2 Days, 7 States and 3 Beds Later, I'm back in DC!

I've had one hell of a week...I left Chicago on Tuesday to begin my long trek home to DC for the holidays. I drove to Columbus through 7 hours of snow, ice, rain and fog and stayed with my aunt and uncle for the night. I then took off the next morning after a sleet storm had passed and made the last leg of the journey. It wasn't nearly as bad weather-wise, but it was vvvv long.

The next morning, I accompanied my mother to her doctor's appointment for her spine surgery then went shopping in Middleburg. We arrived back home around 6pm, when I went directly into the kitchen to make the homemade salsa I promised to bring to the holiday dinner party a friend was throwing the next night. After the salsa was made and my belly was fed, I went up to bed only to be awoken at 3.30am with horrible stomach pains. I couldn't decide if I was going to puke or poop and ended up spending the next hour in the bathroom doing a little of both. The whole of Friday was spent in my PJs, staying as close as possible to the bathroom for the frequent calls that nature made to me. By 4pm, I decided to get my ass in gear and get ready for the dinner party where we were having Christmas Enchiladas and other various spicy foods that my stomach was not going to be too please about. I guess I could have not eaten, but who are we kidding?! Me pass up delicious food that I did not have to cook?! Hell to the no! In any event, I had planned to indulge in some Christmas spirits, but given my stomach issues and having had a ton of Christmas Enchiladas, I decided to forgo the Christmas Bevvies and headed home around 9pm.

Yesterday I went bopping around town running various errands. Nothing too exciting or glamorous. Hell, nothing in the 'burbs of DC is exciting or glamorous, but I digress. Last night I went to a friend's house for a few drinks, then headed to Captial Hill to catch up with some other folks. It was a fun night, from what I can remember of it, but I realized that I am just too old to whoop it up in a bar and over indulge. I can't drink as much as I used to and the suffering the next day just isn't worth it. I say this every time I go out and have a few too many, but it just doesn't resonate with me. Obviously. So, today was recovery day...a slight headache that went away with the help of a dozen or so Advil and my head feels like someone scooped out my brain and replaced it with cotton. I've suffered through a heck of a lot worse, but if I had my way, I wouldn't be suffering at all. Good times, good times.

The Five Days of Holiday Preparations

Once again, I've slacked on the blog front. I'm not going to provide any excuses because, frankly, I really don't have any other than laziness. I have all the time in the world to blog, but I just don't have the motivation these days - I think it's because I don't have much to talk about. My life is pretty boring given that I'm not working nor do I have a love life. I have friends (thank God), but they have their own lives which I try to plant myself into as much as possible, but even I know when to draw the line and butt out.

So as a result of having no life, I decided to decorate my place for Christmas. This is the first time in my adult life that I have ever decided to take on this task. In the past, I've been too busy traveling for work every Monday through Friday, then going out to catch up with friends and family on the weekends, to bother decorating for the holidays. There never really was a point to it for me since I would only be able to appreciate the tree and decorations on the weekends through my hang over induced stupor. This year, however, I decided to invest the time and hundreds of dollars into decorating...and I'm still not sure if it was worth it.

It started the weekend of Thanksgiving when I was in Columbus. My aunt talked me into getting a tree this year despite my protests of having no decorations and not wanting to spend money due to my unemployment status. My aunt, whom I love to death and is one of my closest confidants, decided we'd go to the WalMart to purchase my decorations on the cheap. So on Black Friday, like fools, we walked into WalMart. It was like a whirlwind cross between the Amazing Race and Supermarket Sweep - we split up and grabbed up everything we needed so that we could get the hell out of the utter craziness of Black Friday in the Smalltown, OH WalMart. We bought the ornaments, hooks, lights and tree stand - all for $60 and in less than 30 minutes! That was Day 1 of Holiday Preparations.

If you know me at all, you know I'm meticulous on what things should look like - colors, theme (if any) and style. I decided to decorate my tree with silver, purplish/burgundy-ish and limey green decorations. Luckily WalMart had the silver and purplish/burgandy-ish ornaments, but they didn't have squat in the limey green department. So, when I got back to Chicago and on Day 2 of Holiday Preparation, I set about trying to find the limey green ornaments. It was fairly simple, but not very cheap. I went to Crate & Barrel where I found four ornaments in the shade of green I wanted, but that was it. The sales associate at Crate & Barrel suggested I look at CB2 (the less expensive sister store of Crate & Barrel). I went to CB2 and sure enough, they had pleny of ornaments in the color I wanted. I bought a ton of them, and between the two stores I somehow managed to spend $115...who knew ornaments could be so expensive?!

On Day 3 of Holiday Preparation, my first stop was at Target to find cheap stockings (one for me and one for Mopsy) and a tree topper. My original thought was to hang the stockings on the mantle of my fireplace using scotch tape. It may not be 'pretty' per se, but it was cheap and would do the trick. However, when I was perusing the aisles of the hoiday decor, I came across these stocking hangers that I couldn't resist. They sit at the edge of the mantle and have a hook on which to hang the stockings. My total Target purchase was $25 - not bad, but remember, I'm supposedly trying to stay on the cheap.

Next, I needed garland. Now, I wasn't going to use just any garland. No - not me. I had to have something fitting with my color scheme and with some sort of flair. I decided I needed ribbon that matched the purplish/burgandyish and limey green of my ornaments, and I figured it would be easy to find. What I fool I was. I went to JoAnn fabrics thinking they would have wired ribbon in the exact colors I would need, but alas, that was an incorrect assumption. I ended up finding two sets of ribbon (unwired) in the colors I wanted, but I would have to customize it myself. I bought all the ribbon I needed and some iron-on bonding agent, and decided I'd bond the two colored ribbons together myself so that one side was purplish/burgandyish and the other side was the limey green color. After $20 of ribbon purchasing, I had everything I needed for my tree except the tree itself.

Finally, I was off to purchase a tree. Originally I was planning to get a tree from the lot around the corner from me - they have a ton and I figured that would be the easiest. Luckily, my wise friend JK told me that I should go to Home Depot for my tree. The lots tend to charge $20/foot, where as Home Depot had 6 - 7 foot trees for $35. Again, I was on the cheap, so off to Home Depot I drove. I found the perfect tree, had a friendly sales guy trim the trunk and tie it to the top of the car. I drove that tree home and carried it up to my loft. Then I tackled getting the tree into the stand. That was a FREAKING BITCH to do. I was cussing like a merchant sailor trying to get the damned tree into the f'ing stand. Let me correct myself, getting the tree into the stand wasn't so bad. It was getting the damn tree to stand straight up in the stand that was the shitty part of the whole experience. The tree kept leaning to the side, no matter how many times and directions I maneuvered it. I finally gave up once I realized the tree wouldn't fall over, and left it alone overnight so that the branches would drop.

So, now we're at Day 4 of holiday decorating and around $260+ poorer. This is the day I decided to hang all the decorations I purchased. I started with another attempt at getting the tree to stand straight. I was on the floor trying to tilt the tree to just the right angle so that I could adjust the stand in order to have the tree straight. This went on for over an hour before I decided to say, "Fuck it," and pulled a tacky MacGyver move. I went into my jewelery making kit (yes, I design and make jewelry, but I'll tell you more about that another time) and pulled out some wire. I wrapped the wire around the tree and tied it to a post sticking out of the brick exposed wall, thereby making the tree stand more at an 85 degree angle rather than at the 65 degree angle it was originally. While 85 degrees is not a perfect 90 degrees, I was willing to admit defeat, note that my tree was going to be somewhere between ghetto and fabulous, and moved on.

I then tackled the lights, and everyone knows what a pain in the ass the lights are. I wrapped all 9 1/2 feet of lights on that 6 ft. tall tree and realized I still needed more lights. F that - I was sticking with 9 1/2 feet. Hell if I was spending another dollar on this God forsaken tree...I unwrapped all the lights and re-wrapped them so they were evenly distributed around the entire tree. It still needed more lights, but fuck it...now for the garland. I strung the ribbon around the tree thinking that 8 feet surely would be plenty since it was only going on the outside of the tree, not outside and inside like the lights. But no, I still needed more - the ribbon only made it half way down the tree. I actually considered running out to JoAnn Fabrics again to purchase more ribbon and bonding agent, but again stuck to my guns about not spending another penny on this shitty-pain-in-the-ass tree. I reassembled the ribbon on the tree so that it would pass for decent and moved on to the decorations.

Hanging the decorations was the easiest and most enjoyable part of this whole process. I placed each ornament in just the right place, making sure that the three colors were equally placed amongst the entire tree. Once I was satisfied at how the ornaments were placed, I noticed that I had a ton of silver and purplish/burgundyish ornaments left over. So, I took those ornaments and placed them in various bowls and vases throughout the loft. I also hung my stockings on the mantle and did other little touches here and there. Three hours after starting this process on Day 4 of Holiday Preparation, I stood back and admired my work. I successfully bought, assembled and decorated my first very own Christmas tree and decorated my apartment.

As I called it on my Facebook page, here is the fruit of my stressed out, curse word filled labor:



Day 5 of Holiday Preparations was spent shopping downtown for presents. I managed to find and purchase 99% of the presents I needed in that one three hour trip. This was a feat - never before had I finished my holiday shopping in one day, much less three hours. Yesterday, I bought the last prezzie so now all I have to do is wrap and drive the 13 hours back to DC and the holidays can begin!

Loft Living

Okay, I've slacked off again. However, I have good reason for not posting lately. After doing my celebratory "I got a job" shopping, I spent the weekend hanging out with friends and packing up my old place – a major chore I dreaded doing, so I spent all weekend doing bits at a time. I still hadn't heard back from anyone about my contract on Friday, but I wasn't too worried as I wasn't expecting to hear anything until Monday. Monday came and went and not a word about the contract. The bad news came on Tuesday morning when I received an email from the company that hired me, stating they needed to retract my offer. Obviously, my immediate response was, "SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!" Turns out that nine client projects the company was expecting to complete in 2009 were canceled. As a result, they decided to put a freeze on hiring until they could figure out the market impacts after the new year. So, basically I was screwed and back to square one. I didn’t have a job, had to be out of my apartment on the 1st, was still trying to get Mopsy back to full health and still had a six hour drive ahead of me to Columbus. Happy fucking Thanksgiving!

Well, Thanksgiving with my mom, brother, sister, aunt, uncle and two cousins (not to mention Mopsy, the Columbus family's dog Ralph and their 3 cats, 2 donkeys, horse, bazillion chickens and rooster) was really great. Amazingly enough, no one fought (primarily my family) and no one got in trouble with their parents (primarily the Columbus cousins). The only thing that could have made it better was some drinking. Okay, that makes me sound like an alcoholic...what I mean to say is that we could have used some champagne or wine. However, my uncle really is an alcoholic and therefore my aunt bans all alcoholic bevvies from the house. It sucks because my mom and siblings and I like to think that a family that drinks together stays together. I guess you could say it’s our motto. 

So I left Columbus on Saturday and made the trek back to Chicago - and thank goodness I left when I did, because from what I heard, traveling on Sunday SUCKED. When I arrived at my apartment in Chicago, I immediately began loading up my car and moving stuff to my new place. It took me four trips, three hours and a lot of cursing to complete my move. The next step was the walk-thru...so Sunday I was over at the old apartment doing some light cleaning (luckily I'm kind of OCD about keeping my place clean, so there wasn't too much cleaning required) and completed the walk-thru in 20 minutes.

Now I'm settled into my new place. I picked it because it's pretty. Yes, I am a superficial person and judged the loft by its looks. Heck, you can see for yourself that the place is pretty awesome from the picture to the left. I've always wanted to live in a loft – it always seemed like the cool thing a 20 or 30-something would do. However this loft, while cool, could use some thicker walls. Sunday night I discovered that the walls are so thin that it sounded like my neighbor was sitting on the couch right next to me while he cussed out the Bears (they played a pitiful game, so I don’t blame my neighbor for yelling at them). It’s going to be rather tricky should I throw a party here (which is plausible given that the place has a kegerator) or ever have a sex life again (fingers crossed).

Purchased: Boots Made For Walkin'

This morning I woke up at 10am and actually felt rested! Now, for those of you that get up at the crack of dawn to go to work, please don't hate me. I have had trouble sleeping over the past week. I'm exhausted when I go to bed, but I cannot for the life of me fall asleep. My brain keeps going over various things - some important, some just useless and random thoughts. I've done everything to help me turn my brain 'off.' I've counted each inhale and exhale, used the TV, even tried my mom's method of having a few glasses of wine or beer to help encourage sleep. Yet, I fall into bed exhausted and end up laying there for hours. It sucks! This morning, however, I got up and felt like I was rarin' to go!

I made my daily trek to Starbucks, then took Mops to the park to throw the ball. After half an hour of standing out in the freezing cold while it was flurrying, as well as trying to get my ADD ridden dog to pay attention to the ball instead of running to an fro sniffing the messages other dogs had left behind, I headed home. A few hours later I went to review my employment contract with my attorney which was pretty successful. Luckily, he and I saw eye-to-eye on everything and we made some solid changes to the contract. Hopefully it passes with the contracting company with flying colors.

THEN, I decided to treat myself. I went shopping at one of my favorite department stores - Nordstrom. If you know me, you know I love to shop. However, without a job, I have no money and without money I cannot make extravagant purchases. Today, however, I felt I deserved a treat. Besides, I don't have any brown boots and I definitely needed some brown boots.

The boots I ended up getting are freaking terrific! They're Paul Green. I had never even heard of Paul Green shoes prior to being introduced to them by Chez Krass last week, who told me how comfortable and wonderful they are. Another factoid about me: I keep up with trends, fashion, designers, etc. How on EARTH had I never discovered Paul Green before?!?! The boots I bought are so comfortable, stylish, warm and, I must mention, practical. I mean, I could have bought the 4" heeled boots by another high end designer but no, I decided on practical. And I'm not usually one for practicality - I will pick fashion over comfort any day. I believe this choice is a sign that I'm growing up (rolling eyes). I loved these damn boots so much I wore them directly out of the store. Okay, I have to be honest, I did love them but I also had massive blisters on my heels from the shoes I'd worn all day, and the thought of putting my cute little ballet flats back on almost had me in tears.

So while I was shopping for brown riding boots, I figured that I might as well look at some black ones too. That only makes sense, right?! After trying on a bazillion different black boots, I decided on a pair that were a smidge too big. I thought if I wore some thick socks that they would fit. However, when I got home and put on said thick socks, the boots were still too big. So, back to Nordie's they must go.

While I wanted to continue shopping (because I normally can't just stop at shoes), I bid the Salon Shoe department a fond farewell and went up to Nordstrom's Cafe for the bestest tomato soup in the world. After enjoying the soup, I headed home. On the El - my effort at being cost conscious after spending a ton of money on two pairs of boots. Because normally I would have spent $20 on a cab ride home to forgo the $2 train with 'the common folk.' All in all, it was a pretty damn good day!

The Picture Says It All...

I'm back! I needed to take a week and a half off from blog world to get my real world all squared away. And finally, I feel like my head is above water! Hmm...where to start...

Mopsy - She's doing much better. Each day i'm so thankful that she's alive and recuperating. I'm not a super religious person, but I do believe in God and I've never prayed so much to Him as that day. I know my last two posts have been about her, but you have to understand. I've had her since she was not even 8 weeks old - that's almost 5 1/2 years. She's been with me through my work troubles, crazy project travel schedule, my ankle surgery, moving to Boston, my parents' divorice and my recent move to Chicago. I've nursed her through allergic reactions to shots, jumping out of a shopping cart at PetSmart when she was a puppy and cracking her noggen on the sidewalk, being attacked at the dog park, etc. She's the closest thing I have (and want to have - at least any time soon) to a child. So, in case you didn't get the gist, Mops is extremely important to me and I don't know what I would have done if she had died as a result of the accident. Thankfully, I don't have to worry about that. She's back to chasing squirrels in the park and running after her ball!

Job - A friend of mine here (a shout out to Shmee's brother) forwarded my resume to one of his contacts at a software company. Luckily, my resume wasn't lost in a pile of others - it actually was forwarded to the Services Group of the company, which turned into a phone interview. I couldn't believe it - it was the first job that I was truly excited about since I interviewed for a consulting firm in DC this past summer. The job and company seemed perfect, and they seemed to feel the same about me. So, I am now gainfully employed!!! Yay! I have so many plans for my new found income - high end label shoes and bags, new clothes, college tuition for my sister, and maybe even a bit of savings.

Home - When last we met, I gave you a brief synopsis of what's going on with my living situation. Well, the owner called me early last Saturday and said (and I quote), "I wanted to let you know that I told the realtor I wanted to put everything on hold until I spoke with you. Since you have done a lot for me, I wanted to check with you to see if you're still interested in renting the unit through December. Or if you want, we can stick with November 30th, but I wanted to extend that offer to you." WHATEVER, BIATCH! Your Dec thru May renters never even came to view the unit, and fell through. So now you're scrambling to see if I'll take it through December. Lady, I'm no fool; I can see straight through your plan. Obviously, I told her I'd already made other arrangements and will be vacating the premises on November 30th. Which, for the record, was true. I found a beautiful one bedroom loft to live in until Spring. My plan is to live in this loft through the winter, and when spring is sprung, I'll lease an apartment and have my belongings shipped out here. So I'm officially going to settle down in Chi-town. Hell yeah!

Love - No update. Well, nothing of real interest. I joined eHarmony with the hopes I'd have better luck with that than Match.com, but so far not much has come of it. On Match.com, the only guys interested in me are the ones I would never consider dating. They're just not my type both physically and personality-wise, based on their profiles. However, I did receive a wink today from one rather interesting fellow, so we'll see where that goes. Something's gotta give!

I think that about covers it. Good times, all around. Literally! It seems that things are coming together and I hope that they continue on the upswing!

She Made It and Is On The Road to Recovery!!!

Well, Mopsy made it through. I just can't believe it, given how loud the sound was when the car ran into her. That little girl is like rubber and has more lives than a cat.

I picked her up at the ER Vet yesterday morning, took her to the regular vet for a follow-up, at which they said she looked better and could go home. It was a rough day yesterday for both of us - Mopsy was in pain, didn't want to go outside to do her business and couldn't sleep for more than 20 minutes at a time. However, she is her mother's daughter in that she certainly didn't lose her appetite in the accident. The little one ate a whole boiled chicken breast and a half cup of frozen greenbeans. That girl - she's an eater!

This morning she seems much better. She's alert, gave me kisses, barks when she sees people outside, did her bid-nez in the grass and continued to eat plenty. She's even bearing more weight on her injured legs!

Other than that, things have been quite since Wednesday...mostly because I've been playing nurse to the Noodle. I've had a couple of phone interviews, one which I'm really excited about. I'm also moving out of my current sublet into another one...long story, but basically the owner of the unit has decided she was going to go against our agreement so she could get someone in that is willing to sign a 6 month lease. Don't get me started.

All in all, things are looking up!

I need to give a shout out to my Chez Krass friends - they were there for me all through the trials and tribulations of Mopsy's accident and I couldn't have made it through it without them. A girl couldn't ask for any better friends!!!!!

Please Noodle, Make It Through...

My poor little Mopsy was hit by a car around 6pm this evening. We were going inside after a quick walk (for Mops) and smoke (for me), when my neighbor and I started chatting. Mopsy was hanging out right by us when suddenly she darted off into the street. I saw a car coming and called for her, but just as I did, I heard the car smack right into my little noodle.

I rushed her to the vet where they were optimistic and had me transport her to an overnight ER. There they weren't optimistic but they weren't pessimistic. The doctor said that the next several hours are critical and it's a waiting game. I *hate* waiting - I want immediate results and to know exactly what my Mopsy is up against. I just called the ER and they said she's looking better and more alert. Please, say a prayer to whatever higher power you believe in, for my sweet little Mopsy.

I had originally started this post to tell you about my Halloween and to talk about the election, but it's going to have to wait. All my concentration is focused on Mops.

thankfully, it's NOT time again for a re-appearance of the "party boot"!

the ankle today, thankfully, is feeling much better. thanks for asking! i'm debating on whether or not to go to the doctor, pay the copay, spend an hour waiting, then spend another 10 minutes with the doctor while (s)he tells me that it's just a mild ligament strain. so, in lieu of that, i'm going ahead, taking the self-diagnosis route and proclaiming my ankle having undergone a mild ligament strain. prescription: RICE - Rest, Ice Compress, Elevate. and for pain, take 2 advil and drink some wine. i much prefer dr. mindy's method than going through the rigamarole of going to see a true professional. PLUS, i don't have to wear the party boot. i am not the biggest fan of the party boot - i had to live in that thing for months on end before and i'm determined not to go back to it!



so here i am on the couch, icing my ankle. i'm bound and determined to go to the gym today - although my workout will be a bit restrained. i've GOT to lose some LBs. and going to the gym makes me feel so good - like i accomplished something.

i went over chez krass last night and had the household help me with my match.com profile. it was so much fun - lots of laughs and discussion on possibly finding 'the man of my dreams.' unfortunately, i got a little ahead of myself prior to getting chez krass's input, and winked at a ton of guys. i haven't had any replies to my winks except for one "thanks but no thanks." i should have just waited to search and wink until after my new and improved profile was posted, because the old one was not the best. oh well - a new day, a new set of winks!

the pity party is over and look at what's gone on today!

my "glumness" has gone away. every now and then i get nostalgic for old friends and i guess that's what was going on the day of my last post. c'est la vie.

i just started to type some attempted philosophical stuff about nostalgia, but really, who am i fooling? i'm not much for philosophy. it's probably best that i just stick to my usual blabbering for this post.

i decided to re-join match.com today. oh boy. i do this with mixed feelings. i'm excited to come across a perspective date or two, but i still dread the initial steps and the possibility of a let down. i'm so tired of looking, but i know i need to keep doing so if i ever want to meet 'the man of my dreams.' so here i am again, on match.com, winking away at anyone of interest just like the winking ho i am. ;o)

this afternoon i had plans to head to the gym for a zumba class. i rushed to get changed into my gym clothes so that i could take mops for a quick walk before leaving. just as i got to the end of my block, my ankle gave out. AGAIN. two years after i had the reconstructive surgery. it sucks! i think it may just be a ligament strain/pull, so not as big of a deal as it used to be, but it worries me. once the ligaments loosen up again, then the ankle will give out more frequently. guess i'm going to have to call my orthopedic surgeon and take him up on his offer of a referral for an ortho in chicago. good times, good times.

friends...

i'm kind of glum today. nothing awful has happened per se, but i'm stressing out about the job thing. i'm also pondering some recent events that have occurred with friends.

one of my friends from college, whom i thought was a really good life long friend, decided i was an awful person and no longer wanted to be acquainted with me. granted, i know things are going on in her life and that may be part of the reason for the end of our friendship, but it really sucks. another friend recently was upset over some pictures i posted in a website album - all of which were strongly edited by me and i even put horrible pictures up of myself. even still, she's not speaking with me either.

i grew up with the saying, 'if you point your finger at someone, realize that there are three fingers pointing back at you.' so i know that i do have some fault in each of those scenarios, but i really don't think it merits ending a friendship.
the thing is, i was occaisionally irritated with them, but i never would have considered telling either of them that i could no longer be their friend.

then there are those friends that you call and call, or try your darndest to get together or make contact with, but they never reciprocate. i get so tired of being in a one sided friendship. but when i do manage to reconnect with these evasive friends, i am reminded of how great that friend is and the reason why i try so hard to stay in touch.

it just seems the older i get, the smaller my circle becomes. mind you, i've always had a small circle. i attribute that to growing up as an army brat...moving around every three years for 18 years, you tend to gain and lose friends all the time. the ones that stick become your circle. luckily the ones still in the circle are wonderful true friends - and I am truly thankful for them.

and the weekend comes to an end

unfortunately i don't have any wild and crazy stories to share about my birthday fiesta. i had dinner chez krass, then we went to the neighborhood bar for a few drinks. i was home - fatter, happier and just a tad tipsy - by 1am. it was fun and low key - a sign of the times. my days of going out and being wild and crazy are over. there is and will be the occasional rager here and there, but for the most part i am guessing that my future birthdays will mirror this one. and that's not a bad thing, it's just sad to truly realize that the last of my youth is officially gone. poor me.

saturday i discovered the dog beach - it was absolutely incredible. dogs and their owners as far as the eye could see...and of course mopsy made sure she was in the big middle of it. that was my big outing for the day, which was great since we had beautiful weather.

today was the chicago marathon. allie invited me to join her and her clients at mile 15 to cheer on the runners. we cabbed it from downtown to as close as we could get to mile 15. unfortunately, we ended up having to play a game of marathon runner frogger in order to make it to the station, but survived crossing the path of all the runners and it was well worth the risk. seeing the marathon in person (instead of where i've watched it on sara and mike's couch in the past) was a pretty cool. it also reinforced my desire to get fit; not that i'm planning to EVER run a marathon (to me it's a form of self torture), but it still motivated me to keep going to the gym.

the job front is really starting to stress me out. one consulting firm i thought for sure would want to bring me in for an in-person interview after four phoners, but found out on friday that they were passing on me. yep, happy birthday to me. i have a couple of other things lined up, but nothing firm. i really want to find a employment so that i can stay in this great city. otherwise, i'm back in dc at the end of december. maybe in my letter to santa this year, i'll ask him for a job with a great company that will compensate me generously, appreciate my skillset and realizes that the company couldn't function without the likes of me. i don't think that's asking too much - do you?

happy birthday to me - i'm 18 again for the 16th time!!!

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today is my birthday, and a good one it's been! i tried to sleep in, but honestly, it's not as special as it used to be when i was a gainfully employed gal. these days i can wake up whenever i want or when mopsy barks at me to let me know that while i may not need to get up to pee, she most certainly could use a patch of grass upon which to relieve herself.

anyway, i digress. i did my usual routine - starbucks, dog park/walk and gym. then allie and i ran some errands together and grabbed lunch prior to my 3pm phone interview. unfortunately, the call never happened. as per the interviewer, they were having "some internal email issues," so he was unaware that our call was today. c'est la vie - it's my birthday! i then left allie's to go home, grab mops and make another run to the dog park. my plan was to make sure mops ran lots and was exhausted so that she wouldn't freak out when i left to go back to al's for my birthday fiesta.

normally the dog park is uneventful - i chat with the other dog owners and mopsy either chases a ball or other dogs. today however, my little noodle was attacked. that's right - a mean black lab puppy decided to attack my little girl and made mopsy's ear bleed. the owner of the puppy apologized profusely, but i waved her off nonchalantly since mops wanted to continue chasing the ball after her smack down. i didn't think any blood was drawn, but another dog owner pointed out that mopsy's ear was bleeding. that's when i kind of panicked. i grabbed my little one, rushed her home and threw her in the bathtub, dousing her with enough hydrogen peroxide to dye a brunette's hair to a lovely pale blonde shade. you would have thought that mopsy had a puncture wound tearing straight to one of her arteries. luckily it was just a small little nick that she had, and we continued on with our routine of me getting ready for la fiesta and giving noodle her dinner.

so now i'm getting ready to head out and noodle, after her dog park brawl, is resting peacefully on her chaise lounge. i kid you not, the dog lies on the chaise lounge as if it's hers...she's such a prima donna. anyway, i'm off for dinner and drinks - let's hope there's some wild stories to tell you with tomorrow's post!

i finally made it to chicago - and what a time it's been!

okay, it's been almost two weeks since i last posted - there's some things to share!

so the trip from dc to columbus was uneventful for the most part. i got up at 8am, packed up the last few things into my car and off mopsy and i went. we had to make one little stop at my sister's house on the way because i'd left some things there after my farewell soiree. now mind you, my sister's place is not but 20 miles from my mom's, and just 2 miles outside of dc. so, i wasn't too far from home when, as i was flying 85 mph on i395, i saw a state trooper off to the side of the road just an exit away from my sister's exit. when i didn't see him immediately haul ass to chase after me, i figured i was home free. just when i was thinking, "whew! i outsmarted another copper," and ready to give myself a pat on the back, i saw the pretty flashing blue and white lights of virginia's finest. FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!

i pulled over to the side of the road, maybe 500 ft. from my sister's exit, and rolled down my window. the trooper walked up and asked me what my hurry was. "none officer, i was just not paying attention - i was zoned out thinking but obviously not about the speed i was driving!" i gave a half hearted attempt at a laugh and gave the officer an "aw shucks, i messed up but have pity on me" type of look. he looked at me with his eyebrows raised and a slight note of sarcasm to his voice, "yeah, obvious-LEE." he then continued to explain exactly how fast his radar caught me, and i explained again how i was just thinking about all the things i needed to do, because i was on my way to chicago via columbus for my move. the nice officer then told me he was from chicago (go figure!), and asked me where i was going to live. i told him, he asked for my license and registration (all the while, mops is doing her best to protect me from the tall man in uniform with a weird looking thing on his head, barking at him in her meanest tone). i gave the officer my license, but unfortunately my registration was in the glove compartment. my small suitcase was tightly wedged between the passenger seat and compartment, requiring me to get out of the car, yank and yank at my suitcase until i could dislodge it and extract my registration. explaining that to the officer, he rolled his eyes, asking if the car was mine and upon my confirmation that yes, in fact, the car was mine, not to worry about the registration. what a smart cop - i guess he realized sooner than i did, that if i tried to get out, one of the other cars whizzing down shirley gate highway could kill me.

ends up, the cop gave me a break on my ticket - instead of charging me wreckless, which he most certainly could have, he gave me a regular speeding ticket. after my many thanks, he let me go on my way and off i went to pick up my belongings at my sister's. from there, the rest of the trip to columbus was extremely uneventful. i spent 3 nights in columbus, hanging out with my family there and off i went to chicago. again, nothing of note occurred on the drive...it was pretty smooth sailing.

i got to my apartment in chicago and fell in love with my temporary place. it's great - so much room, nice furnishings, great neighborhood. couldn't ask for more! well, actually i could, but not for much. except tv and internet...the place didn't come with those two most important ammenities, which i had to arrange for and live without until comcast could get here the following week. it was going to be a VERY long week without either of those things!

mops and i quickly settled in and went to bed. the next morning, i woke up with a major cold. it was horrible - sore throat, head congestion, chest congestion, achy, etc. however, i soldiered through that so i could get myself to go sign up at the gym that my friend and i decided to join. i also managed a target and grocery store run, which wiped me out! the rest of the weekend, i was sick in bed, which worked out because my chicago friends were out of town for the entire weekend.

this week i've been busy going to the gym (i'm bound and determined to get fit over the next several months), getting interviews scheduled and getting familiar with this great city that i'm now calling home!

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. :)

chillin' out, maxin', relaxin' all cool

so got through 12 rounds of on-campus interviews. being back here at school really makes me nostalgic of my younger days. it's also a slap across the face by reality when i realize i am in my early 30's and not my early 20's. college - those were the days.

what they don't tell you back then is that you'll look back one day and want to return, but only with the maturity and confidence that you have in your 30s. i'd love to take the person i am today and have a college 'do over.' i would take my classes more seriously, become more involved with the school and still have a decent social life. i wouldn't feel the need to go out every night and feel like i'm missing the best party if i stayed in on *gasp* a friday night. i think i would also be less nervous around guys and more open to slowly establishing a relationship, rather than being impatient and giving up after a couple of days.

the college days - i miss 'em, but thinking back to who i was then also makes me cringe!

view of campus

back at school...again

so this week is the second week in a row i've returned to my alma mater. it's for work and i love coming back to visit the campus, but it's a bitch of a drive. depending on time of day and where i'm leaving from (home or work), it can take anywhere from 3.5 - 5 hours.

last week i came down here to for a career fair. the drive down was bad because it was at night in the freezing cold. luckily, the career fair was a success AND i managed to miss the crappy ice storm at home. however, i did get to drive through it the next morning - roads weren't bad and it was really pretty scenery. here's a couple of pictures for you:

driving home after an ice storm

another picture while driving home after an ice storm

this week's trip objective is to conduct on-campus interviews for interns. i love doing this kind of stuff. anyway, the trip down was uneventful but i did manage to take a couple of cool pictures of the sun shining down:

the drive down with the sun

so today's entry is a chance to show off my multi-tasking skills: driving and attempting to take 'pretty' pictures with my cell phone. i know, i'm quite talented.