What's happening

October:
Engagement.

Trip to New Hampshire. Highlights: seeing the covered bridges. Being amazed at the fall colors. Having our engagement pictures done at Blake's house (see below...just a little taste).




November:
New job at Georgetown Law.

Thanksgiving in Pebble Beach with my family. Highlights: dinner at Fresh Cream. Celebrating my grandparent's 50th wedding anniversary. Low light: Blake staying home due to the horrible timing of GW Law finals.

Studying "by proxy" for finals.

December:

Quick weekend trip down to Disney world with Blake's family. Highlights included watching Blake's nephew, James, cry on every ride except for It's a Small World, taking advantage of fast passes, wondering why one out of every one point five people at Disney was obese, and eating an ice cream bar shaped like Mickey's face.

One week in Utah with my family. Highlights included snowmobiling on Christmas day at my uncle's cabin, multiple wedding dress fittings, playing Wii with my brothers, eating way too much candy, seeing old friends and hanging out with family.

January:

New Years at Blake's house. Highlights included: Wii, Clearplay, iPod touch and new TV = whole new world of entertainment.

Back to work. Saving the world, one adjunct at a time. Highlights include: dealing with the world's craziest/scariest head of payroll, conquering, and living to tell the tale (more on that to follow).

Searching for housing. Highlights: Finding it hard to believe that we're in a recession. Going through the lending process and filling out loan paperwork. Learning new words like "earnest money" and trying to jump in while interest rates are so low.

Final touches for the wedding. Highlights: 10 trips to the photo store trying to get them to print the right pictures. Picking out ties and tuxes. Still trying to find a photographer...

Just face it...

Friday was my first day back to work.

So,

I woke up early while furiously scratching my face. A couple minutes later I faced the ugly truth in the mirror. The right half of my face, and my entire forehead was swollen and the color of a well-ripe tomato.

For a couple minutes I tried to tell myself that maybe it was just a really bad pillow mark. But, several minutes and one shower later, it was still there, lurking conspicuously across my face.

I started to get nervous.

I started to notice how itchy and hot my face was, and how raised and hard the welts were.

Having little medical knowledge, and not yet knowing the name or information for my primary care provider (I just switched medical insurance...), I didn't know what kind of a reaction I was having. I hadn't changed any eating habits, taken any new medication, used any new products on my face, or anything else I could think of. I made a mental list. I wracked my brain to figure out a quick-fix solution. The only thing I could think of was Benadryl. Lots and lots of Benadryl. I ran out the door early so that I could visit my trusty CVS and buy a jumbo family pack of Benadryl.

I also almost paused to take a picture of myself to post on the blog, but then thought better of it...I'm vain enough that I didn't want to show the world my Quasimodo face.

Halfway through the metro ride I noticed that people were staring. I wore makeup to make it a little better, but didn't want to cake it on, so the reaction was still clearly visible. The large amounts of Benadryl, however, kept me from being too self-conscious by just trying hard to stay awake.

Yes. You're wondering why I still went to work with a red, puffy, itchy, painful face. Well, here's the deal: who wants to be the one that calls in on the first day back to work (which is a Friday) and tell their boss that they can't make it because they're having an allergic reaction that's disfigured their face. Yeah, and my dog ate my homework too, teach', I swear.

I couldn't bring myself to make that call, so I went in. I twilight-zoned it for three hours, and then left to spend the rest of the day resting...and making Blake laugh unintentionally. I was slow.

I wasn't playing with a full deck of cards for most of the weekend, but at least the swelling and pain are gone.

Because I am terrified of spiders, and because that's what the consensus was on what had happened to my face, Blake helped me search through my room, and my bed to make sure the culprit(s?) were gone by Sunday night.

I haven't found them yet, but I have a can of raid by my bed just in case. Just in case.

2008

London, England
Provo, Utah
Los Angeles, California
Wolfeboro/Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire
Boston, Massachusetts
Kennebunkport, Maine
Carmel/Pebble Beach, California
Washington, DC
Arlington, VA
Potomac, MD
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Orlando, Florida
Outer Banks, North Carolina
New York, New York

It's been a busy year.

Nuggets

As I was walking home from the metro after work the other day, I heard a band playing and saw a large group gathered in front of the ABC building. Because I was curious,and because I didn't have much else on my agenda that evening, I crossed the street and headed into the crowd.

I quickly found the free hot apple cider. Apparently I'd missed the free chili, which was really a shame (I hate missing out on a free meal...or free anything for that matter), but I was content with my cider.

I asked the old man I was standing next to what was going on, and why there was an enormous light switch, and why there were carolers surrounding the lightswitch. He explained to me that it was the annual "Light Up Rosslyn" celebration and that a "celebrity" was coming to flip on the over-sized switch and all of the buildings in Rosslyn would light up their Christmas lights.

So I stuck around.

It turns out that the "celebrity" was the meteorologist from ABC news. What fun. He made a speech before he, and several other "important" people from the community ceremoniously flipped the huge lightswitch and the crowd ooeh and ahhhed over the lights while the community choir sang The First Noel.

My favorite part of the night was his speech. Mostly because of the 8 year old boy and his family standing near me during it:

"We want to welcome you all to the Light Up Rosslyn celebration...I just love Rosslyn. Every night when I drive across the 14th street bridge, I look back and see it: this little nugget of a city, but then when I'm in it, I feel what a metropolis it is..."

"Mom, MOM, he said nuggets! Where are the nuggets"

"Be quiet honey, the camera crew is right next to us and can probably hear you. Don't interrupt."

"...and the area of Rosslyn is growing, with new buildings being built all the time.."

"Nuggets. Where are the nuggets? I want nuggets,MOM!!!"

"SHHHHHH, I said be quiet."

"...and this year's lights are energy-saving...well done, Rosslyn..."

"Do they have free nuggets here? He was talking about nuggets. I really want some, Mom, I'm hungry."

"Shhhh, I'm not kidding"

"...and we'd like to thank the small businesses of Rosslyn for contributing to the environment around the area...."

"Nugg..." (Mom pulling the kid out of the crowd and away from the camera crew)

I love kids.

Mr. Toad's Wild Ride

One of my new favorite things to do is something that isn't possible to do very often.

I make my way up the platform to where the front of the train will end up. Then, I elbow my way to be first into the first car on the train. Then the tricky part: getting one of the two seats next to the window that looks into the driver's area. This is tricky, in part because there are a very limited number of seats, but also because sometimes the glass is tinted and you can't see through to the drivers area and through to the tunnel: therefore defeating the purpose.

If, and when I get settled in my preferred seat, I turn sideways and put my head against the window. I realize that this may seem a little creepy to the driver, but I'm willing to be a creep if it brings so much enjoyment on my daily commute.

Then comes the best part. If I've made it past all these hurdles, I'm rewarded with the best ride east of Disneyland. I never realized how fast the metro travels, but it's definitely faster than any Disney roller coaster (and probably faster than any other roller coaster I've ever allowed myself to be coaxed onto).

I discovered the "ride" only a couple weeks ago.

Now I just have to figure out how to get people to trade me seats when they're in the optimum ride seat. Maybe it will be easy, seeing as they all have no idea what they're missing.