Some Highlights

In exactly one week I will be on a plane headed home to Utah after spending about four months in the District of Columbia. I've had an interesting time in this city. Here are some highlights.

First day of the internship.

T.C. Williams Football game, the team from Remember the Titans.

Mount Vernon

Getting to spend so much time at the Capitol. This is on our walk to work.

The Shirley Chisolm picture.

Going to Philly and harassing the colonial man into taking a million pictures of us at the Betsy Ross house.

When my Mom and all my sisters came to visit, even though it rained the whole time :)

Saturday morning breakfast at Eastern Market.

This picture in general...

Canoing on the Patomac.

The Cupcake Crawl

D.C. cupcakes in general, especially Georgetown Cupcake, this one is Caramel Apple.

Seeing the Barber of Seville at the Nationals Stadium's "Opera in the Outfield"

Making shadows on the steps of the Supreme Court after work.

Sunsets and free concerts at the Kennedy Center.

It has been an adventure. I have had some really good times and some really, let's say interesting times here. I am really lucky to have the opportunity to live here, but I can't wait to come home! Only one week...

Pre-mature Halloween Excitement

I get excited for Halloween about 5 times a year. Right after Christmas, when summer starts, after the 4th of July, when summer ends, and when it is finally October. I'm not sure why I love this holiday so much, but I get so excited for it. It's probably because I just love the time of year so much. October is my favorite month, and I wait for it all year and now it is only 2 days away! Today the weather was so crisp and nice outside. I love it.

My one problem is that being out here in DC has caused a significant hinderance on my availability on a Halloween costume. I need something to wear, but have nothing. I also need ideas. What should I be? The more suggestions the better. Also something that I can somehow find out here for cheap, or even for free...

Jerry West: The only good thing about the Lakers.

I would just like to announce that I celebrated my one month anniversary of being in DC this week. Time has really flown, and yet I have so much time left here. It's bitter sweet really. This week has actually been pretty good, and I even met my first celebrity, Jerry West. However, had I seen him on the street I never would have known that he was anyone special. Apparently he is in the top 50 NBA Hall of Fame and played for the Lakers back in the day, and at one point even owned the team. So yeah. He was a super nice guy. We even got to talk with him for a while and got to walk with him back to our office. So there you go. You never know who you are going to meet. This week I also went to my first Major Leage Baseball game. The Nationals played the Dodgers, and it was actually a close game, even though the Nationals are ranked as the 2nd worse team this year. Finally, I would like to say that I felt like a true DC local when during my daily commute I said aloud, "Come on people, walk left stand right" when people were blocking the walking side of the escalator. I think I need to get back to Utah soon...

The District

So basically I went the entire summer without writing any blogs, but now that I am quite a long distance away from all those I love I was thinking maybe I should start this up again. Maybe I didn't write because mostly just my family reads this and I was around them all summer, so they already knew what was happening in my life and didn't need this blog to keep up on my always exciting life. Just kidding.
Well here I am in "The District." Now that I have spent a good two weeks here I have quickly learned that if you call Washington D.C. by its full name, or even just simply D.C., you sound like a tourist. It is simply refered to as "The District" for those who are cool enough to reside locally. So far not much has happened while I have been here since Congress has not been in session, and I am still learning about the assortment of activities to participate in. This weekend I have experienced quite the hinderance in my social life since my metro stop and the two adjacent to it have been closed for the entire three day weekend. Yes the entire weekend. Since I am so poor as an insignificant intern, I must rely on the metro to move me around "The District." So here I am on a Saturday night in a new city writing a blog instead of hitting up the town.
I thought I might expound on the metro and all its glory. I have found that every day I have a unique and colorful experience on the metro. Sometimes its just the thrill of barely making it through the doors right before they almost snap one of you limbs off. Sometimes its the embarassment I get when I have gotten on the wrong train and have to quickly escape before I am carted off in the wrong direction. One gem of a moment included a little girl who seriously cried straight for a half an hour while her mother displayed some "quality" parenting skills by talking to her like she was a disobedient teenager. That was a good ride. However the one that tops them all was while waiting for the yellow line at Chinatown with my friend Ashley. We experienced what I have only seen in the movies. Before our yellow trian arrived, an infamous green line train pulled up to the platform only to be rushed by over a dozen police officers with guns drawn. Hmm, I thought to myself. Could I be in a potentially dangerous situation? Is there going to be shoot out or something? When after about 10 minutes of police raiding the train continued on its way passagengers and all like nothing had happened. Just another day in the District.

Memorial Day

I don't know why, but I have always really loved Memorial Day. Every year I go visit some of our family member's graves with my Mom. I can't remember a year that I haven't gone. Even though we always just put a few simple flowers on the graves and our visits are always short, I am really glad that my Mom takes the time to do it every year. I guess I am just grateful for all those who came before us and I think it's important to not forget about them. I think it reminds me to be extra grateful for family and friends and the time I have to spend with them and to not take it for granted. Happy Memorial Day (and Happy 1st Birthday to my niece Lucy!)

Arlington Cemetery, my favorite place in all of D.C.

Keeping in Tradition...

Tonight is the last night I can become a true aggie as a student of USU. I am not a true aggie yet. My roommates think I should become one tonight, but I just don't know if I can do it. I guess I will let you know the end result later...

The glass is half full

As I was sitting waiting for my class to start today, a fellow student came in and asked how my day was. I said it had been okay and then naturally asked how his had been. He told me that he was having the best day ever. He went through his whole day and told me all the reasons why he was having such a great day. Nothing that happened to him today was really that outstanding, but his amazingly positive attitude made it all seem so perfect. He then apologized to me for having to listen about his day, but I said I said there was no reason for apologies. I told him that his optimism had rubbed off on me, and I have been in a pretty good mood ever since. What if everyone had the same outlook as my classmate? Just a thought...

Best Day Ever

I had the best day of my life, so I figure its worth blogging about. So I woke up on a crisp Tuesday morning with the sun shinging through my window. I got to sleep in until a wonderful 9:30 am. Then at approximately 10:00 am, my phone rang. "Who could this be" I thought. As I checked the number it was one I didn't recognize. I answered, it "Hello", when all of the sudden I got the best news ever. It was Orrin Hatch's office offering me an internship for this Fall. YES! I accepted the offer right away. After recieving this wonderful news, I proceeded to live one of the best days ever. Since this was a Tuesday, I didn't have class all day. I took a little walk outside and then leisurely read the whole day. (I am reading 1984, which is a pretty interesting book). Then I went and taught an SI session, which went relatively well. After my SI I had the pleasure of meeting my friends at Pizza Plus and finished the night off re-living my childhood by watching The Land Before Time. Overall it was a fantastic stress free wonderful day.

Really it was mostly the internship that made the day so good. I had thought that I wanted a summer internship, but after visiting DC for Spring Break (which was really great) I realized how expensive it was going to be to live there. So now I can work and save money, spend time with the family, and just enjoy the summer. Also there is another big reason why being home for the summer is so great, because my roommate Abby is engaged! Holy cow! It happened pretty fast, but we are all really excited. The greatest part is that she is engaged to David, one of the Pizza Plus boys (please refer to December's blog about my Pizza Plus experience). Ha ha, it's so great. So Abby and David are getting married at the end of July and now I get to go to their wedding extravaganza stuff. Well, this blog is long enough. Oh, also Tuesday was St. Patrick's day. So maybe that had to do with all my luck... Basically life is great, and that's that.

A really great picture of Abby trying to be a boy:

This is David. He doesn't actually wear these glasses, but I think he should...

They are in love :)

Wrap your mind around this.

My friend Robbie, said that phrase to me, and I have decided that I really like it. "Wrap your mind around this, the Grand Canyon," was the actual phrase he used in regards to ideas for Spring break. I don't know why, but it made me laugh, therefore making me wish more people used it more often. So speaking of Spring break, I am going to DC again. Hooray. It was kind of a random decision but when my friend Fish said she wanted to go, and I have a free place to stay, and $200 round trip tickets, and approval from Mom, I said to myself, Yes! Why not go to DC? I am young and have almost not commitments to anything in life. Also, i figure, this is a graduation present to myself. So yeah. The past two weeks have been full of random suprises. Deciding to go to DC was one of them. My roommate Abby officially has a real boyfriend (which is big news). Yesterday my roommate Kelli decided to drive to Oakland with her sister for the 3 day weekend, which she has decided is the craziest thing she has ever done. I finally got a letter from Andrew (those of you who know of this will understand the significance) and I also got a letter from Torrie. Finally, my only real class was cancelled twice this week, which is totally awesome. Well now I will end this random blog so I can head home to spend a good 3 day weekend at home with the family. But before I end this, I will leave you with a good cartoon, I think its appropriate since I went to the dentist this week. Oh by the way, sorry Rebekah, but my teeth aren't sensitive after I got my fillings. Your husband is a lawer, you should sue him. Ha ha, just kidding. Well, have a Happy Friday!

Raining in January?!

Well, once again I have found myself writing a blog while I should probably be doing something much more important, like finishing my history paper that is due in an hour, or filling out my roll for SI, etc. I have decided to post another cartoon. Once again its Friday and once again I found a cartoon that made me chuckle. Maybe I will make it a tradition. Also, I would like to add this, Family, start writing blogs. It provides me with entertainment while I should be doing more important things. And I like to hear what goes on in your life. If you don't write blogs then I must resort to wasting time on facebook looking at the pictures of people that I went to high school with that I would never actually talk to in real life. My final thought, it has been raining all day, and yesterday. And since it is winter, the rain turns to a nice sheet of ice when it hits the ground, making it nearly impossible to walk anywhere, making my daily walk to campus a life or death situation. Well, enjoy this cartoon. And have a Happy Friday.

Happy Friday!

I found this cartoon, and even though I know it is really dumb it made me laugh.

I heart good music.

I would just like to say that I have found another great artist. His name is Ray LaMontagne. I have no idea how to pronounce his last name, so I have decided we are on a first name basis and I will just call him Ray from here on out. The point of the story is that I quite enjoy Ray's music. You should all check it out. Maybe you will hate it, but maybe you will love it like me. If you would like to listen to Ray, go here http://searchbeta.playlist.com/tracks#ray%20lamontagne. I would listen to the song Let it be me. I hope you all enjoy!