A Whole New Me

Yesterday I had quite an exciting day. First I went to the eye doctor and finally upgraded from my 2 week contacts to Night and Day, which means I can wear them for 30 straight day and nights without changing them. Last night, as I was going to bed, I didn't have my glasses on and it felt so liberating. And this morning, when I woke up and could actually read the clock, it was amazing. I've heard people who have had Lasik say how wonderful it is to just wake up and be able to see, but I can't describe to you just how wonderful it is! I also got new glasses (frames and lenses) and new computer glasses lenses. My prescription hasn't changed at all, but my astigmatism is back, so they are adding that in.

I also got an iPhone yesterday, and already love it. I had to switch from my beloved Verizon to AT&T but so far I have no complaints. It seems the battery doesn't last more than a day (or maybe I've just been on it too much), but other than it's really fun. I've never had a phone with Wi-Fi on it before, so it's big leap for me from a regular old phone to iPhone. I'm having lots of fun downloading apps, and looking forward to no longer being bored on bus rides.

Complaint of the Day

I have come to find that the cabs in DC suck. In the middle of the day, especially downtown, cabbies will cut across 3 lanes of traffic the second your arm goes up. But at 2am, you have to beg them to take you home. Here is a typical weekend night: After having 10 cabs roll right on by you, one finally stops. The driver will roll their window down approximately one inch in order to ask "where you going" and unless you give them a satisfactory answer, they drive off. If you are lucky enough to have them actually agree to take you (you would think they were paying you by the attitude), then don't even think about trying to go to more than 1 location. Even though this actually works out better for the cabbie, they do not seem to understand the logic behind it. And then when you are finally able to reach your destination, they seem to think that you are dumb enough not to notice the fact that there are extra fees added on (they are supposed to charge $1 for every passenger after the 1st one, but they usually just add $1 for every person in the cab, and sometimes even add on 50 cents on just for fun).

Is it asking for too much for cabs to have their lights on if they are in service and lights off if they are out service? For them to just pull over and not play 20 questions about where you are headed to and just take you? For them to just charge you the amount that you should be charged? For them not to drive like maniacs on the road trying to get you to said destination? For them to arrive promptly when you call and request a cab? Apparently that is asking too much.

I will say that the system seems to have improved since the days of the zones, when one day your cab ride was $8 and then next day it was $14. Sigh, at least it's improving, right?

Look-Alike

Last night the boyfriend made me watch the Giants vs. Phillies game, and I couldn't help but notice that the Giants pitcher, Tim Lincecum, looked very familiar. One of my all-time favorite movies is Dazed & Confused, and Tim Lincecum has a striking resemblance to the main character Mitch Kramer (played by Wiley Wiggins). Wiley Wiggins was 16 when he portrayed Mitch Kramer. Tim Lincecum is 26 years old - a 10 year age difference - and yet they still look the exact same age. What do you think?

TGIF

I'm sooo excited for the weekend. Here's a picture from my walk home yesterday to brigthen your day.

Holiday Traditions

Today I was reading another blog where they were discussing holiday traditions, so I thought I would share mine.

Halloween - Ever since college my mom sends me and my sisters a plastic orange pumpkin full of Halloween candy and goodies. We have to save the pumpkin each year and return it.

Thanksgiving - Nothing too special here, either my mom or my aunt would cook Thanksgiving dinner with the usual - turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing (some made inside, some not, otherwise there wouldn't be enough), sweet potato souffle, corn bread pudding, canned cranberries (my favorite), and of course pumpkin pie for dessert. This is making me hungry.

Christmas - If we have it our house, we always have lasagna (my dad's family is Italian), garlic bread and salad. If we have it at our aunt's, she usually does Honey Baked Ham with potato casserole. For presents we always open presents to each other on Christmas Eve night, and then Santa presents on Christmas morning. We open our Santa presents one at a time, in order based on where we're sitting around the tree. When we were little my mom would give us each the same amount of gifts so it would be fair, and they usually took a picture of us coming down the stairs on Christmas morning.

Easter - My mom would hide our baskets in the house and we would go find them. The baskets are quite large and so there were only a few options as to where they could be. We would always get the same 2 toys in our basket - an egg that was cracked at the top and when you open it the chicklet would squeak, and a thing where you had to push the piece in with your thumb to spin open the cracked egg to view the chicklet inside. When we were younger, there was much more candy in the basket, and as we got older there were more gifts than candy.

Birthdays - My mom would cook us our favorite meal (with dessert).

What about you, what are you favorite holiday traditions that you do with your family?

Tuesday Tip

I recently discovered this fun site called Global Genie where you can view via Google Maps Street View random places around the world. Just click 'teleport' and you will instantly be in another world.

Weekend Recap

This weekend went by in a blur. I really needed one more day to fully recover from it. Friday night, I just stayed in with the boyfriend. Saturday started off early, with a drive with my sister out to Reston to visit a family friend. The three of us went on an Art Studio Tour, which was really neat. You drove around to different artist's studios - some were in their homes, some were in an area off a home, and others were displaying their work in a community area (library, church, etc). Just getting to see the house's alone was great - they were tucked away in the woods of Great Falls and were quite grand. The tour featured painters (oil and acrylic), weavers, photographers, quilters, and sculptors. Not only was it fun, but it was also very inspiring - hopefully there will be more original art pieces to blog about soon!

After the studio tour, my friend Erin and I got facials (my 1st one ever) and then had lunch. Later, I met up with my friend Jenna who was in town to watch the OSU vs. Wisconsin game, which OSU lost, and then off to my friend's birthday celebration, which was a white party and an all around fun time.

Sunday morning I had a soccer game, and then I went to up with Jenna to watch the Browns vs. Steelers game, which the Browns (surprise, surprise) lost. I guess I'm not good luck for my teams. Then over to the boyfriends to relax and off to bed early.

Real Housewives of DC Recap

Last night I watched the Real Housewives of DC Reunion Special Part 1. I have to say - this season has pretty much been a let down. The whole premise of the DC spin-off is that "in DC, currency is proximity to power" - but it seems that is exactly what this show was missing - people who are actually powerful/important in DC. I mean, don't get me wrong, they all seem like nice enough people who have A LOT more money than I ever will, but there were so many important people they could have used. My main question though is where in the world did they ever find Michaele Salahi at - her and Tareq already had a reputation for being "social climbers" and for not paying their bills around town. And not to mention she has to be one of the stupidest people ever, I just don't see what she brought to the table (besides of course, the infamous Party Crashing event, but it's not like Bravo could have known that was going to happen).



Speaking of the Party Crashing event, the Salahi's are saying that the show is supposed to clear up their name and show that they really thought they were invited to the event. But, I think in fact it did the complete opposite. At the salon, Michaele clearly says (when the stylist asks) that she has an actual invitation to the event, and that it's in the car. She then goes to her car and says she must have forgotten a bag because she can't find the invitation, her bra, and a pair of shoes. Tareq says thats it's ok because you don't actually need the invitation to get into the White House, and that it's just a formality. And Tareq is correct - if you are invited to something, and you receive an actual invitation, then you will be on the list when you arrive. Then, the Bravo producer is heard asking to see the actual invitiation to the event, and Michaele tries to brush it off, like it's no big deal. But the producer isn't buying it and is prying to make sure that they were indeed invited to the event.

In the aftermath of the State Dinner, the Salahis said that they thought they had been invited to the event, based on emails from Michele Jones, who is the Pentagon liaison to the White House. Just because she never said "no, I couldn't get you a ticket" that does not mean "yes, we have tickets for you and you are invited."

Anyways, the point of all my rambling is that the Salahi's have told one lie after another. Not that this is any sort of news, but being ignorant does excuse nor exonerate you from any wrong doing. Additionally, saying you have an invitation is a clear lie if you were never invited. Either you had an invitation and you couldn't find it, or you never had one and just showed up to the event and lied about having an invitation in the first place. Which sounds more like what really happened....

In other Real Housewives news, the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills premiered last night, which I have yet to watch (I couldn't take too much Real Housewives in one night, I need to pace myself). Now, these women could not be more perfect for the show - they are all well-known, important and/or married to important people, and completely and utterly over-the-top. I cannot wait!

Lastly, I think it's a bit odd that they are overlapping the Atlanta and Beverly Hills seasons by so much. Normally it'll just overlap by 1 or 2 episodes, not by the majority of the season. Like I said earlier, I'm super excited for Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, but I kinda wish they had spread the seasons out a bit more.

Hooray for Friday!!!!

Diet Fail

I've been trying to eat healthier, but my work is making it very difficult. Yesterday - baby shower (champagne toast and Whole Foods cake), tomorrow - happy hour for co-worker leaving, Friday - potluck to welcome new employees. And of course I can't forget about the candy bowl which is always stocked and looming there in my direct eye-line.

This Just In

For those of you who haven't heard yet - there has been a string of celebrity divorces announced this week.

- Courtney Cox and David Arquette

- Christina Aguilera and Jordan Bratman

- Laura Dern and Ben Harper

In happier news, rumor has it that Rachel Zoe is expecting her first child with her husband of 12 years Rodger Berman. If this is true, I'm so excited for them!

Chicago Recap

I'm baaaack! Chicago was so much fun - 2 of my sisters and one of their boyfriend's all ran the Chicago Marathon and I couldn't be more proud of them. Spectating was fun but tiring, a lot of standing around watching runner after runner go by. I also felt really bad for the runners because it got HOT out there and there was no shade.

I also sampled some Chicago favorites - a Chicago style hot dog and Chicago deep dish pizza.


My sister commissioned a painting from me months agao, and I was finally able to deliver it to her over the weekend. I originally painted the background a sky blue, but she thought a darker more grey blue would work better with her decor, so I set up a make-shift studio on our hotel room floor and re-did the background for her. See below for the before and after (sorry for the bad quality photos).




If you like my art work and are interested in purchasing some, make me and offer and I will ship it to you. Here is the link to the items available for purchase: http://picasaweb.google.com/langmt/ArtCollectionForSale?feat=directlink

3day Weekend

Hooray for three day weekends! I'm off to Chicago...updates when I return!

Massive Fail

Today, while eating lunch with my co-workers, I somehow managed to spill my cup of hot water all over the table, my lap, and my lunch. Massive, massive fail. Luckily I had made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in the lunchroom, and I had all the stuff to make another one, so my lunch wasn't completely ruined. Also luckily the jeans dried pretty quickly and there were no burns.

Sadly, this is not the 1st time I've burned myself from hot liquids while living in DC (been here for almost 3 years now). About a year and a half ago, I was making soup in one of those bowls you heat up in the microwave. I was holding the soup by the top, and while getting a soup out of the drawer, the bottom came out and I was left holding just the lid and scorching hot soup all over my socks, bare legs, and shirt. I got some pretty nasty burns on my hipbone from this, but luckily it wasn't too bad.

In summary, I really need to stay away from hot liquids and not be such a klutz. Sigh.

The Real Real Housewives

I don't know if you've been watching the Real Housewives of DC, but the Salahi's have been telling one lie after another. Read this article which sums up the lies: Salahi 101: A Guide To The Lawsuits & Lies

Oh, Nicole

Yesterday Tropical Storm Nicole hit, and the roof over my bedroom was a casualty. Last night I discovered that my ceiling was leaking water. But hey, the rent is cheap, I like my roommates, and have an awesome room and bathroom, so I can't complain too much about "living in an old house" with a sucky landlord. And....it's Friday! Woohoo!!!