Ah, I'm a terrible blog-updater!! If anyone still checks this blog anymore, this is for you. My year in BVS finished on October 9th. I am sad not to see my co-workers every day, but totally pumped about having my days free. The first week was spent in recovery. The next week I was kind of in limbo, waiting.
See, there's a job I really want in Warrenton, VA. It involves gardening and coordinating. It seems like it'd be a great combination of office and farm, plus I would live on the campus of this gorgeous conference center... but I'll tell you more about that if and when I get the job there. The guy who's trying to hire me, Pablo, has to get the permission of the head of the conference center. She was out of town for a week or so, visiting a sick friend, and no one knew when she was coming back. She's back now, and Pablo asked her, and she said no. So I was really upset, but then Pablo said that he'll be making a "final plea" next Tuesday. So, again, I'm waiting.
I'm trying not to get my hopes up, and I'm trying to look for other jobs, but I'm just not motivated because I really want this one. Still, there seems to to be plenty to do each day. Looking for jobs could be a full time job. I'm trying to go through piles of things in my room (if it's in a pile, it means I didn't want to do it, so going through piles is like pulling teeth). I went thrift-store shopping for winter farm clothes. There's laundry to do and cooking...
One thing I guess I'll need when I get a farm job is a car. I will want to be traveling back to DC on the weekends. Please keep your eyes out for a good deal. I am willing to buy a car under $5000. I would like it to be cheap, but able for me to put some miles on it. Something with good gas milage would be good too! I want to ask family and friends first, because I'd also be happy to borrow a car for a year and give it back. Sometimes circumstances work out for that to happen. Let me know if you have a lead! (I'm willing to travel to get the car.)
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Metro Tragedy
Yesterday I got a ride home. At about 8 PM my housemates mentioned in passing that there was a crash on the Metro (subway). Lu (housemate) got a call from California asking her if she was okay. She didn't know what the call was in reference to. That's how she heard about the crash. We didn't know many details. They said it was on the Red Line in Northeast, coming into the city. That's the line I ride, and the direction I go. My housemate said "well, I heard it was above ground so I stopped paying attention because whereever I ride the Metro, it's underground." But when I ride the Metro home, the first 3 stops are above ground.
I didn't find out any more details until today, on my way to work. When I got to the Metro, there were delays. First I had to wait maybe 10 minutes to get on, then the train stopped before my station. I got off and had to take a bus the rest of the way. I was really worried that I would come to work and find out that someone had gotten hurt on their way home. Turns out, the crash was one stop before mine. Here's the diagram. From North to South on the Red Line, the stations are Takoma, Fort Totten, Brookland. Brookland is where I get on to go home (South). The train was going North to South, so it's actually pretty unlikely that anyone I know from work was in the crash. Still, it was pretty close to home.
Here are some reactions of local communters. (I'm famous!)
I didn't find out any more details until today, on my way to work. When I got to the Metro, there were delays. First I had to wait maybe 10 minutes to get on, then the train stopped before my station. I got off and had to take a bus the rest of the way. I was really worried that I would come to work and find out that someone had gotten hurt on their way home. Turns out, the crash was one stop before mine. Here's the diagram. From North to South on the Red Line, the stations are Takoma, Fort Totten, Brookland. Brookland is where I get on to go home (South). The train was going North to South, so it's actually pretty unlikely that anyone I know from work was in the crash. Still, it was pretty close to home.
Here are some reactions of local communters. (I'm famous!)
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Olivia & David visit - with camera!
Olivia and David came out for a weekend. It was so fun! On Saturday we did the monuments and some Smithsonians. It was a beautiful day for all that walking. In the evening we ate at a restaurant on 8th Street (very close to my house). We came back home and played Settlers of Catan, and they taught me the Cities & Knights version - SO fun! On Sunday morning we went to a neighborhood I like - Dupont Circle. We all bought our weekly fresh foods (for O & D it was what could survive on the trip back), then went to a restaurant for lunch. After lunch I took them to Mr. Yogatto's - a quirky frozen yogurt place. Olivia ordered in a Kermit T. Frog voice and got a Mr. Yogatto stamp on her forehead, and got 15% off! We came back home and played more Settlers, this time out on the patio at the picnic table. Then they took off! It was a busy weekend, but you must remember that just about every activity we did was followed by a short nap. :) One time we all piled onto my twin bed, hee hee. Here are awaited pictures of my house and garden!!!
My hand cupping the house number. We like to think that the unattractive facade of the house means it'll be the last one on the street to get robbed.
My room as viewed from the doorway.
The reading corner.
The closet & dresser across from the bed.
The seedlings on my desk (right by bed): tomato plants, basil, Baby's Tears plant
Heirloom tomatoes close up.
The upstairs kitchen, right by my bedroom.
The upstairs hallway. The open door at the end of the hallway is my room. To the left are the kitchen and bathroom. Does Olivia know I'm taking the picture?
Other end of upstairs hallway. Carly (housemate) at the community computer.
Top floor looking down.
Main floor: mailboxes.
Main floor hallway. Chore chart, communication white board, open door= kitchen.
Carly cooking in the main floor kitchen.
Carly cooks with eggs!
A normal picture of Carly.
Basement bike room + laundry.
Basement - community room.
Out the basement back door. Our picnic table on the patio.
The garden - the full view.
Foreground: peppers. Background: rosebush.
Lots of turnips. This is the best grower in my garden. When I direct seeded them, I went a little overboard. :) I need to thin them out.
The garlic patch. This was started in November. It's super easy to maintain, because you don't have to do anything! Behind it you can see my homemade compost pile and a branch I need to saw up.
Anika in the garden! Taa daa!
My hand cupping the house number. We like to think that the unattractive facade of the house means it'll be the last one on the street to get robbed.
My room as viewed from the doorway.
The reading corner.
The closet & dresser across from the bed.
The seedlings on my desk (right by bed): tomato plants, basil, Baby's Tears plant
Heirloom tomatoes close up.
The upstairs kitchen, right by my bedroom.
The upstairs hallway. The open door at the end of the hallway is my room. To the left are the kitchen and bathroom. Does Olivia know I'm taking the picture?
Other end of upstairs hallway. Carly (housemate) at the community computer.
Top floor looking down.
Main floor: mailboxes.
Main floor hallway. Chore chart, communication white board, open door= kitchen.
Carly cooking in the main floor kitchen.
Carly cooks with eggs!
A normal picture of Carly.
Basement bike room + laundry.
Basement - community room.
Out the basement back door. Our picnic table on the patio.
The garden - the full view.
Foreground: peppers. Background: rosebush.
Lots of turnips. This is the best grower in my garden. When I direct seeded them, I went a little overboard. :) I need to thin them out.
The garlic patch. This was started in November. It's super easy to maintain, because you don't have to do anything! Behind it you can see my homemade compost pile and a branch I need to saw up.
Anika in the garden! Taa daa!Saturday, May 02, 2009
FLOTUS at the CAFB
That's the super undercover spy way of saying... First Lady of the United States at the Capital Area Food Bank (I actually got an email titled "FLOTUS at the CAFB). And it's true! She came in April, and I had to hold my tongue for about a month, knowing that she would be coming. I knew this wasn't out of the realm of possibility when I came to the Food Bank and saw pictures of the last 4? presidents visiting, plus Morgan Freeman and some other celebrities. I guess this is because we are the main food bank in the district and we serve so many large and small agencies. I could only hope that the president would visit in his first year in office (while I'm here!). On his hundredth day in office, Mrs. Obama invited over 100 congressional spouses to participate in a service event at the CAFB.
We prepared for weeks. It was my job to create a display about our department that will be used for years to come, but that can also be changed easily. I laminated and velcroed on the pictures and captions so that they can be changed in the future. I also arranged flowers in 2 watering cans. (tangent: I'm starting to wonder if these people think I'm too eager to please because every time we do a project and they ask "who knows how to paint?" I'll say, "I do! I worked as a painter for a few years." When we needed to arrange flowers, I said, "I'll do it! I worked at a flower shop for a few years." My coworker asked me to babysit, and I said, "Don't worry, I know how to do the Heimlich, first aide, and CPR for babies. I was a lifeguard for a few years." Do they think I'm lying? I mean, I'm only 24. Of course, I was a lifeguard and painter in the summers, and the flower shop was my after school job in high school, but they don't know that. Oh right, I can also say I'm a certified English teacher. It's a whole thing with our generation and how we get to do so many different things...)
Here's the display:
You can sorta see the thing I made (on the easel). I wish I had a better picture of it. There's also a grow box on the floor with various herbs and lettuces (to make it pretty and farm-y).
The ladies you see there are my coworkers. Here up close are Jody, Susan, and I.
By some lucky, amazing feat, all current and past AmeriCorps volunteers got to help bag the groceries that the congressional spouses and the first lady were putting together for kids. First she gave a speech about service.
(Here she is with the lady from Feeding America, Dr. Jill Biden, and our CEO, Lynn Brantley.) Then she went through the line with a bag, collecting goodies. I was handing out bags. The media were on a platform right behind me, so this next picture is basically where I was standing, only I was closer to the ground.
When she leaned in to get a bag, she touched my finger!
Here's another nice picture of her going through the line:
At one point she doled out the goodies to people going through the line:
At the end we got about two seconds to stand in a huge group with her for a picture. We were sad that she didn't address us as a group, but I guess we had to work pretty hard even to get a picture.
We gave her a few presents - CAFB t-shirts for her and the girls, books for the girls, etc. My department also gave her a grow box (like the one at our table) from the kids at our garden in Southeast. The kids decorated tags that said "oregano," "basil," etc, which I laminated and taped to little metal stakes. I also painted the sides of the box with vines. She liked the gift a lot and spoke to Miss Hannah Hawkins who runs the Children of Mine Center where we have our garden. It sounds like she wants to visit! Maybe this time I'll actually get to say something to her. :)
This experience was so interesting for many reasons. For one, we learned that the secret service is really hard to work with. For a long time we knew what day she was coming, but up until the day itself, we didn't know what time exactly. They changed the plan every few hours and made random requests at the last minute. I wonder if they're really that disorganized, or if they intentionally try to keep people confused so that they can't plan anything disruptive. It was also SO much work to get ready for this event. We had to give the secret service all of our names & social security numbers so that they could do background checks, we re-arranged the whole warehouse, set up all these displays, had special t-shirts made... It was ridiculous. On the day of, we all had to leave the building for an undisclosed amount of time so that security could make a sweep. When we came back in, we walked through a metal detector. Once we were downstairs, we weren't allowed to go back upstairs. There was so much planning and craziness that it's hard for me to imagine that the White House staff plans outings like this every day, sometimes even multiple times a day! I mean, we were in contact with them for weeks working out the details.
Another interesting insight I got from this experience was into the Capital Area Food Bank and how we work. It happened like this: all of the gifts for the Obamas had to be in Lynn's (CEO) office a few days ahead of time so that secret service could look them over (or something). We put the grow box in there, but we still had to add the tags and paint the sides. So the day before, I go into the office, lay down newspapers and kind of lay down on the floor to paint the sides of the box. Lynn's in her office and so is a guy named Grant. Grant is either a volunteer or an employee, and he's been with the CAFB since the beginning when it started with Lynn, him, Father Brake, and a couple of other old-timers. He's wrapping the other presents. We haven't spoken before, and he starts asking me questions about myself. We start chatting, and he's really easy to talk to, and really interested in my life. Every once in awhile, Father Brake comes in, and I hear them chat about details about The Visit. They're super casual, and it's funny to hear them talk so candidly. But this is how our office is! I mean, I - a volunteer - can just waltz into the CEO's office and say "what's up, Lynn?" I can also lay on the floor, painting something, chatting it up with the founders of the Food Bank. The world of the non-profit is so interesting!
We prepared for weeks. It was my job to create a display about our department that will be used for years to come, but that can also be changed easily. I laminated and velcroed on the pictures and captions so that they can be changed in the future. I also arranged flowers in 2 watering cans. (tangent: I'm starting to wonder if these people think I'm too eager to please because every time we do a project and they ask "who knows how to paint?" I'll say, "I do! I worked as a painter for a few years." When we needed to arrange flowers, I said, "I'll do it! I worked at a flower shop for a few years." My coworker asked me to babysit, and I said, "Don't worry, I know how to do the Heimlich, first aide, and CPR for babies. I was a lifeguard for a few years." Do they think I'm lying? I mean, I'm only 24. Of course, I was a lifeguard and painter in the summers, and the flower shop was my after school job in high school, but they don't know that. Oh right, I can also say I'm a certified English teacher. It's a whole thing with our generation and how we get to do so many different things...)
Here's the display:
You can sorta see the thing I made (on the easel). I wish I had a better picture of it. There's also a grow box on the floor with various herbs and lettuces (to make it pretty and farm-y).The ladies you see there are my coworkers. Here up close are Jody, Susan, and I.
By some lucky, amazing feat, all current and past AmeriCorps volunteers got to help bag the groceries that the congressional spouses and the first lady were putting together for kids. First she gave a speech about service.
(Here she is with the lady from Feeding America, Dr. Jill Biden, and our CEO, Lynn Brantley.) Then she went through the line with a bag, collecting goodies. I was handing out bags. The media were on a platform right behind me, so this next picture is basically where I was standing, only I was closer to the ground.
When she leaned in to get a bag, she touched my finger!Here's another nice picture of her going through the line:
At one point she doled out the goodies to people going through the line:
At the end we got about two seconds to stand in a huge group with her for a picture. We were sad that she didn't address us as a group, but I guess we had to work pretty hard even to get a picture.
We gave her a few presents - CAFB t-shirts for her and the girls, books for the girls, etc. My department also gave her a grow box (like the one at our table) from the kids at our garden in Southeast. The kids decorated tags that said "oregano," "basil," etc, which I laminated and taped to little metal stakes. I also painted the sides of the box with vines. She liked the gift a lot and spoke to Miss Hannah Hawkins who runs the Children of Mine Center where we have our garden. It sounds like she wants to visit! Maybe this time I'll actually get to say something to her. :)This experience was so interesting for many reasons. For one, we learned that the secret service is really hard to work with. For a long time we knew what day she was coming, but up until the day itself, we didn't know what time exactly. They changed the plan every few hours and made random requests at the last minute. I wonder if they're really that disorganized, or if they intentionally try to keep people confused so that they can't plan anything disruptive. It was also SO much work to get ready for this event. We had to give the secret service all of our names & social security numbers so that they could do background checks, we re-arranged the whole warehouse, set up all these displays, had special t-shirts made... It was ridiculous. On the day of, we all had to leave the building for an undisclosed amount of time so that security could make a sweep. When we came back in, we walked through a metal detector. Once we were downstairs, we weren't allowed to go back upstairs. There was so much planning and craziness that it's hard for me to imagine that the White House staff plans outings like this every day, sometimes even multiple times a day! I mean, we were in contact with them for weeks working out the details.
Another interesting insight I got from this experience was into the Capital Area Food Bank and how we work. It happened like this: all of the gifts for the Obamas had to be in Lynn's (CEO) office a few days ahead of time so that secret service could look them over (or something). We put the grow box in there, but we still had to add the tags and paint the sides. So the day before, I go into the office, lay down newspapers and kind of lay down on the floor to paint the sides of the box. Lynn's in her office and so is a guy named Grant. Grant is either a volunteer or an employee, and he's been with the CAFB since the beginning when it started with Lynn, him, Father Brake, and a couple of other old-timers. He's wrapping the other presents. We haven't spoken before, and he starts asking me questions about myself. We start chatting, and he's really easy to talk to, and really interested in my life. Every once in awhile, Father Brake comes in, and I hear them chat about details about The Visit. They're super casual, and it's funny to hear them talk so candidly. But this is how our office is! I mean, I - a volunteer - can just waltz into the CEO's office and say "what's up, Lynn?" I can also lay on the floor, painting something, chatting it up with the founders of the Food Bank. The world of the non-profit is so interesting!
Thursday, April 09, 2009
Sakura
Tis the season for Cherry Blossoms or "sakura" in Japanese (I think). Most of the petals have blown away by now, but last weekend the trees were in high form. I was lucky enough to go at non-peak times, so I avoided a lot of tourists. But that means I had to go at less than ideal times, being Wednesday and Friday after work. One day was rainy, and one day was windy. The second time around, I brought a friend with a camera! It's good to have friends with cameras. Her name is Jenny, and she's a coworker of mine.
Hi Jenny!
Twisty branches.
The picture every tourist takes...
The blossoms look like snow. (But I'd much rather have Cherry Blossoms than snow.)
The dramatic sky...
The Cherry Blossoms line the tidal basin. I don't know how we managed to miss a picture of it, but lots of the trees were bending over towards the water. When you stood under them, it was a beautiful canopy.
The rain was worth it for this puddle.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
A New Room & Plants
My blog is behind the times because I am slow to post, but I am going to tell you about my "new" room anyway. A few weeks ago, I finally got my own room! I have had two roommates in the other room. The first was Dani, and we got along really, really well. She left at the end of December (her internship was only for 3 months). Then I roomed with Amy (from Middlebury!). We got along well too, but it was hard to transition. It was starting to feel like the dorms in college - I couldn't escape for "me" time because there was nowhere to go.
I probably could have changed rooms much earlier, but the room that was available was in the basement, so I let Stephan have it without putting up a fight. Even though it will be cooler in the summer, I don't think I can handle not having much light. So I waited for this room. It's on the third floor (like my last room), so I can still use the upstairs kitchen and bathroom which are the nicest ones. It's light green and has bamboo-like window shades. The two windows face south and west. Even though I had more windows before, there was a tree in front of them and they faced north. My plants are happier in the new room, and it stays pretty light in the evening because of the west facing one.
I have my own closet with a shelf above, two dressers, a desk, a short bookcase, and a little table thingee. Right now the desk and the bookcase are next to the windows so that they can support my seedlings. Oh, I also have a big comfy chair with a tall lamp by it for a reading/knitting corner. I put up my paintings from the DR and a rainbow flag by my bed. It's a great room!
Now about these plants that I've been mentioning... I am using the house backyard as my playground (garden). In years past, people who lived here have dug up the whole yard (maybe 8' x 25'??), but people haven't always gardened, so it was pretty overgrown when I got here. So far I've dug up about 2/3 of it, and yesterday and today I planted my seedlings! Now because my garden at the food bank got cancelled (did I mention that?), I really am going at this blind. I was hoping to get taught everything at the food bank garden and then get a second try at my house garden. Now I'm looking things up in books and learning from my mistakes. That's good, I guess, but I'd rather learn from a person who's already learned from her mistakes if that makes any sense...
So my garden attempt is kind of comical. I started what I thought was a lot of seedlings, but because some died and because a lot got tangled and broke, and mainly because I underestimated, it's going to be pretty sparse. But our garden's pretty small, so I'm finding that this may work out. I'm putting 3 transplants where I hope 1 will survive, and I'm not even sure I should bank on that happening. If it does, I'll have like 4 cauliflowers, 4 cabbages, 12 beets, 8 broccoli, and 6 collards. Funny, right? I have higher hopes for the things that produce for the whole season, like tomatoes, peppers, swiss chard, and basil. Oh, and I think there will be a lot of garlic, but I only get to harvest that once at the end of the season.
The main impact of this gardening experience is an increase in my urge to intern with someone who knows what they're doing. (And that I will HAVE to get a camera if any of these plants turn out.)
I probably could have changed rooms much earlier, but the room that was available was in the basement, so I let Stephan have it without putting up a fight. Even though it will be cooler in the summer, I don't think I can handle not having much light. So I waited for this room. It's on the third floor (like my last room), so I can still use the upstairs kitchen and bathroom which are the nicest ones. It's light green and has bamboo-like window shades. The two windows face south and west. Even though I had more windows before, there was a tree in front of them and they faced north. My plants are happier in the new room, and it stays pretty light in the evening because of the west facing one.
I have my own closet with a shelf above, two dressers, a desk, a short bookcase, and a little table thingee. Right now the desk and the bookcase are next to the windows so that they can support my seedlings. Oh, I also have a big comfy chair with a tall lamp by it for a reading/knitting corner. I put up my paintings from the DR and a rainbow flag by my bed. It's a great room!
Now about these plants that I've been mentioning... I am using the house backyard as my playground (garden). In years past, people who lived here have dug up the whole yard (maybe 8' x 25'??), but people haven't always gardened, so it was pretty overgrown when I got here. So far I've dug up about 2/3 of it, and yesterday and today I planted my seedlings! Now because my garden at the food bank got cancelled (did I mention that?), I really am going at this blind. I was hoping to get taught everything at the food bank garden and then get a second try at my house garden. Now I'm looking things up in books and learning from my mistakes. That's good, I guess, but I'd rather learn from a person who's already learned from her mistakes if that makes any sense...
So my garden attempt is kind of comical. I started what I thought was a lot of seedlings, but because some died and because a lot got tangled and broke, and mainly because I underestimated, it's going to be pretty sparse. But our garden's pretty small, so I'm finding that this may work out. I'm putting 3 transplants where I hope 1 will survive, and I'm not even sure I should bank on that happening. If it does, I'll have like 4 cauliflowers, 4 cabbages, 12 beets, 8 broccoli, and 6 collards. Funny, right? I have higher hopes for the things that produce for the whole season, like tomatoes, peppers, swiss chard, and basil. Oh, and I think there will be a lot of garlic, but I only get to harvest that once at the end of the season.
The main impact of this gardening experience is an increase in my urge to intern with someone who knows what they're doing. (And that I will HAVE to get a camera if any of these plants turn out.)
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Health Update
As promised, I wanted to let everyone know what happened after I went to the doctor. This time the doctor knew why I was there, and she had pre-ordered the h-pylori test, so they did it right away and... I don't have h-pylori. In a way that's good - I don't have to take two kinds of antibiotics - and in a way that's bad - I don't know what caused my acid reflux. At the time that I saw her, I had been feeling pretty good, but she still referred me to a gastroenterologist to follow up. I'm glad because as soon as I left, the acid reflux came back en force. This time I tried unfiltered apple cider vinegar in water (not too pleasant). It didn't seem to work right away, but since then I haven't had any problems!
Strangely, my triglycerides are down (actually below average now), and I'm thinking there was something else that came out better too. The doctor is calling it a fluke. They can't tell about the iron right away because red blood cells have a life of 29 days, so they're going to check again in 3 months. In the meanwhile, I'm really trying to eat an iron-rich diet. In the morning I swallow a spoonful of molasses every day (ick!).
I don't feel back to normal, but I can function with relative normality. It's really nice! Thanks so much for all the support - I thought I'd better get an update posted soon before everyone thought I was dying. :) If anything else interesting happens with my health, I'm sure I'll let you know.
Strangely, my triglycerides are down (actually below average now), and I'm thinking there was something else that came out better too. The doctor is calling it a fluke. They can't tell about the iron right away because red blood cells have a life of 29 days, so they're going to check again in 3 months. In the meanwhile, I'm really trying to eat an iron-rich diet. In the morning I swallow a spoonful of molasses every day (ick!).
I don't feel back to normal, but I can function with relative normality. It's really nice! Thanks so much for all the support - I thought I'd better get an update posted soon before everyone thought I was dying. :) If anything else interesting happens with my health, I'm sure I'll let you know.
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