I first fell in love with DC in the spring and every year I am reminded why. The blossoms are beautiful, people are emerging from their winter dens, restaurant patios are opening and patrons lounge while catching up with comrades, the sun is shining and the air is warm with promises of fun activities.
The past few weekends have been busy. Three weekends ago, Mallory, Ryan and I went to VA Beach with our friends as some of us participated in the half (Mal and I) and full marathon (our friends!). I thoroughly enjoyed participating in the run with Mal. Ryan was the perfect cheerleader, photographer, and caregiver to us as well. It was a fun weekend and I'm very satisfied with my run time of 2:27:13. My goal was to finish before 2:30:00 and I did it! The next run (yes, you read it right) I'll aim for under 2:20:00. Mallory and I are already eying a run in Myrtle that's in October. Ryan and Marie think they may run in it too. So, we could have a caravan! :)
Last weekend I went to the NC beach to see my college roomy and friend, Melody. She's getting married next month so we went down for the celebratory shower. I also got to see her new house, which is on a beautiful lake. I'm really looking forward to her wedding, which is going to be on the beach. They're renting a huge house on the beach where the ceremony will take place. The wedding party (that includes me!) and family will stay at the house for the weekend. It should be a blast.
This weekend was Easter weekend, one of my favorite times of the year. The cherry blossoms are in full bloom and the weather has been beyond cooperative. It's been gorgeous! I went with Ryan and some of our friends to my first professional soccer game. We watched DC United play last night in RFK stadium. This morning was church and then he and I joined our friends for an Easter feast. It was delicious!
Sprinkled over the past few weeks, I've gotten to see Mal who has been frequenting DC for job interviews. I hope she'll land something soon. Also, I put the final touches on my thesis for school. I submitted the final (YAY!) version to my school on Friday. It's done and now there's just graduation to anticipate.
I'm hoping to put up some pictures I've taken over the past few weeks and definitely want to include some of our 13.1 mile run in VA Beach.
Sunday, April 04, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
The Countdown
To my five faithful My Palette followers: Please excuse my neglect. Thanks for your subtle hints that I need to get back on here. I promise to have a fuller report soon. In the meantime, here's the month's review (the skinny version)...
- A successful defense of my Master's Thesis... and my happy acceptance of the new title!
- The completion of a humongo conference at work, which took place in Atlanta. I also met Dr. Francis Collins, one of my idols!
- The budding of a new relationship with Ryan :)
- A vacation to Puerto Rico with roomies Marie and Bastian, and our friend Christoph (visiting from Germany)
- Participating in one of my long-time friend's wedding
- A St. Patty's Day party
- The discovery and appreciation of H Street, a street close to our house that has exciting restaurants and places to go for entertainment
Sunday, February 14, 2010
The Winter Olympics
My blog hiatus has hopefully ended. Life was a bit crazy there for a while. Work has been pretty busy since we're preparing for our huge conference in two weeks. I'll be spending a week in Atlanta at the end of the month.
School work has slowed to almost nothing. I turned in my thesis two weeks ago and my adviser wrote back with only a few suggestions for revisions. I actually defend it on Thursday in front of a small panel. My defense is scheduled for 2 pm, so keep me in your prayers! The defense is basically a 25-35 minute presentation of my paper followed by a 10-15 minute Q & A session (in which I am the one answering the questions).
This week was record breaking for DC and it's been cool (figuratively and literally) living here this winter. We saw record breaking snow fall and the most days on record the Federal Government has closed. DC has had the snowiest winter than all other cities in the United States, second only to Syracuse, NY.
I ventured out yesterday to clear my car from the 3-4 foot snow drifts, clear the front sidewalk for us and pedestrians, and shovel the snow from the driveway so I could get my car into it. It took me over three hours and I couldn't help but think if it as the DC Olympics. There are a lot of sports in which residents took part: car and parking spot clearing, sledding, sidewalk clearing, dodging cars as they walked in the streets due to buried walkways, and general walking since the Metro was closed and buses weren't running.
Surprisingly, I'm not hurting too much from my three hour adventure and now have a cleared sidewalk, driveway, and car of which to be proud. Here are some pics of the Snowpocalypse as we have lovingly nicknamed out storm:
It's kind of hard to tell, but the snow piles were 3-4 feet high.
The picture below was taken before the second storm came and dumped another 15" on the ground.
We helped to push our neighbors out of snow-stuck spots.
This neighbor caught a lucky break as a Caterpillar came by and made the snow-freeing much faster!
My car after I cleared off the snow and dug it out of the snow drifts.
Another car I found while clearing out the snow.
Below: A finished walkway, with the shovel stuck in the snow to show how deep it was.
The snow was about 5-6 inches taller than the top of the shovel.
Below: Ryan's (a roomy's) care buried in our driveway.
You can see where I had already started clearing the drive behind it.
Below: The finished product with my car parked in it! Hard to tell from the pictures,
but the drive is about 30 feet long.
And Done.
School work has slowed to almost nothing. I turned in my thesis two weeks ago and my adviser wrote back with only a few suggestions for revisions. I actually defend it on Thursday in front of a small panel. My defense is scheduled for 2 pm, so keep me in your prayers! The defense is basically a 25-35 minute presentation of my paper followed by a 10-15 minute Q & A session (in which I am the one answering the questions).
This week was record breaking for DC and it's been cool (figuratively and literally) living here this winter. We saw record breaking snow fall and the most days on record the Federal Government has closed. DC has had the snowiest winter than all other cities in the United States, second only to Syracuse, NY.
I ventured out yesterday to clear my car from the 3-4 foot snow drifts, clear the front sidewalk for us and pedestrians, and shovel the snow from the driveway so I could get my car into it. It took me over three hours and I couldn't help but think if it as the DC Olympics. There are a lot of sports in which residents took part: car and parking spot clearing, sledding, sidewalk clearing, dodging cars as they walked in the streets due to buried walkways, and general walking since the Metro was closed and buses weren't running.
Surprisingly, I'm not hurting too much from my three hour adventure and now have a cleared sidewalk, driveway, and car of which to be proud. Here are some pics of the Snowpocalypse as we have lovingly nicknamed out storm:
It's kind of hard to tell, but the snow piles were 3-4 feet high.
The picture below was taken before the second storm came and dumped another 15" on the ground.
We helped to push our neighbors out of snow-stuck spots. This neighbor caught a lucky break as a Caterpillar came by and made the snow-freeing much faster!
My car after I cleared off the snow and dug it out of the snow drifts.
Another car I found while clearing out the snow.
Below: A finished walkway, with the shovel stuck in the snow to show how deep it was. The snow was about 5-6 inches taller than the top of the shovel.
Below: Ryan's (a roomy's) care buried in our driveway. You can see where I had already started clearing the drive behind it.
Below: The finished product with my car parked in it! Hard to tell from the pictures,but the drive is about 30 feet long.
And Done.
Monday, January 04, 2010
A Boli's Pizza Guy and Marie Moment
So, every now and then I eat a little humble pie by letting Marie peek through my clothes and pick out ones that I should get rid of (think: I've been holding on to them since the 1990s). To be fair, she's usually right about what I should and shouldn't keep. Sometimes I just need a little prompting to get rid of the skirt I've had hanging there for years with the huge bright pink flowers on it and ribbon belt. It's a given.
However, there were two shirts under her scrutiny that I didn't think were that bad. So, we were in the middle of discussing whether they should go in the Goodwill pile when the pizza guy rang. Here's how the show went...
Marie: "Oh! It's Boli's. I'm gonna ask the pizza guy what he thinks."
Me (laughing): "No!" "Okay, but I want to see his face..."
So, we go down the stairs and she opens the door with the two shirts tucked under her arm. After filling out the credit card receipt she casually slips it in...
"So, can I ask you a question?" The guy pauses and nods.
"If you were to go out with a 28 year old woman, do you think this shirt would be sexy?" She held up the first shirt.
Poor guy. haha. He looked at her and then at me with a huge smile on his face. I could only shake my head and smile. He was on his own.
She prodded, "I mean, do you like this?" She shook it on the hanger.
He assessed the shirt (one I had worn when it was warmer and actually received compliments on!), paused, and answered, "Yeah, I like it. It's cute."
Cute? I'll take it. Nice guy, right?
She looked at him and back at me. I shrugged and said, "See, I told you... it's not bad."
She admitted defeat and gave me the shirt. "Okay," she said as she turned her face to the second one. "But this one..." She held up the second shirt (and one that I will admit to being on its way to retirement). "What about this one?" she asked.
The guy smiled bigger and looked at me again. All I could do was laugh. Marie is hilarious.
He answered, "Yeah. That one's not too bad. I wouldn't throw it away..."
Before I could feel too good about myself, he finished his sentence... "But I wouldn't wear it out."
It's in the Goodwill bag.
However, there were two shirts under her scrutiny that I didn't think were that bad. So, we were in the middle of discussing whether they should go in the Goodwill pile when the pizza guy rang. Here's how the show went...
Marie: "Oh! It's Boli's. I'm gonna ask the pizza guy what he thinks."
Me (laughing): "No!"
So, we go down the stairs and she opens the door with the two shirts tucked under her arm. After filling out the credit card receipt she casually slips it in...
"So, can I ask you a question?" The guy pauses and nods.
"If you were to go out with a 28 year old woman, do you think this shirt would be sexy?" She held up the first shirt.
Poor guy. haha. He looked at her and then at me with a huge smile on his face. I could only shake my head and smile. He was on his own.
She prodded, "I mean, do you like this?" She shook it on the hanger.
He assessed the shirt (one I had worn when it was warmer and actually received compliments on!), paused, and answered, "Yeah, I like it. It's cute."
Cute? I'll take it. Nice guy, right?
She looked at him and back at me. I shrugged and said, "See, I told you... it's not bad."
She admitted defeat and gave me the shirt. "Okay," she said as she turned her face to the second one. "But this one..." She held up the second shirt (and one that I will admit to being on its way to retirement). "What about this one?" she asked.
The guy smiled bigger and looked at me again. All I could do was laugh. Marie is hilarious.
He answered, "Yeah. That one's not too bad. I wouldn't throw it away..."
Before I could feel too good about myself, he finished his sentence... "But I wouldn't wear it out."
It's in the Goodwill bag.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)