no more monkeys

When I'm doing research, I make an organized mess. I was on my bed with laptop, and at least 4 or 5 books open with notes and papers strewn about. Yang was stopping by to pick up his jacket and he knocked on the door. Now instead of moving things aside, or calmly walking around my bed I decide instead it's a good idea to stand up and jump off my bed, over my books and things, to answer the door. It seemed like a good idea until upon landing I slammed my hand into my nightstand. (To which my brother asked me - why were your arms moving? Apparently when I jump, I still move my arms like I did back in cheerleading. It's the only explanation I have for why I would need to swing my arms up and then down) So now I'm in great pain, fingers swell up and bruise immediately and I have to let Yang in, and ask him to give me a minute while I writhe in pain. Frozen spinach and Ibu later, I'm no longer doing research as I can't write or turn pages with my right hand. I didn't break anything (other than my nails) luckily, but they were sore for a good 4 days.

You'd think I had learned my lesson about jumping off my bed. A few years ago I was on the phone and jumped off my bed but when I landed I rolled my ankle and watched myself fall in my full length mirror, and sprained my foot. (At first I laughed really hard because seriously, watching yourself fall is hilarious, and then came the pain/swelling/bruising) But nope, here I am years later still jumping off my bed. It seems that I have a greater success rate though!

filled with wines (part 2)

Since the wine tasting Jonna hosted back in April (filled with wines part 1 - pinot noir) was such a hit, she asked Evan if he would mind teaching us again. This time we would do white wine (requested, not by me though - I prefer red! Dirty red.) Evan selected Chardonnay.

Jonna had made a bunch of delicious snacks and Leigh had brought some hummace with pomegranate seeds, which were all delicious. Once we got settled Evan started pouring out wine and discussing flavors and aspects of each. Seeing as how I don't really like white wine, of the six I liked only two.

First: Morgan Metallico Unoaked. Monterey, CA 2007. It was too acidic for my liking, pass.

Second: Domaine L Chatelain. Chablis, France, 2007. I liked this one. You could taste sour apple and it was smooth, and only $20/bottle.

Third: Casa Lapostolle. Casablanca Valley, Chile, 2008. Did not like this one at all! It smelled amazing - like tropical/pineapple/melon but was soooo sweet and just ugh.

Fourth: Toasted Head. Russian River Valley, CA, 2006. This one tasted of oak, and was OK. I would drink it, but I wouldn't buy it myself.

Fifth: Mer Soleil. Santa Lucia Highlands, CA 2007. This wine was interesting. It was creamy and buttery, not too bad.

Sixth: Louis Latour. Corton-Charlemagne, France 2003. My favorite white wine of all time we tried last, and of course was the most expensive (anywhere from $80-125 per bottle). Evan and I have had this wine before, and since sometimes (most times) it takes me a while to finish a glass, I discovered that when this wine was left to air out (which is not typical for white wine) it smelled and tasted sweet as honey. It's smooth and absolutely amazing. I enjoyed my glass, savoring every drop.

We decided that the next wine tasting session we would go back to reds. So delicious!

80s rock star

My friend Jon sent out an email about the legwarmers! (80s cover band) playing in Falls Church at the State Theater a few weeks back and a group of us bought tickets, with intent on dressing up in full 80s garb and party like it's 1989. (yah, I know) I've always had a great time at their concerts. The past few times there were one or two songs that I didn't know, but this time - I knew them all!

I met up with Ed and Salman, losing Salman because he forgot his drivers license, so Ed and I metroed to West Falls Church station to get picked up by Jon. Well, to start the night off, Jon gets pulled over for driving in the bus lane, but on top of that his car registration is apparently wrong/expired. So the cop is a huge jerk and takes almost 30 minutes before he finally issues Jon a ticket and let's us go on our way. We met up with Salman at Clare and Don's to eat before the concert. Jen and Billy, Billy Ho and Matt showed up, and we headed over to State Theater to pick up our tickets and head inside. Everyone was dressed up (well almost everyone) in true 80s garb, and it was very exciting. I think the dressing up adds to the excitement and experience. Most creepy award goes to Jon, for his mustache and mullet style wig. And, I have to thank Susan for letting me borrow some accessories, it completely made my outfit!

I danced pretty much the entire time, and it was the best. It was sooo incredibly hot inside, and I'm sure the dancing, jumping around didn't help. Also, I brought my echo microphone that Jonna had given me from the last time we went to see the legwarmers, and that was a huge hit! I think it adds to the experience! Everyone loves to sing into the microphone and rock out. The sunglasses I had broke though, and I was sad about that, but they were still kind of wearable. They saw their last 80s concert.

Once it finally ended around 1am (I think) most of us decided we wanted to get pancakes! I had to get some things from Jon's car, move his car, and then meet back up with the group. Ed and Salman hopped a cab and left while I was moving Jon's car, I'm not sure where Matt went and Jen, Billy, and Billy Ho made a new friend. Tiffany was outside and drunk. Her friend had bailed on her last minute so she decided to come to the concert anyway. She wasn't able to drive and we convinced her to join us for pancakes. I was incredibly tired from my constant bopping around and managed a piggy back ride from Billy Ho all the way to his car! I think it was the best piggy back ride I've ever had. My legs were incredibly grateful. And, we continued the 80s music from his iPhone and danced the few blocks to the car. We went to the silver diner in tysons and had delicious late night snacks. Specifically, my hot chocoalte was amazing, and the cherry from Billy Ho's Oreo milkshake!

The pictures from the night are the absolute best. Jen has them all posted on her facebook and at some point I will add them to my gallery too. I have always had a fantastic time at legwarmers shows, and I hope that everyone else had as much fun dancing and singing too :)

goo

Billy Ho had noticed that my beautiful pumpkin from the week before was really really moldy and suggested that I should probably throw it out. Well, it had just barely been a week! and I wasn't ready to throw it out yet. I convinced myself that I'd throw it out Sunday, but I never did.

I got home from work Monday afternoon and noticed that my poor pumpkin was sitting a bit low, kind of soggy and significantly more moldy than it was on Saturday. So I grabbed some bags and forced my dead pumpkin into the bags. And then I noticed, there was pumpkin goo EVERYWHERE. I had no idea that pumpkins melted when they were moldy ugggh it was so incredibly gross. And of course I didn't realize the extent to which it was gooey and splashed myself and screamed, yah I'm really brave. I managed to clean it up without much other goo issue, but I'm sad that I had to get rid of my pumpkin so soon into October. I should have probably thrown it out when Billy suggested it - would have saved myself a lot of pumpkin slop!

raint boot day

Rainy Friday makes for a perfect night to go bowling! Jen, Billy Ho and I decided we wanted to go bowling out in Falls Church. Susan's boyfriend, Jared, was in town visiting her from Cleveland and I convinced them to come bowl and hang out too. After 2 months of being roommates we finally hung out outside of the apartment! The Bowl America isn't as nice as the bowling at the Fort, so I'll probably not go back, ever. It's also more expensive than the fort, but we did have amazing shoes. I didn't play very well, couldn't break 100, but Billy Ho showed us up winning both games, while hitting 9 pins often.

Afterward we went back to my and Susan's apartment to play games. I also had a lot of Halloween candy leftover from the carving party the previous weekend, that everyone inhaled. Specifically, it was really nice of everyone to leave me the yellow and orange starburts. I particularly enjoyed finding them strewn about the bottom of the bowl. We played Scattergories for 3 rounds, and then Mark called me while on his drive home. I convinced him to come over instead of going home, and Susan and Jared went to bed (being responsible law students) and Billy also showed up after his friends happy hour/birthday, and we decided to play Clue. The game started out really well, all competitive, and Mark was trying to cheat! Billy wasn't really paying attention toward the end, didn't show Jen or Billy Ho the card to the Hall, so I kind of won the game. It's really nice to have mellow nights in and with great company! I'm really excited that Mark was able to come by, I don't get to see him as often as I would like since I started going to school full time. And did I mention really good company that night? Yah, that too ;)

have field trip

I didn't know that in Grad school, it was still possible to have field trips! For my Museum Studies class, we were lucky enough to get after hours access to the Udvar-Hazy Center in Dulles, VA. Basically it's an extension of the National Air and Space Museum on the mall. It's large enough to hold thousands of aviation and space artifacts that are too large to be exhibited in the city.

We were discussing the Enola Gay and the controversy around the plane and an exhibition that failed and was inevitably canceled in 1994. For those of you that don't know, this B-29 was used to drop the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. The curator wanted to focus on various aspects surrounding the war, the plane and the atomic bomb at the 50th anniversary of the end of WWII. The AFA and Veterans were not pleased with the planned exhibit and since they couldn't come to a compromise, it was canceled and a simplistic display was featured in the Air and Space Museum for a few months before the plane was finally transfered to the Udvar-Hazy Center.

We were able to walk around the Center and see various planes, and were given a private tour by Tom Crouch, who was a part of the original controversy surrounding the Enola Gay. We were given a first hand account of the events surrounding the exhibition and the history surrounding the plane. I felt like a little kid on a class field trip, and most of the class were running around. I took a few pictures and the trip was fun, but overall disappointing. It's really disappointing to see how the Enola Gay has been limited to be featured as only a B-29 and not for the role its had to ending the war. Regardless, it was a lot of fun to get a different class experience.

For more pictures, click here!

celebrating fall

I decided to host a celebration of everything that is amazing about fall, and convinced my friend Jen to let me invite people and have this celebration at her house in Bethesda. My apartment is just too tiny to hold so many people and fun.

I brought home made chili (made with love), a graveyard cake and lots of candy. Jonna brought a pumpkin cheesecake, that I tried to help her make, and it was still delicious! Dan brought the makings for hot apple cider, which was perfectly fall and warm.

Once everyone arrived and was settled with a drink and snack of their choice, we played Cranium Pop 5. I don't generally enjoy playing Cranium, I tend to freeze under pressure (the same reason why I don't test well) but was convinced to play anyway. The highlights of that game was the fact that Jonna was incredibly intuitive and managed to guess many of the cards. One card Dan had using word play, the words he used was "huge" and "parsley" and Jonna answers with "Jolly Green Giant". We're not sure how she got that from parsley, but we definitely took the points. Jonna also had to mold tube socks with clay, and made a cute little clay sock and started making a tube. My response "what's a tube for?", and then someone on our team figured it out. There is a perfect picture of me asking the question and Jonna reacting to my "tube" response, I laughed a lot after that. And then when it was my turn I used word play. Of course I freeze and can't think of anything but one word "puppy" for topic, song. Jonna's immediate response "Who Let the Dogs Out". It was amazing! She totally saved me, but despite her amazing skills we still lost. I think it might have been a close game, maybe. (Probably not)

We started pumpkin carving after the game, and everyone worked really hard! We had some very creative pumpkins. Some of the boys took longer than others to carve, but in the end they all came out great! Jen had even bought an electric carving knife, which worked really well. I stuck to the old fashion method though. We arranged them all in a line and took a bunch of pictures. It took a while to get the pictures to come out, but the process was fun. Afterward we decided to watch Trick R Treat, which was the scary movie feature that everyone decided we should watch. It was mostly gory and kind of scary. I wasn't all that impressed, but it definitely made me scared, although I am a huge wuss. It was really late by this point and most everyone headed home. Everyone said they had a really great time, and I was really happy. The past 3 years I have been able to celebrate fall with friends, and I was glad to get to do it again this year.

Since I was then completely wired and perfectly scared, I couldn't go to sleep right away. Jen and Billy, Billy Ho and Ari kept me company and we watched Ace Ventura, until I could finally calm down and sleeeeep. I slept most of the night, and was able to continue the fun into Sunday while we all hung out and watched football (and I even did some homework). I got home pretty late Sunday night, but the entire weekend was worth being tired Monday, and also worth the wait.

More pictures in my gallery!

gleeeeeee

A few weeks ago I came home from my Thursday class and Jason sent me link for a show that he had just watched, and couldn't help but tell me all about one of the main characters. He has a crush on the red head, I clicked the link and heard it running in the background but didn't pay much attention to it. Until, I heard music. Starting the link over again I fell IN LOVE with this show, Glee.

Of course I have class when the show is on, so as soon as I get home from work Wednesdays I pull up hulu and watch the latest episode. I also like that Amy and I get to watch it together, even though she's in VT and I'm here in VA. I highly recommend this show, the music is amazing and exciting. (I definitely have a crush on the male lead, Finn) I think when it comes to music, it takes a lot of passion to perform and I completely melt!

Many of their songs you can download on iTunes, but also can find on youtube. Seriously, what can't you find on youtube. Here are some of my favorite songs!

zach and lynn's wedding

I was very excited to be invited by my coworker Zach to his wedding. It was fun to get the grooms perspective as he and Lynn made plans for their wedding day. He would share stories with me, and all the exciting planning and joys that come along with it.

His wedding was the very first morning wedding I have ever been to. I can't even imagine what time Lynn had to wake up to get ready for the day, as the ceremony started at 10:30am. And not only that, full Catholic mass. Zach and Lynn are very, very lucky that I like them a lot.

The church they chose to be married in was historical and built during late 18th Century in Forest Glen, MD. It had amazing stone structure and stained glass windows. The ceremony was very beautiful, but not as beautiful as Lynn. She had a very classic dress and a cathedral style veil. I have never seen a veil like hers, and it was gorgeous. They were both wearing gigantic smiles as they exchanged vows and wedding rings.

The reception was just across the street from the church, which made for a very easy commute. I enjoyed delicious foods and company. Also, Lynn had prepared a slide show of pictures of Zach and Lynn as kids and then pictures of them together, which was very sweet. I only stayed until 3pm where I unfortunately had to leave to do homework. But the wedding was a lot of fun, and I'm selfishly excited that he will be back at work on Monday :)

To see more pictures from Mr and Mrs Topel's wedding, click here!

have IT superhero

Jason decided to take a road trip home to his dad's in the Buffalo, NY region. Which is awesome for me because I'm en route! And now that I work part time, I was available to have lunch with Jason on his way up to Buffalo and dinner with him on his way back down to Durham.

On Wednesday September 16th, Jason showed up around 1:30pm and I decided that we were going to Earl's for lunch. Earl's is THE best place for sandwiches and I hadn't been in a long time. I had my usual, The Louie - which is fresh roasted turkey with lettuce, tomato, and a pesto mayo sauce, slightly grilled and delicious, with a side of fries. Jason had the bbq pork sandwich, which I've never had, because I always get the same thing. I know other people have had it, my brother who inhaled it in I think 3 bites, and loved it. The weather was mild and sunny so we ate outside and chatted. I hadn't seen him since my trip in May, so I was very excited to get some quality time! Once we were finished Jason went on his way, and I headed to campus for homeworks and class (less fun).

And then, on Tuesday September 22nd, Jason showed up around 5:30pm and I was in the process of cooking a delicious dinner for us to enjoy. I made a pork tenderloin that had been marinaded in balsamic vinegar and some herbies of choice, broccoli and garlic pasta shells. It was delicious! We also enjoyed home made brownies (amy's recipe) and I sent Jason on his way home with some freshly made banana bread. Yay for visits, even if they're short, I'll take seeing my friend and getting hugs any day I can!!