Dzień Kobiet

Today is Dzień Kobiet or in English, International Women's Day. Google knows it (it's on their google header for the day:

But did you know it? And I'm assuming like 99.9% of the people who read my blog are women so I'm letting you know. 


I had never heard of Dzień Kobiet until my mission. We went out to eat for lunch and I remember my companion and I were handed flowers. I had no idea why we were given flowers, so I asked and was told it was Women's Day. Then I looked around and saw all the women in the restaurant had flowers. 


Why don't we celebrate this in the US? I think we should. We could all use a little more validation in our lives.


On a more serious note, yesterday at work in honor of today they were showing a film called Pray the Devil Back to Hell. It follows the Liberian Civil War and how instrumental the women of the country were in convincing the men to have peace talks. Many of the women interviewed in the film won the Nobel Peace Prize last year for their non violence. I keep thinking about the film and I highly recommend seeing it if it's ever an option.


Anyway, HAPPY WOMEN'S DAY all! I hope you treat yourself to something nice. New earrings, frozen yogurt, flowers, or all of the above.


POST EDIT: I just finished reading Leymah Gbowee's speech after she won the Nobel Prize. (She was the organizer for the women of the Liberian Civil War.) And it's such a great speech. Read it HERE.

50th Anniversary

I love ice cream. 

So when they told us there would be free ice cream brought by Ben and Jerry's today, I was SOO there. Then when Jerry got on the loud speaker and announced to the entire agency in a really awkwardly awesome way that it was FREE and how could anyone pass up FREE Ben and Jerry's, I laughed out loud and then grabbed my friends so they would come down with me.

I probably should have taken another picture...

microphone holder/guy in the suit = our administrator; 

tall guy in gray = ISC president (who I incidentally escorted in the building yesterday to a meeting with my boss. we're totally tight/ he's really really nice and totally laid back and really tall); 

guy with beard giving a thumbs up = Jerry. THE Jerry.

Why were they here? It's the 50th Anniversary of my agency this year.

Pretty awesome way to help celebrate my Birthday Week huh?

PS. I might have literally rubbed shoulders with the administrator while I went to get my Phish Food. 

Pretty sure I'm on the fast track to a career in politics and development, that rub was practically a handshake which was just a handshake away from The Secretary and that handshake is just a step away from one with The President... So, I totally practically almost shook hands with POTUS during my Birthday Week. Like I said, pretty awesome way to celebrate my Birthday Week.

Employment change

As of yesterday, I gave my employer my 3-ish week notice to say I was leaving. But I'm not leaving my position. I am just moving over to be an employee of the government instead of an employee of a government contracted company. I will have better pay, better benifits and some pretty solid job security. Yesterday as I walked to the metro to go home, I realized making the decision to take the direct hire--that's what it's called when you are a direct employee of the government, not a contractor or fellow etc-- was a career choice. Not just a new job that would teach me more skills that would some day help with a future career, but a real career.  And I chose to make a career working for the government, and it was a strange feeling. It's not that I couldn't change career paths later if I change my mind, but it will always say on my resume (though it's not like a school transcript, so I guess I could take it off if I wanted...) but it will always say on my resume, USAID employee. It was kind of humbling to think how everything came together simply and easily. Yes it's true that I don't love my job, but then again, I don't know if I could find a job that allows me to bake, blog, read good books, watch British Period Films, get back into bookbinding, all while make money at the same time. So, I went out and bought myself a new jacket to celebrate.

P.S. I have taken over my sister Emma's blog while she's on her mission. If you are interested in reading her letters you can right HERE. She leaves the Preston MTC on Monday. But keep in mind, that we write long letters, so these are long posts (even though they've gone through two edits to make them less personal and more open internet appropriate).

P.S.S. I got a new book in the mail yesterday. It's called Drawing with the Right Side of Your Brain. I'm going to learn how to draw, and I'm going to be good at it. When I start, updates will be forthcoming.

Weird

The weirdest thing happened to me this morning. I needed to fill up my water bottle so I grabbed it an headed to the drinking fountain and decided to take the opportunity to use the loo. I set the water bottle (empty plastic cheap-o water bottle) on the counter right when you walk into the bathroom. I do this all the time. The thought of taking something I'm going to drink out of into the stall with me is gross. So, I maneuver a little around the two ladies who are semi-primping before leaving the restroom and set my water bottle down next to their purses and papers, right in the corner so it wasn't in their way. I use the toilet and when I go to grab my water bottle, it's gone!

Yup, someone took my empty plastic cheap-o water bottle. (And yes I checked the trashcan.)

It was so weird!


And on a side note, I stopped to tell the story to the secretary that sits by the front door to my bureau. She's black. While telling her the story I found myself using a lot of "Mmmm-hmmm"s and "Oh, I know." And when I left I told her, "Now I gotta get me a new water bottle!" said with just the right amount of attitude and lip pursing and head moving. Who am I?


PS. I'm only two three weeks away from my year mark on the East Coast!

Awesome

I'm a really bad blogger lately. I think it's because I'm not getting enough sleep. Or I think I'm not getting enough sleep. I'm loving the weather. I'm loving waking up when it's light. I'm loving the fact that I can go to baseball games, or sit on the grass, or eat lunch outside and get sunburned while I eat with friends visiting from Utah.

I don't have a picture of the big event of the day. Michelle Obama came to USAID. And she was fabulous, and gorgeous, and I loved hearing her say, "My husband, the President..." or just using Barack in such an informal, personal way. And it was pretty exciting.

Anyway, that's all for now.

I'm headed out to the Nationals/Braves game tonight. It's beautiful weather!

Update

Pink shirt guy? Remember him? Yeah well, I've now decided that he's gay. Why? He gave the point and shoot/wink to some guy as we were leaving the office.

I pointed him out to Lisa saying, "Lis, that's the cute guy from my office!"

Her response? "That's the gay guy from your office!"

Apparently I have terrible taste in men.

What I've decided

Pink shirts. Not that cute on men. And, for some reason they were everywhere in my office today.

No big deal right? I can be ok with that.

There was the guy in the magenta; my boss, in dusty rose-ish color and he's married; even a guy in a peach (kind of pinky right?) and he's a baby daddy.

But, I'll tell you what, I was not ok with the only young, nice, attractive, single guy in the office walking by in a pink shirt.

Disappointed would be an understatement. Devastated would be exaggerating a little much. Slightly crushed maybe?

But, I walked by his desk later--No, I wasn't doing a "walk by" I actually had a purpose of walking by and it would definitely have been out of the way to go a different way. So ANYWAY, I walked by and I decided that someone who takes their dry cleaning to work with them and has it sitting in their office must be at the bottom of their pile and in need of laundry and is therefore still available.

Yes!

(Because lets be honest, having an office crush on someone gay is just kind of pathetic don't you think? So, he's straight until the next pink shirt incident. And lets hope that happens on laundry day again!)

Cabin fever

I'm finally going back to work tomorrow. Last time I was at work was last Friday. It's been a whole week! And, I have a three day weekend too! Sounds pretty posh. But, I'm ready for a little more structure in my day so this is good.

What did I do today?

1. cleaned my room really good-- it now NEEDS that chaise for the corner
2. shoveled the trash cans out so the garbage man can get them tomorrow
3. made the driveway opening wider so my roommate can get her car out, luckily a LOT of work was done before us
4. watched Law and Order--I just like that show

My new roommate Rebecca is a photographer and took some really pretty pictures yesterday. Check them out HERE. (P.S. Those are my galoshes in the picture. They look so cute!)

Swearing in

Just got back from the swearing in.

1. Yes, her [Hillary's] ring is HUGE. I could see it sparkling from across the room.
2. The new administrator, Rajiv Shah, has two young kids and a beautiful wife. The son tried to run off stage after seeing all the people. The daughter tried to pull her dad's had away from the Bible (or other book he used) as his wife held it. The wife struggled holding the child and book together. Rajiv Shah couldn't keep his son still while he held one arm on the book and the other in the air as he took his oath of service. It was endearing and I loved it.
3. His wife is gorgeous. They got engaged at the Taj Mahal when he flew there for one day to propose. (Hillary told us so.)
   
4. He gave a really good speech which made me excited that I work at USAID and work for a good organization.

That's all.

2010

Well, it seems customary with blogs and the beginning of the year that everyone puts up their Resolutions. I'm not going to. But, I have them. I have a long list of them in the following categories:

Spiritual
Physical
Mental
Social
Financial

I think they're good. And it's going to be a good year.

Yesterday I realized as I put my lunch in my bag that all my food for the day was orange. I had a peach yogurt, clementines (three to be exact--I love those things and knew I'd want more than one), tomato soup (which is always a little more orangy than red), and carrots. That's what you get when you're throwing in the fastest things in the kitchen together 30 seconds before running out the door to the bus.

Today Hillary Clinton is coming to USAID to swear in our new administrator. Apparently she has a huge rock on her hand. I hope I'm close enough to see it...

Because I was bored at work today

I took pictures of the two cute frogs I was watching for Amy this week. Okie and Acorn are so cute and little and were just swimming around and having a blast as they sat on my desk this week. I want some!

(So you can see how big they actually are. They're teenie tiny and so cute.)


Okie and Acorn

And now, since I'm waiting in the airport for my flight I have nothing to do and I'm blogging about them. Ha! They aren't even my frogs! Funny thing too, I snapped these two pictures with my phone but took a lot more with my camera. It worked really well on the setting that zooms in really close for detail shots. It's a good thing that no one walked by in the 20 or so minutes I spent taking pictures of two little froggies.

If you're wondering where you could pick up two similarly adorable little African Dwarf Frogs, you can find them at Brookstone.

And, next time I blog, I'll be blogging from OREGON!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

(PS. The TV at the airport is on a loop. I have now watched the whole thing. It was only interesting the first time.
Hopefully I won't have to watch it for a third. Even the commercials are the same... Perhaps I should move...)

Friday the 13th

Dun dun duuunnnnn!

On Monday I tripped while running up the stairs and spilled my running clothes and purse with lunch on the floor. But that was Monday the 9th.

On Tuesday I spilled post Institute snack all down my sleeve. (How that happens I don't know.) But that was Tuesday the 10th.

On Wednesday I burned the apples for my Butternut Squash and Parsnip Soup. But that was Wednesday the 11th.

On Thursday I dropped my water bottle in the bathroom, the lid popped off and rolled towards the toilets, and the water spilled all over the floor. Then I had to go back into the break room to thoroughly clean and refill the water bottle. But that was Thursday the 12th.

Today on this Friday the 13th I was super busy at work, which makes the day go faster, I knew the answers to questions, and worked longer than usual but was still able to make my normal bus because I hit every train right and then hit the bus just right. I came home to a toasty room thanks to the heat having been repaired that morning. So, Friday the 13th is just a stupid, silly superstition.

(Knock on wood.)

Long-winded

I talk a lot. I've always talked a lot. Home videos show me talking a lot. Kindergarten Native American teaching units gave me my "Indian name" of Little-Babbling Brook (evidence of me talking a lot). I had my name on the board frequently for talking during class in Elementary school. (And once, I got a check next to my name and had to stay in during recess because my name was already on the board for talking and then I stuck my tongue out at Aaron Beach--next door neighbor and fastest boy in the class-- while he was passing out worksheets.) Two years in a row I was voted "Most Talkative" in my 4th/5th grade combined classes. Report cards frequently had the comment, "Fun to have in class" followed with, "Has a talking problem". Middle school found me frequently being called on because I was talking. By high school I had learned to keep my comments under my breath so I wouldn't get called on or so no attention came my way.

I never caused real disruption to the whole class. Actually, the teacher calling me out during the lesson was probably more disruption than the actual whispering I was doing caused. I wasn't a bad kid. I was a good kid. I loved all my elementary school teachers. (Mrs. Henry, Mrs. Stark, Ms. Nissel, Mrs. Good, Mr. Asmos, Ms. Ficke)

I just had a lot to say!

If you know me well, you know I frequently talk. I talk during church, during meetings, during meals, during commutes to and from work. I talk all day long in typing form. I just talk a lot.

It's a problem. I will often realize I'm talking a lot and try to reel it in. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

There's a guy in my office who talks a lot. He give waaaaay too much information in our meetings. It's annoying. I find myself day dreaming and then realizing that he's still talking when I come to. I have to edit some information that he sent out. It should be one page or so, he gave me four. I'm annoyed.

Now I know how people feel when they read long blog posts. Or long emails. Or have to sit in a conversation with me when I feel like I'm talking and talking and talking. I really have to learn how to reel it in otherwise I'm going to be like this guy from work! (Well, perhaps not since I'm not quite so monotone and don't ever talk about agriculture and trade...)

Mystery

I’ve decided to become a detective on the side. Now you’re wondering what kind of detective and what my first case will be. Actually, I have no real desire to be a detective, but I’m nosey and I want info.

So the mystery is this: I started my new job Wednesday. I don’t know what happened to the lady who worked here before me, but I’m guessing she didn’t retire. My desk was a mess. The equipment was dirty (equipment meaning the mouse, the keyboard, the phone, the calculator) and required some serious disinfecting. There is a pair of old lady glasses on the desk still; a Healthy Choice Fresh Mixers Meal (it’s one of those meals you add water to and microwave); a foot massager under the desk and various bottles of lotion. The massager kind of grosses me out and I’m trying to figure out how I might get rid of it. The drawers are a mess and the small drawer under the desk that holds pens and things smelled like puke, or maybe sour milk. There was a huge pile of papers that were supposed to be recycled but why weren’t they? So I went through them. Some needed to be shredded (private info like social security numbers) and others could just be regular recycled. So as I’m cleaning everything I’m kind of grossed out. I suppose I am kind of a germa-a-phobe but I didn’t think I was. But when the dirt came off the mouse I was really kind of grossed out. And while I’m cleaning I can’t help but think that there’s no way I’d leave my desk in this mess. So it got me wondering what happened to the lady before me. Was she fired? Did she quit really fast? Was she relocated? My supervisor was asked what happened to her by another employee and she just answered, “She is no longer on the contract.” Hm… fishy. I told my roommate who works here at AID the name of the person I replaced and she laughed telling me that the lady was moved five times in the last year. So, I’m really wanting to know what happened to her now! Fired? Force quit? Just quit? Stopped coming to work? I NEED to know. But I’ll never ask. So I guess I won’t ever become that detective after all.

First day

I feel like it's my first day of school. I'm taking extra time on my hair (I'll probably have my picture taken), and I picked out clothes to wear last night. I hope I just make it there on time!

Happy Wednesday!

End of carefree summer

Today is my last day of not doing anything. That's right, I start my job tomorrow morning at 8. I'm a little worried about getting up real early because as of now my natural wake up time is 9, and if I have to be to work at 8 that means I need to be up and running a lot earlier than that. It's not like my BYU job that started at 8 where I could leave the house at 7:45 and get there on time. (Actually I was usually still getting ready at 7:45 and was generally running out of the house around 7:55 or later. I swear, there was always some kind of minor crisis every morning that prevented me from getting there on time. I think I might be missing the bus a lot out here.) But anyway this is my last day of my carefree, lazy DC summer. I'm really excited to start work. I don't know exactly what I'll be doing yet as jobs and projects will change daily. And I don't even know what department I'll be working at either (my position is basically contingent on where they have a need). All I know is that I will be working in the Ronald Reagan Building and that it's fabulously just around the corner from the American History Museum. I'm glad to start and I'm glad to finally get going! (Besides, I want a paycheck so I can decorate my room!)

Solitude

Until I begin my job (next week hopefully, keep your fingers crossed) I spend the days by myself. So yesterday after being lazy I finally went out to do something and that something was seeing Paper Heart. I took the bus, I bought my ticket feeling a little strange that I was seeing the movie by myself, but I figured when I bought the ticket they just must have thought I was meeting friends. Buuut, no friends, or fake friends for that matter came. I had a private screening for the movie. Yep, I was alll byyyy myself in the theater and I laughed as loud as I wanted, didn't turn my phone off, put my feet on the chair in front of me, and didn't feel self conscious about the big smile on my face for the awkward romantic parts. As far as the movie goes, I'd recommend the movie but not for everyone. It was slow in some parts, funny and clever in others, but still slow. I'm not sure I'd sit through it again, but there are definitely parts I want to see again.

After the movie I took a leisurely evening to get a manicure and then grocery shop (I would have gotten a pedicure too but I wore new shoes and had a raw skin patch and it sounded awful to have a cute Asian lady rubbing my sore). I missed the bus home from the grocery store by 30 seconds, literally, because I decided to stop in Subway for dinner so I walked home. And it was hot. Really hot. And by the time I got there my shirt was wet. And I was dripping sweat just like I did in Israel. But I had the pleasant surprise of having a new friend there wanting to go to ice cream and I never say no to ice cream. So we got our ice cream at ate it down by the water and it was the perfect end to a lackluster, boring day.

And yes, I took that picture while the movie was playing. It's not like I interrupted anyone's precious movie viewing. I was the only one there!

Whew!

It's now 7:30 pm and I haven't left the house all day after having had aspirations to go walk around the district when I finished the paper work I had to do for my upcoming job. It took so long but I now know that I have lived in 18 different places since graduating from high school, and have visited 14 countries in the last five years. I feel like I just completed a marathon. Hopefully my thoroughness of the questionnaire will expedite the process.

Good things are happening this weekend too with old friends coming into town, and I'm excited. Now, if only I was happy about the state of my room!

Job update!

August 3, 3009 5:45 pm: Landed in Philadelphia. Had a voicemail from someone wanting to interview the next day. Called back, left a message.

August 4, 2009 8:08 am: Called and left another message saying I could meet with them at 11:00 if that still fit in their schedule.

August 4, 2009 10:57 am: Arrive for an interview.

August 4, 2009 2:00 pm: Receive phone call offering me the job (it's temporary for now)

August 4, 2009 2:13 pm: Receive phone call from HR scheduling me to come in the next day to fill out paperwork.

August 5, 2009 10:00 am: Meet with HR lady and fill out paperwork.

August 5, 2009 5:24 pm: Receive offer letter.

Although the job is temporary, within 48 hours of landing on the East Coast, I have a job. If I had known that would happen I wouldn't have stressed so much! I start next week, dependent on my security clearance going through.