Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving all alone in a new city. Not cool. I refused to do anything Thanksgivingy except watch the Macy's Day parade and talk to my family!

Winter Plans

Bought my tickets home for the holidays!!!

YAY!

I will fly into San Fran Dec 23rd.

Drive with JD and Monique to the Fresno area Dec 29th.

Arrive into Las Vegas Dec 30th.

VEGAS FOR NEW YEARS!!!!!

Leave Vegas Jan 2nd and go to So Cal (Redlands peeps)!

Leave from LAX Jan 6th to come back to DC.

AFU

All Fired Up

That's where I am working part time for now.

I work part time at both of the stores that the owner owns. One is down the street and the other is about a 20 minute metro ride away. The one down the street has a very professional feel and the other is more fun and free style feeling. The owner Liz is interesting.... still feeling her out.

Its fun! I have always wanted to work at a ceramic painting place. Its a lot of unloading the kiln and loading the kiln. Unloading boxes, stacking shelves, cleaning and what not. I love it when I get to work with the kiddies. None of the work is difficult, but it is difficult learning the style of the shops. The people that work there are interesting, very artsy and beet to their own styles. I struggle to remember things like stapling on the right side, matching the water bowl with the brush cup... silly little things that I think shouldn't matter so much.

But its work. Not brain surgery. Its something to tide me over while I look for a full time job that I want. But it doesn't pay very well.

The big plus is that after 30 days I start getting 40%off anything I paint or do in the shop!! YAY!! Big plus!!

I am tired and therefore terrible at keeping up with blogs and emails, but I will get in the swing of things soon!!

Madison... NOT

The Madison's

Oh my.... where to start.

Lesley asked if I would go to her to an event to become a Madison. I had no idea what a Madison was, but I'm down to go with someone to something for support. So I went there thinking it would be a good experience, maybe I will meet some people I can network with and that I was there to support Lesley.

We walked into a meeting that we were not supposed to be at and all I saw were tall, thin, blond haired, blue eyed young women between 23-29. Found out that it was the members meeting that we had walked into and that the other meeting was starting after. It was a wine "get to know you" event. The members had their names in Red and the girls trying to become members (pledges) are in black and they are all walking around with wine and cheese talking to each other about brand names, jobs, and name dropping. I found myself smiling and chit chatting while thinking I cant wait to get out of there. There was no way I wanted to associate myself with them and I felt that with each person I speak to I am being more and more judged by people I could care less about.

I had just walked into a sorority for 20something year old women who need that kind of cool kid acceptance. The future first wives club, desperate house wives and Stepford wives.... gag.

I was so relieved when Lesley said she was good to leave. I have never walked out a of a place wanting to mock and laugh at people before. It was ridiculous.

I was glad I went, now I know who the Madison's are and know that I don't want anything to do with them. What judgemental people.... why would others compete to join such an organization??

I'm baffled.

Ger

My wonderful friend Ger.

I have had many friends and many different kinds and levels of friends in my life.

Its ones like Ger that really make me think how lucky I am.

I moved to DC with no job, no real connections; just a few bags and things. And Ger took me in. Gave me a bed. Made space in her closet and fridge for me. She did this for me asking for nothing in return. Not even a penny for rent. She looked up job opportunities, bought me drinks for happy hour, invited me to events and parties. She brings me home surprises like cupcakes, cooks food, and even bought me the most wonderful watch. She has done so much for me. I cant even express how grateful I am to have such an incredibly kind and wonderful friend.

I just hope some day I can do the same for her. I hope she knows and realized how much I appreciate and love her as such a wonderful friend. Thank you Ger.

Off to Earlene's house I go

Last weekend I had the privilege of going to a college friends house in Maryland.

Earlene and I met my senior year of college in some grad classes. We instantly became friends: after all we are both extremely social and love making friends. She moved to Maryland with her husband and 3 kids about 3 years ago. I visited them 2 years ago and they were in the middle of building their big brand new house next to his parents house. And this weekend it was wonderful to go inside and see what they had been so excited to finish for so long! It a big beautiful 4 bedroom house with an in law unit. They still have plans for making the basement into a guest area and den and hope to get a swimming pool in the next few years.

Earlene and Steve made us Chicken Katsu for dinner (bringing a little Hawaii/Japan to the east coast) and we drank some yummy Mojitos! Sunday we went to church and I watched Earlene teach a 1st grad class for Sunday School. And they even sent me off having been fed bacon, eggs and rice.

It was a wonderful weekend and nice to hang out and chit chat. Just a kind of weekend I needed!

My life as I know it

Job hunting = Stress and frustration

I have never really had a problem finding a job. I have always walked in from one job to the next with no problems. I WAS SPOILED!

I have been in DC for 3 weeks or so and still haven't found anything just right. I spend at least 2 hours a day Internet searching, emailing, going into businesses, applying, calling and interviewing. And still nothing! I'm not being picky either! I was offered one position as a door to door sales rep, but that really didn't entice me.

What have I learned during this job hunting: 1) to do Event Planning people want you to have experience 2)Event planning is being the first thing cut so no one is hiring 3) its hard to convince people that you can do something besides teaching when you have been teaching for over 3 years 4) I hate job hunting.

So I have been heading in the direction of Nannying until the new year. Then in January I can get back into the applying and interviewing. But for now Nannying will pay enough for the holidays.

I do love DC! Its a city full of neighborhoods. Its almost as if you are getting both the city and the town like life at the same time and I love that! Its full of Museums, Parks, Events, Festivals, and Happy Hours. Whats not to love!

So I have just been trying to learn the city and look for a job so that I can get settled into the city and in the beginning of the year find my own place. I just hope it all starts coming together sooner rather than later.

Begging for Blogging

Why is it that no one posts on their blogs any more??

Now that I'm across the world and out of touch all my peeps in Japan have stopped Blogging which makes me sad because I crave to know whats going on in their lives.

For heavens sake start posting again!!!! PLEASE!!!

Yes we can

The next president of the United States will be Obama.

Wow that's a lot to take in.

I'm not the most political person, however I have learned that DCers are.

Having grown up in a city that is primarily republican, but a state that is primarily democrat; you can imagine that I am pretty confused when it comes to politics. I love politics, on the smaller scale. I have no clue about larger scale politics. Not to mention that I have been out of the country the past 3 years.

So it was a bit of a culture shock when I moved to DC and found out how politically minded everyone is, but reflecting back I shouldn't have been so shocked. I went with Ger to her friends house for an election party and was surprised at not only how politically minded they are but also how opinionated they are when it comes to politics. It was very interesting to listen to them all sit around a talk politics and I realized that I need to get with the program.

I am not an Obama nor a McCain fan. However I like Biden and HATE Palin. So when Obama won I really could have cared less. HOWEVER, the idea that I was alive and old enough to appreciate the historical significance of the night was amazing to think about. Its going to be a night and a speech that will go down in history books and I was not only a part of that night in some small way, but I also lived in the Capital of our country at that time. This will open all kinds of possibilities political for our country and although I'm not 100% pro-Obama...even I can appreciate the changes that are about to take place.

Halloween in DC

Halloween! My favorite holiday of the year! But.... to be honest I wasn't really in the mood this year and wasn't planning on doing much.

Ger's friend Priti had a costume party at her apartment and we were invited so I had to think of something quick. After walking around the costume store and finding out that costumes are really expensive, I bought some black angel wings and decided I would do something with those. I ended up deciding to be a fallen angel.

I spent the day making cupcakes, cleaning, running errands and getting ready. My hair ended up looking really cool! I decided to put a boa in my hair and look a little evil ish. This is what it came out looking like.

Then I did pale evil make up and dressed in black. It wasn't the best costume, but it was cheap.

Ger went as Zorro and looked awesome! People couldn't even tell who it was!

Unfortunately, Dave and I drank a little too much punch at Priti's house. After Priti's party we went to a Hmong party and danced and drank some more. The costumes were great. There were a lot of costumes from batman and everyone seemed to be having a good time!

All in all it was a fun night, just wished I wouldn't have drank so much punch.