welchie and me
with jon. jon love!
the blond girl by me went to BYU and she works for Harry Ried. i look kind of gnarly.
Monday, March 7, 2011
March 7
March 1 (been dating Dan for four months today!)
Here is a link to cute deer pictures. Don’t worry, there isn't any reading involved. I just found this in the Casper Star Tribune and linked to it and I thought it was too cut not to share. And a little disturbing... http://trib.com/news/local/
Also, have any of you heard of the Jimmer mania that's going on in BYU? ESPN wrote a thing about it, and here's the link and it will fill you in. http://espn.go.com/blog/
So i guess i should write about yesterday, now that I’m again in a bit of a lull. Yesterday, i got to work and read some of Hamlet and tried to look up some movie clips on Youtube from both the 1990 and 1996 versions. Kelsey then came to join me so I gave her the computer as i sat at the side and read a fashion magazine specifically about DC stuff. That was I think just about it for my day yesterday. I went with Faith to get some snacks from a vending machine and talked to her about how she's about to get proposed to. She's really excited about that. She's dated josh for 2 years, is about Katie's age, and already has a date set for October when they first met each other. I love hearing all about it from her. She snuck on her boyfriend's gmail account and found out that he was going to call her dad to ask his permission that night! She was crying, and it was super exciting. Jon and i keep waiting for her to come to work with a ring. One of her super uber liberal roommates is moving out (she has an obama tattoo on her foot). The roommate is engaged to be married and Faith told me in disgust that she's going to move in with her faience before the wedding to see if it will actually work out, she's not taking his last name, and they're not getting married in a church. Faith was all "why is she even bothering to get married? She’s soulless." haha. It's kind of refreshing to see that people still have traditional values (as old lady-ish that makes me sound). Faith is pretty catholic. But she thinks moving in with someone before getting married is a bad idea and she heard the divorce rates go up if you live with the person before statistic too. Oh, i also had to water the plants because, as Macy put it, they were getting "planterexic" the printer was later "printerexic..." oh Macy :). The plants were evil though because they have those big leafs that form aqueducts for water that doesn't want to go in the pot and i ended up spilling water everywhere, including a really nice book shelf. I had to hurry up and clean up before anyone caught me. I also got to fill up the printers, but that's not that special of a job. i do that about every day. what was special about it yesterday, though, was that i got to fill up completely empty printers, which for some reason, is incredibly satisfactory. At the end of the day, Kelsey and I made a quote wall sign and a sign with our names for more desk decoration. It looks good :) but I miss sitting by Faith and Jon. Kelsey loves making him think that random people are really mad because they can’t find him. We also talk about Faith’s impending engagement.
Here is a link to cute deer pictures. Don’t worry, there isn't any reading involved. I just found this in the Casper Star Tribune and linked to it and I thought it was too cut not to share. And a little disturbing... http://trib.com/news/local/
Also, have any of you heard of the Jimmer mania that's going on in BYU? ESPN wrote a thing about it, and here's the link and it will fill you in. http://espn.go.com/blog/
So i guess i should write about yesterday, now that I’m again in a bit of a lull. Yesterday, i got to work and read some of Hamlet and tried to look up some movie clips on Youtube from both the 1990 and 1996 versions. Kelsey then came to join me so I gave her the computer as i sat at the side and read a fashion magazine specifically about DC stuff. That was I think just about it for my day yesterday. I went with Faith to get some snacks from a vending machine and talked to her about how she's about to get proposed to. She's really excited about that. She's dated josh for 2 years, is about Katie's age, and already has a date set for October when they first met each other. I love hearing all about it from her. She snuck on her boyfriend's gmail account and found out that he was going to call her dad to ask his permission that night! She was crying, and it was super exciting. Jon and i keep waiting for her to come to work with a ring. One of her super uber liberal roommates is moving out (she has an obama tattoo on her foot). The roommate is engaged to be married and Faith told me in disgust that she's going to move in with her faience before the wedding to see if it will actually work out, she's not taking his last name, and they're not getting married in a church. Faith was all "why is she even bothering to get married? She’s soulless." haha. It's kind of refreshing to see that people still have traditional values (as old lady-ish that makes me sound). Faith is pretty catholic. But she thinks moving in with someone before getting married is a bad idea and she heard the divorce rates go up if you live with the person before statistic too. Oh, i also had to water the plants because, as Macy put it, they were getting "planterexic" the printer was later "printerexic..." oh Macy :). The plants were evil though because they have those big leafs that form aqueducts for water that doesn't want to go in the pot and i ended up spilling water everywhere, including a really nice book shelf. I had to hurry up and clean up before anyone caught me. I also got to fill up the printers, but that's not that special of a job. i do that about every day. what was special about it yesterday, though, was that i got to fill up completely empty printers, which for some reason, is incredibly satisfactory. At the end of the day, Kelsey and I made a quote wall sign and a sign with our names for more desk decoration. It looks good :) but I miss sitting by Faith and Jon. Kelsey loves making him think that random people are really mad because they can’t find him. We also talk about Faith’s impending engagement.
This morning, I decided to wear a pair of my least comfortable shoes to work, which was a mistake. First, Brad had these sheets of paper that needed to be delivered to every senate office. At least there were three of us, and Jon wanted to do Russel and I nabbed Dirksen before anyone else could. Welchie got stuck with Heart which has the most offices by far in it. I still got back last. It was kind of hard to find all the offices, especially on the busier floors like the first and ground floors. There’s like five tiny offices stuck in the basement. I like our office the best, though. It just looks nicer, and there’s more meeting spaces other than right up front like in some offices. Next, Macy had me go see if the printer guy could print off a Casper Tribune paper from Feb 23, but he didn’t have the file, so I had to come up and tell macy to send it to him, I then had to deliver an envelope to somewhere random in the heart building. After that, I had to run down to the printer place again which is in the Russel. I was so down for sitting in my nice rolly chair and take off my shoes until lunch. After lunch, I had to find Travis to make some binders. Amber was going to ask me to make a binder, too, but I was busy with Travis’ deal but I said that I would be happy to find her after making Travis’. She found Welchie instead, and now he’s got himself going to the Foreign relations committee hearing tomorrow. I went into her office anyways and asked if Welchie was taking care of anything, and if she needed anything else, I was happy to help her out. That leaves me to now, just writing up another update.
Tomorrow, I have to get to the office a half hour early so I can help set up for Wyoming Wednesday and Welchie, Kelsey, and I will actually get to attend this week! I’m so down for that. :)
I always frequent the Corner Market which is like four blocks away from my place. It’s across the street from the pharmacy that serves during useless hours. (there’s another one like 7 blocks away that I could use anyways. Anyhow, like I was saying, I frequent the corner market a bunch. It’s on east senate street and fourth. The Asians who work there aren’t necessarily the nicest, but last time I was there, there was an African American woman working there and she was very friendly. I got some frosted mini wheats , fiber one pop tarts, and got some Aleve for my bursitis pains. She asked me if I was going to the Lady Gaga show that night and I said no and I was avoiding that part of town that night and she laughed and we chatted a bit and she asked if I had allergies and I said that I needed the Aleve for my joint pains. Anyways, she was very friendly, and I hope she is working there whenever I go back. I will need some Mini wheats soon… :) haha, fiber one and mini wheats… the joys of feeding one’s self. At work yesterday, I said “I’ve been eating a lot of processed foods, so I had to buy frosted mini wheats.” Right after I said that, I was like “they really didn’t need to know that…” but they totally didn’t get it and laughed and laughed at me for my seemingly non sequitur statement. Whiew*
I am stuck in my poetry section of the lit book, so I’m a tad less motivated to read it at the moment, so I’m back to reading news again. And when I get sick of that again, I’ll be back to my usual text book reading. It is like a cycle… it kind of reminds me of my eating habits.
Yesterday was a pretty good day. I chilled with Kelsey all day, and we both gave a tour at one. it was for a couple and their developmentally challenged eleven year old son. it was pretty fun, actually She's going to Haiti next week for a mission trip. i'm really excited for her and i wish i was going, too. she has to take some hard core malaria medicine for it, though, and it gives her really bad vivid dreams. we had to drop our tour group off at Lummis' office. on the way back, we passed Michelle Bachmann. at first we didn't notice it was her because we were focused on her cute brown dress. that was really fun. we also had to go to union station for lunch because our tour didn't get over until 3 and the cafeteria was closed! it's ok, i got my Asian noodles, it was a tiring day, though.
on monday, i was waiting to get on an elevator, and a kindly old man told me that he loved my shoes (the sparkly pumas). on the elevator, another gentleman said that no one ever compliments his shoes, so the other intern in the elevator (don't know him) told the man "you're shoes are fabulous" and we all laughed. but i get complimented on those shoes all the time here. people comment on some of my more wild tights too. :)
March 7
Friday was awesome. The whole office went on an office retreat, so us interns were in charge. i was able to watch all of Twelfth Night on youtube. since no one was in the office, i was able to send everyone through voice mails. it was really grand. Welchie was trying to figure out what this thing on Macy's keys was. he ended up spraying Mace in the office. it was tough on us for like a half an hour. lol. Macy and Elisabeth ran upstairs to check and see i was ok. it was mostly funny. i wish work could be like that more often.
Makenzie invited me to spend the night at her house friday night so we could make it to Elder Bednar's fireside the next morning, so i headed on over to her place after work. we went and got pizza to bring back to her house that night. they had a couple elders over for dinner. It was so great to be in an LDS family home with the spirit in it!! it was so great. The elders are both fairly recent converts of the church. it was good to hear from them. After, Makenzie and i watched "post-grad" which was good for some enjoyment. It was so awesome to sleep in a real bed that night! i didn't wake up with shoulder and hip pains! we went to Elder Bednar's fireside, which was amazing, BTW. he said that the kids in the DC area might not get to see another member of the twelve in person in their area for another 27 years! it definitely made me grateful that i got to BYU where i get to see members of the 12 all the time! I think it has been a big blessing for me to come out here to DC before i graduate from BYU so that i can go back to BYU and fully appreciate everything it has to offer me.i will def try not to take BYU for granted anymore! Her parents then took us to lunch where i ate way too much :) Makenzie and i then went to a plantation house that was built in the 1790s. it was beautiful, and i could imagine nice Austin-era ladies walking around in there. that house was so small compared to the huge estates in england, though! the americans that lived there weren't poor. they owned like... 5000 acres of farm land and like 20 slaves and a couple households in all, but compared to lords and ladies of england, they really hardly had anything at all. anyways, the house was called Sully and was owned by Richard Bland Lee, the uncle of general Lee. we took a quick walk in the forest there which was heaven for me because i miss the wilderness SO much. It w as really great to hang out with Makenzie again. I majorly overate. Their house was beautiful, too! it was so large and pretty. they even had a lake in their back yard. it was so great.
The awesome bed i got to sleep in at the Waters' home
They have a lake in their back yard!
The Sully Plantation
Excavated China that looks like Katie's
The dining room table can be taken apart!
China that looks like Katie's again.
antique furniture for mom's enjoyment :) This is a pure american piece
They had a pet squirrel...
The girl's bedroom. one girl scratched her name in the glass when she was 25.
Their Bathroom. yuck.
The sewing basket for mom
a bit of heaven. Finally some wilderness!
On sunday, i woke up feeling a tad sick. i went to church, nothing special. After leaving Elder Bednar's fireside the day before, i thought it would be great for dan to hear a fireside given by a member of the twelve, and at sacrament meeting, i heard there was to be a CES fireside given by elder L. Tom Perry that night at BYU so i made sure to tell dan and he went :) He went with my old roommates, Dalynn and Megan. I think that's great.
From Half way up the dome
Inner cast ironwork of the dome. i felt like i was in a submarine.
They didn't have electric welding back then, so they used giant bolts. it also helped when the iron expanded and shrunk due to changing temperatures.
The outside of the inner dome
From the top of the dome!
We were super close to the fresco!
Not a very good picture. will have to try again.
Hmm... no better. it will have to do, though.
Inside the two layers of the dome
The mall from on top of the dome!
The senate buildings!
top of the capitol
Justice court
My favorite building, the Jefferson Library
The very top of the capitol dome
The way to the very top
The old dome, i think... i think it's still there. and a fake outside so the dome doesn't look like a mushroom. i don't know what the problem with that would be..
What the inside of the two domes look like. i wish the red coat wasn't in the way. you can kind of see some of the stairs we took. it was really really cool. :) Glad i got to do it!
Feb 27
Feb 24,
Longest day ever… EVER! This morning started out alright. They’ve moved my desk and now I get a rolling spinning chair and a cool little corner of my own. However, I am still sad that I don’t get to sit by jon and faith anymore. Thank goodness Kelsey will still be my partner in crime… when she’s actually here. Moving took all morning, so I finally finished Ender’s game, and I finally get how it might be seen as an allegory for Joseph Smith… kind of. And I get how the salamander letters might also be tied in. I still don’t like it. I tried wikipediaing the plots of the next books in the series but I got so bored that I gave up. I’ve been stuck at the front office since about one. For some reason, time is CRAWLING. I have been reading bits of the blog, go fug yourself. I know of that blog thanks to Katie. It didn’t kill as much time as I hoped, though.
This morning, I sat in the front because I had nothing better to do while they moved my desk. Mytheos, the guy who’s spot I took over, was sitting up front too. Mytheos was arguing with Liz about how Gnomeo and Juliet is going to be stupid or not (he was under the impression that it is, which I must say I agree) and he said something about bad movies, to which I couldn’t help but bringing up Troll Two to which he replied that The Room is the worst ever which I was excited to know what the heck he was talking about (thanks to Jason for keeping me up to date on nerd culture), but then I got embarrassed because I’m sure Liz and Macy were secretly judging me for bonding with Mytheos. It’s ok, I can secretly judge them for going to Gnomeo and Juliette.
Holy cow, we just got a HUGE petition book from the FLDS church. What I’m confused about is that I know the FLDS church changed their name… but it was complete with modern revelation from last month that was even neatly put into verses like scripture and it had tons of signatures. I’m not really sure why that church still exists.
Yesterday was a very good day, except for the head ache I was fighting off all day. Jon, Welchie, Kelsey, and I got to go on a tour of the Pentagon! It was super cool! The tour is a mile and a half long and the tour guides have to do it all backwards. They’re generally part of honorary squadrons or whatever and have a yearlong tour-giving duty. It wasn’t very extensive, but I guess that makes sense considering how top-secret that place is. We just walked in a big circle while the guide babbled about how the military is involved in stuff. He did take us into the part of the pentagon that was hit on 9-11, though. It was very powerful. I felt it right when I stepped in that room. It was good for me, because when that happened, I was far too young to understand the significance. I’m glad I had a chance to feel what happened that day. Liz was telling us that at the time of the attacks, they were reinforcing the pentagon wing at a time, and that particular wing had just finished putting in metal reinforcements. Because of that, much of the offices in that wing were empty, and the reinforcements made it so the damage on the pentagon itself was a lot less bad than it could have been. It was neat.
The memorial fountain. The ones facing the building are the people who were in the plane, the ones facing away were in the building and killed. they are also put in order by age.
We couldn't take pictures of the pentagon itself.
Memorial with the Air Force memorial in the background
A closeup of the Air Force memorial
Afterward, us interns wanted to stop in china town on the way back to work from the tour so we called in and they gave us like two hours to go ahead and eat. I got Chipolte for the first time ever. It was alright but I don’t see what the hype is all about. And chipotle is an awkward word anyways. I don’t like saying it. Kelsey went and got a gluten-free pizza. We just ate and laughed and teased each other. It was a good time. Then we still had a good amount of time left so we went to Urban outfitters. I need new ear buds, so I was deciding between the M&M ones or the normal-looking ones. I got the normal-looking ones because they looked more comfortable, only to realize two hours later than instead of M&Ms coming out of your ears, or something normal like I thought, they are supposed to look like drug pills!! Well I now have the ultimate hipster-druggy ear buds…I also had to make four binders for Amber and pack my things for the move
Kelsey with Jon and Welchie at China Town
My hipster-druggy-pill ear buds
I was talking to Macy about how I liked Tron: Legacy because of Daft Punk and she asked me kind of offhandedly if I have ever heard of Royksopp! And I freaked out, maybe just a bit too much. They’re coming to town and I have been searching for someone to go to their show with for forever, and it happens that Macy and Chris, the press guy, are going! So she told me to get a ticket, so I’m going to an amazing show on march twenty-third with Macy and Chris. I’m pretty stinking excited. :) it’s on a Wednesday, so I have to figure out how I’m going to dress for this… One more long long hour. Longest day of my life.
I read this article in politico: http://www.politico.com/news/
Feb 27
I've been reading the introduction to Ender's Game. Mostly, card kind of comes of as a tad self righteous, but i guess you would need to be to sell your book. he did say something funny though: "if everybody came to agree that stories should be told this clearly, the professors of literature would be out of a job, and the writers of obscure, encoded fiction would be, not honored, but pitied for their impenetrability." first off, very very self righteous because he's saying he knows better than people who's pieces are actually viewed as art. I partially agree with him because i struggled through some short stories that were very convoluted in my lit text book. i have no doubt that they were great pieces, but that doesn't mean they were enjoyable. i agree in the sense that they are frustrating, but i have no doubt that they are art. Card also claims that he wrote Ender as a perfect depiction of a gifted child because ender is based off of Card's childhood (hah). i would like to see what truly gifted kids think on that. I feel like i can't justly disagree with him. i never overachieved at anything because i didn't care, so i can't relate my childhood to Ender in that regard. I was also a recluse, but i part-way did that on propose. i played by myself pretty often. i heard later in my child development class that children who play by themselves are cognitively underdeveloped. haha, i'm so proud. There you have it, i cannot judge what gifted children are like.
ok, i really think i'm officially done talking about Ender's game for the rest of these updates. nothing happened friday after work. I decided that i wanted to go to old-town Alexandria on Saturday, so that's just what i did. i texted up my friend from BYU, Mackenzie Waters to join me and she was happy to oblige. She's living with her parents in northern Virginia for the semester. I don't think she'll be going back to BYU, so i'm very glad for the chance to hang out with her some this semester while i'm out here! I had lunch with her and my other friend, Mayra, twice a week last semester. it was great. I know them from my hall freshman year. anyhow, i met up with them at the King Street metro stop. I say them because her dad drove her up to see me. he drove us down to the water front where we had a very nice lunch and then we walked all the way back up the street looking at random, extremely overpriced boutiques. we went up to pet some really cute kittens for adoption. We learned that Mackenzie is a cat whisperer because she had this kitty who was not used to humans at all and was very jumpy and all the ladies that were in charge were very impressed with how well the kitty was doing. We also went into an antique shop that was jam packed with jewelry. antique jewelry is my favorite! i drooled the whole time and Mackenzie was very kind to oblige. We also wondered to the Masonic temple for George Washington and took pictures before heading our own ways on the metro. It was so great to hang out with someone from BYU and i know she felt the same way. we both miss the social lives back at the Y. well i think we're going to hang out again, and i've made a goal to see at least one site a weekend. :) too bad i really only ever have saturdays to explore :(
Cat Whisperer
Tom Crier and Hair removal
Old town Alexandria
George Washington Masonic Temple
Flower picture for dad
The Temple
With God Rays...
Alexandria
We thought this sign was funny
Today, church was pretty fantastic. Jessica, my ride, had to give a talk on family history, and she did an excellent job! it was really really good. it was one of those types of talks that had all sorts of shocking but motivating things in it, and those types of talks are my favorite. she focused a bit on how the family is under attack. She said that DC is the place to live where you'll most likely not get married (jeez, i can see why), talked about how Divorce rates are rising, birth rates are down, and marriage age is rising. she says that birth rates are so low in some countries that people are paid to have children, and she sited germany and France as examples and said that their culture could be lost within our lifetimes if they don't start having kids! that's a pretty big deal. she also says that there's a social network made specifically for adulterous married people, and that social network is growing faster than any other social network on the web at this moment! She also told this family story. Her family was driving from SLC to California in an old ghetto volks wagon. There's a huge hill on the way, in the hottest place ever, where cars always overheat. on the way up the hill, her dad told the kids in the back seat that they better start praying. as the car was just about to die, it started snowing! and it was in the middle of July! she said that she wants that story to go on so all her posterity will know it, and that means she should write it down. she said that we need to write down our story so that it can be passed on. it was a very good, powerful talk.
On the way back from church, she talked more about her boyfriend. She told me how when he gets cranky, it's usually because he's tired or hungry. i took note. She was also thinking that they may not get married for another year (and they've been dating for two years already, and she doesn't know how it will all work out. her boyfriend is also an entrepreneur, so she knows she will have to work once and a while when they're married. i took note again. she apologized for talking so much about him, but i assured her that i liked it because i still have a lot to learn about relationships, and since she's been in one for two years now, i have a lot to learn from her. we then started talking about waiting for boys on their missions and exchanged success stories and horror stories on the subject. I recommended going to Dearelder.com to check out the dear john letters. they're golden! if you ever have free time and you're all caught up on fail blog, check that website out. it's great.
All i have left for the day is a shower and some grub. I miss all of you guys so much! i'm already a third of the way done, then i can come home to see you guys! i miss everyone tons. I love you all. TTYL!
These shoes soak up water like a sponge. there's no vents on the ground so i got creative. i should have been an engineer.
I don't have a straightener nor a curling iron, so this is how i sometimes let my hair dry. brace face...
I know. Horribly myspace. I wanted y'all to see my top bun, though
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