exhaustion and excitement - what a combo!

so i'm sitting here, barely able to keep my eyes open to watch the Va Tech v. Nebraska game (and what the heck - hokies are ahead!!!). it all began yesterday when i finally got my ass in gear to start loading up my car with stuff from my storage unit for THE MOVE!!! i also ran a bunch of last minute errands that i'd either procrastinated doing or just forgot to do them. when i arrived back home, i wolfed down some pizza, got myself ready and drove up to my sister's place so that we could cab together to my farewell party. the party was planned to be low key since my sister had to work at the crack of dawn, my brother had a friend's bachelor party to go to today, and a few other folks had stuff going on. i was fine with low key - last thing i wanted to be was hung over while loading the rest of my stuff into the car.

first location was pretty low key - about 10 of us hanging out, having a few beers and catching up. before we knew it, it was midnight and folks had to head out. well, my brother and his mancrush roommate decided they were going to the second location (our favorite bar on capital hill). i went along thinking i'd call it a night by 1am. but no, the party animal that i am, i stayed to close down the bar. a habit that my brother, sister and i tend to do quite often. like they said on 30 rock, "never go with hippies to the second location." my brother and his mancrush roommate aren't hippies (more like idiots), but i think you get the point.

so i wake up this morning with a touch of a hangover. not a full blown rager, thankfully, but enough of one to make me feel tired all day long. when i got back home, i began loading the aforementioned clothes into my car. this was supposed to be an easy task that ended up taking me 4 hours. i was awfully optimistic that i could fit all of my fall/winter wardrobe into the back seat of my car with no problem. i realized that i have a lot of clothes/shoes. and i mean A LOT! i ended up having to take a box or two out and mail them along with some boxes of clothes that wouldn't fit. all in all, i've probably snail mailed over 100 lbs. and $300 worth of goods to my new place. good times.

thankfully, the car is loaded and all i have to do is get some sleep and wake up tomorrow morning, jump in the car and take off to columbus. i can't wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

changes - they are acomin'!

so, after recovering from my vacation, i finally started prepping for the BIG MOVE. i started out the week getting my mind organized, writing down all the To Do lists, prioritizing them and then scheduling them. now that i think of it, i probably should have used Microsoft Project for this effort - as much thought and concentration i put into my lists, it may have been easier (and more like the Project Manager in me) to put them into MS Project. anyway, I digress...

i began running errands, making the appropriate phone calls, buying the necessary items to get me through the first night in my new 'home', separating the clothes/shoes/bags that i'm taking from those i'm leaving behind, etc. as much as i knew the time was coming, i'm finally feeling like it's more of a reality than a theoretical. and i'm really, really, REALLY excited!!!

my plan is to drive myself and the mopster up to ohio to visit my family there. i'll spend a few days with them, then drive on the last 6 hours to Chicago. i have no idea what to expect - and while that thought is sort of scary, it's also pretty exciting at the same time. my main concern is whether or not i will find work. i'm surprisingly optimistic that once i'm on the ground, i'll find a job. and i'm also wondering if i'll have more luck with love in Chicago than i had in Boston or DC. my thought there is that i won't be traveling as much, so i can actually form and develop friendships/relationships. fortunately, the city holds some of the greatest friends that a girl can have. they are all very supportive of my move and are just as excited as i am that my arrival is just a week away.

4 days til OBX, 15 days til Chicago bound!

i am counting down the days until i head to the beach. not that i'm stressed out and could use a break or anything. cause, let's face it, i'm on sabbatical. however, there's nothing like being at the outer banks. the pristine beaches, soothing sea air, beautiful water - it's all that a beach should be.

i'm not one for the touristy beaches like myrtle or ocean city. when i want to get away to relax and spend time with friends, i don't want to hear the noises of arcades, screaming kids and drunks everywhere (although, i could easily be one of those drunks). i like the reclusive feel of obx. sure there are sections that are densely populated (Nags Head), but for the most part it's uncommercialized.

once i get back, then i have to pack up my fall/winter gear and head to chicago. i'm really excited about this new adventure in my life. i have a feeling it's going to be a good change for me. the process of getting there, though, is seriously beginning to stress me out. and when i stress, i tend to procrastinate. at least when it comes to my personal life - work is a different story. i have a list that's never ending of things i need to do, but i'm holding on the excuse that i need to focus on the beach first, move second. obviously you can see where my priorities lie.

so that's what's on my mind today. nothing earth shattering; just my own self-absorbed thoughts that i needed to put out there to relieve some of my own self-induced stress. because my life is so stressful (rolling eyes).

Remembering 9/11/2001

Seven years ago to the day, I was scheduled to fly to Germany mid-morning. I was going to visit an old friend of mine and was so excited. I had looked forward to my return to Deutschland for quite some time. I was driving to work when I heard the news break on the radio of the first plane going into the World Trade Center tower. No one knew if it was an accident, terrorist, what. Shortly after, the second plane flew into the building - this time I knew something was up.

I grew up in Germany in the 80's. Every other day we had bomb threats at the high school, where we would go through the drill of evacuating the building and hiking the mile or so away to a shelter. We had bomb threats on the post we lived, where we were under lockdown and couldn't leave the post. I had friends that died in the terrorist plane bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland. So I'm pretty familiar with terrorism. I never imagined that a terrorist attack would happen literally so close to home in my lifetime.

As I came closer to work, I had a weird feeling that DC was going to be hit next. It just made sense - it's the capitol and houses the country's leaders. Upon arriving into the parking lot at work, I saw a friend of mine who informed me that the DC area was on high alert and everyone was told to go home. That sealed the deal for me, I headed straight to Arlington. My mom was in training at Belvoir and my brother worked in Tyson's, so I knew they were safe. Fortunately my father, who normally would have been at the Pentagon that day, was on travel that week. My sister, however, worked in a high rise directly across from the Pentagon. I figured if something happened, she would need someone there with her. When I called her to let her know I was heading her way, she was hysterical. She thought there was an earthquake or something - they didn't know what was going on. I told her I would be there as soon as possible.

I drove like a bat out of hell on the beltway at a speed of approximately 115 mph. I was exiting the beltway onto I395 when my sister called me crying. "Mindy, it was a plane. A plane went into the side of the Pentagon!" I couldn't believe it. The Pentagon?! The fortress which houses the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard?! How is that possible?!

I arrived in Arlington a few minutes later, maybe 5 miles from my sister's office, when I ran into a roadblock. The police were clearing out the northbound lanes so that the mass exodus could take place from DC. I devised a plan to take side roads and called my sister. They were being forced out of the building; since she lived 2 blocks from her office, she decided to go to her house and wait for me there.

The scene along the way was just unimaginable. From every angle you could see the smoke rising up into the sky. Jets were crisscrossing the sky - I Air Force planes ready to attack any additional threats. It was as if our Armed Forces were preparing for World War III. The mass exodus from DC and Arlington was beginning; ashen and shocked faced people were walking along roads where pedestrians are not normally seen. At first it was just a sprinkling of people, but then it turned into what appeared to be a marathon - wave upon wave of walkers. And the eerie thing was the silence. Normally if you see that many people, and especially under these conditions, you would expect a ton of noise, crying, hysterics and maybe even the occasional scream. However, on this day, I only heard the sound of footsteps and the sound of soft murmuring into cell phones, letting their loved ones know they were okay.

It took me about an hour to drive the five miles to my sister's place. The closer I got, the more intense the burning smell became. It was a smell I will never forget - a mix of burning plastic, metal and fuel. And the debris - it was coming down like a light snow, covering trees, the sidewalk and cars. We were glued to the television, wanting to know the updates of the Pentagon crash. That's when we learned of a third plane that had headed toward DC but turned towards Pennsylvania and crashed - that was United Flight 93. We kept asking ourselves, "What's next?!"

My sister's roommate wanted to try to help out the victims at the Pentagon. She decided to grab her first aid kit and walk over - mind you, the first aid kit contained maybe one roll of gauze, some band aids and alcohol wipes. Not the stuff to conduct sutures and bandage up massive abrasions. Nor was the roommate a member of the medical community; she was a research assistant at my sister's office. However, I commend her for wanting to help, we all did, but my sister and I knew we'd be more of a hindrance than help. Twenty minutes later, the roommate was back - she had been told to turn around and to return back to the place from which she came.

After a few hours, my sister and I decided to get the hell out of Arlington and go to parent’s house 30 miles south. From my sister’s you could see and walk to the interstate, it was 3 blocks away, however the height of the exodus was occurring. Two hours later, we finally managed to get to the interstate. Another hour and we arrived home shortly followed by my mom and brother. As a family, minus my father, we continued to watch coverage for the remainder of the day and night.

Even though I know the attacks happened, it's still unbelievable that our country was invaded by people that felt so strongly in their beliefs, they wanted to hurt themselves and thousands of innocent victims to make their point clear. While I'm proud that our country pulled together and put forth a united front, it still saddens me to think of all the people that were lost in the attacks. I say a prayer for those that had their loved ones taken from them, and feel selfish when I'm thankful that mine are still with me. I still get choked up when I watch the memorial tributes each anniversary. Each year, it gets a little bit easier however the memories never go away; we will always remember.

sweet home chicago!

so it's been a while...what else is new? i really do try to keep up with this blog, but every day life and it's interuptions get the best of me.

anyway, let me get you up to speed: after my college campus tours, i went 'on the bench' at work (translation: didn't have any projects to work on, so i was unbillable = cost/liability for the company) for a few months. just before memorial day, i found out that the firm was laying me off. not a big shock - i had seen the writing on the wall. we didn't have ANY work coming in, and our anchor clients were cutting back on their consultants. it was just a matter of time. so, i made the decision to take the summer off. i was going to look for jobs in three cities: DC, Chicago and Boston. If the right opportunity came to me then I would settle in that city, however i wouldn't start until after labor day.

during my 'sabbatical', i traveled a little bit, relaxed and beached it a lot. i eventually received an offer from a small local consultancy which seemed like a great company with the exception that they wanted to hire me with lower overall compensation, lower level and with the same amount of travel. i wans't exactly enthused by it, but i figured that nothing else had come along, so why not?

then, i went to visit friends in chicago. it was a GREAT time! it made me realize how much i wanted to try out chicago. on my last day there, i had brunch with allie, who talked me through some things. see, she was in the midst of reading "steering by starlight," authored by martha beck. allie explained the premise of the book, which, in very simplistic terms, is that your destiny is out there for you to find - you just need to open your eyes and see the 'signs' or 'magic'. allie pointed out that i have placed obstacles in front of myself regarding moving to chicago, and that there are ways to overcome those obstacles...i just needed to open my eyes. for every obstacle i threw at her, allie gave me a handful of potential solutions. how could i argue? thanks to her listening skills and pointing out that i was a 'story teller,', we went straight to the bookstore so that i could pick up my own copy of "steering by starlight."

i have to tell you - it was a truly eye-opening book. if you haven't read it, i highly recommend you pick it up! after reading just a few chapters of the book, i realized that allie (and martha beck) were right - i was the creator of my own obstacles. so, i did some research, found the financial means and made the decision to try out chicago. i'm moving there on october 1st, and will see what i can find in three months. if i find work there and enjoy it, then i'll stay. if not, then i'll move back to DC in december. this way, i won't have any regrets - i'll have tried something new and will know one way or another if chicago really is my destiny. :)