i'm not a gooey cheese

The trouble with being a badass is...

2011-05-07T00:16:00.005-04:00

The trouble with being a badass is that you don't know when to tell people that you're actually kind of in pain. Sure, my knee hurts some, and it's grossly swollen, but I mean, I'm fine. Seriously. I'll be fine. I've had 2 knee surgeries. Does my knee hurt, of course, but I'm fine. Leave me alone, I'm fine.

I started this blog post with the badass facade to reduce the feeling of idiocy that I'm feeling this evening. I fell. I caused a commotion. My knee is (actually, both knees are) really swollen. I'm fine. I shed some tears of embarrassment (shhh). But I re-enacted a good comical story afterward.

I don't actually remember the details of what happened, but I will try to relate them. Though many bystanders may deem me as "the drunk girl who fell in the bar and provided much comic relief for the evening," I will only ever claim that I was neither sober nor drunk, but enjoying happy hour.

I was sitting on a stool. A tall stool...an unnecessarily tall stool. My friend commented that it was a stool to which he needed to commit - there was no standing or quasi sitting - this was a stool on which you needed to sit. I committed and was sitting on this tall stool.

Said tall stool had some much welcome rungs to rest my feet. When you are that high in the air, foot rests are in fact very valuable. Your feet cannot reach the ground, so it is comforting to rest your feet.

My friends are funny, interesting. A conversation was occurring, and I wished to be closer to this conversation, so I leaned forward. And then life turned into slow motion.

I was wearing heels this evening. Not 4 inch crazy heels. 2 inch perfectly reasonable heels - my favorite work heels. Regardless, as I leaned forward, my legs and feet had full intentions of removing themselves from the rungs of this stool, and catching myself on the ground to support my wish to lean forward and better hear the conversation that was occurring. This did not happen.

My heel was stuck in the rung. I was still sitting in the stool. I continued to sit in the stool as it, and I, fell forward. In slow motion. Flat. Go ahead and let yourself have that mental image. It's probably hilarious.

When I, and the stool, were on the ground, my heel was still stuck in the rung. And somehow, my drink was still in my hand, unscathed. I, however, was not. I was soaking wet, as I noticed *someone's* drink did not survive the event. Friends were offering me shirts, napkins, comfort. Management executed the fastest cleanup of a spillage that I'd ever seen. I felt no pain (at that point), but I was mortified, and VERY aware, that I was THAT GIRL.

Suddenly, there was a shot from the bartender. I refused. This shot went to the friend whose drink I "did not spill", no, but "took with me" as gravity pulled me down. Next there was a full beer. Umm... okay.. thanks? Friends told me I was bleeding. I guess I *did* land on some glass. Management gave me a bandaid. I was apologizing profusely. The cute waiter told me not to be embarrassed or feel bad (yeah right). Management, after assuring that I was okay, had me write down my name and phone number. Still in shock, I told them I wasn't going to sue. He laughed, though he still knew what he was doing, and I still don't know why he took my number.

I continued to tell people I was fine. I was. I am. However, my skinny jeans betrayed my lies by showing my no longer skinny knee.

Okay, I admit, it was kind of fun to show off how swollen my knee was. Injuries without battle wounds are not worth the pain.

I guess that's the end of the story. I was embarrassed. Writing helps conquer embarrassment. My knee is swollen. I guess ice conquers that.

Sweet Treat Destiny

2011-04-09T00:07:00.002-04:00

I'm not really one to believe in things being "meant to be." I tend to follow a more "build your own adventure" philosophy to life. Tonight, however, I had to question that philosophy.

This afternoon I had a craving for a sweet treat. I justified it to myself by noting that I had gone running the night before and even had a salad for lunch. But most of all, it was Friday, dammit, and I deserved a sweet treat. So I withdrew a dollar from my wallet and headed down the hallway to survey the vending machine goods.

Twix...Payday...cookies...fruit snacks...animal crackers...Snickers...Pop Tarts.............. Twix. Yes, definitely Twix.

The vending machine ate my dollar as I planned to eat my Twix - quickly and appreciatively. I hit the buttons to select my Twix, but as I did, I noticed that my Twix was a little farther back in the spiral than it probably should be...and the neighboring M&Ms were encroaching on my Twix's personal space.

I quickly made the decision that if my Twix held on for dear life to the M&Ms, rather than falling to the fate of my tummy, I would take it as a sign that I should not negate my good behavior of running and salad eating. I would let the Twix hang out, and I would neither shake the machine nor hunt down another dollar to free my Twix with a second. If I didn't need one, I certainly didn't need two.

Sure enough, my Friday afternoon was sans Twix bar. I was a little disappointed, but proud of my will power.

On my way to music practice this evening, however, that will power was gone. I simply could not shake my craving for a sweet treat. I decided I would grant myself the indulgence of a McDonald's chocolate milkshake after practice. I was oh so excited and content with this decision, and couldn't wait for my post-practice shake.

As arrived at the golden arches and pulled into the drive-thru, I noticed some signs for fancy new shakes. I still planned on getting the reliable and classic chocolate, but the marketing for these other shakes was enough to make me at least *look* at the menu.

My jaw dropped, as I was sure my eyes were deceiving me. Could it be?

"May I take you order?" I heard from the speaker.

I paused, then in a hushed voice asked, ".....do you still have... Shamrock Shakes?!?" as I longed for the neon green deliciousness staring back at me from the menu.

"Yes, we do."

Incredible. On April 8th. After I had failed miserably by watching March come and go without having properly celebrated this non-Irish tradition of the Shamrock Shake.

"May I have a medium please?!"

My happy taste buds and I smiled the whole way home.

Not usefully psychic

2011-02-23T18:58:00.003-05:00

I had two psychic music weirdnesses today:

1) Occasionally I find myself with names stuck in my head, rather than songs. This morning, I found myself repeating the name of the hip hop group, "Bell Biv DeVoe," famous for such groundbreaking and profound hits as "Poison" and "Do Me!"

On my way to work, I learned that last night Jimmy Fallon tweeted that the band would be reunited on his show tonight. I thought, hmm... maybe in my sleepy stupor I heard this piece of news already, causing me to start saying this catchy group name.

I was just going to let this slide. But I have been known to have psychic instances before. And then....

2) Along with saying "Bell Biv DeVoe" over and over, intermixed with singing "Poison," I also strangely was singing "Ba de ya! Say do you remember!" Where did this come from? Am I so longing to dance in September, on this cold, dreary February day?

Nope, I'm just psychic. On the news this evening, I learned that students at the nearby Duke Ellington School of the Arts will be performing tomorrow with Earth, Wind, & Fire. whatevs.

Sometimes it's cool, and a little freaky, to have these random psychic occurrences. But they aren't very useful.

Blog revamp...but no promises

2010-06-15T02:28:00.004-04:00

My mother keeps telling me I need to update my blog. I've said, I don't have much to say, and when I do, I say it in the form of Facebook status updates. I've gotten out of writing habit. Well, here's to trying to get back into it.

A lot has happened. I moved to a new apartment and now live by myself. My sister said, "Once you live by yourself, you'll never want to have roommates again." I agree.

I graduated with an MBA. I have a job doing federal human capital consulting and get to stay in DC, but I don't start for over a month, so I'm enjoying watching the World Cup, doing yoga, reading on my new Kindle (thanks for the grad present, Mom & Dad), drinking, visiting friends and family, and going to the pool. Summer vacation is fun.

My sister got engaged to a pretty cool dude. She's planning the most nontraditional wedding there will ever be. I'm still painfully single and awkward as ever.

I just returned from my 5-year college reunion, and my favorite people are doing well and are still silly and inappropriate.

I was in a film competition that didn't advance, but I still had a lot of fun and was covered in fake blood. Some of the folks who made this film have gotten together to form a sketch comedy group that will be posting silly videos to the web each month. I will be partaking, but also using a stage name, because some of their language would make Trey Parker and Matt Stone cry, so I'm not trying to get fired from the job I haven't started yet. But at least I have something creative to do while I'm waiting for said job to begin. I've written a song about first dates and farting. No one said this would be highbrow comedy.

Welp, here's to trying to keep this thing updated again.

Reasons I know I'm back in school

2009-09-16T16:19:00.003-04:00

1. Cohort W coming in 5-10 minutes late

2. "It's the FINAL COUNTDOWN" cell phone ringer going off during lecture

3. People talking too much off topic

4. The "make my friend laugh in class through snarky comment on GChat" game

5. 4 hours of sleep a night

6. Freezing cold classrooms

7. "Yeah, I just wanted to say..." (internal scream: JUST SAY IT, DAMN IT!!)

8. Increased intake of caffeine

9. Awesome teams

10. Dysfunctional teams (stay tuned for future post on this topic).

The Adventures of a DC Commuter Continue

2009-08-24T21:04:00.003-04:00

Ahhh it's been a while since I've been able to add another story to the series. It was bound to happen eventually though...

At my internship, because I'm technically a contractor, I'm not allowed to park on site. For the first few weeks of my internship, I bit the bullet and took public transportation, which I had been doing for the past year to get to school. The slight difference, however, was that it took me 45 extra minutes to get to my internship than it took me to get to school, making my grand total commuting time 1 hour and 15 minutes. Rockin.

Not only that, but I'm a 10 minute walk to the metro on my end (up hill on a path through some trees), followed by another 15 minute walk from the metro to work. Throw in the DC summertime humidity and a girl who needs to walk way too quickly because she's not a morning person and always late....and you've got a young professional who shows up to work entirely too winded and sweaty.

Then came the day when I was subbing on a softball team and a random temporary teammate told me that he used to work in the area of my internship. He gave me the sweet sweet tip that you can park on the roof of the CVS (which is right across from the metro) all day for free. This seemed too good to be true. I continued taking the metro for another week or so until one day I woke up entirely too late to make it on time if I were to metro. I decided that that was the day to live life on the edge and test out this sweet sweet tip.

I got to the CVS, and saw that on the lower level, there were signs that said "CVS parking only," "If towed call this number," and "Additional parking on top." I took my chances. I got up there and saw that neither of those first two signs were up there, and instead, there was only "No loitering." Well, I certainly wasn't going to be loitering...I was late! I had to get to work!

It was still risky, so I crossed my fingers the rest of the day (figuratively. Not literally. That would have made typing pretty difficult.) But low and behold, when I returned to my car, I had a car to return to. It had not been towed. This was a beautiful thing, and would make the commute a smidge better. And in DC, a smidge does wonders. I even figured out that if I walked the half mile to work on the other side of the street, I would be walking in the shade, which helped reduce the overheating.

Fast forward to today. The luck ran out. When I was walking down the ramp to begin my half mile walk to work this morning, a police officer passed me on the way up to the CVS rooftop lot. I should have known, but I didn't think twice about it. Sure enough, when I got back to my car this evening, I had a ticket waiting for me. Le sigh. Caught. Plan foiled. Extra half hour of sleep gone. I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for you meddling kids!

The upside, though, is that the ticket is only $25. And it's a parking violation, which means no license points. Which means, I pretty much just paid for two months of parking for $25, and you can't get that *anywhere* in the city.

But alas, tomorrow I will be back to riding the train. The sweaty, sweaty train.

Revelation

2009-07-24T02:27:00.002-04:00

Story of my birth -- I was born in January in Boston during a blizzard. My dad was shoveling the driveway nonstop, waiting for my mom to go into labor.

This is why I hate the cold and have no desire to live in New England or Chicago, and laugh at the thought of anywhere more north than that.

Winning the Candy War

2009-07-21T22:09:00.002-04:00

My boss keeps a modest sized dish of candy on her desk. A few weeks ago, a member of another team moved into the empty office in our area. He too, keeps candy on his desk, though not a modest sized dish. It is a fish bowl. A loyal member of my team marched into the newcomer's office to say that she thought he was trying to make our boss look bad, and that we wouldn't put up with it. He said, "Bring it." It didn't help that my boss's candy dish happened to have one piece of candy in it that day. The newcomer walked into my boss's office and had the audacity to give her a bag of Dum Dums and say, "Looks like you could use some help."

It was on.

At our next staff meeting, our top priority was to brainstorm solutions and develop action items. By the end of the week, I had come through on my action item. What follows is the email to my team informing them of the good news.

"I hope this email finds you well.

To follow up on our vital initiative of regaining ground in the area of sweet tooth satisfaction on the 2nd floor, I put aside my less pressing assignments this Friday afternoon to do some research into this matter.

A simple Google search for "airplane M&M dispenser" proved to be quite fruitful. So fruitful, in fact, that I located the exact airplane M&M dispenser that rocketed my former coworker to the leader in attracting candy-seeking visitors.

Do view the link to this opportunity. Perhaps we could perform a cost-benefit analysis of purchasing the dispenser.

I appreciate your time and attention to this important, even crucial, matter.

My boss's response:

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. I have had a team of highly qualified financial analysts conduct a cost-benefit analysis on the purchase of said airplane dispenser. Their study proved that the purchasing the dispenser would yield a positive NPV of approximately $2 Million. Let's proceed with the purchase. At our next 1x1, I will release the funds.

I like my team :-)

A Giggle in CVS

2009-07-11T20:27:00.003-04:00

Soon I will be heading off to a birthday party this evening, so I needed to pick up some brewskies before leaving. One of the closest places to buy beer is the CVS down the road, so I figured, since I was headed to a pharmacy, it was a great time to refill my prescription. I dropped it off, went to the refrigerator section, and selected a 6-pack of Leinenkugel Classic Amber. As I waited in line, I noticed the person behind me had a box of tea ready for purchase. This reminded me that I had just finished off the last of my coffee, so I jetted out of line to get a bag of some Dunkin Donuts Original Blend (unfortunately, CVS's selection was not big enough to have the Hazelnut variety).

Back in line, I looked at my purchases of beer and coffee and giggled to myself, thinking about the prescription I had just dropped off -- Prevacid, a medication for acid reflux. A medicine that supports my heavily acidic habits of beer and coffee. Thank you, Prevacid.

Another catastrophe avoided

2009-06-22T22:41:00.003-04:00

You've probably heard about this. I feel like I was one of the last to hear about it, and I was actually trying to ride on the Red Line. Funny how you can be annoyed with the delay in the Metro and have no idea what's going on. I was supposed to be meeting up with a friend, and I had to let him know I'd be late because of a delay on the Red Line, which really isn't all that uncommon. Delayed for "technical problems" huh? That's what 6 deaths is?

I decided to get off the line at Farragut North and walk to my Foggy Bottom destination because it was nice enough outside. That's when I got the first text from my dad -- "are you in the red line train wreck?" uhhh.....what? "it was slow moving for sure. I'm meeting someone in foggy bottom so I got off at farragut north and am walking." text back from pops -- "whew!"

Next text from a classmate who I had just spoken with the night before about my ungodly commute on the Orange and Red Lines. "Okay 2 metro trains collided on the red line ... Are you okay?" ohhhh so that's what was causing the delay, yeah that would do it. "Yeah, I didn't realized that's what happened. I was stuck in the delay though. Thanks for asking!" It was at this point I figured I should change my facebook status to let everyone know I wasn't in the crash. I got a few more texts and calls from friends checking up. The love is greatly appreciated. Then I started to think about it....

Flashback to 2007 -- I was in St. Paul to work a youth conference. I had gone over to the conference site, met some people who were also working it, and we all went back to the hotel together to get ready for dinner. While we were there, a few people turned on the TV and learned that the I-35W bridge collapsed, the bridge we had all crossed just a few hours prior to the collapse to get from the Minneapolis airport to our hotel in St. Paul. Immediate calls to the family and coworkers before news traveled back to them to worry.

And then let's throw in the Air France flight that disappeared 2 days after I was on an Air France flight coming back from Turkey.

Add those two incidents with which I feel somewhat connected with today's Red Line crash...I kind of started to freak out on the walk to Foggy Bottom. Still a little shaken up about it.

Turkey - Transition Day

2009-05-21T02:45:00.006-04:00

The last two teams presented to their client (with whom I sang American karaoke at a Turkish bar on Monday night) yesterday. That meant yesterday was cause for celebration. To close out the residency, and once we got back in Istanbul after our 3 hour bus ride back from Bursa, we took a dinner cruise along the Bosphorus with a DJ and open bar. There was much dancing and rejoicing. And we of course rocked it out to our favorite new song, Hadise's Düm Tek Tek (YouTube is blocked here, but I found it on Google Video). Listen to it and love it. We are bringing it to the States.

That's our boat.I'm on a boat.
Rumeli Hisari, built in 4 months when Sultan Mehmet was only 19 in preparation for conquering Constantinople.

On Friday I'm getting on a Turkish Airlines flight to Bodrum for a week at the all-inclusive Aegean Dream Resort, discounted by the GW alumna who had our professor when she was in undergrad. Gotta finish those damn reflections so I can really be on vacation...

Turkey - Day Eight

2009-05-16T13:44:00.008-04:00

Tourist Day. We had a tour guide take us around to the Hippodrome, Blue Mosque, Aya Sofia, and the Sunken Palace Cistern. We closed out the day with a helicopter tour of Istanbul. Yeah, that's right. It was pretty ridiculous. I took 143 pictures over the course of the day. Here is just a dabble. I'll probably try to set up a Picasa page or something, because I'm over 300 pictures already for the whole trip.

Hippodrome....looks vaguely familiar...
If you look closely you can see the pictures of the horses & chariots.
Blue Mosque, aka Mosque of Sultan Ahmet I, from afar. You can't see all of them in this picture, but this is the only mosque in the world with 6 minarets.
Part of the courtyard area of the Blue Mosque.Dome of Blue Mosque.

Didn't need to cover my head, but they were giving wraps to women whose shoulders were showing too much. I thought I'd be okay in my t-shirt. I guess not.Aya Sofia. Was a church in Constantinople. Then the Ottoman Turk sultans turned it into a mosque. Then Atatürk, who founded the Republic of Turkey in 1923 and wanted the country to be more Western, turned it into a secular museum.Istanbul is an example of how East.......meets West. (Images from the leftover Christian artwork from when the Aya Sofia was a church.)
Cistern from when Istanbul was Constantinople. Those lights didn't exist back then, though.Medusa. She is kept at the back corner of the cistern so people wouldn't turn to stone from looking at her. Don't look at her eyes.
Helicopter time. My group looking back and telling me to ride in the front since I had my Flip video camera. They received no protest from me. Stay tuned for the video of the ride.
Blue Mosque (front) and Aya Sofia (back). Now you can see all 6 minarets on the Blue Mosque.

Birdseye of the underground Grand Bazaar. Reinforces why it's so easy to get lost in there and you should keep a buddy. So huge.

What a day. Tomorrow we go to Bursa so the other 2 groups can meet and present to their client. The school part of the Turkey trip is over halfway finished. I still need to do a bunch of visit preparation forms and 5 reflections. Unfortunately I can't just turn in this blog...

Tamamlandı!

2009-05-15T11:06:00.006-04:00

That's Turkish for completed, finished, DONE!! My team gave our client presentation today and ROCKED IT! I'm so proud of how well we did, and our client really loved it. A second team presented after us for the same client on a different topic (and they were phenomenal as well), and when they finished, and took questions, our client said, "I have a question for both groups: would they be interested in being hired at ITKIB?"

Not only did the team do an amazing job, but I got an incredibly kind compliment from my professor on my part of the presentation specifically. I was an unprepared wreck of nerves last night as we ran through some stuff in her room at 10pm, so it was especially nice to hear.

A third group presented today for a different client, and they were all offered jobs as well! ("I have a question - when you finish your studies, will you come to work for Pantera?) GW MBAs represent! We all feel a thousand pounds lighter. What a marathon. And the other two groups don't present until next week (after we go to another city on Sunday), so we can all celebrate together tonight.

Post Presentation Picture: Elation and Exhaustion

Also, yesterday was an incredible day for site visits and the Istanbul experience. Will write about it at some point. For now, it's time for a group dinner and celebration down by the Bosphorus. It's going to be a good night. But we can't be out too late, because we have tourist day tomorrow! Hooray!

Point of Power

2009-05-13T15:48:00.003-04:00

Pardon the pause in daily Turkish updates as I work to finish the Power Point for my group's presentation on Friday. Rest assured, the tummy is better, I'm going on site visits and ohhh am I eating some delicious food.
Here's my team at our site visit on Tuesday to Mavi Jeans. "Mavi" means "blue" in Turkish. Get it? Blue jeans. Pretty creative.

Turkey - Day Four

2009-05-12T17:02:00.010-04:00

Updates on drama

Professor still doesn't have her luggage. It's back in the States from Brazil, but stuck at JFK. Delta says it's Turkish Airlines' responsibility. Turkish Airlines says it's Delta's responsibility. She order some suits online and they should arrive tomorrow. All the client gifts are in the luggage, along with her audio recording equipment she needs for the research she is doing in London after this project. At least we make her laugh.
The invalids are feeling better. We went on our first client visit today and I was able to eat food. Lots of food.
Presentation is coming along. Looking forward to Friday afternoon.

Today was a cool day. We visited Mavi Jeans, which for those of you who are not fashionistas, is a pretty high end brand. It's the leading brand in Turkey, does really well globally, and has one retail store in the Union Square area of NYC.

Wall o' jeans.

Next we went to a carpet store, which was kind of random, but it was cool to hear about that side of the textile industry, when we've been focusing on just textiles and apparel for the past 8 weeks. He taught us the difference between high and low quality wool and silk rugs. We saw some that were as much as 35,000 (I'm not sure if that was lira or USD, but it's still A LOT!). They were beautiful. We sang "A Whole New World."

On a magic carpet ride.

We finished at the carpet store a little earlier than expected, so we went to the Grand Bazaar to fill time before dinner. Wow. What a zoo. Huge. And talk about history. It was built over 500 years ago when the Ottoman Turks overtook Constantinople and it became Istanbul (cue They Might Be Giants). I didn't buy anything there, though, because we are going to Bursa on Sunday, and our professor tells us the market there will be cheaper and we will need to bargain less.

Just one of many entrances.

We closed out the night with an AMAZING dinner and alumni mixer at the Hotel Sultanhan. We ate on the terrace level, which had floor to ceiling windows, and were able to go on the roof top to see some ridiculous views of the city. Couldn't stop taking pictures. Here's one of them.

That's me, just Bri, in Turkey.

And it turns out I don't like Turkish coffee. That was kind of a disappointment. I'm not going to give up on it yet. I didn't have it with sugar. I will try again with sugar.

Bona Fide

2009-05-11T01:50:00.002-04:00

It's official. I'm truly an international traveler now.

Our professor sent out an email last night when she got to the hospital saying WHAT TO DO IN CASE OF EMERGENCY. She appreciated that we were slow to call her last night because we were worried about her rest and well-being, but she emphasized that she needs to be called immediately in case of a problem. It's her job to take care of us, and we also mean a lot to her. We should notify her if we "get lost, in trouble, or don't feel well (even stomach problems)."

Hmmm....well, since you asked...

I'll save you the details, since you can probably figure those out, but let's just say the delicious stuffed potato didn't agree with my stomach as well as it agreed with my taste buds. I wrote to her to let her know, saying I had taken 4 Pepto tablets because I was worried about the 1.5 hour bus ride to our first client meeting this morning.

Cue page long email response -- stay in the hotel, don't risk it, yes it's your client, but this is more important, don't take meds, drink water, could be bacterial, let me know if you get a fever, drink water, but not tap water, eat the BRAT diet (bananas, rice, apple sauce, toast), no dairy, trust me, I have experience. Alright, then. Luckily, today is probably the least eventful day on the itinerary, so if it had to happen, I'm glad it happened today.

So here I am, in my hotel bed, with 2 1.5L bottles of water near me and bread from breakfast to last me all day. At least it will give me time to work on the Power Point for our presentation on Friday, but yeah, this sucks. And it's 2am back home right now, so no one is on GChat to keep me company...whomp whomp.

I'm so happy to join the international travelers' club. :-/

Turkey - Day Two

2009-05-10T18:01:00.005-04:00

Our professor finally made it to Turkey at midnight last night. She was stuck on the tarmac at Dulles trying to get to JFK for three hours. She missed her connecting flight, which was a direct flight. When she got to JFK she sprinted to her next flight option but, even though the plane was still there, the gate was closed and she wasn't allowed on. She got the next flight to London and had a 9 hour layover, just enough time to get a $150 day pass at a hotel for a shower and nap. Instead of hanging out with us this morning after breakfast, she had to wander around Istanbul to go suit shopping. To add on to the fun, she's 3 months pregnant (and had to find maternity clothes), has 150 undergraduate exams to grade, and hasn't returned our drafts of our deliverables with feedback yet. Poor woman can't catch a break.

After a class meeting and a guest speaker this afternoon, we headed to the Ortaköy area, which is by the water and, as our professor described it, a great place for dinner, shopping, and people watching.

Purdy.
Famous stuffed potatoes. This picture doesn't do them justice.
This gives a better idea of the height. My arm was tired after holding this while I ate.

Remember how I said my professor can't catch a break? Well, she decided not to join us at Ortaköy so she could continue with her work, sleep, and you know, take care of her unborn child. Unfortunately, we made tonight a little more exciting than she probably would have liked. The bus was going to pick us up and take us back to the hotel at 9:30. After having one drink (I swear, just one drink each) at a pub, we headed to the potato stands around 8:30 or so.

After one bite, one of my classmates collapsed in the middle of the street. She was out for a minute or two before waking up. In the meantime, we called our TA, but he was on a dinner boat, so it would be a little bit before he got there. We had broken up into smaller groups, so we didn't have our native Turk with us, so another classmate ran off to find her. In the meantime, we ran to the police down the street and they called an ambulance. One of the vendors gave us water for said collapsed classmate. Lots of Turks stopped to help. By the time the ambulance arrived, she was awake and sitting on a bench, with a rockin' knot on her head. The paramedics told her to throw up. Huh? It wasn't the food, she was sharing the potato with another classmate, and we were all eating them. Before she collapsed, she said her chest hurt.

The ambulance left because her pulse was back to normal and she was awake and we didn't trust them. Our Turk drove her, her closest friend, our first responder classmate, and our TA to the hospital. TA called our professor, who of course hopped in a cab to go meet them at the hospital. (Added drama - there was bickering as to whether we should call the prof because the TA was slow to do so).

Is the suspense enough? Classmate is fine. As some predicted, she was just fatigued and dehydrated. Apparently she hadn't slept in two days, and wasn't keeping up with the water, and something similar had happened to her one time before. Gotta keep drinking water when you are traveling, I've been told. I think they left the hospital about a half hour or hour ago.

By the way, apparently I'm not so good in crisis mode, especially during my first trip abroad. I was like a deer in the headlights with shaky hands. I stood back and let other people handle the situation. Better to not be in the way and not give wrong opinions on solutions. So don't get hurt or sick if you travel with me. I won't be much help.

General Thoughts - first trip abroad

2009-05-10T01:38:00.005-04:00

My roommate for the trip just asked me what I thought about my first international trip. I realized I said some things to her that I didn't include in the first two posts:

Free booze on international flights is pretty cool
Sleeping on international flights is pretty tough (for me and my long legs), but I do like the sleeping mask they give you.
There isn't a water fountain to be found in the Charles de Gaulle (Paris) airport
When we were waiting for the bus, we had cabbies try to make deals with us (a group of 9) to take us to our hotel. Our professor warned us not to take a cab unless we wanted an adventure and/or didn't mind getting ripped off. We stuck with the bus.
I mentioned the traffic before, but seriously, it's chaotic. But at least they are little cars, and no SUVs like in the States.

Other thoughts/occurrences:

I peed in a hole in the restaurant last night. The toilet, that is, was a porcelain hole in the ground.
Beer is measured in centiliters. 70 cl is a very large beverage.
My bizarre sleeping habits have translated well and I'm not sure if I'm going to have trouble with jet lag. I went to bed at 11:45 Turkish time, and woke up at 6am, felt fine, but went back to sleep, got up at 8, and feel amazing.
Our professor missed her flight out of Dulles. We got an email from her around 6pm asking one of us to leave a European power adapter for her at the front desk because she was going to get in around midnight and had lost her luggage....

Time for breakfast...

Turkey - Day One

2009-05-09T15:41:00.005-04:00

I flew from DC to Paris with 4 of my classmates, and ran into 5 more classmates in Paris waiting for the flight to Istanbul, on which we all were flying. Did a little bit of sleeping on each of the flights (which were about 8 hours and 3 hours respectively), but nothing that would really make you feel rested.

We landed around 2:30pm Turkey time, 7:30am DC time. We waited for a bus to take us to our hotel, and traffic was terrible. But while were traveling to the hotel, we were observant of the surroundings, because, while on our project, we are going to be keeping a field log full of reflections. Our first is about our "first impressions" of Istanbul, so to drop the cliche, we noted and shared examples of how Istanbul is truly a city where "East meets West, tradition meets modernity." We drove along the coast of the Sea of Marmara, and I felt like I was driving along Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, with people and families out along the park, having cookouts and playing soccer. But then we turn our heads to the left and saw all the ruins of the ancient city along with countless mosques.

Incluing waiting for the bus time, riding the bus time, walking from the bus to the hotel time, plus check-in time, I got to my room at 5pm. We can see the Bosporus Strait from our room. We hadn't eaten since noon-ish so a group of us decided to explore, since we don't have anything school related until 1pm tomorrow. We walked to the main strip with food, shopping, and lots of people - Istiklal Avenue. Whereas, on our drive we saw many women wearing head scarves and being fully covered, Istiklal could have been a just another packed street in NYC or DC. Perhaps U St, with all the skinny jeans and Converse that I saw. But throw in the occassional call to prayer from the many mosques in the city, and you are reminded of where you are.

Our group grew as more people got into town, and culminated in a fun dinner with "traditional Turkish food and beer" as our waiter marketed it to us. Four courses of deliciousness.

Back in our room now, we have our balcony door open so we can enjoy the perfect weather, hear the sounds of the still bustling street. There's also some traditional Turkish music being played, which makes closing out this evening that much more enjoyable. Sleep now. In country projects start tomorrow.

Turkey - Day Zero

2009-05-08T05:27:00.005-04:00

I stayed up until 5:30am packing and still had a lot more to do. My mom and I got pedicures at 11am for an early Mother's Day outing, then I had about 3 hours to pack before go time. Turns out I didn't know what all to bring and wound up packing a lot.

The parents got to my place, some advice was given, and some readjustment of bags occurred. We left, I made it through security, and I was on my way to Turkey, an excited bundle of joy.

Stay Tuned

2009-05-03T16:08:00.003-04:00

So obviously I haven't been good about keeping this here blog up to date. Turns out business school keeps you pretty busy.

What's going on -- classes are over. I should be studying for finals right now, which are tomorrow and Tuesday, with a take home-monstrous essays-type exam due Thursday. Then at 6:40pm on Friday I get on a plane to Turkey. That's right, freakin' Turkey. Off to present on the consulting project we've been working on the past 7 weeks. Did I mention this is my first trip abroad? Hot damn, I'm excited.

The first 5 or so days will be really busy and stressful because we will be finalizing our project for our client. But we are one of the first groups to present, so for the rest of the time my group can relax while the other groups finish up and present their projects. And our professor has planned some amazing cultural activities and outings for us. I'm going to do my best to blog every night or every other night while I'm there, posting pictures too. We have to keep a travel log for the class anyway, so I'll probably just post a lot of those reflections.

Then after 10 days of school stuff, I'm sticking around for another 9 days or so and going to an all-inclusive resort on the Aegean Sea! Ohhhh my goodness. I can't wait. We're getting a sweet discount too from a GW alumna who works there. I'm packing my sun screen.

Fly home on the 29th. Celebrate a best friend's birthday. Say hello to the parents. Then on June 1, I start my internship. Oh yes, I got the internship that I was dying to get. Just found out on Thursday. (Screams with excitement). It's perfect in every way, and I can't wait.

I just need to survive this week....

Officially Distractable

2009-04-04T22:15:00.003-04:00

Swamped is a good way to describe life right now. Mostly from schoolwork, but also from responsibilities of the extracurriculars. Things I need to do from Sunday - Wednesday: sing in church, meet with a group to figure out a finance paper, take a quiz, take two exams, write one case analysis, be interviewed for the internship I'm dying to have, learn Access for a computer lab, and try to set up an interview with people in the U.S. Trade Representative's office for my Turkey consulting project.

My goal for today was to read the three articles I needed to read in order to take the quiz and write the paper. I went to Panera to read the two articles I had on hard copy. I read those articles faster than I've ever read articles this year. I did not have my laptop open, I knew no one around me, there was no TV, and some smooth jazz was playing in the background. Feeling good about myself, I came home to make myself some dinner and read the last article, which is in PDF form on my computer. That was four hours ago, and I'm on page 3.

Websites I've frequented: Facebook, Gmail, Weather.com, Facebook, Horoscope Compatibility, GWork (our school's website for jobs & internships), Prudential & Nationwide (trying to find insurance quotes for our hypothetical condo we are buying for aforementioned finance paper), Liberty Center (the location of said hypothetical condo purchase...may I live here please?), Facebook, a blog I like, The New Colony, Spider Solitaire, Facebook.

I need that security system that the Federal government has installed on employees' computers so I'm blocked from going to these websites and I can do my work. Here's to another late night.

Super Recruiter

2009-01-26T23:58:00.002-05:00

Did I mention I'm VP of Recruitment for the MBA Association now? High five to me! It's something I've pretty much been doing for the past few months -- organizing classmates to reach out to prospective students via email, lunches, class visits, admissions fairs, and info sessions. I like telling people about the things I love, and I do love me some GW Business School.

Anyway, we had our first Super Saturday recruiting event of the year this year (we'll have another in March). This is the same event I attended last year that sold me on the school, so right away I knew I was going to want to help out. It's not your typical visit day -- we actually have the prospectives sit through 4 mini classes that represent our values (teamwork, quant, business responsibility, and international business). Then we throw in an alumni mentor/current student mentee panel here, a student clubs lunch there, and a presentation by the career center to top off the day. Oh yeah, then we take them out to a fancy schmancy dinner. AND THEN the current students bring them to our weekly IPO, or "Informal Public Outing" (that's business humor, for ya). Allow them to let loose with an open bar after a long long day.

GREAT SUCCESS! After a focus group of classmates who attended last year, we made an already awesome event outstanding. Last year, we had a 50% conversion rate of folks who came to Super Saturday and then committed. I wouldn't be surprised if that number was higher this year. Our biggest selling point is how cool the students are. The most common thing they said was, "I can't believe how nice/friendly/open/honest/down to earth/real everyone is. It's not like that at other schools." "We know," we reply with a smile. "That's why we love it here." Not to mention we have a brand new curriculum that is already kicking ass and taking names (What's up 2nd tier BusinessWeek rankings?! Whoop whoop!)

Okay, this is definitely stream of conciousness procrastination type of writing. Needless to say, I wasn't able to accomplish much work this weekend, as I was gone Saturday from 7:30am to 3am. yowza. (I tried to outlast them at the bar, but I finally broke down and left out of exhaustion when there were still 2-3 left. cripes!). Not to mention we had a welcoming event Friday night for them that kept me out late that night too.

And this week is ridiculous. I think I have about 7 things due for 5 classes in 3 days. And the Follies show goes up next week, so rehearsals galore for that right now.

I'm known in my class for being the one who doesn't sleep.

Spoiled

2009-01-22T23:25:00.002-05:00

Google has spoiled me. I look at my textbooks and all I want to do is type keywords into it and have my answer immediately.

"What about the index," you say, "you lazy piece of shit." True, the index has a similar outcome, but only for really important words that are in bold. I want the random topics hidden in the words I don't want to read.

Weekend Wows

2009-01-21T01:23:00.005-05:00

What a weekend. I turned 26, the Steelers won, Barack Obama is now our president, and I got to watch it in DC on a jumbo tron with 2 million people at the National Mall.

Birthday fun -- A classmate of mine was going to have a party on Saturday anyway as an inauguration celebration and because his girlfriend's birthday was Friday. Turns out my birthday was Sunday and another classmate's birthday was also Friday, so it was just a big celebration. I went incognito and straightened my hair and wore contacts. I do it for special occasions. But the unfortunate result was that a lot of my friends didn't recognize me and didn't say hi or happy birthday until halfway through the party.

Here's a snapshot of one of the highlights (or really a lowlight) of the night.

Here I am after I found out that the $5,000 I thought I won (and already mentally started spending on my school trip to Turkey in May) from this birthday present lotto ticket, was not actually real. The back of the ticket read:

Winning tickets of $100 or more must be sent by mail or in person to the Money Fairy, 123 NoWhere Drive, in Make-Believe Land.
Valid only in your dreams. Any resemblance to a real or implied lottery ticket is what makes it fun.
THIS TICKET FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY. Thanks for being a good sport.

ODDS OF WINNING: 0 in 10,000

I'm a sucker. But then a group of us left the party and dancing occurred. All was forgotten.

Oh, and there were a lot of people out and about in DC, in case you hadn't heard. Bars were open late, and it was tough to catch a cab.

That's a crowded bar.

Sunday was the actual bday, which I spent with folks I often neglect because of school -- my old Apple buddies and my parents. We went over to my parents' house for some delicious pizza and Steelers. Twas a grand old time, especially because "Pittsburgh's goin' to the Super Bowl!!" (Click for a catchy tune).

Then today I braved the crowd of 2 million to be a part of, to sound cliche, *history*. I felt like the inauguration was the Woodstock of my generation -- I wouldn't be able to look my future children in the face if they found out that I was living in DC and did not go. Besides, I hadn't heard Obama speak in person yet, and that's something I've been wanting to do.

The energy was incredible. People didn't mind the crowds because it was such a celebration. A weight was lifted off the shoulders of America. I was a mile or more away from "The Moment" (as CNN has so lamely dubbed it), but everyone who was around me watching the jumbo tron between the WWII Memorial and the Washington Monument felt just as connected as the folks packed in at 12th Street between the Monument and the Capitol. There was much rejoicing.

I was a multi-media fiend. With my left hand, I filmed everything from Biden's swearing in through the closing benediction with my Christmas present Flip video recorder, and snapped as many pictures as possible with my digital camera in my right hand. And while my phone battery still lasted, I was snapping and sending picture texts and emails to my family. My hands were frozen by the end of the day, but it was worth it. Here are some pictures:

It was cold. I bundled.

Lots of people here.

Lots of people there.

No longer "President-Elect." If you look closely, the closed caption says,
"President Obama: Thank you, thank you."

My underoos that kept me warm.

And I needed that warmth, because I decided to walk 5.5 miles from the Mall to the last metro stop I could get to before I would have to start walking on a highway to get home (putting me only 3 stops away from home). It took me 1.5 hrs to get into the city in the morning, on a trip that usually takes 20 minutes. The only reason I even was able to fit on the train was because I live at the 2nd stop on the line. There was no way I was getting on a train in the middle of the city right after the inauguration. So I decided to walk to the point at which enough people would have gotten off the train so I could fit. It was still crowded, like a usual rush hour crowd, but this was at 2pm on a Tuesday. Rad.

Awesome weekend.

Namaste

2009-01-05T19:03:00.002-05:00

I did yoga today for the first time. Classes this week are free at school, I'm still on vacation, and my good friend classmates do yoga, so I figured I couldn't pass it up. Hey, it was pretty great. This could be really good for me, I think. Hopefully it will help with my inability to fall asleep at night, my bad knees, and all the stress I store in my body. Tomorrow is power yoga. I'm planning to be sore after that.

Namaste.

Speaking of Namaste, over winter break I re-watched all 4 seasons of Lost. Thank goodness the episodes are free online. And ABC has a really good video player. Very clear picture. But that's right. Over 70 episodes in about 2.5 weeks. I'm hard core. And oh-so-ready for the Season 5 premiere on January 21. So excited.

Blogging about a Blog

2008-10-22T23:44:00.002-04:00

I'm in New York City right now on a career trek with my school. That means we visit a bunch of companies and schmooze with GW alums to find out how we can get jobs and internships (and if you are really lucky, you find one through the trek!)

In an effort to continually promote the brand and our amazing students, the guy who organized the trip put together a blog to chronicle our visits and experiences. He asked me to be one of the bloggers for the trip, and I of course accepted.

Without further ado, please visit the GW MBA New York City Career Trek Blog. Tell your friends.

Aw Shucks

2008-10-03T01:28:00.002-04:00

I ran and was elected for one of two positions as cohort representative on the MBA Association board (governing body for the MBA program). That's pretty cool. And what's cooler is my best bud in the class, who I befriended way back at the visit day in February, also ran and also was elected. We will team up with two cool kids from the other cohort and one international student yet to be elected to be the first-year representatives. Look out. Times they are a changin'. We believe in GW and will be doing great things.

Act Responsibly, Lead Passionately, Think Globally

George Washington University Global MBA Program

Vacation Abridged

2008-09-22T22:41:00.004-04:00

I wanted to do two more posts about my vacation to California, but that's just not going to happen. In times of procrastination though, I managed to at least upload my photos to Facebook. I'm going to just post those three albums here, and hope that they, along with my captions, tell the story well enough. Besides, now I can post all of the pictures, instead of just a sample.

Enjoy!

California with Friends & Family

California Route 1

Lake Tahoe

Victory?

2008-09-11T08:03:00.003-04:00

Now, I'm not trying to dress myself in a flight suit and declare Mission Accomplished or anything, but I do want to point out that we haven't seen any roaches in quite some time. I think the COMBAT traps helped a lot.

But roomie also pointed out that the guys who lived below us moved out. We never did figure out how many guys actually lived in that apartment....it was at least three...sometimes we thought there were five. Exterminators were in the empty apartment last week. Ew. I don't even want to think about what it must have been like down there....

California - Leg 1

2008-08-22T10:47:00.005-04:00

School started on Monday, and I'm already swamped with work. Actually, the whole time I was in California, it seemed like every day I checked my email, I had another pre-assignment.

Therefore, the entries about my trip will be written in parts, because I'd feel really guilty if I took the time to write about the entire trip in one day. Plus, I wouldn't do it justice.

Leg 1 - LA

I was in LA for three days to visit my Cousin Rob. He's the closest of my cousins to my age, so we've always been pretty good buds. We had a blast together.

Here we are bustin' a move.

We went to Venice Beach to have brunch with an ex-coworker of mine. Cousin described Venice Beach as the "Times Square" of LA. When I asked why, he said, "There's a bunch of weirdos." Here's the open market, but I didn't get any pictures of the "weirdos." I did see them, though.

I felt I had to do the touristy thing and go to Hollywood. We went to the Chinese Theater, saw the Walk of Fame, then Cousin said, "Well....that's Hollywood." Turns out Hollywood is kind of lame.

But this was a cool picture to get. Gotta love that smog.

And we got chicken & waffles. It doesn't make sense in theory, but it does make sense in your mouth.

Another beach - Malibu

Cousins!

I also visited the Unitarian Universalist church near my cousin's house, since I was there a week after the shooing at the Knoxville church. It meant a lot to be there to heal with that community, since I was unable to be at my home church.

This concludes Leg 1. Stay tuned for Leg 2 - Route 1. (I have no idea when I'll get around to posting that. Millions of amazing pictures).

Now to do the work I've been putting off doing all morning...

Say no to lockjaw

2008-08-15T12:23:00.004-04:00

In March I received a packet o' forms that needed to be sent in for my MBA program. I'm all about deadlines, so I noticed the deadline for the medical form was August 1, and that's all my brain processed.

I pulled out the form again sometime in July, since August was coming up, and I noticed it was a form for our immunization records. On closer examination, it was a form specifically for incoming students under the age of 26. I turn 26 in January. *shakes fist*

I contacted my undergraduate college in hopes that they still had my record, which they did. Sweet. $5 to mail them. Nuts.

When the records came in the mail, I looked again at the form to send in, and noticed that I needed to have a tetanus shot in the last 10 years. My record said my last tetanus shot was in December '97. Hmm...maybe they won't notice...

I faxed in the form, and right away I received an email from "immunreq@__.edu" pointing out that my last tetanus shot was not in the last 10 years.

4 months away from not needing to submit my immunizations, and 8 months away from being in the clear. Instead, I got a tetanus shot yesterday and now I'm down another $50 with a sore left shoulder.

*shakes right fist* Bring on the rusty nails.

Margot

2008-08-14T00:12:00.001-04:00

Yes, I just got back from a vacation in California. Yes, it was amazing. Yes, I should write an entry about it. But first...

...I must share my love for Margot & the Nuclear So and So's. I stumbled across this band when I accompanied my roommate to The Frames' show at the 9:30 Club sometime last year (they were one of the openers). Oh my goodness, what a trip they are.

This band has 8 people in it, which is cool, because their live show sounds just as full and rich as their album. 2 guitars, a bass, drums, keyboard (the lone chick who adds lovely harmonies). Okay, that's pretty normal. Then add a guy who plays brass (either trombone or trumpet), a guy who plays lap steel for some songs and violin for others, and the most entertaining of all, a guy who specializes in percussion (including a big bass drum & tambourine) and sweet dance moves.

They were signed to Epic, which is interesting, because they are ultra-indie...not the type of band you'd expect to be signed to a major label. But apparently that has contributed in the delay of their next full album release (conflict and such -- I guess they convinced the label to let them release an EP, which is available now).

Anyway, saw them tonight at 9:30 again, this time they headlined. And they were wonnnderful. Love them.

(Clearly, I'm still on California time, as I'm still awake at 1:25am...)

COMBAT

2008-07-28T09:42:00.000-04:00

We have declared war on the roaches.

12 traps filled with delicious poison for them to eat and bring back to their nests to die a hopefully painful death and to spread the death around their nests.

Mwah ahahahaha

Wunjo Onion

2008-07-27T13:53:00.000-04:00

So umm...I'm in a band now?

My sister is the performer, not me. That's why I save my musical endeavors for family and church. (Singing and playing in church is the best -- it's like playing in front of 50 grandmothers. They'll love anything you do!)

My dad has recently found a guitar pickin' buddy at church, Jack, so they've started playing together pretty regularly, and I join in when I can, along with other musical folks in the congregation. Also, summertime at a UU church is pretty lax. Often the minister will take a bit of a break, and church members will do many of the services. My dad has volunteered us to do the music at several services lately.

This week we received an email from my dad that said the folks at this little church mess up our names in the orders of service a lot, and that we should have a name for the group instead. He suggested Wunjo, the rune for joy and harmony. Cool, until you throw in the confusing pronunciation -- Vun-yoh.

Then Jack shot out an email suggesting the name Wunjo Onion, "using musical joyfulness in peeling back the layers of existential philosophy, looking for a meristem of truth..." Wow. That's a UU explanation for you.

At practice on Friday, my mom pointed out that she saw the emails and refrained from commenting. :-) My sentiments exactly, mother.

Didn't stop Papa from announcing us as Wunjo Onion today at church. Oh well. He just forwarded an email from a woman in the church, expressing her appreciation for the music this morning. (What did I say about the 50 grandmas?)

I guess a silly name can't keep us from making purty music.

Boring Updates

2008-07-24T21:32:00.000-04:00

A friend gave me a stern talkin' to for not writing recently. So here are some updates on my boring life.

The internet is fixed, thank goodness. It was the cable company's fault. They came out, after canceling at least 3 appointments because there was an "outage" (not the case) only to find out that our cable line was disconnected accidentally...when someone else's was supposed to be disconnected. Oh well. We got a credit for the month we didn't have internet.

We are still battling the roaches. An exterminator came, but we're not sure if he did anything. Had we done our research before we moved in, we would have learned that this apartment complex has a roach problem. I'm concerned for Roommate's sanity. He encounters them more often than I do. He stumbled across a hatching of them...he killed about 30 baby roaches. He gets in roach killing mode. I think he'll get armor soon. He told me this evening he started seeing random flies, big ones, but he doesn't know where they are coming from. "I swear, someone is injecting flies into our house." I doubt we'll be renewing our lease.

Saw The Dark Knight. Twice. Will see it again on IMAX.

Roommate is singing along to the theme song of So You Think You Can Dance right now. I turned it on once because a friend of mine went to one of the tapings so I saw him on TV. Then I learned that the next week, Roommate watched it on his own. I turned the results show on tonight just for something to have on in the background, so he's watching. Oh, now he's telling me about who is the most technically trained of all the guys... Believe it or not, Roommate is actually one of my few heterosexual friends.

Yesterday was my last day at Apple. I couldn't have been happier. A lot of drama went down. My best friend, the senior manager, was fired for a made up, bullshit reason. The evil people in the store (who happen to also be the people that never did their jobs didn't like being told that they weren't doing their jobs by a manager brought in to fix the problems in the store) conspired to get him fired for being "intoxicated" at work. He had one glass of wine at lunch in October. PS -- this was in October, and it was brought to HR's attention in April. Yeah. Shady. Also, the iPhone was a pain in the butt, and I'm starting school soon. So I'm finished with Apple...for now...not opposed to going back if I go broke and I go to a different store where the evil people are not.

One more week with the "real" job. Trying to finish the last podcast, but my co-editors are making it very difficult for me. Do this, then change that, no maybe this will work better, try this instead, what if....the previous podcasts have not been this difficult. But actually, their direction is less clear than that. I said, okay, so basically you just want me to make it better. I gotta figure out what it is that isn't clicking. Quickly. I must do this quickly.

California from August 2-11. Giddy. Plans are close to being locked down. Giddy.

Comfort and Will were eliminated from SYTYCD.

This is all for now. I'm sleepy.

Apartment Living

2008-06-05T09:49:00.000-04:00

In an email from my roomie on the 3rd:

"By the way...there was an MIB sized cockroach in our dishwasher this morning...ewwww..."

Pest control is coming on the 9th. Delicious.

In the meantime, we haven't had cable or internet since May 19. We called on the 21st, they set up an appointment for the 23rd, then called back 15 minutes later to tell us there was an outage and our appointment was cancelled.

They hadn't fixed it by the 27th, so Roomie called again, and they told us there was still an outage and they didn't know what was wrong. They didn't know whether they'd be able to give us a discount for the week + we had gone without cable and internet. WHAT WHAT?? Oh yes, you WILL be giving us a discount!

I was out of town this past weekend, but I got an email from Roomie saying he had set up an appointment for them to come take a look at it on the evening of the 3rd. When I got home late that night, he was sitting playing MarioKart. I got excited, hoping he was racing his brothers online, but alas, he was just racing the computer. Cox had called again, canceling the appointment again, because there was "still an outage."

I need my internet.

Eating Instructions

2008-05-20T11:59:00.000-04:00

I was in a wedding this past weekend in Ohio. This post is not about the wedding. It's about the pretzels I received on my flight back yesterday. I wasn't hungry at the time, so I stuck the pretzels in my purse.

As I was sitting at my desk today at work, I remembered the pretzels and pulled them out. As I was opening the package, this is what I read:

HOW TO EAT
GOURMET
PRETZELS
ON A LOW-FARE AIRLINE.
(SEE BACK FOR COMPLETE DETAILS)

EATING INSTRUCTIONS:

Think about our wonderful low fairs at airtran.com as you open packet.
Place a pretzel in mouth. With each crunch, be reminded of our low fares.
As you swallow, remember again just how low the fares are.
Repeat until pretzel packet is empty.
Keep empty packet to remind yourself to book at airtran.com for our lowest fares and no booking fees.

Wow. I think their attempt at being quirky and funny to keep customers loyal fell a little short, but I give 'em props. And if their pretzel packages and low fares don't keep customers coming back, maybe the pretzels themselves will. They were pretty tasty.

Blog in Bullets

2008-05-14T22:31:00.000-04:00

I always come up with ideas for blog topics while I'm at work or driving or at work #2 or playing soccer or playing MarioKart Wii....wait, no, not while playing MarioKart...that's pure focus.

But lately I haven't had the energy or the desire to sit down and write, and I have an anal obsession with order and chronology, so these posts tend to stay in my brain or deleted as drafts as I decide it's "too late" to post.

Here are topics I've started or thought of starting:

Pulling off two surprise parties in one month. (That would have been a good one too... expression pictures and all)
Trip to NYC for some Broadway with the boyfriends (and the relevance of the show we saw with the class I was teaching)
My love for pesto and pondering of the ingredients only to be disappointed at how easy it is to learn these things. Wikipedia takes away the magical creative thoughts as to what the deliciousness of pesto could possibly be.
Sister's visit to DC with the new boyfriend.
My stellar ability of not letting guys that I'm interested in know that I'm interested in them. Rather, I go to such lengths to make them think I'm not interested so as to protect myself.
My excitement about grad school and my amazingly cool future classmates. (And the ridiculousness that some of them have already started calling me the social chair. Okay, maybe I sort of helped organize a happy hour, and set up the facebook group, and have been emailing people to figure out where they live...and have gotten an email from the current social chair...whatever...)
The bittersweet feeling about leaving my current job....oh wait, I think I already wrote that one...
Booking a flight to California for a vacation between the end of work and the start of school for one last hurrah (definitely potential for a future post)
My bridesmaid's dress saga

Actually that last one will be written. The post hasn't been written yet because it is not yet finished (I'm actually talking about the saga *and* the dress), and I did not want to scare the bride...I hope she doesn't read this.... the wedding is Saturday...

Maybe some of those could eventually be posts...I just need to get over my brain and convince myself that it's *okay* to write and post things out of order...

breathe...it's okay....*shakes...twitches...*

In Creeps the Doubt...

2008-04-20T22:27:00.000-04:00

As I'm about to have my two-year review at my current job, I'm starting to doubt my decision to go for my MBA. Now, the deposit has already been sent -- I'm going -- but I'm starting to worry.

For starters, I'm just beginning to come into my own at my job. I have sooo much respect from my supervisors, I'm taking on more responsibility, and I've gotten a lot of confidence. The company just moved to a beautiful new office, is taking on all these new initiatives to grow and help employees grow, and the commute is now a tolerable 30 minutes instead of a retched hour + commute.

But most of my doubt comes with my confusion and worry about a major or specialty. The original reason I decided to apply to this school, let alone an MBA program, was because it has a major called Organizational Behavior & Development. This field includes group dynamics and teamwork, leadership, conflict resolution...all the stuff I find really interesting.

At the visit day for this school, one of the professors did a presentation on leadership -- sort of a snippet of a class he teaches. Afterwards, I went up to him and said, "Wow, I really enjoyed your presentation...I applied to this school because of the OBD major...I'd love to sit and talk with you about it sometime...blah blah blah." This is what he said to me, and I quote: "Oh that's great, but I typically don't encourage students to major in OBD."

Gulp.

He assured me that there were definitely routes to take if I were really interested, but he planted the seed of doubt.

In the meantime, one of my part-time job co-workers is/was an OBD specialist/consultant for several years before he started the part-time gig....which actually just turned to a full-time gig because the work for OBD specialists is not so hot right now. I was talking to him last night and he said his friends and mentors, who have freakin' Ph.Ds, are charging the same rates as they did 10 years ago, and just all around having trouble finding work.

And it makes sense. OBD is the fluff of business. It's important, and I know I would have a blast with it, but with the economy in the crap hole right now, executive officers are not going to be hiring people to come in and do team building games. I could go the HR route, but really, that just makes my skin crawl.

Even if there was work available...do I really want to be the overly cheery person that all the negative grumpy people hate as I try to get them to do fun activities? oy...

And of course I'm extra nervous because....I already screwed up. I already started grad school for audiology and hated that and withdrew after a semester. I can't do that again. I don't think I will, but that's still pretty scary.

So I need to meet with the career folks. I'm good with people. I'm really good with people. According to the Gallup strengths finder test I took for my current job, my top two strengths are Positivity and Empathy. WHAT WHAT?! Okay, great, awesome, fine, thanks for telling me something I already know. But what the hell do I do with that?! I think I have strong management skills and intuition, but I don't know if I have the background or experience to be a marketable employee.

I need to meet with the career folks...

Oh by the way...

2008-04-08T10:16:00.000-04:00

I got my rejection letter from the impossible-to-get-into grad school last week so I'm staying local...and I couldn't be happier! I've already started organizing the other members of the upcoming Class of 2010, and everyone seems as excited as I am. We start August 18. Woohoo!

Now the question is...is it the Class of "Two thousand ten" or "Twenty ten" .... ??

Pure Fashion

2008-04-07T22:48:00.000-04:00

There's this stupid fashion out right now that involves wearing boots over jeans. Yeah I said it. I don't like that style.

There's an even stupider fashion that involves thinking sweatpants are fashionable.

(Don't get me wrong. I have a profound love for sweatpants, and I have a special place for them in my heart.... because they are *not* fashionable. That's the beauty of them. Wearing them around campus and to class when you are in college. Lounging all day in them at home. That satisfying feeling of putting them on after a long day in uncomfortable work clothes. You don't wear them to the mall with a "cute" top. Ruins the beauty of the sweatpant).

Combine these two stupid fashions and you get something absolutely ridiculous. Sweatpants tucked into Uggs? Really?

Combine this ridiculousness with University of Virginia sweatpants that say

down the pant leg...

(but remember...the pants are tucked into the boots)...

And you get something utterly hilarious.

I See Granola People

2008-03-31T18:04:00.000-04:00

The Whole Foods corporate office is on the 9th floor of the building my company moved into recently. I've found that, when I'm riding the elevator, I can pretty easily guess who will be getting off on the 9th floor.

Ahhh stereotypes :-)

Soundtrack of My Life

2008-03-15T12:36:00.000-04:00

My roommate and I moved to a new apartment recently. So far it's been great, and it has cut down both our commutes significantly. In fact, my roommate walks to work often. He's very excited about the money he will be saving on gas as the prices continue to soar.

On the other hand, he also just recently started seeing a lovely lady, but the trouble is, she lives three hours away. So while he's saving money on gas with his tiny commute, he's canceling that out by driving to see her.

The other night as we were headed out he didn't have any gas in his car, despite walking to work now. So I got stuck driving. We were talking about his traveling situation, and Roomie said, "If things keep going well [with aforementioned lovely lady], I see myself probably going down there once or twice a month."

To which I replied, "Well damn, if I'm gon have the place to mahself so much, I best be gettin' mahself a booyyfrend."

To which my radio practically replied, "Ha ha ha, oh Bri, you're so hopelessly pathetic."

Without skipping a beat, we heard that hauntingly beautiful voice from Three Dog Night sing out, "Onnnnnne is the loneliest number that you'll ever doooo."

Thanks radio. I think I'll be listening to mah iPawd from now on.

Still Waiting

2008-03-03T10:32:00.000-05:00

"I'm not going to waste any time with this. You're admitted," he said, referring to the shoot-for-the-stars-8%-acceptance-rate grad school to which I applied. Who said this you ask? Simon Cowell. I rejoiced, then I woke up.

As I'm still waiting to hear if I will even get an interview with this school, maybe this is my subconscious's way of hinting that attending this school really is just "in my dreams."

Although sometimes I catch myself hoping I don't get in. I know I'll be happy at the school here, and well, it's safe. I've made some amazing friends here and my parents are here. I just moved into a new apartment (near a Metro stop!!) with my best friend. The curriculum at the local school is getting a face lift this year, and the goal is to get the school bumped up in the rankings starting with (potentially) my class.

Oy...I guess I'll just keep waiting and see what happens.

Not Fully Functional

2008-02-25T09:39:00.000-05:00

I think I dropped the soap 4 or 5 times this morning in the shower. Good thing I'm not in prison. My phone alarm sang for 40 minutes before I was able to drag myself out of bed. Good thing it doesn't turn off after 30 minutes like my clock radio alarm. I'm pretty spent from this weekend.

Friday night the Apple folks had a going away outing for some good friends that are moving. So sad. I probably stayed out too late, because I had a big day on Saturday, but I'm a sucker for hanging out with good friends.

Saturday I had to be in the District at 8:30 am for a visit day for the school to which I was admitted. From 9-5, we had a sample of 3 classes we'd be taking, a presentation from career services, and lunch with current students. We had a little break so we could get all purdied up, and at 7pm we boarded a bus to take us on a dinner cruise on the Potomac. How cool! It was a great time. We got back at 11...and then the bus took us to a bar where the current students had gotten a $500 tab. Ridiculous. It's was like a visit weekend for undergrad...only legal. People were going nuts. I was good though, because I had to work the next day and well...drive home. But again, I'm a sucker for hanging out with friends, even if I just met them that day, so I ended up getting home at 2am.

Off to Apple at 11am Sunday. It started out a pretty typical Sunday...sufficiently busy, but nothing too bad. Then around 3pm we got SLAMMED! I was helping about 3 people at one time, while trying to find specialists for 3 additional people who wanted to buy computers. Oy.

Off at 5, then on to the next venture...sexuality education for middle schoolers. Last night's topic: Sexual orientation and gender identity. Teaching this class has been interesting. The curriculum is designed to be secular and taught anywhere, so it assumes that this session may be difficult and uncomfortable for the youth. But these are Unitarian Universalist youth...youth who have been raised to be accepting and loving of all differences. Youth who already know people of different sexual orientations and gender identities. To the question, "Have you ever seen a man dressed as a woman or a woman dressed as a man?" Most of them said, "Yes." To the question, "What did you think?" they said, "The person was doing what he or she needed to do to be him or herself." No judging or ridicule whatsoever. Of course this is wonderful and makes my job, in a way, easy. But it also makes getting them to talk and participate difficult...because they think, well, this is common sense! Oh well...I guess I'd rather have that problem than hateful youth who won't listen or accept and cherish people's differences.

After that, I stayed up late watching the Oscars...and I'm so happy Glen & Marketa won for Falling Slowly! Here is their performance from last night (with intro from Colin Farrell...ow ow!) I haven't seen any of the nominated movies, but I've seen Once (I got the DVD for my roomie for Christmas) and I listen to that song all the time. Soooo good. And they are just adorable. Take that, Enchanted!!

I hope my eyes open all the way at some point today.

The Adventures of a DC Commuter Continue

2008-02-12T11:13:00.000-05:00

This is a "series" I started on my MySpace blog. I'm happy to still be having adventures...at least for the sake of the stories.

I typically drive to and from work every day, but due to lack of parking, Metro is my transportation mode of choice when I enter the District. I almost had a Metro disaster the morning of my grad school interview, which was scheduled for 10am. Everything turned out okay, as the next day I found out I was admitted, but so continues...The Adventures of a DC Commuter!

I left at 9, giving myself about an hour to get to the school, knowing that the train ride itself was about 20 minutes. I probably coulda/shoulda left earlier to be on the safe side, but...I didn't. Apparently traffic on the way to the Metro station nearest me is still busy at 9am, which surprised me.

I got to the parking lot at about 9:20...cutting it close, but still enough time to get there early. I started looking for a spot...and I kept looking...I got caught following another guy looking for a spot. We split up, and neither of us found a spot.

9:25. Panic. I continued following the guy in front of me as he left the lot and drove across the street. The sign said METRO STATION PARKING (though not a part of Metro itself) but there was a big garage. *phew* I saw a guy outside and it looked like he was taking cash. I noticed another sign that validated that he was in fact, taking cash... $5 to be exact. I NEVER have cash....but miraculously I did that day!!! Paid him, ticket in my front window, 2 cars in front of me. Everyone seemed to be driving reeeally slowwwwly. Apparently a lot of people were too late to find spaces in the other lot. Four turns and two floors later, I found a spot in the garage. Thank goodness for the Yaris, because the bigger cars in front of me passed it up. Park, exit, cross street.

9:30. Walking quickly wasn't going to cut it. I started running through the parking lot with my huge tote bag, glad I decided against wearing the heels.

9:32 (according to the station clock). I used the $5 change from my $10 payment to Parking Garage Man to bring my negative Smart Card funds into the positives. 3 minutes until the next train. Commence math, trying to figure out when I would arrive. Profanities directed at self. "Are you fucking serious?! You are going to be fucking late to your *BUSINESS* school interview!?" Hopped on the train, resolved it was out of my hands, and hoped the Metro Trip Planner I had used the night before overestimated the traveling time. I decided I needed some zen, so I pulled out my book, Life of Pi, though I kept looking up at the Metro map to check the train's progress.

9:55ish. Pulled into the stop. I was delightfully surprised that the escalator was not one of the ones that were long enough to descend into hell, so I scooted out pretty quickly. AND the building turned out to be only 2 blocks away. *phew*

I think I got there at 10:00:30 am. I don't think they noticed...or at least, that's what I'm going to tell myself. "Yes, water would be lovely, thank you, it's really hot outside...heh" Ahh excuses for the sweat running down my face.

Talk about highs and lows

2008-02-09T19:15:00.001-05:00

Thursday I was accepted to a grad program. Yesterday we had to put down my 19-year-old cat, Mario. My mom was out of town, so luckily I was able to go with my dad to the vet. I'm gonna miss the lil bugger. ohhh head scratches make kitties smile :)

ADMITTED

2008-02-08T09:14:00.000-05:00

I had an interview on Tuesday for the MBA program that is close. In an email yesterday:

"It was great meeting with you yesterday, so much so that I get to do the most fun part of my job and tell you that you have been admitted to the _____ Global MBA program. Your letter is going out in the mail today so you can take more than my word for it."

WAAAHHOOOOO!!!

I'm still waiting to hear from the MBA program that is not close. It could be another month before I know anything. My fingers are still crossed, but it's good to know that I have *some* sort of plan for the fall. My roommate is rooting for the local program :)

Applications Finished

2008-01-16T10:46:00.000-05:00

I applied to two M.B.A. programs and may apply to a third. The two are full-time, the third is part-time. The deadline for the part-time program's application isn't until May 15, and I find out about the full-time programs in April. This is nice, because I'd much rather go to a full-time program, so I will wait until I hear about those programs and hopefully I won't have to apply to the part-timer. That'll save me 60 bucks too....which will pay for, like, half a book or something.

But they are finished, so now I wait. Even if I have to apply to the part-time program, the recommendation letters and essays are the same as one of the full-time programs (because it's through the same school), so I'd just have to submit and pay. Sneaky how they make you do two applications to get more money......jerks. Oh well, I guess this is for business school.

Nearing Exhaustion

2008-01-09T16:44:00.000-05:00

I think my hectic lifestyle I've chosen to lead this winter is starting to take its toll. Last night at job #2 almost all of my co-workers said, Jeez...are you alright!? I said, Yeah...I'll be fine...maybe by April...or June....

I'm working on two projects at my full-time job until ehhh March or April? I hope to continue the part-time retail job until August or September (assuming I don't go bonkers). And starting this Sunday, I will be teaching a class 3 Sundays a month from 7-9, which doesn't include significant planning time, through June. I'm moving to a new place March 1, and my company is moving to a new office building that same weekend. I'll find out if I was accepted into graduate school in April.

This past weekend was rough. The deadline for graduate school application #1 was Monday the 7th at 8pm. Thanks to having two jobs now, I hadn't been able to work on it much until then. I needed to write four essays, totaling seven pages. I had written about a page and a half. So on Friday, I went on a retreat to my parents' house because I could lock myself in a room and, unlike my house, actually have some peace and quiet. My co-worker friend is a writer/editor, so she was going to take a look at them. I told her I'd have the essays to her Saturday morning or afternoon.

Finished the two 1-pagers and went to bed at midnight. Woke up, wrote a longer one and sent her those three at 2pm. Took a lunch break. Back to work at 6pm. Sent her the last essay (which was actually the first, most important essay) at 3am, knowing it was choppy and a work-in-progress.

Off to job #2 Sunday morning. Convinced them that, since someone who wasn't on the schedule was working, I didn't need to be there. Sent home at 3pm. Received a phone call asking if I could come to the parent meeting for the class I agreed to teach. "Oh, just make an appearance, you only need to stay for 20 minutes." Annoyed that teaching this class has been so disorganized and I still didn't know which Sunday it would be starting, I collapsed in a nap from 4:30-5:30. Worked on the application form until it was time for the meeting. I was gone for two hours.

Back to work. Time check: 8pm. Still to finish: the application form (which involved a lot more writing than I realized), simple edits to 2 essays, changing the scope a bit of 1 essay, and adding smoother transitions and examples to the other. Time submitted: 3:30am. All in all, I'm *really* happy with the way the essays turned out, but last year, this school accepted 6% of the applicants. *sigh*

Graduate application #2 is due Tuesday the 15th. The application form is for the most part finished, but I have to write three essays. I think I will be able to tweak some of the other essays, but I will definitely have to do some original writing. With my current schedule, I basically have Saturday to finish...and/or I'll just stay up till 4am Monday night again...

Don't worry, my writing is much better than this for the applications.

Monster Truck Rallies??

2008-01-02T12:22:00.000-05:00

Really, horoscope? Really?

Your social energy is quietly buzzing right now, making today perfect for spending time with friends. Anything from heartfelt chats to monster truck rallies should be fine, as long as you're all together.

Politely Pumping

2007-12-28T09:47:00.000-05:00

As the last notch on my digital gas tank was angrily flashing at me, I pulled into the nearest Shell station to fill 'er up. After swiping my card, pumping the gas, and returning the nozzle, the gas pump machine asked me if I wanted a receipt. My options were "Yes" and "No, thanks." I thought, well isn't that nice? Shell is teaching folks manners! But I wondered, why not the affirmative option, "Yes, please." It goes both ways, Shell! Oh well, at least the negative option wasn't, "No way, you jerk, and screw you for even asking!"

My 19-Year-Old Cat

2007-12-11T15:13:00.001-05:00

My sister took this picture and posted it on her blog, but it's just too good not to post on mine too. This is Mario. He's 19 in human years. He is diabetic and gets insulin shots twice a day. His meow could wake the dead. He's a good cat. And very very old.

Two Peas in a Pod for 60 Years

2007-12-10T12:10:00.000-05:00

My granddad is dying. This weekend my family went up to Pennsylvania to visit him and say our goodbyes, which was hard of course. My aunts visited the funeral home to start making those arrangements. My grandma told us that Granddaddy said he wanted to be cremated, which surprised her. She had never considered that an option, and seemed kind of grossed out or creeped out about the idea. I think she said, "Ehhhleck!" She seemed to be throwing in the towel, though. She said, "Not that it really matters...you used to think all this was important stuff, but it doesn't really matter after all."

Apparently, though, they have the option of just getting one plot. If she still wanted to be buried, they could put the casket in and have the urn go on top. Or, if she decided she would be cremated too, they could put both urns in one plot. As she was telling us these options, she said, "Well, I think as long as we're together. Two peas in a pod for 60 years, we ought to be together."

I am continuously reminded of how unbelievably, truly fortunate I am to have so many models of love and commitment in my life.

A game I play

2007-11-25T22:07:00.000-05:00

Part of my responsibility for this 2nd job o' mine is to be the greeter. Simple enough, but it can get a bit old. Sure, you can find me shakin my groove thang if a good song comes on, and certainly I switch up my Hi Theres, and Welcomes, and Have a Good Ones now and then, but I'm still standing at a door for 8 hours saying hello and goodbye.

But the good thing about living near the capital of this great nation of ours is I get to see a good deal of diversity. Much more spicy and interesting than the white bread of Ohio, "The Heart of It All." Because of this I've come up with a game to play to pass the time as I greet people. It's called "Gay or European." I think you can figure out the objective.

Turkey Day TV

2007-11-22T12:34:00.001-05:00

My parents bought a 50 inch plasma television this year, in time for the Women's World Cup and Penn State football season. At first I made fun of them for being excessive, but it is incredible. You can see the sweat, the divots, each step of the marching bands. And it's great for prime time TV too. Seeing the Heroes fly through the air, or the exotic animals and beautiful scenery on Survivor. Pretty great.

But woooooweeee! The National Dog Show on high def?! That is somethin' else! I don't think I'll be able to watch a dog show on anything else from now on.

80% full

2007-11-19T11:26:00.000-05:00

A few months ago after receiving a text message, my phone notified me that my inbox was"80% Full!" I soon learned that after each subsequent text, my phone would give me the same obnoxious message. So I decided to delete.

It was weird reliving my life from 6 months ago via received text messages. Cute messages from the boy I liked, dated and screwed things up with, coordination with out-of-town visitors, drunken professions of love from roommates...ha...love you too Frank. It was really something special.

But I could only delete so many in one sitting. I found it was quite time consuming. That inbox can hold a lot of messages. I only deleted about 2 weeks to a month's worth of text messages initially, so a month or so later, I got the same annoying "80% Full!" message again. And I have since relived and deleted the past, and refilled the inbox with the present. I'll probably have to rinse and repeat in about a month. Can't wait to see what the future (or past) holds.

She works hard for the money

2007-11-16T12:15:00.000-05:00

I started a second job. I don't know why. Well, actually, I do know why, but we'll see if it was a good decision, or if it just drives me to sleep deprived insanity. I worked at Apple Retail two years ago and I left when I got my salary-with-benefits-9-5 job. That proved to be good move, since I tore my ACL 3 months later and needed surgery. Gotta love that medical insurance.

But ever since I left Apple my friends have been telling me to come back. I always blew off the idea, but then a super good friend became one of the managers at the store where I used to work. Then I decided I would go grad school next fall, and started wondering how I would pay for it. AND THEN Apple created the fun new Concierge position (stay tuned to a commercial near you to see what I will be doing). Just saying "Hi" to people, pointing them in the right direction, and not actually selling anything?! Sign me up!!

So now I'm going to be making money that I don't necessarily need...or at least I don't really need *right now.* The plan is that I WILL NOT spend any of this money and just put it directly into a savings account. Any recommendations on a particular type of account? One with a rockin interest rate? I think I might just go into a bank and tell them to use small words and explain my savings options. Seems like there should be body guards who beat up the bankers when they are just trying to screw you over and take your money...because I'm not going to realize it if they are.

time again for the long johns

2007-10-30T07:19:00.000-04:00

My roommates and I moved into our current place of living on February 24 of this year, a sunny but brisk Saturday. After the snow storm that came the following day, we quickly learned that our house was damn cold. Or at least, the half of the house where Matt and I were going to be living was damn cold. When we turned on the emergency heat, it got a smidge warmer, but we also learned that doing so would jack up the electric bill.

We called the landlords about it, because, well, we didn't want to die. They came to investigate and told us that when the house was built, whoever built it left out the insulation of the ducts. So the air was being heated, but as soon as it was being sent through the house, it lost all the warmth. Landlord's conclusion? It's not our fault, and turn off your porch light if you are worried about a high electric bill. WHAAA?! But I'm wearing 3 sweatshirts, 2 pairs of sweatpants, and 4 blankets when I sleep!! Instead of having a house warming party, we had a Warm-Our-House-Please-We-Need-Body-Heat-to-Survive Party.

Then the landlords came back and "added insulation." But by this time it was April, and the temperature increased. So we never really knew if what they did fixed the problem.

So last night we determined that it didn't. It's getting a bit more chilly out, so we had the heat on all day. The temperature outside reached 60 degrees, yet it was 55 in our house last night. Matt and I were exasperatingly discussing the situation, through our teeth chatters. We determined that even though we were hating life for 2 months when we first moved in, it did eventually warm up. But now that the temperature has finally cooled down this year, we still have 4 months of cold misery before our lease is up...

Some snippets from our conversation:

Matt: "Don't be surprised if you wake up and I'm curled up next to you."

Bri: "I shouldn't have been complaining about the 90 degree weather last week."
Matt: "Yeah, now it's coming back and biting you in the ass."
Bri: "It's FROST-biting me in the ass!"

Matt: "This is the kind of cold where you fall asleep and you don't wake back up."

I made sure he woke up this morning...

'My Whole Life's Been a Story'

2007-10-25T17:17:00.000-04:00

I make podcasts at work!! #2 is up! We're really proud of this one. And we have a fancy new image for the podcasts. Hooray!

NCFY Podcasts

let's try this again

2007-10-23T12:28:00.000-04:00

i used to blog on myspace, though i hated the word blog. i still hate the word blog, so i thought it would be appropriate for me to switch from myspace to a site that actually has the word blog in it.

i'm back and bloggier than ever.