The good, the great and the ugly

Good: We finally have a functioning stove and oven that fits in the space designed for it.
Great: Colleen and Nathaniel come home in 3 days!!
Great: Our Steelers tickets came today!
Ugly: The Steelers game is not available for viewing in DC.

What next?

So, Pluto isn't a planet now?? A group of nerdy guys can vote in and out planets? really? I feel like this was all done very secrety-secret and then Boom! My very elderly mother just serves us gnarly.................
What about the sun? We still travel around the sun, right? Can I trust anything I learned in school?
I can handle this, but if they tell me I'm adopted, I'll need therapy.

a good souvenir

Today I saw a souvenir that I actually like. A girl on the metro had on a shirt that said "Smithsonian est. 1846 (or whatever the actual year is)". The ultimate geek souvenir! Sweet!

Family time

The last few days have been so good. I've spent time with almost all of my family. I came home to help my mom work on her father's house, but we didn't really do that much. I think I did help her get her mind off of it a little, though, which is even better. On Sunday, I got to see my brother and his family for the first time in about a year and a half. It's so good to spend time with people that just completely and totally accept you! Partly because they have to, but partly because they were raised that way and because they want to. Today, I got to see my grandmother and my aunt. I think my grandma is amazing! She is almost 85 years old and she is just too cool. She looks beautiful, is totally fun and just a beautiful person.
I am leaving tomorrow morning refreshed and recharged. Now that is a vacation! Back to the daily grind.

Llama fun

I was hangin' out with my family in my living room yesterday and I looked out the front window and just started cracking up laughing. I saw a llama roll over! It was quite possibly the funniest thing I've ever seen! It was laying on its back for a brief instant with its legs up in the air. I cracked up! When was the last time you saw a llama roll over? Heck, when was the last time you saw a llama? Let alone from your living room window. Good times.

mongolian shoe barbecue

I needed a break at work so I designed a shoe. Did you hear me? I DESIGNED A SHOE!
Puma has this great thing where you can design your own shoe. It's a little pricey to have them made, but I am SOO tempted. Check it out!

Where's the weekend

Since when do weekends disappear in 4.7 seconds? It seems like it was just Friday and now it's almost Monday again. Crazy. It's been a good weekend, though. I love having an "open door" home. I've always wanted my place to be the place that people know they can just stop by and be welcome. I want it to be the gathering place and a comfortable place. A friend is staying with us for a little while during her apartment hunt. I'm so glad to have space to offer someone. I really wanted a larger apartment so that I could use it to entertain. God hooked me up with the space and I want to use it for good. To give it back, in a way. It's not perfect, but it's nice. Tonight, we threw a little birthday bash for Amy. There were probably 15 people or so in here. It was crowded, but not horribly so.
Anyways, I got an insane amount of stuff done today. I finished painting the bathroom, cleaned up here and there, bought the stuff for the party, decorated, and pulled off a party that was at least mildly amusing.
Well, off to Monday!

Words of wisdom

Today's words of wisdom:
It is not a good idea to mail chocolate in July.

My favorite

Today, my favorite of all God's promises is the promise of winter. I think I'm going to buy a summer home in Siberia.

My rekindled love for soft pretzels and other such things

I forgot how much I love Philly soft pretzels. I'm at a conference in the Philly area and they had soft pretzels. I love them because they are a good sturdy food. I love them because they take a long time to eat. I love them because you expect a really yummy savory, salty food and yet there's a little sweet overtone in there. mmm... I do miss the pretzels.

I also thought about something in a new way today. It dawned on me that I am a living legacy of my mother, well, both my parents really. I know that sounds elementary -- that I would carry my parents' likeness, but it's not something that I'm frequently aware of. However, I was singing tonight and I could hear a little bit of my mother's voice. It kind of spooked me out - in a good way.

Finally, this conference is held at a church. Not just any church. A big, scary, perfectly manicured lawn church that I drove by the first time b/c I thought it was housing of some sort. I affectionately call it the Church of the Holy Moose. They have these clear pulpits in all of the meeting rooms that have a moose emblazoned on them. I figured that was their mascot. The Holy Moose.

Have I mentioned that I love my friends? Have I mentioned that I love people in general? I've had a good blend of alone-time and together time over the last 24 hours or so and it's just been great. And the "together time" has been with people that I haven't spent a lot of time with lately so it was just so good. I love discovering what makes people tick and how they think and approach things. I had several great conversations tonight that I had really been missing...the kind of serious, in-depth conversations that really fuel me, but that I seem to so rarely have anymore. I also love seeing someone's strength and discovering ways to pair it with someone else's strength to make it even better. I love friends and conversation and wine and serious moments and dreaming moments.

It's gonna be a good day

It was up in there air there for a while, but when I walked into CVS and heard Jann Arden singing "Insensitive", I knew it was all gonna be alright!

even for me

Fly to Atlanta to meet a random guy? That may be too crazy even for me.

first night

It's my first night staying in the new apartment. I have lots of thoughts, but I will try to keep this to a reasonable length.
1. I am starting to get tired. I've been pushing myself lately to accomplish a lot. I feel like for a long time I hadn't been working/living nearly up to my potential so I've been trying to be better about that. And, generally, I seem to have more energy than when I was accomplishing less. Amazing how that works. But, now I'm getting a little tired. Hopefully, I'll be ready to go in the morning.
2. I owe God lots of high fives (does God have fingers?) for hooking me up with this place and my roommate. The apartment is really large, totally affordable and in a location I really like. It's a long, complicated story, but basically, I think I got in under the line to get a really great price on this apartment before the new management company hikes up the prices. And, I think living with JoyAnna will be a lot of fun and an all-around good experience. (Except for football season when we may have to yell at each other a lot.)
3. Friends are amazing. I've lived the vast majority of the last decade of my life away from my family which has made me realize even more how valuable my friendships are. (However, I seem to value my family more now, too, since they aren't around.) My friends chipped in and helped me and my roommate move over the last week. They have been so great to me! Some of them don't even really know JoyAnna and yet they were so willing to help. I don't know how we would have done it without them. Thanks a million times over!!
4. Finally, I must add a seemingly random thought. There are a lot of doors in this place. I've spent the last five years of my life living in either a studio apartment or renting a room in a house. What does this have to do with doors, you ask? Well, in each of those places there weren't very many doors and in the studios, the door to my room was also the door to my apartment. As I was looking around tonight, I realized that I will have to shut doors before I go to sleep from now on...and that the door to my room is not the entrance. You would think this would make me feel more secure, but oddly enough, I grew so used to having the entrance in my room that it feels weird to think that someone could come in and out of the apartment without me seeing or hearing them while I'm asleep. Weird.

New apartment update

It is now 11:30pm and the contractor is still working in the apartment. They are serious about getting us in there tomorrow. I've been keeping tabs on the progress of our new place. As of Tuesday night, the apartment needed the following: paint all walls, replace the flooring in the kitchen and bathroom, replace all carpeting, clean or replace kitchen counters, replace stove and refrigerator (no fridge), resurface tub and sink in bathroom. As of 11:36, all walls and trim are painted, carpet is replaced, new tile (beautiful!) is in the kitchen and I heard whistling coming from the bathroom. Sweet! Also, I saw a bathroom cabinet/sink thing sitting in the living room earlier, that I assume will be put in the bathroom since it would be odd to leave it in the living room. I couldn't see the kitchen counters from my vantage point, peering through the cracked-open door, but I know have confidence that it will all be done in time. I can't believe they're working overtime to get this done as promised, but I am so psyched about my new place!! JoyAnna, you're going to be amazed!!

so hot

It's 85 already. I hate the heat. But, alas, it is the 4th of July. What do I expect? What festivities shall I enjoy today? I've tried to keep my options open for spontaneous fun, but hopefully, that doesn't bite me in the but and turn into no plans at all. We'll see. The fireworks here are some of the best around so I will try to go down and take some in. And, there is a bbq that I'm fairly sure will qualify as giant and delicious, later today. I don't know if I can resist Laura's grilled cabbage with bacon. mmmm I'll let you know what I end up doing.
EDIT: It rained and cooled it off enough for me to make my way to a bbq and then to the mall for some fireworks. I must admit that those are some nifty fireworks they put off in this here city. And, now I get to fall asleep to the smell of primer. yummy.

Random thoughts from the trip home

I had so much fun tonight. I don't know why particularly...just hanging out with a random group of people as usual. I laughed so hard. Everything was funny. The timing was "on". Good stuff. But, then, we rode the metro home with bellies full of ice cream and soda. Ok, so only Kurt and I had the bright idea to add carbonation to milkfat, but the point remains. Not a good idea. We were both leaning over, holding onto the escalator rails (gross) coming up out of the metro like drunk people. I have an ice cream hangover. But, it was really good ice cream. So, it was kind of like being hung over from a couple of bottles of Opus 1 wine rather than from Bud Lite.
Then, I caught a bus home and there was a group of deaf people "chatting" on there. And, they were using the f-word a lot. Is that acceptable? It's not socially acceptable to litter an audible conversation with that word so is it ok to do it in sign language? I'd really like to know the etiquette on that.
That's all I've got for tonight.

Sunday drive deluge

I rented a car today to drive up to Lancaster to visit Lisa and her family (which was lovely and I will try to write more about that later) and got to drive through some really "fun" rainstorms. It was raining pretty hard this morning, but the traffic was light and it was daylight so it didn't really hold me up. But, tonight, it was crazy. It was dark, traffic was heavier and the it was raining cats, dogs, ostriches, small horses...really crazy stuff. Anyways, so it took me almost 4 hours to get in the vicinity of National Airport where I had rented the car. Then, once I got near, I couldn't even return the car because the GW Parkway was closed due to flooding. Fortunately, the rental company (Thank you, Budget!) gave me an extra day to return the car...so once I paddled through the puddles and lakes of VA and DC, I didn't even have to walk home. And, really, that's very nice. I would have been so incredibly wet that it really wouldn't have been even mildly amusing.
For the record, driving in a torrential downpour for 4 hours is really stressful. But, now I am home...with less stress and drier than originally anticipated. And, I even found a good parking space. God is good.

New Professionalism and Old Friends

I ended up attending a board meeting for our organization tonight and also ended up presenting what amounted to a marketing report. I, typically, come off sounding a little flighty and appearing that way because I make wild hand gestures and use speech fillers such as "like" too much. But, I held my composure. I kept my hands under the table, spoke in a lower tone of voice and used only complete sentences. I know that seems elementary, but for me, that was a big breakthrough. I truly felt that I held my own around that table of very successful people.
Then, tonight, after a lovely dinner with a friend that I don't see nearly often enough, I got a phone call from someone I haven't talked to in over six years. I went to high school with her and so I called her parents last weekend in an attempt to get her contact information for our ten-year reunion. So, she called me up tonight. We ended up talking for an hour and a half. Our lives are pretty much polar opposites of each other, but we still had a blast chatting. She is one of those super-cool people that always dared to do life her way and I am so thrilled to be reconnected with her. If only she lived closer!! I am having so much fun finding long lost high school people. I can only hope the reunion is half this fun!

nothing

I've got nothing. How is it possible that I haven't blogged since Wednesday and I've got nothing to say? Let's see... what have I done since Wed? I got a new phone. Today was father's day. I met three new people. I went to Target (that was exciting). I went to Eastern Market and was heckled for wearing my Steelers shirt. That's about it. It was a good low-key weekend. I haven't left the hill since Friday night.
Now, if that isn't a blog about nothing, I don't know what is!!