Five Year Plan

I love making Five Year Plans. Some of the things I have planned have happened, some have not. I find that having direction gives me stability for deviation. Lack of direction leaves me as a lump on the couch and afraid of chaos. As the new year approaches, and as I have had a slight deviation in my plans, I thought it might be good to update my Five Year Plan.

2010:
Get a job
Complete and publish mystery novel
Begin MBA dissertation
Marry Richard Armitage
Join community band

2011:
Complete MBA
Application for PhD/DBA programme
Complete 2nd novel have been working on

2012-2014
Complete PhD
Have Richard Armitage's babies
Attempt extended genealogy for grandfather (Francis Casmir Ziolkwoski)

2015
Work one year for African Development Bank Group
Begin application for teaching position
Start a small sheep farm
Grow to higher quality community orchestra

So this is a rough outline and I know it looks a little vague. Trust me, my private Excel version of the plan is much more detailed. Between the lines will be things like half-marathons, triathlons, spending time with friends, serving in the community, etc. This updated plan feels ambitious but achievable, and satisfies my core person. It incorporates my love of knowledge, arts, and helping people. I really like the direction of this plan.

Especially the Richard Armitage part...:)

Good Gifts

The greatest gift this Christmas season was the Christmas Spirit. It has been a few years since I've really looked forward to Christmas and I was afraid that I had outgrown the magic of the season. But I think it was hibernating through heartbreak of the past few years.

Second great gift is being back in Salt Lake and being surrounded by good friends whom I love. I was able to spend the day with Charles and Peter and their family.

The best tangible gift was the Christmas tree Holly and Shawn put into the apartment before I moved here.

Then I was thinking about some of the other fun gifts I've been given in recent years. I don't really get a lot of gifts. My opinion on gifts is give one if the item really speaks to you about that person. Otherwise just give treats or time instead.

But here is a collage of some of my favorite gifts in the past few years. (one special gift is missing from below. It's a wooden frog with a huge mouth. Melyn gave it to me the year I went to visit my step-day while he was ill. Don't worry Melyn, I still have it, but it's packed away with my frog things. I still need one more bookshelf to unpack everything. ) (yes. I have frog things.)



I think you can all recognize Grover. Kelly gave him to me when we were roommates on Dana St. Love him. He does live under the bed during most of the year, and then comes out during Christmas time.

The brown thing is, at best guess a Hippo. I've had him since 2000. Right before I moved to Boston. He was given to me at work during our Secret Santa exchange. Everyone at work had already been given there gifts and the days were ticking buy. I tried to be a mature adult, but I was really sad that my person had forgotten me. The Friday before vacation, the gift appeared. I stepped away from my desk and when I came back, the hippo was there! It's sooooo soft.

The little heart-shaped pillow is from Becky. Must have been about 5 or 6 years ago. It's so simple, but I like it. Anytime I move, it's one of the first things to get hung on a door knob.

The blanket is from Melyn. Maybe 2 years ago? (and it could have also been a b-day gift...but for the sake of this blog, we'll call it a Christmas gift. :) ) It's a simple fleece blanket that has music bars on it. It's well used. (not for playing music. but for snuggling up with a book.)

The three books and plastic grasshopper and snake are from Angie. The same year I got Grover from Kelly. She used the grasshopper and snake as bows and ribbons. I thought it was very clever and fitting for me. (there was a spider as well, but the cats decided it would make a great toy and they ripped all of it's legs off.)

And last, but not least, the whirly-pop. Best gift ever! Misty and Jessica gave this to me. Also the year I got the wooden frog, right before I left to visit Raymond in the hospital. I know that things like whirly-pops and hotchocolate mugs and soap baskets are given to people as gifts because other people can't think of what to give. But Jessica and Misty knew the whirly-pop was THE perfect gift for me. I have used it almost every day since I got it. I don't know many gifts that are as well used and appreciated as my whirly-pop!

The Greatest Gifts

Christma Eve Eve

On the 23rd Salt Lake received a timely little snow fall. I was so excited to shovel the walk! Having lived in Boston for 7 years, I've grown accustom to having to shovel the minute one little wet icy snowflake hit the earth. I probably went a little overkill on the powdery snow of Utah. The neighbors probably think I'm a fanatic.

It was so beautiful and peaceful with the snow and all the Christmas lights, so after my second clearing around 9:00 p.m. I decided to take a little walk around the neighborhood and take photo's of the lights. (I wish I had a great camera that did night shots well.) In no particular order, here are some of my favorite shots of the day:

The entire yard of this house was lit up! I particularly liked the row of colored lights along the fence. I think this style of light is my favorite outdoor light.














This lamp post is in my neighbors yard. And I was very much in their yard when I was taking the photo. I did invade quite a few yards that night. And I'm a tall bulkish person with a heavy coat and hat on. I'm lucky no one called the cops on me.

I do love this photo. It was still snowing when I took this one. I have another shot where you can see the fat snowflakes coming down, but the post didn't convey well.













Poor flamingos. They should be taken into the garage for the winter.











This was earlier in the day, after the first shovel run. This is a row of little evergreens along our drive.













This is what I see across the street from me. It's a pretty colorful house during the day. It's big and blue and purple. The Christmas lights definitely match the house. As you can see, the cats also like to look out. (the cat is inside. It's a large picture window at the front of the house.)

Yard Work

One of my least favorite things about living in an apartment for the past year and half was not having a yard. I especially missed yard work.

I know yard work is two four letter words for most people, but I just love almost everything about it. I love moving my body. I love being outside. I like getting something done. I like casually getting to know neighbors while you do these things. I love having something to show for your efforts afterwords. I just love it.

One of the main things I required when looking for a new place to rent in SLC, was having access to a yard. My new landlord (and he's new at being a landlord) is a pretty laid back dude and has plenty of other projects to work on and has given me carte blanche of the yard. This won't really get too exciting until Spring. But I did tell him I will happily shovel snow and mow the lawn. I think he thought I was joking a little.

But I wasn't. It has snowed today. I have shoveled.

I love having a yard again.

At least I'm not in 2 feet of snow in DC....

My week in a nutshell:

Unpack a box
Stare into space contemplating what to do with other unpacked boxes
Apply for job
Stare into space contemplating not having a job
Farm on Farmville
Update Facebook Status
Go for a walk
And repeat with unpacking a box....

Quickest of Updates

Just finished my accounting final. *phew* just hoping to have passed.

Now, to pack for the move to Utah. Yep. Moving. To Utah.

Embassy Series

Two weeks ago I went to a dinner hosted by the Bahrain Embassy. (Small little country in the Middles East.) The Bahrain staff and ambassador were very friendly, talkative people. The food was SOOO delicious, but I ate so much that I didn't need to eat for several days.

I can't say that it was a lovely time. More like a very, very odd time.

First, as it usually does at these kind of functions, one man singled me out to fall madly in love with me and want to stay by my side the whole evening. (Does anybody remember that evening we spent with Britta at the Harvard Leadership Forum...?) And while you may be saying, "well, there you go, guy's do want to date you" let me say that these are not average people and they don't want to "date" me, they want to marry me two hours into the evening. That's a little fast for me.

Secondly, we were assigned seating. Six people to each round table. I had gone with one of my co-workers and his wife but we were not seated at the same table. And I'm not really the most social person amongst a lot of strangers, but I vowed to do my best.

The first person to come to the table was a middle-aged silky gray/blond hair guy. I introduced myself. He introduced himself. He was from Texas. I said, Oh, I've lived in Texas. What part? He wasn't really interested in trying to make a connection on that one. And we sat in silence. He, turning his back to me, to look around at the other people in the room, I drinking water to occupy myself. The rest of the six came at once. On my right was the Ambassador's secretary. She was very quiet and kept her eyes to the table the entire evening. To her right was a 60ish man from London who was an engineer of sorts, specializing in water-proofing plastics. To his right and directly across from me was a young Bahrain staff employee who just graduated from university studies in England, also in Engineering. Back to my left, was the man from Texas, who at one point said he worked in Defense, but at other points said he was a hedgefund manager. To his left was a man from Jersey. Very, Very much from Jersey. And the boss of the Britain man.

The conversation the entire evening was monopolized by the man from Texas, who I will from here on out call, "the jackass". He would ask someone a question, and then tell them their answer. He was the expert on England, Middle Eastern Customs, and water-proofing plastics. If other people tried to converse with one another he would interject himself with a smart-aleck comment.

Example: The young Bahrain man asked me what it was like to live in Boston. I say Boston is great! Before the conversation could continue, "the jackass" says "Unless you're going to drive through the tunnel." insert loud braying laugh here. oh so clever. you've heard of the Big Dig.

This went on about black pudding, football versus soccer versus rugby etc. And meanwhile, he his handing out his hedgefund business card left and right telling everyone how great his company has done and no one has been unhappy with their returns. And at one point he made a comment about "now that we let women drive and vote" and did a backhand slap across my shoulder.

The funniest part of this, is Jersey Man, sat quitely the entire night, just watching "the jackass" with a look of contempt on his face. I'm fairly certain he contacted one of his 'business partners' after dinner and put a hit out on him.

There are funnier things that happened that evening, but feel I must edit due to the people involved and the goodness and popularity of this series. But let me just say, there was some private operatic serenading and goading by two of the funniest old ladies who kept yelling out "c'mon baby! Sing us a song!"

It was an evening.

At the end of this long tale, I will say, the evening was another nail in the DC coffin. Not because it was weird. I liked that it was weird. But, because I came away from it knowing that I can find that kind of weird anywhere. No, not at an Embassy, but other functions. The Embassy part of it held no glamour or pull for me. Just one more realization that DC is not the place for me.

Disney World

Here is an overview of my four day trip to Orlando.

Saturday - arrived to beautiful 90 degree sunshine. Holly didn't come in until later in the afternoon so I spent the day relaxing at the pool; swimming, sun bathing, going down the water slide, watching other people, watching the little lizards play around me, reading. Yeah, it was super-nice.

Saturday evening was Halloween. We contemplated going out to do something but we didn't rent a car, and Orlando is not the really convienent place to be carless. The hotel did have a free shuttle to the Disney shopping area so we went there, ate dinner, and walked around and watched people. lots and lots and lots of people. on Halloween. Plenty of stuff to entertain the people watcher in you.

The photo below is at the Lego store. This was a giant Lego water dragon. It was really cool.










Sunday - We went to the Animal Kingdom. I LOVED it. It wasn't very crowded and we got to do a loop of the park twice. Rode all the rides we wanted and even had time to do some stuff we didn't really care about but was fun none-the-less.

The picture below was on a little walking animal tour. These are giant fruit bats. And I did not crop this photo to make the bat appear larger. They ARE large. but completely harmless. unless you are fruit. They were really amazing and I probably took more photo's of the bats than anything else the entire trip.













The picture below are of beautiful Mandarin Ducks. I had never seen one before, but fell in love. We searched all over the gift shops hoping to find a stuffed or carved toy of these ducks. To no avail. Holly kept reminding me that we are outside the Disney Demographic.











Saturday Night was spent looking longingly across the major highway at the CVS and 7-11. Orlando seems to have a thing against gum and all we wanted was popcorn, gum, and a cheap dinner. But without a car that was vain wishing. We ate dinner at the hotel next door. Hotel food.

Monday we went to the Magic Kingdom. We arrived early and was able to ride about 6 rides before the crowds came in. We rode the Pirates of Carribean in complete solitude. It was spooky great!

Once the crowds came we utilized deductive planning and the fast pass system and again managed to ride everything we wanted multiple times. I loved the Peter Pan and Winnie the Pooh rides. Magical.

Below is a photo of Holly at the race track. (I don't think we're big picture takers. I made Holly take photo's of me, but always felt like a schmuk for getting in the flow of other patrons.)














The picture below is of the Swiss Family Robinson Tree House. I'm pretty sure I want to live on a tropical island in this 'house'. It was really fun and amazing.

























Winnie the Pooh, Me and Tigger. Yes, we waited in line to take this photo. A line longer than most ride lines, but it was so adorable to watch little kids walk up and treat Pooh and Tigger as if they were real. I've decided that when I retire at the age of 95, I want to go work at Disney and be like a train conductor on the animal safari or something.

Vacation - the bad

Just got back from a quick trip to Disney World. It was a ton-of-fun. I'll post the good stuff later with photo's, but first the bad...

Flying home - upon an already early arrival, found out my flight was delayed. When I got to my gate found out it was delayed by an hour and a half, then two hours. The PSA kept alerting us that homeland security had as on Orange alert, and then I overheard someone say that National had a 10pm curfew. I was a little freaked out!

I then found out that National ALWAYS has a 10pm curfew. But for a while, the delay, the orange alert and the curfew all had me alarmed.

Finally, we took off, 30 minutes after I should have already been home.

Pillows - The hotel bed was super-comfortable. The pillows however jacked your head up at a 90 degree angle. Try as I might I couldn't punch the things down! So I'd go to sleep on the pillow and then wake up off the pillow. And basically tossed and turned all night.

Food - It was Disney world. You can imagine. yeah, not my thing. Our last day in FL we finally got to eat oatmeal for breakfast and soup and salad for lunch. that's my kind of food.

Umm...I think that's all I've got for the bad stuff. Life was rough for a few days. :)

Testimony from Conference

I loved watching General Conference this past weekend. I used to write down notes during every talk, trying to find answers to all my burning questions about the direction of my life. Now, I just listen and feel. It makes it a much more positive experience for me instead of waiting for each talk to be a little compass that is going to point me north south east or west. Mostly this Conference I felt a great appreciation for the Apostles; for the commitment and honor in which they live their lives. And for the testimony they share of Christ and the living gospel.

Sometimes day after day, week after week, I stop thinking about Christ as real and start thinking of him more like an image or statue. Something I'm praying to, not Someone I'm praying with. But watching and listening to the Apostles this weekend I had my testimony renewed through the example and experiences of the Prophet and Apostles that Christ was once a living human on earth, that He is the resurrected Son of God, and that he does visit and teach those of us in our mortal missions on earth.

Just like you can't explain air, I can't really explain this testimony. But I guess that's the great thing about a testimony is that it's in your own heart which understands the temple it beats in.

Helpful Household Hints

Long before being "green" and recycling were cool, I've always been looking for a way to save money and resources. I blame my grandparents who taught me to recycle aluminum foil and bread bags even. I've discovered a "new" way to save water.

My bedtime ritual includes brushing, flossing, taking out my contacts, brushing my hair and washing my face. I also like to wash my feet. The water in my apartment takes forever to warm up and I've hated how much water I've been wasting. Most of the time I've given up and washed my face with cool water. As the colder weather is coming, I've dreaded the cool water face wash.

But I've discovered something. Heating up a pot of water on the stove! Revolutionary! (yeah, I think they did this in the olden days...) So now, I put a small sauce pan on the stove to heat, go brush and floss, take out the contacts, turn down the bed. By this time my water is getting to a simmer. I take the pot of water to the bath room, and blend a little heated water with normal tap water in a basin. (big Target mixing bowl actually) Wash my face in nice hot water.

After I'm finished with washing my face, I take the basin of water and set it down in the bath tub. I take the remaining hot water in the sauce pan, poor it into the basin, sit down on the side of the bath, and stick my feet in for a nice 10 minute soak while I read a magazine, scriptures, or homework.

The cats usually come for a visit as well. They think this is the strangest thing ever.

But now I've only used one basin and one small sauce pan of water, had a thorough face cleaning, a relaxing foot soak, and got my scripture reading in.

shopping

My top preference for shopping is to support local independent stores

Second in line would be to shop at high-end, well managed chains

My last choice is always the internet. I just prefer my money to support my local community. However, I have searched Barnes & Nobles and Borders for a few cd's. And yes, I still buy whole cd's instead of dowloading. But because everyone is downloading now days, B&N and Borders have NO decent classical and jazz selection. So, for the first time ever, I've orded music cd's off of Amazon.

I'm sorry Barnes & Noble. Maybe if you had something more than Mozart and Bach in your racks I would have remained loyal...

Moving Day

No, not mine...but almost as happy, my friend Cara moved to DC about a month ago (part of the annual DC-Boston Exchange) and she just moved into her actual apartment today. Just 2 whole miles from me. I am sooooo excited to have her here!!!

With Friends Like These...

So, it's not too often that I rant in my blog. I don't often even rant in my journals. Just not things I like to record I guess. But there is something that has been eating away at me for a while, and seems to be a reoccurring theme for me and I'm just very frustrated.

The few of you who read my blog know I'm not the most socially outgoing person, nor am I the easiest person to be friends with, but you know I try really hard to care about my friends and to help when I can, and just offer prayers when there is nothing left to do. But it seems that most Mormon friends want easy short term friendship and if you expect anything more than that you are going to be left in the dust. The non-Mormon people that I know have a very solid tight-knit, long enduring circle of friends that stick by one another through thick and thin, good traits and bad.

I've been here in D.C. for over a year, and have made very few friends. The closest friend I made was at one time a co-worker and member of my same ward. She is a lot younger than I, and married, so we're not really having the same experiences, but I really cared a lot about her and really valued her as a friend. (and not just because she's the only one I had either. She has a long list of qualities that are really great.) Now, most of her other friends are like her. Young, married, enjoy things like getting together in groups, scrapbooking and arts and crafts. Not my thing. Not my thing on so many levels. I had been invited a couple of times, but really, what am I going to do at one of these functions? I don't scrapbook, I can't afford to start a hobby that I wouldn't keep up, and I have a really difficult time interacting with groups of people. I know those are things that she really enjoy's doing, and I know that friendships are about give and take, but those are just things that are beyond me. So, I've tried to organize other activties that I think we would both enjoy. Racing, hip-hop dance classes (and reader, you know don't you that I don't know ANY hip-hop music...), going to the gym, even shopping, which I kind of hate doing, and other craft classes like soap making. So a mixture of things that I enoy, but also some things that I thought she would enjoy doing.

And I feel like we have both equally been there for one another. I've really struggled with living here in DC and she's listened to me. She's had frustrations about her marriage, and even though I'm not married, I've given her my support. I've tried to be there through her anxiety about her family. When she was laid-off during our reduction in workforce I called her every day to offer a friendly voice, knowing how depressing it can be staying at home everyday, looking for a job.

And we've both flaked out on each other. She offering me rides to church but then not going, or changing the pick-up time by hours, or canceling on the hip-hop class, and I've flaked on her on going to the scrapbooking parties and things of that nature.

So give and take right? But somehow, in the past few months, something has changed, and now I'm considered a 'bad friend'. What exactly? I don't know. I've asked but received no answer, but I will tell you it changed after one particular Saturday. The Friday before we were talking about swimming in her complex's pool while her husband studied for the GRE. I have already mentioned to her that I planned on going to see a matinee and that I had some homework to do. As a planner, I kind of need to have a little bit of a schedule. Since I already knew I had a few things to do, I needed to know in what order to do them. I asked her about what time she thought would work to go swimming. She said she'd have to check with her husband. Friday ended.

My Saturday began. Like every day of the week. I'm up before 6:00 a.m. I went for a 16 mile bike ride, went for a four mile run. Did some homework, planned my weekly menu, walked the mile to the shopping/movie complex, picked up my ticket to a matinee and went to Target to pickup non-perishables. 11:30 am I get a text saying "We're going to play it by ear."...okay, my day started hours ago and since I never heard back from you, my day is now fully scheduled. PLUS, because I can't currently drive, I have to schedule when and where I'm going. You live over 2 miles away from me, so I can't just drop everything and go to your house when your ready, and I've already covered 22 miles, and now I'm supposed to have enough energy to walk anouther 4 and go swimming? I'm sorry that I'm not a play-it-by-ear person and I'm sorry that I wasn't just sitting around my apartment wasting time, waiting for you to call me to maybe go swim sometime during the day.

Aside from her asking me work questions (she was rehired), she hasn't really talked to me too much for the past two months. So I'm a little frustrated that I feel like I'm getting used on the work end of things, and extremely frustrated for being made to feel like I'm a bad person.

Yes! I am an structured, non-scrapbooking, small group, low-key, midly high-maintence kind of person. But am I a bad person who doesn't deserve any friends?

Harpers Index

From the August issue:

Estimated percentage of all existing blogs that have not been updated in four months: 94

The Weather Report

Folks I've got nothing for you. I am just not exciting enough for blogging. Headlines from my most recent personal journals:

"The frogs are really vocal today."
"The Mimosa trees are still in blossom."
"I exercised my Right to Dry today" (did you know it's illegal to hang your laundry out side?)
"The locust are buzzing at such a fast rate I think they're going to saw down that tree."

Since I was little these are the things I write in my journal. Maybe I should start writing for the Farmers Almanac?

Well, I hope you keep checking my blog in hopes of getting something juicy sometime soon.

Nephew

My sister just sent me an email with photo's of her son, whom I've never seen. (He's like 4 or 5 years old so this tells you how close my sister and I are.)

On the DNA gradient scale, my sister has very dark hair and very dark eyes. Her coloring is straight out of my dad's Native American gene pool. I, the second child, the middle of psychological development AND mom & pop's coloring, have lighter brown eyes and lighter brown hair. When I was younger, even till my early 20's, my hair was more red than brown. Cody, the 3rd child and only boy has my mothers complete European color. Creamy white skin, cotton blond hair, and Prussian blue eyes.

Color aside, we all three look exactly like my mom AND dad who don't look like each other.

My sister now has three children. Two daughters almost grown, and then the little boy. Same gender set up as our family. Her oldest daughter looks just like my sister (her mom) and just like me. The second daughter is a equal mix of her mom and dad. So, I was kind of expecting her younger boy to look more like my brother.

And then I opened the photo document. And the boy looks just like my sister and me! dark brown hair, dark brown eyes, same every thing! It really kind of threw me for a curve ball. I don't know why, but that is just not what I imagined her boy to look like, and it's not what I imagine my future children to look like, but I think there is strong evidence that they will. And that's not really jiving with the fantasy life I've concocted all these years...

Ducks

I had a not-so-great day today. Sometimes, when I have those days, the bike commute home clears my head and I get home happier and more relaxed. Sometimes though, the extra exertion raises my blood pressure and I get caught inside my head, having destructive conversations with myself. Today was that day and by the time I got to my street I could feel my face distorted in the pre-storm of big fat tears.

As I pulled up on to the side walk of my complex I saw a mottled brown mamma duck with three little ducklings walking through the sprinklers. Those little fuzzy ducks playing in the water zapped any bad thought right out of my head!

I don't know why I love animals so much but I just do!

Blog Roll

Do you remember a long time ago, before Blogs, in a land called Boston, we received almost weekly email updates from J. Andy Kane. The emails would contain the latest on what was happening at Club Passim, random trips, and the lyrics to a song? And you felt kind of cool that you were on the mail distribution list? I for one, would love to have more updates from Mr. Kane since marring one of the coolest girls in the world, running off to CA and having an adorable baby. I thought for sure that he would have one of the greatest blogs around. But the once great electronic communicators and his lovely wife are somewhat off the grid. sad. If anyone has any sway with these two, can you prod them into more updates for the wanting semi-public?

Anyway, I was thinking of them as I have a(n)(inactive) link to their blog. Do you wander who else I review on a constant basis? Oddly, I almost never log into my blog to get my updates via my links. This is more how it happens:

I go to Replikate's blog, see what is going on in her world. From her links I first visit
Kelly
then I back track and visit
Corey - from Corey I check up on Jodi and Jesse, Lane and Jalei, Lisa, and JaNe and Evan.
back track now I click on my own link. from my link I visit
Rachel & Jeremy and baby E. - then to Linda. From Linda I visit the Turleybenson. From Turleybenson I check in on all the Revere Ward people. then back up to Linda and go to Kevin (who is already on my own list, but I'm already on Linda's.)
then I back up to my list and visit Hyrum and Nicole - which give my Melyn & Kyler (if I'm NOT logged into my blog email...) and also gives me Leah
back to my list to visit Cassy
then to Cara from which I can visit Stacey and Aleigh and Lauren, if I hadn't already visited Lauren via Linda via Katie.

And if no one has posted in the past few days I'm not above reading links from people that I have never ever met. It's like People and US of the Mormon world for me.

This of couse is all after I've read the major newspapers and my scriptures...

Maya Angelou

Long, Long ago, I used to race almost every weekend. Don't get me wrong, I was never very fast, but I really enjoy the camaraderie of a race. And I love having a large collection of t-shirts. But that was long ago, and I really haven't been running much, let alone racing. But I've missed it, and so I talked my friend Krysta into doing a race with me last Saturday. It was the inaugural Maya Angelou something-or-other foundation 5-k fund raiser.

Neither of us have really prepared for the run, but we were both impressed with ourselves on how well we did and how easy the race was and it was really tons of fun. So we are thinking we are going to try to do one a month. YAY! I was really starting to run low on t-shirts. :)


Krysta and me before the race.

Me being cheesy before the race with all the boats in the background. I assure you this was the least cheesy photo of me. How do you like my hot pink top and my purple shorts?? Hey, if you can't outrun people by speed, you gotta try blinding them.

NYC

I have really been having an urge to go to NYC the past few months. I remember the first time I went was overwhelming to me. Not the bigness, but the noise. Non-stop noise and lights. But each time I go, I like it more and more. I don't think I'd ever want to live there, but I do love going for a day or two.

I took the Chinatown bus from DC. It was so strange to be entering the city from New Jersey. For the past many years I had been traveling down from Boston and entered from CT and it was a little disconcerting to see it from a different angle. An angle that doesn't seem to belong to me yet.

I had three specific things that I wanted to do: go to the temple, a matinee show at the NYC Ballet, and go to the Strand book store. Without giving you a line by line journaled detail of my time table, let me just say that I was perfectly timed to be where I needed to be, when I needed to be there. It seemed that the entire city was working on my time table.

I did get to see a few new parts of the city. Two favorite little spots where both gardens. I grabbed a quick deli lunch between attending the temple, and going to the ballet. There was no seating left at the deli. I walked down a side street and was going to be content to sit on a brick wall and eat my sandwich and soup, when I noticed across the way, a little garden with benches. I went in, ate my lunch, listened to the birds and felt more like a new yorker in a hidden gem, than a tourist at a flashy eatery.

The second garden is a public garden along East Houston. I spotted it as I was walking from the book store to Chinatown to find a bus home. I was in too much of a rush to go inside and look at everything, but slowed my walk and brushed my hand against the plants along the fence. It will be my first stop on my next trip to the city.

Another reason I'm glad that I don't live there is all the food! I am no foodie, but I think I'd get very fat if I lived in New York. There are so many tempting restaurants, bistro's, deli's, and pasty shops. I would want to sample the whole city and then I'd be a big apple! Sadly, there were no roasted nut carts anywhere in the city. Does anyone know the scoop on the missing peanuts?

The one thing that is difficult for me, and this is true of all trips, vacations or splurges, is my extreme unwillingness to spend money. My mind itemizes and adds every penny that I spend and I think about the things that I SHOULD spend my money on, not the things that I want to spend my money on. There are certain virtues to being such a tightwad, and I'm sure Benjamin Franklin would approve, but even Silas Mariner only found happiness after learning to spend his money instead of hording it away in his floor boards.

All in all, it was a very successful trip. And I can't wait till the next time when I can go visit the newly discovered garden.

Star Trek

I watched the new Star Trek yesterday. Ah the memories. I grew up watching reruns of the original Star Trek and it had quite an effect on me. My childhood fantasy life, when living with my grandparents in Louisiana, involved a combination of Star Trek and Fantasy Island. At dusk I would put on my grandmother's white flowing night-gown, with matching robe and hood and run around the yard, chiffon fabric blowing in the breeze.

In my world, the Magnolia tree was my mother ship, the Pecan tree close by was the evil ship, and all the Azalea bushes were worlds to be conquered. I wish that I had photo's of the schematic of my grandmother's yard so that you could see the distance involved in my conquering, and how large these 'planets' were. I couldn't suspend reality well enough to make myself believe that I could transport to these planets, so I had to create my own little space shuttle for travel. My space shuttle was a toy International tractor that looked like this:



The other thing I realized watching the new Star Trek is how much I love Spock. And I loved Spock when I was little too. I think this might explain a little bit about my troubles in my love life; I love men who are logical, structured, and emotionally controlled to the point of almost being robotic.

I'll probably have a better chance of getting to the Moon with that toy tractor than make a real-life Mr. Spock fall in love with me.

BTW, if you haven't already, go see the new Star Trek!

so boring it's not worthy of a post title...

Hello Reader, I haven't posted for sometime, because I have nothing new to post about. For all those who have wondered, the earrings are still in. And even though it has been well past the six weeks mark, I still wear the same little corn-flower blue earrings that I had the ears pierced with.

I have bought one pair of what looked like small sparkly studs. But I've found that earrings are like Christmas trees; what looks small out in the open, is too big for the living room once you get it inside. I first attempted to change the earrings around the 8 week mark. I got the left earring out of my ear with a little bit of pain and tugging. When I picked up the new earring, four times larger than the other pair, I knew that I should not have started this without assistance. It was Saturday night, my friend Krysta and her husband where out of town, and wouldn't see my co-worker Jess until Monday. And seriously, I'm a grown woman, I should be able to do this my self. With a few sweat and tears (literally) I got the new earring into my left ear. I didn't even try to work on my right ear. The next morning out with the new and back with the old.

I have since worn the new pair once.

So, I don't know if this post is a testamant to my very boring life that I am telling you all about this, or if getting my ears peirced has been such a trauma for me that each step seems note worthy.

Cherry Blossoms

I have wanted to see the Nation's Cherry Blossoms for about 10 years. Upon moving to DC, I had no intention of staying here for a year, and thought that I would be gone by January and would miss the Cherry Blossoms. Thanks to the economy, I am still in DC. But thanks to being in DC, I have finally been able to see the Cherry Blossoms!

I've been taking my camera on my bike commute every day, but the weather hasn't been too great. (Not much snow in the winter here, but rain, rain, rain in the spring. Got to raise our water table some how I suppose.)

I biked over this morning (Sunday) to try to capture the pink blossoms in the sunrise and before the tourist. Guess what, all the tourist have the same idea! I have to post my most favorite photo first. And I apologize if it kind of freaks you out, but I was very excited! Everyone is looking around at the blossoms and taking photo's, and I saw this little guy sitting on the tree. I can't imagine it's a good sign to see a bat out-and-about in broad day light, but I asked a park ranger and he didn't seem all that concerned.


This next photo was taken last Monday night on the bike ride home. I just loved the bright daffodils lining the river path. Across the river are the Cherry Blossoms.


This photo was actually taken last Saturday. It was the opening day of the Cherry Blossom Festival. They had a kite flying contest next to the Washington Monument. It was cold and drizzly and I didn't stay for the kites too long, but it was neat while I was there. The blossoms looked ethereal in all the fog.




I love the reflection of the far trees in the photo below. I think this would look really nice in a water-color painting.


Me. Any guess where I work? :)


I got caught on the wrong side of the Cherry Blossom 10 miler and had to watch for about an hour before I could catch the trail back home. But I didn't mind. I love to cheer people on in races. It kind of makes me emotional. I can't explain it but I get teary eyed when I watch races. Even if it's on T.V....

Anyway, I'm sure as more things bloom I'll have more photo's to post.

No hablo espanol

Wednesday marks my six week mark for my new cute little pierced ears and I am able to change the earrings. I haven't bought any new earrings yet, as I wanted to wait to see if I could really last the whole six weeks. But since I have endured, I've been looking forward to a little shopping with one of my girl friends.

Last Saturday I came home from errands and I saw the new Avon catalog on my apartment doorstep. I'm not much an Avon or Mary Kay person, but I thought to myself, "hmm...in these difficult economic times, I'd rather help out an independent woman trying to make ends meet, than a big corporate company." I picked up the catalog and started to look through it to see if they carried earrings. They do. But. The entire catalog is in Spanish and Maria, the Avon rep, doesn't speak English.

Oh well, Macy's has been struggling in these tough times too...

Pied Piper

I'm really excited to report that I just got a new flute yesterday. As I reported earlier several months ago, my division at work runs different campaigns throughout the year. Winner's of the campaigns receive 'perk points' which they can then use to buy merchandise and air fare. I'm fairly certain I'm going to use all of my 'perk points' on musical instruments. :)

So, my new little flute came in the mail yesterday. I haven't played one in a realllllllyyyy long time. I'm both amazed at how easy it is to get a nice sound going, and sad at not remembering my fingering. It almost seems bizarre that we learn how to speak this other language of notes!

Just like with my keyboarding and singing, the cats come running to me when I'm playing the flute. Their eyes are as big as saucers and their ears pricked towards me. I can't figure out if they hate the sounds, or love it. (when I sing they come running to me and sniff my mouth.)

Spring is almost here

On my commute home this evening along the Mt. Vernon Trail, I noticed a field of dark little shapes on the ground. At first I thought it might be ducks, but realized the little shapes weren't moving. Then I realized it's a field of little spring flowers like daffodils and crocus popping up!

I am sooooo excited that spring is just around the corner!