Labor Day

American Flag flown over the GWB

I went home for Labor Day. An hour into my drive I was ready to be done driving. Six and 1/2 hours later, I thought my rear end was never going to be the same. The drive home was much nicer (and shorter).

I arrived, Friday night, to a house full of teenagers. My mom had organized a surprise birthday party for my youngest brother... 16!! It is funny to see siblings grow up and start doing things that you remember doing not so long ago.

Saturday morning I woke up unsure of where I was. It was a pleasant realization that I was in my parents home. When I got up we went to watch Ben play football. The games were only short scrimmages, and I was never quite sure what was going on. When Ben's team took a break the parents, Arrin and I took the opportunity to run to get a bagel brunch. Delicious.

Later that day I went with the parents and Ben to finish up his Eagle project. I got to practice my knot tying skills and became very grateful for electric drills. Ben and the family worked so hard on the project, it really looks great. I'm amazed that the town finds so many things for Eagle Scouts to do. Every year I hear of at least one or two boys that recently completed their project.

Saturday night we had a nice evening at a family friend's home. Quite a few people came and it was a nice party. Arrin and I left early to get a little shopping in before Sunday. We then went home and watched Freedom Writers. This is the first benefit I have found to having Shiloh gone: I get to watch whatever movie I feel like. A number of times I've wanted to see Freedom Writers, but Shiloh was convinced it would be another Dangerous Minds, and did not have a great desire to watch it. Arrin was very nice and gave up an evening with friends to watch it with me.

On Sunday we attended church and had a lazy day. In the evening a woman from the community was baptized and we attended the service. She was very excited. It was a very nice meeting, many members came to give their support. She will make a great addition to the congregation.

On Monday my dad refreshed my tennis memory. We spent about an hour and a half playing and chatting. My mom played for a while and then decided her time could be better spent running around the track - tennis was not a lot of exercise, but it was nice to spend time with my parents.

Arrin is a Senior this year, and as such participated in many pre-senior activites on Monday. The first of which was decorating cars. Here's her original paint job, however, I think it may have change some later in the day. I remember my senior year. I'd doesn't feel like it was that long ago - but when i think about it, quite a bit has happened in the 7 years since. Life continues to pass by, faster and faster.

I was able to break away and get on the road around 3:00 and made it back to Virginia before too long. I was able to spend time with all members of the family which was long overdue. The weekend was very nice, but strange to be visiting without Shiloh. Soon enough.

Calling all DC run/walkers!

I wanted to let everyone know about a fun run/walk opportunity. If you are not a run/walker - feel free to take the opportunity to do something to make you feel "warm & fuzzy".

I have joined my office's run/walk team and we are official sponsors of the AIDS Walk Washington 2007. It is a 5K event, one running and one walking. From what I understand, to participate officially in either the run or the walk it is $25, which is all donated to the AIDS effort. If you're interested, please let me know.

Here's some official info:

The AIDS Walk benefits the Whitman-Walker Clinic in Washington, DC --- Whitman-Walker is a nonprofit organization that provides critically important health care services to those living with HIV/AIDS as well as offering basic health services to low-income and uninsured individuals in the Washington metro area. You can find out more about the Clinic at http://www.blogger.com/www.wwc.org
Every donation - big or small - brings hope and provides needed care for those less fortunate then many of us. (BTW -- contributions are 100 percent tax deductible)

You can make donations online via my personal AIDS Walk Washington website
(All online transactions are secure, but if you feel more comfortable you can also print a donation form at my website and mail it. Checks should be made payable to AIDS Walk Washington and mailed to PO Box 73768, Washington DC 20056-3768.)

As you may know, HIV/AIDS is one of the most critical issues facing Washington, DC:
It's estimated that one in every 20 adults in the District of Columbia is infected with HIV.
DC has a higher rate of HIV infection than most sub-Saharan African nations.
DC has the highest rate of new AIDS cases per 100,000 people in the US -- a rate that is 12 times the national average.
In DC, the greatest increase in AIDS cases is occurring among people of color, women, injection drug users and through heterosexual contact.
In DC, African-Americans account for eight out of every 10 cases of AIDS.
More than 15,000 people in the Washington metropolitan area live with AIDS. Tens of thousands more people are estimated to be infected with HIV.

I got tagged?

I don't really know what this is, but I've been "tagged" by two people now, and both had the same questions, so I guess I'm supposed to answer them. enjoy!

Tag you're it!

4 JOBS I'VE HAD:
1. APCO Worldwide - junior associate
2. Smiles by Design - marketing director
3. JetBlue Airways - corporate communications intern
4. ICON Health & Fitness - graphic artist

4 MOVIES I CAN ALWAYS WATCH:
1. Seabiscuit
2. The Pianist
3. Count of Monte Cristo
4. Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken

4 PLACES I'VE LIVED:
1. Crystal City, VA
2. Logan, UT
3. Chicago, IL
4. New Canaan, CT

4 TV SHOWS I ENJOY:
1. Heroes!
2. The Office
3. Grey's Anatomy
4. Project Runway


4 FAVORITE FOODS:
1. Pot Roast & Potatoes
2. Chinese
3. Bread
4. Sushi

4 WEBSITES I VISIT:
1. Blogs
2. PRWeek.com
3. CNN.com
4. mapquest.com


4 PLACES I'D RATHER BE RIGHT NOW:
1. With Shiloh
2. Connecticut
3. Hawaii
4. Shopping


4 BLOGGER BUDDIES TO TAG:
1. Megan
2. Julie
3. Shana
4. Paige


WHO TAGGED ME:
Melissa
Shana

4 More Months

I have done a really poor job at keeping up this blog the last few weeks. With the new job starting, and preparing for Shiloh's departure, I haven't found myself with much extra time. So I guess this will be another "catch up" posting.

Shiloh left on Thursday, he arrived in Pocatello today around 3:00pm. Tonight he's at a Church BBQ. The trip was a little eventful, Thursday night he was forced to stop driving a little early because of flood and tornado warnings in Illinois. His last semester of school starts on Monday. We're both excited for graduation.

The job is going well. The first month or so of a job is never fun - trying to understand how you fit into the new world you've been shoved into. After a summer (3 months) off of work, my brain was a little out of shape. I frequently felt like I could not get my brain to function normally. By Friday each week my brain still feels a little fried, but I'm confident that eventually that will go away too. If you want more job details, you'll have to call or email me.

I'm living with my aunt in Falls Church, VA while Shi's gone. Its about 15 minutes further commute in the morning, but it is cheap and nice not to live alone. It's only been a few days, but I was telling Shiloh today that it seems like he's been gone at least a couple of weeks. It's going to be an interesting 4 months.

Montana Trip

This weekend we took a quick trip to the town where Shiloh went to high school -- Glasgow, MT. His parents moved from Glasgow a year or two after Shi graduated, and he hadn’t been back since. Shi’s 10 year reunion was being held, it was so fun to go and meet old friends, see places that I’ve heard about and experience a little of what high school life was like for him.

Friday night there was a check-in for all of the attendees. We got to spend all evening chatting and catching up with old friends, even a few from other graduating classes showed up.

Saturday’s event was a BBQ in Fort Peck (I think), there was a pavilion with horseshoe pits and a sand volleyball court. One of the classmates busted out an accordion and played the school’s fight song. It was hilarious!

Later that day we went with some friends to the lake and ended up taking a boat around the reservoir for the remainder of the day. It was so nice and relaxing!

Shiloh had been telling me about this amazing local pizza place called Eugene’s, so that night we broke away from the festivities for a few minutes to get some great pizza. It was delicious!

Later we met up with friends again, this time at The Oasis. It is this little bar and everything is covered in red pleather! Below is a funny picture displayed in the bar.

Sunday we made our way to Shi’s old church building. We enjoyed the meeting and caught up with old friends of the family for a while afterwards. Then we rushed off to the reunion’s closing brunch. After the brunch, we drove over to the highschool to take a look around. Here are some lovely shots.

Getting home was quite an ordeal. Northwest canceled a ton of flights, our connecting flight to DC was one of them. So we were sent down to Houston and then over to a different airport in DC. Our friend, Brooke Rowe was so nice! Not only did she watch Adi for the weekend, but when I called her to tell her that we were going to be later than we thought, she offered to pick us up from the airport. (we weren't sure how to get home from the new airport) What a good friend!

We had a really great time with all of Shi’s old classmates. His graduating class was really small (around 80) and so the whole group is pretty close. Shiloh had forgotten a lot of memories from high school and the trip successfully brought them back. We are so glad we went!

An addition to my last post: I accepted a position with a large PR Firm with a big office here in D.C. This is the firm that I have been interviewing with all summer. It really makes me glad that I turned down the position with the oral surgeon’s office. I will be starting Monday, August 6th and am excited to start! Sadly, this means that I will not be returning with Shiloh to Idaho for the fall. I am a bit stressed about the thought of living alone or with roommates for the next 4 months… we’ll see how it goes. If you have any questions, let me know, I’d be happy to fill you in.