Ticked and Tied

A Christmas Wishlist

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 02:05:00 +0000

I know it's a little bit early to be talking about Xmas, but if the stores are already putting out candy canes and ornaments, and my neighbors have already plugged in their big cheesy plastic snowman, then maybe it's ok to talk about what I want for Christmas. In no particular order, here's what I'd like this year:

A computer that works. That means no blue screen of death, no slooooow boot up, and no freezing everytime I try to open up a frigging spreadsheet....AAAAAAGH!! For the record, today wasn't too bad. Only had to flip the bird to my computer screen twice today for lack of cooperation.

Patience. This would help with the computer issue. My staff may also consider it a present to them, too.

One measly championship...in anything. Consider the following teams that I support:
- Ravens - long shot
- my fantasy team - since the football gods hate me (despite me sacrificing my Redskins fandom), Michael Turner is now out for who knows how long, so no chance
- Penn basketball - similar to achieving world peace...a nice thought but completely impossible
- Caps - since my interest in hockey is relatively new, I don't think I've quite poisoned their playoff potential yet.

Pie weights. Admittedly, this is a bit random, but it is the holiday season and I am baking a lot again. Pie weights are needed to help pie crusts from blowing up into big puffs of dough while they're in the oven. I've been using pennies wrapped in aluminum foil, but I'm thinking it's time to invest those pennies in real kitchen gear so I don't have to do this MacGuyver baking anymore.

A BB gun. The local squirrels are running around foraging for food, but they seem to enjoy using my roof and windowsill as a nut-trafficking route. This is incredibly annoying especially since my roof slopes down in my bedroom, so it sounds like their scurrying is happening directly over my head. A couple of warning shots might make the little bastards plan their re-up and distribution differently (can you tell I've been re-watching The Wire recently?).

Everything Old Is New Again

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:53:00 +0000

Is it just me, or does it seem like everything that was cool or popular circa 1985 is suddenly all the rage again? It started with Transformers, then GI Joe, and now V. For the uninitiated, V is a tv show about aliens (who look human but are really lizards) who come to Earth with a message of peace but who are really intent on turning people into food and slaves. The show originally aired in 1983, and the relaunch aired earlier this week (or tonight, thanks to the magic of DVR).

It surprised me that I still remember scenes from the original 1983 show. There was the scene where a car got blown up and one of the V (aliens) crawled out of the burning wreckage and showed his lizard face (heat exposes their true form). Then there was the scene where the lead V lady threw some guy into a glass room filled with sand...as well as some creepy crawly thing that scurried its way through the sand and then ate the victim. Finally, I recall the lead V lady devouring a hamster or some other small, cute rodent. That last one was especially traumatizing, as we had a guinea pig at my day care, and I thought they were really cute, not an option for Lunchable. Keep in mind that I was about 4 years old, so my parents letting me watch a show like that is perhaps an indication of lax parenting. Now, almost 30 years later, the show's back, and I can actually appreciate the storylines that mix the concepts of fascism, occupation and resistance, media tampering, and alien encounters all into one convenient hour-long package. I also appreciate the producers getting rid of the huge hair and red spandex unitards (yeah, nothing screams 80's like bad hair and awful clothes).

So, everything old seems new again. I'm ok with bringing back classic shows like V and remaking the Transformers, but I draw the line at remaking the Smurfs (you CANNOT mess with or do a live action version of the original) and bringing back leg warmers, big hair, and headbands.

Halloween and Other Randomness

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:07:00 +0000

Here's the rundown on the last couple of weeks:

MCM 10K - Another race, another medal, another chance for mom and dad to load up on swag
Practice Thanksgiving - There is no such thing as too much turkey...or cider...or pie.
Halloween - Brit-com with zombies and close encounters with the deer-kind
Ravens v Broncos - A winning equation: purple sweater + purple Coach wristlet = 30-7 stomping of previously undefeated team.

MCM 10K

My last big race of this year was the Marine Corps 10K, which was the same day as the full marathon (we just started at the Smithsonian and ran 20 fewer miles...hahaha!). Mom and Dad came with me to the race again, as they were on the hunt again for freebies. The morning was cold but clear, and about 6000 people ran the 10K. I did ok and attacked The Wall (VERY steep hill leading to the Iwo Jima Memorial) at the end of the race. My knee was acting up again, though, so I got checked out by the ortho physician on duty and iced it until I couldn't stand the cold anymore. I met up with Mom and Dad before heading off to the refreshment area to grab some snacks and then head home. Mom and Dad seemed to enjoy it, and I did appreciate the moral support. Mom told me later that she was at the bottom of The Wall, cheering me on, so that was nice, even though I didn't actually hear her over the rest of the crowd.

Practice Thanksgiving

Anne invited some folks over to practice her Thanksgiving feast-preparing skills on Saturday, and if the test run is any indication, she's going to have a really good meal on the actual holiday. There's probably nothing as comforting (food-wise) as warm turkey, mashed potato, and stuffing, so helping the Vances polish off a turkey was a good way to spend the evening. Much better than manning the door, waiting for pint-sized candy panhandlers to stop by.

Halloween

After I left Anne's house, I headed to Silver Spring to see Shaun of the Dead with Beney. I don't usually like horror movies, so a British comedy that happens to feature zombies was a much better fit. On the way to the theater, though, I was driving along Rte. 29 when I suddenly was hit on the right side of my car by a flash of white. The impact dented an area around the rear passenger side of my car, just around the wheelwell. I figured it must have been a deer because no one would possibly run across 29 in the middle of the night for no reason. Then again, it was Halloween, and there could have been some drunken idiot running around, so I called the non-emergency number for the police to report the accident, just in case. I didn't get a call back, so I think Bambi just picked a fight with my Honda and lost. I got to the theater right on time and had a good time at the movies.

Ravens game

Yesterday was also a lot of fun, as I got invited to the company box at Ravens stadium. Since the big boss was going to be there and we were entertaining clients, I didn't wear my actual Ravens gear and stuck with a purple sweater instead. It also gave me a chance to break out a purple Coach wristlet that I saw at the mall recently and bought on a whim. The clouds breaking and rain stopping just as the game started should have been a sign that the football gods wanted the Ravens to have a good game. They ended up breaking their losing streak, and the Ravens looked really strong all game long. It was a good result for my new favorite team!

FF Week 6 Stats

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 02:21:00 +0000

It's been a while since my last post, so this will be a long catchup entry. For those who want the cliff notes version, here it is:

Fantasy football record thru week 6 - 4-2 (not bad)

Baltimore half marathon - light rain and some shady spectators didn't stop me from setting a personal record. Oh, and I was able to walk just fine the next day, so that's progress!

Girls night - taco's + milkshakes + catching up with the girls = good times

Caps game - Uncle Ernie has some nice digs at the Verizon Center but could at least comp us for a drink or 2. And my sports fan theory is proving itself out - every time I root for loses!

Komen 5k - Another weekend, another race, another personal best

Holiday baking - Recipe #1 - apple pie (from scratch, of course). Nothing says the holidays are near like a delicious dessert and my kitchen looking like someone just dropped a bomb in it.

And for the extended, detailed version:

Fantasy football - Not much to say here other than I've only dropped 2 games so far, and both during bye weeks where I had to start multiple 2nd or 3rd stringers. That's a pretty good record to have, and picking up K. Faulk should improve my running game for the rest of the season, so here's hoping that at least my make-believe team will end up with a better record than the real-life teams I root for!

Baltimore half-marathon

I haven't trained as hard for these races as I really could, but I do my best and just tell myself that I've done that distance (or longer) before and can do it again. The Baltimore half was the weekend after the Army 10, so I hadn't really run all week since I hadn't stretched out too well after that race and was pretty sore. Still, I really wanted to finish the half because of the challenge and because I could also get another medal for doing the "double" (Frederick and Baltimore half marathons). So, I got up at 6AM, did some chores, and then scarfed down a bagel and fruit before heading to Ravens stadium at 7. I got there around 7:30 and avoided the massive backup at Russell Street by taking the next exit up to MLK and swinging around the stadium...then ended up sitting in the long line of cars on the quest for parking. My race didn't start until 9:45, so I had plenty of time to park and check out the end of the 5k race before making my way over to the start line. The race started on time, and the first 3 miles were pretty easy, with some rolling hills and generous downhills. By the time we rejoined the marathon course at mile 3, I was still feeling pretty strong. I figured I'd save my energy, though, for the end, and hit a water stop before approaching the big incline at mile 5. It was a steady climb for the next mile or so, and although I walked the first 50 feet, I ended up running the remainder of the hill because I felt an adrenaline rush and because it was a relay exchange point and I didn't want to crap out in front of all those people. By the time I got to the top of the hill, I was feeling really good and had passed a bunch of people. The rest of the course took us through some parts of Baltimore that I'd never been to before. Some neighborhoods were definitely nicer than others. The nice ones featured people cheering on the runners, playing music, and handing out goodies (gummy bears, pretzels, water, and beer!). The not-so-nice neighborhoods featured a hooker trying to cross the street (pretty sure that was her profession because nobody else wears shorts that short with fishnet stockings and stilettos), a junkie yelling encouragement, and a really pissed off lady leaning out of her window and yelling obscenities at the runners for waking her up. Ah, Charm City! The course concludes at Camden Yards and M&T stadium, and the last mile is really pretty energizing with all the people cheering on the runners and the final half mile that takes you through the stadiums. It was really a lot of fun, and the extra medal was just a nice (shiny!) bonus. It'll definitely be on my slate of races again for next year.

Girls' night - Liz and Anne were nice enough to come over to my house after the Half to hang out for a bit that evening, as we'd anticipated that I'd pretty much be crippled and wouldn't be able to make it down the stairs to my car. Surprisingly, I was in pretty good shape and was able to help with the taco's and milkshakes. After polishing off our overstuffed tacos, we caught up on work and gossip and a couple of episodes of Glee, which is my new favorite guilty pleasure. All in all, a great, relaxing night!

Caps game - Last Monday, the team went to the company box at the Verizon Center to see the Caps take on the Devils. I hadn't been to a hockey game in about 4 years, and the last time was also with a group from work and we got to use the company box. The main difference was that this time around, the entire arena was bathed in red and the fans were completely rabid. Not sure if DC's always been a hockey town, but I don't remember so many people being that into hockey before. The Caps lost in a shootout (just proving that if I cheer for a team, they will undoubtedly lose), but it was still a pretty exciting game and a lot of fun to watch. I even went out and bought tickets for a game next month, so I'm taking Beney and Melanie with me so they can also Rock the Red.

Komen 5k - This past weekend was the Maryland race for the cure, and the office women's initiative sponsored a team to participate. I ran the 5k race and shaved another minute off my time, so that was pretty good. It was cold and rainy but that was almost an incentive since it just made me want to get to the finish line faster. So, there's just one more race to go this month (actually, it's this upcoming weekend), and then it'll be a long layoff until the next races begin in the spring. Still, it's nice to end the running season on a high note of a pair of personal bests. We'll see how this weekend's MCM 10K goes (guess that'll also be a personal best since I've never actually raced that distance before).

Kitchen experiments - I make a trip to the farmers market almost every weekend, and this past weekend was an especially good trip since it was cold and raining and there were almost no patrons. The vendors were eager to unload as much of their produce as they could, so I got some good deals, especially on the apples. So with 6 pounds of apples, I decided to bake my first apple pie. Aside from a little (ok, a lot) of mess from the dough, it turned out pretty well. Now that I've got that crossed off my list, I can move on to the caramel apple pie (more advanced version of the classic), pecan pie, chocolate covered macaroons, pumpking pie, and cheesecake recipes that I've been meaning to try out. Good thing I've gotten into running...that should help to burn off all those extra calories.

4 Down, 3 To Go

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 03:12:00 +0000

I think that my addictive personality is starting to manifest itself in road races. I am in no way a disciplined runner, but for whatever reason I have been signing up for more and more races. I started the year with 4 races on the schedule, and it's turned into 4 races in the month of October alone. I've still got 3 races left this month, but last Sunday was the Army 10 Miler, which has so far been my favorite race. It's enormous (30,000 people signed up, 22,000 ran), the course is pretty easy (only gently rolling hills), and the course is scenic (goes past the DC tidal basin and major monuments). So, here's the rundown on last weekend's festivities.

Saturday was somewhat hectic with me running errands in the morning, then literally running (just a 5k to stay loose), and then more running...only this time to the DC Armory to pick up my packet. I drove to my parents house for the night since I could buy myself an extra half hour of sleep in the morning. There was also the added fact that both of my parents were going to go to the race with me. I got up the next morning at 5 and scarfed down a bowl of cereal. I woke my dad up at 5:30 by saying, "Wake up daddy. The US Army wants to make you breakfast. Don't keep them waiting." My dad was up and ready to go by 5:45. We were at the Metro station just after six, along with about a dozen other people. By the time we made it down to Metro Center to transfer over to the blue line to the Pentagon, the Metro stations were packed. We got to the Pentagon a little after 7:30, just in time to watch the parachute teams and catch the Blackhawk flyover. My mom insisted on taking random pictures of me and others warming up (my warm up consisted of a little stretching and then wrestling the d-tag onto my shoe). I attempted to escape the photo frenzy by telling her that she couldn't pass a certain barrier, but the overly-helpful soldier manning that post waved her through and insisted she could accompany me to the runners' corral. Eventually, I persuaded her to go with my dad to find some breakfast, and she rolled out.

At 8:10, the second wave started and I took off. It is quite a sight to see literally thousands of people take off running, and even though I hadn't trained properly (not even as much as last year), it was still enough to get the adrenaline going to get in a decent first 6 miles. I had bought a new watch specifically to help gauge my pace, and I was clocking in the 11-minute range, which was faster than I wanted to go, but I figured that would give me some cushion on the home stretch. The first few miles are probably the most impressive. Running over the bridge into DC, you get a great view of the Potomac, and as you progress over the next few miles, you run past the Tidal Basin and its monuments and the Kennedy Center. One of the runners had brought a small camera with him and was snapping pictures of the monuments and the general scene as he ran - great idea that I'll have to remember for next year! By mile 6, we were in the heart of DC, but the liter of water I drank that morning meant that I had to make a pit stop during the race. That was unfortunate, because it added at least 10 minutes to my time (no joke, it was a ridiculous wait for the bathroom, and while I could have put in another mile in that time, I wasn't sure where the next bathroom would be, so I waited). I eventually finished in a pretty woeful time, but I finished nonetheless and still enjoyed the experience.

Here's me with Dad, just before the start gun. Notice the backpack my Dad brought...he came prepared to raid the food and giveaway tents!

At the finishers area, I picked up the latest in my collection of shiny finishers coins, plus some food and a bottle of water. By luck, I ran into Beney, who had come to cheer me on. We stocked up on some more cookies and muffins and then headed off to find my parents. When we found them, my mom and dad had clearly gotten their money's (or at least my money's) worth of food and random giveaways. They each had 2 bags stuffed with things like hats, cookies, muffins, bananas, bottled water, chocolate milk, Power Bars, Larabars (coconut cream pie protein bars - YUM!), Army hats, Army t-shirts, half a dozen snackable-type lunch kits, and a DVD on how to become an Army officer (yeah, not exactly applicable to either of them, but hey, it was free!). I was thoroughly mortified when my mom proceeded to pull out all this loot on the lawn across from the Pentagon Metro station where we were hanging out while the crowd cleared. Mom then proceeded to show me the pictures she'd taken that day with my camera. She ran into the mayor of DC and took a picture with him, then proceeded to take pictures with the color guard, random runners with rainbow wigs, and just lots of other random people. Mom and Dad both said they're really looking forward to the Marine Corps 10K I'm running at the end of the month. I think they meant they're looking forward to all the swag!

Making Like the Jeffersons....

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 21:09:00 +0000

...and moving on up! Thursday was a big day for me professionally, as it marked my 8th year with the firm. It was also promotion day, so I am now a senior manager, which now means that I am also allowed to work in an office. Luckily, I was assigned one on the 5th floor where I usually sit and where most of my teams sit. I moved all my things out of my usual cube and into the office last night. After a client meeting this morning, I came into the office (my office!) to do some work. After 8 years of life in the cubes, it is very weird to be sitting in an enclosed area, unable to turnaround or look over and talk to people. It's almost claustrophobic. I am considering what to put in my office as decoration and so far have only come up with lucky bamboo, but one measly stalk of vegetation does not make for good decor. We'll have to see if a trip to Pier 1 or Pottery Barn can give me any other ideas in how to spruce up an otherwise spartan office. I am also going to have to remember that I do have an office and not go directly to cube 5063 as I have been for the last 4 years!

Other than the new digs, here's what else is going on with me:

My fantasy football team is now 2-1. Thanks much to the Atlanta Falcons for putting in a pathetic performance and coming up 20 points short of the expected fantasy points. Just like the Redskins last week (see below), I lost to a team that hasn't won in quite some time.
I am now a Ravens fan (yes, officially...I posted it on Facebook). Returning to the Redskins will require the firing of Coach Zorn and a change in ownership, as well as a sincere apology from current ownership to the fans who have suffered through a decade of greed and mismanagement. We need a Robin Hood to steal the team away from this Prince John, and sadly, that savior won't come anytime soon. In the meantime, I'm going to change my allegiance to a team that has a coach who doesn't always look completely panicked/shocked to find himself on the sideline of a football field calling plays, doesn't immediately pull out big wads of cash to plug the holes that pop up in its roster and coaching staff, has a defense led by a half-rabid/half-genius player who doesn't give a crap that people think he might be getting too old, and that is familiar with the concept of winning, especially against a team that hasn't won in 2 years. Plus, I like purple.
I am running the Army 10 Miler this Sunday despite logging no miles since the Navy 5 Miler a couple of weeks ago. I should be ok since I ran the Frederick Half with not much training either. After this weekend, it's the Baltimore half, the Race for the Cure 5k, and Marine Corps 10K. Here's hoping that my knees and lower back won't go on strike and abandon me on the course.

FF Week 1 Stats

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 22:37:00 +0000

Fall is here, which means that the weather is cooling off, my audits are starting to scramble into high gear since busy season is right around the corner (and so my stress level is starting to rapidly increase), but most importantly…FOOTBALL IS BACK!! I am not by any means a football expert, and everyone knows I am a total klutz and would be a danger to myself and others if I were to even try and play football, but I do love watching the NFL and playing God with my fantasy football team. I actually won this week (which is more than I can say for the ‘Skins), and posted 100+ points! That is a huge improvement over last year, when I picked a kicker and defense first. Before you conclude that I am total moron or Al Davis-level insane for picking those positions first, I just didn’t fully understand how the draft worked then and assumed that the system would fill each position in order (i.e. QB, WR, RB, etc). I learned my lesson, got up to speed on how it's supposed to be done this year, even did a mock draft, and ended up picking a pretty solid team…or at least it was this week!

In honor of the start of the regular season, here are my stats from fantasy football (and other randomness) for the week (well, technically, the last 4 weeks):

Approx. points racked up in Week 1 of FF: 113
Cowboys on my FF team: 0 (out of principle)
Redskins on my FF team: 0 (out of a desire to win, for a change)
Training sessions taught during this year’s instructor rotation program: 4
Cities visited for training: 4
Number of times I went to Capogiro in Philly last week for gelato: 2
Flavors of gelato sampled at Capogiro: 4 (and no, I did not get 4 cups of gelato…there were 2 flavs in each small cup…I’m not that much of a fatty!)
Staff who attended happy hour after training in Philly last week: 30
Regrettable incidents that occurred during and after the Philly happy hour last week involving certain staff: You’ll never know (pleading the 5th here to protect the innocent)
Cities I visited yesterday: 3 (started in Secaucus, then flew to Miami, then flew home to Baltimore)
Mojitos consumed at dinner last night in Miami: 2
Miles I ran last week: 0
Miles I have to run at this Sunday’s race: 5
Likelihood that my time is going to suck at this Sunday’s race: 99.9%

Holiday Weekend Update

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 02:11:00 +0000

The past couple of weeks have been spent mostly on the road, where I have been going to conferences or teaching. Somewhere along the way, I picked up a nasty head cold that I am only now getting over. The initial combination of bad cold and high fever made me think that I had caught the swine flu, but I don't think that's it since I'm better now without taking anything more than OTC cold and sinus meds and drinking gallons of hot tea. Things at work have been hectic, what with all the travelling and other commitments, it is challenging to prioritize things properly and ensure that it all gets done. The next couple of weeks will be more of the same, as I'll be teaching in Philly and New Jersey before heading to Miami for a day trip (sadly, it's for a business meeting, so no goofing off).

At least we got a 4 day holiday weekend to recharge a bit. Most of this weekend was spent with my family, since it was Dad's birthday. We had a few family meals together, including lunch at Kinkead's in DC. Mom invited a couple of Dad's friends, so our group of 7 covered most of the DC Restaurant Week menu that was still available. As an FYI, the mushroom ravioli, pistachio crusted salmon, and local peach cobbler are all exceptional. Dad's reaction to his lunch was a bit funny to watch. He said he enjoyed the meal (rare praise coming from him) but he initially thought that the portions were rather small. You have to understand that Chinese food is normally served family style, so if it doesn't come out on a big platter, he's going to think that something's wrong, or that it's just not going to be enough. Still, he realized afterwards that everything was portioned just right, so we weren't bursting at the seams when we left the restaurant. We stopped by Tivoli bakery on the way back and picked up a birthday cake for Dad before heading home.

Chris's friend Maddy was in town this weekend too, so I met up with her, her boyfriend and another friend on Friday night. They were hanging out in Adams Morgan, and it had been a while since I'd been down there. The last few times I went to DC on the weekends, it's been in the Dupont Circle area (i.e. Brickskeller, Buffalo Billiards, Lucky Bar, etc.), so it was nice to go down to AM again. We spent some time at Millie and Al's before wandering around to get some pizza and then heading to Bedrock Billiards where I rediscovered my love of foosball. I spent way too many hours dominating the foosball table and emasculating the boys at the KA house my sophomore/junior years, so while I was a bit rusty, I quickly regained my form and went on to win 2 out of 3 games that night. I was staying at my parents' house since I had to drop my car off the next day at the dealership in Rockville, so I ended up getting to their place around 4AM on Saturday morning. I was up at 7 to drop off the car and get a ride back with my dad. Although he questioned me about where the heck I was before getting in so late the previous night, he didn't do much digging or seem to notice that I had a slight hangover. We got back to the house around 8 and I went back to bed to sleep off the Guinness-induced achiness.

Sunday was pretty uneventful, with a trip to the Bethesda farmers market where I introduced Mom and Dad to the wonderful world of organic foods. They seemed to like the selection but were clearly appalled at the prices. We ended up getting some fruit from Toigo and breads from Atwaters and called it a day. I went home after lunch to do some much-needed cleaning and laundry and watched a few movies. Today was spent doing more of the same, plus packing. I made it up to Philly in just under 2 hours and have been prepping for tomorrow's class and working on some emails (will have to wait until tomorrow since for some reason I can't connect to our VPN from here). So, that's about it for Labor Day weekend 2009...lots of family, food, and relaxing, which is, I think, the purpose of the holiday.

Lessons Learned

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 14:28:00 +0000

This was my first week back on the instructor rotation program, so I was in Cleveland, imparting knowledge to the kiddies as best I could. I'd been swamped with prepping for training and trying to get in planning work for a couple of clients, so I spent most nights in my hotel room working and prepping. I really didn't get to see much of the city. From what I did see, though, Cleveland does not rock (damn you and your lies, Drew Carey). The hotel and the training center were not really what I expected for a major international accounting firm, but that might be my big city snobbery shining through again. When you're used to hosting trainings in gleaming new office buildings and staying at 4- or 5-star hotels, everything else seems shabby.

So during this particular trip, I learned a few valuable lessons:

1. When leaving a message, make sure you hang up at the end of the call. I was leaving a message for a staff on their cell phone when I saw that he was trying to call me back. I finished up my message and then tried to pick up the other call, thinking that it would hang up on the other line. Problem was, I missed the incoming call, muttered my favorite 4-letter word that rhymes with "duck".... and then realized that I had said that straight into my phone, which was still recording the message on the other line. Oops! So much for not scaring the kiddies....

2. It is a good thing to wake up early and get a head start on the day. For 3 days in a row, I got up at 5:45AM to hit the gym (3-5 mile runs). I managed to turn in pretty good times, felt REALLY good during and after the runs, and made it to class on-time, all with absolutely no soreness afterwards. Maybe it's just because I was out of town, but I was super motivated to get in some mileage this week. We'll see if it keeps up, but somehow running early in the morning doesn't feel as hard as it does in the evening. Or maybe I was just sleep deprived?

3. As with all endurance events, epic happy hours require the appropriate training beforehand. As I realized on Wednesday night's HH with the class, my tolerance was not very high (wow, that could be interpreted in SO many ways), and as I haven't been drinking on a regular basis, I decided to take it easy and not try to keep up with the 23-year olds. I do not have a 20-year old's liver trapped in this 30 year old's body. What I do have is a 30 year old brain that is filled with reminders of similar events held in years past that have resulted in countless instances of stupidity, one self-inflicted black eye, and a pinch of shame. So, like a good, responsible, and mature trainer, I had 3 beers (not counting the Irish car bomb) and made a few friends by giving the next few shots to others. I was definitely feeling pretty happy with the world by the end of the night, but I was still able to get up in the morning and wrap up the last day of class with a decent amount of energy.

On a side note, the other highlight of this week was winning pub trivia. Yes, at long last, all the random crap that's in my head finally paid off! Actually, it was a tremendous team effort (team consisted of my accounting class, myself, and my awesome co-instructor). Together, we turned in a 100+ point performance, totally dominating the locals (just like the Angels did to the Indians). Along the way, we won a bunch of bonus rounds and got 2 pitchers of beer on the house, and that's before the gift card that we got for winning. Ah, the thrill of victory!!

Tomorrow, it's off to New York for a weekend conference (yes, I'm technically charging time all weekend-long for this event). On the plus side, I am the only person from Baltimore going so I am going to have to network and practice talking to strangers, which is still something I'm not comfortable with. And since it's New York, if it all goes horribly wrong, I can just go and drown my sorrows at Ginger Man or console myself with a couple of enormous cupcakes from Crumb.

Withdrawal

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 17:12:00 +0000

This morning was pretty rough, as I woke up with a splitting headache and was literally sick to my stomach for a couple of hours. Eventually, I figured I'd gotten all the sick out of me and decided to clean up and get to work. The drive in was brutal, as there was a close call on the Beltway, when I was seriously debating whether or not I should just open my door to lose my lunch or if I could make it to the client site and to the restroom (I had just enough will power to do the latter). I couldn't figure out why I was feeling so bad. All I had to eat yesterday was a piece of fruit and a burrito bol from Chipotle that I split between lunch and dinner, but I was feeling just fine that evening - even got in a half hour run and lifted/stretched for another half hour, so everything was fine until I woke up. Then it dawned on me - I had no caffeine yesterday. I'm no expert on addiction, but the headache and nausea seemed to point to withdrawal symptoms. My healthier eating habits of late have mostly replaced the caffeine and sugar-laden goodies that used to make up the bulk of my diet. Apparently going cold turkey on the caff (even if inadvertently) is not a good idea, so I'll have to wean myself off of the stuff gradually in order to avoid nasty mornings in the future.

The other random thing that happened today was related to my computer. A new function popped up in the Format menu of Word. I now have some kind of "Asian layout" option that apparently no one else on my team has. I found it rather odd/creepy that my computer decided to give the one Asian user in the room an Asian layout function. Isn't this how the Terminator movies started, with the computers becoming self-aware?!

Taking the Scenic Route

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 17:09:00 +0000

My blog posts have gotten fewer and far between, mainly because I've been sleeping in on the weekends. I don't suppose sleep counts as a hobby for most people, but it does for me. Anyway, I did manage to wake up at 8AM on Saturday to run a few errands, do some work, and then head down to DC to go kayaking with Beney.

It was pretty humid by the time I got there around 10:30, and I was also fuming a bit. Georgetown is a bit of a debacle when it comes to how the roads are laid out, so the 27th St. turnoff that I was looking for wasn't marked on the Whitehurst Freeway. I ended up driving around DC for a bit, driving in the general direction of the Potomac until I finally stumbled across the boathouse. Once we got on the water, everything was fine, though. Kayaking is a great way to work off a little road rage (or maybe a lot, in my case). It was a bit overcast for the rest of the morning, but that was just fine because the water was about 80 degrees and the air temp was around 85-90, so I wouldn't have lasted long in the sun. We paddled upstream for about an hour, dodging the faster kayaks and the random day boats that were tearing up the river looking for a good place to anchor. Along the way, we saw something distinctly DC - 3 Presidential helicopters flying overhead, making their way to the White House. I suppose that is better than the motorcades which make DC traffic even worse than it already is. The planes flying overhead on their way to DCA were another interesting sight...the last time I saw the underside of a plane that close overhead was in Hong Kong, where it felt like the planes could at any second clip the top of one of the skyscrapers. I couldn't help but think about that plane that crash landed in the Hudson...can't recall if that happened in the daytime, but if so, that must have been a hell of a sight for anyone on the water.

We spent a couple of hours kayaking up and down the Potomac, chatting and catching up, especially on plans for her birthday party. It'll be an interesting one, as it includes some thinking (Spy in the City - basically a scavenger hunt sponsored by the International Spy Museum), good food (Georgia Brown's for dinner), and general chaos (bowling at Lucky Strikes...beer + 12 lb. bowling balls + general clutziness = good times and potentially broken toes). We headed back to the boathouse around 1, having communed with nature for the 2 hours that we'd rented the kayaks. All in all, it was fun and pretty good exercise. I counted that towards a 40-min. cross training session that I was supposed to do that day anyway (since I wasn't paddling hard the whole time, I figured I did at least 40 min. of real exercise). And for under $20, it wasn't a bad way to spend the morning.

Sunday morning was mostly spent on work, but I did manage to venture down to the farmers market in Bethesda again. My food snobbery has reached new heights with this latest focus on buying as much of my food from local organic producers as possible. I have a budget of $50/week, $25 of which is allocated to purchases from the farmers market, and the remainder to be spent on sundries at a regular grocery store. My parents would freak out at the idea of spending $2.50/lb on fresh peaches, but ultimately, I am buying fresher, better tasting food, supporting the local economy and small businesses, throwing out less food because I'm only buying what I can finish in a week and not buying in bulk (sorry, Costco), and still spending the same amount of money. My 3 week experiment in organic eating has resulted in slightly improved mood and a slight drop on the scale...so far, so good.

Food for Thought

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 21:51:00 +0000

Beney and I went to Bethesda this weekend for lunch, shopping, and to see a movie called Food, Inc., that had generated some good reviews in the Post. I was expecting something like a Supersized Me movie, but really, it was more of an indictment of corporate America and the food industry. Generally speaking, I don't usually care too much about social issues (I am not a crunchy granola tree hugger), but this was downright disturbing and got me thinking more about my own actions and my contributions to this corrupt and grossly unfair system. Apologies for the following rant, but I have a hard time keeping my mouth shut when I see such greed and stupidity occurring.

At the heart of the movie is the premise that a handful multinational corporations control over 80% of the world's food supply, much to the detriment of the consumer, the workers, and the environment. These companies raise animals in a pretty nasty environment and do so with the singular goal of raising the "product" as quickly and cheaply as possible. The chickens that are a major product of Maryland's eastern shore are grown and fattened at such an accelerated rate that they literally cannot support their own weight (I have to admit, my sadistic side giggled a little bit when they cut to a shot of a porky chicken taking two steps and then collapsing in a heap, panting...not unlike myself after I run). These animal factories are frequently staffed by illegal immigrants who were recruited to come to the US to work. Of course, these same companies that recruited and bring the illegals across the border have also never been charged with exploitation of workers or breaking any immigration laws. Instead, they have unspoken agreements with authorities to arrest and deport certain numbers of employees.

More disturbing were the corporations' actions against the average consumer and the very farmers who produce crops on their behalf. In one case, it was noted that almost all soybeans grown in the US are actually genetically engineered by a company that actually patented a seed that was resistent to a particular pesticide. As a result of that patent (in which the US courts granted the company the right to effectively own life), farmers who try to plant soybeans using their own "public" seeds (seeds that are basically organic and saved from the prior year's harvest rather than having been GE'd by this particular company) are being shut down. This company actually has 75 employees on its payroll to go and investigate farmers suspected of using their own seeds, then prosecutes those farmers to force them to buy and plant only the GE'd seeds. The tactics that the company uses to enforce this divine right to farming include physical intimidation (think of the mafia sending their heavies over to break some knees) to threats of financial ruin (drawing out a legal case to the point where the farmers declare bankruptcy or are forced to settle in order to survive).

The most frustrating part of the movie was when the producers interviewed a women whose 2 year old son died as a result of eating a hamburger tainted with e. Coli. For almost a decade this women has begged Congress to pass a law that would give the USDA the right to shut down and clean up factories that have been contaminated, especially when there are repeat offenses. This should be a no-brainer, but we are dealing with politicians here, so this common sense measure (Kevin's Law) still has not passed. From the number of food recalls in recent years (spinach, peanut butter, etc.), it is clear that this problem will only get worse if proper oversight is not given to the federal regulators. What was so sad about this whole story was the reason why this woman was fighting so hard. Her crusade was really about trying to get the company responsible for the contamination to admit their failure, apologize, and say how they were going to make things better. Instead, she has been slapped with the threat of legal action if she so much as says how she has changed her food buying practices or naming the company responsible for her child's death.

I left the movie feeling pretty disappointed with the inaction on the Hill and wondering how many dead babies it would take for Congress and the public in general to figure out that companies do not have the upperhand in this argument. I truly believe that it takes a personal tragedy for politicians, and really, the American public, to pay attention to these issues. In the meantime, lobbyists and corporate donations rule the day. I am perhaps one of the few Wharton grads who actually believes that corporations have a responsibility to their customers, and that profits are not just a measure of what comes through on the P&L. There is a cost associated with the reputation of being unsafe, unclean, and unethical. Is the damage really that much greater if a company spends a couple more pennies per share to ensure that it is producing safe food and that it is working cooperatively with the farmers who support this whole system? To them, the answer appears to be yes...that would be the greed talking. Personally, a company that has a catastophic product failure needs to do everything it can to ensure that the same mistake doesn't happen again and that no one else gets hurt. Its response should not be coming up with new ways to further consolidate its power over its suppliers and regulators in order to stymie the negative publicity that would develop the next time the same errors are made.

The good news is that there are very simple ways to start turning this situation around. Most of it boils down to the choices we make in the grocery store. Buying organic or bypassing the grocery store altogether and buying from farmers market, co-op, or community supported agriculture (CSA) farm would step outside of the manufactured food chain and hit the MNC's where it hurts...in the pocket. The other simple thing that can be done is to petition to get common-sense laws passed to protect the food chain. If Congress can even suggest debating a resolution to honor Michael Jackson, they sure as hell can pass a law protecting the food we eat.

Go see this movie and check out the website for more on how to get involved, listings of organic markets and restaurants, and other useful info.

NYC Trip - Day 3

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:14:00 +0000

The alarm clock went off at 8:15 on Sunday morning, and none of us wanted to get up. After hitting the snooze about 5 more times, Maddie took the first turn in the shower, and then one by one, we each got showered and changed. Chris and most of the crew were headed to dim sum in Chinatown, while I gave Kat a call to meet up with her for brunch in midtown. The weather was great (a bit warm, very sunny), so I walked the 12 blocks to Kat’s place instead of taking a train. We headed to Eatery, which was the same place we’d gone to the last time I’d visited her and which had the best bloody mary’s ever. I wasn’t hung over, but the mass amounts of food (especially those ridiculously good cupcakes) made me think that I should take it easy. I decided that I wasn’t quite ready for that much tomato juice and vodka yet, so I went with a bellini instead, which was much lighter and really delicious. Oh, and there was some food involved, but if there was anything I learned from this weekend, it was that my alcohol tolerance was back up. Yay?!

It was really nice catching up with Kat over brunch. We’ve both been pretty inconsistent with keeping up with each other since we’re so busy (me because of a mild case of ADD and poor time management, her because she’s simultaneously planning a wedding, studying for the PA bar, and prosecuting criminals…she wins!). Yet, every time we talk or meet up, it’s like nothing’s changed from college and no time has passed at all. That’s kind of the hallmark of a good friend – when you can pick up the phone after not having talked for a while and pick up right where you left off. Kat walked me back towards the hotel, but not before we heard and spotted the start line for NYC’s Gay Pride parade. I hadn’t really realized that it was going on, although the guys in the ultra-short shorts should have been a tip off (only in NYC and maybe SF does seeing that outfit on the street not phase anyone). Since the roads were blocked off, we wandered over to Rockefeller Center and stood with the huge crowds of onlookers. The NYPD and FDNY representatives were walking by at that point, and they got a huge response from the crowd (they’re still treated like heroes after 9/11, as well they should). Next came the more flamboyant floats, blasting dance music and Village People songs, accompanied by men and women (sometimes both in the same body?) dancing along in spandex, rhinestones, and feathers. It was pretty over the top, so Kat and I headed back towards the hotel, where she caught a train back to her apartment, and I headed back to the room to get in a few more chapters of Twilight before my flight.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, other than the horrendous traffic around midtown, thanks to the parade and the almost endless sea of gawking tourists who have never seen drag queens before. I bet the parents walking around 5th Ave that afternoon were going to have a great time explaining all that they had seen to heir little kids. Eventually, we made our way past 5th Ave and were clear almost all the way to JFK. I managed not to scream at the guy in front of me in the security line who actually took my things out of the bin and used it for himself (really, I’ve never seen anyone that rude…he was totally oblivious). Fortunately, the guy behind me was nice and ran back to get me another bin, which restored my faith in New Yorkers. The flight home was quick, although I did manage to finish my book. That was good because I immediately launched into New Moon as soon as I got home. Tonight’s task is to go to the bookstore and buy the last 2 books in the series. At the rate I'm going, I should be able to finish off the whole series over the July 4th weekend.

NYC Trip - Day 2 - The Hunt

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 20:01:00 +0000

On Saturday morning, the alarm clock went off at 9:15, far too early considering the 4AM bedtime from the day before. Nevertheless, I dragged myself out of bed, showered, and got ready for the day. I woke the girls at 10 and we managed to all be ready by 11. We were just a little late for The Hunt.

Scavenger hunts seem to be a big thing these days, at least among my friends. While it looks kind of goofy to those who don't do it, if you're willing to keep an open mind, want to find a new and fun way to explore a city, and are just a little shameless, then scavenger hunts are a pretty good way to spend a Saturday. We met at Union Square and divided up into 3 teams, then ventured out to take pictures or videos of as many of the things on the list as possible. Many of the items weren't necessarily objects but rather things that you might see people doing. For example, one of the items was a police officer eating a donut (extra points if you got a picture of you eating a donut with the cop). I asked 3 NYPD officers, but all of them said that wouldn't look good for the department and gave me a look that said Get the hell out of here. I'll give them credit - NYPD cops take some pride in their jobs, so it's hard to fault them for that. We ran all over town, talking to random people, discovering new parts of town, and in some cases doing some unfortunate things that I won't describe here (let's just say that it helps a LOT in this game if you don't have any shame). The best part of the Hunt was when we went to the west side of town, where the Intrepid is docked, to take a picture of us "swimming" in the Hudson River. The guys didn't actually jump in and swim because that would just be gross (and I thought the Inner Harbor was nasty). Instead, we spotted a boathouse with a long ramp that led into the water. We talked to the staff there about the Hunt and asked them if we could just let the guys put their feet in the water and dance "the swim." The staff were surprisingly pretty cool about it and gave everyone life jackets before sending us down the ramp and taping the whole thing. The onlookers must have been wondering if this was some kind of field trip for mental patients, but we didn't care - that was worth 2000 points! The neat thing was that it was a perfectly sunny afternoon, the boats were out on the Hudson, and kids were running around in the park and playing in the fountain. It was a very different side of the city that I had never seen before. I also now know where the Intrepid is docked, so I can go and check out the carrier the next time I'm in town.

We were back at the hotel by 4PM, the deadline for all teams. Chris and Maddie went to one of the rooms to judge all the pictures and videos while the rest of us hung out, talking about the random stuff we had done and the people we had met. The cool thing is that all of us were pretty impressed by how helpful people were. Most of them were amused, and others seemed pretty impressed by the whole event and thought it was a great idea. At the end of the day, all of my team's antics didn't help us much - we came in dead last, but it was still a really fun way to spend the day. I was completely exhausted, so I showered, changed, and relaxed in the hotel room and read a few more chapters of my book until we had to leave for dinner.

Saturday night's dinner was at Landmarc in the Time Warner building. Tammi and I were late since we stopped at Crumbs Bakery to buy a bunch of cupcakes (can there really ever be enough dessert?). When we got there, a few more folks (Tim, Jen A, Baxter) had joined the group that had met for dinner on Friday. Most of us got the NY strip steak, but I was rather disappointed, to be honest, at how tough it was. I'd had much better steaks in Chicago and even Omaha, of all places. Still, it was good company and a pretty good meal overall (the wine was delicious, and if I hadn't had so much of it that I can't remember what it was called, I would try to look for it at home). Chris got to show off his new Thomas Pink shirt and Steelers cufflinks, so I think he was pretty content. After dinner, I headed back to the hotel to drop off the cupcakes then headed to the club where everyone else had gone to. I had botched the address so I had a bit of a hike to get there but eventually found it. The top floor club area was packed and hot, but we still had a good time dancing (it helps me a lot when the beverages are flowing). We left the club around 4AM and got back to the hotel, exhausted. There were 4 girls in my room, and we stayed up a bit longer, chatting and diving into the cupcakes. I learned this morning that apparently our giggling and chatting had kept the boys up in the room across the hall - oops! Guess that's what happens when you put 4 girls and a box of sweets together - we get teleported back to 5th grade and act like little kids again. It was probably around 4:45 or 5 when we finally went to bed, at the end of yet another amazing day in the Big Apple.

NYC Trip - Day 1

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 19:27:00 +0000

This past Thursday passed in a blur of activity. First, I was scrambling to finalize financial statements for one of my clients before rushing home to grab some laundry and throw some things in a bag for the weekend trip to NYC. I raced to my parents' house to make it for my 8PM appointment with the notary to get my refinancing paperwork signed. At 7:30, I got a call from the notary indicating that the paperwork had not yet been sent over from my mortgage company. My heart pretty much fell to my stomach. If I didn't get it signed on Thursday, I'd have to either wait until the following month or postpone my flight to NYC. I was not happy. After a number of calls to Chase and to the notary, I figured out that someone had told the title company that there was a second mortgage out on my house, which I and the settlement company argued was incorret. However, the settlement company could not release the paperwork until they got that resolved. This only made me more furious because that error meant that someone at the mortgage company made a big clerical error at best, or that there was identity theft involved and that I could have a major problem on my hands. Eventually, I talked to the one person at Chase who had been helpful and candid all the way through the process, and she was able to get it cleared up. The notary showed up at my parents' house at 10:30 and we finished up the paperwork around 11:30. I was relieved to be done with the refinancing. It didn't hurt that the rate that I got was so low that the mortgage company actually paid me $250 for closing costs (bonus!). I had trouble sleeping, so I started reading Twilight, which had just been delivered to me that afternoon (thank you Amazon!). Starting into the book might have been a bad idea...I was immediately sucked in and didn't go to bed until 1AM.

I was up 3 hours later and out the door by 4:30AM on Friday to catch my flight to JFK. I made it to Dulles and to the gate with about 20 minutes to spare (even though I left early, it's a big airport and the people-movers were pretty crammed). I got in a little more reading on the plane and decided that I need to buy the rest of the Twilight series - I just have to know how it ends!!

I got into JFK around 9AM, a bit delayed due to the weather, and Chris was there to meet me at the gate. My big bro hasn't changed much from college, except for the shaved head he sports now. We piled into a packed shareride van and headed to midtown. The van driver was pretty funny, pointing out interesting sites and telling us about how great things were when Rudy G was mayor and cleaning up the city. We finally arrived at the hotel and met with Maddie, Chris's friend from SF. We checked into the rooms (girls in one, boys in the other) and then headed off to find some food. We wandered up Broadway and found a sushi restaurant next to the Ed Sullivan Theater where they tape The Late Show. Lunch consisted of a "ladies lunch" bento box with miso soup, salad with seared tuna, crunchy salmon sushi roll, braised short ribs, and tempura shrimp. The food was terrific, but I was feeling pretty stuffed afterwards. We headed back to the hotel to meet up with some more of Chris's SF friends, Josh and Wendy, who had flown in for the weekend. At that point, I gave Chris the first part of his birthday present - a pair of Steelers cufflinks (thanks to Jay for inspiring me with his Eagles cufflinks). Chris was pretty excited about them, especially since he could show them off at dinner on Saturday.

After we got everyone settled, we walked up to Columbus Circle and did a bit of shopping at the Time Warner building. I bought Chris a French cuffed shirt from Thomas Pink so he could put his cufflinks to use. We checked out J. Crew and some other stores too, but I couldn't find anything that really fit or was in my price range. Chris and his friends took off to go shopping at Macy's, and I called Kat to meet up with her. She had gotten off of work a little early since she had wrapped up her trial (successfully!) and her apartment is pretty close to Columbus Circle. After a quick bite to eat at Whole Foods (I just nibbled on a cannoli since I was still pretty stuffed), we headed south and looked for "cute" clothes for the weekend. Like an idiot, I had only brought jeans, t-shirts, and workout clothes, completely forgetting that many NYC restaurants require appropriate attire. We ended up finding an Ann Taylor and where I was able to find a pretty affordable outfit, and I bought some sandals later on, so I was now ready to go for the rest of the weekend. Kat was awesome, as she has a great sense of style and has a knack for finding just the right pieces. It was almost dinnertime, so Kat headed back to her apartment and I went to the hotel to shower and change.

Dinner was at Carmine's, and in addition to Chris and his SF crew, two more Penn people, Phil and John, came with their wives/girlfriends. We had a huge Italian meal that was pretty good, and just the carb load that we needed to fuel the rest of the evening.

Chris had spotted a Yuengling truck on the way from the airport, so he was determined to have a pint of it before he left the city (apparently that's not available in SF). We first went to The Ginger Man, since they have the biggest selection of beer in the city. The actually did not serve Yuengling, so Chris went across the street to the Midtown Pub. As luck would have it, they did have what Chris was looking for, so we spent a few hours there hanging out and just having a good time. There was a lot of very badly mixed MJ songs going on, so the dancing was a little disjointed. Probably didn't help that the boys were doing rounds of Jaeger shots in between pints.

After a few hours, another friend of Chris's, Tim (not my ex), joined us, and we all headed to a club further south. The club was pretty nice, but we didn't stay long since Phil mentioned a rooftop lounge that was pretty relaxed and sounded like it had amazing views. That place did not disappoint. The elevator ride took us up to the top floor, which opened into a club. Stairs towards the back led to a rooftop cabana-like area that was actually not as packed as I would have thought. After a day that had been fairly hot and humid, the cool air felt really good, and the view of the NYC skyline was pretty cool. Drinks were expensive, so we hung out, chatting and dancing until about 3AM.

We split up then, with Phil heading home, Chris and I to the hotel to meet Tammi, the last member of our party, and the rest heading to White Castle (they had to see what all the hype was about). By the time everyone returned, it was about 4AMand we were all pretty beat, so after introducing Tammi to the rest of the group, we turned in. It was a great way to start the weekend!

Catching Up

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 21:56:00 +0000

It’s been a while since the last post, so this will be a long catch-up entry. In case you’re looking for the Cliff Notes version, here it is:

Saturday, June 13 - Beney’s DC scavenger hunt and an after-hunt trip to Oyamel to watch 2 of her friends eat grasshopper taco’s. There are some things that even I won’t eat.

Week of June 16 – Trip to NC (which could either mean North Carolina or NASCAR Country, same thing) to do walkthroughs at a new client. Concluded that TX barbecue is the best but parts of NC are “perdy.”

Jogging – Making slow but steady progress…emphasis on slow, though.

Refinancing my house – Jumping onboard the Obama bandwagon. Any POTUS who drops my interest rate by more than 1.5% gets my support!

Random observations – Men are stupid. And in other shocking news, the sky is blue and the harbor water is filthy.

Upcoming – Chris’s 30th birthday weekend in NYC!

For the long version, see below:

Scavenger Hunt
Beney is the Queen of All Social Events, so the DC scavenger hunt that she hosted on June 13 was a great success. The turnout was ok, but with the fun that the groups had, hopefully the next one will be even better. I thought that an hour would give me time to get downtown and even get to a kiosk for some lunch on the Mall, but that was not to be. Metro was single track all the way in from MoCo, so the normally 45 minute ride took more like 1.5 hours. When I finally got there, Beney gave me the option of joining the one lone participant, but my stomach was grumbling so I opted to go to lunch instead. We went to Oyamel, which is this great Mexican place near the Verizon Center. They serve mostly small plates, so we each ordered a few dishes (I got a couple of mini tacos) and we split the fresh guacamole. It was fantastic! Apparently the weekend menu is special since that’s the only time they offer churros with Mexican hot chocolate. Churros are basically twisty dough sticks covered in cinnamon and sugar. You can get them at Costco for about $1 each, but since those are probably sold by the ton, stick to Oyamel’s! The hot chocolate is also special since Mexican HC is more like a chocolate fondue, only slightly thicker, the perfect dip. After a filling lunch, we went to the Capital Chophouse, where the teams were to meet up at the end of the hunt. I somehow found room for a couple of pints of their stout, which was pretty tasty (better than the other microbrew stout I had in Omaha). As the teams returned, it turned out that I probably would have done really well on the hunt, as I knew more than half of the answers immediately and probably had a good idea of which locations to hit and still make it back to the Chophouse in time (there was a time limit). I pointed out a few loopholes in the game that would probably have allowed me to win, but Beney decided that loopholes = cheating, and apparently the next hunt will include a Jen Clause to avoid such “abuse.” After the winners were determined and rewarded, the whole group headed back to Oyamel because someone got the great idea of trying out their house specialty, grasshopper tacos. I had this vision of two giant insects wrapped up in a tortilla shell, but what actually came out was a taco shell filled with something that looked like shredded pork. The tacos actually smelled pretty good (smoky and spicy), but when I got closer, I actually could see tiny eyes staring back. The little pieces of “meat” were actually teeny tiny grasshoppers. They were brown because of the seasoning and the quick grilling they received. Only 2 in our group were daring enough to eat the tacos, and both said that they tasted pretty good. There were only 2 problems – one was knowing what they were eating, and the other was texture. The first problem is fairly self explanatory…if you think something is gross, you usually don’t put it in your mouth. The second is the real kicker though. Apparently the texture is slightly crunchy, but then you get the “meat,” and the combination of crunch and squirt is just too much for me. I am throwing up in my mouth a little as I write this. I watched the carnage but stuck to my drink and a few chips and salsa. Thus ended another successful Beney-led outing.

Trip to the South
The next week, I headed to North Carolina for work with a staff and senior I hadn’t spent much time with previously. The client was located just outside of Charlotte, so I figured it couldn’t be that bad if there was an NBA franchise there. The first inkling that we were in the deep south was when we drove around looking for a gas station around 8 PM and found that none were open since they were still the old non-digital type. Instead of a credit card reader there was a rotary dial. This place was straight out of the 1950’s. The client was pretty well prepared and the work went pretty smoothly. We all got a kick out of the heavy southern drawl that most of the client personnel had. When you’re around that for a few days, you tend to pick up that accent, but I tried not to. I find that there’s almost nothing quite so ridiculous as an Asian person with a southern accent. The team did a good job and I’m glad I got the chance to get to know them a little better. We did get to sample some of the local Carolina barbecue, but it wasn’t as good as the stuff we had in Texas. Oddly enough, the best restaurant we went to was a sushi restaurant on the other side of town, where there were strip malls with modern buildings and neighborhoods that were filled with large homes and well-manicured lawns. Other than going out to dinner each night, there wasn’t much else to do in town, although that did give me a chance to catch up on some work for other clients and on the latest episode of True Blood (not really into the whole Twilight thing yet, but the R-rated vamp show is, I’m guessing, a much funnier, cooler, and more violent version).

Jogging
Not much to say here other than I’m starting up again with the goal of dropping my time down to the 90-100min range for the Army Ten Miler, the first of my 3 big races this fall. If I don’t, my dad might eat all the snacks by the time I finish. I am pretty excited that Anne and Jamie are doing the HoCo 5k, though! That definitely is a good motivator when you’re in a group of people who are really focused on doing well, so even though my main focus is on the 3 October races and I’ve been pacing in the mid 11’s, I’m still going to try to at least beat my last 5k time.

Doing my bit to help the economy
I’m refinancing my house, and the closing is tonight, so starting next month, I’ll be about $300/month richer. The whole process has been fairly painless, so I’m hoping that everything goes smoothly tonight. The only heartburn will be seeing my bank balance tomorrow…writing out a check for thousands of dollars is a bit stomach-turning, but it’s all in the name of saving down the line.

Random observations
A common theme from this week has been men doing stupid things. I went to Best Buy earlier in the week to buy a new camera for my trip to NYC this weekend and noticed a couple of guys who had walked in the store with their significant others. The men then promptly ditched these ladies when they weren’t looking and headed straight for the gaming area. There, they got into a huge jam session (it was either Guitar Hero or Rock Band…not sure as I’ve never played either), and they were spazzing and rocking out like they were actually playing real instruments and had real talent instead of having a plastic joy stick and computer-generated instruction dots to guide them. The funniest part was when these guys were picked up by their wives. They got a tap on the shoulder and immediately snapped-to, and basically had this look of, “Oh, hey, I was just checking out the game for the, uh, kids. Yeah, that’s it! The kids would totally love this. Yeah, the kids…if we had any.” Really guys, it’s not like she doesn’t know that you’re just a 6-year old stuck in a 40-year old’s body…just buy the game and embrace the nerdy gamer in you! I will say, though, that it’s a little embarrassing to watch these guys rock out when they have ZERO rhythm. Another example of men doing stupid things – the governor of SC. If you’re just some average person and you take off for the weekend without telling your family, there might be a few calls made by concerned loved ones. If you’re, let’s say, the chief executive of an entire state, people might start to notice when you disappear for days on end. Coming back with some lame-ass lie about flying to Argentina and driving along a 2-mile coastline to clear your head doesn’t exactly help your case…we all knew he was screwing around. When a politician’s wife doesn’t know where the politician is, he’s either with someone underage, not his wife, potentially a dude, or all of the above. Guys – stop the lying!

Weekend adventure
So, now that I'm all caught up, let's talk about the future. I am really looking forward to this weekend! Chris is flying in to NYC to celebrate his 30th birthday, and it should be a lot of fun. I met my “big brother” in college (he lived across the hall from me) and we’ve been friends ever since. I’m actually older than he is, but in Chris’s World, the fact that he’s 6’4” makes him the big brother. Regardless of his twisted, Steelers fan logic, he is a good friend and we always have a good time when we hang out. That hasn’t happened much since college because he’s out in San Fran, so it’s a fairly big deal when he comes back east. I’ve booked a few rooms at the Renaissance in Times Square for everyone who’s coming from out of town, so we’ll have a pretty crowded but swank place to crash. Besides the birthday dinner, Chris has planned a scavenger hunt on Saturday that may or may not result in me making a total ass of myself, but we shall see what’s on the list of things to find/do. I’m pretty competitive, so if I have to do something stupid to win a contest, there’s a good chance I might. Here’s hoping this weekend’s festivities don’t end up on YouTube.

How to Lose a Guy in Ten Seconds

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 04:42:00 +0000

Traveling for work is something that I really enjoy. Although it does get a bit old after really long multiple week trips, I rather enjoy the short trips that last a week or less. I get to visit all sorts of places that I probably wouldn't think of going to on my own. For example, today I flew out to Omaha, NE for the first round of meetings related to a new contract that we won. I've never been to Omaha before, and although there was a bit of a mixup at the ticket counter, it did get sorted out and I made the flight on time. Even better, I got randomly upgraded to first class on the connecting flight from Memphis to Omaha, so that was fun. First class on those short haul flights just meant a bit more leg room (rather wasted on me, since I'm only 5'3" and could potentially fit in an overhead bin), but more snacks...I would agree that Twix are a premium snack, worthy only of those who pay twice as much as coach.

When we landed, the airline had unfortunately forgotten to load Liz's bags onto the second flight, so hopefully she'll be getting a call soon to let her know that her bags are on their way. Otherwise, we may be making an emergency shopping trip tomorrow during lunch. Once we got to the hotel in downtown Omaha, we headed to a local brewpub for dinner. After a couple of genuine Omaha steaks, I had a pint of stout before heading to the bar area to watch the Lakers-Magic game. I sampled 4 more beers during the course of the night (not to worry, though - the samples were the size of shooters, so they were a total rip off, but at least I got to try a bunch of new beers and keep the buzz going). I'm not a huge basketball fan, but I don't like Kobe and was really hoping that he and the Lakers would get shut down. That was not meant to be tonight, despite a pretty exciting OT game. While we were watching the game, a random guy came over and attempted to chat up Liz and potentially myself (definitely seemed like a scouting trip, to figure out which one of us might be interested...the fact that both of us were trying very hard not to make eye contact hopefully tipped him off that it was most definitely not on). We found out that he was staying at the same hotel as us, although we didn't bother to let him in on that tidbit. We also found out that he was only in town for a couple of days before returning to LA, which was yet another dagger in his attempt to gain some company for himself and his buddies (because a random hookup is exactly what a girl looks for on a business trip). It will be interesting tomorrow if we happen to see him and his crew at breakfast, or at one of the local restaurants.

Should any further attempt be made by random slimy guys to chat up any member of my team, I may have to play the enforcer again and bounce those guys out. I remember one time in college when I had to lay down the law at a friend's house party. It was after the Army-Navy game, and there were a bunch of Army guys hanging out, drinking, and one was hitting on my roommate at the time, who was in a serious relationship and wanted nothing to do with the Drunken Bastard but couldn't get rid of him. I probably had been playing flip cup for an hour or so and had no common sense at the time but still felt a sense of loyalty to my friend. I proceeded to walk over, tap DB on the shoulder, grab him by the neck when he turned around and slammed him to the wall. I told him to back off before I called my roommate's boyfriend and all of his guys over to throw him out the window, and he nodded ok. When I let go of his neck, he said something to the effect of "I think I'm either very afraid or in love." Pretty sure I made a move to go over and set him straight but Beney hauled me away before I got into any further trouble. Now that I'm a bit older, I will likely not resort to physical violence to deter unwanted suitors and protect the herd of innocent accountants from the rabid group of slimy LA finance hyenas. Instead, I am pretty sure that any mention of marriage and children will be just as effective as a faceful of mace to most men, so I'll give that a go the next time.

2 Down, 3 to Go

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 14:27:00 +0000

Yesterday was the Komen Global Race for the Cure, a massive 5k that happens every year in DC. That was my second race of the year, so I only have 3 more road races to go. I hadn't run the Komen race in a while, and this time I took my family with me. Mel was whining the whole way about being tired and not having trained properly...I told her to suck it up and just do her best. The weather was great, just silghtly on the cool side, and the rain held off until well after we were done running. The event was hosted by the Komen Foundation executives, local and national newspeople, and the Bidens. We saw the VP's motorcade go by around 7:15, so we knew that we were going to be starting late (all of the pre-race festivities were supposed to have started at 7, and the Bidens were a part of that). Once the race started, I went at a nice, easy pace, but Mel said she felt awful and I told her to walk a bit and then catch up. I actually stopped twice and waited about 30 seconds, even walking back a bit to find her, but I didn't see her. Eventually, I just finished the race on my own and met up with her later. My time was awful (12 min. pace), but the multiple stops probably prevented me from finishing closer to the mid-11's. I still have a lot of work to do before I reach my goal of finishing the ATM and Baltimore half in a 10 min pace or better. However, yesterday was more about family and running for a cause. It's truly impressive to see the number of survivors who attended. Cancer runs in my family, but I don't feel afraid of my chances of getting that diagnosis. I don't feel that it is a death sentence, especially if it's caught early. There's no cure yet, but there are certainly effective treatments that can knock it out at least temporarily. Next year, my goal is to recruit more people to the race and raise more for the Foundation. Thanks to all who contributed! It is truly a worthy cause, and if there's ever a race for beginners, this is a great one to get involved in, so sign up next year!!

OBX - Day 4

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 15:51:00 +0000

The last day at the beach started the same as the previous days, with a long walk on the beach after breakfast. Only this time, the clouds were rolling in and the waves were picking up. On my way back to the house, I saw a few lifeguards who were heading to their stations stop to talk to each other, and I guessed that they were trying to figure out if they should red flag the beach or not. Usually there is also a Coast Guard helo that patrols the beach, but that day, there were three of them sweeping the coastline, so that could not have been a good sign. I’m not a strong swimmer, so I had no plans of venturing further than knee-deep into the ocean...riptides are nothing to play around with.

What was a bit worrisome to me was a good sign for the 4 who had gone out to rent wetsuits the day before. High seas means bigger waves, perfect for surfing. This wasn’t Hawaii, though, so 6 ft. waves were probably as big as they got. We went out on the beach for a while and watched as Alex’s boyfriend, cousins and uncle struggled with the surfboard and boogie board. When they came back, their faces were red from the exertion and the waves smacking them in the face. The lifeguards looked pretty relieved, too. Every time I looked over, the poor guy had his eyes trained on the group of novice surfers, pretty much knowing that he was going to have to do his best Hasselhoff impression and race over to pull those guys out of the water.

After the surfers showered and changed, we headed to a local pizza place for lunch. It was too crowded, though, and Alex and I wandered around looking for somewhere else to go. We ended up at this kind of shady looking diner that turned out to be pretty good. We all shared ceviche and burgers, and if I can remember it the next time I’m there, I’ll probably go back. Alex then took me to buy fudge for my parents and Mel, and I also stopped by Tulio’s to buy a bunch of macaroons for them.

And with that, I said my good byes to the family, hopped in my car, and headed home. On the way, I stopped at Southland, which was a family tradition. It is just yards away from the Virginia state line on the NC side, and it is a combination restaurant/gas station/gift shop. And by gift shop, I mean they sell random trinkets to the OBX visitors, as well as smoked ham, guns, and cigarettes. Yeah, welcome to the South! We used to stop there on the way home for breakfast when I was little, and it was always a bit funny to see the expression on the locals’ faces when my big Asian family walked in. I remember waitresses speaking for slowly and loudly when asking for our orders (because clearly speaking louder makes all the difference when you’re talking to someone in a foreign language), then looking totally relieved when we responded back in perfect non-accented English. This time, I didn’t stop for breakfast but instead headed to the back room that was filled with wall to wall cartons of cigarettes, dip, and other tobacco paraphernalia. Since I don’t smoke and have no idea what to ask for, I had to call my dad and could hear his co-worker in the background providing the exact order. Two cartons of Marlboro’s and $75 later, I was back on the road and making good time to my parents’ house.

It was a minor miracle that I didn’t dive into the fudge or bag of cookies on my way back. My car had never smelled so good before! Mom and dad were pretty happy about the treats, as evidenced by the fact that when I went to have some dessert, there were only 3 macaroons left out of a bag of 8. Mom was raving about the cookies and already looking up the address for Tulio’s when I left, so I am pretty sure I know who the cookie monster is.

So, 4 days at the beach with my extended family did a world of good. I got some work done and didn’t feel completely overwhelmed/guilty when I got back to work. I was well rested, a little tanner, and feeling like life really isn’t all that bad. It would be better, though, if I had the chance to take a long head-clearing walk on the beach every morning and every night. And macaroons wouldn’t hurt, either (seriously, even if you don’t like coconut, those cookies were awesome).

OBX - Day 3

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 22:42:00 +0000

On Tuesday morning, I got up around 7 and headed upstairs for my morning coffee, toast, and banana breakfast on the deck overlooking the ocean. If I had that view and those accommodations every morning, I might just convert to being a morning person. Tai and Bruce were already out on their morning walk, and they got back around 8 with some beach glass they had found on the way. Beach glass is basically shards of glass that have been batted about in the ocean so much that the sand and debris has worn down the edges and dulled the glass so that it is smooth and the color is translucent. Tai found a few light green and amber pieces, and one clear one that hadn’t “cooked” quite long enough to become that distinctive translucent, milky white yet, but it was close enough. Since there weren’t that many people on the beach yet, I decided to go for a jog...I was feeling ambitious and fortified with a real breakfast for a change. Jogging on the beach seems like it would be a lot of fun, but when you’re clumsy and have slacked off on a regular training schedule (again!), it becomes a bit of an ordeal. I made it up to Buck Island and turned around, so it was about a 20 minute jog for 2 miles. Not great, but my ankles were once again throbbing from shifting around in the sand, so I figured it was time to go home.

When I got back to the house, I had just enough time to shower and change before lunch at The Blue Point Grill with Alex, Chris, Aunt Tai, and Uncle Bruce. The rest of the family was venturing further south to Kill Devil Hills for more shopping and such. I was more interested in going to the place that served pecan pie and bourbon ice cream. Lunch at BPG was good as always, and my tuna salad was actually made from whole chunks of fresh tuna (no chicken of the sea confusion here). For dessert, we got a key lime pie and the pecan pie, so everyone got to taste two of BPG’s best desserts. Sufficiently stuffed, my aunt and cousin decided that would be a good time to go shopping for cute sundresses. Perhaps if we’d waited an hour or so, my sugar high would have kicked in and I would have been happy to shop. As it was, I spent the next few minutes trying on J Crew dresses that might have been ok before lunch but were now sprouting all sorts of unwelcome lumps and creases. After a couple more shops, I drew the line at a store that specialized only in clothing that was pink, covered in ribbons or butterflies, or all of the above. I felt like I needed to get a tattoo or drink some grain alcohol to offset the pinkness, but alas, there were no needles or flasks to be had, so I hung out with Chris and my Uncle Bruce while the girls shopped. Uncle Bruce’s sister Chris and her husband were making dinner that night and were doing a Hawaiian theme, so we were on the hunt for lei’s. We didn’t find any even though we looked in half a dozen stores, but I did buy myself 4 shot glasses so that the next time we have girls night, we can measure out more accurately just how much of a hangover we want to inflict on ourselves.

Dinner was already well underway and the margarita machine was on full blast, so that was a welcome relief to all the shopping that day. I probably had 3 before dinner…hard to tell when people are constantly refilling your glass. When we sat down to dinner, I was pretty hungry, and everything was pretty good. You wouldn’t think that a marinade including ginger, soy sauce, and pineapple would work, but it did. Dessert was macaroons (plain and chocolate chip) from Tulio’s, who apparently is a pastry equivalent of the Soup Nazi. I’m not really partial to coconut, but those macaroons were awesome. After cleaning up the dishes, we all headed out for a sunset walk on the beach. We went for a good hour long stroll, dodging the sand crabs that come out in force at night. Chris tried to rumble with one but quickly backed off when the crab put up it’s two big front claws and started shuffling towards him (that’s crab talk for Do you want a piece?). When we got home, the adults went to bed, and Chris, Alex and I went down to the basement to watch movies. They had The Crow on VHS (yeah, throwback), so we watched that and somehow got the munchies and dipped into the stash of caramel fudge that Alex had picked up on the way to the beach.

All in all, yet another glorious, 10,000 calorie day at the beach!

OBX - Day 2

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 21:45:00 +0000

Yes, I’m way behind on my blogging, so let’s just pretend it’s circa Monday, May 25 (Memorial Day), and this post will make a lot more sense….

Day 2 in the Outer Banks started out with a coffee, toast, a banana, and the Washington Post on the 3rd floor deck overlooking a sand dune, and just beyond, the Atlantic Ocean. After polishing off breakfast and reading the paper for a good hour or so, I decided it was time to hit the beach.

I changed into a t-shirt, shorts and flip flops, and ran into Uncle Bruce’s mom at the door, so I asked her if she wanted to come along, which she did. Beth and I probably walked about 3 miles or so. The weather was gorgeous (slightly cool when the cloud cover rolled in, just a little warm when the sun was out), and there weren’t that many people on the beach as we headed north on the beach towards Buck Island. BI, for the OBX uninitiated, is another one of those exclusive oceanside communities with enormous houses with their own private walkways to the beach. The houses were pretty distracting, so we didn’t turn around and head south until we realized that our ankles were throbbing quite a bit from all the shifting of weight on the sand.

When we got back to the house, the “kids” were just getting up and heading to the beach. I say kids, but that would be my 25 year old cousin, her 25 year old boyfriend, my cousin’s 24 year old cousin, and her 39 year old boyfriend (hmm…reminds me of Sesame Street…one of these things is not like the others…). While they were at the beach, I took some time to check email, check out the library (which consisted of an astonishing variety of trashy romance novels, cookbooks, and Oprah book of the month club selections…all disappointing), and just chatting with my aunt. When Alex and Chris got back, the three of us went out for lunch. We went to The Tomato Patch, which is one of the restaurants that was there when my family first went to OBX about 20 years ago. After a long leisurely lunch, where Alex bitched about school, and I bitched about work, and we both bitched about our crazy family, we decided to go to Bacchus for the daily afternoon wine tasting. I felt bad for Chris, because Alex and I spent all of lunch reminiscing and getting him up to speed on the insanity that is the Liu family holiday meal (the Asian version of a Walker family meal, for those of you who watch Brothers and Sisters). The wine tasting was a pretty good deal – 6 wines for $5 – and pretty tasty too. Alex bought a couple of bottles from the tasting, and then we hit the Brew Thru for margarita mix. BT is another OBX novelty that I’ve never seen outside of the beach which consists of you driving your car into this car wash-type building, only instead of getting sprayed with soap, a very helpful stoner/hippie type comes over, asks you what type of beverage you want, hands it to you, and you’re on your way. Drinking and driving = bad? Not in the OBX. With beverages in hand, we headed back to the house to help with dinner preparations.

My aunt and uncle are foodies. Dinner does not consist of whatever is a) not fuzzy/smelly/about to hatch or b) ready to make in 2 minutes. They buy the good stuff and take their time preparing everything so it comes out right. So, as they made fresh guacamole for the troops to munch on, I helped myself to a margarita…or 4. My uncle at one point turned around and said that I’d gotten some sun (damn Asian glow). I responded with yes, I did…and in related news, the sun has been renamed Jose Cuervo. Dinner was served at exactly 6PM and consisted of fresh salad, corn on the cob, fresh bread and Irish butter, Angus steaks, and pasta with lobster and butter sauce. Yum!! The food was delicious, and since most of us were too stuffed to do anything else, we watched a Star Wars marathon on Spike for the rest of the night.

OBX - Day 1

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Mon, 25 May 2009 13:15:00 +0000

Vacation! Such a lovely, lovely word. The last few days at work were spent frantically trying to get as much done as possible, but as always, not everything gets done, so I will have a stack of work waiting for me upon my return. Saturday was productive. Had brunch with Lara, Anne, Liz, plus a bunch of other former EY-ers that I hadn't seen in quite a while. I met Brady for the first time, and he is just as cute and cuddly as in the pictures. I little droolier than advertised, but still a major cutie. After brunch, the afternoon disappeared in a whirlwind of errands and chores that had to be done before leaving for the beach. I ended up going to bed around 1:30AM on Sunday. I must have been really pumped for the beach, because I was up at 6AM, out the door by 6:30, and at my aunt's house at 6:50, ready to go.

I drove the 300+ miles down to North Carolina with my aunt's 76 year old mother-in-law as my passenger. I have to say, that was one of the most pleasant road trips I've taken. She's really nice and the conversation was good, and I certainly learned a lot more about that side of my aunt's family. You see, this vacation is truly a break from the tedium of normal life and from the constant bickering that is often associated with vacationing with my immediate family. My aunt's rented beach house is being shared with my uncle's sister and brother-in-law, their daughter and her boyfriend, and my cousin Alex and her boyfriend. All very cool people who routinely keep the fridge stocked with beer and tasty snacks and are on a neverending hunt for fun things to do. Hard to believe that I am actually distantly related to these people!

Once we got to the Outer Banks (OBX, for the uninitiated), we headed straight for Awful Arthur's. We found that place the first year we came down here, which must have been when I was around 10 or so, and we've been going there ever since. It's a great oyster bar and seafood restaurant, and even though it looks a little crummy from the outside, it's actually pretty nice. If you go there, get some oysters on the half shell, grilled teriyaki tuna sandwich, and you'll be good to go.

Anyway, like a complete idiot, I remembered to bring everything except for my camera, so I will have to bum a few shots from my cousin's camera and upload them later. However, I will try to describe the scene right now, which is just before 9:30AM on Memorial Day. I am lounging on the 3rd floor of the house, which is oceanfront...that means that the only thing separating the house from the ocean is a strategically placed sand dune. The walk to the ocean is about 1 minute (even less if you don't mind wading through the brush behind the house and potentially getting chewed up by mosquitos). Looking out from the window, I see the tops of the sand dunes, speckled with tall, wild grass, and just beyond is nothing but blue sea (well, blue-ish gray today) and a gray horizon. It's pretty cloudy out right now, so there might be a storm coming later. For now, the waves are breaking pretty gently and there aren't that many people on the beach yet. Perfect time for me to go out and search the sand for shells.

30

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Tue, 12 May 2009 01:52:00 +0000

Earlier this month, I officially hit the Big 3-0! Yes, that's right -I somehow managed to stumble my way through 3 decades of Life. And how did I celebrate my 30th birthday? With self-torment, lots and lots of food, and good friends standing by me and happy to celebrate with me. That's actually a pretty good summation of my life in general, but here's how it played out on May 3, 2009:

I woke up at 4AM on Sunday. I'd had about 4 hours of sleep because I was nervous/excited about the Frederick half. I hadn't trained properly, and for the previous 2 weeks I had waffled on whether or not to even run the race (after all, I'd been so hopped up on caffeine and stress during that time, that the only thing I wanted was to sit on my couch and drink). Ultimately, I figured I might as well try, so I had driven to mom and dad's house the night before, pinned the race bib to my t-shirt, looped the timing chip through my shoe, and packed my trusty bag of Cheerios for race day. Dad drove me up to the Frederick start line in his new car. I could tell that he was pretty jazzed about the new vehicle (dark blue VW Passat CC...very sleek, very stylish, very un-Dad-like). We talked about all the cool things the car could do, but of course, Dad being Dad, he wasn't quite sure how to get the car to do all that stuff. When we got to the fairgrounds, we sat in the car for 5 minutes while he tried to figure out how to turn off the headlights. And Dad being Dad, he had taken the owner's guide out of the car so he could read it at night in his spare time (yes, really, my dad reads a car owner's manual for fun) and had forgotten it at home. We finally figured out how to turn the damn thing off, so we made our way over to the start corrale area. I had picked up Derrek's race packet but as he was running late and I was for once on time, I asked Dad to hold the fort and told Derrek to look for the tallest Chinese guy he could find...in most crowds, that would usually mean my Dad.

The race started promptly at 6:30, and I started out feeling pretty good. Through the first 6 miles, the sky was overcast but the rain held off. Then I hit mile 7 and the first of a set of rolling hills, and that's when my legs started nagging me and the heavens opened up. Over the next 6 miles, the steady rain soaked through my clothes and skin, and I had a hell of a time focusing on running. I walked pretty much every uphill that remained and tried to pick up the pace on the downhills and straightaways. I finally made it to the finish line, and Liz and Anne were there to cheer me on, as was Derrek, who'd finished about a half hour before me. I staggered across the finish line under the 3 hour mark, and I was handed a finisher's medal for making it that far under my own power. I was definitely not the fastest and I got passed by people who had run twice the distance and one guy with NO shoes, but by God, I finished! It was painful but that last few hundred yards through the grandstand was good because there were people cheering us on.

I met up with my friends after leaving the finishers area, and they were awesome enough to have brought a cake! I found Dad and split a slice of cake with him, and I have to say, there is nothing that tastes so good after a punishing run than cake with chocolate frosting. As we were getting ready to leave, Anne pointed out that my leg appeared to be bleeding. I looked down and realized that my normally white, blue, and grey shoes were now tinged with pink. Hmm...not good. I went to the medical tent, and the nurse cleaned up and bandaged the back of my foot, right where the back of the shoe had rubbed off all the skin around my ankle. I figured I'd have a nasty blister but I didn't realize I'd probably been bleeding since mile 5. After that got taken care of, we all headed back - the Baltimore crew back to their homes for some much needed rest, and me and Dad back to his house so I could take a shower and get ready for lunch.

Mom, Dad, Mel, and I headed to Silver Fountain for dim sum with David, Christine, Uncle Lincoln, and Auntie Fong-Fong. All this time and we didn't realize that there was a dim sum place less than 15 minutes from mom and dad's house. The food was really pretty good, and I think I've got a new go-to place when I'm in the Rockville area. Getting together with the family is always interesting. Everyone was surprisingly in a good mood that day, and catching up with everyone was fun. It was all good until the parents started talking about getting old and debating the appropriate frequency of getting a colonoscopy, then talking about their individual results. Making matters worse, David's and my parents are all getting rather hard of hearing, and we were in a bustling dim sum place, so hearing them say "COLONOSCOPY? YOU GOT ONE? I GOT ONE TOO! IT WAS SO UNCOMFORTABLE..." was just a tad embarassing. Fortunately, lunch ended soon after and we headed back to mom and dad's house. I promptly passed out from the race and the food coma, then woke up a couple of hours later to head back to Baltimore and dinner with the girls.

Anne, Liz, and I met at Pazo for a double-birthday dinner (Liz and I have the same birthday!). We split a whole bunch of dishes, as it is a tapas place, as well as a carafe of sangria. Everything was very tasty but I think the best was still the croquettas. Really, how can you go wrong with a bite-sized portion of creamy mashed potato, mixed with cheese, that's been lightly battered and fried? I probably could have demolished a couple of orders on my own, but I restrained myself. There was still the dessert course, and the three of us each ordered something different and got to sample some really tasty sweets.

All in all, it was a good way to bring in the new decade - good friends, good food, and completing a personal challenge.

A (Little Bit of) Personal History

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 23:23:00 +0000

It's been a long couple of weeks, and I am still somewhat delirious from a sleep cycle that's been thrown seriously out of whack. Tomorrow I will issue 3 audit reports and an agreed-upon procedures report ON TIME, so it will all have been worth it. I'm glad that I can at least have some time at the end of the day to do a little blogging to decompress before I get some sleep (and I'm actually going to get 4 hours!!).

Over the past few days, I've wondered about why I continue in this particular line of work. It's can be pretty tedious and frustrating at times, perhaps more so than other professional work. First thing that came to mind is that this work maybe isn't so bad and I should quit my whining because much of my pain is self-inflicted...I could be delegating better or not putzing around so much on the weekends and getting in more work than I do. Second thing that I realized is that regardless of what career I have, I think I will always push myself beyond what I thought were my limits. Since my caffeine pills had kicked in, my brain then went through (at warp speed) all the various reasons why I could be like this - 1) I'm competitive so I want to see if I can outlast everyone else? (since I'm the only manager 3 left in the office, I guess I win?); 2) parental guilt...as in, my parents had it a lot worse, so I need to suck it up and put in as much effort as I can so that someday I can support them; or maybe 3) I have an addictive personality, so frequent and repetitive summation of numbers to me is like crack to Whitney Houston.

Finally, after the caffeine-induced heart palpitations subsided (yes, according to Beney and Wikipedia, there is such a thing as caffeine intoxication!), and after spotting a well-placed ad for a geneology website, I realized that I am just a product of my ancestors. It's in my blood to work. I'm just lucky I get to do my work in a climate-controlled facility with running water (oh wait, I work in Baltimore...). This idea of heritage got me thinking about my grandparents, whom I have to admit I haven't really thought of much outside of the holidays. For a couple of people who didn't speak any English, never made it past the eighth grade in China, and lived apart for 10+ years, they did a hell of a good job keeping their family together and raising 5 kids.

And this ultimately led me to look up the article that The Washington Post ran on my grandpa shortly after he passed away almost 5 years ago. Some of the details are a little off, but the gist of the stories are true, and the picture of my grandpa standing in front of a stove is something that brings back a LOT of memories. That man was in the kitchen a LOT. Some of my earliest memories are of playing with dough and rolling out dumpling wrappers with grandpa instructing.

It's interesting to read that article now, 5 years later. It definitely gives some background as to why I'm such a big supporter of the US military (but especially the Navy) and why I am slightly obsessive about dumplings and believe that only my blood relatives can make good ones (my dad learned from the best - his mom and his father-in-law). But most importantly, I like the way the reporter describes my grandparents. As a 5 year old, I certainly didn't appreciate the fact that my grandparents worked for decades and could have been enjoying a quiet, relaxing retirement but were instead looking after their rambunctuous 5 year old grandson (my cousin, David, and I were born on the exact same day and year), and their angelic, albeit porky granddaughter (yours truly). Yet, they looked after us for years, without complaint or financial incentive or even a thank you from us grandkids.

They were still looking out for us even when they were very, very old and ill. Grandma called every single day just to say hello and to hear our voices. Grandpa actually literally held on until he saw all of his grandkids before he passed.

That summer, I was working on the audit at Children's when I got a call from my sis asking if I was going to see grandpa in the hospital. At first, I was ticked that I didn't know that grandpa was even in the hospital, but then again, he had been admitted quite a few times in the previous months, so maybe it wasn't such a big deal. Since Washington Adventist was only about 15 min. away, I told her I'd meet her there right after work. When I got there and went to the information desk to figure out what room he was in, they directed me to the ICU. That wasn't good. When I got to the ICU waiting area and saw a couple of my aunts and uncles and cousins, that was REALLY not good. My family didn't (and still doesn't) get together much outside of holidays, weddings, kids' birthdays, or deaths. Mel and I went with Mom to grandpa's room and he was hooked up to all manner of IV's and monitors. Mel immediately started bawling, and I got a little freaked out as a result. Mom, though, is a cool customer and held it together. We said hello to grandpa, and the only movement that occurred was rapid blinking and a squeeze of his hand. He was so weak and so filled with tubes that he couldn't speak or do much else. I can't remember what Mel or Mom said, but waited until they left and then told him in Chinese that I loved him and would come back and visit him tomorrow. We returned home after that and had finished up dinner about an hour later. I'm a slow eater, so everyone else had cleared out of the kitchen when I picked up my plate to take it to the sink. The phone rang and my dad answered from another room. I heard my sister scream and I knew that grandpa was gone. Mel was in tears, and pretty soon I was too. My mom later told us that grandpa had actually passed about 15 minutes after we left his room. My aunts, uncles and cousins had all gone in to see him before, so Mel, mom, and I were the last ones there. He had literally held on to make sure we were all ok before he left.

So, what does all of this rambling personal history have to do with all-nighters, putting up with tedious work, and berating myself for not working even more? Simple. It's in my blood.

And now for something completely different...and delicious...

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 01:55:00 +0000

Sleep deprivation may be taking its toll again. I'm about to embark on my second all-nighter this week. But before I do, thought I'd share a vid that I thought was pretty hilarious. The nerd in me just can't help but appreciate this exceptional use (waste?) of perfectly good cured meat. And there's even a vegan version for the meat-averse. But really, everyone knows that everything's better with bacon.