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!

Three-day Weekend

Yesterday I stayed in my pajamas all day. All day long I was in my pj's. Yesterday was Saturday, today is Sunday, and tomorrow...is Columbus Day. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Columbus for discovering land that eventually became this country. Without his dedication and hard work, I wouldn't have a holiday from work tomorrow. Boy am I glad for good ol' C.C. and his 1492 greatness.

As you might have guessed based on previous posts, I've had a fairly busy summer and fall. I've spent my time getting adjusted to life in DC/Arlington, and I've been fortunate enough to see some friends and family in the short time I've been here. Well, what with all the social activity I've had (cut to me, tooting my own horn) I needed a nice long weekend of doing nothing. What a delight it was yesterday to stay in bed all day, reading a book and watching movies and episodes of Friends. Oh, and occasionally going downstairs to get a chocolate chip cookie from the kitchen. But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. I'll start with Friday.

My boss made my day on Friday when she told me I could slip out of the office early to start the weekend. I left at 4, much to my delight. I took the metro to Clarendon and realized I had enough time to stop by the post office before it closed. I'd planned to run this errand on Saturday, but since I was already out I figured I'd get it taken care of. I walked to the post office, crossing my fingers and hoping that the certified mail I was picking up was my stimulus check from the IRS. (The first one they sent me got lost in the mail during my move.) I walk up to the window and wait quite patiently as an employee rummaged through the postage bin. I opened the letter she presented me with, a bit surprised to see the return address, "Alexandria, KY, Police Department." According to the APD, I owe $50 for a parking citation I incurred on August 16th when I parked my green Dodge Dakota in a no-parking zone. Hmmmm. I definitely do not, nor have I ever, driven a green Doge Dakota. For my entire driver's life I've had my trusty little black Nissan Sentra. Also, I was not, nor have I ever been, in Alexandria, KY. Ever. I certainly wasn't there on August 16th. I was in DC. In a polite panic, I left a couple messages on various voicemails begging the administration in the police department to call me about this erroneous parking ticket. Bah! I anticipate that these good government people will have Columbus Day off, as I do, so hopefully Tuesday will be the day of reckoning when I take the Alexandria PD to task for its grave mistake.

The rest of Friday was peaceful. I watered the mums, I went through the mail, ate a giant homemade chocolate chip cookie and watched the series premiere of The Starter Wife. Brilliant! So then Saturday came along. I finished "The Sweet Far Thing" and was terribly disappointed by a cheap ending to an otherwise entertaining literary trilogy. I watched "Caramel" and was surprised at the mixture of Lebanese and French the characters spoke. Don't even ask me what I did with the rest of my day. I have no idea. But it was awesome.

Today I had orchestra rehearsal. We rehearsed with the chorus for the first time ever, and our first concert is a week from today. Yipes! It was a good rehearsal, though. Mendelssohn's Lobesgang (or something like that) is a really nice piece, though dreadfully long. My arms are aching by midway through. We had so much to go through today that we only had about a 7 minute break during our 3 hour rehearsal. Now that works out the arms. I came home from orchestra, and did what I normally do on Sunday nights: I got something to eat, talked to my roommates for a little bit and then put my last load of laundry in the dryer. I came upstairs and started preparing for slumber when I realized that I really don't have to do that. I get to sleep in AGAIN! Mwaaaaaahaahhahahahaha! So here I am at 11:30 on a Sunday night, still awake. Shocking, I know.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a beautiful day and I intend to take advantage of it. I might play some horrible tennis, maybe I'll go for a walk. There is this great island called Roosevelt Island (I think) on the Potomac River - it's a great place to go for a nature walk and enjoy the fresh air. Remind me to take you there when you visit. Anyway, there are numerous possibilities and I will explore all the options. Weee!

For those of you who don't have a 3-day weekend...sorry for your loss. For the rest of you, I wish you the best in all your endeavors. Hopefully they'll be as fun as mine. HA!