Fab!

I had such a fabulous night!

That is all.

:)

Inauguration Weekend Recap (9 days later)

With the double whammy of being unmotivated and sick, I never posted about the fun parts of inauguration weekend! Since I am likely the last person in the world to still be talking about it, I will make it brief.

Our friends from NC came up for the weekend (they are also the ones that came and ran the 10k) and we got to spend a bunch of time with them. We first met up with them on Sunday at the We Are One concert, which was a really awesome experience. We had a pretty decent view and could hear everything perfectly. Here are a few pics from the concert:

Our View

Couple Shots.... Freezing! But Having Fun!

The atmosphere at the concert was electric! Later that night we watched it again on HBO to kind of re-live the experience, and it was definitely way cooler when we were there. My favorite part of watching it on TV though, was seeing the "wave" of people jumping up when Garth Brooks was singing "Shout". The way the speakers worked, there was a minor, minor delay from the front of the Lincoln Memorial to the Washington Monument, resulting in a wave of jumping instead of one fluid jump. Maybe you have to see it to understand. Anyway...

On Monday our friends came and spent the night at our place (they usually stay with family in VA, but didn't want to deal with the metro) and we had a nice night eating, drinking wine, and playing Wii. So much fun!

It was so great being part of history, even if we didn't actually witness the inauguration. Maybe someday we will witness more history when a woman is sworn into office!

Alive and Well

According to the Wii Fit, I've lost 4.9 pounds since Thursday.

What's my secret?

A bad case of the flu. I woke up at 2 AM yesterday morning and was seriously ill until about noon today. It was not pretty and I literally felt like I was dying. I know that the first year working in the schools is notoriously rough because you have to build up your immune system, but man, I feel like I have battled 903157 illnesses since I started in August. Yuck.

Luckily I am feeling tons better and am on my way to being healthy again. Plus, I only had to take one sick day because today we had a snow day. Funny how being sick makes you appreciate the small things!

Unmotivated

I have tried writing seven different posts today. After each initial sentence I hit delete and switch topics. Everything I want to write about seems so daunting and will take a lot of effort and I am just not feeling it lately. Maybe I will be more inspired to write next week....

Inauguration Catharsis

Overall we had a great weekend. Before I post about all the fun and exciting things we did (in another post) I must complain about our failed attempt to get onto the Capitol grounds for the inauguration, if only for the cathartic release of pent up stress.

Here is what happened:

We left our apartment and walked approximately 3.5 miles to get to the south side of the Capitol (we had to take a roundabout way and walk through the 3rd St. Tunnel).

Walking through the tunnel...which was actually kind of cool. People were so excited!

When we finally arrived near our ticket gate we saw a line and asked a volunteer if this was our line. She said yes and "go to the back, it is about a block down the road". Ha!

As we were walking to the end, we kept asking volunteers and people in line if we had the same color tickets and they ensured us they did. We followed the line "to the end" for almost an hour. It snaked around 11 blocks (another mile of walking?).

Snaking Line

When we finally reached the end of the line we did not move for almost 30 minutes. When we did move, it was about an inch and it took another 5 minutes to move another inch. The line also stretched two or so blocks behind us. There was no way we were going to make it to the front by the time the ceremony started.

Standing Still

At 10:30 we decided to cut our losses and hop on the metro (our line was stopped in front of L'Enfant Plaza) so we could make it home in time to at least watch the inauguration on TV. Because the metro was only stopping at certain places we had to get off at Metro Center and walk another mile. We decided to stop at a neighborhood bar to warm up and get some food and we were able to catch everything on TV, but it was not the same as experiencing the excitement first hand!

Sad and Freezing

The problem was that no one really knew what was going on and the volunteers had no way of communicating with the front of the line and were unable to keep everything orderly. This resulted in people waiting in our line with the wrong tickets, and no tickets, and who knows what else. What needed to happen was some kind of pre-ticket screening and blockade so that only (x color) ticket holders were allowed past a certain point. Ugh! Plus there was only one gate for all the silver ticket holders. Really? The lack of organization, signage, and communication really ruined the experience for a lot of people.

Deep breaths....

On My Own

I am on my own tonight. As in, my husband is not here to join me for dinner. I think this may be the first time this has happened to me since we have lived together.

Since returning home from work, I have eaten a small piece of leftover homemade pizza, a picklepak, and a handful of craisins. Not exactly a well-balanced meal. I just have no motivation to cook (or pick something up since it is like 20 degrees out) when I am the only one eating. It's been so long since I've been on my own (December 15th, 2006 to be exact....did I ever mention that I am very good with dates?) that I don't know what to do when I don't have dinner plans! It also doesn't help that there is a mouse loose somewhere in the kitchen. Gross!

I suppose I could have made some dinner plans with friends, but I will be out with a couple girls tomorrow night and didn't want to be away from my puppy (who is almost 3 and certainly not a puppy anymore) for two nights in a row. I know, I know, I'm ridiculous. I would feel guilty leaving her after being gone all day anyway. At least tomorrow night Alson will be home to keep Kona company.

On the plus side of being alone for the evening, I gave myself a mini-pedicure and painted my nails. Now I won't be embarrassed again at yoga on Saturday morning. Unless I almost pass out again....ugh! I'm also watching a Snapped marathon on Oxygen. Why am I obsessed with cryptic shows like this?? Seriously, I could watch Law & Order, CSI, NCIS, etc., etc. all day long (and sometimes do). Alson would not be happy if he was watching these kind of shows all night. It's so nice to be controlling the remote without any complaints (love ya honey!).

Ahh, the joys of being alone for the evening!

So Excited!

A lot of metro DC residents are fleeing town this weekend to avoid the chaos of the inauguration (is that supposed to be capitalized?), but we are planning to stay and take in the historic event. We thought about renting out our place and taking a mini-vacaction, but we ultimately decided that the hassle would not be worth the thousand dollars we may (or may not) have gotten. Now that inauguration weekend is approaching I am getting really excited!

I am pumped for the We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial concert this Sunday. The list of performers is pretty sweet: Beyonce, Mary J. Blige, Bono, Garth Brooks, Sheryl Crow, Renee Fleming, Josh Groban, Herbie Hancock, Heather Headley, John Legend, Jennifer Nettles, John Mellencamp, Usher Raymond IV, Shakira, Bruce Springsteen, James Taylor, will.i.am, and Stevie Wonder. Should be fun!

We also are planning to wrangle the masses and head down to the Capitol on inauguration day because we have tickets for the swearing-in ceremony. After that we are planning to head home and watch the parade on TV. You can't witness it all, ya know? Later that evening our neighbors are having a BBBHB (Bye Bye Bush Hello Barak) party. It may not be a fancy inaugural ball, but I foresee lots of champagne!

What are your plans for the long weekend?

I admit...

Our Christmas tree is still up and I have no plans to take it down this week.

My favorite yoga pose is child's pose.

Yesterday we cleaned our apartment for the first time since early December.

I'm a little jealous that my hometown got 7 inches of snow yesterday.

I don't like talking on the phone unless I have something specific to say.

For the past four days I have had "paint nails" on my mental to do list, but still haven't done it.

Learning Spanish vocabulary is relatively easy. Learning conversational Spanish is a lot harder.

I spent all day cuddling with my family, watching football, and playing Wii and it was perfect!

So Not Ready

One day during our holiday vacation in NY, Alson and I babysat my cousins (2 and 4 yrs old*). It was a last minute request from my aunt; my grandmother usually watches her daughters but grandma was sick and wouldn't be able to babysit. We didn't have anything planned so we agreed to watch them for the day.

I had a dentist appointment in the morning, so I brought the 2 year old along with me. This was quite the experience. Luckily my hygienist is my mom's cousin (gotta love small towns) so she was totally fine with it and entertained my cousin between cleaning, flossing, poking, prodding, etc. My cousin made out with stickers and two toothbrushes (she asked if she could have one for her sister too, haha) so I think she was happy.

After we picked up the 4 year old from preschool, Alson and I took them to Chuck E. Cheese. I hadn't been there since I was a child. Man, that place is overwhelming when you are an adult! First, we had to stand in line and order...which is no easy task when the kids are so excited and certainly don't want to just be standing around when the playroom holds so much excitement! Then we had to try and keep them at the table and have them eat their pizza. Again, the playroom holds too much excitement to sit still and eat. My pretty white jacket also mysteriously got some pizza smudges on it during this time. Note to self: children will dirty not only themselves, but you as well. I guess I should have known better than to wear a white coat to CEC. Alson and I then split the tokens and decided to each take a girl out into the playroom. Alson headed off with my 4 year old cousin while I chased around my 2 year old cousin. The games and rides were the perfect entertainment. I will note that the 2 (almost 3) year old was very insistent on doing EVERYTHING herself. This was hard to deal with because I obviously wanted her to be safe and help her when she needed it, but then I also learned quickly that intervening when she doesn't want help results in a tantrum. I narrowly avoided many of them that day. After all the tokens were gone we hit up the bathroom, which is much more complicated with two little girls, and headed out to the car. Did I mention their car seats? They are such a pain to maneuver! Plus, the shins of my jeans got all salty from leaning up against the car when trying to buckle them in. Apparently I'm destined to be dirty when I have kids.

This whole experience reminded us that we are certainly not ready for the responsibility that comes with little kids. Granted, we wouldn't be thrown into the lives of our own 2 and 4 year olds immediately, but still...I can't imagine the responsibility of having a newborn around either. I definitely have moments when I say I want to have a baby right now, but seriously...this was the best birth control ever.



*My aunt has another on the way. Yikes! That will make 17 grandchildren for that family.

Six Months

I can't believe how fast time flies....

...in a good way!

XOXO

Home

We finally returned home from our two week trek in New York. Although it was great to see our families and do all the holiday related things, I was definitely ready to leave. There is nothing quite like spending some alone time with MY little family in front of the fireplace in our tiny apartment (and yes, I am being serious..even about loving our little hole in the wall). And sleeping in our own bed last night was the icing on the cake. It feels so good to be home!

However, going back to work and semester two of law school starting tomorrow are another story! I must go enjoy the last day we have together before all the craziness begins again.