Juhnke's Junket

Exerpt from the end of today's journal entry...

2010-08-18T00:55:00.002-05:00

My future feels entirely…unhinged… right now. Think of a room filled with hundreds of doors leading in all different directions. Now eliminate the doors, leaving only the skeletons where the doors once stood. You could literally trip and topple into an unexpected opportunity. That's where I am right now. And I’ve got nothing but hope.

[Note: I realize this is out of the blue. I've been busy, but this is the best summary/analogy of present-me I have until I have more time to sit and think out a blog entry]

Happy Anniversary!

2010-06-06T23:26:00.004-05:00

Well ok. I'm still a day short of my year mark. I can't believe I've already been here a year. Time has done a lot of speeding up as of late. Kristine (best friend from high school) got married to Victor this weekend and I am so excited for her. Now she's on a fantastic honeymoon in Florida, and I'm headed back to work.

I realized on the plane ride back from Minnesota just how long I've been here, and how my life has changed. Some of it is good. I'm more independent and more confident. I put more effort into maintaining my friendships and relationships, and I don't take them for granted. However, some of the changes are for the worse. I am more caught up in how I look. I don't read as much for fun as I used to, and I've gotten more selfish about my 'stuff' and my money. Sometimes I am too harsh.

I think that some of the changes I've made that I don't like are a reflection of the fight I've had here. There have been a lot of ups and downs in the last year. A lot. So I've learned to fend for myself. I am responsible for making me feel good about myself (hence me being more caught up in my looks, for example). I can be too harsh, but it's because I want to be known for accomplishing things, and giving valuable input. There are excuses for every change I've made, good or bad. These excuses feed both the good and the bad aspects of change.

I'm not sure I'm making sense here, but I don't know how else to explain it.

So anyway, I've written a list of things I'd like to change about myself, including checkboxes to mark when I feel like I've accomplished the goal. They are vague goals, but I am positive that I will 'know' when these changes have become habit, and I will be able to check them off. 13 changes I can make to be the best I can be. All of them are oriented towards improving my health and/or relationships and I'd like to have all of them made by September 1st, around the time school is starting up again.

It's sort of a personal list so I won't post the specific items here, but I will try to mention in entries as I check them off. I'll probably talk about a few of them as well. I love you all and thanks for reading my posts and hanging with me through both my best and worst moments!

Insert appropriate song from YouTube [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdtdP9AQmVA ]

:) LOVE Sister Hazel. Saw them in concert last month... it was awesome. And this is a pretty great song anyway.

Oh, and YES THAT IS a picture of me with Jack Hanna! (google it) :)

Almost a year now...

2010-04-09T23:02:00.005-05:00

First off, OOPS. I haven't written for a while again. I've been busy enough that I just haven't had much to say, nor as much time to say it. But here I am and I assure you that I love any of my remaining readers, if there are any, more than ever before.

So yep, things here are going well. I still love my job, which is not something everyone can say. I am coming back to Minnesota this week (Thurs-Sun) for my friend Kristine's wedding. I am excited to be a Maid of Honor for probably the only time in my life :) Today is Memorial Day, and I definitely took advantage of the 3 day weekend to relax. I read a book and played a bit of frisbee in the park, took a nap, ate burgers with Zac and Bri, and generally just took it easy. The plan is to do a bit of cleaning now, but my attempts as of lately have been relatively unsuccessful.

I don't know if I've mentioned how big of a pain grocery shopping here is. Well, it is a pain in the hiney. I don't have a car, and I do have a strong tendency to wait until I need a lot of food to go grocery shopping. It's a nearly lethal combination. I tried to carry 3 very heavy (reusable) bags of groceries and a 12 pack of pop home on the metro. Not to mention the milk and ketchup that had to go in my purse. Carrying that stuff to/on/from the metro caused a lot of pain. I am now in the market for one of those grocery carts that old people push around.

Online shopping is the other thing that might kill me. You never have to miss a sale! Whoops. :)

So I guess what I am saying is that if I die here, it's probably going to coincide with some shopping. Or getting hit by a car. Some idiot lady left turned without looking the other day, and I instinctually flipped her off. I'm a little sad that it was my instinct to flip her off, but still more angry in the end that she wasn't paying attention while driving in a residential area. I could have been a kid on a bike or something. Sheesh.

DC is a pretty fun place to be though. Assuming I keep my job here after the elections, I anticipate it will be a fun place to live for a few years. Then who knows what I'll do. Grad school starts in August. I wish I was looking forward to it more than I am, but once I'm back in the swing of things I'm sure I'll be glad I'm in it. I only have classes 2 days a week which is pretty cool, and I do miss writing a bit.

I moved here last June, so we're coming up on my one year anniversary of moving here. I'm still close with friends at home, I'm developing some more solid friendships and relationships here, and I also still love my job. It's hard to complain about much right now, aside from my eternally disorganized room.

SNOVERKILL

2010-02-09T21:38:00.002-06:00

That's what the Capital Weather Gang is calling it anyway. Holy mackerel. So we got a couple feet of snow this Friday/Saturday. The city shut down. Now, we're slated to get another foot or so. DC can barely handle 3 inches of snow much less 3 feet! Trees are breaking, and the city has fallen into a chaotic anarchy of community snowball fights. Ok, well that last part isn't so bad. But still.

I called a friend/coworker of mine the other day and was trying to figure out the work schedule since we hadn't heard for certain yet. I had to admit to my North Carolinian friend may have been right all along on the snow in DC. I was proudly strutting around as a good hardy Minnesota girl, equipped for all weather. Who's complaining about a blizzard, right? Being on my fifth or sixth day without a 'working' metro system (OK, if I wanted to take 3 hours to get somewhere, I theoretically could wait), fresh food, or exercise (that's right folks, the gym is closed and I sure can't run on the unplowed sidewalks of DC), I am getting fat and restless. I've started online shopping to relieve stress, and we all know how this story is going to end. I'm going to be knee-deep in dresses from Macys.com.

Basically, Friday I came home and hunkered down to wait out Blizzard #1. Saturday was very similar, except I went and started working on a CSI puzzle with a friend for a couple of hours. Sunday I spent a total of 2.5 hours on the metro to spend approximately 1.5 hours sledding in northern DC with a friend, and then watched the Super Bowl (my team lost) and finished that puzzle. Turns out when you shine a black-light on a CSI puzzle (black-light included), there are clues to be found, such as bloodstains and fingerprints. There are pictures, but I can't seem to locate my camera cord post-move. I'll post them soon though hopefully, either here or on Facebook. Monday I had off of work, but got bored enough to go in for a couple of hours anyway, where I mostly just did 'work' that I could do at home. Fortunately today and tomorrow I get to go in for a few good hours (being the closest one to the office has it's advantages) or I might have lost it since Blizzard #2 is rolling in as we speak. Bad for my diet, but good for my soul, I managed to polish off a couple of McDonald's cheeseburgers and some fries, so we're falling a bit behind on the whole not-getting-fat-while-exercise-is-not-a-viable-option thing. The cheeseburgers were delicious though. And soul-healthening. YOM.

In other, non-snow-related news, I think I'm going to paint one wall in my room. Jenny Brown is visiting for work and has graciously agreed to be my Valentine since I am in need of one anyway. I am working on reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I am visiting Bri and Zac this weekend for a dorktastic trivia weekend, snow or no snow (at least they know how to drive in this stuff). I plan to purchase a new laundry basket and some underbed storage devices. I have a recent affinity for Rainbow Nerds. I like where I'm living now. I have not finished unpacking (I need to procrastinate doing something). I have done laundry for the first time in 3 weeks. My coworker gave me leftover enchiladas and they were amazing. My friend Kristine is not allergic to wool, but does struggle occasionally with avocados. My friend Bethany has a genetics test in med school this week that she's going to rock. I ate Hershey's Kisses one morning for breakfast. I have 2 different Puxatawny Phil beanie babies, from 2 different people.

Hooray!

2010-02-02T23:13:00.002-06:00

Just dropping a brief note to catch everyone up on life in DC. Well, not life in general in DC --I don't think I can speak for the whole city and/or surrounding areas... Anyway it's snowing, which I was dreading all day, but now I'm excited for. It's really quite pretty.

I moved on Saturday. To a location about 1/2 a block from my old place that is cheaper, and my room is bigger. Not to mention the "dome view" I get in the winter of the very tip top of the Capitol building. So far so good... I've still got a lot of unpacking to do and some storage issues to conquer, but we'll get there. I'm living with all guys now, which will be a change from the past couple of years, but I think I can deal. The move itself was pretty special... Zac and Bri (bro and sis-in-law) came down from Odenton, MD to help me move. I really, really wish I had a picture of me and Bri carrying a queen-sized mattress down the street on our backs... well carrying it might not be the right word. Picking it up and dropping it, sliding it, tipping it, and collapsing from fatigue and laughter would probably be more accurate.

I deferred at GWU last year and my application was reviewed again, and I've been officially rerecommended for readmission into the Master's of Public Policy (MPP) program at GWU! Yes, I'm going to continue working full time; I'm just taking some night classes and should hopefully be able to have a Master's degree 3 years from now. I'm sure I'll have more to say on this as I get more information, but I'm pretty excited.

I don't know if I've mentioned the vampire/tiger lady before, but she is this woman who chills out in front of Union Station...and terrifies me in general. She heard me coming once and actually hissed at me. Anyway, saw her again today after a brief hiatus. I was actually kind of worried something had happened to her, but now that she's back, I can't walk on that side of the fountain anymore. I think I might actually miss her if she ever really goes. I'm so used to her being around.

Still blabbing about the State of the Union address to anyone who will listen:) It's been a good week.

State of the Union

2010-01-27T23:42:00.004-06:00

Hey folks!

So, I lucked out, and managed to get a hold of a ticket to the gallery to the State of the Union address tonight. So I'd been looking forward to it all week, and it took my about twice as long as normal to get dressed this morning (wanting to blend in...). Anyway, I was hanging around waiting to go in, and was pretty nervous to get through security and everything. I left about an hour early and everything went super smoothly. I followed the crowd up to the floor with the Gallery. I don't even remember how many times I was checked by security for one thing or another. I sat down in my seat, which could probably use a little more leg room (or I could shrink a few inches...either one). I wound up sitting between this extremely conservative woman and another very liberal woman, which definitely made for an interesting dynamic throughout the speech... I don't think they would have gotten along too well :) Anyway, as everyone filtered in and the lights brightened, I just got more and more excited. Congressmen, and Senators, and Justices, and Secretaries, and family members, and ... Well you get it. There were a lot of high profile people there. Then the President walked in, and the electricity in the room grew even more.

I've never seen the President in person before (or any President, for that matter), so I basically could not stop being excited. It was surprisingly easy to pay attention to the speech despite loud neighbors, noises, shutters, cameras, and other distractions (such as being in the same room as the PRESIDENT). Parts of the speech were hard to hear over the applause, but I think I only missed a sentence or two due to other distractions. If I had paid that much attention in college I probably would have been a straight A student! LOL... Anyway, I had total tunnel vision and could basically only watch Mr. Obama for most of the speech (although I was really enjoying torturing the woman to my left by pretending that I couldn't hear the distracting noises coming from the woman on my right). I'm so lucky to have had this experience, and I am so grateful. Ask me about it anytime, I don't think I could ever get sick of talking about it!!! I have so many more details I can share!

And weeeeee're back!

2010-01-09T19:36:00.003-06:00

I'm back in DC, and seriously need to put some time into uploading pictures from 'break.' I never thought that I'd be referring to break not being in school anymore, but I did spend about 10 days in Minnesota (10 glorious, fantastic, slightly chilly days). Yeah it was about 50 degrees warmer when I landed in DC. Everyone here was freezing, and I was thinking it felt like spring again. I've since acclimated and now feel a little cold when the wind is blowing and it's under 30 (please don't judge).

Anyway, Minnesota was pretty fantastic, as always. Kelly almost had me sold on just moving back. Almost. Living out here is a lot harder for me than living in Minnesota would be, but I'm sort of taking this place as a challenge now. It can be pretty lonely with all of my best friends in other states, but I'm surviving. It's a fun place with a lot going on. I'm currently shopping around for a new place to live --more details later-- that will probably be off of the Hill and either way, hopefully a whole lot closer to a grocery store.

Oh yeah, Minnesota. I did the whole family Christmas thing, spent a couple of days at home, then went back to hang out with the friends I miss in the cities. I played poker (using copious amounts of Pez to bet) with Victor, Kristine, Jason, Kelly, Bethany, Emilie, Patrick (lol) and Jenny (Jenn, Jenae?) Brown. I also had a fantastic New Years that ended in us heading out to the Moose Hut --no that's not the real name-- somewhere near St. Paul. Then I went to Alyssa and Matt's wedding which was also great! I got to catch up with so many people... I just wish there would have been another day to hang out afterwards. Due to a lack of time, I didn't sleep that last night and got on a plane at 6am. I think I'm still trying to catch up on sleep.

Hopefully I'll be hearing back from George Washington University soon on my official acceptance so that I can get started working towards my Master's next year. I say official because I was accepted last year and deferred, and now need to be re-accepted. I think anyway. The details are a bit sketchy, really. We'll see what happens I suppose.

I'm blanking. I feel like I've had some pretty hilarious stuff happen since the 20th of December, but I can't remember any of it. So, umm, you'll just have to take my word for it. Anyway, I'll keep you posted on the housing search...I may have found a place near the Clarendon metro stop in Arlington, VA that I'm just waiting for conformation on.

Otherwise, I'm readjusting and definitely miss all of my Minnesota friends. Keep in touch; I've only been more convinced than ever that I'll eventually be moving back... even if it might be a decade...haha

Snownami!!!

2009-12-20T22:42:00.006-06:00

There was no "Thundersnow" like I'd hoped, but we totally got about a foot and a half of snow, which was pretty great. It is a bit nuts here after it snows anyway, and with a foot and a half, people were stocking up like the Mayan calendar was ending... I went to Target on Friday over my lunch hour with a coworker who was thinking about buying a pair of boots. We got to Target and the entire boot aisle was empty, save one lonely pair of boots.

On that same lunch, I bought a new camera at Best Buy. I needed one anyway, and wanted to be able to take pictures of the blizzard:) So I got a PINK Sony Cybershot. Great camera. I would have gotten any color that wasn't pink if they'd had it, but I didn't want boring silver, so that's what I was left with. It's definitely growing on me though. It's a pretty pleasant shade of pink if I do say so myself. I'd take a picture of it and post it, but well, that's sort of like trying to vacuum your vacuum. Possible, but really sort of a ridiculous idea. And so far it has survived 2 days of pretty heavy use in precipitation and snow, so I've definitely got some faith in the thing.

I walked about 4 miles in the snow yesterday. First I went to the White House for my tour, which wasn't cancelled (the only thing in town that wasn't). Then we took the metro back to Eastern Market and I went to a friend's house for cheeseburgers and present wrapping. Then I walked all the way back home and picked up my camera and ran out to snap a few pictures before snow melted into my lens and I had to quit til my camera dried out. There was a few hours where I was a little nervous I'd done some permanent damage to my lens, but it's all good now.

Then, today, me and a couple of friends decided to go sledding! And what better place than Capitol Hill? Right? So we lugged our garbage bags, laundry basket, and giant cardboard box over to the hill by the capitol building. Things were looking promising as we aligned ourselves at the top of some already-formed snow paths. We saw a kid who'd just been sledding walking away with his parents. Then, long story short, the capitol policeman made a call, and they made a new anti-sledding rule just in time for us. So we had to find a new place to sled. So we lugged our random assortment of "sleds" back to the car and drove around looking for a good hill. We drove up near where I used to live (in Van Ness) and found a FANTASTIC hill by Howard Law. We sledded there the rest of the afternoon, and realistically probably had more fun than if we would have just gone on the Hill anyway. And in case you are wondering, the laundry basket only really worked well if you could steer it and no one could steer it well. The cookie

sheet/garbage bag combo worked fairly well for a while, but the real winner was the giant iMac cardboard box I lugged all the way from Minnesota (that spent at least 10 years in our garage at home). It is now enjoying retirement at a landfill somewhere, but it was the most fun I've had sledding in a while!

Now, Monday has just been declared a snow day for me, so I'm going to enjoy the day. Sleep in, maybe cruise around town later and help my coworker apartment shop. It's nice to be dry and warm and full of the apple blueberry almond pie I made a few hours ago :) Can't wait to be home!

It's going to be the best Christmas EVER!

2009-12-13T16:15:00.007-06:00

Everything is going well right now, which is a really great feeling. Friday night I went to a party where you had to make an ornament for the tree and bring it (prizes for most politically relevant, most inappropriate, etc). I wasn't too creative with my own ornament (a Harry Potter Valentine that read "Hope your Xmas Day is full of Adventure!), but it was a really great time. Then yesterday, I went to the Marshmallow Peeps store at the National Harbor in Virgina, which pretty much made my entire life. I bought myself a nice new mousepad to use at work. Oh and I paid for my brother Zac's lunch for his birthday at a place called "Ketchup" that had 6 different kinds of ketchup to dip your fries in. Bri (his wife) liked the Raspberry, I liked the maple, and it looked like Zac was digging the ranch kind. You're all fascinated right now, I know. Nothing makes for better reading than a story about different varieties of ketchup!

Oh hey! I get to come home in a week and a half! We are leaving on the afternoon of the 23rd and DRIVING back to Minnesota (yay!) so we should be there sometime on the 24th. Then I have the whole next week at home before I fly back early on January 3rd. I am so excited! But if one of you wants to turn the temperature up a few degrees there, and keep some nice fluffy snow around I'd really appreciate it. Our highs here are hovering at a paltry 40-50 degrees right now, so I'm not really sure about the MN temps...

I can't wait for Christmas and New Years with friends and family. I feel like I have stories to share, but I can't really think of anything to write for you right now. I've got a lot to get done before I leave for Christmas, including a White House tour next weekend (hooray!) and finishing up

with cards and presents for the appropriate people, finishing my grad school paperwork, and whatnot and so forth. Should be a good time.

Oh and by the way, the maple-glazed chocolate chip bacon cookies I made actually tasted really good and won the "agriculturally diverse" category at the cookie party I went to :) I got a sweet set of spatulas and pans as a prize! I'll try to make a couple of batches to pass around at Christmas...lol See you all soon!

Peace.

Cookie!

2009-12-06T14:18:00.002-06:00

I'm making Maple-Glazed Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies right now. They smell all bacony. I'll report back later on the taste (post-glazing). In fact, I should have many opinions on them tomorrow after I share them at work :)

I'm totally getting in the Christmas spirit now. I can't WAIT until I'm back in Minnesota for Christmas. The snow actually sticks there... it snowed a bit yesterday here, but there isn't any left to enjoy today.

Otherwise, not too much to report. Did you know that a tiny bottle of imitation maple extract costs as much as a small bottle of pure maple syrup? Stupid McCormick. I bought the syrup so I can have pancakes later! Besides syrup is in one of the four main food groups (syrup, candy, candy canes, and candy corn).

Anyway, the 23rd just can't roll around soon enough! Until then, I've got quite a bit to do around here (work, Christmas cards, cleaning). Keep in touch and Happy Holidays! Yay!

Mmmm.. Turkey

2009-11-30T17:01:00.004-06:00

Jenny, Bri and I in Annapolis--looking mighty fine!

Picture from Jenny Brown

I think I still might be full from Thanksgiving. No joke, it was pretty fan-frickin-tastic. Bri turned out to be an amaaaaaazing Turkey-chef. I also enjoyed touring Annapolis with Bri, Zac, and Jenny Brown. Basically, this weekend was about perfect except for Jenny having to spend the last night at the airport (the metro system wasn't up and running early enough). Did I mention that we went Black Friday shopping from midnight until 5am? No I didn't. Well now I did. Anyway, I am now enjoying a relaxing Monday night, kicking back, relaxing, watching some Charlie Brown holiday specials on YouTube, and thinking about Christmas (as well as wasting your time writing yet another long, droning blog entry... Sorry 'bout that again!).

I'm super excited that it is FINALLY Christmas 'season'. It never comes soon enough. And my presents are going to be oh-so creative this year due to a definite lack of funding. Get excited friends! Mix tapes abound! (Yes, that's right. I'm so poor I can't afford CDs...KIDDING!). Turns out your money problems aren't solved when you get a full-time job. What the heck? Stupid real world. At least I hear (from several reputable coworkers) that 27 is really the best age to be. I've got 5 years to build to that age of glory.

So I just realized how visual a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving is, because all I hear right now is a bunch of super peppy music (not enough witty dialogue). I'm probably going to have to rewatch once I finish this entry.

On another note, I learned all about ornamental cabbages and smiles today. Did you know that women smile an average of 62 times per day, and men only 8? Crabby crabbyfaces. Also, there are a lot of ornamental cabbages growing around DC. I think that they are weird and unattractive, and think that the people who are growing ornamental cabbages would better spend their dirt-space and gardening making yummy edible cabbages.

I miss most of you (ha!) and can't wait to see most of you (double ha!) at Christmastime! I'll be home for about 10 days, so definitely call, send telegrams, or better yet CANDYgrams, and I'll try to get around to see as many people as possible in the week between Christmas and New Years.

Peace Out brothas and sistas.

Clapping Crazy Nutter Guy

2009-11-20T20:23:00.003-06:00

So not too long since my last post. I apologize to those of you that I didn't recognize as reading my blog. Of course I love you all too :) Anyway there's been a few things going on that I figured I could write about, so I figured I'd post again.

First of all, as noted in the picture above (exclusive taken just for this blog!), I am rereading the Harry Potter series for the umpteenth time. I realized that life is just better when Harry is around, even if he's just chilling in my purse 'just in case' I get time to read somewhere that isn't at my house which -almost- never happens. Whoops... 'n' key just popped off my keyboard.

I've started attending Yoga, something I previously thought was for skinny little hippie girls who liked to meditate and think about flowers and feminism. Turns out, that despite that it seems to still be targeting skinny little hippie girls who like flowers and feminism, yoga is pretty fun, and pretty relaxing. And it makes me feel like I'm actually utilizing my house gym membership since the class is free with the membership. The poses are usually tricky enough that I can't worry about anything else, and the hippie-lady instructor is really good at her job. So at the end of class every time, we do this relaxation thing where you pretty much just lay on your back on the yoga mat and relax and listen to whatever she's talking about. Well the first class I went to, she got us there and told us we were going to run through a story. I like stories, but I always hate those imagine-your-own-story exercises. However, being in the serene mood I was, with my skepticism at an all-time low, I was pretty open to getting into this (here summarized) story:

Hippie Lady says: "Ok, you're in a long hallway"

Me (thinking in my head): Long hallway. Got it. See it.

Hippie Lady: "At the end of the hallway there is a door"

Me: A pink door.

Hippie Lady: "On that door it says your name"

Me: Not just my name, lady. There are daisies floating around.

Hippie Lady: "You walk to the end of the hall and open the door"

Me: Consider it done.

Hippie Lady: "You go through the door into the most beautiful nature scene you can imagine"

Me: Awesommme! This is just like Narnia. Alright but I'm going to do some sort of woods-prairie-wetland combination (then I configured a nice-looking space for my story).

Hippie Lady: "You are walking through this scene and you happen upon a small creature."

Me: A small creature? I want a dog. I'm going to imagine a dog in my story.

Hippie Lady: "You approach the small creature"

Me: Dang it. Every time she says small creature, I see a squirrel. Fine lady, I see a squirrel.

Hippie Lady: "You have a question you've wanted to know for a long time"

Me: Is this a wise squirrel? Crap. I'd rather have a wise greyhound. Oh well. What question do I have? I bet everyone else has a question and I can't think of anything. Alright...umm... how about where will I be in 10 years? That's a good, solid question I think.

Hippie Lady: "You see the small creature is holding a piece of paper, folded in half."

Me: Oh bullocks. He knows something.

Hippie Lady: "The small creature offers you the paper and you take it. On the inside of the paper is the answer to your question."

Me: Whoa... I didn't know I was going to find this out in yoga today. Alright I'm ready.

Hippie Lady: "You take the paper and unfold it. You see the answer to the question."

Me: (unfolds paper) ... ... ... What the heck? Mine got wet or something! I can't read this! This is crap. Everyone in the class is getting their questions answered by their small creature, but my stupid "wise" squirrel got my answer all wet and now I can't read it. (squints at paper, turns it around, puts it closer to face, refolds and reopens paper. Gives up and litters paper in Narnia)

...Well you get the picture. I got really into a really stupid story, and only was reminded how stupid it was when I came out of my trance and realized that I was really mad at an imaginary squirrel.

...I only wish I was referencing that squirrel in the title of this entry. Instead it is about my new friend, the neighborhood crazy. And by new friend I mean I wouldn't get within 50 feet of him. On the way home from work yesterday, I ran into some nutter who would yell something, then clap twice, then clap twice again, then grab a fence and bend/look over it like he was looking for an ant hill or something. He continued this pattern up the block just about a block from my house. So I went out of my way and crossed the street to avoid him. As he turned left, so did I, but a very long, safe distance away (noting there were a lot of people commute-walking at the same time, and it was still light out, so it was still relatively safe). Anyway this guy kept doing crazy things, so I stayed on the opposite side of the street from my house, about half a block back from this guy, walking extremely slowly and staying out of sight. I watched as he approached my rowhouse (mine is one the end) and was waiting for him to continue on past so that I could cross the street and go into my house. Well, he didn't. He sat on my doorstep, deciding to take a breather from all of the strenuous clapping I suppose. So I stopped and waited for him to move, feeling awkward (telling the people walking near me that no, I wasn't lost or scared, just waiting for the crazy man to leave my doorstep). I really was more concerned about being late for yoga than anything. After probably 20 or 30 seconds he got up and moved on, and I could hear him clapping and yelling up the street. I walked over and skipped quickly up the steps to my house and changed for yoga. As I left my house, I encountered him AGAIN walking through the intersection near my house (I imagine he found himself back there primarily because it's a 6-way intersection, so it's easier to wind up on than the traditional 4-way options, especially if you're lost and/or on something). Anyway I had to play my stupid dodging game again for another block before he turned up a different street.

Welcome to DC.

Back! in the District

2009-11-16T21:48:00.005-06:00

So, for Kelly and Grandma Marlys who actually read this thing (I love you guys!), thought I'd post another little update. Since I got my internet back I've sort of rekindled my excitement for this blogging business.

A few things:

1. I totally went to Minnesota this last weekend. The trip was short, but it was great to be back for a bit. That was my first trip "home" since I left for DC in June. And of course we picked up right where we left off because, well, I call all of the people I saw so often that I don't really give them a chance to miss me:) I had a ton of fun Friday night with people, wedding dress shopping for Kristine on Saturday, and playing "Truth or Extra Truth" Saturday night. OK, Truth or Extra Truth was kind of a lame game, but I'm all about it anyway. I need to get one of those books that comes with a bunch of questions already in them to answer. We ran out of question ideas. I quote "Umm... well I really don't think I need to know anything else about you."

2. I haven't blogged about it much, but DC has been sort of lonely. I've been keeping in good touch with family and friends from home, but this moving business has been pretty scary. Things are really starting to pull together for me now I think though, and I may actually be creating a bit of a life for myself. We'll see I guess. I'm excited and scared to see what the next couple years of my life might hold. I love working here, and am getting used to the atmosphere, but it doesn't feel like home yet, that's for sure. I'm really excited to go back to grad school next year, and to hold me over until then I made flash cards so that I can learn the Senatorial and Congressional leadership. I haven't been this dorky since I captained the MN State Champion Dog Bowl team. That's right folks. Let that sink in.

3. I love lists, don't you?

4. For the first time in a while, I'm also feeling pretty busy. I usually work from about 8:30am-6:30pm, I have books that I want to get through, my room constantly needs cleaning, I need to look for a second job, Thanksgiving is coming (and along with it Jenny Brown!!!), Christmas plans need to be made, presents found/bought, etc. I did find the time to make myself some delicious enchiladas tonight though. YOM.

5. I'm not sure this list or these paragraphs really have any theme, rhyme, or reason to them. Maybe this is some sort of symbolism for how my life is right now. I need to do a bit of compartmentalizing maybe? Compartmentalizing is a very long word. I'd bet that compartmentalizing is probably the longest word I've typed in my blog thus far. You are witnessing history people. HISTORY.

OK I'm a-gonna stop a-wastin' ur time now. Once I clean my room I intend to start painting again, so if I make a painting and borrow a camera, I will post it sometime in the near future. Could be fun (or ugly or both, as artwork often is). I'm hoping by telling you that I'm planning to paint I'll maybe actually do it. And by you I mean probably just Kelly and Grandma Marlys, my loyal fanbase:) Naw, I love ALL of my fans. Especially the closet ones that don't tell me they're secretly stalking me.

The District

2009-11-07T19:13:00.003-06:00

It's been an interesting few weeks. I'm slowly getting used to my living situation, which if nothing else is really close to work. My mission for next year (2010) is to search for/find a place of my own, or for me and maybe one roommate to live with. I think I'm ready to start living alone soon, or maybe I'll find a place with a friend or something. I don't know. I already spend a lot of time alone while I'm at home, but it's nice to know there are roommates around sometimes, especially around dinner time. But for now at least, the rent is relatively low and the commute is ridiculously short.

I'm discovering that even if you don't make plans around here, plans will often find you. There are so many random people around the Hill doing fun things all the time, and as you meet them, you find the random invite pool grows. I was determined that this weekend was going to be my 'weekend off,' as I can't really remember spending many weekend nights in since moving to DC in June, and I didn't have any plans going into Friday. Friday afternoon I was invited to a Happy Hour by someone that I had recently met, and now today (Saturday) I asked someone a question this afternoon and was invited to a party that I suppose I'll probably go to. It seems like most weekends go this way... there's so many people around that there's always something fun going on, and something to celebrate (or lament) over a beer.

Last weekend I went as 'the Hamburglar' for Halloween. I'm already thinking about next year's costume... I love Halloween. I saw someone dressed as a knocked up nun who was actually knocked up, as well as no less than eight Waldos, a few teabaggers, and even someone dressed up as that crazy Libyan president guy (who I can never remember the name of).

So for now anyway, I'm pretty content with how things are going. It's not perfect, but life never is. My job is amazing, I'm meeting people, and generally just surviving life right now. Looking forward to next weekend when I fly to visit Kristine in Minnesota, and Thanksgiving weekend for food, family, Jenny Brown, and a giant delicious tube of cookie dough! Then we're just in the sprint to Christmas/New Years where I plan to come home for about 10 days (using up some leave). And who knows what next year holds? I sure as hell don't. Just flying by the seat of my pants, and starting school again (hopefully in the summer, but fall at the latest).

Over and Out!

...P.S. All of you should visit DC. I miss you.

OMG LOC

2009-10-27T17:11:00.001-05:00

Hey kids. I’ve been HORRIBLE at the blogging thing. I know. I apologize. Soon there will be no point in you all following my blog. But that’s cool. I understand how it is. Anyway, I’ve been really busy. That, combined with the whole internet-not-working-at-home-for-the-last-month-thing means that keeping this thing updated has been a bit rough. So again, sorry for that.

I’m playing rugby now. And when I say that I’m “playing rugby,” I mean that I’ve attended one practice. 2 out of the 3 I’ve tried to attend have been rained out. The one I did make it too was pretty fabulous though. I learned how to tackle which was awwwweesoooommmmmmme! Unfortunately we are almost at the end of the season, so really I’m not going to be starting much of anything until next season (February-ish).

I have a roommate moving out next month, and hopefully another one moving in for December 1st. We haven’t officially found anyone yet, but I’m excited for the change. I also need to paint my room too so it’s not an ugly chalk-yellow anymore.

There is a girl who must live somewhere near my house. She is blonde with a high ponytail, and swings her arm like a mad woman… I’ve never seen anything like it! She always carries her walkman in one hand, and swings her other arm like she’s trying to club someone. This, combined with the neighborhood homeless-lady makes my neighborhood into kind of an interesting, quirky place. The homeless lady likes to chill out by the metro stop and ask for change. She was the one who told me I have dimples.

Anyway, I’m going to peace out for now. Since rugby was cancelled I’m going to have a relaxing night at home I think, and it is much needed. I’ve been going for a few days now and could really use some solid me-and-Harry Potter time.

Fall!

2009-09-27T16:14:00.003-05:00

I finally got to take the ari conditioner out of my window. I'm not sure where to put it from here, but we aren't supposed to hit 80 for the next 10 days (not that the weather forecasters are ever right here), so I figured it was about time. I'm excited for fall though. and winter. and spring. I still really, really would like to see some snow around here, but I guess it'll be nice to have a halloween that I don't have to wear a snowsuit for :)

Zac and Bri (brother and sis-in-law for those who don't know) came down from Maryland yesterday for the National Book Festival. It was pretty much nerd-central. I went with them and stood on the mall for a while, but it was raining and I was getting very wet and very cold, so eventually I headed back home and took a very warm, comfortable nap. They met up with me then around 6 or so (after the book fest had ended). We decided to go eat at Clyde's, which is a sort of decent place in Chinatown that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. As we got onto the metro we were asked for change... I didn't have any and sort of muttered something to that effect as I walked past. The woman then said, "oh you have dimples!" Then a 10 minute conversation ensued where we [Zac, Bri, and I... not the lady] argued the existence of dimples on my face. I think it's odd that the first person to ever mention that I have dimples was a beggar asking for change, seeing as I apparently sort of have some. I'm still not entirely convinced that I do.

I made a budget to follow. Unfortunately it didn't really start until October 1st, so I'm already behind on my budget, just from existing for the last 2 weeks of September. I'm really looking forward to getting back to school next year too. I miss homework! I don't know how I'm ever going to really give up school... I think I will miss it too much. And then I'll have lots of student loans and money won't matter so much again :)

Back in Session!

2009-09-13T22:15:00.004-05:00

After a nice relaxing recess, I'm finally getting into a bit more of a routine again. Trying to start working out before work, but I'm finding that's a lot easier said than done... I'm usually awake around 6am anyway, but actually getting out of bed and doing something is an entirely different story. I feel like I've been pretty low on the good stories lately, so I apologize. I'll see if I can conjure up some drama for my blog :-)

So I haven't had an umbrella since I moved here, which is really a poor choice on my part, but so far I've survived. Until one day last week when it was pretty much down-pouring and I was looking pretty SOL. I went to work out and didn't worry about the rain, and on the way back (and looking a lot like a soggy golden retriever, I'd imagine) a fabulous fantastic amazing neighbor happened to be walking to her car and saved my life, and I had a high-quality Nautica umbrella to carry to work. Lessons learned: 1) Own an umbrella in DC; 2) Be nice to your neighbor(s); 3) Working out in the morning leads to good things.

The people I've met here have been pretty generically friendly. I feel like since most people are from other areas of the country, people feel like being nice because your friends, coworkers and neighbors sort of act as supplemental extended family. I've had a lot of offers for help ever since I got here. I am so grateful that people are willing to lend a helping hand, because otherwise this city could be brutal. I don't have any new best friends or anything, but I'm enjoying socializing with a lot of people, which is all I can really ask for having only been here just over 3 months.

This unpacking thing could just happen a little faster... I need to just buckle down and deal with the small things. I also need to start budgeting a little better. I'm fine financially, but I should really start keeping better track of this stuff and getting my life organized. I guess I'm a grown-up now. Boo. 30 or 4o more years of this and I think I'll be ready to play for the rest of my life.

Oh, and I think I found a church I like. I've been going to St. Mark's Episcopal church on capitol hill. It's a beautiful old church, fairly small, with really sweet stained glass windows. It's also one of the most liberal churches I've ever encountered, which is kind of fun. After the late services they host "Pub Lunches" where someone cooks up a bunch of food and they serve beer on tap (and wine etc) after the service. During the last service in the "Announcements" portion (now my favorite part of the service), the beer orderer announced that, just so we all know, the year of Budweiser is over since we finally finished all of it, so now we're back to a nice Amber Pale Ale. The congregation clapped really loudly at this. I just laughed in disbelief. It's pretty funny. They are super open and welcoming, and encourage people who are "anywhere in their faith journey" to attend and take communion, including people of all and/or no beliefs. I just like to attend church and leave the politics behind, and they're pretty good at it. So, for now, I'm actually going to church every Sunday. I must be an adult. Crap.

Labor Day!

2009-09-06T13:57:00.004-05:00

Hey kids!

Sorry I haven't been posting much lately, but my internet was down for about a week and a half at home, and even if it's slow I'm not going to blog in the office... so really what I'm saying is that I was too lazy to walk to a Starbucks to keep you folks updated. My sincerest apologiez. Anyway, I'm enjoying the weather once more around here. It's not melty hot anymore, and I'm finding things to do to enjoy the area... unfortunately I might need to pay attention to what things might be free now, because I've had a couple of expensive weekends. It's really easy to blow through a lot of money going out here; it's sort of a happy hour culture. I've also managed to fanagle my way into a few Nats games (since I'm about a 20 minute walk from the stadium) and even a Redskins game last weekend. It was preseason, but I managed to score some free tickets, so whatever! I've never been to a professional football game, so the 125,000 person stadium was super neat, yo!

Other than that, Labor Day weekend has been fun, but not too exciting. I went to a Nats game on Friday and wound up with some really good seats after dropping my ticket and having to retrace the 20 minute walk a couple of times... but I still made it there in the 3rd inning, not too shabby all things considered. I went to church today and enjoyed that a lot. I found an Episcopal church that's only about a 15 minute walk from my house that serves beer on a regular basis. Can't go wrong there! But really, I am just a fan of the laid-back, open style they've got. Not to mention the church is a gorgeous old thing. Today I'm trying to figure out a good way to go shopping sans auto, tomorrow I'm making my way into Virginia for a co-worker's Labor Day party. Next weekend there's a couple of bars playing the Vikings game, so I'll probably try to track down some Minnesotans to go enjoy the game with over in Crystal City (sort of near the Pentagon in VA).

To my folks/Juhnke family who got together this weekend and didn't invite me: Keep in mind that I have about 900 ways to spread wild rumors here... you all will want to keep on my good side:-) But I still don't know what peas and honey have to do with anything.

New House and city ramblings

2009-08-22T08:47:00.005-05:00

I love my new place. I thought I'd be a little disappointed about the commute, but really I still have a 10 minute commute. It's just a walking commute, and at any rate about equivalent to the commute I had in Willmar when I drove into town. Except way cooler. Living 3 blocks from work and 4 blocks from the capital is going to have it's advantages. You know, like being one of the most surreal places to live ever. I'm so far doing a poor job at unpacking, but that will all come with time :)

I am a little disappointed in something though. So it turns out I'm horribly desperate to have homework to do in the evenings (who knew?!?), and I've decided for certain that I want to go back to school asap. I asked GWU about applying for the Spring semester, and long story short, that's not going to work. I might be able to start taking a class or two this summer, but really I can't start until fall. It's going to be a long year. Ideally I'll get myself bogged down enough with work, other activities, and classes (not grad school, there are a few continuing ed type courses I need to research, like French or something) that I don't notice that I'm not actually going to school for the first time in my life.

I've decided I want to learn how to run, really run: something I've always been pretty horrible at. I wish it wasn't so hot and humid, because running on the mall after work is pretty much amazing. It's sort of inspirational to decide to run down to the Lincoln Memorial and back. I'd also like to locate a gym for stuff like basketball and more familiar activities. I don't think Obama is going to let me use his, and that's the only one I know about thus far:)

I contacted someone from my school when I moved here, and asked a million questions etc etc trying to get a feel for the place. I'm here, I've done it. I've got a job, a wardrobe, a place to live etc etc... and now I'm going to be that contact for other people probably, which is cool. I want to help other people find their way around here. This city is cool and quirky (one friend called it "Hollywood for ugly people") and it's fun to talk about. There's always something interesting happening, and it is so dynamic. There are 2 questions that you ask when you meet people, 3 if there's time: 1. What's your name? 2. Where do you work? (and) 3. Where are you from? This place is a mecca for young people looking for jobs, and especially saw a lot of movement with the implementation of the new administration about a year ago. I love that everyone is from a different place in the country. And everyone loves a "cussing" southerner! I've already had a couple of people contact me to ask questions, and I'm finding I love any reason to talk about this city. Well, except the weather. It is waaay to freakin' hot here. I could use a little bit o' Minnesota right now. And if you guys want to send a little snow this way this winter, that'd be great too.

Mooooovin'

2009-08-11T21:31:00.003-05:00

This is about as close as I've gotten to the President, unless he was in the White House one of the times I visited (which would make me, proximity-wise, probably as close as I'd get even though I can't see him. ha!). Anyway, I'm excited. Why? Because I'm moving. Why else? Because I have a place to sit in my house, which is sounding pretty amazing about now. I have survived the last couple of months with only a mattress or a counter to sit on, and if I want internet, I pretty much have to go sit on the floor and lean up against the wall... which is what I'm doing right now. It's a bit of a back-killer. And I'm already sore from working out. I got a new pair of shoes and renewed a bit of enthusiasm for working out. Unfortunately, I may have also preemptively countered my work-outs via the local grocery store where I discovered a sale on BBQ Chicken Hot Pockets (!). As the great Jim Gaffigan once said, "Hot Pocket for breakfast, Hot Pocket for lunch, dead by dinner." Ahh well, what would life be without Hot Pockets anyway? And I haven't eaten out at anything worse than a Subway since getting here, so I guess I can have a bit of junk food.

I'm going to see if this working out thing can be my new hobby. I would like it to be, but you know how these things run. ALL of you do. If I can hold this 'hobby' for 3 months I'll be on a really good roll. I wish you could just work out until you reached the appropriate fitness level and then quit. I don't like this shifting-goal thing where when you stop, you pudge out again. I want to accomplish fitness and be done with it. I did get a really sweet pair of new tennis shoes that I'm excited about. They'll keep working out fun for at least a month or two I hope. They have some pretty bad-ass gel insoles. I read somewhere that these particular shoes are good for motion control or something. But really, what was most important is that they are silver and pink. A good pink too, not some pastel froofy pink. I believe this is the nicest pair of shoes I've owned. I love shoes. shoes shoes shoes. Ok I'll stop. You don't care about any of this, but they really are awesome shoes. And seriously, I confirmed this with a friend. Feeling unmotivated? Buy some new workout shoes/clothes. I think it feels great to workout with a brand-spanking-new pair of socks on. Or whatever you buy.

Anyway, I'll be moving into my new place by this weekend. So far so good... My new IKEA dresser and bed are put together, and I'm starting to sort through the piles of books etc shipped on a uHaul from Willmar/St. Cloud. I may have to take a few metro trips back and forth this Saturday/Sunday, but then I will officially be done. HOORAY!!!

However, my roommate, Glenna, is leaving for Illinois again, so that's kind of sad. We've had a lot of fun this summer, but she's off to bigger and better things. Well, first school, and then Chile or Colorado or Uzbekistan or whatever she decides.

Looking forward to attending some concerts here. The Counting Crows are here in less than a month!

Peace out.

HOK...

2009-08-03T22:52:00.002-05:00

So, here's earth. It's round.

You didn't have to get that. If you did, I give you one Shannon-point.

So, I haven't written for a while. (OOPS!) Things I've realized/noticed while living in DC:

1) East-Coast people are frequently a disappointing amount shorter than midwesterners (and southerners, westerners, etc). However, there are so many people from 'other' (non-east coast) areas here that I'm not feeling like a giant. Once in a while I laugh in my head (or for all I notice, probably out loud, looking like an idiot) in public, especially on the metro, because I still generally see above a lot of heads here.

2) DC can be horribly segregated. Especially residentially.

3) Everyone knows a little bit about politics. It's hard not to, when all of the news is being made in your own city. But still, it's weird for me to be constantly immersed in it.

4) It's kind of hot here. I'm used to dealing with the heat in Minnesota, so this shouldn't be that bad, but I just feel like I'm a lot sweatier here. Maybe it's the lack of breeze and the public transportation. Where is my prairie??? Crap.

5) On that prairie note, where the heck is it? I feel like I can't see anything here. I'm most at home on the capitol mall, but even their parks usually have too many trees. I say plop a few around the perimeter and leave some free grassy fields. England can do it; why can't we?

6) NYC drivers think this place is tame, and Minnesotan drivers think this place is nutso. I overheard some NYers talking about their shock that people actually stop at stop signs here, and I know that we still don't fully understand the roundabout concept.

7) Minnesota is more conservative. I'm enjoying buying liquor on Sundays and in my grocery stores if I please, thank you very much.

8) There are a lot of fitness freaks here. There are a TON of runners everywhere. I feel like all of these young runners go home with bad knees and get unfit elsewhere. But while they're here, all they do is run. I don't run; I elliptical :)

9) Finding a Target is a pain in the butt. I wish I had a car.

10) Finding a doctor's office is scary. I wanted to pick one, but I don't know how. This'll have to be a work in progress. (notably, some of these things are just *Oh crap I have to be responsible for myself and I don't live in a small town* things).

11) I want a beach.

12) Everyone is always moving... changing jobs, moving home, moving here. Nobody sits still.

Enough for now. I need some sleep:) Hopefully this will satisfy you all for a few days... I'll try to write again sooner next time.

HOUSE!

2009-07-16T23:18:00.002-05:00

I found one! I finally found one! For a whole YEAR's lease... I'm really, really excited. I was perhaps a bit too bitter about the whole ordeal to continue blogging [I may have considered just sleeping in the supply closet at work at one point]. Anyway, I'm pretty excited about the place I found. I found it on Craigslist.

Details (since I know you are all curious, and I'm excited to share!):

1. It's 3, count 'em, THREE blocks from work. 118 E St SE

2. If you google map it, it doesn't go directly to the right place. Mine is the peach one on the end if you go up the street a bit farther. I hate peach, but if that's the worst thing about the place...haha

3. I am on the top floor out of three in my part of the house. It is quite tall. There is a separate, 4th floor basement that someone else lives in, but she doesn't really count, and the only thing we share with her is our washer/dryer.

4. I share a bathroom with one other girl.

5. Move-in date is officially August 1st, but I'll be moving in the weekend of August 15th, when my current lease expires. All I really have to move are my clothes/toiletries, and my mattress. Should be easy.

6. There are 3 other girls who will be living with me: Gina, Jenna, and Jen -- ages 23-25

7. No, I don't know that much about them yet. They seem nice; I'll figure out the details later. They are a fairly normal crew, and that's all I really care about.

8. My room faces the back in a fairly private corner on the top floor.

9. The lower level is hard floor/tile, the top two floors are carpeted. The carpet is old, but it gets cleaned frequently enough. The house itself is over 100 years old.

10. It is a block and a half from the Capitol South metro station.

11. It is, according to google, a 6-7 minute walk from work.

12. It is about a 10 minute walk from the National Mall.

13. I will be able to leave for work around 8:45am on a regular day.

14. Rent is not bad: $720/month plus utilities. Great deal given everything.

15. Air conditioners in each room, central heat.

16. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

Happy Fourth!

2009-07-05T19:56:00.002-05:00

The fourth of July in DC... The fireworks are better elsewhere, although the size of the crowd was pretty impressive. And Aretha and Natasha Bedingfield being around didn't hurt anything either... It was a pretty good day. Me and my roommate went to the National Zoo, where we walked and walked and walked (the layout is such that it requires a LOT of walking). Saw the pandas, saw some jellyfish. We'll be headed back another weekend to explore some more of the zoo. After the zoo we hung out for a while and then went to see the fireworks on the mall, which was a cool experience, minus the crummy fireworks. There were people everywhere, but I think I'm becoming somewhat immune to crowds after trying to squeeze onto the metro for the last with a bunch of sweaty, fanny pack-wearing tourists (among the other people who just live here..haha). Since the train derailed last week the metro has been delayed a bit, meaning that the already crowded rush hour trains are now more packed than any of you reading this can probably imagine. I actually saw a guy with his face pressed against the glass on Thursday as the train pulled away. So I have to add about 20 minutes to my commute and shove my way onto a train every morning. Still, I like it here. I like big cities, and the east coast, so I'll deal with the negatives, since there is so much else here that I do like. I like walking out the front of my pillared office building and being right next to the capitol building. I like taking a walk on my lunch up and down the capitol mall. I like having time to read for fun. Yeah, this post-college stuff is ok.

I'm still house searching. I've come to the conclusion that I have no idea where I want to live and don't really care anymore. I'd like to just have a place that isn't too expensive, isn't too far from a metro, isn't in a sketchy area, and that has decent roommates. I got off of a metro today, took one look around and got right back on while house searching. There was no point in viewing the house when I thought I was going to get shot on the walk over. It might not have been that bad, but hey, I'm a sheltered Minnesota girl who should probably take it easy on the culture shock right now. Notably, I know where I don't want to live, I just don't know where I want to live. Everything will fall into place eventually I hope, it's just a long journey that kind of sucks right now. And don't give me any crap about 'life being about the journey', right now I need an end please and thank you.

Woop Woop!

2009-06-27T08:49:00.002-05:00

Things are really shaping up around here.

Zac (my bro) and Bri (his wife) bought a house, which is pretty darn cool. I'm excited for them. I think they'll be camping out at my place until the 10th when they can move into their new place.

My wallet was turned in to the George Washington University campus popo, so I got that back. The latch was broken, and the $6 that was in there got stolen out, but otherwise everything seems to be in fair order. I'm not sure what happened to my Target giftcard, but it is entirely possible that it is in a box of my stuff here, otherwise that might be missing too (but I bet I just have it somewhere in my apartment).

The American Clean Energy and Security Act (aka Waxman/Markey) passed. I'm happy, to say the least. Next week is recess so things should be pretty calm around the office, which will be a definite change for me.

I am still searching for housing, but I've got a couple to visit Sunday/Monday. We'll see what happens there; I'll keep you posted.

Welcome to DC!

2009-06-20T10:09:00.003-05:00

The cockroaches, and now pickpockets, have never been so keen to make a new friend.

My wallet was jacked Thursday night on the way home from work. I went out to eat with a friend, and we wound up hanging out until 9:30 and then walking back to the metro and heading home. Nothing overly important was in there, but it still is very frustrating... especially since it really, really wasn't worth it for them. There was about $6 in cash and they probably chucked the rest of the wallet (which was itself about a $12 wallet). So I'm canceling all of my cards yadda yadda yadda. Unfortunately I think I had a $50 Target gift card that I just got in there, but that is the worst of it. I opened a new bank account that had a credit line I could borrow against, so I managed to overcome the problem quickly enough. It was mostly just aggravating, and made a fitting cap to an already stressful week. Ah well, such is life.

Ups and Downs

2009-06-14T20:49:00.002-05:00

I love it here... I just want to say that immediately. This is a really great city. Notably, I'd like to live a bit further north later in life, but for now, this city is pretty darn good. It's pretty easy to meet people, and nearly everyone is at least a little transient. I already both love and hate the constant change; it's going to take a bit of getting used to. My metro ride is a bit long, but I really like the place I live, despite the occasional cockroaches (which fortunately have all been pretty maimed-looking when I've found them after the raid-spraying-and-bait-trapping escapade).

The only downside to this place that I'm really finding, is that I am pretty constantly drained. It is an adjustment to get used to getting home from work often after 7pm. The social stuff on the weekend is fun, but also draining. I'm looking forward to getting a few more responsibilities at work to speed the day along a bit, but I really like my job, and the people in the office are really great.

...and I thought today was Father's Day, and it is actually NEXT Sunday. At least my present/card will be early instead of late I suppose! It's so hard to keep track of everything when I'm still in a bit of a state of disorganization. I've never wanted a couple of shelves so badly, but it will be easier to move in August if I hold off on that stuff.

I don't have anything really funny to talk about this time (maybe I'm just too tired to think of anything), but had a weird coincidence today when a group of us were out checking out a couple of museums and one of us split off and left. The rest of us decided to also run to the bathroom and then leave out of a fairly random metro station (there are enough around to choose). When we entered the platform we picked a random spot and waited. The train arrived and we hopped on the nearest car; I turned to sit down and looked up, and the friend who had split off to leave was on the same metro car. There were so many cars and trains that we could have ridden on, and we wound up meeting with our friend again. If we would have waited 10 feet to the right we probably never would have noticed him. Weird stuff.

Good news and bad news

2009-06-07T01:56:00.000-05:00

... the bad news is that we found another roach in our apartment.

...The good news is that he was belly-up in our kitchen. Best $13 I ever spent.

DC: The first 3 days

2009-06-06T00:13:00.004-05:00

So, a ton has happened since I moved in (really, it's been far more eventful than I thought it would be). Not that any of this is really overly interesting by itself, but I am writing this to keep my homies informed on the trials and tribulations of my life, no matter how trivial.

I wrote a list of things I wanted to mention, so here we go.

(1) So in the last entry I was whining about the price of meat. Well, it turns out that despite my chicken having costed more than I wanted it to, at least it was frickin' delicious. Like, probably some of the best chicken I've ever tasted that wasn't slow cooked on a grill, and even then it compared. I sort of 'slow-fried' it in a pan covered in this Ginger-Soy dressing from Whole Foods (a big organic food store). It was tender and delicious, and definitely blog-worthy. AND it was really good when I pulled it into smaller pieces and put it on a salad with Rosemary Balsamic Vinaigrette dressing, cheese, and cucumbers. I have been eating deliciousness for a while now. Oh man, now my mouth is watering.

(2) So Thursday morning, after my first nights' sleep (which was pretty good considering at the time I only had one small, flat pillow and two bed sheets--no blankets, and I really, really like blankets), I woke up and was clickety clackin' away on my computer when out of my periphery I saw movement. A cockroach that was over an inch long had joined me, in my bed (I will copy the pictures of the bed opening into another blog post) to welcome me to DC. As flattered as I was, and never having SEEN a live cockroach in my life before, I jumped up off my bed and scared the thing under my mattress; there's not really anywhere else in our apartment for my little friend to hide. Now I had a problem because I had a cockroach under my bed and I'll be dammed if I was going to leave a huge bug crawling around my bed to get me later. So I heaved my mattress up on end and the fast little bugger tried to scooch back under it and wound up crawling up the bottom of my bed. I let the mattress fall upside down and smashed my new enemy with a well-aimed flippy-floppy. Later in the day I went to Target (which was an experience on its own...see next point) and bought $13 worth of anti-roach devices, which are hopefully effectively keeping the little guys OUT for now. I still didn't sleep well last night thinking about roaches climbing around my bed, but hopefully if I don't see any for a few days I will get over that. Otherwise I'm going to need to buy something to elevate my bed off the ground. YUCK. I will take my MN bugs back anytime please and thank you.

3) I went to Target. Now, you might think, what's so special about that? I go to Target all the time and nothing exciting ever happens there. You're right, Target is not that special. Until you realize, that you don't know where a Target is, and you need stuff that is best bought at a Target. Imagine you also have no real good method of transportation, or any idea how to get around parts of the city. Now the trip is a bit more... interesting. So a friend of mine looked up Target and found one that's only 2.1 miles away, about a 6 minute drive. I thought that sounded fantastic, until I realized that the metro ride was quite lengthy. It required me to go from my apartment (about a 15-20 minute metro ride from Capitol Hill) all the way down to Capitol Hill, and then back up to the location 2 miles from my place. This is a 30 minute metro ride. I can walk 2 miles in 30 minutes. Problem is, in DC, until you know where you're really walking, you shouldn't, because neighborhoods changes faster than you can blink. One minute you're walking through what appears to be a fairly well off neighborhood and 2 blocks later you're walking through sketch-town. Anyway, I wouldn't have wanted to carry a laundry basket (one of the items I needed) full of stuff for 2 miles. So I begrudgingly took the metro to a foreign land called Columbia Heights, knowing that the Target was only about a block away from the metro, but not knowing the neighborhood, or which direction I should walk after exiting the metro, and not having a map in a strange town. After a long ride that I spent pondering all of the ways that I could attempt to debilitate an attacker, I got off of the metro at my destination. I looked around, and the neighborhood didn't look too sketchy. I had already reasoned that if the neighborhood looked obviously bad I was going to turn right around and get back on the metro and go home. It looked safe enough, and there were a lot of people around. So I walked to the street corner and started looking for traces of a Target, having no idea what a Target in the middle of a crowded city would look like. I looked up the street to my left and a big, huge, vertical Target sign caught my eye (aha!). I walked less than a block and found myself at an awesome two-level Target in a weird sort of mall that seems to have all large stores: Bed Bath & Beyond, Target, Best Buy, etc. I went in and enjoyed something that looked a bit more familiar... the escalators and redistribution of items over two floors in the Target took away some of that homey feeling, but at least I was really in my element there. If I know anything, it's a Target. Instead of thinking about getting beat up, I enjoyed my awkward ride home looking like a bag lady carrying a laundry basket with a Pan and Trashy magazine hanging out (Life & Style I think it was?).

4) I bought salsa, but forgot to buy chips and had a wicked salt craving. So I grabbed a tortilla and turned the broiler on in my gas oven and figured I'd cook my own chips. Well, it didn't work very well, and the oven stunk a lot, so I just ate my soft, heated up tortilla with salsa instead of chips. my roommate returned later and could still smell the oven a bit, but not too bad. Then she turned on a burner and started hard-boiling some eggs. It became apparent quite quickly that our stove was not functioning properly as the overwhelming smell of gas filled our kitchen. We turned the stove off, opened up the windows and my roommate went up to the front desk to complain. In the meantime our super cool neighbor lady asked us what was going on because you could smell the gas all the way up the stairwell and also in the laundry room (I told her we were working on it). The front desk lady called "Jose" the maintenance guy and he told us to try to turn off the valve behind the oven (since it was late at night and he wasn't near the apartment). Well, that failed because we are a couple of girls who had a hard time pulling the oven out on top of the fact that we didn't want to break anything. So we went back upstairs, and the front-desk lady agreed that this was more of a "man's job" and called Jose, who took about half an hour to get to the apartment. In the meantime me and my roommate walked, upon recommendation by the front desk lady, to discover the "social room," where we met Julian and Ilinona (???) who were watching the Orlando/Lakers game, and having a few drinks. Deciding to revisit the social lounge another night we walked back to the front where we waited for Jose (guessing wrong several times as people entered the building about who "Jose" was). Finally a man walked in and explained in broken English and hand signals that he was going to get the "tester." He then went down to our apartment, shut the valve off and took part of the oven apart. Then he did some test with a weird buzzy thing that he plugged into the wall and told us to just leave the windows open a bit longer, but that we were going to be AOK to habitate in our apartment for the night. He returned the next morning with some other guy and they spent 45+ minutes taking apart and putting our oven back together. I haven't tested it yet, but hopefully we will now be able to broil without getting light-headed.

5) I decided that tonight, for dinner, I wanted to have a tuna salad pita. So I grabbed a few ingredients fully intending to make my tuna salad interesting and enjoyable, including mayo, tuna, salad dressing, cucumbers, and jalapenos (not Galapagos as my spell-check would have you think). While I was trying to push the spicy seeds out of one half of the jalapeno pepper, I realized that this was a two handed job. Not thinking anything of the spicy pepper, I held the other half of split pepper in my teeth. Suddenly I realized that I must be inhaling the peppery fumes, because my mouth was beginning to water too much to continue to hold the pepper that way bent over the garbage. I grabbed the jalapeno and tossed it onto the counter, and then the burning began. My mouth and lips were on FIRE. Noting, that I have never had a problem with spicy foods of any kind, and in fact enjoy things such as hot salsa, cayenne pepper and "blazin" wings at BWW if it gives you any idea of my level of tolerance for spicy foods. So, mouth aflame I started rummaging around the kitchen for anything to kill the burn. First I drank some of the iced tea I already had poured into a glass. Extremely temporary and faint relief; I needed something better. I tried milk. Still, just temporary relief. Now my mouth is burning enough that I am starting to freak out; I can't think of anything else. I grab a cucumber slice, nothing. I chuck it on the floor. I try a piece of bread. Again, nothing. My mouth is not burning anywhere near as bad as the pain on my lips. They must have been dry, I don't know. I grab cheese, nothing. I drink some more milk, knocking over a bottle of salad dressing and throwing a tupperware, temporary relief, but not good enough. I grab ice cubes. AHH... at last some relief, but if I remove the ice from my lips, the intense pain comes back immediately, so now I am walking around my apartment with ice pressed to my face. At this point my roommate comes back and I explain in short sentences (it is very hard to talk with an ice cube on your lips) what the problem is. I go onto the internet and type in "jalapeno burned lips" into a search engine, and find a thread that makes about 15 different recommendations. Rubbing alcohol, one person says. I try it, my lips burn worse (I didn't think that it was possible!), and then the pain recedes for about 5 seconds before coming back full-force, and now my mouth tastes like rubbing alcohol. I look again at the long list of items recommended and become concerned when I realize that I don't have the most commonly accepted form of relief: baking soda. I throw inhibition into the wind and put my jacket on, throwing my keys and some cash in my pocket. Still pressing ice to my lips, I fill a baggy with ice cubes and start walking to the nearest grocery store (about a 5 minute walk one way), trying not to look like a drug addict walking with my hand over my mouth, in a frantic hurry, and sniffing all the while. I get to Giant Foods and quickly find the baking soda, pay, and make my exit. I then all but sprinted back to my apartment, switching ice cubes as old ones melt and holding my hand to my face all the while. I get back to my apartment just as my roommate is getting out of the shower, and she kind of gives me a strange look as I run to the sink (my last ice cube having melted as I entered the building), throwing the open baking soda box down on the sink and plastering some on my red lips. Fail again! It works for just a second before the burn continues on. I grab another ice cube and run to the bathroom to try to wash my face better. In the mirror I noticed that the red extended above my lips so, combined with the crazed look in my eyes, I looked a bit like a kid who overdosed on Cherry Kool-Aid. I am now out of options, and have no idea what to do. Maybe I should have picked up some orange juice at the store, some people said that the citrusy juice provided temporary relief. I finally caved in and called my aunt Karna, a nurse in Wisconsin, and tried to explain my situation (despite knowing that I'm definitely going to hear about this at Christmas, oh lord). She started to say that this may be a just-wait-it-out kind of situation when her retired-fireman husband Brad yells from the background, "Try citrus! Or salt!" Karna relays that info and I thank her and tell her I should probably get going-- it is even harder to talk on the phone with an ice cube covering your mouth than to someone in person. I run to the fridge and start praying that I bought some sort of citrus fruit, any kind at all. I consider "borrowing" my roommate's orange until I saw it, my fantastic, fabulous, glorious, brilliant grapefruit that I splurged on at the grocery store. I slice it up orange style, and press it onto my mouth. Over an hour after lighting the fire on my face, something has finally soothed it with some lasting effect. After about 5 slices of grapefruit, I'm feeling only a mild burn on my lips...much better. I then decide that after all of the random foods/etc I applied to my lips, part of the reason they might still be burning is because they are dry. I walk over to my shelf, grapefruit still in use, and grab my face lotion. I dumped some out in my hand and smeared it all over the bottom half of my face, and the burning dissipated completely. Within the half hour, my face returned to a normal color, and I was able to go back to my abandoned tuna salad. After picking out every last jalapeno bit, I will say it was quite good, but definitely not worth the trouble.

2009-06-03T21:36:00.003-05:00

Dad: How was your trip?

Moi: Good... went without much of a hitch. Mom's cash more than covered the taxi ride (in case you are wondering, with all of the charges for handling baggage and everything it was $27.00 before tip). The
apartment is nice, the roommate is nice. I went out and bought a bunch of groceries and forgot about the Visa gift card you gave me but I'll use it later. I still need to locate a Target. We shopped at both Whole Foods and Giant, so I know where they are now. I got a bunch of produce... meat seems to be a bit pricey out here. I couldn't find much for
frozen meat, so I had to buy fresh and the ground beef was like $5 a pound (so I didn't buy it). I got fresh ground turkey for about $3 a pound, which is still expensive compared to Minnesota's $1.85 for a frozen tube of it, but it was still alright.

My internet so far is spotty at best, but hopefully I'll figure it
out. It'll probably help to be sitting more than a foot off the floor whenever I figure that out. Hopefully "Briana" leaves her network running for me.

+Shannon

1 WEEK!

2009-05-27T20:16:00.003-05:00

I leave in just a week, and boy do I have a lot to do in the meantime. I was pretty excited about how much I had gotten done with sorting stuff last week, and then I went back to Morris to pick up more stuff and it turns out there was a lot! For anyone who wants to send/forward mail or anything this summer, here's my address through mid-August:

Shannon Juhnke
Apt W130
3003 Van Ness St. NW
Washington, DC 20008

I'm sure I'll have more to write about once I have my new apartment, roommate, job, and city. I wish I could have a pet :-( Maybe I'll have to get something caged once I get there and get settled. Looks like I'll be looking for a new place around August 16th. Maybe with Zac and Bri (bro and sis-in-law) or maybe just some place on the Hill or something. I'll write when I have more.

2 WEEKS!

2009-05-20T16:07:00.002-05:00

I'm headed to DC on a one-way flight in just 2 weeks, on Wednesday, June 3rd!

Concerns in the meantime:

-Unpacking from school

-Deciding what to mail to DC

-Deciding what to carry on the plane to DC

-Finding a mattress to get shipped to my apartment

-Paying for/canceling electricity in Morris

-Picking up stuff from Morris and cleaning (tomorrow)

-Figuring out if I can live further out from DC (than I originally thought) or not and still have a reasonable commute

-Finding a healthcare plan

-Getting a whole lot of laundry done and resorting through all of my clothes

-Figuring out what size bag I can cram my dogs into and not have them noticed on the plane ride so that I can sneak them to DC with me

-Getting my subscriptions etc forwarded at least home for now

-Paying off loans etc. I need to get budgeting!

I've got a lot to do in the next couple of weeks... When I get there I'll have lots of time to unpack, and then I fear I'm going to be pretty alone for a few days. My roommate will be working, as will all of my friends at home. I need to make sure to bring something with that will keep me busy for a couple of days once I'm there. I can't wait to start work!

Whoa man... graduation

2009-05-14T00:49:00.002-05:00

So I've been pretty bad about keeping up with my blog entries, eh? I cannot believe how time flies at the end of the semester! So I will brief you instead of writing my ethics paper. Ugh I am so unmotivated.

Anyway, I don't remember what I've said before so I'll just kind of go over stuff. How enthralling. Bethany, you can stop reading now. I have housing in an apartment with an intern for 3 months until I get settled in and figure out where I'm going to stay after that. It's a little expensive, and a little further away than I'd like, but it has a pool, a gym, and will be pretty comfortable to move into for a bit. And my roommate seems pretty nice. I'm leaving June 3rd, which is coming up ridiculously quickly.

On a positive note, my brother and Bri, his wife, are moving out there shortly after me. So whether or not I wind up renting a basement or something from them, I'm going to know some people in the area, which is comforting. I love making new friends, but it's nice knowing that there will be someone around who might just be able to hang out on the evenings or weekends without it being forced right away. Well, there are also a bunch of Minnesotans out there who seems to hang out a lot and whatnot, but I think it'll take a bit of time not to be that 'new, young girl'.

So in short, I'm excited, but I'm really going to miss having my close friends around. College makes stuff like that so easy. Now I might actually have to try:-)

Oh Bachman...

2009-05-01T12:29:00.003-05:00

Ok, so me and my roommate Julie like to compare Michelle Bachman quotes all the time just because she says stupid stuff A LOT. Recently I was telling Julie about how Michelle Bachman was blaming the swine flu on having a Democratic president (which was not only flawed logic, but incorrect). Anyway, I saw this followup editorial in the Star Tribune and thought it was pretty funny: Blame it on the Steel Curtain

If nothing else, Bachman provides us with some good entertainment. :-)

Some peoples kids...

2009-04-29T14:18:00.004-05:00

...use the bathroom for hours on end when others need to get ready.

...are completely inconsiderate of others' time.

...yell and get snotty when confronted verbally, and give the silent treatment when confronted with a note.

...don't seem to notice when they drip makeup all over the counter. If you take 3 hours to get ready, there is no excuse to run out of time to take 15 seconds to wipe down the counter.

...bitch and whine every time they have to pay for toilet paper, internet, rent and electricity. Do people think bitching is going to get them out of paying for community products?

...give the stink eye when others have to go to the bathroom.

...should just leave. The house is so much more relaxed without a jerkwad in it.

Yeah Bethany, I'm talking about you. :-)

Housing!

2009-04-27T15:00:00.002-05:00

Man I can't believe it's been 9 days since I posted (oops!). I'm just waiting for a meeting to start that I'm really confused about right now.

Anyway, I found a place to live for the next 3 months with an intern from Illinois, so that's pretty exciting. It's going to be kind of expensive, but utilities are included, and there is a fitness center and pool, all things that will come in handy in the summer months.

Now all I've gotta do is fly out there at the beginning of June :-)

The Search Continues...

2009-04-18T08:57:00.003-05:00

I thought I might have found a place to live temporarily, but I was reading the details on the apartment, and it looks like the complex require a $500 NON-REFUNDABLE amenities fee. HA is what I say to that... HA. That is crap. TOTAL crap. I'm only planning to live there for 3 months. I could buy several 3 month gym memberships for that. So I'm probably going to have to call them and ask, but that apartment will probably be out. There's no way I'm paying an extra $500 for something that they should have just included in rent (which would have cost me about $120 for my time there if you divide it up into a monthly thing).

Change subject. Contrary to what I previously thought, I don't think I totally bombed my econ test. It wasn't my best work, but it'll do. I just need to graduate and get the heck outta Morris:-) I'm glad I'm working for a while now, because I'm getting too burnt out to care. Grad school can wait til I miss it. Absence makes the heart grow fonder?

DC

2009-04-11T10:27:00.007-05:00

The Longworth House Office Building

I'm hanging out in Reagan Nat'l Airport right now with not a whole lot better to do than blog... and blog I shall. So, for the two people who actually read this (Julie's boyfriend's mother and my own...haha), my trip to DC went ok. The play-by-play (Bethany, you can stop reading and do your homework. You're going to think this one is 'excruciatingly dull'):

DAY 1 (Wednesday)

1) Left MN airport. No checked luggage because I'm an expert traveller (ha!)

2) Arrived in DC. It was beautiful out. Sunny skies and 60 degrees or so.

3) Took a cab via the unrequested "scenic route" to our hotel. Per my calculations, and later verified by the ride back to the airport, we went about $7 farther than we needed to. I prefer to measure distance in dollars.

4) Walked up and down Connecticut Avenue near the hotel (and Dupont Circle if you ever look at a map of DC)... We discovered an Italian restaurant run by real, authentic Italians who were mostly bald and had accents. Our waiter barely spoke English! I had Spinach gnocchi in a cream sauce. Despite its awkward mushy, gummy texture, it was probably the yummiest meal ever.

5) Went back to the hotel and stole internet from nearby businesses.

DAY 2 (Thursday)

1) Left for my new office, which I regretfully failed to photograph the inside of. There were a lot of scary mounted animal heads about thanks to our Congressman, my favorite being some sort of wild boar with really sharp looking teeth. It's located in the Longworth House Office Building across the street from the Capitol. Dad said "if you threw a rock you'd probably hit the Capitol", but you should never throw rocks at the Capitol. Aside from the moral reasons, you'd probably be tackled by some sort of police/security before the rock even left your hand.

2) Wandered around town all day. Can I say that? Wandered around city all day. Whatever. We walked a lot. I saw a lot of the neighborhoods and took some good pictures of the Capitol on my cellphone. Did I mention it was 65 degrees out? Maybe I won't miss Minnesota so much after all.

3) Visited 3 different potential-housing situations:

A) Ridiculously close to work. Super bubbly redheaded nurse girl who lives in a basement apartment. The apartment was nice, but too dark, and I think I'd like at least 2 roommates to begin with, just for social reasons.

B) Greeted at the door by a spider-lady (huge round middle and proportionately skinny arms and legs) holding a psychotic Yorkie. Ugly, biting, mean little thing. The roommates invited everyone to show up at the same time, creating for a stupidly chaotic situation. The house was really nice, and a great location, but the roommates terrified me. And the kitchen floor was pretty icky considering it looked like they tried to clean before people showed up. I knew it was a no from the instant the scary spider-lady opened the door. Too bad!

C) A couple of nice girls greeted me, and the house was actually pretty nice (although the neighborhood slightly sketchy)... until I saw what would be my room: a piece-o-crap basement room that my dad had to duck to walk in, with filth and chipped paint all over the place. AND they were trying to scam a future roommate into paying $300/mo more than them because of the "privacy" and the "Private half-bath." You couldn't pay me to pee in that bathroom. Yuck.

So, long story short, the housing didn't work out. I'm trying to work some other connections to find a place to live, but we'll see how it goes. Worse comes to worse I'll couch-surf til July and grab a place after I have lived here and have time to visit more places. I am working a connection with someone from MN though (who a couple of people know I think), so I'm hoping maybe that will work out, at least for a couple of months.

Umm... 4?) We walked around for about 12 hours, so we headed back after that. Ate Mexican food served by Mexicans. I'm beginning to like this place!

DAY 3 (Friday)

1) Slept in then went to Starbucks. Awful service, but I do like this new oatmeal thing they've got going on. Great oatmeal.

2) Today is a tour day (woohoo!). We checked out the Capitol building, National American Museum, National Portrait Gallery, and White House.

3) Ate at an Irish Pub. I had a Guiness-soaked BBQ chicken sandwich, and MAGNERS. That's hard cider, and my favorite drink ever, that no one in Minnesota has! Strongbo and Woodchuck ciders can be found in MN, but they just don't taste as good. I was in heaven, so I drank two (on me pappy's tab). So happy. Made the entire trip worth it, seriously. (P.S. Does this make me an alcoholic?)

4) By the way, 75 degrees and sunny. I am moving to the right place.

Day 4 (Saturday)

It's rainy today, but still in the 60's. I'm glad to be headed home. And our cab ride was $7 cheaper.

GOTTA GO GET ON THE PLANE!

This week!

2009-04-05T22:32:00.003-05:00

I'm really excited to visit DC for the first time (essentially)! A lot of people really like the city, so I'm hoping that I will be one of those people since I'm going to live there and all... haha. I did laundry today so I'll have underwear for the next week so I think I'm about set! I'll have some schoolwork to catch up on, but I had a test pushed back, so things are actually looking survivable now.

I've recently taken up a bit of swimming; I'm really enjoying it, so I'll probably keep it up. Thanks to my friend Megan I actually have a few things I can do to work out other than just swimming laps (fun kickboard things). And I look awesome in my choice of swimwear (a one piece with a pair of boy-short bottoms over it for maximum coverage haha). I decided today that what I really needed were some bikini-suspenders to hold all the sections in place. Then I could be stylish too!

Ok, so I actually did lie.

2009-04-03T00:36:00.010-05:00

I lied. A lot. Oddly, my roommate's boyfriend's mom has been reading my blog (who knew?) and said something about me running for office someday. While I never intend to run for office, I would definitely give a lot of politicians a run for their money in the number of things I say in this blog that aren't true, at least not for long. For your viewing pleasure today, I've compiled a list of things in my blog that I've said in the last month and a half that are not true. Well, and to keep things straight I better write about the stuff that still is true so no one gets confused. Consider yourself updated.

FACT: I intend to leave around June 1st for DC. I don't know how I'm getting there yet.

FACT: I will be living there at least a year, realistically I'm planning on 4-8 years there.

FACT: I have a job that starts June 8th as a House Agriculture Committee staffer.

FICTION [misleading]: "I have never wanted to live in DC." I'm coming around to the idea, and I've never not wanted to live in DC, it just hadn't been a priority before.

FICTION: "I really don't think I'll be living in a cardboard box." I'm so sick of looking for housing and being wrong. I think a cardboard box might just be the way to go. It's simple and affordable. I also won't have to deal with thieving roommates as long as no one steals my box.

FICTION: "I will be getting a cat when I move..." Doubt it. Everyone seems to be a pet-hater there. Maybe I'll get a fish and name him Rupert. I'd rather have Vladmir the Persian, but what are ya gonna do? Besides my box might be a bit cramped with a litterbox taking up all that space.

FACT: The dog bed that my mom bought only made it 2 days before my dog tore into it. bwahahahaaaa

FICTION: "I'm pretty much done with my [student gov] responsibilities for the year." --Probably the dumbest, most ignorant thing I've said in the whole blog. In a 16 hour period (yesterdayish) I spent no less than 7 hours in meetings, and there's more to come.

FACT: I got my paper back, and my teacher identified my bullshit, but recognized the superior quality of my bullshit and gave me an A- anyway.

FICTION: Now is where the really misleading stuff starts. I am no longer committed to looking at any housing. I don't know what I'm doing, and my contacts in DC verified this for me (I now have TWO CONTACTS, not just one!!!). I've mentioned half a dozen places that I'm "looking at." Nope. None of them. Wrong, wrong, and more wrong. I have no idea what I'm doing a week from now when I go to DC. I can't even get a White House tour (without giving 6mos+ notice). At this point I intend to seek out a good location for my cardboard box. There are a few parks near my work that will probably have some greenspace that will be a bit softer to sleep on. If I'm lucky there will be stray cats roaming in the area that I can pretend are my own.

FACT: Bethany should still drop out of Med School and become a hair stylist. Then she can live in DC and I'll have somewhere to shower.

FACT: My roommate/friend/sandwich Julie is still intending to go to Las Vegas next year. YAY!

FACT: I still have a job. I should [compulsively] email my boss again to verify.

FACT: I will still be graduating. Assuming I pass my Econ class when my prof is not being so nice to me. I would drop the class if I could since his-jerkiness gets feisty whenever I have anything to do that doesn't revolve around his narrow-minded view of academia *rolls eyes*

FACT: My blog is still relatively unexciting, and for that I apologize. I will try to wow you all with my wit in future posts. Bethany, do your homework.

On a positive note, upon review, it appears as though I did not lie as much as I thought I might have. Maybe I wouldn't survive as a politician after all. Oh, John Kerry**.

**This is not to imply that John Kerry lies. However, it is to imply that his face pops up if you type in "politician" in Google Image Search.

April Fools!

2009-04-01T00:44:00.002-05:00

Today.

I will lie, dissemble, and dissimulate.

I will fib, falsify, and fabricate

I will mislead, misinform, and prevaricate.

Today is April Fools Day.

...Just trying to spice up my blog entries a bit. Bethany told me that they were boring. So I wrote a poem, which really doesn't make my blog less boring. Actually, poetry usually makes things more boring. But April Fools Day can be interesting, so maybe the April Fools Day bit cancels out the poetry bit. Where does that leave us? ...In the same place as before, I suppose. I accomplish absolutely nothing with so many words. Actually I'm kind of regretting writing the above poem now, since it's really not exciting, and as I've already established has gotten me nowhere in the interestingness of my blog... But on the other hand, I don't fell like I can change anything now since I've already put all of this energy into utilizing my thesaurus for no real reason to make this no-good boring poem, and then I wrote all of these sentences. It just seems like a crying shame to waste all of this energy, even if it is utterly pointless. So this is essentially a no-topic-cancels-itself-out blog entry. Worst of them all. I honestly cannot believe that you are still reading at this point. Don't you have something better to do? Seriously. Americans are always complaining about how busy we are (because, well, we are way too busy in general), but then we waste infinite amounts of time reading and writing pointless droning blog entries. You should be finding a way to solve world hunger, or cure cancer, not reading to the end of this worthless, inane blog entry. So Bethany, quit whining and think about curing cancer or doing your homework or something.

Happy April Fools Day!

Whoa man

2009-03-31T10:09:00.003-05:00

<-- This guy is the first picture you get if you type "Whoa man" into Google Image Search. Thought you'd like to know that.

We definitely did not get enough snow. Or we got too much. Either way, I now have to walk to class in the snow and wind.

That aside, things have lightened up a lot, and I'm looking forward to going to DC in a week whether or not I'm really going to be able to pick out housing (long story... I'm not going to get into the gritty details). I think we're going to get to go on a white house tour, and see where I'm going to work though, among other things. I'm ready for school to just be done, but can I take my friends with me to DC? Thanks. ...or maybe at least my cat.

I've got to get started on a really long, boring book for one of my classes.

Senior Seminar be gone!

2009-03-26T11:03:00.002-05:00

It's done. It's over. Well except the bibliography that I've got to turn it... but really, it's donezo. I will be graduating! Huzzah!

My friend Jenn/JennyBrown/JBrown/Hobag is coming up tonight to hang out, so that's exciting too!

...and my class for today was cancelled!

The day is off to a good start :-)

Arlington?

2009-03-22T14:05:00.004-05:00

Sorry it's been a few days since I've written. I was home for Spring Break (woo!) and had other things on my mind... Anyway, I think I've found a place to live (maybe?). There are a couple of girls who want to keep the townhouse they're in, and need to find people to rent out the other two rooms. It's less than 2 blocks from a metro station that will take me directly to the station closest to my work (well, about 27 minutes later, but that's not SO bad). The girls sound both like they've got their stuff together; she said they are both driven and work during the week, and go out and do fun stuff on weekends (ie bowling, movies, to the bar, whatever). Not that we're going to be besties forever anytime soon, but it'll be nice to have social roommates, at least until I can start making some of my own friends. The girl also said there was a grocery store a couple of miles away that I could ride along with her to since I won't have a car, which is sort of a funny, generous offer to make over the phone with someone you've never met before.

The new lease doesn't start until July 15th, but she said they don't have a problem with me moving in early and just living in an open area in the basement for a few weeks until the other roommate moves out. She said they'd also help me move my stuff upstairs once I officially get to take over my room (another kind of nice offer). The only con is that I know they don't get along with their roommate currently (who is also never there. She said she shows up to pay the bills and that's about it), but at least they're up front about things. She's told me stuff like that from the get-go, so at least I can be prepared for anything. I think it'll all be ok though, because they sound pretty clean and organized, and there are THREE, count 'em, THREE bathrooms in the house. No more fighting over bathroom time!!! If I have to pee, I shall pee, and all will be well.

Oh, and I can bring my cat Sophie with. She has a kitty named Bentley for her to play with:-) If I need to move in somewhere that doesn't take cats, Sophie will have to find a way home to Minnesota, but I'll have her for at least a year. I couldn't find a picture of a cat that really looked like Sophie, but I liked the one pictured above's attitude. He looks a little like Sophie I guess.

SPRING BREAK!!!

2009-03-17T17:15:00.003-05:00

It's nice to have Spring Break. srsly. And equally as awesome is not really being able to work on my senior seminar until after I meet with my professor tomorrow (= guilt-free relaxing, at least until tomorrow). Tomorrow begins with a horrifying dentist visit at 8:40am, then onto a terrifying visit with prof in Morris at 11:30am. It's like Spring Break Halloween... but my 'All Saints Day' will be shopping in the cities on Thursday (hooray!).

Looking forward to a trip to DC in April to check out housing and my job etc:-) Cherry Blossom Festival!

I got my ears pierced!!!

2009-03-15T17:11:00.003-05:00

I'm writing this with about 6% battery power left, so this is going to be a short entry.

It's been a pretty good day. I got my ears pierced for the first time ever which was super exciting! I even like the studs that will be in my ears for the next 6 weeks or so (but I've never been one to complain about getting 'stuck' with studs... RAWR!)

I wish I knew how to remove the underline from this text.

I got my acceptance letter to the University of Maryland, College Park (WOO!). That means I got into all 5 schools that I applied to! I'm going to call and defer admittance at all of them tomorrow. Unfortunately the only one I have money at (so far) is Carnegie Mellon University, but I really like the idea of going there, so we'll see what we can swing anyway in the coming years.

WTF WDTEM BRB OMG-- !!!WARM WEATHER!!! -- JK LOL ROFLMAO

Friday Night Funzies!

2009-03-14T01:19:00.003-05:00

I went to the Res Halls to hang out with Megan tonight (Tork was there too) while she was on call. We watched Harry Potter five 1.5 times and played Harry Potter trivia...Amazing! I am way too rusty on my Harry Potter knowledge. I think that's my sign to stop doing school work and start reading more Harry Potter. Seriously.

I also got a little boost today because I emailed my boss and he emailed me back, and so it would appear that he didn't change his mind on the job (and I didn't make up him calling me to let me know I have a job). I feel like none of this is real, so I like those little reality checks. I'm also going to have to look into where there are some retail places to work on weekends for extra cash/store discounts. I wonder if the Gap will hire me. I hope so; I love the Gap. Seriously.

:-)

6 Days Until St. Patty's Day!!!

2009-03-11T23:44:00.004-05:00

I'm excited for St. Patrick's Day even though I don't think I'm doing anything to celebrate yet (*ahem*...mom? we should eat ourselves sick off of corned beef/cabbage and maybe get some Bailey's or something).

I just realized that I have very, very little time to get my senior seminar done. Maybe instead of blogging about it I should have written my paper. Hindsight is 20/20, eh? I am going to complete it tomorrow night no matter what. I don't think I've ever procrastinated so badly on a project before. Well that's ok. As long as I graduate, I will be happy.

Does anyone know if you can pay your rent (like, in an apartment) with a credit card anywhere? Because that would be awesome (think of all the points I could earn)!!!!!! Of course I'd pay it back right away just like I do now, but I would earn SO MANY POINTS!

I think my brain has checked out for the year. OoO! I think my roommate/friend/sandwich Julie is going be going to Las Vegas next year! That is a good place to have a friend if I do say so myself... I might be more sure of her plans than she is (heehee) but I'm pretty sure she'll wind up there studying rocks n stuff. Las Vegas does have a lot of rocks if nothing else, right? The picture above is of Julie and me on the way back from the Big Stone coal power plant we toured this fall. Yay Vegas!

Le Weekend

2009-03-09T01:56:00.005-05:00

So my weekend wasn't as productive as I'd hoped. My senior seminar paper still isn't done, but I plan to have a draft to turn in by Friday (which should be a lot easier now that intramurals are over). We lost the championship game for broomball, but we had a good season and were undefeated up until then. I did finish my French homework, but I've still got a lot to get done this week, and a midterm on Wednesday.

I'm also starting to try to organize this apartment biZness (fo' shizzo ma nizzo) because I'm starting to get them all confused. On a happy note there, I found an apartment complex that I really liked the look of, and I think it is the one that I am in contact with someone on (not yet mentioned). It has 2 bedrooms/2 bathrooms and quite a bit of space at about 940sqft. If the roommate is not a loony/serial killer (and assuming I looked up the right complex), this could be ok. At minimum I think me and daddy-o are going to have a few places to look at for funzies when we visit in April.

I dyed my hair really dark yesterday, and I like it a lot. Bethany should seriously reconsider med school and think about becoming a hair stylist. srsly.

P.S. That picture is of me and my friend Megan Batroot. I eat lunch with her and another friend 3x a week, and we worked together last year.

Hooray!

2009-03-06T00:32:00.003-06:00

My intramural basketball team won and got tshirts today! I'm not sure if the lake will still be frozen enough for broomball this Sunday, so I was glad that I was still able to get a tshirt this year. I'm a little sad that basketball is over just because it's fun to play, but hopefully I'll find a sports league or two in DC to join at some point.

I'm still looking for housing... I have no real updates. So far I plan to check out 2 places when we head out there in April. The first one is and apartment with a last-year dental student, and the other one is a room that a couple is renting out. I wouldn't mind living in an apartment, but I kind of like the idea of living in a 3 bedroom row/townhouse or something like that. One of my sources (haha) also told me that a person that might be heading out from MN around the same time, so I guess that's kind of a third possibility.

Writing...

2009-03-03T23:30:00.004-06:00

My bullshitting abilities are being tested at near full capacity. I'll post the results when I get my paper back.

You might be wondering and nope, I most certainly did not get my book read. Some of it, but not anywhere near enough. However, I have consumed a very, very large amount of coffee from McDonalds, so I'm ready to go for a while.

Hey, it's not my fault this book is mind-numbingly dull. Seriously, how egotistical can these science-types get??? All I really want to know/write about is a bit of random stuff about the climate (most of which I've already heard about in class), but to learn anything remotely important I have to read through a 10 page biography on some guy that found some minor thing. Rinse and repeat. I now know a tiny bit about the climate, and a lot about a bunch of self-absorbed scientists that no one but their moms really care about.

Also, this book is written "by Wallace Broecker and Robert Kunzig," but the book is some sort of self-serving book about how great Broecker's life has been and how much he has to contribute to science and how right he is. So far as I can tell, Kunzig got robbed on this one. Someday I aspire to write a book about how awesome I am. It will be called "Fixing the World, the Heroic Journey of a Really Smart Lady." *rolls eyes*

And done.

2009-03-03T01:09:00.002-06:00

I have a lot of writing due.

1) State of the Planet book report, due Wednesday. I'm not done with the book yet, but I assure you, it is insanely dull. I can read the entire 7th book of Harry Potter (784 pages) in one day, but this 232 page book has taken me weeks.

2) Senior Seminar. I don't want to talk about it.

3) Political Ethics blog. I just don't think I care anymore. I don't like writing my opinions on ethics in politics for my whole class to see. Fortunately I don't think most of them read it, so I guess it's ok. Doesn't mean I want to do it though. At least that class is test-less.

Anyway, to try to be a little more upbeat, I'm pretty much done with Tech Fee, which I am really, really, really excited about. And we only took until 10:15pm to allocate where historically we usually take until 1-2am. And the people invited to sit in on Tech Fee thought we did a really good job, which was super exciting given the revisions we're considering right now. I'd hate to see students completely lose control of Tech Fee because I suck at my job or something. So I'm pretty much done with my major MCSA (student government) responsibilities for the year. I have some minor stuff, business as usual, but the budget and Tech Fee are finished and went splendidly which takes a lot of weight off my shoulders (HOORAY!).

...still checking Craigslist daily for suitable housing. More and more stuff is showing up for June. I'm starting to look forward to the move if for no other reason than to be done with school for a while.

I fear I may be turning into a gamer or some other sort of weird bottom-feeder, basement-dweller. Since I sleep much better in pitch-black, I decided to tack a blanket up over my window a couple of nights ago when I was having trouble falling asleep... it's still tacked up. I don't even care that my room doesn't get natural sunlight during the day. Next thing you know I'll be staying up until 5am with World of Warcraft while simultaneously playing Magic the Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons, and watching Battlestar Galactica reruns on tv.

A couple of pictures...

2009-03-02T00:03:00.009-06:00

I finally figured out how to send pictures from my phone to my computer. It'll probably cost about $8/photo to download each of them, but I think it's worth it (KIDDING Dad... the service is free, I checked). Anyway I've got a couple that I wanted to post here. I'm still kind of blog stoopid and don't know how to move these around, but the first is of the nasty snow drift as you walk around the side of our house (and of our cars that were at the time pretty much stuck where they were). Thanks to CHUCK LESMEISTER SNOW REMOVAL and their ungodly large tractor, our driveway is now open for business. You've never seen plowing done as well as the plowing of CHUCK LESMEISTER SNOW REMOVAL. It's like a freakin' snow ballet.

The second one is of my puppy Jet looking out the window. Mom said she just bought him a nice dog bed that he's using. If you're interested, there's a pool going on how long it'll last, but I've already dibsed the first 3 days.

Vladmir

2009-03-01T11:06:00.005-06:00

I've decided that Mom is way too concerned with winning in Scrabble. She's even accused me of cheating again. *sigh* Oh, mom.

Ideally when I move to DC, I want to get a cat. I found one that I think is like the coolest one ever on petfinder. His name is Vladmir and he's the ugly Persian pictured above. I want him to sit on my lap while I pretend to be Dr. Evil... It's pretty much a match made in heaven. Look at that beautiful sneer! :-D

On a positive note, I heard from Carnegie Mellon University this week and they offered me a scholarship for $15,000 a year. That doesn't cover all of the tuition even ($36,000), but it gets me closer and I don't know if there are still teaching/research jobs available or anything. I'm not going there yet, but it gives me hope for another year. AND Carnegie Mellon has a program that puts you in Pittsburgh for a year and then back in DC for another year, which I will probably see if I can defer to. That would be awesome. Pittsburgh seems like a neat place to live. We'll see I guess.

What's going on?

2009-02-28T22:22:00.010-06:00

So, as most of you have heard, I'm leaving June 1st for Washington D.C. I will be living there for at least the next year, hopefully more if I don't hate it. I have kind of vaguely been answering questions from a lot of different people and, after being inspired by my roommate Julie, thought that this might be a good way to keep in touch. I'll try to update it once every couple of days (or every day or so if I'm feeling ambitious).

Obviously I will still have a phone if you want to call, but this is just another way for me to try to keep in touch with my Minnesota 'homies' :-)

Anyway, most of you are wondering about the job. I called around this fall (with help from daddy-o) looking for potential work in the DC area. Seems like if I'm interested in policy that DC would be a good place to start after college. [*note* No, I don't want to be a politician. I'm one of those weird people who wants a job in government. Yes, I actually like economics.] Long story short, Dad wound up talking to Collin Peterson who helped me get a job working on the House Agriculture Committee staff. To my understanding, it is located in the really awesome-looking building pictured above. So I'm pretty excited about that.

I'm just doing a bunch of clerical stuff to begin with, setups and takedowns, paperwork, data entry, coffee making. Typical entry-level position. Ideally I would like to work with the economist on staff at some point, but we'll have to wait and see what happens there. I've been told many, many, MANY times that I am lucky: (1)to know what I'm doing post-graduation, (2)to have a job "in this economy," and (3)to have this specific job (most people just out of school start in a congressman's office and would maybe move into a committee staff after a year or two in DC, once they have "Hill experience"). So, yay for having a bit of luck:-)

I also applied to 5 graduate schools for public policy as a safety net [if I can't make money, why not gather a bit more debt?]. I'll be deferring to the 4 I've gotten into thus far to see what I want to do a year from now. The 4 I've been admitted to include: Carnegie Mellon, George Washington University (GWU), University of Indiana: Bloomington, and University of MN, Humphrey Institute.

I haven't heard anything from The University of Maryland yet which, like GWU, is also located in the Washington DC area. If I like DC, I'm going to see if I can work and start graduate school after this year at GWU or the University of MD (or maybe Carnegie Mellon). If I don't like DC, I'll probably come home and go to the U of MN but that's unlikely.

I've never really wanted to live in DC, but I'm not necessarily opposed to it. I always thought when/if I moved out east it would be further north, but this'll work for now either way. Right now the biggest obstacle I have is finding somewhere to live and from the looks of Craigslist and what I've heard, I really don't think I'll be living in a cardboard box. Another UMM graduate who I've been talking with has said that she hears about roommate openings frequently and regardless, the worst housing in Washington DC is far better than living in a house owned by the Ritters in Morris, which makes me feel better. Although it seems like DC has a roach problem, which is kind of nasty.

So that's it for now. This one is getting a bit long, but hopefully this will help shed some light on what's going on right now with me. I'll try to keep updating this regularly, so feel free to check back once in a while, and leave comments (be sure to sign your name)!