Jan. 31st, 2009

The bests are back in town! We're short one member because we can never seem to get ourselves ALL in the same place at the same time, but five out of six isn't too shabby. Tonight we trekked out to Bangkok Bistro in Georgetown for cocktails, Thai food & a little BFF lovin'.



And today concludes one full month of photos. I'm 1/12 of the way there!

Jan. 30th, 2009

A rare treat from Hello, Cupcake, only slightly worse for the wear after its journey home in a paper bag. Yummm.

Jan. 29th, 2009

In this pic, my coworkers tie makeshift togas on one another (& yes, the one in front is made of a tablecloth) in preparation of celebrating our Program Director's 35th birthday. His two programming staffers hearkened back to his higher-ed heyday at FSU, throwing him a "frat party" in the basement of our office -- complete with togas, of course, as well as non-alcoholic purple punch served up in a (clean!) trashcan... college-style, you know!

One of our interns was overheard saying, "I've never worked in an office like this before!"

Jan. 28th, 2009

Warming up at a local Starbucks after the Big Chill turned all our Tuesday snow to Wednesday ice. Crap photo, I know. Apologies.

Jan. 27th, 2009

First legitimate snow of the winter! I think I may the only person in the District who's really, really happy about it. It's sleeting now, & a lot of people are expecting offices (ours included?) to be closed tomorrow because this Southern city shuts down at the first hint of ice. Here's hoping! I wouldn't mind working from home in my sweatpants on a random chilly Wednesday.

Jan. 26th, 2009

Whoaaaa, today was busy, so I only felt it appropriate to give you a shot of my home away from home. This is my desk, which my coworkers joke somewhat resembles a seventh grader's locker. And below those ultra-liberal anti-war I've got hangin' there is my little system of organization, my Post-It Note-based to-do list: Pink are "not urgent," yellow are "do today" & purple are "do by tomorrow." Of course, my coworkers like to make fun of that, too.

And my miniature fan, which provides little relief from the sauna-like conditions in my windowless office, which I only somewhat affectionately call the Panic Room. And the picture frame I painted, holding a photo of my old coworkers (slash closest friends) & me in New Orleans last year. And on the right, my BFF's little bro's senior pic & two snapshots of my mom's adorable goddaughter, Daphne.

And in the middle? The computer I have to box up tomorrow morning to send to New York City so that our IT guys can either fix it or replace it. KILL MEEE.

Jan. 25th, 2009

As I mentioned before, working for the weekends makes my coworkers a little punchy. They'd been working a weekend-long seminar at a hotel in Virginia since Friday; I just showed up to help out on Sunday night & laugh at them as them as they all went a little crazy.

Jan. 24th, 2009

I only left my place twice today: once to buy soup & once to buy Chapstick. The second time I left, this is what I saw sitting outside the front stoop of my apartment complex. There's no place nearby that even has shopping carts; I have no idea where this could possibly have come from!

Jan. 23rd, 2009

This is my view every morning as I come up the Metro escalator into Dupont Circle, where my office is. That's a quote from Walt Whitman's "The Wound-Dresser" engraved in the stone around the escalator in honor of AIDS/HIV caregivers:

"Thus in silence in dreams' projections,
Returning, resuming, I thread my way through the hospitals,
The hurt and wounded I pacify with soothing hand,
I sit by the restless all the dark night, some are so young,
Some suffer so much, I recall the experience sweet and sad..."

Jan. 22nd, 2009

It wasn't nearly as cold tonight as it has been for the past week, so I opted to walk the two miles back to my apartment. I LOVE walking across the Woodley Park bridge (although I don't think that's what it's really called). If my camera were better, I could've sufficiently captured the view over Rock Creek Park(way) & the city beyond the bridge - as it stands, I got a lot of blurry lights.

Jan. 21st, 2009

Try not to judge me, but until yesterday night, I hadn't had sheets on my bed. I had a feather bed on top of the mattress, which I'd covered with an extra comforter, so I was sleeping on top of those and not, you know, on a bare mattress. Still, it was fairly ghetto. Yesterday, I washed four loads of laundry -- clothes, sheets, towels, the works -- & the result was this beautifully made bed. Is there anything more rewarding that crawling into a freshly made bed... especially when you've been sleeping on the equivalent of a prison mattress since Christmas?

Jan. 20th, 2009

In all fairness, I didn't take this photograph, but I did facilitate it so I think it counts. I helped a little girl onto her father's shoulders this morning as we waited amongst a few thousand of our closest friends for the swearing in of President Barack Obama -- & while she was up there, I asked her to take this photo for me. I love that people are looking at her, directly at her camera, & I think their faces are so telling. They look cold. Excited. Hungry. Eager. Tired. And hopeful.

Hang tight for a link to my Flickr stream of all today's photos, or at least all the photos I could upload onto my free account. (UPDATE: Here they are) Today was a beautiful, beautiful day, & I look forward to telling my children & grandchildren where I was, what I was doing, who I was with & exactly what I was a part of on January 20, 2009, the day America made history -- the good kind.



Welcome, President Obama!

Jan. 19th, 2009

Absolute largest sign I've ever seen. It's hanging inside Gallery Place movie theatre welcoming Barack Obama to the White House.

Jan. 18th, 2009

This morning I had the pleasure/honor/good fortune of attending an EMILY's List luncheon honoring the many, inspiring, pro-choice female elected officials who make up the 111th Congress, the new Obama administration & state-level governments nationwide. We heard from, among others, Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI), NC Gov. Bev Perdue, Sen. Kay Hagan (D-NC), Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Rep. Hilda Solis (D-CA & Secretary of the Department of Labor designee), AZ Gov. Janet Napolitano (& Homeland Security secretary designee)... and HILLARY CLINTON!

I clapped, I cried, I Twittered the whole thing... & I changed my mind about watching the inauguration from my bed on Tuesday. See you on the Mall!

Jan. 17th, 2009

I have a new love, & its name is the 9:30 Club. This Friday, I scratched off another item on my 2009 to-do list, which was to see a concert at this well-known, much-loved venue. Grammy nominee Adele rocked the house with her tea-drinking, her audience-waving &, of course, her extreme note-hitting. Her opening act, Angel Taylor, was pretty hype, too. If you're not into both of them yet, you oughtta be.

At one point I cried thinking about how amazing it will be to watch my favorite band of all time, Jimmy Eat World, perform their 10th anniversary "Clarity" tour in this same space in just over a month.

Jan. 16th, 2009

I can't remember the last time I was as excited to get home as I was today. Read all about it.

Jan. 15th, 2009

It's beginning to look a lot like inauguration.

Jan. 14th, 2009

Maybe this is a cheating picture because it's not of my day but just of plain old me. And by "plain old," I mean "this is me without eyeliner." One of my other goals for the new year is to get over being so obsessively dependent on my black eyeliner, trying not to feel naked without it. So this is me with a little concealer, a little mascara & a little bit of a smile, which is how I've showed up to the office all week. I'm workin' on liking it!

Jan. 13th, 2009

My quirky, sometimes-crazy boss/friend Sean & his child -- er, dog -- Max. Yes, he has him zipped up in his hoodie like it's a papoose. I like Max when he's not crapping all over our office or barking unnecessarily at his greatest nemesis, plastic bags.

Jan. 12th, 2009

I have a thing for off-center chandelier photos. Seriously. This one is hanging from the ceiling of Congressman Scott Garrett's office, where I took a group of high schoolers to lobby a very attractive & admittedly libertarian staffer.

Jan. 11th, 2009

Working for the weekend makes my coworkers a little punchy. As we waited tonight to read/edit/approve speeches written by 150 high schoolers before they take on Capitol Hill tomorrow morning, Jeff got crafty with his winter scarf. The result makes him look like something between a head wound victim & a troll doll, but somehow this picture is still surprisingly endearing.

Jan. 10th, 2009

I made a 2009 To-Do List that includes hitting up a number of D.C. touristy spots because I want to take advantage of the amazing city in which I reside, & today, I crossed one thing off the list when Becca & I took a tour of the new Capitol Visitors Center. This is the ceiling in the main rotunda, & if it doesn't blow you away, nothing will. E pluribus unum: From many, one.

Jan. 9th, 2009

One of my closest friends, Rebecca (middle, with the tongue) made a spontaneous trip into the District this weekend, just for a visit with yours truly. On Friday, we got together with our former coworkers (Jessie, left, & Joanna, right), for a long-awaited Ladies' Night -- something we NEVER DID when the four of us were working together last year. We had a great tapas dinner with a hot waiter -- & then crashed watching a cheesy chick flick at my place. In the words of Jimmy Eat World, "For me, this is heaven."

Jan. 8th, 2009

Jan. 7th, 2009

Another it's-dark-&-rainy photo, this time on the escalator out of the Dupont Metro. Lovin' on the umbrellas & the blurriness & the reflections.

Jan. 6th, 2009

I know, I know, I'm not an awesome photographer, which is unfortunate because this scene looked really awesome in real life. It was twilight, raining, with the Capitol Building glowing sort of greenish in the background as I left the Rayburn building after a swearing-in party for Jewish members of Congress. My friend Ben once said, "I'll know I'm jaded when I walk by the Capitol and don't feel anything anymore. Until then, I get excited every time."

Jan. 5th, 2009

Today's photo was taken as I walked down Q with coworkers to grab a tuna salad sandwich from Firehook. As dirty as it may be, there's just something inexplicably endearing about pigeons eating popcorn. I wasn't even the only one taking photos!

Jan. 4th, 2009

Spent most of today either sleeping or cooking or putzing around on the interwebs. Today's constant, though, was that I've had the fifth season of Dawson's Creek on all throughout. Something about this show, my high school favorite, makes me infinitely wistful & nostalgic...

Jan. 3rd, 2009

For Jessie's birthday, she threw a Red Party -- red clothes, red drinks, red food... & red photos! I think this one gives you most of the full effect. Just picture a whole party full of this same scene.

Jan. 2nd, 2009

Great deal. Great ego boost. Great way to start 2009.

Jan. 1st, 2009

Rang in the New Year with friends. Just after midnight, when the party broke up & the couples headed home to do their respective thangs, we single gals headed over to Bossa in Adam's Morgan to get our dance on.

How do you measure a year in the life?

I'm not sure this will work out, but it's worth a shot. Many thanks to Jaime over at Barks Blog for getting me started on this. I'll be trying to take a pictures every day of 2009 to document my year in photos -- each photo will, hopefully, reflect my day, in some small way. Maybe I'll include explanations & maybe I won't; maybe they'll be posted the day I take them & maybe they won't. But I will try really, really hard to make this actually happen. I love the idea of looking back on a year of my life & remembering it not only through mental images but through real, tangible ones as well.

Care to join us?