Thoughts upon a move

I have amazing friends. Last night, JoyAnna and I (and her mom) went to get some cabinets for in the dining room. The kitchen has pretty much zero counter space so we needed to nip that problem in the bud. Anyways, we were driving back into the District at 10 last night and realized that we needed help getting the heavy cabinets off the truck and into the house. So, I called two of my friends in the neighborhood and in 10 minutes there were three guys there to help us, one girl to offer moral support and an adorable doggy to take it all in. How awesome is that! Seriously... when I talk about living in community and having a family of friends I never expected, THIS is what I mean! Thank you guys so much! (And, um, feel free to drop over tomorrow morning for more fun!)

Things I will miss about my current apartment:
the HUGE windows -- I was soaking up the sunlight as I woke up this morning, knowing it was one of the last times I'd get to do that for a while.
the view -- I won't be able to see the top of the capitol dome from my basement cave nor will I be able to watch the fireworks from my bed!
living in an apt. building -- I know this is weird, but I feel more secure living in an apt. building. I like having lots of doors between me and the outside world.
my big pretty room -- It's so comforting and brown and wonderful.
the walk home -- I love our neighborhood and there is something wonderful about walking through it to get home each day. Plus, there's always the chance that I'll run into someone I know which is a super bonus.
my super-huge wonderful closet!
the crazy-cheap rent!

Things I will NOT miss about my current apartment:
bugs!
water damage! -- Seriously, I have this fear that I'm going to come home some day and all of my stuff is going to be submerged in ceiling pieces and water
inept building management
dragging the trash the whole way out to the back
the phantom that puts a sticky residue on all of our kitchen stuff --ok, I don't understand this one, but we get a weird, well, sticky residue, on anything that sits out in the kitchen. Very weird. Is it the gas?
crazy temperature changes beyond our control
psycho laundry room -- in the last month alone, we've dealt with broken machines, broken card system, a laundry caper, and an all-day full-house

Short thoughts

• Yesterday, it dawned on me that I hadn't been off the Hill in 7 days. For those of you not in DC, the Hill would be my neighborhood, Capitol Hill. It's amazing how happy I am here in my little neighborhood.... and how much of my life is within a 15-block radius of my house. However, 7 days is a little excessive. Chris (unknowingly) came to the rescue and dragged me to another quadrant last night. Ahh, the joy of the late-night coffee (or chai and tea as the case may be)!
• It is SO freaking cold in my office. My Diet Coke stays cold all day long... it thinks it's in a refrigerator. No, but seriously. I'm shivering. Is it not possible to turn the temperature up a few degrees? Seriously. It would even save some energy and money!
• I'm seriously missing some of my long-distance friends this week. Amy, Jeni, Jess, Jaime, Jan, Lisa, Gail --- I really miss you guys and hope to see you soon!

Closure

(Warning: Some of you will have no idea what this post is talking about and others will know exactly.)

The worst of all the catch-words: closure.

I resisted for seven years. More than seven years, actually. But, I had to do it. I had to take physical steps to move toward emotional wholeness in this area of my life. For seven years, I've carted around a box, marked with his initials, filled with the souvenirs of our relationship. Once I tried to burn the contents to no avail. But, tonight, I emptied it. I threw out the letters, the printed emails, the rose he brought me when we first met and the pictures. Well, most of the pictures. There's one still sitting on my desk. I'll throw it out before I go to bed tonight. I just needed a few minutes.

I just threw all the letters out. I didn't read them. It was SO tempting, but I didn't. He is (was?) a hugely important person in my life-story, but that chapter ended (several times!!) and so it's time to truly move on. Now that we've been out of communication for several months, I figured it was time. So, tonight, through some real, authentic tears, I got rid of every piece of him I was holding onto.

Sometimes, I wonder.... But, I can't. I have to just move on. And, claim closure.
(Also, to be clear- I have a great relationship with Chris and love him to death - this is a separate issue entirely.)

The Laundry Caper

So, earlier today, I posted about my laundry being snatched from my laundry room. Well, I thought I should update the situation. After a day of getting un-mad at the person that stole my laundry and figuring out exactly which items needed to be replaced this weekend and how I could purchase them the fastest, I got a surprise! I decided to stop by the laundry room on my way back in the building tonight and lo and behold, my laundry was all there in a big pile. I don't know what happened, but it was returned to me!
Yay! I don't have to buy new shirts and undies!!! yippee!!

Today's score

Getting up late: -1
Realizing someone stole 75% of my summer wardrobe from the laundry room: -10
Securing a roommate for the summer: +3
Not being able to reach Chris to vent about stolen laundry: -.5

10am subtotal: -8.5

Mornings

I once had a conversation with a girl whose identity I no longer remember, but I use her line all the time: "There are some things in life that I really wish I liked and have even tried to like, but I just don't." Here are some things I really wish I liked:
beer
running
being alone for long periods of time
mornings

Which brings me to today. Nope, I'm still not a morning person. Every time I have a reason to get up early in the morning, I secretly hope that it will be the catalyst sending me into a lifetime of loving mornings. There are very, very many reasons why I wish I loved mornings. If I liked mornings, I could:
work out in the morning
read the Bible in the morning
not look like a hobo when I get to work
always have time to make my bed
see the sunrise sometimes
consider teaching school as an actual occupational option
understand Chris' love for mornings
generally accomplish SO much more

But, alas, I do NOT love mornings. In fact, I had to be at work at 7:30 this morning and it wasn't until about now (9am) that I'm starting to feel coherent.

Well, back to work... until 4.... when I will leave and go to another job until God knows when. And, then it will pretty much be tomorrow.

Update: Rejection

So far the 2008 employment rejections have looked as such:

Silence: 2
Went with someone more junior: 2
You’re a really strong candidate, but…: 1

I’ll keep you updated as the plot thickens

Coming Soon!

Bike sharing! You thought I was excited about Zipcar?! Now, there's bike sharing. I never got a bike b/c it's a pain to store and I didn't know if I'd use it, yada yada. But, now there's going to be a bike sharing program. I'm pretty excited about this. It costs about $40/year and you can rent and return them at any of the stations in the city.
The only apparent flaw to date - all of the currently planned stations are in NW. Boo. I'm soon we can lobby to get one on the Hill soon.
Imagine the options:
Ride to the movie theater and then just leave the bike so you can go somewhere else afterward.
Ride to work, but then choose to metro home.
Ride to your kickball game on the mall. Park the bike. Get another one and ride to a friend's party. Park the bike. Jump on a bus to get home.
Oh the glory.

Today's goals

• Be productive at work. (starting immediately after I finish this post)
• Shake this incredible allergy attack. Seriously, this is one of the worst mornings I've had in a while. I feel like my throat is going to cinch up and choke me.
• Try not to flirt too much with the super-cute IT boy.
• Find out if I can attend classes at the office gym this week since it's "come on by even if you're not a member and you can work out for free" week.

We know they're most likely not from Antarctica

On the back of my package of adorable little gummy bears:

Product of U.S.A. or Mexico or Brazil or Czech Republic or China or Indonesia

Really? You can put the nutritional information on the back and convince me that it’s accurate, but you can’t narrow down the source of my snack to even 1 or 2 continents?

On the resume wagon

Well, I did it. I had been feeling guilty because I hadn't been sending out very many resumes in the last week or so. I resolved to change that tonight and just sent out 5! Add to that the one I sent yesterday to a friend for a recommendation and we're up to 6 in 24 hours!
Whoo-hoo!!

In other news, cross your fingers, send a prayer, cast a spell or whatever it is you do for us. We've applied for a house here on the hill and we need to both get approved for that house and for the management company here to let us out of our lease at the end of May.

I found the house on Craigslist on Saturday night. I wasn't even planning to look that night, but I did for some reason and I think it may have been a devine appointment. Sometimes God puts you in the right place at the right time with the right people. (2 points go to everyone who knows who I stole that from) Anyways, the house is great. I would have a semi-private space, which would make me mucho-happio, JoyAnna gets a house instead of an apartment and it's 4-5 blocks closer to the metro! yipppeee!

A lesson learned

But, first, the backstory:
Last week, on one of my first days at this temp job, I went down to the cafeteria on the bottom floor of the building. I successfully wound my way around the seeming labyrinth of hallways and promptly ended up at the cafeteria. I wasn’t so lucky on my way back. I jumped on the elevator, but when I got off, I realized that I had gotten on a different elevator than I had the first time so I swallowed my pride and rode back down to the ground floor, crossed the building through the lobby and found my way back to my office. Oh well, lesson learned and only a little bit of scraped up ego.
Until today…
Today, I realized that the “wrong” elevator that I got off last week actually comes out just steps from my office, which is even closer than the “right” one that I take every day. I guess I thought this building was bigger than it actually is. So much for my intuition.