You know it's Friday the 13th when

Today has started out all wrong. I woke up 15 minutes before I needed to be out the door. I rushed to get everything pulled together (including myself) and ran out the door to catch the train. I got to the station just as a train was pulling away, so I had to wait 5 minutes for the next one. When I got on the train, a girl that works in my building told me that there were power issues in the city (and our building). Apparently D.C. is experiencing a major power outage today. We arrived at our metro stop to find no lights in the station and lots of people. When we got to the building there were tons of people just hanging around wondering what to do. My office has no power, air conditioning and the server is down for the whole company. I wish this were a good thing... I had so much to do today!

** I just got a call letting me know that the server is working, maybe that means that power is back on **

Regardless, I'm home now, so we'll see what I can get done from here. And it's only 10:30 a.m.! I hope this is not a sign of things to come for the rest of the day.

I have arrived!

In June, I was invited to an event at the National Theatre. I went with some of my co-workers and had a great time. Trisha Yearwood, Clay Aiken and many other amazing vocalists performed. We were also treated to a poetry reading by Maya Angelou. How inspiring. We sat in the balcony and completely enjoyed the show. The theatre is amazing. It was a great evening.

Oh yeah -- the President and First Lady also attended. Here's my attempt at a photo.

Leslie Milk of The Washingtonian wrote about the event on the Capital Comment Blog. http://www.washingtonian.com/blogarticles/people/capitalcomment/7950.html
She writes, "Washington’s political elite dressed to the nineteens ..." Not a bad group to hang out with. If you scroll down to the listing of pictures, I am featured with my friends, Taj and Cory in the 6th picture.
If you're having trouble finding it, here's a direct link to the pic: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8206629@N05/2542989109

Gone Swimming

For those of you that were in D.C. this weekend, Saturday at around 2:00 p.m. we had a fast, heavy rainstorm that dropped a lot of rain in very little time. We had quite a unique experience as a result of the downpour that I thought everyone would get a laugh out of.

Around 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, Shiloh and I went to California Pizza Kitchen in Pentagon City with our friends, Rachel, Melissa and John. We were seated at a table next to a large wall of windows. We had a front row seat to the rain as it started to sprinkle. We were wondering how we were going to get back to our car without getting drenched when John said, "it feels like I'm getting wet!" Within seconds water started flowing into the restuarant from gap above the window that is usually filled by a sealant - apparently it's time to be replaced. What started as a small leak...

grew quickly. We dashed to a table a safe distance from our original spot, and not a moment too soon. Before long our table was in a lake of water. The picture below shows the clean up efforts we were seated right in the middle of the large puddle.

So, if you're looking for an eventful eating experience, make sure to head to CPK when you hear rain is coming.

Emergency Preparedness Fair

The second Rachel and Rachel production of the year, this weekend Rachel Watson and I participated in our church's Emergency Preparedness Fair. We had a great time and learned quite a bit along the way.

Memorial Weekend

What a great memorial day! My parents arrive early Saturday morning for a weekend of fun. We headed right over to Eastern Market where we browsed the goods. We used to look forward to the 57th street art fair in Chicago every June -- while the art could never compare, being out among street vendors was a little nostalgic. We found some very cool "singing" bowls. We spent quite a while perfecting the art of making the bowls sing. My parents love finding cool stuff like this, and decided to take one home.



After browsing the market, having our spiritual energy measured and finding lots of great jewerly and bags, we made our way to the Potomac River. We had a delicious lunch at Tony & Joe's and then walked down to Jack's Boathouse where we rented kayaks and played on the river.

After we got our fill of the sun, we returned to my aunt and uncles to meet up to go to dinner. We had delicious food at Tara Thai and enjoyed the company of my cousin, Daren, who left on a mission three days later.

On Sunday, my Aunt Linda hosted a farewell reception for Daren. Many of their friends came to send him off. We broke away for a few minutes to show my parents a few neighborhoods where we have been looking for housing.

On Monday we met up with Paige & Garrett and a couple of their friends for a trip to the National Zoo. We enjoyed the animals in the morning and then made our way to a picnic with our friends at Fort Hunt park near Mt. Vernon. We all enjoyed the sun and great food. This was an excellent welcome to the summer.

Home Sweet Home

It's official. We will be residents of the Washington, D.C./Arlington, VA area for the foreseeable future! We're so excited!

We are not yet sure where exactly we'll live, so if you have suggestions please pass them along.

While I was away...

A lot has happened since I've been away. I don't really have a good reason for my lack of posting, so I'll just give you a quick wrap up of the last month and a half.

1) Shiloh left for training for work around the beginning of April. He comes home on weekends, and the time is passing much faster than we anticipated. We can't talk about his job online, so email us if you have any questions.

2) My wonderful friends threw me and three of my friends an awesome birthday party. I think the breakdown went like this: Sarah's birthday was on Monday, Laura's was on Tuesday, Ali's was on Wednesday and mine was on Thursday. All this combined made for an occasion that had to be celebrated.

A bunch of girls met up for dinner and then Rachel had everyone over for cake & ice cream. Kayla made two amazing cakes making this one of the best birthday parties ever. Thanks ladies!

3) My two great friends Julie and Megan met me at Cake Love for a mini birthday celebration. Megan gave me this fabulous jewelry dish - she had no idea how much I needed this!

4) I never said that I'd do it, but I've developed a bit of an addiction to LOST. Ah! This has led to lots of late nights, not much sleep and probably an increase in blood pressure. I love it. I've been watching it streaming online at ABC.com. I just finished the first season, and have plunged into the second. I'll let you know how it goes.

5) I hit my 9 month anniversary at work. crazy. I love having a job that I love to go to.

6) I bought my tickets to Utah. Shiloh's cousin, Luke, is getting married in Park City on the fourth of July. Shiloh won't be able to make it, so I'll be representing our little family at the wedding. While there, I'll be traveling up to Idaho to visit family and friends that I haven't seen since I left. JaNae may have had her baby by then, so I'm hoping to be able to meet him!

7) Our friends, Paige & Garret, just moved to town. We've had the chance to spend quite a bit of time with them. Their son, Gabe, is so adorable. It's been great to have them close by!