Ballet is Hard!

I just watched this video and just about died laughing. This little girl is 100% the cutest thing I've ever seen. She also reminds me of exactly how I felt every time I tried to do a turned-out first position.

I feel her pain.

I think I'll watch it again.

How an Idea Becomes a Book... an Infographic

This little gem was going around our office last week. We all pretty much agreed that this perfectly represents how an idea becomes a book.

This may be why I'm slowly going crazy. . . .

 



Thanks weldonowen.com

Why Yes! That is a Lot of Stickers

Thanks for noticing!

I've been keeping up the gym going (and super fun sticker system) for a healthy six weeks now. I'm extremely proud of (and amazed at) myself for my spectacular dedication.

And it's paying off! As of my last "weigh-in" I'd lost almost 5 inches total (they measure various places on your body every 4ish weeks) and about 2 pounds.

But what was probably the crowning moment of my gym-results experience so far was when someone that I hugged commented on my arms and asked if I was working out! Score!

Check out my stickers below. Love the Hello Kitty encouragement stickers my parents sent me for my birthday : )  Also, check out my calendar. It's kind of awesome.

In June, I made it three times a week
that's every week day I didn't have class! 

In July I gym failed on my birthday week
but that was mostly because of a school project
Notice that I went four times last week!
Would have gone five, but Batman IMAX was more important.

In Memoriam

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Yesterday I lost a cherished family member.

But, don't worry. It wasn't a person.

It was the Buick.

For those of you who aren't aware, the Buick was an amazing car that I 

sort of inherited from my grandmother while I was in high school. 

It was huge, it was red (inside and out), and it was probably the 

most comfortable car I've ever been in. 

Seriously. I could have lived in it.

I started driving the Buick during my junior year of high school after a deer 

destroyed the front and right side of my van. It still had its PA 

license plates, which I thought was super cool.

We had quite a time together. . . Here are a few of the moment's I'll never forget.

We were together when I returned to driving after breaking my foot . . .

and when I slid it under the back bumper of a jeep that same afternoon

what a nice welcome back to driving experience.

We were together when the Buick was the only car in our arsenal 

that could get up the driveway during a snow event

especially snowmagaddon 

and snowpocalypse 

once the van left the driveway, it didn't come back up for a week.
the Buick was back up that afternoon.

We were together when the Buick hit the 100,000 mile mark

on 2/16/2012 two days after what would have been

Grandmommy's 96th birthday ♥

Happy 100,000 miles Buick.
I'll miss you terribly.

We were together when I was driving to Ocean City, NJ 

and basically broke down in Towson, MD

And we were (almost) together when I rented my first car

(thanks to the Towson incident)

my first rental car!

We were together when I bought my new car

(an almost direct result of the Towson incident)

We were together for one last time after I lost my wisdom teeth

(thanks to the squirrels that incapacitated my new car)

We had a great ride together . . . I 'll miss you!

One Reason to Live Near DC

Yesterday after work I hopped on the metro and headed into the city to meet up with some friends and see . . . BATMAN!

No, I'm not a crazy batman fan (although I am a Christian Bale and Joseph Gordon-Levitt fan), but who wouldn't want to see a movie on the huge IMAX screen at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History?? It was 100% worth it. The movie was great and the screen was so big that I almost felt like I was in the movie . . . it was kind of amazing.

Anyway, I got there a little early so I hung out on the Mall and snapped a few pictures, awkward tourist style

Washington Monument

Batman IMAX here I come!

my shadow!
I felt super awkward taking this one. . .

Another highlight of the night? The amazingly absurd hat the guy in the row in front of us was wearing. I tried to snap a pic surreptitiously, but failed miserably. 

no flash + darkish movie theater = picture fail.

Never fear! I found it here!

nice and classy

Sometimes its fun to be nerdy...

We watched this video recently in my marketing class and I'm pretty much obsessed with it. I love these nerdy statisticy videos. This one was done by a website called Socialnomics. If you like them too, check out this one by National Geographic to find out if you are a typical human being. In the meantime, let's be nerdy together and watch this little gem.

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I may or may not have downloaded the song in this video and it may or may not be my new happy tune... although this one still does it every time, too.

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...

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

Happy Birthday to Me!

I'm Trying Winston!

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It's been a very very very long time since I pledged to beef up my stamina and harden my willpower when it comes to making myself be active. Read: over a year a long time.

Epic. Fail.

Well, I'm trying again and this time I may finally have a chance to be successful.

I joined a gym.

A gym that includes monthly weighing and measurements... I had my first weigh-in today and boy was that motivation to keep coming!

I also have a sticker system and I give myself a star every time I work out. I already have four! Yay for me. I may even try to work in a reward system... maybe I'll buy myself something nice if I go x number of times in a month??

Let's see how often I go with just stickers for motivation.

For now, I'm just trying to follow Winston's advice and Never, Never, Never Give Up (at getting fit).

Breakfast for Dinner

there's nothing like getting home from class at 10 p.m.

starving

tired

and filled with the knowledge that you've probably just failed a test.

only one thing can make that better...

 a delicious broccoli, asparagus, and bean sprout omelet

yum!

breakfast for dinner is always the right choice.

Feeling Lucky?

Everyone can use a little more luck in their lives and I'm hoping that my new "Lucky Bamboo" will bring a little extra luck to my life. 

According to the banner at IKEA, three bamboo stems will bring you happiness, five will bring health, and nine bring good fortune.

As I'm pretty healthy and I didn't have enough room for nine stems, I opted for the three stem happiness route. So far, I guess it's been working pretty well... I did get to see Prairie Home after all!

According to Feng Shui, Bamboo brings a peaceful and wise energy into the home by teaching you the ultimate wisdom: how to be flexible and hollow (aka open) on the inside, so that the spirit can freely flow and heal your being.

Sounds good to me!

That Was Scary.

About 20 minutes ago, I heard some fire engine sirens. No big deal, right?

Wrong.

They (three to be exact) got louder and louder until they finally came to a stop... IN MY PARKING LOT.

My life flashed past my eyes.

Fortunately, those super scary trucks stopped on the other side, in front of a building that wasn't mine, so I didn't go into full on panic mode, like I did here, when my neighbor's alarm went off or here, when I saw a neighbor's house burning a few years ago.

But they did make me thank my lucky stars that I had renters insurance, just in case those trucks had been responding to a building (or apartment) closer to mine.

I'm not sure what actually happened over there, though. There wasn't any smoke and the firefighters that flooded the building didn't come baring hoses. I did see a person taken out on a stretcher, but I don't know what condition he (or she) was in, and they didn't hurry away.

What an exciting afternoon.

Let's never repeat that.

You'll Always Be In My Heart Grandmommy

Over the weekend I spent some time in PA checking out my cousin Emily's new apartment (so jealous) and in NJ just hanging out with Jenny and her family (aka my second family).

Anyway, Emily is moving right around the corner from where Grandmommy and Grandaddy used to live, so while I was in that neck of the woods, I took the opportunity to take a little trip down memory lane. It was a lot of fun, especially since I got to share it with the other side of my family.

Today would have been Grandmommy's 98th birthday and I'm feeling particularly reminiscent this year after seeing her house again and remembering all the good times we had there.

Happy Birthday Grandmommy! I love and miss you ♥

Becoming an American

This weekend something awesome happened... PEOPLE CAME TO VISIT ME!

That's right folks, I had my first official prolonged, non-family member visit. KT and Jason, two of my friends from college, braved the terrible Friday afternoon east coast traffic to make their way down to my side of the potomac!

When they got here, we headed down to Old Town for a stroll down the waterfront, dinner, and some of the best ice cream I've ever had (chocolate orange... yum!).

I also told them about the amazing water goblet playing guy that is usually by the Torpedo Factory on the weekends.

Side note: check out this video of him playing What Child is This?

Anyway. Saturday was the most important. Saturday was the day Jason became a true American. Having never been to America's capitol before, he was pretty jazzed to check out all the sights.

The first stop: the Pentagon Memorial. On our way over (we had to walk to the memorial from the Pentagon bus station), we were questioned by a guard who wanted to know if we had security passes. Apparently we took the wrong path and ended up in a secure location by accident. Whoops. Crisis averted, we made it to the memorial itself.

We were slightly confused about the way it was laid out, the benches are arranged by the birth year of each victim, and some face one south while others face north. We also couldn't quite figure out why there were several benches representing children who were younger than 10-years-old. Our guess was that they had gone to work with a parent that morning. I've since done some more research on the memorial and I discovered that the benches represent everyone that died in the Pentagon as well as each passenger on the plane, which explains the 3-year-old kid. The direction the bench faces is determined by whether that individual was in the Pentagon (facing the south) or on the plane (north).

Next stop: The Mall! While there we acted like tourists, took tons of pictures, and I bought a free map to help prevent homeless hypothermia for $0.50. Yes I know I was probably scammed... but the other day I bought three books at goodwill and was only charged $1.30 when I should have been charged at least $6, so I guess we're even now.

Our LONGEST stop: The Smithsonian Museum of Natural History... we spent about four hours there.

Our biggest FAIL: Our attempt to see the movie Hugo in 3-D. It's supposed to be AMAZING, so we decided to carve two hours out of our sightseeing schedule to see it at a movie theater in Chinatown. Added bonus, at around 4:00 (the movie was at 4:20) it started raining and by that point our legs were very tired from walking around all day. So we trekked the eight blocks to Chinatown (in the cold rain) and made it to the movie theater at 4:17. Unfortunately. The movie was sold out. Bummer. So we walked back to the Mall and went to the Air and Space Museum for 30 min instead.

The birthday dinner: Our other friend Jenny's birthday also happened to be on Saturday and she happened to be in town visiting her bf, so we all met up in Chinatown for dinner. We had Mongolian BBQ. It was delish.

A final act of culture: While we were eating the rain stopped, so since it was still earlyish and Jason really wanted to, we trekked back to the Mall and walked up to see the rest of the major sites, including the Washington Monument, WWII Memorial, Korean War Memorial (a first for me), and the Lincoln Monument.

Then we walked to Foggy Bottom metro, got a free shuttle ride back to the Pentagon (thank you weekend track work) and finally got a bus home about 30 min later.

It was an awesome day. And, Jason officially became an American.

Terrifying.

This morning I had what was probably the most terrifying experience I've had in recent memory... more terrifying than not being able to find somewhere to live, more terrifying than being pulled over for the first time in my life, more terrifying than the time I collided with a deer and totaled my car.

This morning, I thought my building was on fire.

Everyone (well most people) who know me know that I have an irrational fear of fire. I don't know what started it, but since as far back as I can remember I've been terrified that my house was going to burn down. And today, I was positive that my worst fears were coming true.

You see, every apartment in my building is equipped with fire alarms, many of which seem to go off at a semi-regular basis. I guess they're pretty sensitive, because I've set mine off twice just by taking a shower, (the first time that happened I almost had a panic attack). So, usually when I hear a fire alarm go off (they are super loud), I get a little adrenaline boost, and then manage to shake it off. And since it happens pretty often, I know to expect three beeps, a pause, three more beeps, and then silence... I found out by experience that six beeps is about how long it takes to register that it's your alarm going off, and to run to the alarm and yank out the battery.

This morning, however, was different.

This morning I heard the alarm go off. Three beeps, pause, three beeps, pause... three more beeps, pause, three beeps...

I wasn't freaking out yet because every now and then it takes a little longer for the apartment occupant to stop their alarm...

Three beeps, pause, three beeps, pause, three beeps, pause...

Now I was starting to worry a little...

Three beeps, pause, three beeps, pause... running feet, three beeps, frantic door unlocking sounds, three beeps, frantic noises in the hall next to me....

Panic ensues.

Three beeps, pause, three beeps, then... crazy loud constant beeps. No pauses here.

It was the hall alarm. My building had to be on fire.

I threw on a shirt (I was still in my pjs thanks to the two tylenol p.m. I took the night before that made me sleep through my alarm), grabbed my keys, and ran out into the hall.

My next door neighbors (we share the wall that runs the length of my living and bedrooms) had their door thrown wide open and smoke was pouring out of a room that I'm assuming is the kitchen... but they are all still in there including one of the kids. So, I asked the lady if there was really a fire and she said no (I think... I was in panic attack mode by this point and she didn't seem to speak English very well). But I didn't see any flames and the smoke smelled like cooking smell (albeit a very acrid version), so I was somewhat appeased.

But still panicking. And the continual beeping of the fire alarms wasn't doing anything to sooth my rapidly unraveling nerves.

So I did what any rational (or perhaps unrational) person would do... I threw on whatever real clothes came to my grasp first, grabbed my computer (that way I'd have all my pictures and important things in the event that my apartment burned up), and hightailed it out of there as fast as humanly possible.

When I came back about an hour or so later, the beeping had stopped, my building was still there, and the only lingering reminder of my super scary morning was the hint of smoke lingering in the hallway.
Oh, and the nausea I was experiencing thanks to the obscene amounts of adrenaline still coursing through my body.

I almost supplemented my lunch with a large glass of red wine... maybe I'll have two with dinner.

Apple Love

Or maybe I should say "Steve Jobs Love"

This was the scene outside the Apple store today...

The post-its all had love notes to Steve Jobs on them.

I love all the apples... one even had a huge bite out of it to make it look like the logo.

This may be the single most touching thing I've seen in a while.

Steve Jobs 1955-2011

Better Late Than Never!

♥ Megan and Nate's Wedding ♥

Love my family.

Wedding Bells

My cousin Megan got married yesterday. 

It was beautiful.

I wish her and Nate well.


Pictures will be coming soon!

Sometime I feel like a real failure in life. Then my papa helps me feel better.

Thanks.

What A Relief!

I finally found a place to live!

It's been a pretty stressful three weeks since I was denied my first apartment application simply because I lacked gainful employment. Forget the fact that I've been saving my pennies for two years so that, if necessary, I could afford to make the transition to self-sustained living sans-job and not go bankrupt. Forget the fact that I will technically be a graduate student and they told me that that type of person was  the exception to their minimum-income requirement rule.

With just 1.5 months to go before I started classes, and no apartment leads what-so-ever, I was starting to envision the possibility of commuting for my two classes... six hours of driving two nights a week. Awesome.

I think I almost had an aneurysm. Or a panic attack. Or both.

But my miracle occurred in the form of a super nice couple who had to break their lease three months early and wanted me to have it. And a management who didn't mind that I was (and still am unfortunately) sans-job. And my amazingly patient and wonderful mother, who found the apartment and called on a whim, even though it didn't list any availability.

I really like the apartment. It's super small — one bedroom, one living/dining room, one kitchen, and one bathroom all squeezed in 600 sq feet — but it's cute and cozy and I can have a cat for free, which is highly tempting. It also includes all utilities except electric, but the stove and heat are gas, so that shouldn't be too bad.

I'm pretty excited.

Baby Steps

This weekend my parents and I are going APARTMENT HUNTING!

Yes, folks. That's right. Apartment hunting. 

I'm terrified, yet incredibly excited.

In the meantime, I'm working on something that I really do enjoy... accessorizing my non-existant-but-hopefully-soon-to-be-attained place of residence.

I have a bunch of stuff left over from senior year of college when I helped furnish/fill-up 1/4th of an apartment, like plates, picture frames, carpets, pots and pans, and furniture, and now I'm filling in the gaps. 

Check it out!

My super pretty glasses! I picked up this super cute 12-piece set of Circlewear glasses at TJMaxx for $6 on clearance. 

My parents gave me this set of silverware for an early birthday present. 

I feel very lame saying that.

Thanks to my super amazing Grammy, I'm now the proud owner of a Revere double boiler. A must have for my vegetable eating habits. 

I picked this baby up at the Bookfair. I don't have a toaster oven yet, but plan on purchasing one eventually. It has a really yummy sounding recipe for caesar chicken tenders that I can't wait to try out!

 I bought these plates for my apartment in college, but only have the dinner plate size, so I'm thinking of getting the plates below in lunch size so that I can mix and match.