100th Post Just in Time

If any of you remember my older posts on my 23 before I am 23, there was a challenge to reach 100 blog postings. Well here is number 100, just in time for my 23rd birthday today!

I was pretty nervous about how my birthday was going to go down this year. Amazingly and thanks to Alex's birthday gift to me I am spending my birthday with two of my favorite people: Stephanie and Kendal.

Last night we hit up a sports bar and discovered the SOS- which we had 4 of. And $2 Margaritas, $5 pictures and what happens when you are with three navy boys who love Jack and Coke.

Naturally last nights events have hindered today's events. We are running a bit behind but have every intention to go wine tasting in St. Augustine before Kendal and I have to catch our flights back to our respective locations. (ugh). So dreading work tomorrow morning.

I will write a detailed blog about my trip later this week, but right now I am going to eat a birthday breakfast!

Florida

I could stay forever...

Friends
Beaches
Beer
Sunshine
Dogs
Disneyworld



I might need some bribes to get me on the plane tomorrow.

Florida Bound

After work today I am headed down to Florida to spend a wonderful Birthday weekend with Stephanie and Kendal. I am beyond excited and could not ask for a better way to celebrate my 23rd birthday. (Thanks Alex!) I still have a few posts to do to reach my 100th posting so I will make sure to post a few blogs in the next few days to reach that 100th post before the big day.

I will not finish my 23 wishes...too much to do, too little time. And I also owe this a posting about my weekend in Annapolis and my shopping spree to buy some many needed clothes!

Bon Voyage DC! I'll see you next week!

I am writing about my houseplant...oh no.

Our friends Dave and Kym gave us this darling little (yes it was little and cute) house plant as a thank you for watching their two cats while they vacationed to England the end of last year. I have never really had my own house plant so I am kind of surprised that it is still alive. I moved the plant to our sunroom once it got above freezing so it could see some actual sunlight. And what did I do....I created a monster plant! It gets bigger everyday! I feel kind of bad because I know I need to replant it since I know the bowl it is in is probably full of roots now. It really is a pretty plant. It finally started to grow some...blossoms (I don't know what they are) but they are very interesting.I also have been reading how plants can help keep the air clean in your living space so I am glad to have the little guy around.

Here's some photos of my green friend:

Mother's Day Craftyness

Trying to be resourceful and find a gift that was meaningful and not expensive I got to idea to make my mom a mini scrapbook highlighting her trip to DC with her friend Victoria to visit myself and Ben. I first bought a mini accordion book making kit from papersource (Love!) some beautiful spring time paper, ribbon, and then printed out mini pictures from her trip at Target. I also stumbled upon some beautiful sparkle letters to add into my creation. Below is my final product

Unfortunately I didn't take pictures of the book folded up. The paper really is beautiful and the book was really fun to make!

Rooftop Idaho Happy Hour Kegger

Ben's birthday was this past week and to celebrate he threw a rooftop kegger. The weather was spectacular and the view was beautiful. The keg also made for a good time (Ben and Keg stands...no words). I made some homemade cupcakes (from scratch) and they were amazing!!

Decor Wall Art

This weekend I found myself near an IKEA (dangerous I know). I stopped in to buy a few more pieces of my black and white dishes that I only had a setting for four and stumbled across the newest wall art IKEA has to offer. What it is: giant stickers that you put together on your wall to create an awesome large piece of art. Here is what I made:

I love how it turned out!

(ps. a note for the co inhabitants of the world: Don't put up your own artwork without consulting your boyfriend....breeds animosity.)

Now to take care of that lamp. I am thinking a new shade and some silver spray paint are going to be my best friend.

More Wishes

Wish Number Three:

I love these shoes. My standby Puma's are on their last legs, which is tragic since I love those shoes. But these could be a very nice classy upgrade.

Wish Number 4:

The Tate Wedge by Nordstrom. The perfect versatile wedge that I have been searching for. Height without the pain. And summery.

Wish number 5:

With travels quickly approaching (Florida, home to see my new niece/nephew) I could really use a new carryon rolling bag.

Copy Cat

I am going to steal the idea from one of the blogs I read to share with you my 23 birthday wishes.

I think I have some catching up to do. You can check her wishes out here.

Wish Numero UNO: Tiffany & Co. Vintage Oval Key Pendant (to let everyone one know I hold the keys to my heart and future)

I love these keys so much!!

Wish Number Duex: A Blender....I know how practical! But I am thinking how delicious smoothies would be in summer time. However lets all remember Father of the Bride for a moment.

The Final Countdown do to do do do to doooo

Ok so there are a lot of things I am counting down to in my life right now:

3 days: Meeting baby Adrienne (my bosses baby girl)
14 days: Florida Vacation to visit Stephanie and Kendal will be there too!!!
18 days: My 23rd Birthday (eek! Oldness)
24 days: The scheduled arrival of my niece/nephew
26 days: The scheduled arrival of baby Hunter (our friends Dave and Kym's baby), and the return of my boss to work (yay for her being back) (boo for back to pt)

I am so excited for the next few weeks. Not only do I get to see two great friends and celebrate my birthday with them! I am going to be an Auntie (lifelong dream)!! So much anticipation!!

I Heart HR

Yesterday I attended the HRA-NCA (Human Resource Association- National Capital Area) full day conference. It was a really great experience! There were two key note speakers, both authors of some decently big name books and then there were four break out sessions. I attended ones on:

The relationship between CFOs and HR
Bridging the generation gap
How to avoid a lawsuit
Servant Leadership

I also had a chance to do some networking and met a great woman who kind of took me under her wing for the day and even hooked me up with a great listserv for DC HR area professionals.

There was a tradeshow too, which meant tons of free pens. ( I even scored one of those ones that has the post-it notes in it). I picked up a few highlighters, some chewing gum, notepads, a new bag, and best of all!!!!......I won a Starbucks gift card as a door prize.

It was a great experience and I hope my company will let me go to more events like these because I learned more than I think I ever got out of a college class!

Shitty Ending to a Long Week

Ugh. Tonight Sucked. End of Story.


Hopefully Brooke's Party will be better tomorrow

Comments on the Week

It has been a relatively unexciting week.

I did have a mid-week adventure with Ben. We went to the Korean something something house that was hosting an exhibit on this island that has been fought over by Korea and Japan for ages. It was a neat evening event that involved some tasty free food.

I have been absolutely exhausted this week. Zero energy to do anything after work but watch TV and go to bed! Hopefully I will find some energy since I hate doing the 9-6 gig and then sleeping the rest of the time!

I have had some interesting job issues come up...next week should be interesting.


Counting down the days until FLORIDA and some of my ADPis!!!!

Friday Night Frat Party

Last night after work I met up with the BHS graduates of 04' who are living in the area. We met up at Founding Farmers which is an excellent, organic and LEED certified restaurant in the Foggy Bottom area which is really close to my office. The wait was forever and a day. Which we had heard was a problem from a few people who had tried the restaurant. But it was well worth the wait, as the food was fabulous and reasonably priced.

The BHS crew consisted of myself, Erin, Sara, Laura (who was visiting Sara), Neal, Peter, and Alex (not a BHSer). After dinner we headed to McFaddens...or shall we call Delta Gamma Beta, or some other random greek letters. The feeling was that of a large overrun frat party. But who am I to complain about a place that has $2 Miller Lite all night on Fridays! In summary, there was some moments on girls on a bar, a future ex-wife for peter, and a drunk skanky freshman that Alex and I later saw at the metro and lots of shots.

The only thing missing from the night....the flickering lights for when the cops came and crashed the party.


But I am very excited to have some people to hang out with from high school.

Elephants Are Distracting

Friday was full of surprises!



First off, Alex and I had decided to meet up for lunch at check out an Indian restaurant close to my office near DuPont. When I met Alex at a corner he was carrying a very spring festive bag. He told me he had gotten me something. I was thinking maybe some chocolate or a rice krispy treat, and wrapped up fancy. Well we got to lunch and he had me open the bag. Under the layers of really pretty spring colored tissue paper I found a folded up piece of paper. I opened the paper and saw an airline itinerary for the weekend of my birthday to Jacksonville Florida. I almost started crying in the restaurant. I had been really wanting to go to FL to visit Stephanie and Kendal was planning on being down there for the same weekend. I thought it would be a wonderful way to celebrate my 23rd birthday. Naturally my budget was just too tight to really consider the plane ticket since I feel like I need to be putting my money towards loans and bills. So needless to say, it was a wonderful early birthday present that made my week/month.



After lunch I treated myself to a 24 Karrot cupcake from hello cupcake and a chai. I was pretty burnt out from the week (this full time schedule is tough!) and wasn't having a lot of luck motivating myself. (Side note: I made my first hire though which was thrilling and really makes me think I want to try my hand at recruiting once the economy turns around). But then news got around the office that there was an elephant across the street at The Mayflower which is a very old, historical hotel here in DC. I couldn't resist so I headed outside to see the commotion.



Sure enough, there was an elephant. A couple was getting married and had planned a traditional Indian ceremony which included the groom riding around the block in DC on an elephant. Some people from work and myself stood around and watch the procession which was quite a show! Let's just say I never expected to see an elephant strolling down the streets of the nations capital! This happened about a year ago, you can read the story from that to get an idea of what I saw!