Goodbye My Couch

Dear DC,

Well, my days of nothingness are over. Finally after weeks and weeks and a few more weeks someone has looked at my resume long enough to realize that I am good enough to work for free. This past week I got an internship! This is a fantastic opportunity for me and I am way glad that something finally has happened on the career side of life. I will be working with the direct marketing team at a campaign committee, doing what exactly....I'm not sure. But at least its with something that is connected with basically everything that goes on everywhere in this town. So hopefully this internship will open a lot of doors for me in the next few months.

Although I have this great opportunity, there will be some things to get used to. For example, waking up in the morning. Wow, that is tough! I've traded my spot on the couch for a not all that comfortable office chair. Oh, and not taking a nap at 11am...or 3pm..wow I miss those. Oh, and now me and the xbox or just mere aquaintances rather than best buddies...

With working my way to the top love,

Kyle

Master of the House

Dear DC,

You delivered my husband a great internship (details of which I will reserve for his next blog post....) but in the process you took away the most fantastic house husband.

If I ever have to measure up to how amazing of a housekeeper my husband is, I am in big trouble. Not only did he keep our apartment immaculately clean, he also had a delicious dinner ready for me when I got home. He drove me to work in the morning so I could sleep in and picked me up if I worked late. I knew that he did a lot for me and I appreciated it.

How much he really did hadn't sunk in until his first day at work. I was shocked to come home and find my mess exactly where I left it. My laundry was still dirty and my dishes were not put away. You mean that stuff doesn't just happen? I had gotten so used to my husband's tidy habits.

All of you house husbands and wives are jeering right now, thinking of how much of the work you do each day goes unnoticed.

Well I notice! Because now I'm going to have to do so much more of it than this spoiled girl has had to do in the past three months.

With I'm-scrubbing-the-toilet Love,

Julia

Tourist Schmourist

Dear DC,

Upon moving here I made a pact with myself that I would enjoy the cultural opportunities in DC to the fullest. So, at least once a week Kyle and I venture out of our cozy little apartment and find something interesting to do/attend/visit. I'm happy to report that there has only been one week we haven't met this goal.

However, we refuse to be tourists!

We pretend to be annoyed with all the little tourists and never take a camera with us in fear that we might be seen as one. When we are out we loudly talk about how much we love LIVING in DC and what we will do tonight when we are at HOME. We can't be seen dallying in the museum bookstores too long for that is so not DC-ish.

In case you are interested, here's a few places we've been so far.

1. National Portrait Museum - This was by far one of the coolest museums in DC. In addition to the traditional portraits of famous American figures, it had a photography portrait exhibit with some amazing contemporary portrait photographers. Some of the photo series' were so touching I almost started to cry.

2. Ben's Chili Bowl - This is a famous long-standing chili-dog place on U Street. It has been open since the 50's. We regrettably swallowed our pride and stood in the long line outside the door, just like any tourist. Happily someone in line turned to me and asked if the line was always this long (acknowledging me as a local) so I felt better. In case you are wondering, the chili wasn't thae good.

3. Politics and Prose - Probably the most "local-esque" thing we have done. There is a bookstore in the NW of DC up by American University that specializes in political books. It has all other types of books too, but an enormous selection of political books. We went one Saturday to a book signing/discussion by Chuck Todd, Washington bureau chief for NBC News. His book was about the 2008 presidential election. We underestimated how far in advance we needed to show up and ended up in the crowded back of the store watching the event on closed-circuit TV. Not quite the same. We ended up leaving early.....but it was so local!

4. National Gallery of Art - The best part about living in DC is that we can go to a museum and just go to a few exhibits, knowing that because we live here we can come back anytime! The Gallery of Art had an exhibit of my favorite photographer, Robert Frank. It is some anniversary of his famous photo book called Americans. This exhibit showed all of the photos in that book plus background documents. It was so inspiring. We went back the next day to see an exhibit of Ansel Adams which was extraordinarily disappointing as it was only four of his photos and not particularly good ones! Can't win them all, but we'll be here to see them all.....as a local!!!

As we visit more, we'll post more.

With "I'm NOT a tourist" Love,

Julia

The Good That Won't Come Out

Dear DC,

There is a lot of gloom and doom about the economy and circumstances surrounding the economy. Being unemployed in this economy certainly can make one feel a bit discouraged, but in order to overcome this discouragement I am trying to look on the bright side of things.

Here’s what is good about being unemployed….

I only go to bed because I have nothing better to do.

When the alarm clock goes off in the morning, I can smile knowing that it’s not for me.

I get to watch the Price is Right and dream of a day when I might hear “Kyle, come on down, you’re the next contestant on the Price is Right!’

I get to take a nap at 10am, 1:20pm, and 4:45pm.

The Xbox and me get more quality time together.

I get to cook a great meal for Julia when she gets home from work.

I don’t hate my job, because I don’t have one.

So, things could be worse. It’s good to look for the good that is good out there. But lets be honest, I really want a job. So DC, if you could throw me a freaking bone here and drop your unemployment rates a little, that would be great.

With, trying to be patient, love,

Kyle

This is Hard Work!

Dear DC,

I always thought that I was a hard worker. I would go the extra mile on my first grade book reports and design a fancy title page or study the four times tables when everyone else was still working on the two times tables. I just liked to work. Even in college and then in the workplace I liked to work and put in the time to have a good product.

But I am being schooled.

I am trying to figure out how to talk about an average of 10 hour days combined with 13 and 15 hour days on occasion and this happening in my fifth week of work without sounding like a huge complainer. I couldn't figure it out how to do that effectively so I won't write about that. Nope, nothing about that at all!

I'm still enjoying the work, I just expected to have a life outside of work.....silly me.

And for the record, I can't help but lunge for my blackberry every time it buzzes but it's not because I want to be so connected. It's because I'm so worried about what's wrong with the project I am working on now. It's not called crackberry without cause.

With work-a-holic love,

Julia