Summer 2.0

Um, excuse me. Where has the summer gone? Seriously! It was almost here one second and the next, it's July 24th. Yes, one day after I turned 27.5, y'all! No kidding, I celebrated my half birthday. Roomie W was trying to tell me that I made it up and that my celebration was fake. Really?! REALLY??!! Um, 6 months is an actual amount of time. I was born 6 months and 1 day ago. That's a fact. July 23rd is an actual day on the calendar. I told him to have fun the next time he hits the 6 month mark with a girlfriend and she wants to celebrate. "Um, no thanks, babe, you're just making that up. It's not a thing." Aaaaaaaaand break up. So maybe I got on my soap box a little about it. Maybe. But hey!...just because others don't choose to celebrate their half birthdays doesn't mean they don't occur. I had at least three people wish me "Ha Bir". And yeah, it felt good to hear it. And no, they would not have done this if I hadn't made a big deal of my half birthday, but I like celebrating my increasing age (to many of my peers' astonishment) and if I want it to be a big deal, I'll make it a big deal. SOAP BOX!

Oh, but I was going to mention how I celebrated the day. Before I went off on that other tangent, that is. I had a hot dog lunch. I shall digress again. I usually bring my lunch to work. Keeps the calories down, for whatever that's worth, and keeps my money in my wallet longer. However, when I want to treat myself, I sometimes declare it Hot Dog Day. I usually can rope one or two of the Lunch Bunch (the super cool kids I eat lunch with at work) into taking Hot Dog Day with me. I/we walk across Independence Ave. and head to the second hot dog stand on the left of the plaza. The first hot dog stand could be perfectly good, but I don't patronize it. Hot Dog Lady at stand #2 is a delight. So yeah, I usually get the two hot dog special which includes small chips and a can of pop. SCORE! It's delicious. Anyway, that's what Hot Dog Day is and it occurs randomly and often without much warning and it can make a day that is otherwise rubbish. Granted, yesterday wasn't rubbish cause it was my HALF BIRTHDAY but those hot dogs sure kicked everything up a notch.

Now, my roommates had been teasing me for getting excited about my half birthday for a couple weeks. Naturally, I didn't think anyone was going to acknowledge the day unprompted. I mean, why would they? I just like to use the day as an excuse to treat myself to things and make people wish me "ha bir" but Roomie B really went above and beyond. Drum roll please...
I came home to a happy (half) birthday card AND my first Spanish-English Dictionary! Um, AWESOME! Isn't she the bees' knees? I mean really.

Alright, so now that I've spent approximately half my life discussing my half birthday, I'll move on to the rest of Summer 2.0, and this Spanish-English thing has something to do with it. For a while now I've really wanted to learn Spanish. I took French in high school and loved it. Forgot it all by now, of course. But I would like to be bilingual and I think Spanish is the way to go. Not only because the Spanish team won the World Cup and oh boy is that goalie Casillas H-O-T, and not only because I want to watch soccer and yell at the TV in Spanish, but also because I think Spanish is cool. Um, probably the first two reasons are better. Anyway, four of us lovely ladies are banding together to get group tutoring sessions through some language thingy. We're going to be ablar espagnoling in like two hot seconds.

In other news, this summer was defined for me by two important things: 1) Roomie K's imminent departure to Seattle and 2) the World Cup. I am all about that World Cup. I love me some futbol, and I grieved when July 12th came along and had no more intense competition to drool over every day. Remember that U.S.A. vs. Algeria game? I was watching that at a bar near my work. I asked my boss if I could come in early that day and then take a super early lunch so that I could watch our national team school those Algerians. Let me tell you in all seriousness, nothing can compare to the feeling of watching a game like that with a hundred other proud Americans. That place was packed, everyone in his/her work clothes, drinking business juice and screaming their heads off for our boys. When we scored that goal in stoppage time, the entire place erupted. I'm sure you've seen clips on Youtube, but it was incredible. I almost cried. I even peed in my pants a little cause I was jumping up and down and hugging my coworker and screaming so loud. That might be too much information, but I'm just letting you know how big a deal it was. I was hoarse the rest of the day because I'd spent so much of my vocal allotment on yelling at players and refs.

Four years ago I was taping almost every game and playing soccer with my brother in our living room and our yard. I wanted the Italians to win and they did, the divers. This year I had no way to tape the games so I listened to/watched almost everyone on espn3.com at my desk. Usually I'm listening to music while I enter gifts. For one whole month I was listening to Irish commentators and trying not to yelp when something good/bad happened to the team I was rooting for at the time. My world was World Cup and now what? I have half a summer left.

Just kidding. Things aren't as dreary as all that. I have lots left in the summer that are even cooler than sneakily watching/listening to World Cup games at work. Um, don't worry people. Everyone was dong it. Seriously. And no one cared. Oh, and everyone I work with knew I was doing it too. Did I mention that they, in turn, were also doing it? Just saying.

I also should expand on the first item that has defined my summer - Roomie K's imminent departure. She's moving to Seattle to be with her future hubster and we remaining roommates are charged with the task of attempting to find someone cool enough to live in her room after she leaves. I don't even have the energy to get into what that whole process has been like. UGH. But I will in the future, never fear. There are laughs to be had about that one and I want to make sure you have them. So stay tuned.

Um, in 8 days I fly to TRINIDAD!!!! That's right. Family reunioning (it's a word now, fool!) with not only the Ryan side of the family, but My Auntie K and Uncle K as well (from the Davis side). Weeeee! The rest of the summer is going to kick the first half of the summer's tushy.

I cut my hair today. It's really short.

Okay, I have things to do now, like watch more of The Mentalist and wish Simon Baker wanted to date me. You'll be hearing from me again, and soon. And if it's not soon, that's because I'm in Trinidad and I'm having too much fun to care about anything else in the world. But I'll let you know how that goes. Oh yes I will. I might even let you know about how other things went/go, too, like finding a new roommate and what I did for July 4th (like that's even relevant anymore) and what's on my Fall Bucket List and how I've done on my Summer Bucket List. We'll see!

Luhyaokaybuhbyethen.

Hot Suey

Dagnabit it's hot around here. Whew! Spring is here...except summer's really trying to barge its way in before Spring's even had one spin around the dance floor. Nosy season.

Nonetheless, I am LOVING this weather change. I've been in the best mood for about three weeks now and it's all because of the weather. Lies, all lies. It's not all because of the weather. I've also entertained three out-of-town visitors, started grilling out again, and checked a few things off my "Bucket List." Okay, okay...I realize that my brother takes great issue with this term. He thinks it's too morbid. If anyone has a suggestion for what I can call my Two-months-goals list then please, by all means, give me a shout. Until then, I'll be (semi) satisfied to just call it "The List."

Here's what I've checked off The List for the past couple weeks - cooking (check), exercising (mostly check), being social (checkity check-check-a-roony) and, ummmmmmmm don't know what else. If you'll recall, these are all things I thought I'd have trouble doing during these two months of solitude-ish. Turns out my fears were unfounded. I've had one of the busiest springs I can remem--nope, scratch that. Two springs ago when I was writing my thesis - THAT was a crazy busy spring. But since that time I haven't had such a busy spring. Until now. Whatever.

My church is in the process of moving into a new facility, so I've spent a couple nights this week painting and moving furniture and organizing toys and getting the place ready for our first services there this Sunday. I'll be back there this weekend, too, making sure everything's in order. We won't be meeting in the movie theater anymore. I'm a little sad about that, even though I did see a mouse in the theater that one Sunday. Gross. Anyway, this week has been a good one for working alongside my fellow church members and getting to know them better. Nice people. Let's hope everything gets done by Sunday morning. Yipes.

Granted, I haven't been to the gym as much as I told myself I was going to be, but I've supplemented those exercise times by continuing to walk to and from the metro at a sluggish pace and sometimes jogging around the neighborhood before coming home to eat peanut M&Ms on the porch. Oh, and one time I went to play tennis but then all the courts were full so my friend and I just walked a few feet apart from each other, stood in place and tossed a Frisbee for a while. Vigorous, no? Tell that to the mirror who practically broke in horror when I went swim suit shopping yesterday. Just kidding, the mirror said something like, "Don't worry, deary, you still have plenty of time to get svelte. Eat that chocolate bar when you get home and reward yourself for it being Wednesday."

As far as the social stuff goes, that's just plain easy during the warmer months. Now everyone's out on their porches and in their yards and it's no trouble at all to say, "Hey neighbor, come on over here and hang out on my porch!" It's happened. It does help that I've had a few visitors come through over the past three weeks. One of them, a good friend from college, is going to be moving to these parts in the next couple months, so I consider that a real social victory for myself. Oh, and congratulations on the new job, Julie.

That's me in a nutshell. I'm having a ball and keeping it real, per youjjjj. (That's an abbreviation of "usual", for the layman.)

OH! I forgot one thing! On Easter after church I drove into the city to have brunch with Roomie B and her parents. Success! I found the place,( The Jefferson hotel), found parking, and did it all without breaking a sweat. This is a milestone, people! I generally hate driving in the city because it's scary and people honk at me when I'm doing nothing wrong and everyone's angry and there are so many cars and AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Buuuuut, this time I felt quite confident and I generally knew where I was at all times. So I'm getting more comfortable with this place. Score.

The Real World: Summer

Remember those days when you'd count down till the end of school, anticipating the awesomeness that was summer vacation? Eventually, of course, you'd start counting down the days until school recommenced, but between those two countdowns was the most blissful time of year. Maybe you had a summer job, maybe you went to camp, maybe you were at the pool every day...whatever it was, it was summer break. Summer meant no homework (summer reading lists not included), no tests, no papers and no waking up at the crack of dawn to get ready and catch the bus. Ah, perfection.

For some reason I really dreaded falling into the "real world" because I knew that my summers of greatness would be over. In fact, every summer in college I would have the "summer countdown" - not the days till school started but rather the number of summers I would have left before I lost my freedom to a cubicle. Well, I lucked out and went to grad school...more summers! Well, only one more summer, but I made it a good one knowing full well that it was really and truly the last free summer of my life. At that time I anticipated the decline of any summer-anticipation as I progressed through adulthood. I thought I would cease to be excited by the prospect because I'd know I still had to go to work every day. Surely summers won't be the same, I reasoned, because I'll still have the same obligations I did during the rest of the year.

WRONG! I still love summer! Straight up love it. Sure, I have to go to work everyday. That doesn't change. But the season still gives me a sense of excitement. Pools open, summer concert series happen, vacations (sometimes) happen, outdoor movies are playing everywhere. Of course, now that I'm pushing my late 20s, I'm invited to more and more weddings every summer. And even now I'm feeling a bit of nostalgia for the summer that's not yet over. I mean, since my schedule doesn't change much for the season, I can make summer last as long as it technically does, till late September. But I don't. Because now kids are back in school and all the summer series are wrapping up and Barron left town and Labor Day is fast approaching. FAST approaching.

So who knew? Not I. I'm pleasantly surprised that I have yet to lose my childlike anticipation of summer and my childlike sadness when it ends. We'll see how long that lasts.

Update Portion:

So here's how I wrapped up my summer. I've enjoyed some roommate bonding by going to a Dave Matthews Band concert. Though "mainstream," as one blogger described it, attending a DMB concert has been on my list of things to do since college. It seems to be a concert-going right of passage, at least in my opinion. Dave did not disappoint. The band played "Crash" and that's all I needed to hear to have a good time. Last week I went to sunny San Francisco with two of my roomies. That was my first time on the West coast and boy did I love it! The weather was perfect: sunny, breezy, just chilly enough that sometime I needed a light jacket, with temps ranging from the 70s to 80s during the day. Ahhhhhh. I saw Golden Gate Park, Pier 39, Queen Wilhelmina Garden, the Palace of Fine Arts, the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption, Chinatown, Alcatraz (from a distance), and I walked across the Golden Gate Bridge twice. I have yet to mention all the famous streets I saw, bookstores I patronized, coffee shops in which I reclined, and restaurants at which I overate. 'Twas a delight.

~below is the Conservatory of Flowers
~below is a view of the roof of St. Mary's Cathedral

So now that I'm back I really feel like summer's over. I plan to go camping over Labor Day Weekend. (I know, soooo not my style.) Then that's it. It's done, finished, fini. Then work will really start to pick up and I'll be planning my fall agenda. Wow. Time flies when you're...getting old.

Oh Brother!

It's June. Someone pinch me, because I seriously doubt May could have passed quickly enough for it to be the 7th of June already. Ridiculous! It's strange how May did run away with itself when there were more days in it than in April. Okay, only one more day, but sometimes that seems to make all the difference. Anyway, I spent the first half of last month looking forward to the last half of last month and it did not disappoint.

My brother arrived at Dulles International Airport at 2:20 on a Wednesday afternoon. To be precise, it was the Wednesday before the lovely Memorial Day Weekend. I kept track of his flight's progress online and called him the moment I knew he landed. Since I didn't pick him up from the airport, I was forced to wait until I came home from work to hug his neck. It was a glorious reunion. I walked into my room and...there was his stuff, ALL over it. It's okay, I didn't mind. We greeted each other and then got ready to head down to Old Town Alexandria for a little Thai food with my small group from church. Sure we were half an hour late, but we rode the trolley down the famous King Street and enjoyed a nice meal with my friends and a lovely view of the Potomac right behind us. It was fun for Barron to meet some of my church friends. Okay, it was fun for ME to see Barron meeting some of my church friends. I don't suppose it's polite to put words in the poor boy's mouth. Anyway, that concluded our first day of togetherness and life didn't get any less busy from there.

Thursday night we went our separate ways because I was given the opportunity to see Puccini's Turandot at the Kennedy Center Opera House with a friend from work. Joanne and I left work and journeyed via metro to the Foggy Bottom metro stop. From there we forewent the free shuttle ride to the Kennedy Center and decided to stroll there on our own two feet. It was a lovely spring eve. After eating at the tasty but definitely overpriced Kennedy Center Cafe, we made our way into the theater for the start of the show. I knew nothing about the opera except that the most famous aria from it, "Nessun Dorma", was currently on my iPod. I read all about the story in the playbill. This was good foresight on my part, if I do say so myself, because our seats were under the first balcony which obscured our view of the translation above the stage. So I never really knew what the people were saying. If I leaned to my left and ducked a bit I could see the bottom left of the screen. Words like "heart", "torment" and "my" kept showing up but in what context, I don't know. After Joanne shushed the young couple behind us attempting to explain the plot to each other in loud whispers, I enjoyed the opera very much. The sets were amazing, the music was superb and the lady who played Turandot was only slightly annoying. I mean, if I could have seen the sound waves made by her vibrato I would probably see about 50 feet between each peak. It was bad. Eh well, that's opera for you.

Friday night Barron and I accompanied Joanne and my roommate Bekah to Havana Village in the Adams Morgan neighborhood. It was time for a little salsa dancing. We took the beginner's group lesson at 7:30 before the free dancing started at 9:30. I would just like to formally thank Barron for being the only male student who knew how to salsa. There were three girls (me, Joanne and Bekah), and three boys (Barron and two guys who did NOT know what they were doing.) Since the instructor made us switch partners every couple dances we all got to dance with Barron. and ONE! Ahem, anyhoo...we learned a few of the basic steps and were released to dance with whomever we wanted. The lights dimmed, the room filled and the beats of salsa and merengue pulsed out of the loud speakers. It was so much fun! Rarely have I danced in a group of people where men outnumbered women. This was one of those times - as soon as my friends or I sat down there were one or two guys standing in front of us, asking us to dance. Though I had a good knowledge of the basic steps I spent the time trying all these new complicated things the guys seemed to make up on the spot. I spun around, dipping and ducking, but smiling all the while. No one spun me as much as Barron did, though. He kept trying out all these new spin moves on me. It's kinda fun to be a dancing guinea pig. I kept dancing with guys who spoke Spanish to me and seemed surprised when I didn't understand them. I finally figured out why. "You're not Puerto Rican," a young fellow named Hector asked me. "Um, no, I'm American," I replied. "Oh, I thought you were Puerto Rican. You look Puerto Rican," he said. Fair enough.

We've now reached Saturday night of Memorial Day Weekend. Busy, right? I'm telling you, I need a break for the rest of the summer to recover from doing so many things in such a short amount of time. I was thinking, "Oh, it'll be nice to lie around and watch TV on DVD all weekend long." Nope, no such luck. Anyway, Saturday Barron and I went with my roommate Kristen (far right in above pictures) and her mom to Sonic. What's the big deal, you might be thinking. Well, I'll tell you. I love Sonic. Love. It. And until that day I hadn't been to one in over a year on account of the closest Sonic to my house is in Fredericksburg, VA. That, my friends, is over an hour away! An hour! So that Saturday seemed the perfect day for a Sonic road trip. For lunch I had a chicken club toaster, onion rings and a Route 44 cherry limeade. It was perfection. Barron and I took a nap on the drive back and arrived in Arlington refreshed and ready for a night o' fun. We grilled out with Kristen and Cory (also pictured above) before we headed to Dupont Circle for a little live jazz. An ORU alumnus sings regularly at the 18th Street Lounge in Dupont Circle, so I took the gang with me to hear her and have her meet Barron. It was fun. We heard some good music and enjoyed some lounging. Barron and I even did a little more salsa-ing on the dance floor. By the end of the night, we were beat and ready for a day of rest. But we didn't get it...

Sunday dawned and we had a party for which to prepare. I had bragged about my house so much to my lunch gang at work that they had invited themselves over for a Memorial Day cookout at the famous 925 house. It turned into a house party when I told my roommates about it and, voila, there we were on Sunday morning/afternoon preparing for a house party of 25-30 people. It was a blast. The food was delicious and so was the company. We even brought in a fellow Oklahoman for the night - Barron's friend Allison from OU. She was visiting friends in the city and graced us with her presence. Delightful. Anyway, we wrapped up the party about 12:30am or 1am. I know! We picked up around the house...okay, Kristen and Cory did most of it...okay, all of it...and we were ready for a relaxing Memorial Day.

Monday was relaxing, but we still had plans. In the afternoon we rounded up Allison and headed to Alexandria to watch Star Trek on the silver screen. I'm no trekky, but I did like that movie a lot. I'm a sucker for any summer blockbuster with stunning visuals and occasional cheesy lines, though. Give me Transformers, super heroes and outer space creatures any day...of the summer.

Barron and I spent the rest of the week hanging out, seeing Night At the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian on IMAX, and rewatching episodes of Arrested Development on DVD. It was a rip roaring good time. We did each hang out separately with friends who were in town for visits. I had dinner with a good friend from UK and it was fun to catch up and talk sociology...

...I'm going to digress here for a moment. Ready? Okay. I have been out of school for a full year now. Over a year, actually. I finished my thesis by mid-April and I was completely done with classes by the beginning of May. Since then I have done very little to exercise my mind intellectually. I feel I get a little dumber every day. I still think with a sociological framework, but I seldom express my sociological sentiments because I feel that few would jive with those thoughts, if you will. When reuniting with old grad school chums, however, one has the perfect opportunity to talk all the sociological jargon one wishes, and I did. It was fantastic! I felt my mind getting a little sharper with each conversation point. I suppose I should keep up the sharpening process by reading sociology journals and books and such. Don't bet on it. I like rereading the Harry Potters too much, and I won't apologize for it.

So...the last weekend Barron was in town was fun. Unfortunately, we didn't spend it together really. He went to Wolftrap Friday night with a friend to see Pirates of Penzance while I readied myself for a trip to Jannerstown, PA, with my roomies Kristen and Bridget for our old roomie's bridal shower and bachelorette party. K, B and I left early Saturday morning to celebrate Kate's upcoming nuptuals. Kate, by the way, is the roommate I "replaced" when I moved in to 925. We overlapped by about a month and in that time we became friends and she found out enough about me to ask me to play the violin in her wedding. She's never heard me play, bless her heart, but she trusts that I know what I'm doing. Hmmm, I guess I should practice, huh? Anyway, Kristen, Bridget, Kate and I had a great time at the shower with Kate's friends and family. It's fun to meet people who have so much history with my friends. It's nice to see from whence they've come.

FYI, from left to right is (are?) me, Kate, Bridget and Kristen. I care naught for grammar at this late hour. It's 9:20pm and I'm fading.

Before I fade entirely, however, let me tell you a little bit more about what I've been up to the past month. I've been working, thank God, and I'm still enjoying it. The work is generally steady and the coworkers are generally pleasant. For what more could I ask? My church has been great. I go to service at 9:30am then help out with the pre-K kids at 11:00. I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but let me elaborate a bit. Kids are exhausting. Perhaps you haven't heard. I doubt I set a good example for the kids when I'm on the floor with them, rough housing in church. I'm the safari leader, they're the lions. Naturally, they must eat off my arms and legs so I can only hobble around or lie writhing on the ground, calling pitifully for a doctor. Sometimes they're the wardens and I'm the prisoner. I demand decadent prison food like creme brulee and my wardens provide me with food they don't even know exists. This one kid, Austin, speaks only in gibberish. Now, this gibberish comes in complete sentences and conversations, so I enjoy just going along with it and making up incredible responses to what are probably very ordinary statements. "Shzah blah kee boothrobleeble," he'll state quite emphatically with conversational hand gestures and all. "Oh really," I'll exclaim incredulously, "you just got back from the moon and it DIDN'T taste like cheese?" We can go on for minutes at a time. Besides molding malleable minds at church, I enjoy taking the occasional Pilates and body flow classes at my local gym. In fact, I'm sore right now from the latest body flow class. It's tai chi + yoga + Pilates and it's miraculous. My reading has been bent toward rereading some personal faves, but I plan to branch out soon to those yet unread books my friends have recommended.

Also, you should know that I finally won something. I don't recall being very lucky when it comes to raffles or door prizes or what have you, but I finally won a raffle yesterday. A store in my neighborhood was having a block party to promote its products, and I put my name in the drawing for some gift certificates. I ended up winning a $25 gift certificate to a local sports store. Cool. Whatever. I'm not sporty, but I'll take it. Then I get another call. Something along the lines of - well we have this teenager who also won but she doesn't really want her gift certificate to Farinelli so if you want to switch that'd be great but whatever you want no pressure. I didn't care. I didn't even recognize the Farinelli name. Turns out they're a kitschy little Italian boutique in my neighborhood. Dresses cost upwards of five hundo, you know. So I walk in thinking, "A $25 gift certificate isn't going to get me squat in this store." "Hi," I say to the employee at the counter when I walk in, "I think I won a raffle for a gift certificate here?" "Yes," responds the guy, "you won a pair of free jeans." Cut to me, shocked. "A free pair of jeans?" "Yes," he replies again, "what kind are you looking for?" "I don't even know," I exclaim, "I didn't come in with plans to get any jeans!" He ends up picking out four pairs for me to try on, and I got myself a $159 pair of jeans FOR FREE!!! That's what I call a winning draw. Okay, I don't really call things winning draws, but if I did...you know the rest.

So there. That's the latest, I think. I'm still super excited about this summer. It's flying by already and it's barely begun. I'm going to hang out with my brother, I'm going to read, I'm going to go to the pool (provided I can convince my pooly friends to invite me), I'm going to play for a wedding, I'm going to hang out with my mom in DC, I'm going to celebrate another Independence Day in the city, and I'm even planning a little jaunt to Cali wine country for a mini vacay at the end of the summer. That's right, I shortened California and vacation. Story of my life. Those are the events of the past month. My inner angst will return at some point, no doubt, and I'll wax eloquent about more facets of life as an adult. Right now, though, I'm going to refill my water cup and get into bed. I have a book to read about body snatchers and it's not going to read itself.

Cheers.