Last Day of Work

Dear DC,

The entire time I have lived in DC I have worked at the same job. Today was my last day.

While I can't say that I wasn't excited as it gets me closer to starting law school and that whole adventure, last night it hit me. I would no longer walk into the same office and see those same people every day. I wouldn't be able talk to those people, some of whom have become my closest friends, whenever I wanted and actually had to plan time to talk and see them.

THIS IS WEIRD!

So when I say it's bittersweet, it truly is. I am so grateful for the amazing friends I have made. I don't plan for one second to leave them behind!

With Friendly Love,

Julia

JJ to the AZ

Dear DC,

It's been so long since I posted but I guess time flies when you are not doing anything remotely interesting.

therefore....

something interesting happened for me to post about!!!

Kyle and I went to Sedona, Arizona to hang out with his awesome family. It's amazing how much I feel that they are my family too. We delightfully did absolutely nothing which consisted of:

• foot baths in the jacuzzi tub that would turn on mysteriously
• reading under an umbrella by the pool watching six kids crowd around a tub of cheesy puffs
• getting sunburned while driving to Sedona from Phoenix (but only on one arm)
• being awakened by the sweetest one-year-old voice calling, "Gramma, are you?" (as in where are you?)
• riding/driving an ATV up and down a mountain, getting a full day's worth of protein in the process as my teeth acted like a windshield to the bugs
• learning and play new games
• getting professional photos taken by my amazing professional photographer sister-in-law
• being on Eastern time still so getting up super early and enjoying it!
• playing the photo assistant for my hubby's photo outings
• TURNING 25 YEARS OLD and enjoying the best birthday party and trifle birthday cake
• not having cell phone/blackberry service (which means I couldn't do any work at all.....dang it)

I truly could go on and on because we had an amazing time. Monday morning was very difficult to come back to work for all those reasons. We love vacation and we love family!

With "I Miss Family" Love,

Julia

Follow my photo blog!

Dear DC,

So with my new found photography hobby I have decided to create a photo blog: Take One Daily. I've given myself a challenge to be post a new photo every day for the first month. You HAVE to check it out. www.take1daily.wordpress.com

Although, I cheated for the first day, I just posted a photo I've already shown off here, but only because it's one of my favorite shots ever. Anyways. Check it out, each day there will be a new photo.

With take one daily love,

Kyle

MWF looks for Reliable, Somewhat Cool Companion

Dear DC,

Law school is starting soon (and by soon I mean 4 months) and so I'm trying to decide what type of laptop to buy to help me in my scholarly pursuits.

I typically don't like to categorize myself or subscribe to labels, but unfortunately this one is pretty clear-cut, Am I a Mac or PC?

Am I expensive and exclusive and sexy? Or am I more reasonably priced, full of new features and get along well with all kinds of people/software?

Seems obvious right? Well not to me.

With "Know Thyself" Love,

Julia

When You Get To Your Age....

Dear DC,

I went to the optometrist a few weeks ago, complaining about eye soreness and fatigue. I have had glasses for a long time, but have been told that I only needed to wear them when my eyes got tired, to reduce the strain. So I have been doing that and until recently my eyes have been fine.

I read the letters on the chart just fine (this guy was tricky and threw in some numbers...no fair!) but then the optometrist told me that I needed to be wearing glasses or contacts full-time or else my eyes would continue to feel this tired. Makes sense.

Here's where he lost me. He said to me, "When you get to your age, you have to expect your eyes to start to fail a little."

EXCUSE ME? You know I'm 24, right? He knew. Obviously he's not a smooth one with the ladies.

So with that, I'm off to go glasses shopping. Here's to something in bright colors or odd shapes to make me look more "hip" and less like a "hip-replacement candidate."

With Geriatric Love,

Julia

Published Again! not really.....

Dear DC,

Second time in a week! Prince of Petworth blog picked out one of my photos to show on the blog. Awesome! This one is just on the home page of the blog so you will have to scroll down until you find the one marked with my Flickr account - KJinDC. It's the one of the two blurry buses. Click here to check it out. For those outside of DC, Prince of Petworth blog is a pretty popular blog for DC residents. I've gotten so that I am checking it out daily (and not just to see if they picked up one of my photos.) So, if you wanted to be totally awesome you could go to the PofP blog and comment on my photo. You know..someting like "hey that KJinDC is amazing, you should post more pictures from him"....or something like that.

With Tog Love,

Kyle

I've been published! not really....

Dear DC,

HOLY COW!! I have fans! Ok, well, maybe not fans plural, but at least one person liked a photo I took not too long ago and used it for their blog! This...is....AWESOME! The best part is that its on the Prince of Petworth blog, one of my newest found and favorite blogs about all things in our DC neighborhood. As you can see from our last post, They used one that I took just a couple weeks ago. I'm totally excited. Go check it out HERE. You will know that its me because of my flickr account KJinDC.

I'm off to take more pictures tomorrow starting at 5:30am. Here's to more people seeing them and more people liking them.

With double exposure love,

Kyle

The blossoms are out!

Dear DC,

I haven't blogged on here in....well, forever. But, with Spring here and the Cherry Blossoms out it makes me want to start things anew, so here we go. Julia and I woke up super early for a Saturday morning to go snap some pictures of the Cherry Blossoms and some other non blossom pictures. We thought we were being smart by beating the crowds at 6am. Yeah...the crowds were smart too. At 6:01am, there were a few people out. At 6:09am, there were quite a bit more. And by 6:14am it was "Hey buddy! get out of my shot!" Besides that, it was still a good time and DC in the early morning is really nice. Here's just a few of the pictures we took.

Haiku for Snow

Dear DC,

Days 1-2 of Snow Storm

The snow keeps falling
I'm at home with my honey
Fall snow, fall for days

Day 3 of Snow Storm

Wow this is a storm
I'm having fun eating junk
It's sure coming down

Day 4 of Snow Storm

Went to work today
It was so nice to get out
Too bad it's snowing

Day 5 of Snow Storm

When will this snow stop?
I hate working from home now
Normal? Where are you?


Storm - Please don't force me to write days 6-7.....just don't!


With "I'm not a poet" Love,

Julia

Snowpocalypse Continues...

Dear DC,

I grew up in snowy Canada and then lived in snowy Utah and I don't think I've EVER had a snow day, from school or from work, so thanks for a first! We've been "stuck" inside for four days now and have been trying to keep ourselves entertained. Below are the fruits of our labors. The cheesecake tasted much better than it looks. It was another first!



Oreo Cheesecake...nom, nom, nom!



No, we didn't actually go outside to take pictures, just took some from our window.



With "cabin fever" love,

Julia

Snowmageddon

Dear DC,

Every inch of snow in DC represents 10% of the city that shuts down - trust me, I'm a statistician. In December on one weekend we received 15 inches of snow so 150% of the city was shut down. Yes - some places were shut down twice over! The roads were clear (at least in our part of the city) but no one was driving on it because they couldn't or didn't want to dig their car out.

So in anticipation of another big storm this weekend - reports are 10 inches (100% of the city) to 3 and 1/2 feet (whoa...420%) - I thought we should share some photos we took from the last storm.

Oh and church was canceled last week with four inches of snow and ice - $10 says we have another cancellation. It's not a bet, it's a sure thing - remember 420%!








With "snOMG" Love,

Julia

Gimme Some of Your Marrow

Dear DC,

Kyle and I ventured out today to the Health and Fitness Expo to check out a few things. One of the main reasons I wanted to go was to see a couple of local clogging groups perform. I saw one group and let's just say that I can understand why no one under the age of 60 is inspired by their performance to join clogging. I almost feel like it is my duty as a dancer to introduce some life into clogging around here...but that's another project for another day.

As we are both VERY line adverse, we didn't get any screenings done or get any of the free crap that is handed out (nor did we want any) but I did get to do something very special. I signed up to be added to the bone marrow donor registry. It was very simple form and a couple of cheek swabs and by far the most satisfying part of the day.

I've always wanted to do this but have not taken the opportunity thus far. When I was in high school my two brothers went to an information session about being a bone marrow donor and I think about becoming a live kidney donor. I don't remember if they did or were able to sign up, but I remember being very disappointed that I was too young to go with them.

I've also heard that it's quite painful but now almost always done under general anesthesia. The chances of me getting matched with someone are probably pretty slim but I am grateful that I have the opportunity to even join a database that could save someone's life.

You could also donate your baby's cord blood and have the same effect. Look into it.

With "My Marrow is Your Marrow" Love,

Julia

Peer Pressure

Dear DC,

I always thought that when I "grew up" I wouldn't be influenced by peer pressure anymore. Well everyone knows that a) I'm convinced I'm like Peter Pan and will never feel grown up and b) the peer pressure is still on! Not for the same things as in my teenage years, but the pressure to blog!

I have been reading a bunch of my friend's blogs and nearly every one of them has some type of retrospective of 2009 or resolutions for 2010. It's probably a good idea and makes for good blog fodder so I will somewhat indulge.

Best things of 2009:

• Buying our own place
• Kyle's commencement ceremony
• Both of us finding jobs in a new city

Things to look forward to in 2010:

• Starting law school at GWU in August
• Upward progression of Kyle's career
• Paying off all credit card debt

I'm just glad I resisted the urge to reveal that I'm a huge nerd and really wanted to put that I am truly looking forward to the deducting my home mortgage interest and the upcoming Jeopardy skills test.

Maybe I'll indulge even more and do goals sometime.

With "Just say YES to peer pressure" Love,

Julia

The Birthday Boy

Dear DC,

Last year on Kyle's birthday I was not even in the same city as him, we were both unemployed, and his gift was a set of Wal-Mart pajamas.

This year, we are together, both have jobs and he got a BlackBerry for his birthday (and keeping with my tradition of not actually giving him gifts on his birthday, his other gift is still in the mail....oops.)

Although he's now a year older and doesn't feel great about that, I think we have reason to celebrate!

Happy Birthday Babe!!

With "One Year Older and Wiser Too" Love,

Julia

Crackberry Addict Jr.

Dear DC,

When I first got my Blackberry from work, I was committed to not becoming addicted to it. TOTAL FAIL (to be fair, when your boss expects you to respond all the time you don't really have a choice on the whole "addiction" now do you?).

Because I have issues and consistently can't wait to give him gifts on his actual birthday (Jan. 13th) I decided to give Kyle an early birthday present. He has been envious of my Blackberry for quite some time and after breaking a couple of his phones has been relegated to using one he quite detests. So, voila, because I am an awesome wife (and because he deserves it) I gave him a Blackberry with full data service.

And this is what I see for the rest of the night.....


Should I be worried?


With "Tap Tap Tap Tap" Love,

Julia

A New Year and New Adventures - Hippo Style

Dear DC,

When I was a little girl, I didn't play House or Mommy. I played Lawyer. I made my friends come into my "office" and tell me what was wrong so I could help them fix it legally. I helped many a 5 and 6 year old with various divorces, custody battles, harassment cases and even a pre-nup (what was I watching on TV?)

So while other little girls were planning their dream wedding (I did a bit of that too) I was plotting my high-powered legal career.

Fortunately now I have the chance to have it all...the dream wedding to Prince Charming (4.5 years and counting) AND the legal career of my childhood fantasies (again - what did my parents let me watch on TV?)

Come August I will be a full-time law student at George Washington University...pro bono (that means free of charge...I'm learning quickly.) Yup, I lucked out and got a full-tuition scholarship. I jumped at the chance to escape with a six-figure education for FREE!

Well if you don't count books, computers, lost wages, living expenses, etc. because I don't. They'll just magically take care of themselves.
With "I'm a Hippo" Love,

Julia

Ah...the Responsibilities of Homeownership

Dear DC,

We love homeownership but it has come with it's own set of challenges. We have had three, count 'em, three brand new appliances break in the three months we have been living here. It took four, count 'em, four repair visits to get the washer working (which was broken from day one) and we haven't even called in the repair on the fridge water dispenser yet.

Dare I? Before we moved in I literally laid asleep at night thinking that I had truly "arrived" because I had a water dispenser on my fridge only to have it stripped away from me weeks later. However, the thought of trying to manage being home at random times in the middle of the work day for the repairman to come and leave and come and leave and come and leave again three weeks in a row doesn't thrill me as much as it sounds. (Note: If you have a choice - don't buy Frigidaire appliances. We didn't have a choice as they came with the place but sure wish we did.)

Other things I've never had to worry about before?

1. Paying for cable: Rent has pretty much always included cable. After the wake-up call of a three-figure cable bill, we did what I vowed I would never do as an adult and bought rabbit ears for the TV - throwing the cable company out on the curb (except for the over-priced Internet which I can't live without!)
2. Constant Worry: No one prepared me for constantly thinking about if our condo was ok every second we are away on vacation. I think there is a chance I might be an over-worrying parent when I have kids....just a chance.
   

All in all it's been a blast and if our kick-ass housewarming party is any indication of how awesome entertaining here will be, we'll have to invite you to our next shindig.

With "What's Broken Now?" Love,

Julia