The Second Bedroom...

The best things about having visitors is:
a) it makes me happy
b) we clean up

Drumroll, please...

I present to you: pictures of the second bedroom!

Six Years

Six years ago I watched President Bush declare war on TV. I clearly remember sitting in Kaelinn and Sydney's Portland apartment.

They had just picked me up from my grandma's house.

After my grandpa's funeral.

Last week I felt like I was forgetting something. I knew the 19th was important, but I couldn't remember why. And then I was (finally) organizing the bookshelves, and I printed off a photo of my grandpa to put next to our Bluebird of Happiness and just cried.

It's hard for people who didn't know him to understand how I can still get emotional sometimes just thinking about him. He was amazing. Some people get ornery grandpas or senile grandpas; I got the most caring, unselfish, most Christ-like grandpa of all. 

It wasn't unusual for my parents to make the trip to Portland (a 2 hour drive,) just to spend the day at grandma and grandpa's house. Grandpa would walk with us to feed the ducks at the duck pond and make us ice cream cones. He would take photos of everything, though he would usually have to count "1...2...3...4...5" before the picture would take. He always told me that eating carrots would turn my eyes orange. He would sing "Springtime in the Rockies" and change the words to "bonnie eyes of BROWN" for his granddaughters. 

Grandpa made the coolest customized pancakes for breakfast: he would use a turkey baster to create the shape of a heart, a teddy bear, etc. and then WRITE our names in the pancake! How cool is that? He had the most amazing penmanship; sometimes he would put a smiley face inside the cursive "g" when he signed my birthday cards. And he had the best stories...he would take out a globe and show me all the places he went in the Navy during the War. One New Years Eve he helped my friend and I rig up a "ball" that we could lower from my Barbie dream house. He carved pumpkins for Halloween and made refrigerator boxes into playplaces. 

He liked to laugh, but not at anyone's expense. He was always doing things for others, and wanted to make them happy. One time he bought some special shells at a shop in town, then spread them on the beach for us find. He told us they must have come "all the way from Japan!" and we were so excited with our pink and green rocks. 

The summer we found out about his cancer, I went to visit him in the hospital after my jaw surgery. He was so concerned about me. Me?! And a few weeks later when I was visiting Joe in Virginia, he (from the hospital) told me he couldn't wait to hear about my trip. 

Most Americans remember March 19, 2003 as the day President Bush declared war against Iraq. I remember our family gathered around grandpa's casket. 

My faith gives me hope for the future; knowledge that I will see my grandpa again. And that just makes everything else seem so unimportant. I still think the AIG bonuses are ridiculous, and the way Congress handled the AIG bonuses is ridiculous. I hate taxes and war and think it's dumb that marijuana is illegal. I think it's lame I have to pay property tax on my car to Fairfax County, and hate that I have to make another dentist appointment with another specialist to most likely have another tooth implant. I'm mad that our neighbor's water heater leaked into our water heater closet and caused the hardwood floors in our living room to start bowing. I'm even more mad at the neighbor's insurance company who doesn't want to pay for said water damage. I'm bummed that I've been sick all week. I'm mad that I have to work on weekends at a job that's unfulfilling. 

But last weekend Joe and I watched The Princess Bride on TV, and during commercials we did dishes and swept floors and put away clothes. We laughed and snacked and played with cats. And I didn't care about bills or hardwood floors or teeth or taxes. I was so happy. I thought of my grandpa, and re-committed myself to trying my very best to be like him. 

An Eternal perspective...

True Colors

The cats have really gotten comfortable with their surroundings. 

Livin in a GWorld...

A few weeks ago my buddy Katie left us at GWorld. We threw her a party a la "The Office" episode where Jim & Dwight throw Kelly a birthday party...

Other fun office-decorating times include: labeling Steve's cube,

covering Ken's office in tin-foil,

and celebrating Jessic'a engagement.

Academy Awards

This year we had some friends over to watch the Academy Awards. Joe made crabcakes and I helped by throwing some Trader Joe's frozen sweet potato french fries in the oven. As usual, we had everyone fill out their predictions for the night's winners. Matt did awesome; his winning streak was 15 categories in a row. Also as usual, we needed photos of the winners.

Matt was pretty emotional about his win.

Emily came in second place, (seen here with hubby Mark).

My Job

I hate to overpost, but I'm going to share a few things from my job. I work behind a desk in a public area, so every day I am approached with bizzare questions. Just this week:

- A man walked up and asked if this was the bookstore. There are no books in our office, and nothing for sale.

- A woman walked up and said "Where do I put my social security number?" That was her whole question. I said, "What?" And she asked again. I have found that if people ask ridiculous questions and you ask them to repeat the question, they don't rephrase or refine their question, they just repeat it in its ridiculous glory.

- A man filled out an application for an ID card, and tried to stuff it in our "Suggestions" box.

- An armed guard w/ a bulletproof vest and a gun tried to give us a day's worth of deposits, thinking we were the bank. When we told him where the real bank was, he didn't believe us, and said incredulously, "I'll give it a try." I guess I should have kept the loot. :)

Update: A woman just asked to use our phone. I asked who to call. She said 411. I asked why she needed information, she said she needed the number for the Registrar at George Mason University. I looked that number up, and gave it to her, and asked if she wanted me to dial. She said, "No thanks, I have my cell phone with me."

Broken Escalators

The late Mitch Hedberg said "Escalators can't break- they can just temporarily become stairs. We're sorry for the convenience." This is true everywhere except the Foggy bottom Metro stop, which has 3 escalators that have never all been working at the same time. One is usually shut down and torn up, and if you are lucky, one will be running. Keep in mind this is the most subsidized city in the world. Mitt Romney likes to say, "I don't want the people who ran the Hurricane Katrina cleanup running our healthcare system." Well, I don't want the people who run the escalators in DC running much of anything.

PS - all the usual disclaimers. (I should just be glad I'm alive, have a job, just be glad you don't live in sub-saharan Africa, etc. etc.) I know it's not a big deal, I just think for all our money they throw at metro they could have the escalators work at one of their busiest stops.

Good thing it's March..

And we're finally past all that winter weather!

Here is a picture of me leaving for work this morning:
And here are some pictures from outside our apartment: