arthur

First of all, happy birthday to my sweet friend, Megan!  You are lovely, and I adore you.  :)

On Saturday night, the three of us went to see the new movie, Arthur, and it. was. HYSTERICAL.  I believe it's Molly's new favorite!

Russell Brand is an absolute riot, and I've said before how I feel about Helen Mirren.  I'm pretty sure her morning breath is a sweet mix of jasmine and wild honeysuckle.

Anyway, we were quoting the movie and laughing for a solid hour after it was over, and for the most part, the movie was pretty clean!  I'd go see it again in a heartbeat.  Enjoy the trailer!

p.s. I also saw the preview for Bridesmaids while I was there, and I'm about to come unglued waiting for it to come out!  I think I'm going to find it extra relatable.  And Kristen Wiig is in it, who, as far as I'm concerned, is the funniest woman in the world.

nats v. brewers

On Friday night, our friend, John, came into town to spend the weekend with us!  He lives in Hampton, but when he offered to buy us tickets to a Nationals game, we happily offered him a spot on our extra cushy couch.  And he got us AMAZING seats!  It was such a relaxing thing to do after a long week at work.  Plus, Ben's Chili Bowl was involved, so... it was perfect.

Some people have roommates who are always glamorous.

Hello, lovely spring night.

Presidents' Race!

She will kill me, and it will be worth it.

LAHVE.

NATS WIN!!!  THAT NEVER HAPPENS!!!

The eagle waving the victory flag!

"OMG, DID THAT ACTUALLY HAPPEN?!?"

It was exciting up to the very last second, and we even got a couple extra innings out of it!  Molly and I have decided that Nats Stadium will be our home for the summer, so just make sure you don't mail anything to our house.  We'll get it in September.

softball at work!

We officially have an ICMA softball team!  Rec teams are kind of a big deal in DC, and a lot of rec leagues actually play on the National Mall.  There's flag football, kickball, soccer, and pretty much any other sport you can think of!  But we got the go ahead from HR to have our own softball team, so after a couple of my coworkers organized it, one of my team members, Hannah, and I designed the t-shirt!  Actually, Megan came up with the team name, which I think is hysterical and so appropriate since we work with local governments.  Hannah drew the softball diamond, and I formatted it with the lettering.

Practice starts on Wednesday, and our games start a couple weeks after that!  I haven't played softball since the 8th grade, so I don't know if it'll all come back to me or not, but it should be a blast!  We're playing over near the Tidal Basin and the Jefferson Memorial, so it'll be a beautiful location if nothing else.  I'll keep you posted on how we do!

Happy Friday (and enjoy my current song obsession. Molly gets the credit for sending it to me, as usual)!

tea time at the ICMA masters

Once a month at work, we have a short afternoon party called Midday Munchies, and I just love it!  Each month's party is put on by a different team and with a different theme, so the food and the activities are always new.  This month, HR was in charge, and they decided to have the Masters be their theme!  And since HR and I are pretty tight, they had me make a few signs with random Masters facts on them, so that was a nice distraction from my normal workload.

Tricia even brought in her Wii Golf game for people to play, and Brit won the green jacket, haha!

A few people asked me if I played golf, and even though I took a few lessons when I was younger and took a class in college (extra frat points for Carolina), I told them it was kind of hard to play and feel good about yourself when your mom's a national champion and a hall of famer.

I am not kidding.

I got a few impressed looks and a few "REALLY?!?"s when I dropped that little nugget of knowledge on everybody.  She probably hasn't even told most of you that!  But really, I'm not very good.  I wish I were better!

Anyway, I think it's my team's turn to host Midday Munchies pretty soon, so we'll see what we come up with!

new dresses!

I won't lie, I did a LOT of shopping this past weekend!  There were some pretty awesome deals going on, and I'm pretty sure someone at Old Navy bugged my brain, because their dresses were knocked down to $15 and $20 each!

So, I bought this one...

...and I even bought this one two sizes too big because a) I can wear it to football games, and b) my awesome parents equipped me with a kick-butt sewing machine, so I knew I could easily take it in, and I did!  (p.s. that is not me in the picture.  I'm not quite that bow-legged.)



And I wasn't even planning on making a stop at Kohl's this weekend, but when a trip to Wal-Mart to restock Molly's ice cream bars put me right nextdoor to one, I had to go visit my girl, Vera Wang.

I wore this dress to work with my cowboy boots yesterday, and I got a TON of compliments on it!  It's super comfortable, especially with the elastic neckline and sleeves.  Plus, the colors are just fabulous.

I also bought a new pair of pants, but the dresses (let's be honest) are far more exciting.  I'm picturing a lot of outdoor summer concerts in the first two!

why I do what I do

This little career path that I'm on (some call it public administration, some call it city government, some call it "Elle Woods Saving the World"... ahem, Bekah), but it confuses a lot of people, because most don't understand why I would willingly choose to work in such an "inefficient" environment, building little but a really great pension plan.  Well, I'm still at a non-profit, and I'm not quite there yet, but it's actually not as bad as you might think.

When I worked for the City of Raleigh, I won't lie, it was a relaxed atmosphere.  There are a lot of jokes made at citizen expense, and some people really enjoyed working within driving distance of the city's main Krispy Kreme.  But that's the way it is because when your job is to push and push for a better community on a daily basis, only to be met by budget crises and an unhappy public, you have to have a few vices to get through the day.  But that's also what makes working in city government so exciting.  If you can learn to accept a complaint as a challenge instead of a criticism, and if you can see the potential in a neighborhood even when the money isn't there yet, it becomes a little bit more than the daily grind.  I see and hear it everyday from the city managers and department heads that I'm in contact with.  Most of them genuinely care about their communities, because, believe me, no one goes into city government for the money or the praise.

Recently, ICMA put together this video for our "Life, Well Run" campaign, and I just think it sums things up really well.  So, enjoy hearing a little bit about why I think this path was important enough for me to relocate my life to DC!

top eleven on the eleventh

Well, it's that day!  That day when this page loads extra slowly because I posted a whole bunch of videos to it that you may or may not watch.  Those of you who are extra hip judge me for taking so long to latch onto certain songs, and others of you judge me for liking Ke$ha a little too much.  But either way, you get a little peek at my iPod.  Yay April!

11. Sweet Disposition - Temper Trap (Heard in every commercial on TV right now. You probably already know it.)




10. What You Know - Two Door Cinema Club (If this music video doesn't make you want to dance, well... fine.)




9. Blow - Ke$ha (Some people party with unicorns and have conversations about Muenster cheese with James Van der Beek in their music videos. DBJ.)




8. Numbers - Jason Michael Carroll (I just downloaded this song on Saturday, but I already love it!)




7. Do It Like a Dude - Jessie J (My sister finally sent me this song after I had been in love with it for a month. This girl is six feet of pure attitude, so I can't post the real video on here in good conscience.)




6. Don't Come Easy - Matt Wertz (I mean, he can't write a bad song.)




5. You Lie - The Band Perry (Best line: "Never liked the taste of crow, but baby I ate it.")




4. No Sleep - Wiz Khalifa (I'm pretty addicted to this song. Sometimes I dance in the metro.)




3. Next 2 You - Chris Brown feat. Justin Bieber (Chris Brown AND THE BIEBS?!? Hoooooooly dance party.)




2. Then I Did - Rascal Flatts (I'm pretty embarrassed that it took me so long to fall in love with this song, but I pretty much scream it in the car. People stare.)




1. Science & Faith - The Script (I really, really can't get enough of this album. Of course, they'll be in DC while I'm on vacation. GRRRR.)