Final Post :(

well, to all of my (well, ok, to my at least 4 or 5) regular followers, thanks for reading my ramblings. i'm heading home to louisville in about 24 hours, and im spending my time until then just packing and saying my goodbyes.

its been an incredible 2 months that i can't believe are over! I'll be back at vandy in 16 days. time flies!

LAST DAY!

last day at work.

writing postcards to friends

scheming ways to avoid the massive thunderstorm outside

excited for the Vandy DC Summer Send-off party tonight

dreading the thought of packing.

thanking myself for the greatest thing ever that has SAVED me this summer in [the ridiculously hot and humid] DC.

Things I've Done Today

Today is my second to last day at work. It's been a busy one! I should be plenty busy today and tomorrow tying up a lot of loose ends and finishing up things at work.

Lilly, the program director from Vanderbilt, is in DC this week visiting all of the organizations that VIEW interns are working at (20 different ones apprx.). She came to visit today at met with Evlyn to discuss me (gulp) and what they look for in an intern for the future. I'm meeting with Lilly tomorrow to discuss my program experience. That'll be a nice opportunity to have.

Monday night- Chop't, Urban Outfitters, and FroZenyo with the roommates were all wonderful. Last night I got dinner with my friend Andrew, who is a counselor at an International Policy camp at AU. It was a bunch of Vandy people and we had a great time. We ate at Good Stuff Eatery, which is a very popular restaurant run by Spike (Former Top Chef contestant!) that is frequented by Hill Staffers.

Tonight is our VIEW send-off dinner, that is actually located next door to Good Stuff. Spike, the head chef/owner, opened up a new restaurant next door- just this Monday! It's receiving a lot of hype and is called We The Pizza. (His other place is burgers/fries/shakes) I can't wait to try it!

Today has been all over the place. I received some really sad news about a friend from school and now have another person to keep in my prayers. I also am in contact with a man who hosts a radio show on public radio in Nashville that discusses sports once a week- he's looking for a co-host and I might be able to get the job! I'm also applying for an internship with Senator Bob Corker in Nashville- but that not might be until the Spring. I already have my job at the Commons Center, have been talking with a friend about getting a PR job with Vandy instead, and now am exploring even more options. Wow, I am exhausted!

Louisville in 4 days!

Week 7

It was hot this weekend.

Liz Furman and I at Jazz in the Garden

Matthew Taylor, Katelyn and I at Jazz in the Garden

Well, another has week gone by!

On Monday, my mentor cancelled on me to get coffee after work (2 times in a row now!) so i went home after work. I invested in frozenyo instead and headed home.

tuesday after work was really exciting- I got to go to a FREE concert at the Kennedy Center, which is a truly beautiful concert hall (sorta similar to the Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts but mostly just in sharing their function). They were having a 3 part series of concerts to raise awareness and support for keeping arts education programs in schools. it was truly wonderful- the show included that National Symphony Orchestra, John Mayer, Smokey Robinson, Harolyn Blackwell [famed opera singer], local choirs and saxophonist, Branford Marsalis. It was a fun show and great to see all of those artists live (even if they dont make too much sense together!) that night i barely made it home in time for pretty little liars (which was awesome!) and then the premiere of Teen Mom. Gheremey and i watch most of the same TV shows so he always accompanies me in the watching of really bad summer programming!

Wednesday after work we had a VIEW speaker, Perry Wallace. He was a Vanderbilt student who graduated with an engineering degree and was the first black SEC athlete. He shared stories of how being black affected his Vandy experience and of all of the adversity he faced on campus and on the court. He has since become a lawyer and teaches at GW law school. Very impressive man and it was great to hear him speak to us.

Thursday after work I took the metro to Tenlytown and got dinner at a mexican place called Guapos. I wasn't a huge fan of the restaurant itself, but it was a great group of people! Liz, Maria, Michael Kariya, and Mary Beth, Liz's friend who i've met before, were all there and it was nice after a particularly bad day at work. Afterwords we wandered around the Bethesda area and stopped by Georgetown Cupcake (they have multiple locations) before heading home.

Friday went by a bit faster at work, and after work i met up with Liz, Maria, Katelyn, Jill and Matthew at the National Gallery Sculpture Garden for Jazz in the Garden, which is a free jazz concert they host every friday in the summer. While it was squelching hot (100 degrees, felt like 107+) we brought plenty to drink and big blankets and found some shade near a big sculpture. Nothing like good music, art and friends to wind down after a long work week. We ate at home afterwards and hung out with friends for an overall low-key night.

Saturday, Katelyn, Jill and I went to the Hirshhorn Modern/Contemporary [yes, they're entirely different] Art Gallery & Sculpture Garden and looked through their collection. It was really interesting and they had a phenomenal exhibit on Yves Klein. We then ran across the mall to the National Gallery of Art to visit their massive gift shop and get stationary, so we can all write thank you notes to our offices.

Then we went to China Town and got Chop't as a late lunch/early dinner which is one of our favorite places to eat. I wish they had it in nashville! after a yummy salad, we went home, showered from being in the oppressive heat for so long, and then met up with zack and gheremey and went to see Inception. It was a PHENOMENAL movie. I havent seen a movie that stimulated that much thought, questioning, and analysis in recent memory. I would highly recommend the film to anyone who wants an thrilling, thought-provoking film. In addition, Leonardo Dicaprio is yummy.

Sunday we tanned and swam on the rooftop pool and took it easy. Then we had a suite dinner once katie woke up from her nap and had grilled chicken, potatoes, broccoli and applesauce (homemmade applesauce from katelyn's grandma!) Afterwards Gheremey and Zack came over and watched True Blood. All in all, a busy and fun week and weekend.

Only a few days left at work. Tonight the roomies are meeting at Chop't for dinner then shopping across the street at Urban Outfitters. Tomorrow the office is taking me out to lunch since it's my last week. Wednesday, Lilly, our Vanderbilt program director, is coming to meet with Evlyn (she's in town this week and meeting with someone at every internship) Thursday is my last day at work! I'll pack Friday and say my goodbyes, and I'll be home late on Saturday night.

Wow, the time flies! Home to Louisville in 5 days and moving into Vandy in 20 days!

Updated Blog gadgets!

I added a twitter feed on the blog, as well as a few other gadgets.

Below each post now there are buttons you can click to easily email, twitter, or facebook any post you want to share.

also, i added hyperlinks to most of my posts so anything i mention you can click to be linked to more information about it! Also, there is a better search bar so you can find things within my posts.

Happy reading!

Week #6!

Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery

Daniel Givens and I

"Improvisation 31 (Sea Battle)", Wassily Kandinsky

"Woman With A Parasol (Madame Monet & Child)", Claude Monet

Hard to believe I only have 2 weeks left here in DC! Bittersweet for certain, as I really really love being here.

This past week was great and a lot went on! I definitely dont waste much time here in the city.

Monday after work I took my Mac into the Apple store to get looked at, as it's had problems since November and now since i'm forced to have 2 accounts it is literally out of space (minor problem!!). Basically, i have to wipe out my entire computer and start over again- thankfully i have a backup harddrive and will do this as soon as i get home. im just glad to have an answer as to how to fix it after many an hour spent in the Apple store. i LOVE my mac but have been issue ridden with it for awhile.

Wednesday i met Maria and her big Kelley in Bethesda for dinner. We went to a really wonderful Malaysian restaurant called Penang and i had a really yummy dish that i didnt really know what i was eating- but that was ok because it was really tasty! After that we wandered around Bethesda for a bit and then went home- it takes about an hour on the metro to get to pentagon city from bethesda so i had to get home.

Thursday was amazing- I got to leave work at 1 and go to CNN for a tour with the VIEW group. It. was. so. cool. i think the tour would have been great regardless, since a really prominent CNN producer {Vandy Alum} gave us the tour. However, we got lucky and were there the day that the news broke about the oil spill potentially being capped. Therefore, the whole place was buzzing and scrambling to change their entire evening programming. Not only did we get to sit in on both main control rooms, we got to stand on set next to Wolf Blitzer while he was live on air for The Situation Room. We were introduced to Wolf, the two experts (former congress members) on the show and many other prominent people. it was truly amazing and made me want to reconsider going into media for a career. I have missed being in a fast paced environment!

After the tour we went to a bar/pub for dinner with the group and then went home. Friday I was 'sick' to work (hey, i'm unpaid after all and had a legitimate excuse) and went with Jill, Katelyn, Gheremey, Rohan, and Courtney to the Arlington Federal Court House. It's easily the nicest courthouse in the country and we got to go because Jill & Gheremey's mentor is amazing. He's a lawyer and really cares about us having a great DC experience, so we got to sit in on 3 actual trials that were really fascinating. He then took us all out to lunch and disccues grad school with us, amongst many other things. It was a really fun morning. In the afternoon, Katelyn, Rohan and I went to Arlington National Cemetery. I remembered it really well from the last time I visited but it was still so impressive. We saw the Kennedy grave site (now with the addition of Ted Kennedy), the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (and we saw the changing of the guard!), and Robert E. Lee's house. The view from the top of the hill where Lee's house is is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. We got to tour the whole house and it was a really great afternoon- if not meltingly hot.

That night we went to the grocery and then Katelyn, Jill, Matthew, Rohan and I went to Urban Thai and had Thai food (after my food poisoning incident some weeks ago i was just ready to have it again) which was yummy, and then we came back to our place and baked cookies and watched Wedding Crashers. I was definitely exhausted after a long day but it was a lot of fun and definitely worth it.

Saturday we were supposed to have a VIEW service project but that turned into a bit of a debacle...but that's an entirely different story. katelyn was with her mom for the day and Jill and I went to the rooftop pool and laid out for awhile. I got a lot of my book read (currently reading The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand) and got to talk to Laura on the phone!! Then Jill and I watched The Hangover and hung out for a bit. That night, Daniel Givens came over (he was in town for the weekend) as did Maria, and we all went to Hawk & Dove, which is a really popular bar/club near the Captiol for interns and people our age. It was a fun night and it was great to see Daniel and Maria.

Yesterday I spent about 6 hours in the National Gallery of Art and i have to say i cant remember when i've been happier. I went to a (free!) lecture entitled, "Kindred Spirits: Rothko & Kandinsky" on Abstract Expressionist Mark Rothko and the much earlier Kandinsky. It was really fascinating and so cool that it was free and so available to the public. The gallery was nothing short of incredible and i could easily spend DAYS there. I was basically blissfully happy. Then i went back and the 3 girls (katie was out of town for a wedding this weekend) cooked burgers, green beans, fries and corn on the cob and had gheremey over for dinner. it was a really nice time and then we all watched True Blood together- our favorite show!

Now, time for week 7 at work. hard to believe its all almost over!

Weekend with Meghan!!!

Georgetown Cupcake! They have a show on TLC now!

AOII girls reunite for dinner in U-Street Corridor

Meghan and I at the Lincoln Memorial

WWII Memorial

Wow, what a great and busy weekend! I was so busy that i never really got a chance to relax, but that's ok because it was so much fun. Friday after work I met up with Jill, Katleyn, Liz, Matthew and other Vandy students at a bar for a Happy Hour Ivy League Mixer. I met some nice people and it was fun to mingle with other interns. The funniest part was that the bar where we were at , The Reserve, was being boycotted! The workers were outside picketing the bar/restaurant for unpaid wages. I've never had to cross a picket line before- but i did! It was really funny and very unusual at the same time.

Friday night the suite girls went to 930 club in the U Street Corridor, where they had a Lady Gaga-MIA-Madonna night. Every song was one of those 3 artists. It was a really fun girls night, and then we crashed and woke up the next morning and Meghan arrived!! Meghan lives in Baltimore so her drive was about an hour, and she stayed until Sunday afternoon. We went and did the monuments (where Meghan graciously allowed me to ramble like i do so often) and then got lunch at Zorbas, a really yummy Greek place in Dupont Circle. We wandered around that area for a bit and then shopped around in Pentagon City Mall by my metro stop. Then we went to Busboys & Poets, near my work in Columbia Heights/U Street and met up with some of our other wonderful AOII sisters! Liz, Kelley, Maria, Meghan and I had a wonderful dinner. Busboys and poets is a wonderful place that is part bookstore, part coffee house/part performance space and part restaurant. It is quickly becoming one of my favorite places in DC!! After that, Meghan and I went and saw Twilight: Eclipse (pause for obligatory groan) but for my A) low expectations and B)understanding of the cheesy, poorly written script, it was definitely entertaining. I think the movies are definitely getting better, even if i still really dislike the idea of sparkly vampires :)

Sunday Meghan and I went to Georgetown and shopped around, and also went to the famous Georgetown Cupcake! It was super yummy and I had a delicious Chocolate-Coconut cupcake. TLC is starting a reality show on the store in the next few weeks and the line is always wrapped around the door. It was cool to see! After that, we met up with my friend Brian! Brian and I always seem to run into each other. We did speech together in high school, and Brian lives in Nashville but goes to Georgetown. Usually I see him when he's on Vandy's campus, but it was awesome to see him in DC!

Meghan left after our afternoon in Georgetown, and Katelyn drove the 4 suitemates + Maria (my roommate for this upcoming year who just arrived in DC for July-August) to her house in Baltimore where we had a really wonderful summer BBQ with her whole family. it was so nice to have a home cooked meal and get to sit outside with a big group of people and just hang out. it reminded me a lot of our family nights on the river at home and made me miss everyone! But it was a great time.

This week, Evlyn is on vacation in Los Angeles, and Anita is gone for most of the week as well. Since Michelle apparently fell down stairs this weekend, she isn't in today either. So, it's just Cara and I in the office (which is weird, even thought I really like her). Not too much going on here in the office! I'm just crossing my fingers that the rain will hold off until I can get home safely!

The Heat Chronicles, Day 4, and no this has nothing to do with LeBron

1) LeBron James is highly annoying, and a media whore. I don't want to hear anything more about him. That being said, i'm sure my cousins in Miami are very happy he's joining their probably-going-to-win-the-NBA-championship team.

2) it is inhumane to keep your full time, UNPAID intern in an office on the 3rd floor of an ancient Victorian house with no AC at all when it is over 100 degrees outside. No matter how little clothing I wear or how much liquid i drink it is still unbearable. Plus, I bring my own computer and don't interact with my coworkers anyway so there is no reason I can't work from somewhere else. They can ignore me even more than usual if they let me work from a Starbucks or something.

3) This has been the longest short-work-week ever. I'm finding some excuse to leave early today no matter what.

4) Sorry to be so negative. Sometimes it's just necessary. :/

In other news, we had a "Faces of Homelessness Panel" on Tuesday after work that was interesting. My friend Gheremey works at the National Coalition for the Homeless so he helped put it together. We had 2 speakers who have both been homeless for a portion of their lives. It was really interesting! After, we had an impromptu TWO HOUR LONG 'evaluation' of the program that Lilly, our Vandy coordinator flew up for. No comment on how much fun that was. basically she's been getting a lot of complaints and this was her way of dealing with it, but it wasn't what a lot of people were expecting I don't think.

Last night we had an "Around the World Dinner" between the 6 suites, where we divided up appetizers, entree and dessert and moved from place to place to eat. We had chinese and italian appetizers (egg rolls and bruschetta), fajitas, enchiladas and a yummy pasta for entrees, and then our suite had all-american ice cream sundaes for dessert. it was really fun and a good way to hang out with VIEW people.

And today is finally friday!!!! i'm still trying to tackle this Ambassadors of the Arts Gala that has no direction whatsoever so we'll see where that goes. And tomorrow my friend and AOII sister Meghan comes in town!!!! I'm so excited to have her visiting for the weekend. Maria Gaitan (my roommmate this upcoming year) just got to DC this week and is starting her job. Can't wait to see her too!

4th of July Weekend

The National Portrait Gallery with Cornelius Vanderbilt

Liz Furman's 20th birthday party!

"A Capitol Fourth" Rehearsal

Dinner with Mom & Laura!

I forgot to mention in my last post that we had a Young Alumni Panel on Wednesday night after work. 5 Vanderbilt alumni who all work in the D.C. area came and gave us a lot of advice on our internships, future goals, and what to do after graduation. Long story short, I made a big decision after that panel that I've been leaning towards for awhile. I decided that I'm definitely not going to law school, or at least not right out of undergrad. I'm not sure if it's what I want to do with my life and getting a few years of experience working in DC or somewhere else would actually help me figure out what I want to do plus will make me a better candidate for law school should i decide to go. i'm also considering public policy grad school- but everything after a few years of work in the real world. i don't want to become one of those people who is continuously putting off joining the 'real world' and want to use that to figure out what i want to do in life.

ok, rant aside:

thursday was fine at work, i hardly remember what went on as it's been awhile, but all bets will lead to nothing exciting happened at all. that night laura and mom got in town (yay) after getting lost on the way in from BWI, and i went over and visited with them for awhile. since we were all tired, we called it an early night. friday i was off work to spend the day with mom and laura, and we actually started our day off with visiting my workplace. it was great for mom and laura to be able to see where i spend 40 hours a week all summer! then we went to look at the monuments on the mall- and that took most of the morning! we saw WWII, Vietnam, Lincoln, FDR, and Jefferson. Fortunately, it was the coolest it's been since I've been here- in the low 80's, making it a pleasant walk around the monuments. I forgot how much I love the Vietnam memorial- it's definitely my favorite of all of the monuments/memorials. i'll spare everyone the time of me explaining why!

Then we met up with Katelyn & Jill at the Holocaust Museum in the afternoon. It was so moving- I remembered very little from when I went the last time we were in town. Even though I've read a lot about the Holocaust and have learned about it in school, there was so much information and the museum was very well done. It was certainly a troubling experience and it takes awhile to recover from after walking through. But I'm so glad a museum like this exists for people to remember and learn about this horrific event in our history. We went back to our apartments in the afternoon and rested for a bit, then met up and went to a cute restaurant called Veranda for dinner with my friend Michael Kariya. It was a lovely night with a cool breeze and we got to eat outside at the cute restaurant. It was a really nice evening! That night I said goodbye to Laura and mom and they left the next morning. It was a really quick trip but it was so great to see them!

Saturday morning our suite was planning on sleeping in to kick off the holiday weekend but were instead jarred awake at 830 am by a full high school marching band practicing directly below our window. After many angry phone calls to the Embassy Suites across from us (we live in an area that is completely saturated with hotels/apartments so this had to be bothering thousands of people) they stopped after at least 30 minutes of playing. Oh well, no sleep for us!

Saturday Jill's dad was in town, so she was with him. katelyn, katie and i went to Georgetown which was SO crowded but really fun! we shopped around, met up with jill and her dad, and got ice cream since it was pretty hot in the afternoon. that night, we went to the capitol for the rehearsal of "A Capitol Fourth". it was much less crowded than it would be the next night, and we got to see the whole show! David Archuleta, Daris Rucker, Lang Lang, Gladys Knight, and Reba Mcentire were all performing (although all of them didnt show up for the rehearsal) We had a lot of fun a camped out picnic-style and i have never felt so patriotic! We also met a really cool woman who was sitting next to us. she and her husband, though in their early 60's, own a skydiving business in Oklahoma and have each jumped 2000+ times! They were in the middle of a motorcycle tour of all 48 contiguous US states! Talk about awesome.

On the 4th Katelyn, Matthew and I went to Liz Furman's birthday party at her house in Alexandria. I have never seen such a patriotic gathering! it was tons of fun as michael was there, plus my AOII sisters kelley, veronica and jamie and two of my friends in sigma nu. it was a wonderful time, complete with USA fans, georgetown cupcakes and great barbeque.

that night we went to the roof of Katelyn's office to watch the fireworks. it was a great view and we had no trouble getting there or getting back. that was a relief as we had friends who spent hours getting home! jill's dad ordered us pizza and we watched the re-run of the Capitol Fourth show on PBS.

yesterday, katelyn matthew and i went to the National Portrait Gallery / Smithsonian Museum of American Art. They had a wonderful Norman Rockwell exhibit plus a lot of really great portraits! We got froZenyo after (our favorite!) and then came home in the late afternoon. katelyn and i put together an all-american dinner to celebrate the 4th weekend coming to a close- we had grilled chicken, corn on the cob, mashed potatoes, peas, and i made a peach compote to serve over vanilla ice cream for dessert. rounded off with iced tea and some country music in the background and it was a really nice dinner :)

now, back to the grind in the office. the air conditioning is hardly working today and with it being 100+ outside i'm nothing short of miserable- but hopefully things will make a turn for the better.

the week so far

Monday was great because after work i got to wander around the U-Street area for awhile, then headed over to Dupont Circle and met up with Matthew Taylor and our friend Andrew Maguire. Andrew goes to VU with us and is a counselor at an international diplomacy camp at American university. he doesn't get many days off from his job so it was great to see him! we at a place that is literally called 'the burger joint' and it was really good. then we walked a few blocks over to a frozen yogurt place called Mr. Yogato that Andrew's friend had recommended to him. i didn't get anything, but apparently it was LITERALLY yogurt that was frozen and not everyone's favorite. the place itself was really cool though. froyo shops and gourmet cupcake shops are all the rage here in DC (as they are in nashville) but they have yet to really reach louisville yet (not surprising). TLC is even starting a new reality show soon called DC Cupcake. no complaints about so many yummy things being stationed around me!

I went home after that and crashed early as i was really tired. Tuesday was great at work because to celebrate Anita's (my boss) birthday we went and got Ethiopian food! There really, truly aren't any African cuisine restaurants in all of nashville, and to my knowledge our one and only one in louisville, Queen of Sheba, just opened. I had no idea what to expect but it was really cool. you're served everything in a large, wooden bowl that you share with your group, and you don't use utensils, instead you pick up everything with this spongy bread and eat it that way. sorry for my lack of culturally accurate terminology, but, well, i'm coming from an area that doesn't exactly excel in global awareness ;)

Tuesday night i met up with katelyn, jill and matthew at the Nat's stadium for the Congressional baseball game (democrats v. republicans). it's been going on for 30-40 years and it was a lot of fun watching members of congress play each other in baseball (even if i was forced to sit on the democrat side). the dems won big, and ben chandler (D-KY) played! we sat in front of his interns, mostly from KY, and i found out we had a lot of mutual friends- go figure. then we all went home and used katelyn's quesadilla maker that her mom brought us- yummy!

Wednesday was also fun at work- my supervisor Evlyn is a flamenco dancer and had a show in the afternoon so we all left the office to go see it! she's in a really talented company and they put on an awesome show. definitely a great lunch break!!! the rest of the day went by really quickly. however, my computer crashed AGAIN because let's face it, if you're working on a 10 year old Dell, things aren't going to go very well. the piece of crap was ridden with viruses before i ever got here and we've already had to wipe the harddrive multiple times. so, starting today, im bringing my macbook to work every day and just plugging in the ethernet cable for internet. on one hand im happy about it because i have a lot less wrist pain (which was becoming really bad on the dell) on my macbook, and it works a LOT better. however, i walk about 1/2 mile to the metro from my apartment and then a full mile from the metro to work each way. my bag weighs 20+ pounds and i already did a LOT of damage to my shoulders this year at school carrying around all that stuff, so im worried about it here as well. I don't have a backpack and seeing as i wear a dress or skirt every single day it'd hardly be feasible. im sure ill figure it out soon enough.

today is the last day of my work week as Laura and Mom will get here tonight after dinner sometime! since they're only in town for one full day im taking friday off (hey, they dont pay me- i deserve it!) not too much going on in the office, but we won't be taking any fabulous lunch breaks or field trips today that im aware of- i was getting used to it ;)

Tomorrow i'll be showing Laura and mom around the mall and monuments in the morning and maybe checking out the Smithsonian Folk Life Festival- it has a TON of cool free things going on. then we're meeting katelyn and jill and going to the Holocaust Museum. We might fit in the botanical gardens after that, and then we're meeting michael kariya for dinner. can't wait!!!