Detroit Rock City

I just bought a plane ticket to go back to Detroit at the end of May! I am so excited. I'm going to be there for a week. I am going home to see my sister graduate from medical school. :o) Plus, I will finally get to see Chrissy. I haven't seen her in like a year. It's getting ridiculous. I was hoping to visit her in Florida before now. :o( Or have her come to D.C. Well I guess we will be killing two birds with one stone: going to MI to visit family and seeing each other.

I found out yesterday that I am totally broke. For that reason, I don't think I am going to be going out for the next couple of weekends. Or at least until I get reimbursed for school. That tuition bill is going to hurt. And it happens to fall right when I need to pay rent. Boo.

DOOOOOOOOOOOOM

Guess what?! You'll never guess. I get to go back on shift work! Isn't that the most wonderful thing ever? There is nothing--absolutely nothing--I love more than getting up at 4:30 a.m. to go to work. It's going to be great. The good news is...I am going to be training for most of the time. That means that I still have to work the shifts but a) I'm not responsible if something breaks b) I can flex my schedule to still have weekends off, and c) even though I have to work day shift...I also get to work swing shift, which means I get to sleep in. I am looking at the bright side of things. Then, once I get my certification, I will be helping out but will not actually have to take over a shift. So, I guess it's not all bad. Repeat after me: The glass is half full. The glass is half full. The glass is half full.

The Lost Dr. Suess Poem

I love my job, I love the pay!
I love it more and more each day!
I love my boss, she is the best!
I love her boss, and all the rest!

I love my office and its location, I hate to go on vacation.
I love my furniture, drab and grey, and piles of paper that grow each day!
I think my job is really swell, there's nothing else I love so well.
I love to work among my peers, I love their leers, and jeers, and sneers.
I love my computer and its software;
I hug it often though it won't care. I love each program and every file.
I'd love them more if they worked a while.

I'm happy to be here, I am. I am.
I'm the happiest slave of my job, I am.
I love this work, I love these chores.
I love the meetings with deadly bores.
I love my job- I'll say it again - I even love those friendly men.
Those friendly men who've come today,
In clean white coats to take me away!

Making Mistakes

This is the story of Emily Drake

who was very afraid to make a mistake,

so she never did anything different or new;

she only did things that she knew how to do.

That's how she lived her whole life long

carefully never doing anything wrong.

And when she turned ninety (or perhaps ninety one)

she listed the things that she'd never done,

then she sighed and she gave her head a small shake,

saying "What do you know? I made a mistake."

by Joe Thompson

I Like to Make Funny Faces in Pictures

I finally got my hands on some pics from the other night when I went out to Adams Morgan with my friends from work. We had such an awesome time (as you can see below)! :o) I am making a weird face in every pic and they were just too hilarious not post them.

I watched two really good movies lately. The first was The Exorcism of Emily Rose. It was not at all like The Exorcist. It actually had a really good storyline to it and is not just some chick in a bed freaking out. It is pretty scary though in some parts. The other movie I watched was In Her Shoes. I almost didn't want to watch it because I read the book...and I always get annoyed when they change everything up for movies. But it was actually really really good and the girl that plays Rose is hilarious. I really liked it. If you haven't seen it, I recommend. Read the book, too! Boys beware though--it is a serious chick flick.

Me and Tracie's super fun roomie Tara.

This was my serious face. My favorite shot--Oatmeal Cookie! Yum! :)

What is this face? I look suprised about something! Ha ha.

Outside in D.C.

Are we noticing a theme here?

Tracie was saying something funny!

"Aside from the murders, DC has one of the lowest crime rates in the country."

Hey guys! Hey! Hey! What's up!? I have nothing exiciting or interesting to write about today really. It's Friday, though! :) I only have to work 5 hours today because I worked extra on other days. Yay for me!

Let's see..what can I say that is interesting. Well, the president of China came to visit us in D.C. yesterday. Not only did he spend some time with George W., he apparently had dinner with Bill Gates (he went to Seattle first). Could you imagine being a billionare like Bill Gates and, I don't know, having the president of CHINA over for dinner?

Beware of the Squirrels

I was reading the Los Angeles Times website yesterday and I came across an article about the Bubonic Plague, also known as the "Black Death." It caught my eye because when I went to the Grand Canyon a couple years back, they handed us a newspaper about the park that said to stay away from the animals. It specifically said to avoid the squirrels because they carried the Bubonic Plague. This just struck me as hilarious because when do you ever hear about the Bubonic Plague?!? I didn't even know it was still out there. But there it was, plain as day in the Grand Canyon National Park newspaper. After that, whenever I told people about my trip to the Grand Canyon or whenever people said that they were going, I of course had to warn them about the squirrels. And everyone always thinks I am crazy. Well, the issue of whether or not I am crazy is neither here nor there...but read the article and you shall see that I was not lying about the killer squirrels.

Don't Put Off Your Procrastination. Do It Today.

Back to work. Ho hum. I was sick yesterday, so I got to stay home from work and school for the day. It sucks being sick, but it was nice to lay around all day. I hate being sick for more than one day, though. I get antsy and I hate missing my work out. The sucky thing was that my apartments decided to cut the grass outside my window at the ass crack of dawn, and then the fire department came and checked all of the fire alarms...so they were going off and on for like 15 minutes. Let me tell you, I feel really safe now because those things are so freaking loud they could wake the dead.

This week I decided that other than grocery shopping and laundry on Monday (necessities), I was not going to put anything on my to-do list that I can possibly avoid. I looked at my planner from last week and I thought to myself, wow, I need to slow down. And take a week off. So I have decided to stop putting off my procrastination.

I read something interesting last Saturday in Glamour magazine. The new Chilean president, Michele Bachelet, is the first female president in her country. She is a pediatrician and has three kids. She is separated from her husband and had one of her kids while she wasn't married. What is astounding is that divorce was only legalized in Chile two years ago. The Chilean people elected her in part because of her "courageous opposition to the oppressive military regime that ran Chile from 1973 to 1990." On top of that, she has publicly forgiven the people that held her hostage and tortured her (the same regime). Now she is an impressive woman.

For all of the females out there, and maybe even some concerned men, I think it is worth mentioning this article (also in the May issue of Glamour): The New Lies About Women's Health. Please, please, please read this article. It is so very important to have this information. It is so very important to have all of the information about our health (both sides of the story) since it seems to be such a political issue. It is kind of long, but definitely worth the time. What is more important than your life?

Happy Easter Bunny

Yesterday was an awesome Easter! I went to church with Joe and his family, then we came back to his house, had a huge breakfast, napped and watched a movie, and then had an awesome dinner! It was so much fun. They got me an Easter basket filled with a ton of candy that is going to take me forever to eat. :) Yay for me! I'm spoiled!

I'm sitting here trying to do my homework and I just cannot get over how annoying it is. They gave us a list of 30 elements of systems engineering, and we have to come up with 3 more that should be included! There are already 30! I just can't think of anything else; all of the bases are covered! Isn't that the point!? Can you tell I am annoyed and fired up about this? The last day of this class is May 9 and I am so happy. Our project has been at a stand still and now we have so little time to do anything we are going to be busting our asses for the rest of the time we are in class. Our professor told us that the next class has math in it and all I could think was, "Thank God!" I like math because it is cut and dry. No gray areas. :o)

Wake Up Call

Wow. I just watched Oprah and she was talking about people living on minimum wage. These people did an experiment, and lived on $5 an hour for 30 days. THIRTY MILLION people that work FULL TIME are living in poverty! Can you imagine that?! Working 40 hours a week and only ending up with $30 for food for the whole month? It's crazy!

Well, I guess my point is that it made me realize how truly blessed I am to have been lucky enough to go to college, get a good job, and afford the luxuries that I have today. I'm worrying about buying furniture while 30 million people are worrying about whether they will be able to eat tomorrow.

It gave me food for thought.

Words of Advice from Missy

I just realized that I forgot to put the most annoying thing ever in the whole world-the thing I hate the most about Virginia-in my last post! Here it is: the roads around here all have 4 different names, and it is extremely confusing to drive ANYWHERE! I never EVER got lost when I lived in Michigan. Now I know how Jackie feels, because I swear I get lost every single time I go anywhere. I'd get lost in a wet paper bag around here. I'm not kidding about the four names thing either. There is a road in Alexandria that is called Duke Street, Little River Turnpike, Main Street, and VA-644. I'm not joking. It has four names. There is probably even another name that I just don't know about. I can think of like 3 other roads like that just off the top of my head. I think they do that on purpose. I'm not even going to get started on how confusing it is in D.C. The last time I drove there, I got so lost I vowed to never ever drive there again for as long as I live.

As for the words of advice from Missy:

1. Do not have a pet if you are poor. It will end up costing you infinitely more money than you could ever ever fathom. As I said before, I am getting my cat de-clawed. Since he needed his annual exam, as well as a vaccination that he was due for, anesthesia, and they have to keep him for observation... Let's just say it is costing me an arm and a leg. About DOUBLE what I originally budgeted it to cost. The good thing is that I have money in savings but I am still in shock from getting the bill yesterday. Ugh. What can I do though? If I didn't de-claw him he would destroy everything!

2. In general, it isn't a good idea to advertise yourself as an asshole that makes snap judgments about people based solely on their looks. Or for that matter to be an asshole that makes snap judgments about people based solely on their looks. But I realize that that is asking a lot, so I am sticking to the point that you might just want to keep it to yourself. Recently, I met a girl that said to me (within the first 30 minutes of meeting her), "Oh, you're actually really cool. When I first saw you, I thought since you are pretty that you were definitely a huge bitch." Um, no my dear, you are actually the one that needs to reexamine your judgmental personality tendencies if you already have me pegged as a snob just because you deem me as an attractive female. Duh. That's not the first time someone has said something idiotic like that to me, either. So what is she saying, unattractive people are nice? I feel sorry for all of the really bitchy unattractive people out there that are being inappropriately labeled as nice, too.

Things I Like About Virginia

Things I Like About Virginia:
1. Joe lives here. :o)
2. There is so much to do!
3. The nightlife is awesome, as well as the nearby nightlife in D.C.
4. Winters are mild.
5. My sweet apartment.
6. My fun work friends.
7. Lots of historical sightseeing in D.C and surrounding cities.
8. Public transportation. Even though it takes forever, at least it is available and reliable.
9. Hot summers.
10. It's cheap to fly to Detroit.
11. It really feels like home now. Can you believe it has been just over 2 years?!

Things I Don't Like About Virginia:
1. No Chrissy, Jackie, Lindsay, Sara, or the rest of my family.
2. Traffic is crazy.
3. Everything is more expensive. It is damn near impossible to buy a house.
4. No carwashes anywhere!
5. Liquor is only sold at ABC stores.
6. Nobody watches hockey.
7. Humidity can get pretty awful during the summer.
8. People say "soda" instead of "pop."
9. People tease me for my Mid-west accent. :o)

Hey, I love it here! Even those things I don't like don't hold a candle to how much I like living here (except for the #1 thing I don't like, boo)! Yay D.C.! :o)

Anyway

People are often unreasonable, illogical,and self-centered.

Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.

Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies.

Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and sincere, people may deceive you.

Be honest and sincere anyway.

What you spend years creating, someone could destroy overnight.

Create anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous.

Be happy anyway.

The good you do today people will often forget tomorrow.

Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough.

Give the world the best you have anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God.

It was never between you and them anyway.

I Love the Weekend

I posted some new pics below! I have had the best weekend so far. Joe, Summer (his sister), and I went out to dinner and watched a movie last night. We watched A History of Violence. It was pretty good, but, as the title says, violent. It was pretty graphic in some places. But good overall. I slept in until like 11 a.m. today, which was wonderful.

We went to see the new furniture that I am buying today too! For my living room. I am so excited. Sadly for my kitty though, I have to get him declawed before I buy it. I know, I'm mean.

Tonight we are going out somewhere around Fairfax because it is freaking cold, rainy and disgusting outside. Ew. We don't feel like going out in the city. That's all I have to say for now! :)

Little guys playing baseball. :)

More Cherry Blossoms.

Cherry Blossoms and the Washington Monument.

Free At Last!

My midterm is over! Yay! It was okay, I guess. As I said before, the material is so ambiguous that it is impossible for me to judge how I did on it. I'll give you an example question once I get the exam back so you can see what I mean. But let me tell you, it is such a relief to have it over and done with. I don't have any more exams in this class; just a final project. Thank the Lord! I occasionally suffer from some serious test anxiety; especially when I know it is worth 30% of my grade. And it is the only exam. Don't start calling me a hippie...but I was meditating before the exam. It calmed me down a lot. I read in Women's Health that people scored higher on tests after meditating. Concentrating on your breathing by meditation is supposed to stimulate your relaxation response. So I decided to give it a shot. Anything that might work is worth a shot. Maybe it will turn into a self fulfilling prophecy. Who knows?

I'm about to go to happy hour with some of my girls from work. It's Wednesday...only two more days until the weekend! :)

A Feeling of Impending Doom

I have to go take a midterm in one hour and I already have a feeling of impending doom. I studied really really hard for three days...but the material is really ambiguous and there was a TON of stuff to memorize. I am not used to taking exams like that because most of my engineering exams were all math and stuff. And we were always allowed crib sheets, because what is the point of memorizing equations. But for this class, we had to memorize a billion lists it feels like. Plus, we had to memorize equations (dumb). The thing is, we have no idea what the exam is going to be like, so all of that memorization may have been for nothing. I have felt like I have been studying the wrong things all along and I am really scared of what he is going to ask. He wouldn't even tell us what type of questions are going to be on the exam! Okay, I have to stop stressing and go walk around outside or something before I go take this exam. Wish me luck!