Superbowl XLIII

I had a small get-together at my place to watch the Superbowl. My friend, Andrea, from high school even drove up from UVA to help me support the Cardinals. We had such high hopes for our team and they almost pulled it off, if only there were a little less time in the game. As for the Steelers: I wonder how it feels to win based on a few mistakes by the other team, as opposed to playing well..........

Back to my old hood

It's amazing how quickly perceptions change. I lived in Leesburg for 2 years but now it seems like a really far drive. I've become one of those DC people that thinks Leesburg is out in the middle of nowhere. I haven't been back in a long time but there was a birthday party out there that I went to tonight. Afterwards, we went to check out one of the dive bars I used to love: Shenanigans. It was kinda cool to be back in my old hood again.

Inauguration

For the first time, I was truly excited about an Inauguration. This inauguration is historic; it will be something to tell my children about. Having the opportunity to attend was incredible and something I couldn't pass up.

The concert on Sunday was amazing. There were a bunch of great performers (Springsteen, Garth Brooks, U2, etc.) but the amazing part had more to do with the atmosphere. You could feel the energy and the spirit of the people there. Unbelievable. I'm not one to be easily moved but there were moments when I had to fight back the tears. Looking at the crowd, I could see the hope on the faces around me. People are ready for change in a way that I don't think has happened at any other point in my lifetime. Adding to that the historic moment of electing our first African American President was almost to much to handle. I wish I could better communicate the feeling. Hopefully all of the pictures I'm posting will help.

Crowd at the concert

Security at the concert

A group of us got tickets to the Inauguration through a friend so we were up early on Tuesday to head out to wait in the long lines. At about 9am, they shut down everything, said the area was full, and it no longer mattered that we had tickets: we weren't getting in. We actually had a pretty good view but decided that it was too cold to stand there for another couple of hours. Plus, with the craziness of the crowds, we weren't sure we would make it to the parade if we stayed. And I couldn't feel my toes- that was the deciding factor for me.

The crowd trying to get in to the Inauguration

The message is true, even if the grammar is poor.

We spent the next 2 hours trying to travel about 10 blocks; I guess you could say we took the scenic route. Many of the streets were already closed so it was difficult to get anywhere. I've never seen so many people. At one point, we actually walked through a tunnel that was blocked off; seeing people walking on major roads with no cars was bizarre. It felt like Armageddon.

We watched the parade from a friend of a friend's apartment that overlooked Pennsylvania Ave. We were right at the point where Obama and Biden got out of their cars and walked. It was a moment that I will always remember.

These few days were exhausting but completely worth it. I feel so fortunate to have been part of this historic weekend.

Many of the pics in this posting were taken by Dan Murphy (gotta give credit where it's due). The boy is talented. This is my favorite picture of the weekend. I think it encompasses the feeling of the Inauguration and everyone's hope for the change that is desperately needed in our country.

West Virginia (again)

I spent the last 2 days in Clarksburg, West Virginia to do the quality kick-off for our new project out there. It was 2 degrees. I can't comprehend 2 degrees. We got a couple inches of snow while out there too. This trip was kind of fun because a good portion of our Reston office was out there for an open house at our new office. I'm glad to be home though.

Dance Class

I went to a jazz class today (same one I've taken both of the last 2 summers). Usually when I haven't taken class for so long, I have a hard time making it through the entire 2-hour class. I think all the running I've been doing has given me some endurance and strength though. I made it through the class and it felt great. I've also lost about 12 pounds since the summer and that made a huge difference. It's hard not to feel self-conscious when in dance clothes and out of practice anyway but I remember being extra self-conscious over the summer due to the weight I had gained. I felt so much more at ease being a little lighter.

Despite the class going so well, I quickly passed out when I got home and was basically exhausted for the entire evening. I did watch the Cardinals game and am excited to see what happens next week. Is it crazy to hope that they might end up in the Superbowl???

Running in the Cold

I got a Garmin running watch for christmas to support my new running hobby. It tracks distance, time, speed, has GPS to make sure I can find my way home, etc. Even though it's freezing outside, I took a run tonight so I could try out my new gadget. The watch is great and reminds me that I tend to run way too fast when I don't have the treadmill to keep my pace. It is a little big for my tiny wrist but it will work. I wish it wasn't so cold though. My lungs were burning from the cold air. It's painful. Plus, I really don't have appropriate cold weather running gear. So my watch may not get much use for the next couple of months until it gets a little more bearable to be outside. I really like this running thing though and it makes me happy that Georgie likes it too.

Promotion

It's been unofficial for a couple months, but now that our annual review cycle is complete, I'm officially the Director of Corporate Quality for my company. I've been working towards this essentially since I graduated from college. I'm not good at bragging about myself which is what this feels like so I don't think I'll say anything more. But I am really excited about this new challenge.

New Year's Eve

I went into the city for a party in DC this year. It was a house party but with cocktail attire. I liked that- made it more festive somehow. There was general rowdiness but I think I'll keep further details away from this public forum. ;) It was a really fun night though.

Dr. Seuss for President

I went to the P and C Art Gallery in Old Town Alexandria today to check out an exhibit called "Dr. Seuss for President". The description for the exhibit was:

"Coinciding with the historic 2008 U.S. presidential election, this unusual show features Dr. Seuss's rarely seen political work, including the first release of "Knotty Problem," a cartoon on the issue of taxes and Capitol Hill created by Seuss in 1942; the first print of the "Triple Sling Jigger" from Seuss's "Butter Battle Book", and four environmentally friendly prints from "The Lorax". "

Sounds good right? Unfortunately, it was near the end of the exhibit and much of the artwork had been sold. There were still some nice pieces but it was a little disappointing. Not nearly as political as I was hoping for.

Merry Christmas!

My mom came to my house this year and we had xmas with the four of us- my mom, me, and my pups. Each of the pups had their own stocking to open. The look of joy on their faces when they realized that they were literally surrounded by new toys was priceless. Santa was good to me this year as well.

Georgie in his pile of toys..... This is a happy dog!

Izzie in her xmas outfit.... It has bells on it so she jingled everywhere she went. I laughed so hard. It was SO funny. I love that she allows me to do these things to her.
Here's my boy after he was done playing. He's passed out on my lap. Could he be any more adorable?

My mom and I did our usual baking and also did a turkey dinner, which was really more to make up for Thanksgiving. We don't typically do a xmas dinner but I missed out on my Thanksgiving stuffing this year and that's just unacceptable. :) Dinner was great and I now have more turkey than I know what to do with (I bought it late and the smallest thing I could find was a 17 lb bird!). My mom made fun of me for apologizing to Tom (the turkey) as I was stuffing him. But c'mon, I felt a little bad.......

Hope everyone had a great holiday!

Another Chill Weekend

It was another low-key weekend. I somehow found myself at the mall with Toby on Saturday. The weekend before xmas- what was I thinking? It's something I usually avoid at all costs but shopping was needed and so it was done. It actually wasn't that bad. I was supposed to go out Saturday night but everyone was being bums. I didn't want to leave my couch and apparently, neither did anyone else. So at least I didn't have to feel guilty about being a bum. Good weekend. Ready for xmas.....

Shakespeare

I went to see the Shakespeare Theater Company's performance of Twelfth Night in DC tonight with my friend Molly and 2 of her many, many relatives (also our age). I keep meaning to do more things like this in the city. The show was good. I'm a little spoiled since my first Shakespeare experience was seeing Coriolanus in London, performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company. It was phenomenal and I'm not sure anything else will ever compare. But Twelfth Night was good and I'm glad I went.

End of Semester

My group met to finish our "semester" project on Monday night and presented it tonight to the professor/class. The only bad part of throwing a semester project together in a week is that we didn't get a chance to practice the length of the presentation. It was timed to 15 minutes and I was last to speak about the analysis section. I had to speed-talk to get through everything in time which was a little awkward. We're still totally getting an "A". :)

Hermit

Is it sad that I stayed in all weekend? I know Jason will be proud. I needed time to catch up on stuff, do holiday shopping, etc. so I took the weekend and just caught up on everything. I got my xmas shopping done and packages sent. I also watched some movies- really upset that Horton Hears a Who wasn't better. Seriously- my favorite Dr. Seuss character and it was "eh". Anyway, I am feeling refreshed after my weekend in. I need weekends like this every now and then.

Smart People Make Me Happy

Although it may not have seemed like it this semester, I have been in school. I haven't actually gone to class in about a month and a half, since the test, but whatever. We have a semester project and I've teamed with my normal group- 2 other girls that work full time and really just want their piece of paper (degree) handed to them but are also total Type A's, like myself. The semester ends in a week and we have pushed the project off until tonight. We just met for 2 hours, planned out the entire project, broke it up into pieces, and are done working. Now we just have to complete our individual sections, put the pieces together, and will be good to go to present and turn in our 30 page paper next Tuesday. And this is why I'm an Industrial Engineer. :)

Lazy Sundays

I forgot how awesome a lazy Sunday was until I stopped having them. With being out of town in Italy and then West Virginia, today was my first lazy Sunday at home in at least a month. I got my Christmas tree set up and caught up on a lot of nothingness. It was awesome. I can't even say exactly what I did. I know I talked to a bunch of people. And watched a movie. Otherwise, pretty much nothing.

Holiday Party

Tonight was my work holiday party at Dave and Buster's in Rockville, MD. That's about an hour and a half metro ride from me but I was determined not to drive (which would only have taken 40 minutes) so I wouldn't have to worry about a car later in the night. Molly and Timur were awesome and picked me up. We drove to Timur's house in the city and took the metro from there but it was running on a single track which meant it took forever. And then we still had to walk the .4 miles to D+B's in the cold. It was a little bit miserable. They picked me up at 6:30; we got to D+B's around 9:00. Yeah. We basically missed the dinner portion of the evening, ate quickly, and headed to the game area to play.













We played all the classics- skee ball, the basketball shooting game, DDR (Dance, Dance Revolution), and air hockey. I haven't played DDR since I was in Seattle with Stephanie almost 4 years ago and the one at D+B's is completely different. And really hard! Steph and I tried again but it wasn't even fun because it was so difficult. We decided to go play at the bar instead.

After the party, a bunch of us went to a bar in the city called Wonderland. I had never been there but it had pretty decent music that was definitely dance-able. I had such a great night.

There was drinking....... and dancing.......

....and attempts at self-portraits......... and random hats........

........and a lot of smiles. :)

Do you see how happy I am? Life is good.

Sometimes Owning Sucks

The pilot light on my furnace keeps going out so I sometimes wake up or come home to no heat. Sucks. I had someone out here today and my best option may be to replace the whole unit. That is NOT cheap. Weighing my options and relighting my pilot every day or two.......

Mission Accomplished

I've been waiting to share this until I was sure it was really happening...... I have 2 new employees for the Quality Management Group! I've been trying to expand this program for a long time and it's finally happening. We hired an Industrial Engineer from Georgia Tech who will be working for me in the Reston office, as well as a Quality Manager for our new West Virginia project. This week involves a crash course in all things quality so we can hit the ground running. Woohoo- it's a good day!

West Virginia

We just won a big contract in West Virginia and I attended the kick-off meeting with other members of our corporate staff, the project management, and the client. The location is about 5 hours away from me. Ugh. Several of us took a van; I was thankful I didn't have to drive but man, that's a long trip. I wish I hadn't just gotten back from a trip; I needed more time to relax and catch up at home. Thankfully, it was just 1 night (and 2 really long days). Looks like I will be heading to West Virginia several more times to get things started and make sure all the quality "stuff" is in place.