Quarter Life Crisis???

Fortunately not yet! But considering that today marks my quarter-century milestone, I feel like one should be coming on pretty soon...

via

Fortunately I have lots of friends who will help me be a whole parade to make it all better!

Happy Birthday to Me!

DC Fireworks!

Yesterday I experienced my first ever Fourth of July in a big city, and it wasn't just any big city, it was DC!

Well, technically I never left Arlington, but that's just getting technical.

My friend and I decided that rather than braving the crazy crowds that were clogging up the metro and the National Mall, we'd take it easy and walk over to the Air Force Memorial to watch the fireworks instead. What a great idea.

Air Force Memorial

For those of you who don't know, the Air Force Memorial is on a hill in Arlington that over looks DC and the surrounding area. From there you can see the Capitol Building, the Washington Monument, Arlington Nat'l Cemetery, and the Pentagon. More importantly, you can see the National Mall's fireworks display. Added bonus? You can also see the fireworks displays from tons of surrounding areas... no lie, the whole of the skyline was filled with fireworks. It was awesome.

USAF Band playing the 1812 Overture

The USAF Band was playing a Fourth of July concert when we got there, which was very cool. I absolutely loved that they played the 1812 Overture at the end of the concert, complete with cannons (which totally freaked out the little girl who was sitting next to us) at the end. They were super loud and bright, but we were also basically sitting right next to them.

Smoke from the cannon fire...
So glad they included them!

As soon as the overture ended, the big fireworks show started. It was very cool to watch fireworks bursting over DC, although it made me realize how much I love watching fireworks in the valley. You see, one of my favorite things about fireworks is the sounds they make... I love the booms and crackles and wizzes. These sounds are magnified 10-fold at home because the sounds bounce off the mountains and reverberate through the valley. In the city, which is relatively flat and mountainless, the fireworks made almost no noise. It was crazy!

Fireworks over DC.
To the right you can see the Washington Monument.

On the way home, we each picked up an American flag from the information booth. It was a great end to what has so far been quite the stressful week!

Happy Fourth of July everyone!

Happy Very Hungry Caterpillar Day!

Today is Very Hungry Caterpillar Day! Let's all celebrate by eating some lettuce... just don't eat too much or you'll get a tummy ache like the caterpillar did.

Oh, and also, happy first day of spring! Although it's not so momentous this year, since it's been feeling like spring since around November...

Valentine's Day NPR Style

Last year, NPR put a bunch of silly public radio related Valentine's Day e-cards up on their website. I didn't find them until several days later, but I thought they were so good that I felt the need to save them for this year! 

You can find these (and more of last year's cards) as well as new ones they put out this year (not as good), on the NPR Valentines website. Enjoy!

Hands down, my favorite.

LOVE these guys!

Don't we all?

So. Much. Driving.

Well I'm officially calling my vacation season to an end. Bummer! Throughout the month of December (and start of January) I basically traveled the whole length of the east coast 1.5 times, put nearly 3,000 miles on my car, and saw a whole lot of friends and family.

Here are some of the highlights from the super southern leg of my journey...

Magic Kingdom in the morning... so pretty 

Pretty at night too...

Sea World!

Shamu show!

Getting ready to drive a race car in
the Richard Petty Driving Experience!

My new favorite "family photo"

Apparently I got tired of taking pictures because I basically have none from Christmas/New Years in Vermont, and really have none from my secret santa party in PA. That realization makes me very sad.

A White Christmas!

Sherman Christmas at the Welshes

Getting ready to hand out drinks for
our homemade holiday drink contest 

Homemade Kauhla with milk,
Lemony-Gin Fizz,
Chocolate-Peppermint Martini,
and Welsh Christmas Drink (aka a Scarlett O'Hara)

When I finally got back to Arlington (almost for good)
I was treated to the snow storm we never got in Vermont.
Pretty!

Here's to an exciting 2012!

Merry Christmas!

Wishing everyone a happy holiday season filled with food, family, and of course SNOW! 

(how else are you going to build an igloo?)

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

On Saturday, my family (mom, dad, brother, grandparents, cousins, cousin-in-law, aunt, and uncle) and I drove down to this cool cut-your-own-Christmas tree farm and picked out our Christmas tree! Well actually Christmas trees plural... we left with three.

We picked out my grandparents' tree first... it was pretty tall 

So after they cut it down, they cut off the bottom.
Apparently they didn't cut off enough though,
because it was still too tall to stand up in the garage... 

Then we picked out the McDonald tree

My cousin Megan was concerned that it was too skinny...

We had to cut that one down to size too...
Pretty (and unintentional) sunburst in the picture!

Then my super clever family decided that the best way to get the trees out of the woods was to put them on a tarp and drag them with down with the car... so Peter devised a "trapezoid" with bungee cords to do the job

And of course, they took about 100 years to attach the trees to our cars.
Megan and Nate's tree (never pictured here) was the best, because it fit in the back of the car! 

I'm Dreaming of a White... Thanksgiving?

Thanksgivings (or at least the-day-before-thanksgivings) with snow are weird.

Happy Veterans Day!

(and also happy 11/11/11)

This Makes Me Want to Shop Exclusively at Nordstrom for the Month of November.

Someone I'm friends with on Facebook "shared" this picture and I happened to see it pop up on my feed thinger.

I liked this so much that when I went to the mall today to get an Apple Genius to take a look at my computer (it's been a little slow lately) I made a special side trip to Nordstrom. I didn't buy anything (my wallet is a little empty these days) but when I walked in and didn't see CHRISTMAS TREES (they're out in abundance in the mall hallways and food courts) or hear CHRISTMAS MUSIC (I heard it playing at Walmart the other day and wanted to barf) it certainly made me want to break out my wallet and go on a spending spree. Granted, I did notice a small christmas ornament/decoration display on the fourth floor, but the untimely display was relegated to that specific area and there was no early holiday cheer to be seen anywhere else in the store.

I love this. Good job Nordstrom.

Side note: More observant people will notice that the date for Friday is wrong, that's because this picture was taken several years ago, BUT Nordstrom is still sticking to the no Christmas before Thanksgiving policy.

Labor Day Fun

I know, I know these aren't the pictures you're all hoping I'm posting (namely my apartment) but I don't want to post them until it's finished. And pretty.

Anyway, Emily and Kelsey came to visit me over Labor Day weekend. Yay for guests! 

 you can see the cracks from the earthquake... although probs not in this picture

 we each took this picture (everyone else was) but apparently we weren't supposed to walk that far out into the water... whoops.
good thing the guard came to yell at people on our side of the water after we were finished. 

 group picture + 3 second timer = fail.

yet, fun and spontaneous 

this was very cool.

Birthday Bouquets

This morning when I got into work I was greeted
by a beautiful birthday bouquet from my boss.

It's so pretty!

Lost in the Smithsonian...

I got together with Mik and Jenny again for a Memorial Day weekend filled with culture, food, and a little bit of chili sauce.

We started our adventure at the Smithsonian Castle, which I'd never actually be in before. Since it takes about 30 seconds to see the whole thing, we then quickly headed over to the Sackler Gallery to look at Asian Art. The Sackler Gallery is really cool because its three stories of art are completely underground. It's also very confusing because (while underground) it connects to the Freer Gallery, which also houses lots of Asian Art, and it also connects (again underground) to the African Art Museum. The divisions between the three museums are not very well marked, so after wandering aimlessly and getting very turned around, we were quite confused when we wound up on the first floor of the African Art Museum, when we had started out in the Sackler. Oh well.

 Smithsonian Castle from the side not facing the Mall

 African Art Museum (above) and cool elephant sculpture

from inside the African Art Museum (below)

After our adventures in the three aforementioned art museums, Mik had to go home to catch a very important soccer game, so Jenny and I were left to our own devices. We decided to check out the American History Museum because neither one of us had been there recently.

Pretty trees on the Mall

What a mistake! Being Memorial Day weekend about every one and their mom, uncle, sister, and great-grandmother were in DC and I think about 3/4 of them where in the American History Museum. So, after fighting the crowds to catch a glimpse of Michelle Obama's inauguration gown, headed down to Chinatown to grab some lunch and then navigated the Metro back to Mik's place.

We saw Pirates 4 (not in 3D) that evening, which was really good and then ate dinner at a cool restaurant and called it a day.

On Sunday, we went out to brunch with a few of Mik's friends at this British Pub called The Queen Vic, it was interesting, but my cornmeal pancakes were surprisingly good! Since we were feeling pretty full we decided to walk the 10ish blocks to Union Station instead of taking a taxi. Jenny's phone was acting funny so we crisscrossed DC looking for an open Verizon, eventually finding one and finding out that her battery was just acting wonky.

Jenny and I still wanted to see the American Indian Museum, so we dragged Mik back down to the Mall to see it. That museum has the coolest architecture ever. The inside's pretty cool too, but the outside is awesome.

For dinner that night, we finally went to Sticky Rice, which is a restaurant I found on the internet somewhere and have wanted to go to ever since. It did not disappoint! Dinner was phenomenal, with the exception of the time that Mik squeezed the bottle of chili sauce and accidentally squirted it all over my head and back. Fail.

I had to go home on Monday, but before we did we when to Eggspectations for breakfast. I love that place. Our waiter was amazing too... he brought me free orange juice because everyone else at the table was getting their Vitamin C and he felt bad for me. Haha. It was fresh squeezed and seriously amazing. Like an orange in a glass. Then he brought us free cake too. A perfect way to end the trip!