Went to NYC for my birthday...

Still hanging out by the pool...

Finding new restaurants...

Watched fireworks from my bedroom...

Watching good movies...

Looking forward to August!

I love a three-day weekend. I wish we could always have a three-day weekend because by the time the weekend rolls around, you're exhausted from work and tend to fill those 2 days quickly with chores and obligations that don't really allow you to rest and rejuvinate.

But this weekend has been great. Saturday was the first day my pool opened, so I was out there at 10am, soakin up the sun. It was about 80 degrees, but a fair amount of cloud coverage made it a short morning. Ate some delicious meals: Rays the Steaks in Arlington, Carmines in DC, Italian sausage and apple pie at home, and I made a smoothie this morning. Monday morning I went to the pool again, and it was already full, so we sat on towels in the grass. It was 95ish out so we were sweat bombs in a matter of minutes. I dipped in the pool 3 times in about 2 hours to cool off, and it felt amazing! Have some great tan lines starting too, FINALLY!!!!!!!!!

Found an adorable little movie theatre in the city. They play some of the more abscure films that are out - on saturday night i saw 13 Assassins, a Chinese film about 13 samurai who take on 200  and kick their butts. This theatre also has midnight showings of classics like Taxi Driver, Run Lola Run, Apocalypse Now and the like. Each theatre is only about 5 rows, so it's quite quaint. They serve espresso, caramel corn, and wine! My kind of place. I will be going back there.

New favorite snack: Pop Chips (cheddar or salt and vinegar)

It's been in the 60s or higher lately, so I do believe summer is coming! Despite the immensely dreaded humidity, I am very ready for days by the pool.

Work has been busy... due to the resignation of a certain senator, my boss has been appointed to fulfill the rest of the term. We made the switch to the senate side just this past week, and it's been crazy.

This weekend was great. I caught up with an old friend from college who I haven't seen or really talked to since 2008 - she's working out here now about 3 blocks away from where I do!

Saturday, a friend and I went up to Annapolis to eat crabcakes, then we strolled around the town, drove onto the Naval Academy, and stumbled upon a baseball game. Naturally we had to stop and watch. They were in the bottom of the ninth when we arrived, 0-0. We thought we'd just wait until the end and then drive back to the city, but lo and behold, it was a good 7 innings later before the other team finally got a run, and Navy lost. :( We went in not really caring who won, but it was such a tight game, we actually made friends with some Navy fans. Then went home and had a LOST marathon.

Sunday was relaxing... I walked to the bank and the store, made a delicious salad for dinner, went for a run, did laundry, and am now continuing my AFI movie list by watching Dr. Strangelove. A perfect day.

I had an interesting night this week:

Tuesday night I was presented with the opportunity to attend the State of the Union address as a guest! I said "YES" of course and went my merry way through the meticulous security stations and found my way to my seat in the House Chamber. I had a great seat - I was more on the south side (dem side) facing the podium. Down below was the entire 112th Congress, so I watched as the US Senate entered as guests, greeting new members and old ones. Soon, the leadership exited to then re-enter with the POTUS as their official guest. While this was happening, the JCS and Supreme Court came in, as well as the FLOTUS and the VP! It was all a bit overwhelming, but very exciting. Then came the announcment: "Ladies and Gentlemen, the President of the United States." Everyone stood and clapped for a very long time as he made his way down the center aisle.

This year members sat on different sides of the aisle as a show of unity. Some people had extreme feelings about this on both sides, but I couldn't care less. It was a symbolic gesture. That is all. Those of us in the Gallery participated and stood clapping at the parts of the speech we agreed with. I especially wanted to hear about the ways we would cut spending and establish a budget. Right now American families are cutting way back and figuring out how to live within their means (as they should), but the US goverment must follow suit and definitely not raise the debt ceiling.

The entire experience was very surreal. I thought it was extra interesting that the last time I saw this man giving a live speech was at his acceptance of the Democratic ticket to run for the presidency in 2008. Things have certainly changed since then, but not necessarily in the ways I had "hoped."

After the speech ended, those of us in the Gallery had to wait patiently as the Floor cleared and the VIPs were safely en route back to where they needed to go to get safely away. Finally they let us out and I tried to make my way down to the basement to find my way back to the office to get my things. All i had with me was my ID and my office key. I thought that was all I needed considering I couldn't have anything else with me for security reasons. Anyway, trying to get downstairs was a bit of a struggle. The stair wells kept getting blocked off by Secret Service and Capitol Police, so I wandered around hoping to find a working elevator bank. There one was! But, the hallway was lined with men and women in suits waiting for their turn. I stood there and saw the lone elevator arrive, expecting to see the people pile inside so I could get a few paces closer to my turn. One woman got on, and the doors closed. Huh?

I was confused but said to myself, "screw this, im getting on that elevator next since no one else is in a rush to." I strolled down to the elevator, feeling the eyes of everyone against the walls glaring at me and scoping me out in a suspicious way. "What!? I'm just taking this elevator bc there's no other way to get down right now." I thought to myself. Then I pressed the down button and turned toward the side awaiting the elevator when I noticed through the doorway in front of me, about 15 feet away, was Vice-President Biden. Just hangin out in a room with a handful of other people. I think my eyes glazed over for a moment as my jaw loosened and I might have even said, "uh-huh." to myself. Then I pulled my eyes away and noticed that all the people in suits lining the hallway had the shiny red lapel pin that identifies them as Secret Service. "Oooooooohh." Ding. The elevator came. I was the only person who got in, so I pressed the button to my floor. It wasn't until the doors shut completely that I couldn't help but let a grin form on my face,  now realizing what I walked into and how concerned I may have made all those agents who weren't exactly sure what my business was. I made my way over to my office building with an extra kick in my step, coming down from an intellectual high and the absurdity of the situation - little old me was able to attend the SOTU at the last minute, and take it all in. Live.

I approached the door to my office, got out my key to use, but it would not open the door. "WTF?" It was deadbolted. From the inside. Either the new garbage man or my boss had done it, and I had no way of getting to anyting! My wallet, cell phone, any phone, jacket, gloves, comfy shoes, house keys, nothing. Not even the superintendent could let me in since it was deadbolted. I began scanning all my options coming to just one conclusion. Take the metro home, and take the risk of being able to get into my apartment building. Clutching my office key and my ID I boarded the train without a jacket or anything to keep me warm on the chilly winter night. It seemed like the longest ride ever. I debated the various ways I could break into my own apartment if there didn't happen to be anyone there at the front door. Then I thought about how I could get into my room if I had made it inside the building. One step at a time. When my stop finally came, I went up the escalator where the frigid air greeted me with love and affection. "Here, let me chill you to the bone," it said to me kindly. I then began to jog the few blocks down to my apartment, simple because I would get there quicker and it would get my blood flowing to help warm me up. Then I realized how nice I was being to my own body, letting myself inhale the cold air, which would probably end up giving me pneumonia or something.  I reached the door and noticed that a woman who works for my building was there in the lobby! I waved to her frantically and she buzzed me in. Bless her! Bless that lady!

I approached her summarizing my situation while catching my breath and imagined how foolish I probably looked: an inappropriately dressed girl coming in from the cold panting about how she locked herself out of her office even though she had her key but still couldnt get in and doesnt have her key now to get in her apartment but she would try to got upstairs and see if her roommate was there to let her in but she might not be there so she might be right back to ask for help to get into her room. Yep that's probably close to as ridiculous as it came off. A stupid-sounding run-on sentence.

I ran upstairs, down my hallway and began pounding on the door. Knowing that she and I would likely ignore people knocking on your door at 11:40pm, I called through, identifying myself and saying "Let me in! It's me! Wake up and let me in." After about 7 minutes of that with no answer I ran back downstairs to the nice lady, who upon looking at my ID got a key and escorted me back upstairs and unlocked the door for me to get inside. I thanked her probably a million times, not doing anything to improve my crazy-creepy-girl reputation.

But all in all it was a good night.

It's a new year, and i hope it is going to be a fantastic one.

I hope to continue working hard in my job and enjoying the DC life with all my friends and family. I am slowly progressing in my snowboarding endeavors. Slowly and with many bruises - but it is an absolute good time. I also plan to see as many of the Oscar nominated movies before awards night. I just saw The Fighter and I think it is going to do extremely well. Hope to see Black Swan, True Grit, and The King's Speech soon too.

However, my heart goes out to too many families who have lost loved ones already. We lost a family friend on new years eve who was far too young to leave us. He was full of compassion and a love for life, and we will miss him dearly.

I also feel for the victims of the tragic shooting that took place in Tuscon over the weekend. No matter what, there is no reason any human being should consider going to those lengths over politics. I pray Congresswoman Giffords makes a full recovery and can continue to serve the state of Arizona. I also pray for the families of those who did not survive: innocent Americans who wanted nothing more than to learn and make a difference in this harsh world.

I hope our country turns around and extremist views on both sides can begin to merge to a place of common ground that will bring jobs to hard-working Americans and a return to civility and common decency.

The following is an e-mail I sent to NBC regarding an annoying commercial they constantly air during their breaks. After a month of this, I finally decided to write in last Thursday, August 19th. I haven't seen the commercial air on MSNBC since.

To Whomever receives these e-mails:
 
Hello. Feel free to just delete this. I am a daily viewer of numerous programs on MSNBC, but I feel I have to voice a complaint about your commercial breaks. I don't know what power you have over the commercials that air on MSNBC, but that Land Rover commercial is driving me nuts! It has that obnoxious electric guitar sound that strums 2 notes troughout the entire thing, and it's SO loud. I wake up and immediately turn on Morning Joe to start my day, but I cringe whenever there is a commercial break because I KNOW I'm going to hear that Land Rover Commercial. Twice. It always seems to play twice every commercial break, and it is not a pleasant sound in the mornings. Or ever, actually. I work in an political office, and we have MSNBC on all day, so I get to hear that commercial multiple times everyday, and I've finally decided to let my feelings out so that they're not bottled up inside. Before you know it, I won't be able to watch any telvision without hearing that commercial, and i'll suffer from withdrawal. No, I don't think that's possible.
 
Sorry to bother you, but I just had to vent and hope that this particular commercial expires soon. If anything I hope this e-mail has provided a brief moment of silly reading to the person who receives these. Feel free to just delete this.Thanks for your time.

I love my job. It's awesome working on the Hill. The 4th here was incredible. We suffered heat in the triple digits during a Nats game, hung around Georgetown, and watched the fireworks over the national mall from the Iwo Jima Memorial at Arlington. There were fireworks along the city's horizon all night long!

I've been watching a ton of Burn Notice lately, and have REALLy gotten into spy food. aka yogurt. Fage greek yogurt with honey is my favorite!

I'm also getting back into running. We ran the national mall the past two Sundays. It kicks my butt bc it's in the 80s at 8am, but it feels so good afterwards.

I'm lovin eScala's rendition of some great compositions. they're great to run to.

I turned 23!

I've filed a claim w my moving company for my damaged items.

Soon I must get a haircut. A TRIM. A trim, not a haircut.

It was a hot and humid night in the DC. I'm talking midnight and it's 90 degrees. "I have already taken two showers today, my hair is like 70s afro after the effects of being struck by lightning, and my pits are running like Jesse Owens propelled by Niagara." A group of old friends from high school had come to visit and meet up with me. The night is middle-aged, and we have already spent two too many hours in a stuffy, un-air-conditioned bar. It appears to be a shady party of the city to begin with, but there is a bar on the corner. You walk in, and it's a bar. Crowded since it's Saturday night, but it's not unbearable. One of my friends freaks informs me that the place we need to go is downstairs – to the sweat factory. What? We head down; down, down, down into the ring of fire. No, not the ring of fire. Hell itself. The bowels of Hell, actually. Afterall, it's hot, dark, and all around constipated down there. As we descended the stairs I could feel the heat rising into my face, opening every pore nice and wide for utter nastiness to make its home and build a nice round white tent. I'm talking about whiteheads of course - 3 pimples sprouted right in that instant. I was already done for the night, but whatever, I wanted my friends to have a good time. Apparently they hadn't sweat enough that day. This was a sauna, but the worst kind. The air was stale and it forced me to gag. This must be what it is like to land on foreign planet and adjust to the atmosphere made up primarily of fart and rank moisture. We swam through the crowd of slippery sweaty bodies and found what I can only describe as space to make our dance circle. (by space, I mean literally 3 square feet for the 7 of us). As we put toxins into our bodies, they were immediately detoxified. If I had an IV hooked up to me with pure H2O, it wouldn't have been enough to keep hydrated. All of us just looked at each other like screw it, and began dancing like the rest of the idiots around us. I actually started having some fun, until some douche spilled a drink back! I turned in horror to glare at the culprit, only to find that my horror immediately turned into disgust and absolute terror at the sight of a man's back. His shirt looked like he had just been soaking in a pool (not a pool, a festering swamp) and was matted to his back. He was drenched in his own body's perspiration and had just bumped up against me. GROSS. Before I knew what was happening, three more mindless hours of strange dancing and bumping into strangers had gone by, and my facial pores had opened up to a point that they just merged into one. My hair was soaking, my skin was the consistency of yogurt, and my jeans were sealed to my legs. It took the entire following day and a few more showers to fully recover.

So it's settled: I am moving east to Washington DC. I had such a satisfying experience visiting, I know it's the place I need to be for a while. If I really want to focus on finding a career in my field, it's the place to be that will have the most opportunities for me. I have a roommate, an apartment in the works, and hopefully a job/internship. I can't wait. It will be so great to be surrounded by people who are politically savvy and don't lean one direction or the other because it's popular or "sounds good" (i.e. Los Angeles folk).

Oh the joys of packing up and moving... Stress, Costs, Exhaustion... I can't wait.

Today I got up and went south two metro stops to the pentagon. Unbeknownst to me, the pentagon is not exactly a tourist-friendly place to visit. Apparently there is also an Air Force memorial there, so i wanted to go check it out. When I got off the metro, the only people who got off w me were mili personnel and old white men in black suits and ties. I, of course, pretended like I knew exactly where I was going, though I was getting some strange looks. The entrance to the building was RIGHT there, but I obviously didn't have any credentials. In the distance i saw the air force memorial, so i started heading in that direction. It didn't take long for me to realize it was about a mile away on the other side of the freeway, so i was not going to get to it. In fact, was in the Pentagon parking lot and was about to get out my camera when i saw numerous signs prohibiting photography. Good thing i saw that or i probably would have been shot. :) I continued walking hoping there would be something there so that i didn't look like a completely lost fool. As luck would have it, there was a 9/11 memorial on the other side, so i went there. It was accessible to the public but i definitely got a vibe that i didn't belong there. What a bust. I went back to the station and went one more stop to Arlington Cemetery.

It's huge! I had no idea, but the grounds are beautiful! It was very peaceful. I would like to go jogging through there, w all my respects to the dead of course, but then i noticed the numerous signs saying "No Jogging." At the top of the hill, above JFK's gravesite was Robert E. Lee's house where i had a great view of the city... and the Pentagon. I took a picture of it and felt so satisfied. Joke's on the DOD!!

Then I went to the International Spy Museum. It was rather interactive. I had to assume a cover I.D. and answer questions via computer screens to move on to the next area. There was also an air duct i had to crawl through and see if i could pass the spy test of being quiet. I was giggling and my shoulder bag was banging against the sides, so i failed. They had all sorts of gadgets created by different international agencies to carry out intelligence ops and assassinations. My favorite was the lipstick pistol. And the transmitter in the heel of the shoe that the KGB slipped into of an unknowing US embassy worker. Maxwell Smart.

After that, I tried looking for Ford's Theater with no luck. I did laps around a 4 block loop and must have kept passing it. I eventually gave up and went to the National Archives. There I saw a copy of the Magna Carta, the Constitution, and the Declaration of Independence. I asked if I could examine the back of the declaration for a map by administering lemon juice and heat (i.e. National Treasure), but they refused me. Just kidding. I didn't ask. I was too irritated by all the children bumping into me and pressing their slimy fingers all over the glass.

I finally insisted to myself that I had to find Ford's Theatre and so I did. I made it inside just in time to sit in the actually theatre for a 20 min presentation about the hours leading up to Lincoln's assassination. I sat directly facing the box he was sitting, which was still decorated the way it was left. It was eerie, but very interesting.

Nick's friend gets free tickets to the Wizard's basketball games, so we went to one tonight against the Boston Bobcats. It was fun, but i was absolutely pooped from a whole day of avoiding snipers, spy duty, and walking the town.