The Problem Never Goes Away.....

I called my brother last night to catch up on his happenings in his first year of college. Obviously the topic turned to dating, and he was quick to point out that all the attractive girls he's met are so stuck so up that he can't stand it, and he wants to kick them in the face (or something close to that). Sometimes I feel that same way about the guys around here.

My brother lamented the fact that he'll go into class, sit down by a girl and try to make conversation. It's his first year, he's trying to be outgoing and meet people. No harm in that, right? Well, since he's at BYU, every girl thinks he wants to marry them so they're quick to close the conversation and proceed to ignore him for the rest of the semester.

Same exact thing here in DC....I attend a huge ward where half the population is in and out every 3 months. Hard to keep up, but I attempt to meet people and make friendly conversation. Well, I did. I think I've given up. I think my roommates have too. You can meet someone, talk for a few minutes, have good conversation, then be totally ignored the next week and in weeks to come. Every guy thinks you wanna marry them, so they can't talk to you anymore, obviously. What happened to normal conversation?! Get over yourself, I'm not looking for a husband.....

Felicidades a la Familia Real de España

Congrats to Felipe and Letizia on the birth of their daughter, Leonor. The government's going to change the Constitution so that she can reign!

Oh, and Happy Halloween, by the way.

My Mom's a Genius!

An electric blanket, she said! Why didn't I think of that before?! It's the solution to my cold winter problems. I got one yesterday (thanks B), and I was toasty all night. I can turn it on before I get into bed and have warm sheets awaiting. Mmm....

The whole concept of electrical wires running through thin cotton kinda freaks me out, but I've been assured that I won't die in a tragic fire. At least I hope not.....

Cold and Miserable

I'll warn you now - this is a complaint post. I'll be back to my chipper self soon though, don't you worry.

My ankle hurts, which means I can't run. My streak will disappear. I have a sinus/head stuffiness thing going on. I have a weird pain in my arm where I had my IV a couple weeks ago. It is raining. It is 43 degrees outside. It feels like 38 degrees. Where did fall go?! Last week I was still wearing flip flops and light sweaters. Today I had to bring out the heavy coat, scarf, and gloves. I'm looking for my hat to wear tomorrow. My house is hard to heat, so it's always cold. I realized that this new commute is outdoors 75% of the time, including waiting for a bus and two outdoor metro stations. It's gonna be a cold one folks, and I'm not excited in the least.

To top it off, I wanna be in bed, curled up with Netflix goodness, but one's not due in the mail til tomorrow.

Just like The OC

I hung out with Death Cab for Cutie on Sunday night. Aren't you jealous? Thanks Heidi!


(Not me, but good pic of Jason and Chris).

Maps and Travels

I love maps. I could look at them all day. If I go with you to a bookstore and we wander off and lose each other, you can almost always find me again in the travel section.

Here's where I've conquered in the US (I'm counting a few airport only stops too):



create your own personalized map of the USA.

I've made such a small dent in the rest of the world that I'll do a Europe only map:


create your personalized map of Europe.

Next stops, Costa Rica, China, Chile, Argentina. So many places to go, so little time (and money)!

Songs of the Moment

I'm hooked on a few, as usual. Ask me again in a week, and I'll have a totally different list:

• Some Trust - The Fray (reminds me that I should get back on the piano soon)
• Reach for Me - Kirsty Hawkshaw - Solasso Remix (hot dance track)
• This Time Around - Helen Stellar (the first good thing in Elizabethtown)
• Don't I Hold You - Wheat (the second and final good thing in Elizabethtown)

Busy Busy

It's been kind of a crazy week. Not at work so much, just personal life getting busy again. I like it that way. It's late, and I need some sleep, but I'll share a few random thoughts.

First up, quote of the day:

No matter how flatlined my libido is Halloween always gets me turned on. --- J

What am I going to be for Halloween? It's so not my holiday - dressing up is always a chore that I leave for the last minute, then I can never find anything fun/cool/different to wear so I do something lame. I'd rather be at home handing out candy to the cute trick or treaters or wondering around Georgetown laughing at the craziness. I have several social engagements that weekend that I should probably make an appearance at, but I don't have a costume so I'll just have to cancel. Sigh.

So yes, the holidays are fast approaching. I need to go home for Christmas this year, since I haven't since 2002. My brother is finally back from El Salvador and will be coming home from his college break, so it'll be a nice family togetherness thing. Plus my mom told me today that she just bought Christmas dishes. No excuses now! However, Crate sent me a lovely card this week saying they'd love to have me back during the busy holidays. I think I'm gonna do it - extra money is nice, plus I know everyone and pretty much everything about the store after 2 years of experience. If Crate will give me Christmas weekend off, I'll do it. I'll make the trek across town on cold Saturday mornings to slave away with crazy, needy customers. Then maybe I can pay for all this travel I have to do, including my best friend's wedding. Another one bites the dust....

I watched a bizarre Czech movie tonight. It was kinda fun to see a few random Czech words that I know pop up in coversation - dobry den/dobrou noc, pivo, dobra voda, pomoc. What a cool language, but quite impossible to learn for leisure. The movie's about a couple that hides a man who escaped from a concentration camp, with a few twists. Not quite what I expected, but rather good. I've always been drawn to movies/books about the Holocaust. I don't know why it fascinates me so much. I think it's because the stories are real. Real people, real circumstances, personal tales. I like knowing what goes on with individual lives.

A Perfect Saturday

Today didn't start out exactly as I planned, but it's turned into a wonderful day. Every weekend should be like this. New goal is to make every Saturday great by getting out. It certainly helped that the sun actually made an appearance - the first time in days. Perfect 76 degrees outside. Who could ask for anything more? I hope to have a couple more days like that before it gets too cold.

N and I took off from home around 11:15 for brunch on U St. On the way we stopped to discover a new coffee shop on 9th (yay for free wireless), which could be a fun place to hang out on weekends. However, Mocha Hut on U is taking the cake right now. Cute place, GREAT food, fun people watching, and more free wirless. It took me about 10 minutes to decide what to order, cause it all looked so good. I finally settled on the Blue Plate special - home fries, eggs, bacon, toast, served with tomatoes and arugala. Yum. N had a fantastic frittata, which I will have to order next time. It was simply divine.

We continued our walk down U, meandering through cute boutiques (amazing shoes, though they cost a good % of my rent) and found a cool vintage store just full of all sorts of random things, including an awesome black vinyl bench, cool barstools and Smurf glasses! Oh childhood.....

Walked down to Dupont, where I discovered a consignment shop that I should've known about a long time ago. Fantastic finds. I tried on a pair of 4-inch black Prada pumps. No way I'd ever be able to walk, so I had to put them back on the shelf. Next stop, tabletop, where I picked up a new bag. I've needed one for awhile, since the one I've had for 789 years is finally falling apart. I also added a 2006 calendar to the mix, for the insatiable traveler. That's me, no doubt.

Finally we walked to Georgetown to meet up with T and K for a bit more shopping. Find of the day - cute pink skirt at Club Monaco. I've only been in that store once before, but I'm glad I stopped in today!

I'm now safely at home, where I can't spend any more $$.....

A crude map of today's adventures:

More News of the Weird

Whaddya know? Another strange story from my hometown newspaper.

A Wister man is facing felony charges after he tortured his girlfriend while trying to make her make animal sounds. Wister Police Officer Clay Caudell stated in court documents that on Sept. 4 he was called to Eastern Oklahoma Medical Center regarding an assault. Caudell said upon his arrival he spoke with the victim who told him that a man named Adam Morris had assaulted her with a pair of channel locks attached to her right ear.

Caudell said Morris was allegedly, "trying to make her quack like a duck."The officer stated that Morris and Jones were or had recently been dating. He said that Morris allegedly attempted to tie Jones up before hitting her in the ribs during the incident. Caudell said that Morris was later arrested at his residence.

He was charged on Oct. 4 with one felony count of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon in LeFlore County District Court. If convicted, Morris could face a prison term of up to 10 years or one year in the county jail.

The Midwestern Look?

While coming home from work on the Metro yesterday, a woman leaned over and asked if she could bother me for a minute. Sure, I said. Then she asked me if I would proofread a resume. Proofread a resume?! Does anyone else get these sorts of questions on public transit?

I talked to my mom later about how all sorts of people approach me. I get asked for directions ALL the time. Cars pull over to ask directions from me. People walking on the street. People in the metro (see my previous Mustapha post). I think they must sense my innate sense of direction and knowledge of the city, but my mom says I have a nice approachable Midwestern look about me. Hmmm.....

At Least There Was a Cute Med Student

Last week sometime I developed this weird breathing problem. I think I had it when I was younger, allergy related or something. I don't recall ever doing anything about it though, and it eventually went away. Well, it's back. I felt kinda sick all around Thursday night, so I went to bed early and took half a day off work last Friday. I felt alright that night and decided to go to a friend's birthday party. Not a wild party by any means, more like sit on the couch and eat pizza.

So I'm chilling on the couch and suddenly I start to feel really bad. Before I could say, "let's go home," someone says, "Wow, you look really pale." Then I realized my entire body tingled - like when your foot falls asleep, except it was my legs, arms, chest, neck, and face. My breathing wasn't normal either. Weird!! I decided to play it safe, and I ended up going to the Gtown Hospital ER since I was only 4 blocks away. While I sat in the waiting room, my facial muscles got tight and I couldn't move my mouth properly. Nothing like this has ever happened to me!

I got a lovely IV (my arm's still bruised) that made my blood squirt everywhere, a chest X-ray, and an EKG. All normal. Oxygen 100%. Hello? You can't tell me anything?! I called to make a follow up appointment with a doc, but they can't get me in for a month. A whole month! What am I supposed to do til then? I feel okay now - breathing is sometimes normal and sometimes not. I'm still going to the gym (I can't lose my momentum!), but I'm taking it sorta easy.

Don't worry - I'm not going to die. And I met a cute med student. Of course - Gtown has some hotties. Now to get my other Gtown med friends to track him down for me......

Autumn Tactics

One of my favorite songs just came on Music One and it reminds me that winter's coming - something I dread. I hate the cold.

Deep river runs its course
To the warm horizon
Shadows of falling leaves
October moon and rusty skies
Everchanging feelings
The seeds of autumn in my mind
Hiding summer's age no more
No more leaves in summer sky
Turning dark on empty carlots
When summer was my only friend
Sail back this way again
Winter's one breath away
It's turning cold...

- Autumn Tactics, Chicane

Weirdos on the Metro

Seriously, they all came out of their holes today. I guess since it was a holiday (and I still had to work - boo) everyone was out and about. Started out at my metro stop, waiting 12 minutes for the train. I sat down, reading the paper, headphones on - clearly I don't want to be bothered - and the woman next to me starts talking all loud. There's no one else around, so of course she's talking to me. I remove one side of the 'phones and listen to her babble on about how she forgot to take the curlers out of her hair. Kinda funny. I watched her fix her mane once we were on board.

Next up, woman on the escalator at Ft. Totten. She has a ruffle dress on. Top long ruffle is turquoise, next one in the middle yellow, finally a red one at the bottom that stops at her knees. Underneath, some cropped black leggings and sneakers, complete with one red sock and one turquoise sock. Fancy...

Finally, on the train to SS and on walks the Hunchback. I wanted to remind her that Halloween is still a few weeks away. A long black cape with hood covered her gigantic backpack. Short reddish hair with a long rat's tail braid in the middle. Black fingernails, horror novel in hand, and she was set to spook some people. It was funny watching people watch her.

Tomorrow the regular commuters should be back on - whew.

Losers for Lost

First season of Lost - check. I watched it all in approximately 10 days. It's that good. Time to watch the first 3 episodes of season two, and I'm all caught up. I can fully participate in the theoretical discussions at work. Woo hoo!

Work It

I've been hitting the gym daily with the Diesel click for a couple of months now. I used to HATE running, but I decided to try it out. Every day I run a bit more....and the other day - 4.5 miles like nothing. Where did that come from?! This is coming from the girl who used to run 1 lap around the football field and call it good. The treadmill and I are becoming fast friends.
Thanks to the Blazing Gunman for the photos. 

Random Photos - Just Because!

New computer = new fun. One must realize that my old computer is from 1999. Yes, that's right. Six whole years ago. It can't run any of today's essential programs like Itunes, Picasa, and Google Earth. Now that I can play with all these fun toys, here are some photos.
 
 

 
 

Bermuda

Somewhere in Delaware, driving back from the beach 

Chris, me, Jason - Mexico 

Jesse, Julie (my cousin), Ralph the dog, me 

My not-so-little dog, Honey 

Me, Justin (lead singer of Ingram Hill), and Sam 

New Years in Paris 

New Years in Paris 

It's Just a T-shirt!

Funny story from Saturday's game. In about the 6th inning, Nats people run onto the field and shoot t-shirts up into the stands. Cheap t-shirts that are probably all XXL. So cheap, they don't even sell them I bet.

A t-shirt flies through the air and lands somewhere behind me. I turn around to see a woman leaning over the railing from the walkway, while another white trash woman in the last row of my section is standing up. Apprarently the shirt hit the railing and they both went after it. They now both have their hands on the shirt and are pulling back and forth. The woman in my section GRABS the other woman's chest and shakes her, spilling beer all over. Awesome. About 10 minutes later, after stadium officials intervened, the lady in my section won though she was quite pissed about the whole ordeal. After all, she's entitled to a shirt since she bought a ticket, as her bf later yelled.

As one guy commented, "That's what happens when you put rednecks and free s%$* together. All hell breaks loose."

In My Place

Time for weekend update.
Friday - my new beautiful laptop came in the mail. When I checked the tracking, it was scheduled to arrive on Monday. However, the UPS man got some bonus points when he delivered Friday am. Since I was armed with so much stuff to carry, I called and asked B if he could come pick me up at work before we headed to Coldplay. I felt bad asking since it was in the opposite direction, but he kindly obliged. That was before he knew how bad traffic was. From Alexandria to Silver Spring, it took 1.75 hours. At 3:30 in the afternoon. Ridiculous. Then we had to hop back on the Beltway to get to Nissan. Never ever again will I go to Nissan. Thankfully we got there right at 7:30 before Rilo Kiley took the stage. I dug some of their lyrics. I’ve been meaning to look them up. Reminder to myself - Look up Rilo Kiley lyrics...

Next up, the band themselves. Guy Berryman and company. Okay, okay, so Chris is the focal point with his hop-on-one-leg dancing. But Guy’s the sexy bass player. I love them all - they are truly phenomenal together. Great show. Nice mix of all albums. Very worth the drive. At least for me anyway. B might be another story.

Getting out of the Nissan parking lot is another story in itself. Took us half an hour and several walks through the parking lot before we found the car. Finally traffic subsided a bit and we got out of the there.

Saturday I fed my Lost addiction. What I am going to do when I finish the first season and have to wait a week (or more - gasp!) For the next episode? We’re already going to plan a season finale party at work. We’re a bunch of Lost junkies. I just finished Disc 5 tonight. One more to go and I’ll be caught up. I hear the season finale is mouth-opening. Bring it on baby.

I hit up the Nationals/Phillies game on Saturday afternoon with Mark, whom I haven’t seen in several months. The season has come to an end. DC finally has baseball. How long with the newness last? Will the city be just as excited in 3 years? We’ll see what happens. As long as the free tickets keep floating around, count me in :-)

I rushed to the Georgetown waterfront to meet up with friends on Saturday night to see the ‘Tornado of Fireworks’ as part of the Chinese festival of the Kennedy Center. I guess I expected a little more, since I am from tornado alley. I didn’t see any spinning......it was pretty cool though. Even funnier, it caused a flurry of 911 calls around the city. Hah. We can’t do anything in this city anymore without people thinking the worst. What are we coming to?

Sunday was Gen Con. As usual, the roomies and I went to Robin’s to watch and hold a mini feast. I managed to stay awake through both sessions, despite people nodding off around me.