I used every opportunity to let my patient roommates know that I was not going to be fast and that I wasn't expecting them to wait on me because I was such a turtle and blah blah blah. Of course, they were too nice to listen to my not-so-subtle hints and they stuck with me. They even refuse to acknowledge that they would have had a much faster finish time if they hadn't been tracking with me. So kudos to those angels of mercy. And you know what? I ran it. R-A-N it. The whole thing!!! 3.2 miles!!! I didn't walk ONCE! WHO LET THE DOGS OUT?????

Um, seriously. I was so impressed with me that I couldn't handle it. Well, not whilst I was running, but rather once I could see the finish line. I wasn't impressed with me when I was having fantasies of falling and breaking my ankle so someone would have to carry me the rest of the way. I had all sorts of beautiful daydreams about maiming my legs or falling over crying or something - anything so that I wouldn't have to run the rest of the way. And I am such a BORE when I run! Okay, a Scrooge. Not even a bore, but a straight up Scrooge. I can't think about anything else but the movement of my legs and arms and I really have to concentrate so that I don't wimp out every other 2. So I can't be all jovial and talky and laughy like my roommates who are in much better shape than I. They were making jokes and being fun and then there was me, trudging slightly behind them, the biggest frown on my face the whole time. Breathe in, two three, and OUT, two three, and IN two three, and OUT two three. And spit. (And don't try to give me advice on the whole "mental" aspect of running and all that hooey. I don't care. It sucks.) And I feel every stomp I make on that pavement. So if you ever ask me to go on a run with you, beware, I'm grumpy. Oh, but everyone else was having a good time. There were over 4,300 runners out that day, many with turkey hats and some in costume and all with smiles on their faces. Ugh, happy runners. But let me tell you, when I saw that finish line and realized that I really could handle running the entire way I started sprinting. I looked at K & B like yes-let's-do-this-thing (and they were probably surprised that I remember how to be a pleasant person) and then we all started cheetah-ing towards the finish line. Made the trek in 34:41. HUZZAH! My mood lightened considerably from that point on.

So after that bout of pure awesomeness (on everyone's part - thanks again to the angels of mercy for their great patience and forbearance...and my guardian angel who was keeping my lungs pumping the whole time with no help from me) we got a little Starbucks to celebrate and Roomie K and I headed to Fairfax, VA, for Thanksgiving dinner at her parents house. Good times, noodle salad. Well, no noodle salad, but plenty of other good food. Kristen and I actually cooked the turkey ourselves. I know! What a weekend of firsts. Pies, miles, poultry. The rest of T-day was spent indulging in good food and drink, laughing with friends and playing board games. That night Roomie K and I headed home with great plans to sleep as long as possible until sometime the next day.

Friday = BLISS! I did nothing. Repeat (w/ slight alteration): practically nothing. Unfortunately woke up earlier than I'd hoped, 8:30 ish, but spent the rest of the day lounging in the library, reading, eating pie, watching movies, and not venturing outside at all. All in my pj's. Well, until about 7 or so at night. By the way, I'm rereading Mansfield Park and I love it. I want to read it aloud to myself in a terrible British accent but that would be weird cause other people would hear me. It made me reminisce about the first time I realized that I loved Jane Austen. It was Aunt Jan and Auntie Beverly who got me hooked on the Austen. Shout out! Anyhoo, Friday night Roomie K and I decided we simply must have a Christmas tree. We went to our favorite local Home Depot and got this precious little fir tree just right for our library. We decided not to decorate until the morrow, read some more, and retired for the night.

Saturday morning I woke up to go see Uncle Cracker at 9. He popped my back and put those electrode thingies on my back again. They make my muscles spazz a little, so it'd be kind of funny to see me, face down on the table, my shoulders popping and locking to an unheard beat. I kind of laughed at me. He says I'm doing well and that my appointments can be more spread out. I say, no thanks. I'm not a repeat doctor visitor. In fact, I'm hardly a doctor visitor at all. His staff should anticipate me calling to cancel my next appointment and then never calling back to reschedule. My back feels good and I'm done with doctor visits for 2009 (*knock on wood*).

Saturday early afternoon I was off to Baltimore with Roomie K and her mom to check out an antiques place in the former industrial district of the city. (It's called Housing Werks or something like that for all you Google fiends.) The stuff there wasn't very appealing because it was all very unfinished and haphazardly strewn about, but the building was impressive and it was cool to imagine how I'd use the old circus sign in my new cool industrial-style decorated house with exposed brick and contemporary furniture. Or whatever. Next stop, B-more's Little Italy for lunch at Cafe Gia. Delicious sausage ravioli. Yum. Then a little walk to Fell's Point and the drive back to DC. The rest of Saturday we spent shopping for shoes (not I, I was just the encourager), buying Christmas decorations, and trimming the tree. I haven't taken any pictures yet, but you won't even be able to handle how amazing my house is with lights on the front porch and the tree twinkling in the light of a thousand electric faeries. I'll take some pictures and post them soon. Get ready, for you will be smitten.

Sunday was church, crying toddlers snotting all over my nice navy sweater (cute little tykes with their oh-so-believable crocodile tears), another run, and a Messiah sing. I will expound on the last two items.

Alright, I know that it's not polite or very Christ-like to brag. Jesus could probably do the Ironman and win and he'd be like, "Oh it's no big deal, it was God, not me." Well I'm hardly that free of pride. I mean, I just can't believe that I can run at all, especially because I fantasize about broken bones the whole time I'm doing it. But on Sunday I ran 3.5 miles. The whole thing. No walking. Yes, pride. I'm suffering from it. Whilst running I thought it might be nice if I accidentally stepped off the pavement and twisted my ankle. I thought maybe I could come up with some excuse to start bawling on the trail and wail that I just "couldn't do it anymore." But Roomie K has the patience and encouragement of a saint. She said, "we've hit 30 minutes so let's run till 40" and because she was being nice enough to keep pace with me I thought I'd throw her a bone and not break my leg on purpose. No pun intended. And because I knew I'd run for almost 35 minutes just a few days before I knew that I actually could do it. So I've accomplished my one running goal I've ever had in my life. I can now run a 5K. In fact, I signed up for another one in a couple weeks. WHO AM I??? I'm so NOT a runner, and don't you DARE try to get me to train for anything that has "thon" at the end of it because I might cut you. I guess since it's not killing me, it's making me stronger. Who knew? Ugh.

Oh, and the Messiah sing. You ever been to one of these before? I never had. I walk by the Clarendon United Methodist Church everyday on my way to/from the metro stop and I noticed they were having a Messiah sing on the night of the 29th. I though, fun! I like to sing things about God during Christmas! (And also the rest of the year, thank you very much.) But I had no idea that when they say Messiah Sing they mean that they'll furnish the soloists and instrumentalists and that YOU are the choir. The audience was the choir! I had no clue! And it was pure a-w-e-s-o-m-e! Oh man, I loved it. It was like being in choir again. We sang Part I of the Messiah, and the "Hallelujah Chorus" as the encore. I sang soprano. Um, those parts are really hard. Why was it cool at the time to string 96,000 sixteenth notes together on one syllable? "And he shall puri-fyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!" Handel was all about the melismas, I guess. And I didn't hit every high A, or the one high b-flat, but I got most of them. And I guess I was singing kind of loud cause the people in front of me noticed. Oops. Sorry, I got too excited! They're finishing up Parts II and III in April with another sing-a-long, so I'm definitely going back for that.

So there, that was my weekend. Lots of words to describe what now seems like just a few short hours. But I'm back at work and preparing for my performance review tomorrow morning (gag). But three weeks from tomorrow I will be winging my way to Tulsa. There's something to look forward to :).

Runner out.

Uncle Cracker

A.k.a. Sir Cracks-A-Lot, a.k.a. Sir Backs-A-Lot, a.k.a. MC Cracker. I am, of course, referring to my chiropractor. Yes, I have a chiropractor. As of yesterday morning I have officially been back-cracked. Why, you ask? I'll tell you. Because I'm old. Yup. 26 years old and I can't even handle the age old combination of moving houses and sleeping on an air mattress. Why the face?!

Last week my back was all ouchy-ouchy and I didn't think much of it. I figured it was a pulled muscle from moving or something and blah blah I'm a nubile young woman and I can handle it. WRONG! All of a sudden I'm doing the most boring thing in the world - sitting at my desk - and I don't want to sit anymore...because I'm old and I have back pain! ACK! Lame! That was Friday, so I went home early and laid around. Then Saturday I laid around. Then Sunday I went to church and helped out with the little kiddies cause I thought I was better. WRONG! Seriously, how old am I? Who knew you had to bend over so much and crawl around and pick things up when you're watching toddlers? Okay, I always knew, but I never paid attention. I'll tell you what, you'll start paying attention when your back is hurting. Lame!

Monday I made a decision. No more. I was going to the doctor. Please understand, I don't go to the doctor. I'm one of those people who doesn't even have whatever yearly physical/check-up thingies you're supposed to get because I can't be bothered to make an appointment. I'm that lazy. So actually calling up Bacman and making an appointment was a strong statement in my book. Don't get me wrong, I like going to the doctor's office. It usually means I can sleep in and miss part of work and read magazines I normally don't purchase for myself--no, not celebrity gossip, geez!! But whatevs. By Monday night I was having difficulty bending over the sink to brush my teeth so it needed to happen.

Tuesday morning I woke up, struggled to put my socks and shoes on on account of my old lady back, and drove to Vienna, VA, for a little chiropractor action. On a side note, when you go to anyone for a problem about which he/she knows more than you and he/she says "wow" more than once in relation to said problem, how does that make you feel? I mean, Uncle Cracker was all, "Wow, your back is really tight." I'm all, "Yup." Then he's making me lie on my side so he can crack my spine and he yanks and we hear a stream of pops from my neck to my...um...end of my spine. He says, "Whoa." I mean, if Sir Cracks-A-Lot is saying "whoa" then I must have a back in need of cracking, right??

Well you'll be happy to know that I'm fine. Nothing's outrageously wrong with ol' Backy. But this old grey mare just ain't what she used to be. Growing up. Bah! I try to reject thee but I can't! Again, don't get me wrong - I like the real world. Ergo, I generally like being an adult. I definitely like birthdays and welcome each new one with great fervor! But the part I could live without is this kind of stuff - the aches and the pains and the lower metabolism and the ever decreasing ability to stay up all hours of the night. BORING!

You know what else is boring (not really cause it's delicious) and grown up? I'm making a pumpkin pie for T-day. Yeah. Who does that? Okay, I know like a billion people do that, but I've never done it. I'm even planning on making my own crust. Don't laugh! I've made a crust before, you Doubting Thomas(es). When it happens I'm going to take a picture and post it and rub it in your face(s). Mwaaaahahahahaha!!!

So that's my Uncle Cracker story. Oh! Follow up. I'm going back on Saturday. Just to make sure things are going well. I hope he hooks me up to that electo-machine thingy again. That was cool. But I'm feeling better already. I have greater range of movement and all that jazz. I brushed my teeth last night with very little pain. Ha! What an oldie.

Bye.

It's What's On The Inside That Counts

This, my friends, is my favorite part of the new house -- the doorbell. Isn't it magnificent? You crank it. And it's loud and sounds like a real bell. That's mainly because it IS a real bell. Booyah! So I finally got around to taking pictures of the new house and here they are for your viewing pleasure. We're getting pretty settled at 107, but we don't have everything exactly as we want it. More pictures need to be hung and more boxes need to be moved, but we're closer than we've ever been before and that's just plain exciting. Welcome to my humble abode. Join me on this virtual tour, won't you?


Though my second favorite part of the house is the front porch swing, my favorite room in the house is the library. It could function as an office, I suppose, but I find it best suited to displaying books and housing overstuffed chairs. The other night I sunk into one of those chairs and just sat for minutes on end. Thirty-ish minutes, I believe. The room is so snug and inviting that I couldn't make myself get up. I wasn't even doing anything, just sitting and staring and the books and knick knacks. Brikabrak. (How do you spell that? It doesn't have a red squiggly line under it, so I guess that's right. Ahem, moving on.)


James, our butler, took up residence in the library as he, too, knows the true value of a good book. Above James' head you can see the Hands-On-The-Wall project that adorned a living room wall in the old residence. Also, below you'll see my section of shelves in the library. (It's the one column containing all the Harry Potters, the Twilight series (don't judge me!), and other books that might not be quite as recognizable from a distance. Don't worry, all my Jane Austens are there, too. Literature!) That's what I was staring at so long the other night. So cozy.

Follow me, please into the dining room. Keep in mind, I'm not conducting this tour in house layout order, but in order of...um...uhhhhh....in order of whatever I want. Next, dining room. As you can see, it is fit for the dining and the eating of the food and the drinking of the juice.

It's boring, but it's my life. You can see through the dining room into the kitchen. This is the view from the living room, by the way. Exciting stuff. Now please turn your attention to the pantry. You might think this pantry looks oddly like a bookcase. You are correct. This is what you do when your kitchen's too small to house all your ingredients.

Now we're ready to venture into the kitchen, lovely room that it is. It's a bit smaller than our last one, but it's homey and cute so I love it. I've made a couple batches of citrus tea on that stove already. Yummm. Wait, why am I not drinking some right now? Worry not, that shall be remedied shortly. In fact, you should be drinking a piping hot mug of citrus tea at this very moment. It will only increase the enjoyment you inevitably receive from taking my house tour. Ha!




In this new kitchen we were finally able to get out the coffee/espresso machine that Roomie K bought off our neighbors over a year ago. The neighbors had never used it, and we hadn't either, so it was just like getting a new kitchen appliance. Weee! Except, um...I don't know how to use it. And no, I haven't read through the instructions yet. Someone want to give me the Cliffs Notes version? I mean, look at this thing! It's daunting! Intimidating!

Now that it's out for use I guess I'll have to figure out how it works. The coffee part is pretty self-explanatory. The espresso/steamer/cappucino part will come in time. I hope. I took this picture of our dishwasher because I like the magnet we have on there. Plus, I was in picture-taking mode and couldn't be stopped.

I mean, who doesn't want one of these magnets on your dishwasher? You'll never question the status of your dishes again. That's a lie, you'll still question it, especially if you forget to the rotate the magnet after a wash.

From the kitchen you can see this lovely view of the downstairs bedroom, yet to be occupied.

Now that you've seen the most important parts of the downstairs, I'll take you upstairs to show you my greatest accomplishments. First of all, the bathroom. Might sound weird, but this was the most frustrating room in the house. Wanna know why? I don't really care, cause I'm just going to tell you anyway. The owner of the property never had a shower curtain on this bathroom. She just used the hand held shower head and somehow avoided getting water everywhere when she used it. Not so for us. We tried with the no-shower-curtain business and failed. Water was everywhere. For almost a week, water was everywhere. And we couldn't just get any regular shower curtain, noooooo, because the width of the curtain space was 76 inches. And standard curtain rods are how long? 72 inches! We checked out Target, we went to Home Depot. The boisterous man there told us we should get some anchors that we could attach to the walls using Scotch double-sided indoor/outdoor tape and then we could put an extendable rod between the anchors and presto-change-o! So we tried that. Tried being the operative word. We got it secured, we got the shower curtains up after many minutes of pressing those anchors into the tape into the wall as hard as we could. We took pictures of our success and went to work on our bedrooms. CRASH! Half an hour later, the curtain rod had fallen. Horse apples! We weren't allowed to drill anchors in to the wall, so we next went online to find a long enough tension rod. We found some possibilities. No need to purchase, though, because Bed Bath & Beyond saved the day! Really! We were there buying some other things for the house when we stopped by the shower rod section and what do you know? -- there was an 82" tension rod. Haaaaallelujah! Thanks, B B & B. And I really think God placed that curtain rod there just for us. When we took it up to the checkout counter, the employee told us that they usually don't have extra long curtain rods. Huzzah! We can now walk into our bathroom without trodding on saturated rugs.

Here's my room. It's cozy and I like it. Nothing too exciting in here, but it was clean so I took a picture. Sadly, I think I'll have to make my bed nearly everday because when you walk into the house and look upstairs you can totally seen in my room. Ugh! Oh well, it will give me motivation (we hope) to keep my room tidy and presentable.

So that's pretty much the house. It's home. I didn't think anything could compare to 925 because that house was amazing. I was sure that when we moved we'd have to downgrade and just make the best of it. Pshaw! Like I know anything. This house is miraculous. We even have a Cardinal that likes it so much he tries to get inside everyday during all the daylight hours. Poor little thing must have had 985 concussions by now, banging his red head into the windows all the day long.

Well, that's it, folks. Now that the housing search and move are finally over, I'm setting my sights on the holidays. Thanksgiving's in less than two weeks (craziness!) and Christmas is just around the corner. And it's really time to be thinking about all the great Christmas decorations this new house deserves.

Hopefully you'll be hearing from me soon. The past month and a half haven't been conducive to much blogging, unfortunately. I feel like I haven't had many spare minutes. But, no more moving for now and I FINALLY got my room together. So here's to blogging and much egg nogging in the future! Cheers!

Oh yes, it's happening

My new house. Booyah! Though the essence of the 925 Girls lives on, three of us will now be known as the 107 Girls. I'm excited about it. I mean, how cute is this house?! Plus, it has a front porch swing and...my favorite feature...a doorbell that you crank to ring. That's right! You turn the key-like apparatus and it literally rings a bell. No electricity needed. Ah, sweet charm and quaint-ness. Well, it's all cute now when it's empty and I haven't had to lift anything heavy. Just wait till tomorrow when I'm practically dead from the exhaustion of moving. Or maybe wait until tonight when I'm cleaning the place and all its crevices before the big move. Okay, don't wait till tonight. Tonight's going to be awesome. I'm going to be sliding on the hard wood floors in my socks, jamming out to my favorite tunes and cleaning, fun-style. Call me weird (not out loud, thankyouverymuch), but I'm looking forward to it a wee bit. As for the move and life in the new digs...I'll let you know. Mmmkay bye!

Sightseeing Without A Camera

I know, I know. What's the point of blogging about things you've seen if you can't prove you've seen them? Well I'll tell you. The point is...I'm bored and I feel like blogging, K? Mmmkay.

As you might recall from previous posts, my roommates and I are all on a frantic search for new digs. We have to vacate the sweet 925 premises as soon as possible, so we've been viewing houses and emailing potential landlords and sending email after email to each other in attempts to get this thing settled! Ack! Well, we think we've found a place, but I'm not going to blog on that until it actually happens and the ink on the lease is dry. Until then, let me tell you why the stress of finding new housing led to an incredibly relaxing and wonderful weekend.

You know when you're super stressed and you just can't handle it so you decide you need to spend money to make the pain go away? No? That doesn't happen to you? I don't believe you. It happened to me on Saturday. I was talking with Roomie K about housing and we went from hero to zero in T minus 2. In other words, we got all frustrated and overwhelmed as we tried to figure out the housing crisis (not the nation's housing crisis, thank you). "I think we need pedicures," says K, "You want to?" Who am I to slap a good-suggestion-horse on the flanks? (???!!!) Of course I said yes! So we two-stepped on down to Modern Day Spa and got ourselves some pedicures. And they weren't just a buff and polish situation, either. No, no - we got the foot and calf massage and the hot water and all the buffing and then some more massaging and all that awesomeness. And then they painted my nails a delightful color that I like to call "Cranberries and Creme." I'm sure O.P.I. likes to call it something else, but I didn't take the opportunity to look at the label. Creativity wins.

After the pedicure we got a bite and walked home in the rain. Yes, the rain that suddenly fled the sky on some secret mission to pelt Arlington to death. Soaked. So that was relaxing weekend activity number one. Now are you ready to hear how I not only pampered myself but did something awesome for my body as well? Well we'll get to that in a second. Let's start with Sunday morning.

Sunday dawned clear, crisp and bright. I went to church, watched the tots for a bit during children's church (they were crazy!) and came home. Wait, back up. How about them tots? The toddlers? As we were understaffed yesterday, I had about 8 kids to myself and a few of them were NOT happy. I was running around like a fiend, some child on hip at all times, singing songs and making finger puppets sing opera-style to get these kids to dry their eyes and play like civilized 1, 2 and 3-year olds. Not the easiest job in the world. Those kids never cease to find great entertainment in pulling my hair and hitting me in the face with Brio tracks and trying to shove finger puppets in my mouth. Oh, they also like to turn on the TV and scream when they hear the loud static it makes when it doesn't get a signal. Ack! Alright, I love the little boogers. They're all cute and stuff and they generally seem to like me so I can't complain.

Anyway, on to the part where I impress you. Yesterday was the Marine Corps Marathon.

................Okay, I can't do it. I was trying to find a way to make it seem like I ran the marathon and stuff, but I have no words to even begin to craft that kind of falsehood. Suffice it to say that Roomie K and I went running yesterday and passed a LOT of people who in fact HAD run the Marine Corps Marathon and they all looked near death and we applauded them as well we could whilst jogging past them at a brisk pace. Yes, we jogged (on our 2 mile run) past people who'd just run 26 miles. How's that for feeling like a dud? Blerg. I mean, most of the people I saw were at least 20 years older than me. Maybe that's what inspired me to not be my usual wimp self and keep up the pace for as long as I did. And I'll tell you, I impressed myself by keeping up with Roomie K. I'm usually the one who says, "Let's walk now....and again.....and again." But yesterday was different. I wanted to keep going! Hey, how can you not get a little extra running energy when it's an absolutely gorgeous day and you're running over the Potomac and by the Lincoln Memorial, up the reflecting pool and to the WWII Memorial? I mean, right?! Then when you reach the WWII Memorial maybe you run up to the Virginia post and high five it. That's right, you don't high five your running buddy, you high five the memorial. But no, I won't be doing that again soon. I'm so sore today I can barely function. Cut to me never, ever running a marathon. Mind over matter, you say? Yeah well my mind says heck-to-the-no and I'm sticking to it.

Okay, now we're finally to the sightseeing part of the weekend. After our run which, to be honest, afforded some good monument/memorial sightseeing, Roomie K suggested we stop by the Pentagon to see the Pentagon Memorial for 9/11. That was amazing. Sobering, for sure. I didn't have my camera and I was kicking myself. (Not literally cause that would be weird.) I metaphorically kicked myself again when we decided to stop at the Air Force Memorial because that is probably my favorite (or second favorite - I can't decide) memorial in the city. The three spires that represent planes speeding off in flight - pure awesome. I kept making plane noises with my mouth and shooting my cupped palm off in the air to trace the spires. Shoooooop! Seriously, did that probably ten times. I was like a little kid in that place. A stinky little kid, mind you, because this was right after a run. Ew. I again wished for my camera but my "Accio camera" spell wasn't working properly. Gotta work on the swish and flick motion, I guess. (If you're confused, read Harry Potter #4.)

So there. It's boring, but it's my life. Actually, it's not boring. It was a really fun and eventful weekend. Now my task is to pack up my house ASAP and get things ready to move this weekend...if all goes well. Providing I get a moment to catch my breath you'll be hearing from me next week about the move and maybe I'll have some pictures of the new place.

Maybe.

Update-A-Matey!

I'm back. Phew! That's right, after what seems like the longest hiatus ever (though I know it's not) I am back in business. Blogville, Blogchestertonfieldville. And I'm the mayor. Or I'm on the city council or something. Whatever.

Anyway, there are a few updates I care to share. These are some big ones so brace yourselves. My boss quit. Yes, I told you that she would be quitting, and she did. Wait - I should reread the last post - maybe she'd already quit when I wrote last. It doesn't matter, I've now officially had two weeks of work without my boss and it's been insane. I've recited Philippians 4:13 so much to myself I might as well get it tattooed on my forehead. As I mentioned previously, our fiscal year ended September 30th. This means that all the museums are sending us thick packets of gift forms to record in our system, more than we get at any other time of year besides December 30th. Marlene and I have done pretty well holding down the fort, I think, but it's hard not having my boss around to bounce ideas off of or go to with pesky questions that need answers immediately. Now I have to go to her boss and he doesn't always know what I'm talking about. All in all, it could be worse. I haven't drowned in all the paperwork yet, and the only impending moment of possible doom I can see on the horizon will be when we do fiscal year reports. Don't worry, the old boss is coming back around to guide us through the process. But what about next month when she's not around? It takes forever to hire people around here so I'm sure my co-worker and I are going to have to do reports by our lonesome at least until the new year. At least. Yipes.

Big change #2: 925 house will be disbanded by the end of the year. Yes, my landlord and the building contractor worked out a deal. He got the permit from the county to build two houses on the 925 lot and he will be purchasing the house from my landlord. For those of you who never got to see the house, I couldn't be more sorry. It was magnificent. The last person who will ever get to see 925 intact will be my friend Michelle who's coming to visit this weekend. The rest of you will just have to look at pictures from my previous posts and mourn the loss of the thing you didn't know was as awesome as it was. That's right, MOURN. I sure am. So now comes the big annoying part of it all - moving. Gotta find a new place. Gotta move into that new place. Have 90 days to do so. And oh my goodness do I HATE moving. Yes, I used the "H" word and I meant it! But whatever, I'm sure we'll find a great new place to live and we'll make it just as much a home as 925 ever was. Oh horse apples...I forgot about the basement and how much junk is down there that doesn't belong to a single roommate here. All the old ones moved out and left their stuff. Yard sale!

So those are the two big things going on. I'd been planning on doing some job searching and option-looking, but that's all on the back burner right now. Things just got a little too crazy for me to focus on anything else. Except, of course, Fall.

That's right, I focus on Fall because it's awesome. It's finally sweater weather around here and at night we have the heat on. Granted, it's on pretty low but it's still on. I bought a pair of house shoes this weekend. And they're amazing. So, how have I celebrated Fall?

First off, I had a three day weekend this past weekend. Miraculous. Turns out Columbus was kind of a meany and not very culturally sensitive, but at least I got a day off because of him. Thanks, man. Remember the roommate I replaced? Kate? Well she was in town this weekend. And when company arrives, you gotta pull out the big guns. So the 925 girls flew into a Fall frenzy. On Saturday morning we all breakfasted together and then drove off to Breaux Vineyards in Somewhere, VA. Loudon County, I think. LoCo. Anyway, we tasted some wines, feasted on gumbo, baguettes and cheese, and listened to a homegrown band play songs everyone but me seemed to know. It was fun. Then we zipped over to Crooked Run Orchards for some good old fashioned apple and pumpkin picking. We saw people making apple butter, we tried our hand at "Guess-That-Carcass" and I got nothing right. We climbed apple trees and ate the fruit right off the tree. I constantly wanted to burst out into "People Will Say We're In Love" from Oklahoma, but I resisted. That would have been weird.

The rest of the weekend was pretty relaxing. We're trying to figure out what to do with the ungodly amount of apples we have in our kitchen. Kristen and I made a crostata on Sunday, but that only got rid of four apples. I probably need to make about 3 apple pies and that will take care of it. But that sounds like something I really don't want to do. Too bad I don't have a juicer. This is the one time of year I'd use it. Anyway, I'll let you know what other apple thingies I make - or not - before the apples rot.

So there's that! Oh, yesterday I went to the Foundation Center offices downtown to take a "Proposal Writing Basics" class. It was informative. I learned what constitutes a grant proposal and how much time and effort it takes to write one. Juuuuuuuust great. Maybe someday I'll get the chance. Oh, you want to know how I've lived here for about a year and a half and don't know this city at all? I was supposed to exit at Farragut West yesterday, NOT Foggy Bottom. The metro stops are right next to each other, and I was to take the Farragut West stop. Right? Then why did I get off at Foggy Bottom? And why when I got to the street level did I wonder why I was at 23rd and Eye St. instead of 17th and Eye St.? Yup, I walked the blocks to 17th and Eye so that I could slip into the back row of the class about 5 minutes late. Horse apples!!!

Anyway, here's what's to come: my roommates and me looking for a new house, my boss-bosses hopefully hiring me a new boss (no, I do not want that job, ever), me convincing myself that it's not too cold to walk the 5 minutes to the gym so I can keep in shape as it gets colder and colder every day. I just got a flyer from the Washington Ballet letting me know I could get half price Nutcracker tickets right now. So, naturally, I'm already excited about the holidays. But for now, I'm enjoying Fall. And that's your update, matey!

Turmoil/Upheaval/Whatever

Today is September 30th. Today is fiscal year end. Today is my first day without my boss. Cause she quit. Mega, mega yikes.

Two weeks ago my boss had finally had it "up to here" and turned in her two weeks resignAsh. (That's the phonetic spelling of the abbreviation of resignation. Done.) It's our busiest time of year, mind you. Okay, December/January is kinda crazy, too, but this is big time! So why am I blogging instead of working my fingers to the bone? Um...good question.

But know this - it's a tumultuous though exciting time in Arlington/Washington. My boss quit so now things will be very interesting around here, especially for her underlings, Marlene and me. My landlady told us that she has an offer on the house and it waiting to see if all works out for her to sell it. Cut to me doing the Joey Lawrence "WHOA!" from the unforgettable TV series Blossom. Anyway, now all the roommates are in a bit of a tizzy as we await word on whether or not we will live in our house for the next 10 months. For you legal zonks out there, you should know that we met with the landladylord and told her we'd be willing to terminate the lease early for adequate compensation, none of which is yo bidnez. I mean--none of which I will detail here. This is the third time in as many years that she's tried to sell, so we're all over it and want to move on to someplace else where we can live in peace. Blah blah blah. So I've been looking at rental houses for the past week and a half. Going to see one today after work, actually. Of course, who knows if I'll even move. I'll keep you updated.

Here are other random things I've been up to lately: went to Nashville for a weekend, went to Tulsa for a weekend ("Ryan & Ryan: Mirrored Pianos" was a smash hit), started attending a women's small group at my church, going to an art showing tonight, NOT going to the gym. Woops. You know how it takes forever to get into the habit of going to the gym and then like two seconds to get out of the habit? I've about hit the two second mark. Gotta remedy that tonight.

No more blog entry at this time. It hasn't been exciting, but hopefully it's been informative. Now I will return to gift entry. Who wants to give me a raise?

Like the Alamo (I should remember it)

Disturb us, Lord,
when we are too well pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we have dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when
With the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wider seas
Where storms will show your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.

We ask You to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push into the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.

-Sir Francis Drake, 1577

Oops, I did it again

I judge myself for using that refrain as a title, but it is apt my friends. Oh, it is apt. (Apt...should have used that word when I was losing to Kristen at Bananagrams last night. Blimey. Oh well.)

You want to know what I did again - oopsily speaking? I signed myself up for something, wished I hadn't until the moment I'd arrived for said something, then ended up having the time of my life and wanting to do it again. Now, this generally happens to me with any sort of volunteer opportunity (few and far between unless you count the little kiddies at church) or musical obligation. I'm all trying to get involved and stuff and then I'm all, why the heck did I sign up for this again?...cause I'd rather be sleeping. Well, yesterday I drove out to the city-town of Reston, VA, after a trying morning with the pre-K kids. (It's never fun when someone pees on you.) I had my violin in hand, ready for an afternoon of Brahms' String Sextet #1 with some people I'd never met from the meetup.com group - DC Chamber Music Players. I really was not looking forward to this. I assumed I would be underprepared and would just really stink up the place, figuratively speaking, with my hideous rendition of a piece I'd only listened to on YouTube. Never mind that I could have practiced a lot more than I did. (Don't jump to conclusions. I DID practice...just not that much.) Anyway, I was nervous. It's never easy playing with a bunch of new people. I always underestimate my skill level (it's not that high, but never as low as I tell myself it is) and I didn't want to make a fool of myself in front of seasoned chamber players.

NO WORRIES! We started off with some encouragement. The Violin I player, Joe, said "I'm just warning you all that there are mutliple lines in here I can't play. I'll just play whatever notes come out." He was met with a chorus of, "It doesn't matter" and "We're just here to have fun." Yes! That's what I like to hear! I knew right then that I would enjoy myself. Plus, I was well prepared for the read-through. I knew my part and I only got lost a couple times :). Plus, the music is great. Have you ever heard that sextet? Youtube it, if you haven't. It's SO good! I was playing my little heart out. Everyone was so encouraging of the others and constructive with their musical suggestions. It was just pure fun. So yeah, I'll be doing that again. Plus, it was the most gorgeous day we've had all month - and that's saying something cause we've had really nice weather here lately - and I had the most fun driving between church and Reston and home. Windows down, music blaring, traffic light. (No, not traffic lights...traffic was light.) Perfection.

So it will probably be another month or two before I get together again with a chamber group. They have a couple meetings this month and next that I can't make as I'll be in Tulsa when they happen - woohoo! But one of the violists told me I should pick a piece I want to play in which i would play the first violin part. He said to pick a piece and let them know so we could all play it. I was like, alright! Any suggestions? Any beautiful chamber piece will do.

In other news, I will now update you on the new rug situation. Remember the rug? Quick refresher - K and I were carrying a rug to our house after we picked it up off the street. We caught the attention of some neighbors (who told us to look out for bed bugs) and subsequently made tentative plans to get acquainted. Well, in our perpetual state of silly K and I decided to invite the neighbors over for this past Saturday night. We had no contact information for them so we wrote them a note and dropped it off. The silly part comes here - the note said that we were inviting them over to celebrate our new rug and that they should R.S.V.P. via pigeon post by September 12, 2010.

...

We heard nothing for two weeks. I was convinved that my brilliant pigeon post comment had frightened them off forever. However, we decided we would be prepared for company on Saturday night just in case they chose to show. On Saturday afternoon we heard a knock at the door. On our front porch was a bottle of Resolve and a note that said "See you tonight." Clever, no? So feel free to tell strangers to reply via pigeon post when you write them notes. It doesn't scare them off. In fact, it will facilitate witty gift giving. Now we have some new friends in our neighborhood. Yay!

The Real World: Happy Birthday!!!

Here's a shout out for another Real Worlder (as of 4 months ago) who turns 22 today. Happy Birthday, Brother! I luh you, boo. Welcome to birthdays that are awesome just cause they happen - not because you get a new privilege that comes with age or anything, but just because you're older and wiser and know more about who you are as a person. It's sweet. None of this no-more-exciting-birthdays mumbo jumbo. Every birthday in your 20s is exciting and I am PUMPED that you get to start your 23rd year in style, adult-style. Have a brewsky. Smoke a ciggy. Okay, don't do that. That's gross. Instead, rent a car. No, wait...not yet.

To sum up, enjoy it! You're only 22 once. And your first post-collegiate birthday will be the best one yet. Do what you want, go wild, let loose! Or not, your call. Just bear in mind all the live long day that I am singing ridiculously melisma-filled renditions of "Happy Birthday" to you. I mean, like really bad Whitney Houston impression-type versions. Yay yay yay yay YAAAAAAYYY!!!!! :-)

Niagara FallsVegas

Vacations take work. You might not realize this as a child, but as an adulthood you really grasp the difficulty that is vacation planning. I mean, you have to plan it yourself. Gross! I miss those days when my parents would say, "We're going here, pack your bags" and I'd just go and enjoy myself. Anymore I have to decide where I want to go, how much money I have to spend going there, what I want to do, and if I have enough vacation time to do it! Blechity blachity bluhhh. Who knew that even the R&R times mean different things to adults? Thanks a lot, Real World, with your restrictions and responsibilities. I'll follow you till the end! Thank goodness for friends who'll plan for me :). Well, that's kind of all they can do when we decide to go camping. I don't camp. I don't know the first thing about it. If you want me to camp you have to treat me like a child and tell me where to go and when and what to do when I'm there. Oh, and how to do it. With that said, you should know I had a simply splendid time camping at Niagara Falls over Labor Day Weekend...

Oh, so beautiful! Right?? Look at all that pure, un-tampered-with natural stuff. Why, I could have just happened upon this stunning view whilst on a hike (well, only if I were into hiking and that sort of outdoorsy thing.) But it's majestic and glorious, right? Um, not as right as you'd think. Correction, not as right as I anticipated. Dear gussie was this place a surprise. Have you been here? On the Canadian side? To Niagara FallsVegas? I know a couple different cities that tack on "Vegas" at the end for kicks. It's kind of annoying, too - Lex Vegas (Lexington, KY), Nash Vegas (Nashville, TN). I've spent quite a bit of time in both these cities and neither, in comparison to Niagara Falls, merits the suffix "Vegas" in its nickname. No, indeed! People need to start calling this town, on the Canadian AND U.S.A. sides, FallsVegas cause boy oh boy it is. But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. Before I tell you about the wonder that is FallsVegas (besides the amazing falls, naturally), let me start at the beginning...

Here were the plans: two roommates and I were headed to Niagara Falls to camp on the NY side for two nights. Friday night - drive to Kane, PA, to stay with a former roommate and her new hubster. Saturday - drive to falls and splash around in them, perchance. Sunday - falls. Monday - drive home.

Here's what happened: Friday at 5:40pm - call from one of the roommates that, in essence, said this, "I'm sick, go without me." What the horse apples??? To go or not to go? That was the question. The other roommate and I went. But starting the trip off like that was a real crack in the otherwise foolproof plan. Okay, not foolproof. We were going to play the trip by ear anyway, but hello! We had food for three, sleeping bags for three, and plans for three. Now there were two.

You know that out-of-body feeling where you can't believe something's happening and you just keep replaying it in your head? And then you laugh incredulously? Welcome to the entire 5.5 hours drive to Kane, PA on Friday night. Two people in a car, randomly laughing in incredulous tones. Weird. We got to Kane about midnight or a little later. We were treated to tea and cookies by our benevolent hostess, and we passed out on her living room floor. (Poisoned cookies. Sike!) Saturday we decided to stick around the little town a bit longer so we could see the sights, say hi to our hostess' family and just hang out with our friend. Great times. I have to say, I really do love small towns. I also love sunny blue-sky days in northern PA when the breeze is blowing just right and the temperature is a cool 78-ish degrees Fahrenheit. Doesn't get better than that. Except when you throw pumpkin chocolate chip cookies in the mix. THEN it gets better. Also, I even loved walking and bear clapping around the pond + wild flowers area in the woods behind my friends house. That's right, clap sporadically so you don't sneak up on a hungry bear! Yipes! Ah, serenity.

Okay, so after we left Kane we drove straight up through Buffalo, NY, to our campsite on Lake Ontario. We got there around 5 or so in the evening and decided to set up the tent, gather kindling for our fire, and check out our surroundings before it got dark. Kristen, the roommate I was camping with, is a camper by hobby. An aficionado, if you will. She had all the equipment and all the experience to make this an easy trip for a novice such as myself. By the way, I think everyone and their dog(s) were out camping this weekend by the falls. I mean, the place was packed. People riding bikes everywhere, playing the guitar and singing. (Yes, it's weird to see someone riding a bike whilst playing the guitar and singing, but things happen differently in New York.) Dogs running around willy nilly. I mean, I saw an RV with a satellite dish set up next to it. People had electric lights strung around their campers and even lawn ornaments planted on their camping plot. Um, WHAT?? I wasn't in Kansas anymore. Cue the incredulous laughter bit. Cue it again. Seriously, keep cuing it until the cue button is broken cause that's how long it lasted.

The tent's ready, we have kindling, we've checked out the view of Lake Ontario (gorgeous), picked up some cool looking rocks for sport, skipped some rocks on the lake (mostly failed at that one) and decided we'd have hot dogs for dinner. On a whim, we decided it would be great to see the falls at night. We'd heard from a couple sources that the Canadian side of the falls provided the best view and that the falls simply must be seen at night. So we thought we'd go over for an hour or so (please, stop laughing - we'd never done this before), come back and make dinner and generally vegg out before night-night. Ahem...

At 6:40pm we got in the line to cross the bridge into Canada. It was light outside on account of the sun. Now look at the picture below. Use context clues to guess what I'm going to tell you next.

Here's a clue for ya - that wand in my hand belongs to a 3 yr-old and she uses it to make traffic go away. "Go away, Traffic!" she says, giving a quick swish and flick with the wand. Those are her sunglasses, too. I don't think they have any power over excess amounts of cars on the road, but it just completed my look, K? You see how it's dark outside, right? Yeah, that was 2 hours later and we STILL hadn't crossed the border yet. By the time we got to the border guard we were a bit delirious and trying to be positive about wasting so much time at a standstill. Okay, we didn't completely waste time. We made some friends on the road, talked to some other drivers, listened to some good tunes, and laughed more...incredulously. Oh, and I felt way embarrassed that I was wearing a good ol' state proud shirt to see the falls. I mean, really?? Can you get any more dorky tourist than that? So the border guard was scary and asked us (may I say incredulously again?) why we were coming over at 9 at night to see the falls and then go back to New York. We sheepishly told her that we didn't realize it would take so long to get through customs and onto the Canadian side. She said, "You should have taken Rainbow Bridge. It would have gotten you there a lot faster." Um, okay. Thanks, scary lady. We put that in our metaphorical pipes and smoked it. It was bitter.

Luckily, we wound our way through the dark streets of Niagara park (good thing cars show how many kilometers per hour you're going) and finally came within sight of the falls by about 9:30 Friday night. And WOW were there a lot of people. We found a place to park (goodbye, 20 USD) and walked through the mist to gaze at nature's wonder. Misty! I should have sung that song the whole time. Wish I'd thought of it then. As it was, I spent the entire weekend talking in a ridiculous Canadian accent and subsequently sending myself into fits of giggles. I really crack myself up, apparently. But anyhoo - my first glimpse of the falls wasn't as amazing as I'd anticipated. As I alluded to earlier, it's like tourism on crack. Casinos everywhere, neon lights, attractions that cost thrice as much as they should. It's a zoo. The pictures below aren't great, but that's what I saw of the falls that night. Shrouded in mist, there they were all lit up by giant spotlights.

No, the falls don't come in rainbow colors. Pay some attention to the man behind the curtain...


We didn't stick around long. We decided to return to camp, cook our dinner and get some sleep so we could come back on Sunday. Kristen was a dear and got the fire started while I watched. Hey! I helped gather kindling! I did my part. ish. We ate hot dogs and s'mores and went to sleep. The next morning we stumbled out of the tent about 9 and cooked ourselves some oatmeal. K-dawg had a sweet stove (think Bunsen burner) that boiled our water so we could add oatmeal to some and Swiss Miss to the other. A few bananas cut up in the oatmeal and voila! Delicious.

After breakfast we pulled out the map and drove off into the daylight. Destination: Rainbow Bridge. I was driving and we found it with only one turnaround, thank you very much! Just like the cranky border guard promised, we got across the bridge and into Canada in a lot less time. 20 minutes, you might say. And that's a generous estimate. Whilst on the bridge, we could look to our 8 o'clock and see the falls, and to our 10 and 11 o'clock we could see this...

FallsVegas. And that's when it's not all lit up and gaudy. Anyway, I must say that the falls did look much better after a good night's sleep and only 20 minutes in line for customs. They are impressive, can't lie. When I tuned out the man-made ridiculousness behind me I was able to enjoy the spectacle of water falling over a cliff. Seems simple but it isn't. It's breathtaking. However, I think I'm getting ahead of myself again. Because after we crossed Rainbow Bridge we didn't go see the falls immediately. Instead, on my boss's recommendation, we drove up the river to a little town called Niagara-On-The-Lake. By the way, that was one of the most beautiful Sunday drives I've ever had. We would our way North on Niagara Parkway, a lazy windy road hugged by wineries and bike trails and beautiful houses. The town itself is a quaint New-England-y kind of town. Lots of shops and horse drawn carriage rides, etc. My favorite part, however, was the waterfront section of the town. There's no better place to be than by the water, in my opinion, and Lake Ontario was beautiful. I could see the Toronto skyline in the distance, and the gently lapping waves provided the perfect soundtrack for a tasty lunch of...peanut butter and banana sandwiches. Yeah, I know. But I was not about to change money over for one day of travel and even though they'd have taken my USDs I was not about to do that and get my change in Canadian coins. Great way to save money on a trip, by the way; just don't exchange your currency and keep your credit card glued in your wallet. Anyway, this is a view of the lake from the lovely town of Niagara-On-The-Lake, Canada.

After lunch and a nice stroll through town, we hopped back in the car and tootled our way South towards the falls. We parked quite a ways away this time (about 2 miles, I think) so that we could park for free. It worked out great, because we walked along the river towards the falls and came across some spectacular views of the rapids and the waterfalls. The water is very green there, by the way. It looks like they put a ton of chlorine in there. That is, it looks almost fake. To sum up, it looks like a maniacal scientist decided to create a wave pool of death at his backyard Mad Scientists Amusement Park. Nonetheless, how can you not be blown away when you see something like this...?

Even after a night in a sleeping bag I was pretty happy to see those falls.

Did you know several people have survived the falls? You know, like oh I'm fishing with my dad and oh no the motor's not working and we got caught up in the current and oh no rapids and oh no get my life jacket on and ahhhhhhhhhhh!!! I saw an Imax movie about it. Gave the ticket lady a twanky in sweet USDs and got back American bills and, wait for it, Canadian coins. Ugh! Why, God, why??? Oh well, Kristen and I pooled our coins later to purchase a postcard at the gift shop. The remaining coins we threw into Lake Ontario when we got back to the camp site. We felt it was important to give back to the community.

Wow, quite the throwing arm I got there. You'd think I'd never touched a football before. Well I have. Fingers on laces, got it!

Anyhoo, that night we drove back to camp and got ready for a night o' fun. Now THIS is the part of camping I like - the part where you make a campfire and eat good food and play card games outside with your hoodie on and laugh and blah blah blah. That's the good stuff. Sitting next to the campfire with your toes as close as you'll let them go. Mmmm, toasty. We (and by we I mean Kristen) made the best fire ever that night so we could cook our hobo meals. Yes, hobo meals. Take some ground meat and season it with whatever. Throw in some minced onion and garlic and just work it all into a patty. Place patty on sheet of tin foil. Cut up some carrots and potatoes. Place those with patty on foil. Get some frozen corn and sprinkle it on top of all that other food stuff. Fold up tin foil. Place the whole thing in the coals of a fire and cook for 10 minutes. Open tin foil, insert fork. Nope, no plate, just you and the tin foil and the fork. And the food. Yummy, hobo-style.

So the trip was great. Monday we packed up and drove back home, wending our way through all the other travelers on highway 70 East towards DC. I had fun. I camped and I enjoyed it. Granted, I wasn't really roughing it. I had a bathroom and shower at my disposal. I didn't have to hike to my camp site; we drove right up to it. My camping buddy had all kinds of good gear that made my stay quite enjoyable. Heck, I don't even own a sleeping bag anymore. But there are a few things that really stand out to me from the weekend. You know, the things that will make me smile when I think about the trip from now on:

Driving through Canada and seeing signs that say "U.S.A." this way - that's just weird. Talking to morose border guards who have enough authority to make me nervous answering questions with no wrong answers (because I have nothing to hide, I tell you, NOTHING!!!). Not getting my passport stamped. (Argh!) Blue Moon and s'mores. Bananagrams (a.k.a. Speed Scrabble) by campfire light and lantern. Skipping rocks on Lake Ontario.

I'm still not a camping buff. Doubt I'll ever be one. But camping at Niagara Falls (Vegas) for a weekend? I recommend it to a friend.

Fire Drill

I anticipated a quiet, calm morning. EEEE, EEEE, EEEE, EEEE!!!! Ugh, is that for real? "Everybody out!" Oh great. Fire drill. Guess I'll bring my purse. Should I bring my iPod? Might as well, just in case. Man, these stairs are steep. Eek, it's awkward to make small talk with coworkers you don't know. "Oh, glad to hear you had a fun vacation." I have nothing else to say to you. But I think you're nice!

Luckily, it's gorgeous outside. This made me happy when I had to walk across the Mall to Natural History to deposit a check. The PETA people didn't bother me this time. They're always out there during the day, passing out flyers and talking to people. I never want a flyer, but until today they always chased me down to give me one despite my studious avoidance of eye contact with them. Today they left me alone. I rewarded them by pretending to read their posters. Once you've lived in this city for even a week you get so sick of people trying to hand you flyers and talk to you when you're on your way somewhere that you just stop looking strangers in the eye. They might want something!

I would like to iterate, and possibly reiterate, that the fire drill really messed with my morning. My cubicle can be such a cave when I want it to be and I was prepared to curl up in it all day today, only surfacing to eat lunch and maybe grab a cup of coffee from the break room. My hopes were dashed when that irritating siren shattered my reverie.

On my way back from Natch Hist (yup, that just happened), I saw a group of four eight-to-ten year-old boys skipping down the Mall. Literally. Skipping. That was pure awesome. Who just skips anymore? And there were no girls around to initiate this type of foot transport. Just the boys, skipping along. I wanted to join, but then I'd be that weird DC girl, so I didn't. But I smiled and stared...almost as creepy as joining in.

It is the most beautiful morning ever. The sun is shining, a few clouds provide some shade from the heat, the tourist level is way down since school's starting and people are on their final summer vacations of the year. It's great. Of course, then I remember that tonight I'm starting my camping trip. Camping Trip. CAMPING. trip. I have no more words.

The Real World: Mento Perspective

I live. I am alive. He told me his life story and my heart beats and my lungs expand and deflate and I have most certainly not been slain by boredom. I refer to my mentor, of course. My Mento, according to Joey Tribiani. Sensei, as some suggest I call him. In truth, he didn't tell me his entire life story. He gave me the "short version" of his life as a working professional. Post-undergrad life as he experienced it. Fitting since that's exactly what I'm dealing with right now. A young professional, not too far out of college, really not far out of grad school and wondering what on God's green earth I'm supposed to be doing around here.

I've pretty much accepted that I know nothing. You know, about life. But somehow I keep learning things as the days go by. I learn about life as an adult, I learn about life in the city, I learn about life on my own, and I discover this vast chasm of the Everything that I still have to learn. At the end of our chat Sensei said in his soft-spoken tone, "I don't know if you learned anything from that." I laughed. I laughed because he was so far off base. I learned. And you know what? I went in to that meeting thinking that I still had no direction for the next two weeks, much less the next six months. Every time he's asked me what I want to focus on for the next meeting I've always stuttered and stumbled over my thoughts as I've attempted to verbalize them...because I never have a clue. I don't even know what I want to learn. Sheesh! But he spoke and I listened. I supplied no conversation because I was listening as he described his journey from there to here. I didn't have to say a word and he spoke right to me. Zing! There were so many nuggets of wisdom in his story that I wish I'd brought a digital voice recorder so I could play those phrases over and over again to myself when I forget...

Don't be afraid to stay where you are. Going from job to job every couple of years is okay as long as you know when to stop, and where to stop. Just because your job satisfaction isn't at its peak right now doesn't mean you have to go somewhere else - it might mean that you need to ask for opportunities here. The opportunities are there, you just have to probe for them. It's always a conflict (for people like us) when there's a fork in the road. Which prong to travel? Where will the one you don't take lead? What if? You shouldn't forget that there's no such thing as a "V" only decision-fork. You know what I mean? It's more like a tree with ridiculous amounts of branches and twigs. In foregoing plant analogies it's more like this: you can always turn around or find another route to get where you want to go next. Just because you take one path doesn't mean you're stuck there forever. It's okay to backtrack when appropriate, and it's okay to change your mind.

Funny, because much of my Sensei's story sounds like my own. Granted, he's had over 30 years of experience and I've had over 4, but there are similarities. We crave change but have an incurable fear of it at the same time. There's a constant internal conflict because we want some new adventure but don't like the thought of actually having to do it. And we're not the only ones. I think many people my age feel that way - us 20-somethings. How many of us really know what we want and stick to it through thick and thin? The lucky few, that's who. Our generation is characterized by changer-uppers. We switch jobs, we change careers, we move cities, we get bored. We're less likely than our parents, and especially grandparents, to be satisfied with doing the same thing for a long period of time. Great - does that mean I'll never be content enough to stick with a job for longer than two years? I don't think so. Especially now that my Mento told me that in his first ten years of work he had six different jobs, but in his last twenty-two years of work he's only held two different positions - both at the Smithsonian and the last one he's held for twenty years. See??? There's hope!

The most important thing, he told me, is to find opportunities to learn and grow where you are. Seek all that out instead of making a rash decision about your future. If you want to change jobs or cities or whatever, do it. But make sure you've taken advantage of everything you can while you're working where you are. In the right environment you can make your job what you want it to be. He did.

So those are the nuggets. The bits o' wisdom. Even after that I was all "uh, um....yeah....fluhhhh" and abandoned all eloquence when trying to articulate my thoughts. Even though I was thinking, I GET IT! THAT'S SO ME! I can't even brilliantly express myself now when I have the opportunity to edit myself. But those are some important nuggets to consider. First off, I don't need to apologize for where I am now. I don't have to know what I want in 5 or 10 years, I don't have to know where I'm going. I don't have to be ashamed of being part of the transient generation in the most transient-ridden city of them all. Second, I have to seek out opportunities. I don't have to think big, but I do have to think. I can be 26 and searching and happy and excited and maybe a wee bit fearful about all the opportunities I have yet to discover.

Heavy stuff, right? I know! I'm all brain-astounded after that talk. I didn't even talk. I just soaked it in like a natural sponge. I was all, whoa dude that ish is deep. I wanted to say that aloud but thought it might be rude to interrupt sounding like a surfer on drugs. Even when not interrupting, it's probably inappropriate to sound like a high surfer in a professional setting. Eh? So now that I've had my mind blown I have to do something with this information....next week sometime. No I kid, I kid! I'm not that much of a slacker (always). I already signed up for a free workshop on grant writing and I've talked to my boss about ways to improve my job. Now you stop it! Don't go planning my 20th Smithsonian anniversary party. I know you want time to make it the best surprise party of life and yes, I would love to have elephant rides available to all and maybe a slip 'n' slide, but simmer down! I'm taking what my mentor said into consideration. I'm re-evaluating my ever changing life plan, and I'm doing what I want. Within reason. Prayerfully considering it all, I assure you. Right now I'm taking steps to make myself as well prepared as I can for the next step, whatever that may be. Whenever that may be. That's all I can do now anyway. And have fun in the process, of course.

BOOYAH!