Wednesday, August 25, 2010

looking forward to autumn

DC had it's first cool day today in a while, like 75 degrees. It felt amazing and made me remember why I love Fall. I even popped in some of my fall-only-music (this time, a Guster CD) to get into the mood. I think I am most excited that my first season as a resident of New York will be Fall. Hopefully my brother will let me borrow his car so I can take a brief trip out to the Catskills.



courtesy: Home Sweet Home

sleeping in the woods



courtesy: Home Sweet Home

a secret escape

isn't this the coolest staircase ever...



courtesy: Home Sweet Home

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

doonesbury

My mom sent this to me last night because she said, "This is so you."




courtesy: Slate

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

the end

I finally feel like myself again! Happy and playful and full of life! They don't call me the little ray of sunshine for nothing :)

So what do I feel so elated?

Well, I did it. I finally put in my two weeks notice! It went over swimmingly. I had no idea what sort of response I expected but everyone in my office is excited for my move to NYC. They think I am stupid for going without a job but I have to remember that their decision making depends heavily on a family and mine depends more or less solely on me! I have a lot more freedom to do what I want and time to figure out exactly what that is.

The boyfriend told me randomly this week that he is so excited I quit my job. I think he can already tell a difference in my day to day mood. I have to admit, all day Saturday, I just felt a sense of relief and relaxation. There is nothing like knowing you are putting a bad situation behind you.

I hope this sense of excitement and happiness stays with me along my transition to New York. I don't want to become one those jaded Manhattanites that you always hear about. Lucky for me, I have a bigger support group there than I started out with in DC.

Now that's done, on to step two. Finding a new job. Which, by the way, I have an interview this Friday. I am very optimistic about this opportunity and the job sounds absolutely ideal and the exact opposite of the job I just quit. Cross your fingers for me!

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

atlas shrugged

He said nothing when he entered, he looked at her, making his silent presence more intimate a greeting than words.

-Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

empathicalism

It's hard to explain, but it's all part of empathicalism. We don't have to communicate with words. They understand me through the way I feel, and the tone of my voice.

-Jo Stockton (Audrey Hepburn) in Funny Face

the truth

“There are certain emotions in your body that not even your best friend can sympathize with, but you will find the right film or the right book, and it will understand you.”

- Björk


courtesy: I'll be chasing you the rest of my life.

seeking calm



courtesy: dances with voices.

like father like daughter

My mom says that my dad and I do this...



courtesy: dances with voices.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

potato peel pie

"I can't think of anything lonelier than spending the rest of my life with someone I can't talk to, or worse, someone I can't be silent with."

- The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

postal carriers

I love how in old movies and TV shows everyone knows their postal carrier. The characters greet them by name and know things about them and their family. The postal carrier often plays an integral role in the lives of these characters. There are beautiful scenes of young kids waiting every afternoon for the mail to come in hopes of receiving that bottle rocket they sent off for with 20 cereal box tops.

Your postal carrier is the person you trust with delivering your mail safely and accurately. Sometimes that may mean you are allowing them to handle your intimate love letters or even a glass vase you are sending to your mom.

So my question is, do you know your postal carrier?

I feel like these TV shows and movies speak to a time of the past. Only in cities do postal carriers even walk from door to door anymore. Growing up in a small town, I always looked for the vehicle where the steering wheel was on the wrong side of the car, I never noticed the person driving it!

I recently had an amazing run in with my postal carrier who saved my package from an awful blunder my mom made in sending me a package. To start, this all happened because my mailbox is too small to receive a package and my postal carrier will not leave packages on my doorstep. I am in a big city and things get stolen, regardless of if the thief realizes there is not significant resale value in my dad's tire treatment sample he was mailing me.

The short story: my mom wrote the wrong address on the box! She wrote the street number as 1801 instead of the actual 1809. She has done this before and my $50 gift card to Target ended up at my neighbor's house and lost to me forever.

The rest of the story: I knew the package was coming and came home one day to find the inevitable orange slip asking me to pick up my package the next day from my local post office, which thankfully is only 2 blocks away, super convenient! I went the next day after work and the package was nowhere in sight! I was advised to return the next day as it may not have been brought down yet. Still not a big deal since it is so close to me. I return the next day to find they still cannot find the package. This is kind of annoying as the contents of the package were time sensitive to their relevance. I am then given a number to call to inquire about the location of the package. The evening supervisor, John, tells me that he will have to call me back after he talks to my postal carrier directly because the package is not anywhere it should be.

Later that evening, I get a return call from John who tells me that my package actually was at my post office but under the wrong address and my postal carrier will redeliver it to me the next day. So, in other words! My postal carrier knew the package was for me despite the address and left me the orange slip but when I gave the orange slip (with my correct address on it) to the worker at the post office, she looked for my correct address on the package. We now know that the correct address is not written on the package I am seeking.

Luckily, the next day, I stay home all morning waiting on my postal carrier to arrive so I can receive my long awaited package. She tells me in all modesty, "When you are a good postal carrier, like I am, you deliver by the name and not the address." So she knew that whoever was sending me a package had my address wrong and she took it upon herself to correct the error.

If only I had known this when I went to the post office the first time!

Regardless, I now know my postal carrier and greatly appreciate the attention she pays to her work. If it weren't for her, I would not have gotten my package at all!

i love you



courtesy: ffffound!

awkward compliments

I often find myself giving people compliments of this sort. Like the time I told a rather large man on the Kennedy Center shuttle bus that I liked his suspenders. He told me in so many words there comes a time when you get so fat that a belt doesn't hold up your pants anymore. I still really liked his suspenders.



courtesy: ffffound!

little girl and chocolate kitty

I saw this picture and immediately thought about the bedtime stories my dad used to tell me when I was little. His stories were all about a little blond haired girl and her magical kitten, Chocolate Kitty.



courtesy: ffffound!