If you follow as many people on facebook and twitter and linkedin and picasa and stalkathon.com (not an actual thing) as I do, you're bound to come across some hilarious stuff. A couple days ago, one of my favorite photographers, Nancy Ray, posted a link to this hysterical Barbie and Ken wedding shoot that comes so close to how most wedding photos look these days that you can't help but be impressed! Here are some of my favorites...
And yesterday, I found this gut-buster. Apparently, New Era Cap Company has hired a marketing genius recently, because they've put out this series of commercials starring Alec Baldwin and John Krasinski (a Yankees fan and a Red Sox fan), and they are PERFECT. This one is my favorite... if you never knew what happened when you dialed 9-1-2, you will now...
Amazing. There are some shockingly creative people out there. I need to be friends with them.
Yesterday, I posted some pictures of the hurricane damage in Annapolis, but I promise it didn't all look that bad! After the majority of the storm had passed, David and I walked around some parts of the campus I hadn't seen last time I was there, and even though the weather was pretty gray in the morning, it was beautiful later! And of course I didn't take any pictures of that. But, here are a few more of the Naval Academy!
I did actually buy a Navy t-shirt this time, so now I feel like I've really visited. :)
And our power stayed on all weekend! My friend, David, came to visit me from Charlotte this weekend, so we tried to have fun despite the wind and rain, but a lot of things ended up closing early on Saturday since Virginia declared a state of emergency. It was even still raining a little Sunday morning, but after the hurricane passed, the weather was beautiful!
We did head over to Annapolis yesterday, which seemed to have been hit a little harder than we were...
Pretty sure that is a headless lamppost.
But in our neighborhood, there were just a few branches down and leaves EVERYWHERE. But we rode it out by baking a pizza and watching Valkyrie. Not a bad hurricane party. Hope all of you got through it alright, too!
What are you? Are you Category 2? Are you Category 3? Are you a little bit flaky maybe? Doesn't matter, I think you're all talk. I remember your grandpa, Hurricane Earl, about twelve years ago. He was a category 3 also, and he blew in like a baby lamb's first breath. I even got to go home early from middle school that day, and for what? A heavy shower?!? No no, you don't scare me. All that bottled water people are fighting over like it's the next Tickle Me Elmo? I hope they enjoy drinking it on the tennis court next week.
If you want to be a Category 4, we'll talk. But I don't do lazy.
(Happy Birthday, Rachel and Katie!!! Love you both SO MUCH!)
I've actually been putting off posting my favorite songs this month because I've had other things to talk about / Embedding all those videos is actually more of a chore than you would think, but I just can't put it off any longer... we need a jam sesh.
So, without further ado, my top eight for this month! I would post ten, but the other two would be from the same artists, so really, you should just look up the ones you like. Be adventurous.
8. I Got You - Leona Lewis (I couldn't bring myself to post the big ball of cheese that is the actual music video, so I'm posting the dance from SYTYCD that got me hooked on the song in the first place.)
7. Wonderland - Natalia Kills (How is this girl not on the radio yet? Warning: this video is super weird and a little creeps. And actually, her song, "Zombie", is even better, but it's older.)
6. Room @ the End of the World - Matt Nathanson (Heading to his concert in a month! SO excited!)
5. Tailgate Blues - Luke Bryan (His teeth could not get any whiter.)
4. Helena Beat - Foster the People (Their song, "Pumped Up Kicks", is really popular right now, but I actually prefer this one! And I heard their actual video was really creepy, so you get this fun geometric shape thing.)
3. Drive All Night - Needtobreathe (Their new album is going to be BEAUTIFUL. I'm already hooked on all the songs they've released so far.)
2. Slumber - Needtobreathe (Like I said. Already hooked.)
1. Long Way Home - Michael Warren (This guy isn't super famous, but I find his songs ridiculously catchy and just country enough. Check him out on iTunes for the more polished version.)
Happy listening! (On another note, I definitely felt an aftershock as I was writing this, and for reasons I still haven't figured out, I cried a little. Maybe I'm just tired, but I think I just realized how freaky that was for everyone who actually felt it yesterday. Apparently it was a 4.5 this time...)
Uhhhh, did that just happen?!? Did a couple of rogue tectonic plates just bump and grind up on each other underneath the EAST COAST?!?
So, here's how it went down for me.
I was busy putting out proverbial fires at work all morning, so lunchtime really came and went without me even having time to take a break. I had meetings at 2:00 and 3:00, so around 1:45, I knew that if I didn't break away and go grab some lunch, I wasn't going to eat for the rest of the day. I made it down the elevator and headed over to Au Bon Pain for a salad, and on my way back (five minutes later), I noticed that the street lights and pedestrian signals weren't lighting up like they were supposed to. Then, as I walked toward my building, I saw people STREAMING out of the front doors as if the fire alarm had gone off, but I couldn't hear it. So, I stayed outside to wait for my coworkers to make it down from the fifth floor, and when they didn't come down within ten minutes, I started to get a little freaked out. (Ok, so if you haven't figured it out, I didn't feel the earthquake. Not one bit. I'm almost praying for an aftershock so I can feel what everyone else felt. But in that moment, I was totally clueless.) I tried calling up to the front desk and to a couple of my coworkers, but I couldn't get through. My mind immediately went into panic mode, and I thought there was a gunman or a terrorist on my floor who had cut the phone lines, since LITERALLY EVERYONE ELSE IN THE BUILDING WAS OUT. I wandered around for about twenty minutes trying to find them outside until I FINALLY found them standing in the middle of North Capitol St. and they were able to tell me what happened. Apparently, all the desks and computers were swaying, and people were diving under desks in their offices and in the lobby. Everyone was totally freaked out, but they kept on keepin' on until they were told to evacuate, which is when I found them.
(All of these pictures are from my phone, and it's a miracle I even had that with me! I never take my phone with me when I get lunch, but yesterday I was worried I would miss my 2:00 meeting if I didn't keep track of the time, so thank goodness I had it! I didn't even see the email my mom sent me asking me to call her until 6:00! All of the phone lines were jammed, and it took me a good half hour to get through to her and to David in Charlotte, who had texted to make sure I hadn't been flattened.)
Immediately, the streets were closed off and we were told to stand in the middle of the street in case an aftershock brought down a nearby building, but then the fire trucks had a hard time getting through, so police officers were actually arguing with each other over where we should stand! Some of my coworkers bailed and headed for the metro, but we soon found out it was running 15 mph, and I wasn't even sure I would be able to catch a bus from the Pentagon. Plus, I had driven to work yesterday morning, so I needed to get back in the building in order to get my keys and drive home. But, I knew all the highways were jammed anyway. As people started heading home (either walking or braving the metro), a few of us decided just to ride it out and headed to a bar on Capitol Hill! Fortunately, I had my wallet with me since I had been buying lunch, but at this point, I had been holding onto my uneaten salad for an hour and a half, and I think I threw it away thirty minutes later. I just got tired of carrying it around and was too distracted to be hungry anymore!
Megan and I originally had plans to go to a singles happy hour last night, and we decided a little ground shaking shouldn't keep us away, so we went anyway, and we brought Keith and Laura with us! But of course we didn't get there before Laura stopped to interview the cops about their busy day.
So basically, after hanging out in bars for five hours, we decided we were hungry and got some Thai food before Megan drove us back to the office to get our cars (and fortunately, traffic was clear)! My car stayed pretty safe in the garage, but when I got home, I noticed several things had fallen off my bookshelf, my mortarboard from graduation had fallen off my armoir, and a coffee mug I painted last year had dumped over onto the floor. Not exactly collateral damage, but it's a weird feeling to walk in on things out of place and wondering what they looked like while they were rattling back and forth. Super glad none of my shoes fell in my closet, though... that would have been a mess!
So, I got home around 10:00 to this message from Molly...
We did indeed.
Here's the NBC Nightly News Report from yesterday... it may be old news to you, but I'm posting it here so that I can go back and watch it in five years and remember what I experienced. Complete chaos!
... that's what Megan told us we were in for! Last Saturday, Lauren, Megan, Megan's friend, Anna, and I went to Taverna Cretekou in Old Town Alexandria for a little late summer outdoor Greek food, and it. was. tasty. I can't even come close to remembering the names of the dishes we ordered, but I do know we had a flaming cheese appetizer, and I know my dinner had lamb, eggplant, tomatoes, and carrots. Yummmm.
We were all instructed to wear dresses and be cute.
Isn't this outdoor patio gorgeous? These pictures are craptastic because I didn't edit them, but you get the idea.
This man plays water glasses near the waterfront. Megan has added proficiency in water glass music to her list of non-negotiables in a future husband.
Some people are sparklier than others. (Later, this guy tried to guess which country Megan was born in. It was awkward, but he got it right!)
We ended the night with a pitcher of sangria at La Tasca, where we watched two bachelorette parties fight it out over who had the most inappropriate accessories. (Not really, but that would have been more fun.)
A while back, I made my very first trip to Annapolis! I'll be the first to admit Maryland is not my favorite state (in fact, it might be in my bottom five), but you can't argue that Annapolis is beautiful. The downtown area is so charming, and I L-O-V-E-D the Naval Academy. One of my good friends from high school went there, and I always thought it was the coolest thing. So, enjoy these pictures of (as Molly calls it) Nap-town!
First stop was the "beach" near the Bay Bridge... which may have had the coarsest sand since Cocoa Beach.
Probably the scariest bridge in the world. People actually make money shuttling people across it who are too scared to drive it.
These kids were having too much fun!
Dahlgren Hall...
How cute are these houses? The Commanders live in them, and they just look so picturesque to me.
So, if you're ever in the area and you need a break from DC, I highly recommend it! The people are super preppy and all of the restaurants are fabulous. Plus, if you want to marry your daughter off to a Midshipman, they're not in short supply. ;)
I have to admit... I'm a little low on things to blog about this week (could you tell?). But remember yesterday when I mentioned the New Year's Eve movie coming out later this year? Well, here's the trailer!
Like I mentioned, all of the footage of people cheering in Times Square and confetti falling was filmed while I was there, and actually, :25 in the trailer looks eerily like this picture...
Those crazy Nivea balloons were popping all over the place and kind of hard to hold onto, but they were pretty! This movie could be chock-full of celebrities because they're compensating for the fact that it will be terrible, but the fact that my butt will be nestled in stadium seating with popcorn and a coke shortly after it comes out is evidence of how much I care.
Y'all. My blog is one year old today! I don't think you understand. I've never kept up with something this consistently IN MY LIFE. Well, except my job. I pretty much do that everyday, too. This is my 253rd post, and I'll tell you what, I never would have written this many without all the love and support you guys show me everyday. I get so many comments from friends and coworkers who just want to chat about something I wrote or a picture I posted that it really makes me feel like I'm putting a little bit of happy out there in the world everyday. And that's really what it's all about for me. Plus, I wanted this blog to be a detailed journal of my life since moving to Washington, DC, since I know there will be things I'll forget later down the road. And I already know I'm right, because I'll go back and read posts from last August and September that I hardly remember writing! How special is that?!
And a LOT has happened this year! If you feel inclined to go back and read all my old posts, I probably owe you a steak dinner and a few Groupons for laser hair removal. But instead, how about I just push-cart you down memory lane myself? Here's my year in twelve pictures!
Last August, I visited the Republican National Committee headquarters for the first time, thanks to my old roommate, Clara, who worked there until December!
In September, I went to my very first concert at Jammin' Java, which has, without a doubt, become one of my favorite places.
In October, Molly and I dressed up for Halloween and waited patiently for our ONE trick-or-treater. We were Lady Gaga and a housewife. Obviously.
In November, Molly, Lauren, John, and I saw Paula Deen at the Metropolitan Cooking and Entertaining Show! She's even funnier in person.
In December, I joined the party planning committee at work (yes, for real), and we hosted an office decorating contest! This was the Finance area, which clearly won.
On New Year's Eve, I was in Times Square!!! If you go see the New Year's Eve movie coming out this winter, you'll see some shots of NYC that they filmed while I was there!
In February, I went to my very first NBA game with Molly and Katie! It was Wizards v. Pacers, and I was definitely pulling for the Pacers and my boyfriend, Tyler Hansbrough. They won.
In March, Clara got engaged!
In April, I shot my very first engagement pictures with my good friends, Lauren and John, who are getting married in November! I couldn't have been more pleased with how they turned out.
In May, my girlfriends and I went to see Something Borrowed and came home with this picture in front of the Bridesmaids ad. I will keep this forever and ever. And I ended up seeing Bridesmaids three times.
In June, Grant and I went to the big summer party at Bloomberg Government! We schmoozed and gaped at the extraordinarily beautiful office.
In July, the girls and I visited Rehoboth Beach for the first time! It was super, super fun and I told Megan we need to go back soon.com/thismonth.
So, that was my year in pictures! Thank you all so, so, so much for being loyal readers. Look how often you've visited over the past year!
Amazing. I am so blessed.
And if you're a Carolina grad (or even if you're not), I'm leaving you with a super special prezzie today... the alma mater, sung by Steve McQuaid and Pablo Vega of the Clef Hangers! It's probably the most beautiful version I've ever heard.
Here's to another year of fun posts and lots more pictures!
