The White House!

In college I focused my academic history interest on politics, specifically presidents. In graduate school, I focused in even more and wrote my master's thesis on the White House from a public history perspective, exploring how both presidents and the people used the building itself and its image to establish and reinforce their views of how the government should relate to the people [I could go on but very few people would care :) ].

I think, on a personal and public historian level, that it is a shame that the White House is now so closed to the general public (by understandable security necessity of course, but still unfortunate). I myself have done the public tour that one can get through their congressperson, and have always wanted to see more. The house just exudes this sense of history that is somewhat intoxicating to a public historian who specializes in politics...and the White House itself. So while I enjoyed the public tour, I always wanted more.

And I finally got to go! I went as a guest of my boss who was invited to the White House Celebration of Design cocktail event on October 8, 2014 (the day before my birthday. Best. present. ever.) Though only the public sections of the house that one usually sees on tours were open, there were no ropes to keep me from touching things (judiciously, of course. I do work in a museum after all), from wandering the rooms at my leisure, from inspecting paintings up close and taking pictures was totally allowed. It was amazing. 

Dresses worn by the FLOTUS.

Line to meet the FLOTUS.

Michelle Obama gave a speech, but I was too short to see it. Nice chandeliers though.

From my Project Runway viewing, I recognized Anna Wintour, Rachel Roy, Jason Wu, Carolina Herrera, Naomi Campbell, Cynthia Lieve, Jenna Lyons, Zac Posen and Diane von Furstenburg. I was wearing a dress made by my mother and shoes I bought from Old Navy five years ago because I am awesome.
 

I made an exception of not taking photos of famous people for Anna Wintour, because my friend was begging me to capture her image on film.

Just absolutely amazed to be there.

                            

And I took a selfie in the White House bathroom. Can you say classy?

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Until next summer, Rita's

We got a jump on celebrating my birthday early this weekend with a trip to Uno's Pizzeria and one last visit to Rita's before the end of the season. 

Even though we had to sit in the car with our coats on and it was dark out it was still amazing.

Brr.

Then Sunday I had birthday cake..and birthday cake ice cream to go with it. It was forced on me by my parents. Clearly.

My "I love cake" face.

But then I went for a walk in the park with B...so it all evens out, right? Yes.

Elsewhere in the week...

I made the Washington Post, 

 #musempeopleproblems,

and Truman sat on the remotes.

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Where I have been.

I haven't been posting lately because nothing fun has been happening. This is because I work on contracts, and I have been waiting for my next contract to be ready since mid-October. This means that I have been on forced staycation for a month and a half. 

Pros: I know I am getting another contract, so I don't have the same fears as someone who is unemployed.

Cons: I refuse to go anywhere or do anything fun because most of that costs money, and since I am not currently getting a paycheck, I am trying to live as frugally as possible.

Now, many of us wish for a month-long vacation from work. I know I will again when I'm back. However, it has a way of making one feel guilty, lazy, and eventually, bored.

As proof, I submit this list of things I have done since I've been home:

1. Slept til noon more often than I care to admit.

2. Deep-cleaned the entire apartment (I cleaned the walls. I did that.)

3. Told my cats multiple times that they are my best friends.

4. Caved and read Fifty Shades of Grey. Then bought the rest of the trilogy.

5. Painted my fingernails (I hate wearing nail polish on my fingernails.)

6. Forced myself to get out of the apartment once a day to at least go to the gym.

7. Scrapbooked.

8. Checked e-mail and Facebook obsessively.

9. Gotten my Christmas shopping done way early.

10. Taken many many photos of my cats. See below.

And that is a current summation of my life.

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Apples to apples.

 We rented a gorgeous house in the Shenandoah Valley (except that it was on top of a mountain and not in the valley) for the weekend with some of my awesome museum peeps.

In the morning there was lots of fog, but otherwise the view out these windows was amazing.

Our mountain-retreat cum beach-shanty.

We spent our Saturday picking apples, eating apple-cider donuts, napping, and cooking up a delicious fall feast with a roast and vegetables and home-made pumpkin pie (in reality, so my co-worker's wife did all the cooking and I just ate).

In the evening we ran around the yard, played board games and laughed at ourselves.

 Now I'm sitting on my couch with all the lights on, the TV blaring and the computer running so I can make the best of my electricity before Sandy takes it out. See you all on the other side.

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It's Friday...Office Birthdays

When someone has to be in the office on their birthday, you do your best to make it good. This generally means decorating with whatever leftover decor you have from other parties, ordering pizza for lunch and giving them a card filled with insults from their coworkers. At least that's how it goes around here.

D was already scheduled to recieve a new office chair, so we thought, what better way to celebrate his birthday than with his brand spanking new chair?

We had Halloween decorations and 30th birthday spiral hanging things so we said "eh, they'll do" (even though D is turning 56, not 30) and slapped them all over his chair.

We also had a contractor in a box.

Nothing says "I love seeing you more than I see my own family and trying to complete impossible projects with you, procrastinating with you and raging against the machine with you" than the office birthday.

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This is a rant.

Last night there was a storm that rolled through D.C. and B-more. It knocked out the signals along the train tracks. It resulted in a 3 hour train ride home, during which I really had to pee but was reluctant to give up my seat so I just held it and squirmed. As we neared the 2 hour mark of sitting with strangers in a tin can my Nook's battery light started blinking. No! I screamed silently to myself. For what would I do without entertainment? Stare out the window and get increasingly angry, most likely. Not that I wasn't already angry. Especially when the conductor kept getting on the intercom to ask us to "please be patient." I'm being patient now stop asking me to because every time you do Iwanttopunchyouintheface. I finally made it home around 8 p.m., giving me just enough time to eat, shower, and go to bed so I could get up and do it all over again this morning.

 

Then this morning, there were still train problems, resulting in a 3 hour commute back in to work, and leaving me with 2 hours to make up out of my own time. At one point the conductor actually announced that the engineers were "talking about moving the train." Id've laughed if I didn't feel like cryin'. Once I got to D.C. the Metro was all effed up, but I did finally make it to work.

 

Now, I try to keep my perspective about these things. It wasn't anyone's fault we got stuck, and the conductors were doing all they could to get us home (after all, they had to get home too). And having a commute means I have a job right? Right.

 

That's part of the problem. See, there's no one to be angry at. I'm stuck on a train with hundreds of other strangers who work in D.C. and thus usually think that they are more important than everyone else and have to get home/to work on time, as if the rest of us don't, and...I just have to shut up and take it. I'm at the mercy of the train once I step aboard, and there's nothing I can do about it. And while I tell myself that there are many, many reasons why this isn't a big deal (it means I have a job, I live in one of the most prosperous nations in the world, I have the privilege to take a comfortable train to work, etc.), the moral of the story is: I'm still pissed off. And I wish there was someone to whom I could direct my anger so I could just punch them in the face and feel better.

 

End rant.

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Indigo Blues.

"You need a pocket protector."

"Haha, yeah." *pats pen in shirt pocket*

"No, seriously. You're leaking."

"Oh sh#@t."

Yes folks, Ryan of The Faux Bohemian had put his ink pen tip down into his pocket without the lid, resulting in a large ink blot and an exclamation of "Oh no, my best 3 dollar thrift shore shirt!"

Then, a flurry of activity. E-mails began flying, asking savvy coworkers how to remove the ink. A Tide To-Go pen was produced and hastily applied.

Girl with pen: "I'm sorry if I'm making it worse!"

Ryan: "Worse, how can it get any worse? We're at the threshold of hell!" thus quoting one of the office's favorite movies, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.

After rinsing the Tide-ed shirt, the stain was nearly gone!

The downside being that you have to wear a wet shirt. Lesson-the Tide To-Go really works! Even on ink. Way to go Tide people. Way to go.



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Why is it so cold in my office?

It's about 97 degrees outside today.

It's about 47 degrees in my office.

Why would they do this? I've had to begin dressing in several layers. I'm wearing jeans even though I know they will be hot and sticky on my walk back from the train this evening.

We've also had to break out the space heater usually reserved for the dead of winter.

Nothing better than toasty tootsies.

One coworker has moved her entire station MASH unit style to take full advantage of the tiny stream of heat.

"I just want to sit in the heat and eat my sandwich!"

Others are snuggled in their "wubbies" against the cold.

It feels like it should be Christmas or something. All I want to do today is eat and I'm pretty sure it's because my body thinks it's time to bulk up for winter.

However, I would rather be cold than sweltering. You can always put more on, but you can only take so much off.

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I actually went out after work!

It's not that I don't like people. Honest. It's just that at the end of the day I really, really just want to go home and not have to "on". You know, you don't have to smile, you can let your hair down and take your make-up off. You don't have to make pleasantries with people you barely know (I'm not good at that. It's because I'm awkward).

I also don't generally go out on the weekend, because, you know, people don't usually go out till late and I'm already sleepy and then I'm supposed to START getting ready at 9 which is usually when I'm in bed. Then once you get out you have to TALK to COMPLETE STRANGERS. Sometimes, anyway. I'm just not good at it.

Also, at clubs or bars on the weekends people generally expect you to wear high heels (if you're dressing up, which often people do), and I'm really not good at that. I mean, I've definitely lost my balance and fallen down stairs at bars more than once and it WASN'T BECAUSE I WAS DRINKING. I promise. Plus one time my feet hurt so badly after a night of dancing that I took my shoes off and walked barefoot through the streets of Baltimore back to my car. And when that becomes a better alternative than wearing your heels you know you need to just give up and wear flats.

But I digress.

Yesterday evening some of my coworkers went out to a local restaurant/bar called Elephant & Castle and decided to go for an hour or so since I do actually like these people and I don't want them to hate me and think I'm anti-social (even though I more or less am. But it's not because I don't like them!).

Am I making myself sound like a stone cold biatch who doesn't have friends? I hope not but I feel like I might be. But I do have friends and to my friends who are reading, I love you and appreciate your willingness to accommodate my anti-going out late at night tendencies.

Maybe I'll just shut up and post the photos now.

Pub pretzels. So good.

Happy co-workers.

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It's Friday, I've...lost that loving feeling.

She's lost that loving feeling. She's lost...? No she hasn't. Yes she has. She has not lost that lo-Goose, she's lost it. Mav-Come on. Aw sh-I hate it when she does that. S**t.

I woke up in a foul mood this morning. It was raining, it was dark, and I just wanted to go back to sleep. I couldn't summon the energy to put on any make-up and I'm wearing yoga pants that, while closely approximating dress pants, are basically sweatpants. I almost missed my train and had to run through the rain, clonking about in my giant yellow rain boots (which, I will admit, is preferable to wet feet, which I've learned the hard way). People on the train were having a loud conversation, which is their right, but HELLO, people are trying to sleep here. I tried valiantly to remember that there was no reason why they couldn't have a loud conversation other than the fact that I was trying to sleep and they were the only ones in the entire car talking. But I was still irrationally annoyed. People were pushing and shoving on the Metro, like they always do, but today it was particularly irritating. I just wanted to get to my desk and have my oatmeal and coffee. Until then, I don't really want to talk to you, and I certainly don't appreciate the invasion of my personal space that occurs on a daily basis on public transportation.

When I got in my coworker had her head down on her keyboard. I said "Morning" and she said "Meh" and I could tell that it wasn't just me who was in a funk. I decided to be proactive and asked what we could do to make the day better. Her immediate reaction was, "Cupcakes!" And so we planned to procure some of these babies for the office:



Chocolate Sundae from Crumbs Bake Shop.



Crumbs Bake Shop, with locations in NYC, DC, LA and Chicago has AMAZINGLY DELICIOUS cupcakes in really fun flavors. However, their cupcakes are huge, pack a lot of calories and cost about 4 bucks. I had a sneaking suspicion that getting one would just make me feel guilty and not any better.

But you know what is mood lifting, free, and actually burns calories? SOUL DANCE PARTY. Sometimes here at the office we like to have "Motown Friday" using the aptly named "Motown Channel" on Pandora. We cranked it up and took a 2 minute break to dance like fools and I gotta admit, I feel better. I also feel incredibly virtuous that I turned down the cupcake opportunity, because if you know me, you know I love cake. Dear goodness do I love cake. Icing especially. A good butter cream or cream cheese icing will send me into raptures and I WILL stab you with a fork if you try to taste from my plate. B has been shocked by the vehemence with which I will defend my cake.

Anyway, I seem to have somewhat restored my loving feeling, though it's only 10:30 a.m. so we'll see how long that lasts. Something else that helped? Our new office decorations:





Only recommended for offices with a sense of humor. The best part is that these are actual, historic places. Dismal Nitch is the last campsite Lewis and Clark made before they saw the Pacific Ocean (apparently it rained and was horrid) and Cape Disappointment is where they reached the ocean, though they didn't name it (I'm pretty sure they weren't disappointed to finally get to their destination...even though they had to turn around and go all the way back to DC). So they're appropriate for our office in all manner of ways. Our two offices will hereafter be known as "Cape Disappointment" and "The Dismal Nitch".

Happy weekend everybody. And Happy 165th Birthday Smithsonian Institution!

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It's Friday, I'm...DIY bowling.

Today was my co-worker's 25th birthday, and we partied it up museum style!

That's right. We ordered pizza and went bowling. But of course, we didn't have time to leave at lunch and go to a bowling alley, so instead we improvised with paper towel rolls, painter's tape, and reproduction cannon balls. Also there was no beer, which I would generally associate with this type of activity, but for a work lunch, it was pretty good. And I think the birthday boy enjoyed it.

Birthday boy!

In other news, B and I officially named our new kittens Truman and Tesla. They are still adorable and I miss them now that I'm at work. And I will be away until tomorrow night! I need me some kitten cuddles. The kittens will be bonding with B and I fully anticipate that he will spend the majority of the next 24 hours on the living room rug playing with the kittens and a black shoe string (their toys currently consist of shoe strings and toilet paper tubes).

I got this super fun infinity scarf from Aeropostale the other day, and I don't usually shop there so I'm very excited by my find:

 

Hope you guys have a fun weekend planned,

B.

 

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