the new blog is up!

Head on over!

http://hardhatsandballetflats.blogspot.com

I'll meet you there!

peacing out

So, here we are at the second to last post.  I say second to last because my new blog will be up on Monday, and I’m planning to post the link here!

I’ve been so flattered by all of you who have told me you miss this blog.  Believe me, I miss it, too!  And since I never intended for it to be about anything more than my life and what I was up to, it would have been perfectly okay with me if no one read it except my family and Molly (mostly because she had right of refusal for any unbecoming pictures of her I might have posted.  Let’s be honest, y’all all got to know her real well).  But read you did!  And quite loyally, too.  I kid you not, there were friends of friends who walked into my house and already knew me because of my blog!  I don’t even think that’s creepy.  In fact, it might be the highest compliment I’ve ever been paid.  And because of the pictures I posted here (and my sweet friends, Lauren and John), I ended up photographing four engaged couples and two families, and I’m shooting my first wedding this March. 

Closing the book on this chapter in Washington is exceptionally difficult.  I’m not exaggerating when I say I cried all the way back to Raleigh and continued to do so for the next week.  DC is a place I knew I wanted to live since I was in middle school, and I thought, “Even if I don’t ever work there, goodness knows I’ll retire there.”  Well, Jesus must’ve gotten a real big kickout of that one, because a) my job at ICMA was my first “big girl” job, and b) you probably couldn’t pay me to retire there. Not because I didn’t love every inch of it, but because when you’re 65 years old, I just think you’ve earned the right to not sit in any more traffic jams.  But given the right circumstances, would I have stayed?  Absolutely.  Occasionally, I would hear people say, “Oh mygoodness, I would never raise a family here.  Can you imagine?”  Actually, I think that area would be one of the most wonderful places to send your kids to school.  You’d never run out of things to do, and as a family, you quite literally would get to experience history every day. 

As it turns out, moving was one of the best decisions I ever made.  In October, I had applied for a new job with the City of Raleigh, where I had worked prior to joining ICMA.  I’m very risk-averse, so it was out of character for me to throw all my eggs into that one basket, but that’s exactly what I did.  I had decided that I wanted to either return to the City or just focus on school.  I interviewed with the Facilities & Operations division (within Parks & Recreation) in early November and found out in early December (two weeks before I left ICMA) that I had gotten the job!  You can’t even imagine how relieved I was!  It’s exceptionally hard to get a job these days, but in local government? Forget about it.  But it was where I wanted to be, and God’s timing once again proved itself to be perfect.  Because not only did I have a new job in the perfect environment for me, but I found out in early January that my team’s director at ICMA, who had been my only supervisory advocate, had been asked to resign.  I had sensed that was coming, but I never thought it would happen so soon. God took unbelievably good care of me. Why do I ever doubt?

In fact, quite a few things fell into place as I moved back to Raleigh.  Some family friends of ours had an empty condo they wanted to rent out, and my sister and I were essentially able to move our stuff right in! We’ve been able to paint it and get everything set up just the way we like it, and it surprised us how quickly it felt like home.  Confession: I’m still unpacking.  If you know anything about me at all, you are not shocked.

So, I’m finally a little bit settled, and I love, love, love my new job.  I have bosses who are not only Christians, but are willing to teach me just about anything I want to know.  What I’ve learned in my three years in the professional world is that there is little more valuable than that.  And not only will they teach me, but they motivate me to want to pick up books on sustainability and geothermal energy and electrical wiring and all those things I would have never learned from an Excel spreadsheet.

So, those of you who thought heard I’d be getting a masters in teaching are probably wondering why in the world I haven’t mentioned it yet.  Well, call me Flaky McFlakerson, but it took me approximately five hours of work in the municipal building to realize I just wanted to go back to my public administration program.  I lost some of my love for local government for a little while, but oh, did it come back.  So, my rear will be back in the classroom at NC State come August, and I’m trying not to wish the days away, but I’m pretty stinkin’ excited about it.

Congratulations!  You made it to the end of this post.  That is dedication, my friend.  And get excited about the new blog!  It has all the cheesiness of this one, but your girl has learned some html coding, so it’s about 5000% better looking.

See you on Monday!    

new york city!

Since Megan and I both left ICMA on the same day (and since Megan had only ever visited NYC once in her life), we took a road trip up there the Tuesday before we moved!  It was a cloudy but pretty day in the city, and the fact that it was a workday made it SO much easier to get around!  New York at Christmas is usually a nightmare (I know, I did it twice last year), but going on a Christmas weekday made it more like a normal weekend, so it was much easier to navigate.

We drove into the city around 10:30 in the morning and knew we wanted to visit the Today Show, so we parked close to Rockefeller Center and walked on over!

And you know we creeped on Hoda and Kathie Lee!  That telephoto lens was all up in their grills.

Literally, this girl's job is to read their Facebook and Twitter feeds to them.  That's what she does.  I'd pay a lot of money to be her.

Then, we headed up 5th Avenue to see all the storefronts decorated for the holidays!  And yes, we visited every non-registry floor of Tiffany.  We wanted to see things we couldn't afford, but we didn't want to be reminded that we weren't getting married in the next sixth months.

Love this Tommy Hilfiger bow!  I don't remember it from last year, but I hope it's a keeper!

Then, we walked through Central Park (of course)!

After lunch in Times Square...

...we made our way to Magnolia Bakery for some delicious cupcakes!  It was SO packed in there, but no line like at Georgetown Cupcakes!

Then, we found this gay rights memorial that everyone kept awkwardly posing with...

...and then we saw Usher and I had my own awkward freak out.  But I took this picture for Molly.

And this is pretty much the last picture I took!

After hanging around the Village, we headed to Soho and Chelsea for some shopping before dinner at Ray's Pizza in Times Square.  It was an exhausting day, but we made it back to DC before midnight and were super proud of ourselves for taking advantage of our last few hours in the Mid-Atlantic.  I just adore NYC at Christmas!

we're not breaking up yet.

Helloooooo, dear readers! I know, my rear has been even more MIA than this girl’s.

 But I felt like I needed to check in with you all and say,first of all, how touched I am that you guys keep checking my blog every dayeven though I’ve all but abandoned it!  Ipromise, promise, promise I’m not leaving the blogging world.  In fact, I haven’t even written my last postfor this blog yet!  I have a couple moreup my sleeve.  ;)  But I’m also starting work on my new blog,which I’m hoping I can show you early next week!  It’s not just going to be fancier, butschmancier too.

I’ve already picked out a name for it, but I’m keeping itunder wraps until it goes live.  But no,all you snarky snarks, it will not be called Winstead and Walter.  It won’t even have my name in it.  Will it be cheesy?  Like a good Wisconsinwheel. 

So, hang in there!  It’snot over yet (but it probably will be on Monday)!

last day at ICMA!

Phew!  I finally made it to my last day of work!  It was a bittersweet day, because I was very, very happy to leave my responsibilities and my management situation (ask me if you want details), but I was genuinely very upset to leave 99 percent of my coworkers.  They're some of my best friends in the world, and it was a unique experience for me to be able to work with so many people my age.  Cleaning out my desk was really rough, because I had worked pretty hard to make it a cute workspace that I enjoyed seeing everyday.  And my teammates were sad to see it go, too!  But I have pictures, and I can always try to recreate it in the future.

Fortunately, my good friend, Megan, quit the same day I did, so we were able to share our going-away party and our goodbyes.  Apart from the fact that it would have been a little awkward to have all the attention on myself, it's nice to go through all the transition stuff with someone else.

Here are a few photos from my last few minutes at my desk...

Amy was a creeper, but that's nothing new.

...and Rebecca wouldn't stop taking pictures, so I had to come up with new faces.  That's enough of that.

Nate and I only worked together for a few months, but we were good buddies!  He's on the International team, but our cubes were actually just eight feet from each other.  Still, he would usually call me instead of coming over to my desk.  Men.

(He's also a Michigan State fan and holds the mother of all grudges over me for the 2009 National Championship game.  Time to let go.)

...and then I took this picture after we left Irish Times and headed to We the Pizza.  I really don't know why.  It's not my best.

So, again, not heavily documented, but it was a super fun night after a busy day of wrapping things up!

Even though I can't spill all the details here, I can tell you that I didn't leave without saying everything I needed to say, both to HR and to my team leader.  So, I feel good about that.  There are changes that need to be made, particularly if people my age are going to be able to thrive there.  I hope that for everyone's sake, those changes are made, because my coworkers desperately deserve better.

hill country barbecue

Did I mention that during my last week of work, I had parties to go to for about four of the five days?  Well, I did.  And one evening, a bunch of us headed over to Hill Country Barbecue in Judiciary Square/Penn Quarter.  It's Texas barbecue, which means it's beef, and between you and me, this Carolina girl prefers pork and vinegar.  But, for what it was, it was good.  And the Wizards basketball team actually showed up in the middle of our dinner, so I did the John Wall, much to my own embarrassment.

 

I'm not a huge fan, but we do share a hometown, I guess.

Anyway, I didn't actually take any of these pictures, so I can't take credit for them.  But they exist, so here they are!

Most everyone had left by this point, but here's Megan and Keith...

...and then with her friend, Keri!

I clearly had no idea this picture was being taken, but Ryan did.

So, there you have it!  No pictures of food or anything, just people.  But actually, you'll see more of Keith and Ryan later, because I'm headed to the Chick-Fil-A bowl with them this Saturday!

work christmas party

This year, we were fortunate enough to get to have our party at Carmine's in Judiciary Square, which just happens to be one of my favorite restaurants.  (Ok, it was my idea.  I'm real lucky it worked out.)

I didn't take any pictures of the food, because then I would probably drool over my computer screen every time I looked at them, but I did take some of the lovely people I got to call coworkers, and more importantly, friends!

Caroline, me, Megan, and Keith reppin' one side of the table...

...and Tricia, Amy, and Katharine on the other!  Best conversations ever?  Of course.

Love those two!

I have a video of Amy talking about how delicious everything was (and maybe making a Cookie Monster noise), but YouTube is slow and won't upload it.  So, you have that to look forward to!

p.s. I'm super glad I have a new job to go to in January.  This sitting around at home while everyone's at work thing is for the birds.