choices
May 16th, 2008 @ 12:51 am | life | Comments (31)Tonight we have a choice of two things we could talk about. The first thing is the fact that three days ago, I had a top-ranking US Army Special Forces soldier on my roof. But honestly, that story only gets more dull from there. (Trust me.)
Know what I’d rather talk about instead?
Are you ready?
I GOT A NEW JOB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I know. I barely believe it myself. Can I say it again?
I GOT A NEW JOB!!!!!!!!
I don’t talk much about work because I’d rather not get dooced, but I think it’s safe to share this fabulous news with you. What are they going to do — Fire me? HAHAHAAAA.
I’m really a whole mess of emotions right now. It’s sort of impossible to tell the story from the very beginning without boring you to pieces, but the whirlwind really started last Friday afternoon when I got the offer.
Of course, I couldn’t just accept it right away. I had to get in super-hyper-analytical mode and solicit the opinions of everyone I know and a bunch of people I don’t know to make sure that I should take the job. Then I had to give myself four sleepless nights of thinking about how to best negotiate the offer, accept the offer, tell my boss, announce to my colleagues, and wrap up the last four years (!) of my professional life in the next two weeks.
So, yeah, I’ve been busy. And anxious. And nervous. And emotional. And scared. And really effing happy, too.
I’m going to keep mum about what my new job is, but I will say that I am moving into a consulting role, which is something I’ve never done before, and that I’ll still be working in the non-profit sector. It’s really a perfect fit, on paper at least. I hope that I love it this much once I actually start. I have to remember that it’s still a JOB. It’s not laying on a beach with a private butler handing me fresh margaritas every hour. But I should make just enough more money to be able to afford a vacation that includes margaritas…
Life is about choices, and I am choosing to stop sitting back in my comfy chair in my safe job with my nice coworkers. I’m choosing to begin a whole new adventure.
I just have one little question though: Is it too early to ask if they have a no-denim clause in their dress code?
round the jig at the teeter
May 13th, 2008 @ 11:37 pm | dc | Comments (28)In case there is any doubt remaining that I am the oldest, most boring 20something in town, I am going to blog about the grand opening of a grocery store in my neighborhood. Because, let’s be honest, I was pretty psyched about it.
Hello, Mr. Teeter, nice to meet you. May I call you Harris?
Harris and I got off to a fabulous start when I was the lucky winner of a $25 gift card just for signing up for the VIC rewards program. Cha-ching! Mama likeys free things.
True story: Last year my sister-in-law and I drove to the Carolinas to visit our other college roommate. (The same girl with a crush on the Ninja Turtle Rafael, as a matter of fact.) In giving us directions to her apartment, she said in her best Alabamian accent, “Go ’round the jig at the teeter.”
Being that I am from Colorado and sister-in-law is from Delaware, we had no freaking clue what she was talking about with all this jig teeter business. But now I know better, because I too live around the jig from the Teeter. And boy is she purdy.
There were tons of freebies tonight. Free wine. Free beer. Free cheese. Free ice cream. More wine, a lot of wine. I was kind of in love. (I overheard one woman threaten to stand at one particular wine stand and ask for refills all night, which didn’t go over too well. Security please!)
Better than the wine was the sheer beauty of the place. You have never seen a grocery store like it. It was pristine. It was an obsessive-compulsive’s heaven. Just look at these rows. Endless neat and tidy, fully stocked rows.
Something tells me it won’t be hard to spend my $25. But what should I buy first?
mazel tov jenna and henry
May 12th, 2008 @ 10:54 pm | dc, wedding | Comments (44)Some people review books. Others review products. Today, dear readers, we are going to review a wedding. First Daughter Jenna Bush’s wedding, to be precise.
I’ve made my support for Democrats pretty clear, and I’m no fan of Mr. President GWB. However, I’m not afraid to say, despite the fact I don’t know her, I really like Jenna Bush. When she was going through her collegiate drinking antics, so was I. Granted, I never got arrested, but I lived in New Orleans, where basically nothing is illegal.
When I moved to DC, the Bush twins were also in DC. They kept a low profile; I liked that. I think it’s pretty cool that of all the things Jenna could have done career-wise, she became a DC public charter school teacher (and the school wasn’t in ritzy Georgetown or anything). Then she did UNICEF work and wrote a book about an HIV-positive single mother in Panama….and, damn, the girl is sounding more like a globally-minded liberal activist than a princess of privilege.
Jenna got married on Saturday at her family’s ranch in Texas. She could have chosen a fancypants DC wedding at the White House with 600+ guests, but instead she chose a relatively small (for the daughter of the leader of the free world!), relatively simple affair.
Okay, and maybe I’m just a little biased. Because this photo:
Kinds reminds me of my own wedding:
Except my arms are not as skinny. Dangit!
I think Jenna’s dress was so pretty, and I loved that her hair was not-too-updone (unlike Mrs. Cindy McCain — good lord what is with that hair, woman?). Don’t you agree?
Mostly, I think you can just feel the love in these photos. This looks like the wedding of a truly happy couple, not two kids who just want to play dress up and put on a good show.
Plus, the pastor who married them endorsed Barack Obama. Too funny, really.
I do have one little tiny thing I’d like to mention though. What the heck was up with twin sister Barbara’s floral head wreath? Is this a Texas thing I never learned about? Did Jenna want to make sure that her twin wouldn’t outshine her own beauty? Did a bird build a nest on her head during the benediction? Somebody please explain!!!
I say: Best wishes to the happy couple! What do you all think?
little of this, little of that
May 7th, 2008 @ 11:56 pm | miscellany | Comments (39)Some weeks I get three-fifths in and can barely fathom stringing together two sentences on this blog. This week is one of those weeks. To be honest, my mental energy has been spent in other places. But I figure I can at least take time for a useless brain dump here on the old blog.
Thing One: I’d like you to be sitting down when I introduce you to my most favoritest new blog in a long time. Are you sitting? Okay, good. It is called Swistle: Baby Names, and the content is just that: All baby names, all the time. Real scenarios and honest answers. I freaking love it. This blog is either going to make me want babies as soon as tomorrow, or help me hold off the desire by living vicariously for several more years. Either way, it’s glorious. Go check it out, but do come back again soon!
Thing Two: I think I need to go into the custom framing biz. What a freaking racket. I like to support local businesses and all, but knowing that custom framing is pretty pricey, we went to Michael’s tonight with two items for framing and a “60% off entire order” coupon hoping for a bargain. We picked a very basic frame and no matte. The total, AFTER THE DISCOUNT, was something like $340 dollars. Oh Ma Gah. Are you serious?! When I had a coronary at the counter, the guy tried to point out what a great deal I was getting because the original price was more than $800. Which is when I had a second coronary, because is it possible that people pay that much to frame two items in a very basic setting? At Michael’s?!?! And if so, like I said, I really need a piece of this biznass for myself.
(And now I am going to pretend that expenditure never happened because, frankly, I’d like to keep my last remaining brain cells. From now on we are hanging unframed art. Raw art. I dunno what to call it, but I am going to start this trend and it’s going to sweep the nation.)
(EIGHT HUNDRED DOLLARS.)
Moving on.
Thing the Third: I have a really fabulous outfit for Thursday’s Mission: Put Together. And I am still going strong on WW thanks to all the blogger friends doing it with me. In a sick way, I hope that my super cute outfit no longer fits me in six to eight weeks.
Numero Quatro: Yesterday I did a photo walking tour of my stroll through DC, starting downtown and ending up down on the Mall near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Would you like to see it? Narrated, of course. Highlights include a photo of a bench. You see, I meant to snap a photo of a hot guy running on the mall with his shirt off, but my camera clicked too slowly, and so you get a bench. On second thought, maybe this photo essay is a horrible idea.
Five: Here’s a confession. I love the new Miley Cyrus song. Yeah, I do. Have you heard it? I can’t decide whether I should be ashamed or if I should sing it from the rooftops? Please discuss.
Aaaaaaaand, I’m spent. Seriously, thank you for not giving up on me even when my brain is made of oatmeal.
extra credit
May 5th, 2008 @ 6:15 pm | miscellany | Comments (24)I’m not sure how many of you took the time to read through the answers to Friday’s test (aka the comments) but boy, they had me rolling on the floor laughing all weekend long.
The absolute best answers were to Question #4: When I was a kid, I had an irrational crush on [fill in the blank].
Many of you had crushes that seem irrational now, but were indeed quite rational, and even common, for a kid in the ’80s (give or take a decade). Answers like Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Jordan Knight, Kirk Cameron, Ricky Schroeder, John Stamos, Scott Baio, and HUBBA HUBBA Christian Bale. (My love for him is well-documented.)
The answers that I was hoping to get, the truly irrational crushes…oh, they were just too good. So good, in fact, that I need help picking a favorite.
Is it:
A) Jackie with her not-a-crush, but an “obsession” with Angela Lansbury. Jackie notes that she loved both Murder She Wrote and a geriatric exercise Ms. Lansbury filmed. Jackie also used to name all her dolls after Angela Lansbury.
(Jackie, thank you for being a good sport and confessing this to us. You have provided us all with a little joy today.)
B) Celia, who loved Jason, the red Power Ranger. Times like these I am thankful I didn’t have a brother. Nobody made me watch Power Rangers.
C) Two people had crushes on Rafael, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. One of them is Jen and the other is my dear old friend Kristin, who defended and hypothesized on her love of Rafael:
“It isn’t my fault I had a weakness for the vulnerable and injured bad-boy. He was the turtle that got hurt and was alienated from his other anthropomorphized animal friends. In fact, here is brief synopsis of Rafael’s character, per wikipedia: ‘The team’s anti-social bad boy, Raphael has an aggressive nature and seldom hesitates to throw the first punch. He is an intense fighter. His personality can be alternately fierce and sarcastic. He is intensely loyal to his brothers and sensei.’ I hate to say it but this sort of, unfortunately, sounds like the type of guy lots of girls fall for when they are young, before they realize that nice guys are actually the way to go.”
There is a reason Kristin is getting her Doctorate this year. That girl is smart and always thinking like a professor!
D) Laurel, who had a crush on the cartoon Disney Robin Hood. The bleeding heart liberal in me (and also the fact that Laurel and I are long lost twins) can relate to this one. But still?! A cartoon fox.
Which one is your favorite?
