weekend highlights♣

SoOOOooOO many to choose from:

♥ PostSecret Party {pics to come soon}
♥ staying up till 4am at an impromptu sleepover
♥ Swimming laps in my outdoor pool {soooo much better than YMCA}
♥ Laying out in the sun to dry
♥ Walking past the Real World House { I think they are behind schedule...It was supposed to start filming a weekago and when I walked passed there were tons of construction workers still working on the outside of the house, but you can tell it's just about ready for the RWers...They even built an enclosed hot tub patio...a prerequisite, of course}
♥ Having another impromptu sleepover that involved a french film, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and manis/pedis.
♥ laying on my bed on a sunday afternoon watching Michael Jackson music videos. His peak was a little before my time, so I'm catching up now...and thoroughly enjoying it. LOVED Thriller...it's been stuck in my head ever since.
♥ Eating AMAZING bbq, sides, and desserts outside on a deck amid hundreds of sparkling fireflies.

LiFe iS goOd!!! And I'm giddy {can you tell?}

SilverDocs

Hi. Bremen and I went over to Silver Spring on Saturday night to walk around and explore a part of town we haven't been to yet. I've been aware of the Silverdocs documentary film festival that had been going on and I've been mentioning it all week that I wanted to go. So maybe it wasn't a coincidence that we ended up there.

We had no idea what was playing, how much tickets were or even if there were any available. We decided to check to see if there were any shows playing soon. We found one, read up on it, and it didn't seem that interesting so we looked into a stand-by only film called "No Impact Man." We read the synopsis and thought it sounded really interesting so we got in the stand-by line.

The film is about a man who participates in a year long project to live as environmentally responsible as possible in the midst of Manahattan. He brings his wife and baby into it as well. They produce no trash, use no electricity or elevators, use only self-propelled transportation, etc.

As we were waiting in line Bremen said, "This reminds me of a woman I worked with at Business Week who used no electricity and ate only from the farmer's market." We both buy tickets off people on the street and go into the fancy theatre. The movie starts and low and behold the movie is about the very woman that Bremen knows. He shared her office at Business Week. They used the same desk, computer, etc.

It was so crazy that he just happened to know these people and we had know idea about this film or anything. It was a great film and caused me to rethink many of my consumption habits. (more pictures to come)

Mr. Darcy?

Bremen and I went out one Saturday to the EU embassies open house. Here are pictures of the British embassy gardens which are SO impressive. I felt like I was wondering through an expansive British estate.

Fun times in the ward

Graduation Ball! 

From Left: Andrea, Julie, Wendy, Annalee, and me!

Kick off your Sunday Shoes!

At a ward talent show, 4 cute girls in the ward did a dance to Beyonce's "Single Ladies" and half way through the song and dance the dj turned it off, got mad, and started yelling that he's tired of only the single ladies being represented. He started yelling, "Where's all the single men?" And then 4 guys jumped up from the audience and the song and dance continued! It was really cute.

A Beautiful Weekend

A couple of weekends ago my friend Lindsey and I got together to look at art! You think I'm artsy? I'm nothing compared to this girl. She actually knows what she's talking about and has great taste. We both graduated from BYU's art history program, worked at BYU's Museum of Art AND were interns together at the Hirshhorn. It was such a fun day and I was happy to spend it with someone who appreciated it as much as I did.

Here we are in Georgetown taking a break for a cupcake from Baked and Wired.

We went to the marvelous Anderson Home in Dupont. This picture was taken inside the front gate. A twin gate was on the other side.

No photography was allowed inside, which is a shame because it was so amazing. This was the home of an American Ambassador for many different Asian countries. He was extremely wealthy and an art collector. The house has a grand ballroom, a huge dining hall with walls lined with Louis XIV's tapestries, all kinds of ornate galleries and drawing rooms, and a grand central staircase, which housed a huge painting that was so large the entire house was designed around the size of the painting.

This is a picture I took while standing in the winter garden (indoor garden) which was just off the ballroom. I took the picture through the glass window out to the garden outside. 

Next we went to DC's big contemporary art fair called Artomatic. There are 9 floors of artists displaying their work and I know a small handful of the artists from my interactions at the Hirshhorn and National Portrait Gallery. Turns out a lot of museum employees are artists...

I like this painting of the metro map. Such a huge part of my everyday life.

This is an awesome installation with abstract designs all built out of recyclable trash. I was very impressed with the whimsical design and juxtaposition of colors and textures and the interaction with light.

Gotta love this:

And here's Lindsey and me. 

I think we got swept away to another planet during all our artsy adventures

Eating Cheetos at Work

Me: Hand in Cheetos bag {hidden under desk}
New young and handsome boss: waits by elevator in the hallway outside the clear office doors
Me: Must keep cheetos hidden till he gets on elevator
Boss: Walks into elevator
Me: Stuff a handful of Cheetos into my mouth
Boss: Steps back out of elevator and through glass doors to my desk
Me: Trying to discretely chew while keeping my orange fingers hidden under desk
Boss: "Can you meet with me at 4:00 to give me some suggestions on the administration department?"
Me: Still chewing and crunching, "ok"

AWKWARD!!! What am I? 5 years old? Did I mention it's 10:30 AM!!

kinda funny

So I don't live in Arlington. I live in the more "homey," less developed Montgomery County MD which is basically one section of overpopulated highway and neighborhoods lost in the woods. But from my experiences in the town across the Potomac, this is humorously accurate.

CONFESSION:

I love MTV's The Real World. It's ok you can start making fun of me...3..2..1..now. I was looking at a list of all the seasons yesterday and while I have not seen every season, I realized that I started watching it my freshman year in high school {when my family got cable} and haven't missed much since. There was a good 7 season stretch from 1999 (freshman year) to 2004 (year I left for the mission) where I tuned in to at least some of the episodes. I picked up watching it again in 2007 and I've seen two seasons since I've been home from the mission.

I'll be the first to admit that a lot of it is trashy. I probably had to change the channel sometimes when my mom walked in the room. But I love it because I love traveling and big cities. I love seeing all the adventures they encounter. They always have awesome houses to live in and in great locations. Despite the cushy environment the people live in, they really are real people from all over the country and they all have a story. I love watching how they interact and the relationships that form.

So now you might understand why I'm so excited that the next Real World to be filmed will take place right here in DC! A lot of people are annoyed about this, but I figure it's only for 3 months and it can't be any worse than the hoards of interns (yes, I was one of them) and tour buses that come through. They'll live in Dupont about 5 blocks from where I lived at the Barlow Center. The filming starts June 20th. I think I'll wander over to the house sometime during filming just to take a look.

Happy Birthday Jordan!!

My beautiful sister is 30 today!! I'm so sad to not be there to celebrate. I hope you have the best birthday ever! You'll have to tell me what you did!

Follow up...and a little bit more

ok. So in my post yesterday I failed to mention that you can SEE into my bedroom window from the train as it zips past. That's how close I am to the tracks. Too bad I still have a 10 minute walk to the station. It's ok though.

So yesterday after work and errands I got home to find my wonderful new roommate Vanessa had made dinner for the sister missionaries in the ward and for us! It was soooo delicious. A baked and seasoned piece of Talapia with sauteed red peppers and onions on a bed of spinach. It was GREAT!

After dinner I CRASHED on my bed around 7:30 and didn't wake up till 11:30pm!! I was soooo tired from moving and I think I MIGHT be getting sick. I woke up and did a few things around my room--unpacked a little more and brought in more stuff from my car. Then I showered and just when I should have been going back to bed, I watched a little on-line TV.

1) I wanted to watch the trailer for New Moon. Eh. It looks exactly like Twilight but with a computer animated wolf. I AM excited for Jakey to be in the next movie, though. He is much more my type. Though don't think I'm getting too excited about the next movie. I wasn't crazy about the first one or the books for that matter, but you know--I guess it's pretty popular.

2) HELLO! The Bachelorette. It's rare that I get into a show, but when I do I have to see every episode. This season is one of those. Thank goodness for abc.com. Ok I like Jillian, but I don't know if I'm crazy about her yet. And I'm not super excited about any of the guys yet...except I think I love Jake. and maybe Kyptin. But JILLIAN! You have GOT to get rid of Dave. He has major issues--like rage and hate and drunkeness. How many times did he say he would "Kill" Juan? If he ever gets mad at you, which inevitably happens in relationships, he will have those same hateful feelings towards YOU! He hasn't even tried to get to know Jillian, he just whines about the other guys and how he isn't getting the attention that he's used to having. He has got to go. and don't get me started on Tanner P. the sick-nasty foot fetish guy. He makes me want to throw up. Get him off the show. I think she made good choices on who left this week, but there's many more who need to get off.

So when i finished watching the Bachelorette. It was 2 am! It was quiet outside because the trains had stopped running, but I anticipated the morning noise, so I turned my fan on high and put it on my bed side table right next to my head! And it worked! I didn't hear a thing and I still woke up to my alarm. Now today I am head-achey and it's about too much energy to even say hello to anyone (which is a problem because that is mostly what I get paid to do.) But I feel good after sleeping so much yesterday.

Tell me what's going on in all of your crazy lives!

advice needed...

So I moved to a different apartment building within my complex and it is down closer to the Rockville Pike and the elevated Metro tracks. Because of these minor inconveniences the cost of rent is cheaper. That's why I moved.

Now every two minutes my room shakes to the clattering sound of the metro train passing by. I'm a very light sleeper. Last night was my first night in the room and I turned my fan on high to give me some white noise. The Metro is closed between about 1 am and 5 am. Somehow I made it till about 6:15am before the metro woke me up. I had my earplugs waiting on my bedside table for this very purpose. I put them in and was still bothered by the noise for a few minutes, but the earplugs must have blanked it out fairly well because I woke up again at 7:30 when my roommate walked into my room to get her clothes out of the closet. My pillow was over my head.

I hope I can survive this living situation. Will I get used to the noise?