A few pictures as proof of state 43

This is my proof that I was in Kansas... that I am holding a Kansas magnet. Because, obviously, this is foolproof.

Me with Maddie and Lizzie (Annie's girls). We had fun getting to know each other for a few days. Yay!

Me and Jeremy! (Apparently, there were no pictures of Annie??? Sorry!!)

Me with the Nelson kids. (Again, no pictures of Lisa!! AAACK!!)

I'm sorry, but is this not the cutest thing ever??

The way the midwest won

I've known for many-a-year that I'm allergic to spring. However, I've most recently been reminded that I am oh-so-allergic to Midwest May. Holy cow! Seriously, I haven't had this serious of a reaction in a long, long time. Perhaps, not even since the horrific outdoor date in Philly a few years ago where I was so full of allergens and sneezing and such that there was absolutely no way that any other human would want to touch me, let alone the hot-former-coworker guy. But, I digress. The point is that I am pretty much unable to go outside here and am quickly acquiring a claritin addiction. Throw a couple of cats into the mix and I am feeling pretty suffer-y. Yuk. Oh well, seeing friends of awesomeness is totally worth it.
Down with pollens!

A Week Away From Reality, Phase 1

So, after all the chaos of getting the new season launched and a new performing arts center opened, I was finally able to slip away for a week prior to my summer classes beginning. So, on Tuesday I flew into Kansas City for a week-long getaway in Kansas (plus airport time in MO). In addition to this being my 43^rd state (yahoo!), I get to spend some long overdue quality time with two of my favorite people. Since Tuesday, I’ve been hanging out with my friend Lisa and her family. We went to both college and grad school together, but haven’t seen each other at all since they moved out to Topeka about 3 years ago. It is so good to reconnect with someone who knows so much of my history and with whom I am completely comfortable just being myself. And, to boot, I get to hang out with kids, which I never get to do. It’s been pretty cool to hang out with Joshua (5), Kayla (3), and Tyler (1) the last few days and realize that they have no idea that I am completely experience-less with kids. They just trust me and love me and want to hang out with me. There’s something so charming about children that just expect you to be a part of their life from the moment they meet you. It’s a crazy-stark contrast to my usual day-to-day life, but it’s really quite refreshing.

Tomorrow, I’m on to Kansas, Phase 2: Jeremy, Annie, and the girls. More reports soon.

Once-in-a-lifetime

Last night, I got all dressed up and headed out for what may have been a truly once-in-a-lifetime experience. Saturday night was the gala dinner and performance (a.k.a. the formal night) of the three-day grand opening weekend at the Hylton Performing Arts Center. George Mason (my employer) is one of the three significant partners in establishing this gorgeous venue in Prince William County. It is located on one of Mason's campuses and the operations side of things rests squarely on GMU's shoulders. As such, I have had a role in preparing for its opening over the last year or so. Though my role is fairly insignificant in the whole scope of things, it was definitely enough to give me a real sense of pride in the whole project.
As I sat in a brand new chair in a beautiful new hall, looking at musicians sitting on a brand new stage, I couldn't help but get excited about the many years of enriching arts experiences that would be had in that hall, or even in that very seat. Someone may be inspired to write a play, pursue playing the piano, take up ballet, or underwrite a season of concerts from that very spot. I had gotten so caught up in the minutia of the work that I had forgotten what a monumental event this really was. Performing Arts Centers don't get opened every day. And, most certainly not in this economic climate! It was an honor to be there among the first to be a part of this event.
I would love to be a part of opening another new venue someday, but I also realize that this may have been a once-in-a lifetime experience for me. I am honored and humbled, thrilled and inspired to be a part of enriching the lives of a community in a new way. This is what inspires me.

Random things from today

• I finally mailed Christmas presents to my family. I gave up on actually having all of the birthday presents to go along with them. So, they get a package of May presents and that's just the way it is. Hey - at least they get them!!
• I love my job. It is crazy and I can't keep up with it, but I really do love it. I am so fortunate to be in a field where my passions also are.
  
• I was amused by a very serious looking envelope I got in the mail today from "Federal Investigative Services Division" that was imprinted with the date and "Have a nice day". Looks like they're trying to do some image management? It just seemed like a very lighthearted thing to print on such a dour federal envelope. It would have been a bit better, I suppose, if it said 'The Feds say, "Have a nice day!"'
• Dinner with Liz tonight! So good to see her again -- she was my first ever frolleague. Someday, we will once again have adjacent doors and get a custom plaque that says "codependent since 2007." Yay for time to actually catch up with friends!
  

Old news

So a few weeks ago, I cut a bunch of my hair off. Here are two before shots and one after. I'm still not sure which I prefer. It's possible that I have a little cutter's remorse. I mean, don't get me wrong. I love, love, love my new hair, but now that I'm looking at the pictures, I kind of miss my pretty long hair, too.

Awesome things from last week

Awesome Thing 1: My Birthday! Ok, so I may be stretching the definition of week a little tiny bit here. However, it was lovely and low-key and involved several of my favorite people, including my mama!! Success, I say!
Awesome Thing 2: Amy came to town!! Yay! She was here to interview for a fellowship, which she got. Congrats, Ames! So... now she gets to come back to town in a little over a week. Whoo-hoo! Lots of Amy doses. Plus, she reminded me that they are supposed to be relocated to Georgia this fall, which means much easier Amy-dose-procurement. Yippity!
Awesome Thing 3: We saw a dog walking down the street beside its owner carrying its own bag from Pawticulars. That was awesome.
Awesome Thing 4: So, I was thinking the dog bag-carrying trick was pretty cool until later that night when I got to meet Sebastian - Colleen and Nathaniel's brand, new shiny baby. Ok, maybe not shiny, but definitely new and a-dor-a-ble! We've all been waiting so long to meet him that it was just so cool to finally see him. Double-yay for new family members!

I'm all out of awesome things for now.

A Day Charged, A Penny Saved

So, I thought my old-school phone had finally bit the dust. I couldn't seem to get it to charge during the day yesterday so I wrote it off and figured I would be without a phone for a few days until I could replace it. However! When I got home I was able to fanangle my charger to start pouring some resuscitating life back into my phone.
In the words of my astute frolleague: "A Day Charge, A Penny Saved"

Lessons Learned from Impoundment

So, apparently, last Thursday night, my car insisted on being parked in front of some guy's driveway. As a result, it got a three-day vacation in a special resort lot, aka DC tow lot. But, I did learn a few things:
1 - When you're parallel parking and think you should have hit the curb, you probably should have.
2 - D.C. suddenly gets all Christian on Easter weekend and closes up their tow lots.
3 - Sometimes menial, even annoying tasks end up being absolutely joyous. Tonight, I was cleaning the proliferation of waxy chalk numbers and letters on my car's windshield when a neighborhood guy walked by and said, "Lucky you have something like that to do tonight." It struck me as odd, but then I started to think about it. There I was, cleaning the windshield, somewhat begrudging the fact that I was out there undoing my marks of shame all by myself without anyone to help me or keep me company. But, this guy was just taking in the beautiful evening, enjoying a conversation with his buddy, and in the process showed me that there was joy to be found in that task. And, with each of the remaining letters and numbers I erased, I tried to soak in the rhythm of the task, the feel of the warm spring night, and the neighborhood sounds... conversations, buses, bikes, dogs. That task could have been a punishment, but instead, it was a rewarding experience in which I felt I was really "living".

Crossing the threshold

So, tonight, I needed help deciding which boots to wear with a new outfit. I just didn't really like either one, but they were the only options I had so I needed a second opinion. However, as you will recall, I live alone. No opinion givers here. So, I emailed my nextdoor neighbor and asked her if she could come over for a fashion consultation. And, she did! Yay! We're getting to be real friends. That's what real friends do -- late night outfit checks. (well, other stuff, too... but we'll get there)
And, in case you care -- knee high chocolate brown boots

Operation Ink Refill: Fail

Printer ink is expensive. Hyla is cheap. (Well, at least when it comes to ink.) I thought I would beat the system, take a friend's advice and refill my ink cartridges for much less than the cost to buy new ones. The refill kit I bought claims to provide enough ink for many refills so at about $20, is quite a steal. Even if it filled 8 cartridges, that's a savings of about $100, probably!
So, tonight, I set out to be industrious, practical, handy, even sleuthy. But alas, my plan was foiled. The package claims to work for over (sic) 750 printers. Apparently, my printer is #751. (Thanks, Chris. The one we swapped this one out with was probably #749, but hey, I'm not bitter.) Anyways, so I got a lot of yellow ink on my hands and in my sink... not so much stayed in the ink cartridge and then none of the plugs fit it anyways so it was a lost cause. Sigh.

Back to Staples I go tomorrow. Defeated and down $20 or so.

I win!

I just finished one of my favorite games of psychological manipulation: Housecleaning against the clock. Here's the way it works. I give myself a set amount of time to clean the apartment. In this case, it was one hour. I make a list of all the cleaning tasks I want to finish in that amount of time. And, then.... GO! I race against the clock to see how much I can get done on my list. Tonight I was very very successful because I was able to finish all of the tasks on my list. In 60 minutes, I was able to:

• gather clothes from around the house and either fold them and put them away or put them in the laundry
• Put away my shoes (sounds simple, but my floor is really just a social gathering place for all of my shoes)
• Clean the bathroom
  
• Gather trash (I would have taken it out, but the alley is a little scary at night.)
• Go through mail and straighten up kitchen counter
• Clean all of the floors in my apartment
• Run dishwasher, put away pots & pans and wash few straggling fragile glasses by hand
• Quick kitchen touch-up (stove, counters)
• Wash a load of towels

Aaahhhh! I LOVE this game. And, I totally win! Now, all I need to get done tomorrow is take the trash outside and wash sheets.
Ok, Gail, you can come visit now. :) Yay!

Two Things for Today

1. I made myself a smoothie today. All by myself. I did it without Chris. This was an important milestone. I know it sounds silly, but I was never as successful with the smoothie making as Chris. So, I decided that making smoothies could be his job. But, today, with a lack of Chris and a need for smoothie, I made it myself. And, it was good.

2. I drove to work today for the first time in 5 years (well, at least in my own car). That was very weird.

Today's mistake

This morning I thought I sent the following text to Dan, one of my best friends from college who got married today:
"I just wanted to tell you I'm thinking about you today. I hope your day is perfect. Sorry I can't be there."

Unfortunately, I sent it to my coworker, Dan by mistake.
Fortunately, I didn't send him the follow up message which said:
"I look forward to spending time with you and your new bride soon!"

Oops!

A perfect dinner

Brussels sprouts, butternut squash, turkey kielbassa and blue cheese on a bed of spinach..... consumed while watching highlights from the olympics including Lindsey Vonn's gold medal ski run. Perfect.
Lonely
but perfect.

Two New Experiences

Two new experiences in the last 24 hours.
1 - I went to an NBA game for the first time last night. I got free tickets from work so Robin and I went to the Wizards/Nuggets game. It was a lot of fun.... including light-up pom-poms and pulled pork nachos. Yummy!
2 - Today, I registered a car and got the tags and the whole nine yards. I don't think I've ever done that before. I don't really know where the tags came from on my last car. My parents must have taken care of it for me or something. Anyways, so, yes... as of today, I am the proud, conflicted owner of a car. I know it will both complicate and simplify my life, but for now, it is a necessary evil. I guess 5 years was all I could take. So long to my proud carless ways and so long to my diminished carbon footprint. Don't worry, Metro! I'll still take you at least two days a week. And, Metrobus - you'll still be my best bud to get around on the weekend. Yes, I've taken a new transportation lover, but my friends ever you will be.

Hyla admits she was wrong

Ok, so it is possible that I was wrong. Last week, I declared somewhere (that I can't seem to locate right now) that "it wasn't like we would be snowed in for a week or something!" Um, let us take stock. The University closed last Friday at noon-thirty and is reopening tomorrow morning for the first time all week. Public transportation, and especially buses, have been all but stopped for most of a week. The only places I've gone this week have centered around provision gathering, snowfun (concentrated in the first few days before that got old) and efforts to prevent going crazy. So, yes, I suppose that every 120 years or so DC gets hit so badly that we really are snowed in for a week.

I am SO looking forward to going to the office tomorrow. Not so much looking forward to the trudging, but at least resuming my life!

Real-time Window Snowcast: Snoverkill

It's that time again! Time for real-time snowcasting from my window. I'll keep you up to date on whether this is a storm worthy of the name Snoverkill or whether it was truly a dissnowpointment (Thanks to Colleen for the editing suggestion.).
Tuesday at 4:22pm - Flurries have begun. It feels a bit surreal to me to see it snowing again with so much snow still on the ground. Also, there is a UPS truck stuck out front. Hopefully, the four people currently working on it will get it out before the new snow starts to accumulate!
10:15pm - Flakes got bigger. Hyla went to cook dinner and watch half of Malcolm X. Flakes disappeared.
Wednesday at 8:00am - Flakes have returned. I can hardly see out the window. Lots of confused looking flakes blowing around out there.
9-ish am - I heard on the radio that there is a blizzard warning in effect. It's hard to tell accumulation since there was lots out there already, but I'd guess about 5-7 inches so far.
1:38pm - According to DCist, my coworkers, a friend from my school cohort, and my screen, it's a blizzard out there. Apparently, there were whiteout conditions earlier and now it's really blowing around while some snow is still falling. Apparently, the feds have already called off for tomorrow. Craziness.
2:20pm - Just heard that the roof collapsed on a Smithsonian storage facility. Fortunately, all the artifacts are safe! Whew - this live blogging thing is consumptive!
3:54pm - Snow seems to be mostly subsided. Only flurries at this points. There are some wicked icicles hanging off my neighbors' roofs, though. Also, a Diet Coke shortage is impending. Why didn't I buy more yesterday!!??
5:30pm - Snow is steadily waning. Hard to tell at this point if it's snowing or just blowing around. And (drum roll please...), it's official! As of 2pm today, this is the snowiest winter on record for DC ever. Well, at least since they started recording in 1884. We've officially received 54.9 inches of snow this winter which breaks the previous record of 54.1 inches. And, remember that back then, they measured up in NW DC where accumulations are usually higher than the current measuring point on the river at National Airport. Even more impressive! (I hate to say this out loud, but there are rumors of more snow on Monday.)

Here We Go Again!

Well, apparently, we're stuck in some kind of crazy pattern where God has his finger stuck on the "Snow" button for DC. For the third time in ten days, we're expecting a snowstorm. Let's restore perspective a bit. The average annual snowfall for DC is 15". Last year, I don't even think we ever got any accumulation. At least, none that I recall. And, our total snowfall this season is at 45" already. And.... drumroll please....
--The National Weather Service has just put out a warning calling for 10-20" tomorrow!
DC is NOT equipped to handle this. I'm on snow day #2.5 tomorrow and I'm betting I won't see my office until Thursday, at least. Also, the name "Snoverkill" has been bandied about. I love it!

But, don't you worry! I'll keep you up to date. Snowcast will not let you down!
More soon ... and who knows, maybe one of these days, I'll post something non-snow related!

Snowcast final report

Well, it's debatable how much we actually got. I think a final estimate of 2 feet is more than reasonable, but there are places in the area that reported 36-40 inches. Definitely not a snowpointment! I already heard that the University is closed tomorrow so no work for me! Ok, in actuality, I'll probably work most of the day because I have my stuff with me and can work from home. But, I can at least sleep in and take it easy!

It was an absolutely gorgeous walk both to and from church last night. Here are a few pictures to give you an idea. The picture quality on some of these isn't great, but I wanted to give you an idea of what a the streets looked like last night ... and these were the "good" streets! More pictures on flickr momentarily.

Above: lumps formerly known as cars

Above: 3rd street NE, taken at the intersection of 3rd & F