Time Flies

Yeah, that's the White House. Pretty awesome.

Oh, my deck. Isn't the sunset beautiful?

So, I guess I should update you on my life. Let's go back two long weeks...

Tuesday, July 15th 2008 - After work, Cheryl and I go to a Stanford Alum happy hour, which was mostly a failure. Afterwards, we went back to my place, made some food, watched 50 First Dates (well, I watched, Cheryl fell asleep!), and made chocolate chip cookie bars!

Thursday - Went out to Indian food. Trop cher! Walked the 1.5 miles back from downtown to my house to make a vegan quiche.

Friday - After work I hung out at Jazz in the Sculpture Garden for a bit. Then I walked to Nicole's BBQ with my vegan quiche. I helped set up lights, ate foods, and was complimented on my baking feat (ask me for my "recipe").

Hmmm...it's Saturday, but what did I forget? Oh, yeah. I turned 22 on Wednesday! However, I didn't do anything special except watch Project Runway (which is not unusual).

I'm not going to even both with the weekend, since I didn't really do much. Although, I did go to Cold Stone with my own mug. The girl looked at me funny, and confirmed that this was the first time she ever experienced this. Made pretty good flax bread on Sunday.

This week was equally unexciting. I made slightly underbaked, but really yummy coconut bread on Tuesday. Wednesday, another hold-your-breath episode of project runway.

Thursday, I had the opportunity to go with a group of Stanford students to listen to Josh Bolten (Stanford Law School Alum), Bush's Chief of Staff. What a sad man. His life basically revolves around Bush and he really seems to believe that Bush has done a good job and has made admirable decisions. I just wanted to roll my eyes or burst out laughing the whole time. Then we got a tour, which was cool.

Yesterday, I met up with Ada at Jazz and then headed back to make a delightful meal - Eggplant and Zucchini dish, quinoa, lentils, and the rest of my bread. We watched the Jane Austen Book Club. I am in love with Grigg! He is a sci-fi/fantasy reader, who got interested in JA, and bikes places...Whoah. Currently, I am writing my blog entry, about to make a picnic dinner for my evening entertainment of Wolftrap's Broadway ROCKS!

I am watching the 11th Hour. OMG, so scary! Everyone should watch this...I think it's much scarier than An Inconvenient Truth. Oh Leo, you still look like a kid! Woah, Stephen Schneider (Stanford Prof.) just popped up on the documentary...so cool! Some lady is now talking about tropical deforestation and how those forests don't grow back well. It's so true, because on the nutrient-poor soils of tropical areas, all of the nutrients is caught up in vegetation. I'm going to start crying now...How can people just sit there and not DO anything? Are we blind????

Well, here's to hoping year 22 is better healthwise than year 21... And that oil prices continue going up (ask me for a graph), that a change of administration will start paying attention to the environment, and that the Olympics this year (2 weeks!) are not marred by China's notoriety (both in human rights violations and environmental degradation). Have you guys had enough?

-Until next time

I'm Reading: The Book Thief

It's Monday Already?!?!?!

Where is my life going? Is this really my fourth week in DC? Have I accomplished anything of substance? Well, here was my week in a nutshell (a short nutshell, because I am supposed to be reading up on the EU's environmental innovations).

Monday the 7th: Last weekend was really the fourth of July weekend?? Nothing exciting. I really like my yoga class. I feel so relaxed after it and sort of just meander back to my house afterwards.

Tuesday the 8th: First day of EPA SG office retreat at the National Building Museum. Actually, really nothing exciting. Discussed the future of Smart Growth. I baked Carrot Zucchini Bread that night in preparation for the next day.

Wednesday the 9th: Second day of retreat. We had a tour of Penn Quarter downtown. I notice so much more about street planning than I ever could have imagined. Really pretty downtown. Worked out. Managed not to do any thesis work...again.

Thursday: Work. Swim. Salsa dancing at a club in Adam's Morgan! Hopefully, have time and energy for it this week, too! Some girl stepped on my foot with stilettos.

Friday: Work. Ran around the mall and memorials after work. Got all pink and didn't turn back to a normal shade until a couple hours later. Free Jazz at the sculpture garden. Long walk back to Adam's Morgan from downtown. Paid too much for a bottle of wine ($13!!!) that Nicole and I brought to the Moishe House Friday night dinner. Had food...good food. Talked to nice people...Went back and watched Clueless.

Saturday: COuldn't get out of bed. Farmer's Market. Walked to outdoor pool in Georgetown. Trader Joe's (I love grocery shopping too much). Made bread...well, killed my yeast and then had to go hunting for more. Turned out ok. Dead set on figuring out how to make my own yogurt. I'm going to be such a from-scratch person! Fell asleep at like 10pm!

Sunday: Swam. Got kicked out of pool for family swim not on schedule! Grrr. Walked back and witnessed three arrests on 18th street for a shooting that took place outside the Radio Shack on Columbia...a block and a half from my house! Yikes. Pretended to do work at zoo. Came back and pretended to do work in my room. Finished my for-fun book...hehe.

Monday: Today! Dragged myself out of bed. Worked. Yoga. Pretend to read stuff on EU while really updating blog and looking at events at the Kennedy Center. Ate too much peanut butter (out of jar...bad girl). Successful popcorn popping on stove for lunch tomorrow. Will make brownies on my birthday to make myself feel better about turning 22 and having a crappy 21st year...here's hoping for better in the months to come!

-Why did I keep eating the peanut butter? UGH!

I'm Reading: The Highest Tide

Apartment #2

My Room - I know, it's huge. Plus I have a balcony!

My beautiful loaves of bread! Just wheat with a touch of maple syrup.

My successful popcorn experiment!

I know it's been hard this past week without any update from me, but sometimes that's just the way things go. I've been quite a busy little bee this week, quite successfully avoiding schoolwork I need to get done this summer. So, let's start at the beginning of the week...Sunday!

I have now moved into my permanent summer housing (pictured above), which is not quite that lovely studio, but is big, well-located, and has a balcony - SCORE! I have no chairs and get no wireless, so I've taken to camping out on the floor in front of my laptop, who has only a two-foot ethernet leash.

Monday, I acquired a library card (wow, that feels like ages ago) and am waiting to run out of distractions so that I can distract myself further with Princess Mononoke. Let's skip Tuesday, because nothing exciting happened...and Wednesday. Thursday, I went to the zoo with Nicole to hear the music that is there every Thursday evening. I actually felt older for the first time since starting my job, because the vast majority of the audience was composed of young families (children under 3). The zoo is only a ten-minute walk from my house!

The Fourth!!! I went running and got lost...nothing new. Stanford in Washington House had a BBQ, from which I pilfered the extra mixed nuts - I need to start being thriftier with my food budget. Then, I met people in the house and we hung out all day, watched Independence Day, drank Mojitos, went to the fireworks at the Lincoln Memorial. Good Times.

That was fun, but Saturday was even better. I found a closer, cheaper farmer's market - spent the same amount of money as last time for quadruple the amount of food! I proceeded to make bread, which turned out ok, but nothing to get excited over. Next week is cinnamon oatmeal (raisin?). Nicole and I met up - pretended to do an hour of work - and then headed to the Smithsonian Cultural Festival, at which we learned all about Bhutanese culture (I have this awesome picture on my phone, but don't know how to get it on my computer) and how to can fruit Texas style. Then we GORGED ourselves (not exaggerating) at a restaurant in ChinaTown prior to viewing Wall-E. Before I get into how wonderful this movie is, I just have to share our experience: We get in 5 minutes late and there are literally no seats but the nosebleed first row. Being smart Stanford students, we reason that the ground of the handicap space is a perfectly good alternative. After getting settled and watching the previews...the fire alarm goes off! No biggie, we get back in ten minutes later and find out that the guy behind us had cotermed in Earth Systems some years back! Small World. Ok, so the movie was wonderful, cute AND should have made everyone think twice when they threw out their popcorn bags and drink cups! That is going to be our world PEOPLE; that's really scary! Saturday is almost over, I promise. We walk back to my apartment from the movie theater, scouting out bars with good music and salsa dancing, both of which we identified.

Today - Ack! it's already Sunday??? I woke up sick - although, I forgot to mention I've been sick the past three days with a cold. Decided I would still go swimming but skip the Flow Hatha Yoga. Bought more groceries - I am cutting myself off, now. No more dry goods until I finish what I have! I do have to say, that the organic foodmart near my house has a wonderful dry goods section, so I bought popcorn. I have no popper, so I did it the old-fashioned way in a skillet! SOOO YUMMY! Life is good.

Although I failed at working on my thesis or a number of other droll tasks, I managed to have a very productive week in the most important areas of life.

-Catch ya later!

I'm Reading: Animal Dreams