Update on the Way

I promise! We've been kinda busy... my new job, we went to Boston, Ryan went to New York, and now we're moving... like, right this minute! Ryan got the keys to our new apartment in Arlington and we're moving small things starting now! We'll be fully in this weekend! More to come...

Air and Space

Last weekend, Ryan and I went to the National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. It's one of the Smithsonian museums and it is amazing! It's not on the National Mall with the majority of the other museums because it's like a real airport hangar near the Dulles airport. It was stuffed full of airplanes, helicopters, space stuff, gliders, hot air balloon baskets, and historic air memorabilia from the last century. We think this is a must-see for any friends who come out for a second visit, especially if they have kiddos.

Working Woman

This is the first job that I have had that has been full time and permanent right from the start. When I started working at CSUSB, I was a temp and became permanent after Cynthia passed away. When I was on the Hill, I was an intern. Even though I was at AU for 10 months, I was a temp the whole time. So, this is my first full-time, permanent, job and it's pretty darn awesome!

Monday was my first day and I spent the entire day in orientation with five other new employees from other departments. It was a very thorough orientation and I feel very well oriented. I even received a pre-printed schedule of training sessions I am scheduled to attend for the next two months to further orient me. Yesterday was pretty slow, I pretty much just met people the whole day and set up my cubicle. Today, though, I was thrown into my job head first! A number of the staff are headed to a huge conference in Saudi Arabia for the next two weeks and there was a lot to be done. All I can say is, I sure am glad I wore flats today! Not only was I running around the office, I was running around all over downtown picking up supplies! When was the last time you walked to three Radio Shacks in one day?!

I'm feeling pretty happy there so far. Everyone keeps telling me how grateful they are to have me on the team. It seems like a pretty good working environment as well. I'm excited!

March Madness

During this week, two years ago, we were in the middle of a whirlwind adventure. Ryan had just received a promotion and we just secured our apartment here in Maryland and were preparing for the movers to arrive and pack up our apartment in California. On March 13, 2008, we left California for Maryland and now, here we are doing it again. We just secured a new, awesome, apartment in Arlington, Virginia. We'll be cutting our commute time in half by living closer and we were able to get a slightly larger apartment for a similar rent. We will have an extra half bathroom, which I have been calling "my bathroom" and an open den that we will be using as a dining room. We have been eating all of our meals at the coffee table for the last two years and I am so excited to finally be able to eat sitting up at a table INSIDE our apartment! Yes! Our patio is much smaller so we're going to bring our patio furniture inside, cover it up with a nice tablecloth and use it as our dining table. Our new place is near the Arlington Court House in an area full of people our age and awesome things to do. We're close enough to DC that we can walk to Georgetown or ride our bikes, which is even easier (and this means Ryan finally has to get a bike!). We're only a 15 minute walk from a Whole Foods and we can literally see a farmer's market from our window every Saturday morning! I'm so excited about that! We get our keys on March 24th and our big moving day will be March 27th. We were spoiled with our movers two years ago! It stinks to have to pack our own stuff! Since we moved so quickly last time, we didn't really have time to go through everything to see if there was anything we could donate, so I'm thankful to have a little more time to be able to sort through everything. Even though I have only packed two boxes, I've put together 3 full garbage-sized bags of items to donate to the Salvation Army and 7 grocery bags full of books to donate to our library's used book store. We're so excited to move, the 27th seems so far away! We know time will fly though because we have a lot going on between now and then. I start my new job on Monday and next weekend we will be meeting up with Jacque, Jeff, Kevin, and Jessica for a concert and some sightseeing in Boston! March is going to be a great month!!

Our Future Home

Here's a little song about Arlington, Virginia, where we will probably be moving next month. Umm... I think we'll fit in just fine!

Woohoo!

I felt the hard pinch of our recession for the last 6 months. I survived thanks to my amazing fiance, unemployment benefits (I now understand why we pay into that), and my fab part time job at Borders that helped my stretch my unemployment benefits so I was able to continue to pay the majority of my bills and what I contribute to our cost of living (which really means groceries and Target) without going into greater debt and still getting to enjoy life. Finally, I can breathe again and work toward improving my credit score at a faster pace!

A few weeks ago I interviewed for a position at Pew Charitable Trusts and fortunately was not offered the position! I learned about the position through my new friend Colleen who is actually my "Aunt" Sheila's niece. Sheila was our neighbor when we were stationed in England when I was in preschool and kindergarten. Colleen and I went to Temple at the same time but never crossed paths even though Sheila kept encouraging us to meet. Our paths were clearly destined to cross because Colleen lives here in DC as well. Finally, Sheila was in town for work and Colleen and I finally met one night when we joined her for dinner and totally hit it off! Colleen was fortunate to get her position at Pew through a staffing agency and referred me to her position when she received a promotion. Even though I didn't get her position, the recruiting specialist I met, Rakelle, really liked me and was determined to find a position that would be a good fit for me. She found one! Today, I interviewed to be an administrative assistant for the Pew Environment Group, specifically assisting the Global Sharks campaign, the Global Tuna campaign, and the Take Back the Whales campaign. My interview was at 12 and they interviewed the other candidate at 1. At 1:35, I received a voicemail from Rakelle to call back immediately because she had good news. Apparently, I knocked their socks off! Finally!! I knew it felt good through the whole interview! I looked great in my Banana Republic suit, magenta ruffled shirt and sexy lacy heels, with my hair in a sleek, head-banded ponytail, my skin looked clear, and despite my nagging cough, I was able to speak in a calm, clear voice! Finally, someone recognized my skills!! I have skills people!! So, pending my reference calls all go smoothly, and I am positive they will, I will get an official offer next week. I'm so pumped! Pew is an internationally respected organization and I get to help save the whales, sharks, and over-fished tuna!! This is right up my alley!! I start March 6th!!