What Brought You To DC?

The other day I was walking to work and I received a compliment on my shoes while I was waiting at a crosswalk. Now I have to stop for a minute and talk about the shoes (cuz--I love me some shoes).

These beauties came home with me from Idaho, courtesy of my parents as a Christmas gift. I wore my last pair into the ground, so I have loved getting a fresh new pair, with a little flair too! I bleed gold between the University of Washington and the University of Idaho so these were pretty much perfect.  

Back to where I was going with this. I get a compliment, I start talking to the guy, find out he has some connections to the grand state of Idaho and we walk and pass some generic conversation (how un-DC right?!?!?). Naturally, after a few questions about the great Best Coast and how much I loved growing up there, I get asked the 2nd most common question I think one gets in DC:

"So what brought you to DC?"

Sigh. Well. What did bring me?

Or is it more important to say what has kept me here?

Now, I have learned you kind of have to judge your audience on this one. Sometimes it is best (and easiest!) to just take the easy exit and say "work". Coming for a job is...adult, professional, driven, and rarely receives a second thought. The next answer, which is my true answer is :" for a guy". Which then always gets: "Oh! Are you two still together?". Well, er...umm....how do I say this...."No. BUT!...." and down the rabbit hole we go with my  follow-up stories. Which is a little song and dance about a new boy, a job and the job market being better here.

People don't stay here long. Well not in my age bracket it seems. I feel like my 4.5 years, is a lifetime in DC. I have probably attended more going away happy hours, than I have birthday dinners in my time here. We all have our stories of how we got here. Jobs, love, family, passion for the intrinsic natured jobs, a love of gross swamp-like-kill-you-slowly summer heat (you can sense my enthusiasm). Regardless, it feels kind of like a secret society. You come for work, love, money, fame, glory, or whatever it may be, and you get your head completely rearranged here. Then you spread your little fledgling wings and fly out of the proverbial post-college nest and head (what we can hope for me) westward .

It is like a right of passage.

So while that questions seems to pop up all the time, and almost in an insincere way (similar to the "So what do you do?" question), it is more like the secret handshake for the DC secret society. Or saying the password and seeing if someone knows what you are talking about.

Having your own story to answer that question...it makes you part of this...society or club, or whatever you want to call it. So to the person who complimented my shoes and asked me how I ended up here...thanks for making me realize it wasn't a typical fake DC question...you were just making sure I was initiated.

When I get Nervous

When I get nervous (mainly at work), I twirl my hair. Not like the ditsy girl playing with a strand of hair and twirling it around her fingers, but like a good chunk of hair that I flip all around. HORRIBLY distracting I am sure. Talk about ruining my professional image!

Lately it has evolved into twisting my hair into a big bun when I get nervous. Perhaps it distracts me from what I am saying but it. has. to stop. I didn't always do this, so I am not sure where it came from!

I figure by saying it, I will be more aware of it and can hopefully stop myself from fidgeting when I am delivering some uncomfortable or unsettling information in the office.

The goal is to watch myself like a hawk this week and if I have to put my hair up....it will be done.

Yup. That is me.

ARRGGGGHHHH!

Last week I was looking at all those beautiful photo montages that all the cool-kid bloggers are doing. Ya know, the ones with the circles, that look all cute and polished? Well I thought, how hard can that be!

Well it can be kind of hard. Or maybe I am just missing something easy here?

I am using Gimp over here trying to make some of those circle thingys. I made one. As you can see from my previous post. Naturally, I forgot to bookmark the tutorial that helped me make that one. So now I am stuck with a bunch of cropped circle images, that all have solid backgrounds!!??! What the heck! I. am. so. frustrated!

Anyone else out there use Gimp for photo editing and cropping things like this for their blog? Anyone have any other suggestions on how to up my blogging game? Or suggestions of where I can get a no-frills crash course in Gimp?? (Before I pull out all of my hair!)

These Are Some of My Favorite Things

It is Thursday people. THURSDAY. Did I mention I love 4 day weeks. Even more...I love 4 day weeks back-to-back.

Unconventional stuffed animals that seems perfect for an urban living space.

A pet lion that is really a poodle? I want!

A made-up boyfriend that cracks me up. Or the new state of dating and courtship.

Figuring out your boss and their personality.  

Being able to see something that has been something we can only feel. Pretty awesome.

Comfort For Your Head and Heart

I have been on a bit of a book bender these days. It started when I was home for Christmas and I actually had down time where I didn't feel the need to drown myself in trash TV. I recently just finished all the books I had gotten around Christmas and I was in need of something new and preferably for the ipad since I was recently on a plane for 12ish hours making a round-trip visit to the Best Coast for some skiing.

As much as I love my ipad and reading on it...I get nostalgic and sometimes miss the feeling of a book. More than the book....I miss bookstores.

When I first moved to DC and Alex and I were tres poor, we used to spend our Saturdays camped out in a Barnes & Noble reading books for essentially free (we did purchase coffee to offset our shameful reading of books we never bought). While it was pretty stressful to not even be able to afford a book, I loved those Saturdays. I loved having no where else to be, and I loved feeling comfort in reading.

So to find my next book I wandered into a small bookstore in Spokane and did my usual assessment of the book covers to see if anything caught my eye. A few books caught my eye, but one really stood out as I looked over the stacks of new books.

I picked it up. Flipped through the cover and first pages thinking "could be a cute read", put it down and moved on. I later went back to snap a photo to remind myself I should look into it. 

A few days later I read some reviews on amazon and quickly got the hint that this was a MUST read book. I purchased it minutes before boarding my flight home and I read the entire way back.

I am hooked. Cheryl's words of advice are calm, rational, compassionate, heart-felt, re-relatable, heartwarming, eye-opening and a million other things that just fill you with goodness. I turn page after page and I realize how brutally spot on she is, and how so many of her responses, while not directly applicable to the deep questions of my life, have nuggets of truth that really hit home. I have laughed, I have cried, I have cringed, I have re-read certain letters just to soak in all of the beauty they contain. Simply put--it is a beautifully written compilation of advice letters that you will find comfort and inpiration in. So what I am saying is...go buy this. Read it. Love it. 

Couple this with a cup of my current favorite tea (since I can't afford this ), Yogi Egyptian Licorice, and I am set for a snuggly evening of feel-goodness.

Does anyone else get sad when a really good book ends? I try to have my next read lined up so I don't focus too much on the end of a good book. Any of you have some reading recommendations to help me through what will undoubtedly be a very sad finishing of this book?