Christmas Card 2014

Fine, it's not Christmas yet, but seeing as how the last time I updated this blog was last year, and next week is Thanksgiving, I think I can be forgiven for invoking the spirit a bit early.

A lot has happened in the last year! I moved into a group apartment in Silver Spring in January. I am please to report after almost a year of living here, there is no drama! No 7-year-olds throwing temper tantrums! People who clean up after themselves (mostly)! My own bathroom! Space for a queen bed! It's heaven.

Once our crazy cold, snowy, wet winter left us, I finally got the requisite DC experience out of the way. That's right, I'm talking about the cherry blossoms! The first year I was in DC I went on my birthday during a day off. It was windy and frigid and they had not bloomed. The next year it was warm, sunny, the day of peak blossoms and crowded as heck!

And now I'm happy that I never have to go through that again! Ha! Over Memorial Day, I took a trip back to ND for my niece's high school graduation. It's crazy to believe that she is in college now. This is a picture from Danielle's baptism. I clearly developed the "Not Impressed" face by a young age.

I also got the chance to make the rounds in Fargo with a few of my good high school friends and reconnect in person after being gone over a year and a half. We also went up to the big town of Aneta, ND. It was nice to have made the trip, as Grandpa Richard passed away in July.

I went home for the second time in as many months in July to attend the funeral and so did a lot of the extended family that I don't get to see often (or even ever!). Amazingly enough, this photo below is the best of about 500 shots. I guess we need to go back to Posing 101.

At the very end of July, we got to welcome Jeff and Stacy's first baby to the family. That makes me the aunt of a brood of nine nieces and nephews (eight of them boys). Although I haven't gotten to meet him yet, he looks like quite a happy baby. My sister and brother-in-law's younger ones continue to keep them busy, too.

But life wasn't done being a roller-coaster quite yet. I had started a half-hearted job search, looking for something new, around February. As time went on, it was clear that my job at the time was not going to turn into anything interesting or meaningful and so I got the feeling it was time to move on. In April I made it (for a second time) to the final round of interviews. While I wasn't chosen, that experience made me realize how much I longed for something new and challenging, and so in May I committed to applying for new opportunities in earnest. I went on a decent amount of interviews, always making it to the end-but-not-quite. At the beginning of August, I was offered a new position, gave notice to my job, and have been with my "new" employer since then. It's a great variety in a very small office and just this week I submitted my first grant proposal!

Probably the nicest photo I managed to take the entire year. I guess he's a good influence!

My mom also came in the middle of October for two weeks. She managed to see pretty much every museum on the mall that she wanted to and the monuments. We also got to get out of DC for two days. One trip we went to Washington's Mount Vernon while another we went into Baltimore (although that was less of a success). Mount Vernon gave us a great opportunity for silly poses and pretty gardens. It was mostly great weather while she was here, aside from a few rainy days.

Perfect for silly poses. Or whatever it is Tim's doing.

Not too much to report for November! It's hard to believe that in January I will have been living in DC for two years. It's the longest I've lived somewhere besides college. Things are going great, and I hope they are for you, too!

[insert Happy Holidays message, because we all know the odds that I will update this thing before the end of the year are slim.]

Then Some More Things Happened

And once again, it's been forever since I've posted in this blog. I think I will just stop apologizing for it and just own it.

Not too much is different.  I still have my bangs! Here I am looking like I have an uneven haircut because I think I tilted my head a bit.

I also went home for a week at the end of July/beginning of August. Originally I was going to go to WeFest, but that didn't work out, so then I was going to go to Itasca with my sister, but the baby got sick, so I recuperated from a few heavy days of traveling around Minnesota and North Dakota in the family van.  With the resident seat hog MARLA. She literally will stretch herself to the point of pain to put her head on your lap. It's cute until she does it for six hours.

Here is Marla being Marla.

 

It was a busy week with meeting family and traveling to meet them. Sometimes it didn't feel like much of a vacation! But it was amazing to be out of DC in August, which during that time of the year was reaching upwards of 95 degrees a day. I don't think we ever hit 100, but when the humidity is at 100%, it doesn't really matter. I definitely understand why the congressional recess is always in August! I couldn't imagine being in a stuffy room 100 years ago with no air conditioning. Although maybe if we turned the A/Cs off and stuck everyone in a room together and didn't let them out until they were finished, maybe they'd get some work done!

Sorry for the strange layout of photos, Google's blog format doesn't allow you to click and drag very easily. My sister isn't in the photo, since she was taking the picture, and her husband was at "work" or something important like that! Maybe I will have to photoshop her in from something else!

Anyway, I came back to work, had an uneventful if very hot August, then work got super crazy in September as far as fundraising and other things.  Then in September/October D.C. took crazy pills. First with Navy Yard, the same day of which there was a shooting within sight of my apartment. Then two weeks later a block and a half away from our office was where the Connecticut lady rammed the final security blockades at Maryland Ave. And then the government shut down. Things will be back to normal in this town until the middle of January, when the government shuts down again and we get to enjoy empty Metro trains again.

The rest of the year will be super busy for me!  ESL is continuing right up to the week of Christmas. It's great to see our students coming back again, even though we didn't hold class for a few months over the summer. At work, we have our annual meeting coming up in November, where the Quakers who govern our policy meet to do business and some Quakerly things.  Then we are off to the races for the holiday fundraising. In the past as much as 1/3 of our donations have come in during the month of December! So they will very much be depending on my fast fingers to keep things flowing.

For me, this of course means not much time to go home, or at least not long enough to justify a massive plane ticket for a few days!  A coworker has graciously invited me over for Thanksgiving, so that will be very nice! They're a very nice couple and it will be fun to interact with them outside of work. And Christmas I will be house-sitting for them and watching their bird, so I will have Monty for company! Monty is very noisy when he wants attention. He reminds me of Tweet!

Well, that's all I really have for now. I may chronicle during November my second attempt at a "no-buy month." Maybe I can call it No Buy November. Maybe the alliteration will help me succeed.

Hah.

Best,
Karin

Random Happenings in DC

I got to meet Robert Picardo!  And he was wearing the Doctor Who shirt "You never forget your first doctor."

I wish my bangs would figure out how to be bangs. Then again, this 95 degree heat wave in DC really isn't helping.

Of Mice and (Wo)Men

Cities.  Yeesh!

Adding to the pests I have experienced since leaving the Midwest, I can now add mice to the list!  And no, I'm not filthy, before you think that's why I have mice!  I should say mouse.  I don't know where he went, and he hasn't brought his friends with him yet.

It started a few weeks ago.  I kept hearing this scratching noise on the roof.  First, I thought it was maintenance working on the roof.  Then, I figured it was probably a bird.  Next it moved onto squirrels.

But suddenly, last night, as I was playing Austria in Civilization V, engaged in a war with Siam and at least holding my own, I saw something in my peripheral vision near the closet.  I looked up from my catapult ravaging Siam's pathetic archers, as something black scurried out of the closet.

Oh, I thought.  Just another b--GAH.  By the time my mind processed what had just crawled out of the closed closet, he scurried back in.  I threw my laptop down on my bed, stood straight up, started shaking, and texted my roommate who was in a cabin somewhere in Virginia, "THERE IS A MOUSE IN OUR HOUSE. OR RAT. SOMETHING WITH A TAIL."

I didn't hear back from her.  By the third message I gave up.  It was clear I was on my own.

After sending the first message, I did what any sane and logical person home alone would do.  I got the hell out of Dodge.  Unfortunately, it was 11:30 at night and the closest I felt safe to leaving Dodge was sitting in the apartment hallway.  I knocked on a few doors, hoping someone had a magical 24-hour maintenance number, but despite the fact I could hear pots, pans, and TVs, no one answered.  Boy, thanks neighbors.

Over an hour was spent texting people 1,000 miles away who couldn't help me.  I was looking for moral support.  I got little.

My mom's reaction was amusement.

My friend Jake continued to mock me and suggested more Klingon methods of dealing with the problem.



I would like to point out the only sympathetic person to my plight was Leah, who understands the squickiness I was feeling.  Thankfully she often works late and so she stayed up trying to talk me into being brave and opening my closet door.  She tried, but didn't succeed.

I gathered enough courage to head back into my actual apartment.  But I still wasn't brave enough to go back into my room.  I sat out on the patio for an hour, curled up in a quilt telling myself I could sleep outside for the night.  But between the teenagers breaking curfew (it was pushing 1:30 a.m. at this point), the people setting off industrial-grade fireworks that made us sound like a warzone, I decided this was futile.  Around 2:00 I finally set back inside and back into my room.

I sat staring at my closet door until 6:30.  During that time, I read many interesting things about mice and stories of people who were just as disgusted and terrified as I was of them.  Finally, around 6:30 I curled up and went to sleep.  I would wake every half an hour or so and flail my arms and legs like a crazy person because I was sure the mouse had found me.  Around 8:30 I realized I wouldn't be able to fall asleep again.  So, I got up and finally, finally opened my closet door around 9:30.

No one rushed out to greet me.  Or run away, for that matter.

I slowly started going through my suitcase, which is functioning as a dresser drawer right now, and a few cube storage boxes I have for socks and underthings.  One by one I took them outside or into the living room.  Everything was out of the closet.  No mouse to be found.

However, I did find out where they are coming from.  On the ceiling of the closet, there is a giant crack that runs on two walls that's probably well over two feet long.  The crack is more than enough space for a mouse to squeeze through.  Since there was no food for him in my bedroom, I hope he has since left for greener pastures, but I know as long as the crack in my wall remains, I know some other mouse will get curious.

Speaking of cracks in the wall, I really do feel like I need The Doctor to come fix it for me.

Matt Smith as The Doctor in his regeneration's debut episode, "The Eleventh Hour." Thankfully touching the crack in my wall does not remove you from existence. 

Anyway.  He and I--the mouse, not the doctor--have reached some sort of detente until tonight.  I think he's probably sleeping somewhere, thinking of how he's going to chew me when I'm sleeping and least suspecting it.  Shudder.

But the business office opens on Monday, where our e-mail pleas for an exterminator will hopefully be answered.  And then the joke's on you, sucker.



In short...I think I've had enough "weekend" for a while.  Will keep you updated on the war at home.

Karin

Every New Beginning...

...comes from some other beginning's end!

I hope this post finds everyone well.

If you have not heard the news already, I am finally employed (again)!  I am leaving my internship a little early for a full time job.  It's primarily for assisting the development department of a nonprofit organization, entering in their gifts and helping out in other areas.  I also have been volunteering on Sundays teaching adults ESL at a church in Columbia Heights.  For the foreseeable future, D.C. will be home.

D.C. is probably the most frustrating city I have ever lived in.  The city stops at the slightest hint of snow, shutting down schools and federal offices...only for the "snowquester" to fizzle into it rain.  I think the weather is windier than Chicago.  I can't even remember how many days I feel as if I have been almost knocked off my feet by wind!  I'm hoping this is just a winter phenomenon.

After experiencing the beautiful subways of Korea and Japan, to get on the D.C. Metro was a total shock.  The first time I got on a train I thought it was just a really old subway car, long forgotten to be decommissioned.  Nope...that's just how they all look.  The platforms are dangerously small and overcrowded, with nothing to prevent you from falling or being pushed onto the tracks below.  The buses are much the same story--Minneapolis, I would say, has a much better bus system than D.C., especially concerned with weekend service.  One particularly ridiculous Sunday, my class finished at 3:00.  I did not get home until 5:00--I made no other stops/errands in between.  I waited for the bus for over an hour before one finally decided to show up (two scheduled buses never came).  Of course, this was one of the super cold and windy days, so it was quite miserable.

However, now that spring is upon us, I've been able to go out and about a little more and see different places, so that's nice. I have already seen most of the touristy sights in D.C. from a trip in high school, but I still can't resist the draw of the cherry blossoms later this week.  I'll have to put up some pictures later this week.  This is my last week at my internship, then I start my new job on April 8th!

Until next time,
Karin

The No Facebook Experiment

 

Find a written version after the jump (push the blue "Read More" button below).  You may have to turn your speakers up for the video, I think I need a real microphone to do these sorts of things.

Another Beginning

It's been a long time since I've wrote anything on this blog!  As I'm sure you're aware, my mom and I returned safely from our trip at the end of September.  We had a really great time, and it was nice for me to spend some more time in Japan.  I enjoyed the four days over New Year's 2012, but most everything was closed then!  Of course, our trip had a few bumps along the way, but nothing that seriously hindered us.

In October, I think I spent more time in Aneta, ND than I did it Detroit Lakes!  First, my aunt came home from Florida for a visit and we spent a few days up there with her.  She hadn't been home for a few years, so it was lucky we were back!



Then a few weekends later was Levi's baptism.  He was just beginning to teethe!  The weekend coincided with grandpa's 92nd birthday (and my brother's not-92nd birthday).  Most grandchildren in my grandpa's family have worn his baptism gown.  However, it has seen better days, and they decided to "cheat" and just lay it on him--especially since he wasn't a newborn any more and is very squirmy! 

I had only been home for a few weeks, so I took quite a few pictures, but managed to get one with me and Levi.  The first picture I ever took with him makes me look like a deranged sleep deprived person--which I was!  This one was much better.  He's kind of looking at the camera.



In early November, I was idly searching DC Craigslist to see if I could find a possible sublease or other short term housing option for the new year.  To my surprise, when I put in the search parameters, a few came up.  About a week and a half later, I had a four month lease in hand for January to May in DC.  This gave me a step over a potential job search hurdle, which is having an out of state address.  So, I continued to apply for jobs and internships with a new address.

There are quite a few birthdays in our family in the late fall time, so most weekends were a family celebration of some kind or another, and then of course a full house for Thanksgiving.

About the first week of December, I interviewed over the phone for an internship at a DC homeless shelter.  They said they would be making their decision in a week or two.  A few days after this, I got a request for another interview.  I'm serious, I felt like I had won the lottery.  The funny thing about this is that I had applied for this internship with my Minnesota address.  I actually had to look back at my saved file of applied-to jobs document to remember who it was!  I interviewed with them and they got back to me the next day.  I accepted the second internship.  It had the bonus of being closer to public transportation and also has a small stipend, which is, as a friend termed it, "the pink unicorn of internships."

Fast forward, and I am finally here!  The flight out here was very early.  One time in my life, I would really enjoy flying not at the crack of dawn.  As we took off at 7:15 or so, after the plane got a bath, the sun was just starting to come up.  I realized that I have never left North Dakota when there is snow on the ground.  It was cool to see from the air.  Also the complete drop of at the end of West Fargo.  I'm serious, Fargo is a square, and it just....stops.  It was unnerving to go from complete darkness to serious daylight in about 20 minutes, though!

In short, I've spent the last day getting a few things for my apartment that are difficult to bring with and setting up.  I am trying to keep things simple for the moment.  While I would of course love to stay here for a while, I also don't want to drag home an apartment and a half full of stuff home if it doesn't work out.  So for now it is all about downsized living. 

My internship starts next Friday, which gives me a good chunk of time to get adjusted and explore the city until then.  I already know where not to get off the bus at, and where two metro stations are!  And the meandering way home from the metro station.  So at least that's out of the road, even if it was an accident!

I usually end posts after an extended hiatus with something like "I will be better about writing in this blog," but I'm getting too old to lie to myself like that every time.  So instead--

Until next time!