subconscious soundtrack.

i just dropped stephen off at the airport. now that grad school is finally over (as of 6pm today when he turned in the infamous doug feith's final), his job is eager to get him traveling. this week it's cambridge's harvard square to interview 3 ksg profs/ambassadors. in 2 more weeks, it will be an adventurous trip to yerevan, armenia in the south caucus - lucky him. :P

i have to admit, i kind of enjoy having an evening all to myself. right now i have gingerbread men baking in the oven while i chill out on the couch in a kitty sandwich - franklin to my left, winston on the right. such sweethearts.

today was interesting day...from conquering "are you smarter than a 5th grader?" at the RSM luncheon/holiday party (quite the spread, not to mention my candied pecans - oh yum!) to finalizing the federal government's standard operating procedures on how to administer retirement (yes, it's as interesting as it sounds) to battling expectation against the fragile hope of *possibly* being able to roll-off this wretched project at the end of the month (if only!)

but through it all, one thing has remained constant - this song stuck in my head, playing on repeat! instead of the expected mariah carey's christmas classic, it's been the goo goo doll's summer hit........ah!

i think it might have something to do with the fact that stephen broke down and actually BOUGHT the transformers movie (i miss the 80s) this weekend - that along with the new harry potter. yay. our dvd collection has seriously suffered since becoming netflix members in july of 06. to celebrate, we watched the flicks again and again - y'know, to make sure they didn't "need" to be returned.

so welcome to the inner most tick-tocking of my mind...at least, for the moment. that's what blogging's for, right???

wizards & wine.

FINALLY, some of our friendships are starting to "pay-off". ok, well, i'm only HALF joking...

one of stephen's old buddies from the booz allen days just moved back to the city after graduating from michigan law....and scored a job at one of the most prestigious law firms in dc. we got together with jeetander and his wife alicia (also a mich law alum) last summer while they were in town for internships - they are such a great, down-to-earth couple...not to mention brilliant. :P now that they are back for good, we had been meaning to reconnect, but they beat us to it! courtesy of winston & strawn, they invited us to a washington wizards game saturday night with some free box-seat tickets in their corporate suite!

we were thrilled!!!

not only have i never been to an nba game, let alone at the super sweet verizon center, but who gets the luxury of soaking up the action in plush seats with your own mini kitchen and personal bathroom! so after linking up for an early dinner at matchbox, enjoying a-mazing sliders, onion straws and a prosciutto white pizza pie (oh, i'm hooked), we skipped down 2 blocks in chinatown to take in the ball game in style. SO MUCH FUN!!! and fortunately, the wizards are pretty good this year; it's always more entertaining when the home team actually wins ;)

afterwards, we said our goodbyes (& many thanks!) and then rushed off to arlington to hit up my cube-mate's holiday party...toting our bottle of white merlot with us to compliment her wine-tasting theme. i always find it interesting to go to coworkers' parties - to see where they live, to meet their "outside of work" friends and to connect more on real-life terms (who cares about business process reengineering - NOT ME!). all this to say, we had such a blast. after catching up with the BPR team and meeting tangential accenture acquaintances, it was no surprise to find many of kathryn's college friends are close friends with our gracedc friends...with the connection being wake forest university.

it's been the running joke this past year that all the new friends stephen and i make hail from winston-salem and chant "go deacs" every chance they get. it seems like every other week i'm asking kathryn (who literally sits 12 inches from me...don't ask me how many times we bump chairs, ugh), if she knows so-and-so from WF. the answer is usually...i don't think so...but as we now know, the answer is different when you talk to her friends. in fact, her sorority sister, lindsay, knows HALF of our bible study from their wake days.

yep, it is a small world - at least in what i have repeatedly found in the dc/wfu circle. i would say it's probably close to the nyc/penn world i know i miss out on daily...yes, i'm actually jealous!

president paul?

i find it pretty ironic that i call dc home yet i have an overt aversion to politics. honestly, i could care less if you work on the "hill" - i'm sure all you do is pour coffee and make copies for the one to many corrupt politicians that make our laws. ugh, yes, i'm a cynic. i hold politicians right there up with real estate agents, in regard to my trust in their motives - not very high.

however, with 2008 just around the corner and the presidential race in full swing i can't help but start to pay attention. i believe firmly the duties of a citizenship and the importance of voting. i often getting annoyed by those who constantly complain about the state of our country yet didn't bother to vote in the last election. hello!! you basically forfeited your oratory soapbox when you failed to participate in our electoral process. even if it means choosing the lesser of two evils, to vote is to have a say.

i'm not ashamed to say that in the last 2 presidential elections, i cast my vote for dubya. i mean, when you compare him to his last democratic competitors (at least their party line mascot was appropriate), i would say i didn't have much of a choice. but over the past 8 years, i have become increasingly disappointed in the republican party as they blunder opportunities for progress meanwhile the democrats continue to act like jackasses. where is our country heading under such incompetent leadership??!

like i said, i'm not much for the political scene, but i have become more and more interested our country's economic plights. between wall street, the housing markets, rise in health care costs, devaluation of the dollar....i could go on...it's rather disturbing that not more political attention has been focused on such hot topics. not to mention this huge deficit we have dug ourselves into by over-expanding our already big government, all the while increasing taxes. yikes! as i was reading through an econ blog the other day, i came across this great youtube clip of representative ron paul (r-texas), grilling the fed on their seemingly futile efforts.



i was so impressed that i started to actually look at paul's campaign website and read his more libertarian platforms. wow - how come we don't hear of this guy as much as the other republican front runners...romney, mccain, guilani....move over! i was intrigued to find dr. paul had a very visionary approach to many of our nations deepest woes while going to back to core of what country was founded on 231 years ago - the constitution. imagine that! as a practicing medical physician with 10 terms of congressional experience under his belt, i was certainly drawn to this citizen-statesman who seems so different than all the rest.

now i'm not quite sure i'm fully committed to join his "rEVOLution," but he certainly has my attention as a glimmer of hope in an answer for america. we shall see...

quarter girl.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

that's right, the big 25 - i'm now squarely in my mid-twenties. a startling reality.

hard to believe that i am officially a quarter of a century old. it's pretty difficult to swallow that i am no longer in the highly marketed 18-24 age group; as if i ever acted my age when i wore that badge. ha! even still, it is a little unsettling on just how fast time passes... it seems with the more years we accrue, the more the aspect of time slips through our fingers. even though i believe it all comes down to relativity based on the span of individual lifetimes, i still wish there was a way to slow down the ticking of the clock hands. i guess all the more reason to live the moment in the fullest!

so to celebrate, i finally used up my "floating holiday" and took a day just for myself - to be still without the pressure of needing to do x, y, z. i'll tell you, it was wonderful! catching up with old friends, feeling facebook love and just hanging out at home with the kitties, surrounded by the comfort of my favorite things...a good guilt-free day.

when stephen got home from work, he made me feel supremely special. surprising me with a fully-bloomed pink peony from ultra violet - my all time favorite flower that is nearly impossible to find this time of year! - his thoughtfulness filled me with glee. and in his other hand, he held a gourmet raspberry cake from the renowned heidelberg pastry shoppe, courtesy of my sweet MIL, elaine. mmmmm.

we had celebrated with our friends a little earlier this week when stephen helped organized a huge surprised bday dinner for our friend evan & myself. what a sneaky duo - stephen & betsy (evan's gf) lured us into thinking we were going to have a quiet double-date dinner after church on sunday, but as we entered in gordon biersch, we were thrilled to find 25-30 of our closest friends from gracedc! stephen and i split the "new york oscar" (steak & crab - yummmm) and then massive slices of chocolate cake were passed around after we blew out our respective candles - pink for evan and blue for me. lol

tonight i was lucky enough to be celebrated yet again at bible study as this tuesday was themed as a holiday party night! we stuffed our faces and decorated ornaments with paint, glitter and glue for the georgetown retirement home we visit monthly. cake and crafts and community - a perfect combo in my book!

all in all, i feel immensely fortunate for where these 25 years have brought me. thanks to all you who sent very celebratory wishes my way... i'm blessed by your love.

ps. happy birthday mom!!!

white christmas.

well, it is white outside and christmas inside...so close enough.

the first day of snow is something special. the holiday spirit fills the air as snowflakes dance around us, fulfilling that winter wonderland feeling without the dread of inescapable inconvenience soon to hit us (ice scrapers, anyone?).

today was just a mere dusting of flurries; enough to coat everything a glorious white but not enough to cause major traction issues on the roads/sidewalks. yikes! so tonight, to celebrate the joy of the new season, i decided to FINALLY decorate our 7 ft fraser fir we claimed last week and get our tiny apartment spruced for christmas!!!

enjoy the pics.

christmas kitties