Bloggity Blog

So I'm trying to be better about updating...although I am pooped (I seriously find it hard to stay awake past 9) and I am too lazy to reach down and grab my glasses, so in about two seconds I'm not going to be able to read. 

Not much to update on. I did sign up to be on a kickball team. I was a little nervous about paying via PayPal, because I was worried it was a scam at first, but luckily there has been a flurry of emails about pre-season parties, refs, etc. I am on the Blue Steel....a la Zoolander perhaps? It was either that or the Tenleytown Teabaggers...

I packed in 15 minutes for my trip to NYC this weekend. That may or may not have been due to the packing list I had committed to memory during the day today. I'm going to brush my teeth and hit the hay because I have to get up a little earlier for my killer commute! 

PS I miss Jean-Claude! I wonder what he's up to right now...

Patience is a Virtue

A lot of things have slipped since my move to DC: my sleep schedule, my free time, my physical activity, and 5 percent of my weight in water that I have lost sweating the last few days (in no particular order). But the biggest loser by far has been the blog. Most days, it is just enough for me to make it back to my room without collapsing in exhaustion. Yesterday was the first day that I came home and didn't feel pooped, until I ate dinner and wanted to go into a food coma. 

Anyways, I promise to be better about updating, as there is so much going on all the time here in my new life as a young urban professional (note - not a yuppie - just young, living in an urban metropolis, and professional). I also have a ton of thoughts swirling around in my head and not a lot of places for them to go. 

So here's what I've been up to:

• the apartment search: This culminated in one epic day of me traipsing around the city on my own, managing in the 90+ degree heat and humidity with little fluids and nothing to eat. It truly was one of my lower moments here. I can't understand the whole point of appointments in leasing; I set up a bunch of appointments and when I got to the actual apartments no one had even heard of me. For example, I traveled practically to Maryland to look at a studio (after setting up an appointment) only to be told there was nothing left. So I did a quick evaluation of the ten or so apartments I looked at and made a decision. I am really pumped about the apartment that I found. It isn't exactly my ideal apartment (ideally, I'd like not to be sleeping in the same area where I'll be eating dinner), but the building is nice and most importantly it's in a great location. Drawback? I cannot move in until Labor Day. Positive? More time to pick out furniture.
• working: The job is going really well. I'm learning more about my position and learning how to navigate my daily tasks while trying not to get carpal tunnel syndrome. And today, I think I accidentally called a famous journalist at home. 
  

There are so many other things that I wanted to put here, but I have forgotten! All things considered, I think I'm holding up pretty well. I've only had 1.5 -1.75 major meltdowns in two and a half weeks, which has to be a record. 

Up ahead for this week - signing my lease, finding a kickball league to join, begin to furniture hunt. Promises to be filled with tons of excitement!

Working

So the big day was yesterday - my first day of work. Yes, when that alarm went off at some ungodly predawn hour, it represented my transformation from lazy college graduate to motivated working woman. With the stroke of an alarm, I was transformed.

I'm really like the job so far. Yesterday my predecessor, who is staying on for two more weeks to help train me, brought me a cookie at the 3pm slump. What better way to start my career! In all honesty, though, so far it's been great, and lots of interesting projects look to be shaping up on the horizon. 

This, however, does not leave too much time for blogging, so I will update you on the highlights:

• today, while waiting for the Metro, I was standing near a man clipping his fingernails. During rush hour. Did I mention he was in a very public space?
• My job has a lot of great benefits, like access to the university library in all of its depth. You could get lost in there for days.
• Working woman wardrobe acquired two weeks ago was put to good use. Blisters from last week's disastrous shoe outing (one of my new pairs of shoes ripped the skin off my feet) are starting to heal.

I am pooped beyond belief- the heat, the stress, the early hours. My body isn't used to getting less than 10 hours of sleep a night. I'm continuing the hunt for an apartment as well, and that looks to be going ok. By ok, I mean it's frustrating that leasing offices aren't returning my calls or emails and that I've only found one place in this great big city that I'd actually give serious thought to inhabiting. But oh well. Tomorrow is another day. 

Also, to celebrate my arrival in Washington, I rented Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. It really is one of my favorite movies. This is a great scene from the movie. Spoiler alert! This is part of the climax of the film.

Meg (Attempts to) Take the Big City

Hello! I know I have fallen off the face of the earth, but I have been preoccupied with moving and getting myself settled (and also I didn't have access to Internet until recently). Here are some highlights for the first two and a quarter days:

• spent a half hour trying to figure out which direction the Metro was in from the place where I'm subletting (which was embarrassing, because I've lived in DC for a total of 9 months over the last 4 years);
• looked at an apt. for lease that I didn't like, and showed up to an appointment that another leasing office didn't bother to keep;
• unpacked;
• figured out how to get to work;
• got horrible blisters from a new pair of work shoes that required me to use half a box of bandaids in a span of hours;
• established direct deposit for work.

Overall, fairly productive. I'm visiting family out of town this weekend and as such will return Sunday to grocery shop, plan my outfits, and get myself into a Zen-like state for my first day as an adult. When that alarm goes off on Monday, I'm expecting to "graduate" from young adulthood into a "young professional," or "y-pro" as Elise would say. To start me on my journey, I have my very own steamer. I don't think much, then, can go wrong.

Job Jams will return on Monday.

The Great Standoff

You know that moment when packing when you realize that you have too much stuff to fit into the bag? Well, I'm at that moment. I keep looking from the pile on my bed to my bag, back to my bed, back to the bag, etc. etc. It just seems like a daunting task. To make matters worse, I am trying to pack while watching the world's worst movie, Must Love Dogs. More like Must Love Crappy Movies. It's like a trainwreck - I can't look away. I really like Diane Lane but sometimes her choice of movies needs to be more careful. Anyway the end of the movie is coming up, I don't want to miss this moment of cinematic excellence. 

What to Take on a "New Adventure"

I've been making some good progress on packing. I've tried to make it easy for my mom, who will be following me down to DC in a couple of months once I've picked out a permanent place, to spot what I'll need to take. The bigger question, though, is what is necessary on this "new chapter" of my life. Do I need my yearbooks from grade school? What about my snow boots? I guess the whole ideal kind of puts into perspective what is really important: making sure I have clothes, and deodorant. Beyond that, I could manage to survive. 

I'm headed out on Sunday, and I've got most of my stuff together, but tomorrow is the big clothes packing adventure. I always hate this, because I never feel like I pack correctly. This time, though, I'm going to be all about organization. I do have two appts. scheduled next week to look at apartments (since I won't be around next weekend) and I plan on scheduling two more, plus getting in some time next week to walk around some neighborhoods and see what I can see. Hopefully, I can get a jump start on this process and find a place I really like within a good amount of time. My fear is that come September, I won't have a lease! 

I had dinner with Preston and Sarah the other night in their new married-person apartment. They are so grown up! And we played the game that is sweeping the nation - Fluxx. If you haven't played, you are going to want to....and call me when you do, because I'll come over.

Scaling Back

You may have noticed that blog posts have slowed considerably over the last few weeks. Since I landed a job, I haven't really been spending any time at my computer. Plus, with finding a job (and then temporary housing) there hasn't been too much to be updated about my life, unless you'd really want to know all about what I watched on TV on any given day (if you're curious, I could give you my sked). At any rate, in preparation of the big move and the impending start date of my job, I'm going to be cutting posts back to three to four times a week. This way, it's not an over-share of what's going on in my life and it gives me a chance to focus on starting this "new chapter of my life" and this "new adventure" (whatever those terms even mean).

This decision to scale back may or may not have been prompted by Monday's post about the career knits section of TJ Maxx. I realize that yes, it may have been too much to share about shopping for work clothes (even though I think that is a very important part of any career). So I'm sorry if you didn't really care about my hunt for the perfect lightweight knit sweater. However, you will be happy to know that the situation has been resolved.

Today was going to be the first day that I tackled packing. And I guess it still is...but I'm lacking a critical component here: boxes. So I started by doing some minor cleaning in my bathroom (which I wish I had done sooner, because I had years worth of stuff that had to go). But now I am procrastinating...normally this would be a good time for a lunch break, but I'm not hungry, so there goes that. I think I'll venture out to go find some boxes so I can attempt some semblance of getting my stuff together.

Job Jams

I am excited to bring you this week's Job Jams from Seth, a loyal reader (and friend) of this blog who is also a big fan of the Job Jams feature. His pick is Sheena Easton's Morning Train (9 to 5). The opening lines are great! (Also note the Danish subtitles - the original music video was blocked from being embedded).

If you have anything you think would be good for this space, just let me know! 

Making Purchases like a Grown Up

I got really depressed today when I had to go to TJ Max and look in the "career knits" section. Normally, when I go shopping, I'm looking for fun purchases. Trying to find some kind of cool (both comfort-wise and style-wise) top for work would not be my idea of one. I looked in my closet the other day as I assessed what I would be taking on my move, and I realized that I had a good amount of skirts, pants, and dresses, but really no blouses or shirts that would be business casual appropriate. So conveniently, I've decided to look for summer work wear just as stores are switching over to their fall stock (which I never understand. Why would I want to buy sweaters when it is 80 degrees out?). Hopefully, I will have some success in the next few days here. Otherwise, I'm going to be sweating it out (literally) in long-sleeved shirts. 

I haven't really started packing yet, but the thought is not appealing. My flight to DC is next Tuesday. I'm going to be packing clothes to take with me for the next six weeks, and then packing up my other stuff so that my parents can just load the car and go. This means that I will be without my bike for the rest of the summer, which is frustrating because I didn't tough it out in 25 degree weather just to miss the best weather of the year. Plus, if I'm potentially in training for City to Shore this is going to throw a wrench in those plans. Perhaps I'll take up running (which I loathe). We'll see how it goes.

In the meantime, I cracked the Dreamweaver book today! I'm already on the second chapter. 

The Big 4-0

Lordy, lordy look who's 40! My blog! That is, this is the 40th post! 

When I first started this blog, I had a list of projects I wanted to tackle...some have been achieved, others forgotten, yet others started and yearning to be done. But the blog has been a good way to keep myself accountable, sane, and feeling like a productive member of society.

No big plans for the weekend...cleaning my car and lounging, as per usual. 

I only have a little over a week left at home. I keep delaying making my travel reservations because I keep thinking if I don't make them then I won't be leaving...but the reality is, I'm just making it more expensive for me to do so!

I've been going through some old photos and here are some I think must be shared...

I call this picture "Ok, yeah," and I think it sums up the relationship between my sister and myself (I'm on the right): 

This picture has a certain historical significance - the only time my mother ever dressed us in matching outfits:

And this picture proves I was trying to be a hipster long before I even knew what the word meant:

A Tech Savvier Meg

Each day I get a little bit more tech-savvy...after a year of missing some of my favorite tunes, I finally sat down and looked for a way to transfer music from my old iPod (which I gave to my sister, but she is still using her first generation pod) to my new(ish) computer. Let me tell you, I'm glad I did. I missed some of these jams!

And today might be the day I crack open the Dreamweaver book...I'm currently home alone and free of distractions, so now would probably be the ideal time to do it. But I just cannot motivate myself to do it (or really anything else in general). I don't have to look for a job and I don't have to look for housing, so this really gives me nothing of any great importance that I have to wake up and accomplish each day. On the one hand, I'm sure I'll be missing this time in a few months...but right now, I'm just trying to not sink into a deep boredom. 

I don't know that I have anything funny for this almost-Friday, but if you haven't caught the news today about the Washington Post (my future hometown paper - ah!) and an aggressively-worded marketing flyer that appeared to sell access to journalists, policy makers, and administration officials, you should check it out. It's a good example of what's going on in the newspaper industry.