give us love in the time we have

miriam has moved in! it's exciting because she taught english in china for 6 months so tonight we had a big conversation about living in asia and what it's like to come home and how you don't know where you're going but you feel like you can do anything now that you've tackled asia.i stole this picture from facebook. that's miriam. she visited my school in taiwan and met all of my friends so she actually knows exactly where i'm coming from which is really nice. it can be frustrating answering the 10 questions strangers ask and then never talking about anything more.

it's like any experience you have where only a couple of people know what it's really like and can relate to your stories. in college, i studied abroad in england at the same time 3 of my best friends were in/around london and we traveled around to munich, salzburg and prague for 2 weeks before we went home and we had the beeestt time. flat stanley, 21 sausages, skating on frozen ponds, bitter beer, getting kicked out of first class trains.. lots of fun memories on that trip.three of my besties. andy, becca and will. that 4 years ago. crazy!

aside from that, let's talk about goal setting. we didn't have a goal yesterday and we did X amount of whatever we were doing. todayy we did have a goal and we did twice as much stuff with a few less people. it's amazing what a little motivation can do. for me, it's about getting to the end of stacks of work or crossing things off a list. that's the whole joy of grocery shopping.. the list. sometimes i wonder if i'm a bit OCD. i like clutter too much though.

time to read. right now i'm reading david lebovitz' the sweet life in paris which is really personal and gives you a taste of parisian life. and a book called my family and other animals which is about a kids' life in greece with his family. he loooves nature. the detailed descriptions of spiders' lives and his dog are pretty endearing. and i'm thinking about beginning the bridges of madison county and maybe bill clinton's autobiography which i spied on the shelf.
what are you reading/what's on your list/don't you think travel books are better than every other kind of book?

move part 2

so the other day i moved blogs and today i moved rooms. it's all changed up around here. my friend miriam is moving in so we're going to share the big room and ruda moved into my little room. i'm kind of excited about sharing a room actually. it's been long enough since i lived in the same room with someone that i don't remember any of the bad parts.

there are days when there's just nothing to say and today is one of them. i'm loving the new purse, the weather is cooling down, my new bed is comfy, life is good.

i love this woman and everything she posts. today is especially good.

find the bright side

nothing but girly stuff today, sorry boys.
my new purse came in the mail! it was handmade by a girl in malaysia. (every time i say malaysia all i can think of is their travel jingle - malaysia truly asiiaaaa just skip to :50 or so unless you want to see the girl eating durian with a smile on her face which we KNOW is an act). do you know about etsy? it's like amazon but everything is handmade. it's an amazing place. i try to buy whatever i can from there.

but there are some things that don't easily come handmade like rain boots. i saw these sheepskin lined red polka dotted rain boots at moovculture a few weeks ago and i haven't been able to get them out of my head since. theyre kinda pricey, but i think well worth it to have warm/dry feet.i guess when i look in my closet and all i see is a bunch of flimsy flats, it makes me worry about slush/rain/cold of DC fall and winter.

but thenn i got thinking that if i'm going to spend $100 on rain boots, i might as well shop around.. and that's when i found:
these. they're 'burnished rubber' rain boots from j. crew in navy. i don't know if it's clear on this blog or not, but i'm almost exclusively a j. crew girl. their stuff fits, it's colorful, it's made well.
i was all set on the red ones but becca and i decided that the navy ones will last a lot longer/match a lot more/carry over in to 'real life' better.

now i'm just waiting for free shipping or a 30% off sale.

while we're at it with the links, do you know about pandora? it only works in the US but it's internet radio with a twist. you give it a band or a song and it tries to match you up with music in that vein. pretty good when you're sick of your itunes playlist.

gift that you give to me

some days there's just nothing to write about. the highlight of my day was making granola. lesson learned: dates count as fruit. don't add them until it's finished baking or you'll end up with burnt little crispy bits of sugar. it tastes OK though. breakfast/snack for the week!

john and i saw the informant tonight with matt damon. so boring. don't see it. i was so bored i started to wonder how long i had been sitting there and how much longer the movie could possibly go.

moving day

I moved! welcome to the new blog. it's the same template as blonde in taiwan so all that reaallly changed is the name. i imported all of my previous posts. a little sad to leave blonde behind but it will be good for the moving on process.
time to get out of my jammies and get going with today.

3 am we fell in love

forgive me but i watched the notebook tonight and you know what that movie does to girls.

i'm literally dreaming about imaginary boyfriends, friends. that's how single i am right now. it's been a whole year and a half since i had a boyfriend who i really considered my boyfriend. people always say 'it's good to be single because then you get really good at being OK with yourself.' ... but i'm lovely with being myself. now i'd like to be with myself with someone else. it's funny/unfortunate how you always meet people when you're not looking for someone. silly me for thinking it would be so easy in DC with all of these interns running around all over the place.
you don't really talk about real life at work though. everyone's being really polite. that's why i'm planning upcoming happy hours. a little gin won't hurt anything. and i never get to see the people who aren't in the same building as me. it'll be nice just to be around a new group of people for a bit.
from top to bottom, the pictures are of jim and i, circa 2008. i was dating him when i decided to go to taiwan. we had been dating for 5 or 6 months and he was kind of insulted that i was leaving. the middle picture is sean, we dated for a year in college, '06ish. and zach was my first boyfriend. we dated in high school and college, went to both of our proms, '03-04. i made that corsage and boutonniere!

short and sweet

well. after 8 hours of cursive every day for a week, i wish i could say my handwriting has improved. i mess up less, but it looks exactly the same.

today i got to take the white house tour. you get to see the blue, red and green rooms, the ballroom, the china room, the christmas tree room (which is the same as the blue room) andd.. the library. what else. i think that's about it.

fun facts:
taft was the first baseball enthusiast president, so he went to lots of games. since he was such a giant man (something like 6'3 and 330 pounds), the seats were really uncomfortable for him. when he stood up in the 7th inning, the entire audience stood up too (as was the protocol for when a president stands.. and still is? right?).. it's rumored that that's how the 7th inning stretch began.

james polk was the tiniest president and he was so short that no one could see when he entered a room. his wife got really mad and she was the one who ordered that 'hail to the chief' was written so that everyone would know when the president entered the room.

i saw the portrait of george washington that dolly madison rolled up and saved during the fire of 1814. the portrait of madison herself is positioned above a doorway so that she can look out and see the portrait of washington, protecting it.

the sitting president can't order new presidential china until all of the existing set is used up, either by people breaking it or pocketing it. laura bush didn't get to pick new china until w's second term. she chose a half inch thick gold band with green lattice and delicate greenery in the middle. hillary clinton's was like mustard yellow floral.

this is my favorite story of all:
john adams and thomas jefferson weren't very good friends when they were figuring out the declaration of independence, but in their later years they became besties. they made a bet for who would live the longest. both men were really sick but they wanted to make it to the fourth of july and BOTH died on the 50th anniversary of the signing of the declaration of independence. thomas jefferson died a few hours earlier, though adam's didn't know that he had died since word took so long to travel then.. and so adams last word's were "thomas jefferson survives".

take it to the top

there should be a couple requirements in life
1. live abroad
2. work in the service industry
3. answer the phones for some kind of comment line

what do these 3 things have in common? they all remind you that there's life outside yourself. recently i was reminded that everyone has moments or experiences that change their lives forever. for the person giving the talk, it was their experience in the peace corps.

studying abroad in england was a big jump for me and it taught me a lot about different cultures, but taiwan was obviously one of the most influential experiences of my life. you learn what other people think about america, about texans, about people from other places. we all go through the culture shock of trying to make everything fit into a box and compare it to home, until one day we realize that the only way we're going to survive in the place is to accept it for what it is and not try to make it into what we're familiar with. once you do that, you can really appreciate it for what it is.

so 1. learn to look outside yourself and realize that everyone/every place is part of the whole

the service industry one is really important too though. eeeeeveryone should know what it's like to be a hostess or a server or a cashier or a whatever. when i was 18 i was a hostess at old san francisco steak house, my first hostess job, and there was this elderly woman who came in one night 5 minutes before the dinner rush hit. i told her the wait would be 5 or 10 minutes. right after i said 'minutes,' a FLOOD of people came in. we were swamped, we didn't have enough servers, and i was the only hostess on the floor for the next several hours.

this woman could plainly see that there were people everywhere in the foyer and that i was way over my head, by myself, but she kept coming up to my stand and screaming at me until i finally broke down in tears as i tried to calm her down. she didn't stop screaming even once i was crying in front of her.

you would think it would be a basic rule of being a human that you know not to yell at anyone, much less a stranger who's doing a service for you (at probably not much more than minimum wage). but you wouldn't believe how people treat hostesses and servers. it's like they completely forget that those people are real people. not to mention that when someone acts like that, the whole restaurant a) knows about it and b) rallies against you (i won't elaborate but you don't want to know what happens in restaurant kitchens).

i just don't understand why people think that the best way for them to get what they want is to be nasty to you. when someone is nice and says something friendly or makes a joke or compliments me, i'd bend over backwards to do something for them. those people are remembered and appreciated.

the people you meet

so we've discussed the gloom factor of washington, but i believe the light, the vibrancy, the fun! in this city is all thanks to the current college kids/recent college grads in this town. we're wearing the bright clothes. we have the silver shoes on. we smile at everyone on the street.
(first day).
it's probably because we know we're hanging by a thread and we need to do everything well in order to stick around here, but everyone is always friendly and helpful. we're trying to make friends and "connections" and no one is too low to talk to or not important enough for our time.
my very fav is jamil, in the middle. we sit next to each other every day, he knows all the good lunch places, we work as a team and sharpen each other's pencil without asking. it feels like we've been friends forever. i am so thankful to have him around.
and that's filippo. he's from italy and everything he says sounds so dramatic. he wasn't sure if 'cheryl, paula and denise' were men or women's names.
my laundry is done! i got to do laundry! we finally have the laundry card. the washers and driers are way in the basement and you have to go through a creepy door to get there. if the laundry room wasn't filled with super friendly grandma's, i probably wouldn't like going down there at all.

to hell with it, i'm gonna have a party

lesley and i are going to go to dinner every week. this week we went to teaism in dupont circle. they have really tasty variations on asian food. i had grilled chicken, ginger cucumbers, some kind of yummy sauced sweet potatoes and brown rice in a bento box. deeeelicious.
[..so the other day when i picked up my purse, it sounded like an entire piggy bank was inside it, jingling around.]

you know the kind of tired you feel when you've been at a fair or a theme park all day? when your legs are sore and your whole body feels tired to the bone? that's usually how i feel at the end of the night.
and just the amount of walking is crazy. this walking for half an hour or more a day in questionable walking shoes is whipping my legs in to shape quickly.
who knows where i can get comfy/cute flats?
[turns out, the lining of my inside pocket had a HOLE that i didn't know about, and all of my change had fallen and was now in the space between the actual leather and the lining. and not a little change. it was all of the american and taiwanese change i emptied out of my wallet at various times.]

booked a ticket to new hampshire at the end of october! it seems like forever since i've seen gram and spanky, when it's really only been a yearish.
[so now my purse is significantly lighter and i think i gained a few dollars in quarters and pennies, as well as several hundred NT.]

lights up the world from inside

let's talk DC office fashion. imagine your closet. if you're like me, you have a couple things in every color with lots of brights. now delete everything that isn't black, gray, navy or white. add 2 jewel tones. you can choose from royal blue, burgundy, emerald green or really bright pink. it's crazy! i don't know how these women do it.

the uniform is generally black or gray pants, black heels or boots, frilly white button up shirt or ruffly shirt with a vest or a sweater or a jacket. or a black suit dress with a sweater or jacket. and some giant earrings or necklace or pin or scarf, also monotone.

by contrast though, i feel like a circus act. today i wore a bright blue dress and i felt like i might as well have been dressed like carmen miranda. it's weird. i'm telling myself that since i'm in my early 20's i can wear something other than gray and just not care that i don't look like everyone else. plus i have to work with what i have, so there's just no choice but to suck it up.

i had lunch with a guy i met while i was apartment searching who wanted to practice mandarin with me. it was a little awkward but we got by. the waitress caught on and took our order in chinese which was kind of cute. we were at a chinese restaurant downtown.

picture day

let's go on a mini house tour.
this is the living room. the books on the bookshelf make me laugh. there's every toni morrison book ever written, all sorts of parenting books, suze orman books, bill clinton's autobiography, women's bodies women's health, a bunch of video tapes from the '90s. every day i look at one more section.
kitchen with acid yellow open shelving. not my first choice, but it works if you don't turn the light on.
my room is pretty teensy so it's hard to take a picture of it..
now gram's quilt has made it to 4 of my beds.
while i was looking, i found pictures of my room in texas while i was packing stuff. my parents are moving so i had to pack whatever i want to keep. it was kind of a big task since all of that stuff has been accumulating for so long and i'm a little bit of a pack rat, i'm not sure if you can tell ;)

it's fun to look over stuff from the past though. before i had the blog, there were calendars. you have to have some kind of system when you have a bad memory.
this is a coffee from a couple weeks ago. i thought that coffee shop might be my new favorite, but i've decided drinks are prohibitively expensive in this town. i'd rather spend money on food and bring my own coffee to work. who pays $4 for coffee when a meal is $8?
this evening jasmine, the girl from work and i went to chinese food for dinner at this place, which was kind of a let down. i thought jasmine would like it because the menu had chinese on it and it looked like they had lots of traditional dishes. she did comment on how she misses seeing chinese around, so one point there.

then we went to the kennedy center because they have a free show every single dayyy. today it was a sample of their home company's upcoming ballets. we were in an overflow room watching it on a screen, but it was a nice way to spend an evening.
the scale of the kennedy center is amazing.

for it's texas that we love best

at 11:30 or so i just get completely exhausted and can't function. better to keep going to sleep early and getting up early though so i don't hate myself on mondays.

today becca and nirav were playing soccer and they needed another girl on the team so their team wouldn't get DQd, so i coerced one of my new friends from work to play. she hadn't played since she was 8, but i didn't even bring tennis shoes to DC with me. they didn't win, but they didn't forfeit.

this afternoon i met up with jasmine, a taiwanese girl who's friends with alex guppy, who's going to a language institute in DC. i think we said 4 words to each other while we were in taoyuan, but we were both happy to see a familiar face this afternoon. she's never been to the US before and she's been here a week, so i'm sure she could use some lifelines. she'd be a good addition to the circle.

i can barely keep my eyes open. go texas! we beat tech tonight. i need to update the football sidebar. maybe tomorrow.

string theory

when's the last time you wrote in cursive? try it. write something like 'the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog' so you can remember how to write every single letter. it's hard. i haven't done it since first grade and thus my cursive is the exact same as we learned when i was 7.

speaking of handwriting, who remembers denelian?

a couple of lessons from today.
- careers in public service are worth it
- silver metallic shoes are office appropriate
- ..the fact that i can't think of a third means it's time for bed. busy day tomorrow.

it never gets dull

there are lots of funny things that come along with picking up and moving your life around without really planning any of it or knowing what you're doing. i think one of the most interesting lessons i've learned is about friendship and resilience. my mom has told me a million times how when we moved to CA from AZ i was all concerned to leave my friends, but you make new friends everywhere you go and you'd never want to give up anyone you've met.

but it's interesting to start out in a new city without knowing your way around and without having a circle of friends. it's easy to take your close group of friends for granted when you have one, but you're pretty aware of it when they're missing. i'm lucky that i have a handful of friends here so that i don't feel homesick or truly lonely, but i'm constantly on the lookout for people to add to my circle. coffee shops, the metro, work, the sidewalk.. you just never know.

well today i got to go to the healthcare rally at UMD
there's no way my cell phone camera will ever take really wonderful pictures but somewhere down there is president obama. the speech was almost the exact same as the speech he gave to congress the other night. he did tell the story behind 'fired up, ready to go' and it was kind of touching.

when he was first looking for supporters when he announced his run for office, he was in south carolina at a dinner with state officials (i think..) and he asked one of the congresswomen for her backing (i think it was a congresswoman) and she said only if you visit greenborough (or something. wow. my details are no good today). candidate obama said OK (he added that he had had a glass of wine at that point). come to find out, the town was an hour and a half away so he had to leave super early in the morning, he was tired, cold, it was raining, his umbrella broke, he was wet and angry for having to drive so far.
when he got to the meeting, only 20 people were there. this little woman came in and said 'fired up!' and everyone said 'ready to go!' candidate obama was a little miffed that the tiny woman was showing him up, but he said that after a few minutes of it, he did feel fired up and ready to go. after that, he kind of adopted it as a staff motto. he said it illustrated how one person can make a difference in a room, which makes a difference in a town, in a city, in a state, in a country, in the world. love him.

the little things

love DC..

• being able to throw my toilet paper in the toilet and not in the trash can.. though sometimes i have to think twice about it
• hot water in the kitchen sink!!
• a sink that never has dirty dishes in it
• everything you eat is delicious
  
• a bed at a normal height
• speaking to everyone about everything in english

miss Taiwan..

• my babies who i don't get to see every week
• friends who you live/work/play with
• tea shops
• the kuo's
• my scooter
• everything you eat is between $1 and $3
  
• speaking to everyone about everything in mandarin

p.s. i think i've mentioned it before but bill cunningham's on the street fashion slideshows are something i look forward to every sunday. he's like your grandpa if your grandpa was super knowledgable about fashion. i love the way he talks and what he notices on the streets of NYC. anyway if you want to add a once a week treat, i recommend him very highly.

tuesday's child

this is going to be a quick update while i'm picking up wireless from somewhere around me..

not much to report from yesterday. it was a circus in the kitchen as i attempted to simultaneously cook pasta salad, spinach strawberry salad and quesadillas. there were some moments i didn't think i was going to make it.. but i did.

at lunch we discussed how it's unfair that guys have to wear suits every day in an office and girls can wear dresses, pants, skirts and suits at their discretion. i wore a skirt, tank top and sweater so when we sat outside at lunch i could just take off the sweater and i was nice and cool. the guys didn't think that was fair. i guess it isn't. i tried to make the point that it's slightly easier for them to choose what to wear in the morning..? they weren't buying that.

weekend

well i didn't know that i can't update my blog via my iphone, but i can't. i found a coffee shop down the street with wifi though so crisis averted until we get wireless in the apartment.

yesterday i moved into the apartment [that's chinese grammar]. for now, i've got a room to myself until my friend miriam moves in (hopefully) and then we'll move into the bigger room and share it. it's really nice and bright and i've just thrown my stuff around the room so it feels like mine. well last night i met up with lesley and her mom and we went to a really wonderful restaurant in adam's morgan called meze. lesley ordered almost one of everything veggie and it was all really delicious. zucchini cakes, dill and cheese cigars, spinach strawberry salad, roasted eggplant on toast, salmon skewers,... her mom started her own non profit to help women in developing countries and she's on an apertif spree, so we were drinking raki. it's like milky white, black licorice concentrate in liquid form. took some getting used to, but i'm glad we tried it.
i think/hope lesley and i will get together at least once a week or so. she goes to school close to where i live and she's always doing something cool and finding new places and things to do. a perfect start to a social life in DC.

then today there was a street food festival in adam's morgan. i guess what happens is that each neighborhood has its own day. today was adam's morgan day. so i met up with my friend john who i went to high school with and we wandered for a bit before meeting up with a fellow intern. i had two tacos al pastor for $5 and watermelon agua fresca. soo good on a hot, sunny day with a million people around you in sundresses and sandals. it all felt very austin-y really.

THENN i went to the grocery store and did my shop for the week. i'm trying to make it so that everything i bought would be used in 2 different meals. strawberry salad, chicken enchiladas, quesadillas, bagels and yogurt with mixed dried fruit and nuts.
i made the chicken enchiladas tonight and i learned an important lesson: it's probably worth $1 to not have to pick chicken off of bones. it's definitely worth 10 cents to buy the cheese already shredded. and i'm not sure that i'm ever buying unpitted olives again. that was just an honest mistake. they were the only black olives in the store.

let's end with a recipe. i'm proud of it because it's one of the 5 things i can make without a recipe.
majjy's chicken enchiladas
serves 4 or so with leftovers
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts (or tenders, or on the bone)
1 white onion
1 can of black olives
cheddar cheese
1 large can or 2 small cans of the red enchilada sauce in the yellow cans
10 small or 5 large flour or corn tortillas

cook and shred chicken or cut into chunks. you can also leave it raw, but it's easier to make sure you don't have any gross bits if you cook it first. dice onion and olives. mix all of the chicken, olives and onion in a bowl with half the enchilada sauce and 3/4 of the cheese. pour some enchilada sauce on the bottom of a 9x9 pan, dredge 2 tortillas in enchilada sauce and line to coat bottom of pan. put a layer of chicken stuff on top. keep layering and finish with tortillas on top. cover with the other half of enchilada sauce, pushing the extra down the sides and into the corners. cover with rest of the cheese. bake at 325 or 350 for half an hour or 45min or an hour (depending on whether or not you precooked the chicken) until the cheese is bubbly on top.
voila! keeps well in the fridge for a week or so. it's ok if it gets crispy in the microwave.. i think it's better that way.

did i say that i love you?

isn't it interesting how every region in america has its own vibe? i was born in california but i really grew up in flagstaff, arizona. we were there for preschool-4th grade. it's really clear and crisp. we used to go drive my dad's beat up truck in the aspen forests and go skiing in the winter. it was an overwhelmingly outdoorsy place to grow up. i used to grind up plants (and grasshoppers. i admit it.) in the back yard with cinderblocks and pretend like i had my own cooking show.

anyway if i keep going like this, it could be a long night. but today was a good example of how DC feels like a northeastern city. it was drizzly and gray all day. the trees felt like leaves were bending down with rain and the slate on sidewalks and front porches was darker than usual. you just wanted to curl up with a sweater, socks and a bowl of clam chowder or cup of coffee.

but in austin, a rainy day is a whole different thing. it's usually clear until all of the sudden a big downpour happens with giant rain drops and water rushing down the streets. everything gets dark for half an hour or so and you curl up on the couch with a book, but next thing you know it lets up and it's back to normal and sunny except that everything seems a little greener and perked up.

i guess this week has just been a lot of me thinking about what kind of environment i'm looking for. i liked the adventure of taiwan but it could sometimes feel very far from home. i like austin because it reminds me of how much fun i had with big groups of friends, but they're gone now. i like DC because it's 'northeasternyness' reminds me of summers in new hampshire at my grandparents' house. it's nice to feel like i could go in any direction, but i also don't feel particularly tied to anywhere which can be a little scary.

unrelated: i made it all the way to work without slipping on rainy sidewalks and RIGHT when i walked into my building, i was rushing to the security desk, stepped off the carpet and onto the marble and my legs went out from under me and i fell right on my butt with my wrist on the floor. i get it! enough already.

one more day

week 1 observations about DC:

• everyone is/thinks they are very important. and i'm sure many of them are. but no matter how important you are, it shouldn't exempt you from being polite, helpful or friendly
• 75% of people don't make eye contact with strangers
• you can't wear khaki to work
• the most put-together looking people are the ones with at least one print and one accessory
• the more secure people are with themselves, the more friendly and helpful they are to you, no matter what your title [or theirs] is
• lunch is almost invariably at least $8 (thankfully, except at a few places like potbelly, where we went for lunch today)
• it's always chilly outside and boiling hot on the metro
• you should never laugh at the people with tennis shoes and suits. those are the smartest people in this town
• there are real indian restaurants with food made by real indian people and it's cheaper than taiwan!

i don't know if you were with me at the start of blonde in taiwan, but this is how we do things around here. not so sure at the beginning, maybe a little pessimistic, and then we grow and learn and get comfortable from there. and i really am loving it. but taiwan showed me that there's more in life than offices and suits and DC can just be a whole lot of that.

called the kuo's tonight!

catch up

i haven't read anyone else's blog in a really long time so i'm going to use the next hour or so to catch up which means tonight will be short. it's ok because i only have one story. DC is full of these silly, giant metal grates all over the sidewalks which (i think) run over the metro. well this morning it was drizzly so everything was wet, and i was wearing my new shoes which have absolutely no traction.

so i'm checking my email on my phone and holding an umbrella and all of the sudden i step on a metal grate and my legs go in two completely different directions, bambi style, and the next thing i know i'm flat on the ground. i fell like you fall on the ice. knees hard on the ground, palms out, where you want to cry because it legitimately hurts but you can kiiind of bite your lip to stop it. AAND i look down and there's a trickle of blood running down my leg and both of my knees are all scraped up.

i ran to starbucks across the street, grabbed a handfull of napkins and tried not to draw much more attention to myself as i dabbed at my knee. thankfully, another girl i met is super prepared and she had purel and a bandaid.

so that was my morning. the day only got better from there. seriously. :)

unclassified

i wish i could tell you all of the cool things that happened today. i'm not sure how enthralling this blog is going to be. but i'll keep truckin' until it becomes apparent that i have nothing to say. today isn't that day yet though.

things i CAN tell you:
made it to work on time!
i nearly bit the dust on the metro. that thing makes sudden and forceful stops. i ended up grabbing onto a girls shoulder and then faking my best light texan accent to say 'ohmygoodness i am so so-ray'. ok this is a lie. but i did apologize enough that it was painfully obvious i was not from around here.
decided to wear stockings. this was a back and forth issue among other interns. i decided to be on the safe/mildly uncomfortable side.
fun wiki fact: the wooden staircase railings in the executive office building were replaced with brass ones during the taft presidency because president taft was too hefty for the wood.

other exciting news: i finally met my future roommates and saw the apartment. it's decorated kind of tribal african-y. deep reds and oranges, lots of plants. it's up on the top floor so we get a nice breeze and my roommates are lovely. the guy, ruda, and i have been talking through email a ton in the last month so it was nice to actually meet him. he's awesome. did city year through americorps. he's friendly, outgoing, nice. we went to dinner and chatted up this guy scott, who made our sandwiches at potbelly. i told scott we're going to be besties by the end of december. i think he's excited.

i don't know if it's because this was my method for practicing chinese in taiwan, but i literally can't help but talk to strangers now. i stopped to talk to a woman on my way down the escalator in the metro because she was holding some birthday balloons. talked to people in the grocery store. no one is safe! then they always ask where i'm from. people commented on my lack of texas accent. the re-education begins. i think maybe i should just be a 'real texas' ambassador.

ok nirav and i are making mojitos. until tomorrow. i think the sugar in my tea made me wired.

9 hours..

today was a nice final day before the work week. ran some errands with bec and nirav in the morning and we had lunch at a really good restaurant near the metro, open city. later i met up with lesley who taught with me in taiwan. we had delicious chai tea and coffee. she's doing well and excited about her job here. she also had some good tips about DC and getting around, what there is to do, etc.

i just ironed my shirt and hung up my suit for tomorrow. i'm nervous about waking up on time but really excited to just get the first day overwith! i want to meet everyone else, figure out where i'm going, see what people in my office are wearing.

i'm going to dry my hair and get to bed. talk to you sooonn!

metro maven

well, until i figure out what i want to do about the new blog, we'll keep going here. i arrived in DC yesterday and bec and i went to watch the UT game with a bunch of people she knew from grad school and her fiance, nirav. many exciting things there. UT won! OU lost! sam bradford is out! anyway they have a lovely apartment and i'm so glad to sleep on a comfy air mattress with my down comforter in the interim.
tonight i went to dinner downtown with 25 or so of the other interns and they are all amazing. everyone's done cool things, friendly, put-together and bubbly. the organizer is a total powerhouse. she was mingling like a pro, knew who everyone was. and one guy noticed that three of our birthdays had just gone by so he brought 3 cards, had everyone secretly sign them and bought us tiramisu! totally sweet, right?
and there's a mandarin speaker. he said my accent was good [!]. so now i'm extra excited to start on tuesday. i met 3 people who will be working in my office and they're all really sweet so it will be great.

DC itself is nice. it feels safe, young, "vibrant".. which is a word i don't think i've ever seriously used. but there are people walking around everywhere and fun shops and trees all over the place. bec and i drove by the neighborhood i'll be in and it's totally cute. there's a street with all kinds of cute little shops, a grocery store, and twooo indian food places. i think i'll be making friends with those owners.

so that's the update!

DC

i'm leaving for DC in 4 hoursss! i guess i'll have the 5 hours on the plane to think of my new blog name because it should probably start tonight, right?
right nowww i'm thinking
a) DC blondie
b) the DC chapter
c) coincidenceless

i have a couple errands to run this morning and i can't fit one more thing in my suit case, so that's finished. getting excited!

mid twenties

it's my birthday!
andy and i went to walton's fancy and staple for lunch, which i had never heard of/looooved. it's owned by sandra bullock and it's new to austin. kind of a bistro, but in the back it's a florist and stationery shop. so beautiful.
i could live in there if they would just tuck a bed into the side of the wall or something. so light and bright with fresh daisies everywhere and giant white windows.(these are pictures i took with my iphone. so fancy.)
then we went to a frozen yogurt place for dessert. what a nice start to my birthday.

tonight i'm going to the melting pot with the fam. right now i'm in the process of talking my mom into letting me open oneee present. i'm not winning the battle, but i haven't really given it my all yet. i'll post pictures after dinner tonight.
update: i got to open gram's presents. check out how fluffy my shoulders are in this top.

other than that, yesterday i sorted everything in my room that's been accumulating in there since i was little. you wouldn't believe the things i uncovered. pictures to come.

walking on a dream

the highlights:

• woke up at 1030 which is an exciting indicator that i might be conquering the jet lag
• maj is home so now there are 4 people in this house again
• i made one of the salads from the NYT summer salad list.. they don't give you any measurements so it's kind of hit or miss. it was alriiiight. could have used a lot more garlic.
• found a place to live in DC. have i mentioned that? it's cheap, it's close, it should be perfect.
• went to lunch with some people from the company i worked for after i graduated. it was fun to catch up with them. we went to my favorite restaurant, yum.
• faj and i went to costco and i overheard a conversation between a kid and a mom in mandarin. funny when words in other languages don't sound like gibberish but actually register as real words. i don't think that's going to get old soon.