Super Stoked

So, yesterday I was rocking out to my ipod around Metro Center (super busy street/metro stop in the middle of DC) minding my own business when some woman totally stopped me and pointed to the ground. WTF does this woman want? I look down because I think I've dropped something. I finally take my earphones out and said "What?!" She goes "I LOVE YOUR SHOES, THEY ARE FANTASTIC!"

AHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA. Why thank you! I had my super cute hot pink peeptoe heels that I purchased at New Look in London (London's version of Forever 21). They were super cheap, like $20 or something, and I have gotten so many compliments on them its amazing. You'd think they were $800 Jimmy Choos or something. I guess everyone loves a fun pink shoe!

You want to make a woman's day great...stop her and comment on her shoes!

Walter Reed

So last week I volunteered for the first time at the Walter Reed hospital. A little lesson for you:

Location: Washington, DC.
Warrior Transition Unit population: 598
Walter Reed Army Medical Center, DC, is the Army's flagship medical center. It serves more than 150,000 active and retired military members from all services and their families. Walter Reed is not only a focal point for care of wounded warriors, it also has a medical research center and medical student, intern and resident instructional programs. Its 113 acres are scheduled for other use when the current installation consolidates with the Bethesda Naval Hospital to form the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in 2011.

I volunteered with an non-profit called CAUSE in which I helped with their Message and Reike night. I helped man the sign up sheet and drum up some business to fill the empty slots. But it was awesome to see and talk to the Soldiers/Marines and their families. It was amazing to see how well some of them were doing after hearing they had only been there for a short time. I saw all kinds of physical injuries: wheelchairs, amputees (hands, legs, feets, arms), eye patches, burns, braces, the whole gambit; along with many many more non-physical injuries such as PTSD and severe depression. But the only thing that stuck out to me was their positive attitudes and smiles. Kind of makes you re-evaluate your life problems, no?

But you might be thinking....Marines and Soldiers and messages and yoga don't mix...well it does. According to their website: "The military is using massage, Reiki, yoga and other complementary and alternative modalities to ease combat stress and the effects of PTSD. The demand for these modalities far exceeds the current military capacity. Cause programs are helping to meet this critical need; the participating practitioners and instructors meet all relevant state credentialing requirements and have attended workshops addressing the special needs of military wounded." Ha, it was funny watching some of their faces when we came up and asked them if they wanted to get a message. It was like we had asked them to eat something gross. Well, take that back...they probably would have had a better reaction to that ;) Think of if you asked a little girl to touch a worm...yeah, THAT face! The EEEEEEEWWWWWWW face.

They also have a DVD Entertainment Library (kind of a mock Blockbuster) where the Soldiers/Marines can rent DVDs or video games for some entertainment. From what I gather there's not much to do around the base and things can get boring for the ones who don't have any family around. "Apparently in addition to being popular entertainment, video games also have therapeutic value. Recent studies have shown that playing video games can activate the parasympathetic nervous system and reduce heightened tension related to stress. There is even research showing that playing Tetris, a puzzle video game, may reduce PTSD flashbacks." Interesting. If you'd like to donate, you can support the library with a donation or by sending DVDs or video games to Cause at 6315 Bren Mar Drive, Suite 175, Alexandria, VA, 22312.

I look forward to volunteering again. I can't really explain why I want to volunteer here but let's just leave it at that I'm building future Karma.

Bad Habits Get Me Every Time

For those of you who know me really well, you know I have a problem. A big problem. I have this disease late at night sometimes, involving alcohol and the telephone. There is no known cure and it is really debilitating. I get drunk and I text. Yes, you heard right...I am a drunk dialer, more specifically a drunk texter. Sometimes I refuse to even look at my phone for days because I am afraid what I might have texted...oops.

I read this list once and thought it was appropriate to repost here :) So here goes, an ode to drunk dialing. Enjoy!

The Rules of Drunk Dials & Text Messages...

1. Only drunk dial when you are drunk. Everything else is false advertisement. If you call someone 6 times at 4:30 in the morning "I was so shitfaced I just wanted to hear your voice" is forgiveable. If your NOT drunk you MAY look like a stalker.

2. It is okay to call someone 27 times in one night. If you don't remember it, it didn't happen.

3. If you are going to drunk dial a family member, say something nice. Ex. "Mom I'm in McDonald's and they're playing our song. I love you".

4. Dirty talk while drunk dialing is always preferred. Who doesn't want to hear your best raspy, phone sex voice at 3 in the A.M. asking them to bend you over something.

5. Voicemails are always better. This way your friend can let their friends have fun at your expense for days, even weeks to come.

6. Drunk texting is alright... If you are prepared to read what you wrote the next day when you are sober and hang your head in shame.

7. It is definitely a good idea to call all of your exes and remind them that you were the best lover they've ever had and everything they know, they learned from you. This way you can sleep well at night.

8. You can also call this same ex and let them know, that you know, that they still love you. Then explain to them that if you were them, I would still love me too!

9. If you are a frequent dialer, never get mad if someone dials you. Be happy they thought of you in this special time.

10. It is always a good idea to sing on someone's answering machine or voicemail. Especially a show tune.

11. Drunk dialing should be fun and light hearted or dirty and sex crazed... Never angry. If it IS angry, make sure you verbally thrash the other person FULLY...Do NOT let them convince you you are wrong, or immature for drunk dialing them. Rip them to shreds for every wrongdoing they've ever committed.

12. Most likely you will never drunk dial your best friends. They are usually the ones taking your phone away and reminding you that "you have a problem".

13. If you deleted a number from your phone book sober, it was probably for a good reason. Do NOT try to retrieve this number. Nothing good can come from it.

14. Always call someone you know. Finding random numbers in phone books is bad and usually leads to angry people on the other end.

15. If your cell phone dies, remember everything happens for a reason. Never borrow a friend's phone to do your dialing.

16. Drunk dialing to foreign country is usually too costly to be a good idea. But if you feel like if you don't call this person you'll just die, break rule 15 and use a friend's phone.

17. Drunk dialing may lead to drunk muffin stuffing.... Be prepared.

18. When dialing remember that "hanging out" at 3 in the A.M. when your shitfaced usually doesn't involve cards or watching a movie---it's going to be more like cheap lube and handcuffs. So when you drunkenly slur that you want to play X-BOX, chances are the recipient of your call will interpret it as "Lets go into your room because I want you to play with MY BOX!!"

19. Don't drunk dial in the pool, tub, or a rainstorm. It only ends up with you blow drying your phone with a hairdryer when you're far too drunk to be using electronics and you wont be able to drunk dial anymore that night.

20. NEVER, I repeat NEVER, never drunk dial your boss, preacher, grandpa, or friend's parents. If you are that hard up to call someone, there is an 800 number on Budweiser boxes. The person on the other line always sounds cute, plus I think they are used to drunk dials.

United! United! I'm a United!

Hello future baby daddy Landon!

Wow, this was just...wow. Hannah, Bree, and I all watched the DC United vs. LA Gallaxy. We had pretty darn good seats! We were in the second section up from the field in the second row. However, we all noted that the field seemed a lot larger on tv....hahaha. We have the same seats again for the next game. We were all running a bit late (hey, I just had a whole day of flying from Arizona..cut me a break!) so we didn't get to see the beginning of the match but we fully intend to capitalize on the tailgating before the next game! Besides, its on a Saturday at 8...sweet!

My camera sucks (its like 4 years old) and these pictures seem way further away than we were actually sitting. Too bad the half naked boys picture wasn't better. Damn, if I could ever think of a better reason to have a 10x zoom!

We were loving the pirate theme of DC United...who knew? Wonder what the connection is? Well, the final score was LA Galaxy 2, DU United 1. It was hard to not route for DC but come on, of course I was going to route for LD! I loved that there was so much chanting going on! We are fully prepared to support United next time though ;)

So much fun to watch! And even better to watch the refs throw up yellow cards!

Landon taking a pentalty shot...of course he made it!

woop woop, half naked men!

So much fun!

Half time shennanigans inside the stadium. Kind of hard to see but super exciting to experience!

Phi Mu Convention

Past National President Robin White Fanning giving the gavel and pin to new President Kris Bridges

I cannot even come up with the words to describe how amazing going to Convention for the first time was! This has been a dream of mine for quite some time now; I was out of the country living in England both past years (06 and 08) so I wasn't able to attend. One check off from the Lifetime Bucket List. I was able to go as the Tidewater Alum delegate so at least some of the cost was offset...boy, its expensive to go! But it was all worth it in the end :)

Wow, the older ladies were simply too awesome to describe. There was a woman who has attended 28 conventions (they are held biannually-so she has attended Convention for 56 years!), I met one lady who has been an alum for 65 years-um, she's my grandma's age and she is still giving back to Phi Mu), one lady has donated $250,000 in her life and has also willed another $250K to Phi Mu Foundation. I often have a hard time explaining to people why I am still so active in Phi Mu and why I choose to give up time to give back to an organziation that is commonly thought of ending when you graduated college. Unless you have lived it, you probably wont understand but I will try, "I am helping shape the women leaders of tomorrow...what do you do?"

I am super excited to still be Gamma Alpha's (William and Mary) and Gamma Delta's (American University) Finance advisor and am looking forward learning more information to become a more effective advisor. I really love having a creative outlet and still having fun when the grown up world sucks all of the life out of you!

I really wish that I wasn't living outside of my means here in DC because I would love to give more money to Phi Mu, but since I can't for the mean time, I will just volunteer my time instead. At least I am giving back, if not financially. But I mean, every dollar counts so I'm going to try to give some money a month...starting now!

I got some really good ideas and inspiration while I was at Convetion. I'm going to try to infultrate the DC chapter..muahahahaha (that's my take over the world laugh) and then I also plan on starting a Chapter Association (an alumni group just for Lambda Epsilon girls)! If you are reading this LE girls, and would like to help out, let me know-its def not a one woman show!

Next up: San Antonio! Sign me up for more sweating July 3-7, 2012! What is it with these ladies picking sweltering hot locations in the middle of summer?!?!? (Must be good discounts because no one in their right mind is going to a resort in 115 degree heat!)

I give up trying to put these photos in order. So here goes:

New National President Kris Bridges. Her speech started with her saying her and Ludacris share the same name...yup, I'm going to love her!

Saturday's formal dinner...its gorgeous!

View of the mountain from the resort.

Centerpieces on the tables. They were spectacular!

Chris Donovan and I in our white dresses.

Look at the size of that margarita!!!!!

Fantastic margarita

And I finally finished it!

Grrrrrrr!!!

At the pool party!

Its sweet to be a Phi Mu!

My new favorite lady Anita Johnson...she's been a Phi Mu for 69 years!

Author Victoria Alexander who is a Phi Mu too!

Caring Carnations for everyone! Thank you to all of you who purchased one for me :)

Yay Lambda Epsilon!!!!

Me with our flag :)

Yay!

The BEST bed ever!

This is the list of donors to Phi Mu Foundation. The list on the left is of those who have donated more than $1,000. The pink lists on the right are those who have signed up for yearly donations of either $500, $1000, or $1852. One day my name will be on both of these lists!

Amanda and I dressed for Feathers and Fringe!

Yay Gamma Alpha!

Anna and I

Beautiful ladies of Phi Mu

EEEEEKKKK Can't Wait

I'M SO EXCITED TO FINALLY BE GOING TO CONVENTION!!!!!!!!

Ah one thing off my Life Long Bucket List :) I also get to make a small pit stop to see my family for a day and a half before I head off to make a gazillion new friends!!!!

People may laugh at me for still being active, but its a fun way to network. Look at all the girls and women from around the US who could potentially help me find a job one day. I mean, seriously! I'm not sure how many women attend a convention but it’s in the hundreds.

I can't wait to see all of my friends and make many, many more!

Rotating Door Policy

Man, sometimes I feel like my baby tiny studio has one of those rotating doors installed...and I love it! I'm so glad that my friends want to come and visit and that I don't live too far away to thwart their desires :) Crystal came up to visit on Friday and stayed until Sunday. It felt like a really long 4 day weekend for some reason. Last weekend's 4 day weekend flew by (probably because I spent the better part of the 96 hours drunk, but that's besides the point) and this weekend was amazingly long! For those of you who don't know, I will be in Crystal and Steve's wedding this Fall and I'm super stoked about it! Ha, it was super hard to explain to my friend how I knew Crystal and it was like well, she's a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend, but we all hang out together so its great!

We started off the weekend accomplishing another task on my list: Jazz in the Garden. Every Friday night from 5:00-8:30 there is a free jazz concert at the National Gallery of Art. You can bring a blankey and some friends to enjoy a nice relaxing start to the weekend. It made for some great people watching. Some of the people were horrifically dressed while others I was practically salivating on their wardrobe choices! I must say that I really enjoyed this event and I look forward to going again! Thanks Melissa for such a great suggestion!

Me and my new friend close to the National Gallery of Art. No idea who he is/was but probably has something to do with the Navy. I love taking really odd photos.

Crystal in front of the Navy memorial sign.


Jazz in the Garden! Bucket list check off :)

And Saturday morning we headed off to Georgetown Cupcakes (of course!) I recently found out that GC gives 100 free cupcakes away to the first ones to ask for the special flavor by name. If you friend GC on FB, it lists the special, not on the menu, flavor of the day. Saturday was Caramel Apple...which was fantastic! It was a present when I found the gob of caramel in the middle. MMMMM. There are just so many flavors that I want to try so this time I got 3 new flavors. I'm pretty sure Crystal was enamoured too!

Crystal about to chow down on a peanut butter cupcake...mmmm. Jealous! I will have to try this one next time.

New flavor discovery...Mint Cookies and Cream! MY FAVOURITE!

Crystal's choice of cupcakes (and no she did not eat all 6 at once!)

From L to R: Mint cookies and cream, chocolate ganache, and caramel apple

Where all the magic happens!

Saturday night Crystal and I went to Wolftrap to see Mamma Mia! We had such a blast! If you get lawn seats ($25) to any show at the venue you can bring your own picnic basket (complete with alcohol) and enjoy relaxing before the show. Doors open 90 minutes before and everyone rushes in to get their prime spot on the lawn. We got there just in time to get our tickets and stand at the gate and 5 minutes later we were off to find our spot. It was really fun to sit there and relax. It had rained all morning so the temperature really fell so it wasn't a miserable 100 degrees. The sun came out too to help dry up the rain so it wasn't a muddy mess which I thought it was going to be.

Crystal and I waiting for the show to start :)

Saturday night Crystal and I met up with my friend Aaron out in his flat near Howard University. Coicidentially he was like "well, we're going to meet our roommate at Wonderland Ballroom, have you heard of it?" HAVE I EVER...its my favorite place in the world! HAHAHAHA. So Crystal also got to see my favorite place...along with Erika and Nikki. And Erika, I am happy to report that the awesome black man was there again :) It is a bit in the hood, but that's the way I like it. I think there might have been a shooting or a stand off like 3 blocks from the place because the cops had about a block sectioned off. Ahhhh, just like home aka Hampton Roads!

Sunday we relaxed in the monring...well, more like slept the morning away. We walked down to the Crystal City Sports Pub, not to be confused with Crystal City Restaurant (aka a strip joint) to watch the World Cup final match. It was a killer! Spain scored the only goal in extra time. I think there were something like 13 yellow cards given out and 1 red card...CRAZY! Def not as crazy violent like the last final world cup match between Italy and France with Zi's headbutt, but still exciting! It amazes me that people try to come into a restaurant in the middle of a match like that and expect to get a seat! We were there for lunch like an hour earlier and just stayed through the match. Yay!

Another friend weekend down, how many to more to go? I can't wait until all of the girls come and visit!

Two is Always Better Than One

Hannah suggested that we catch a DC United game that's being held on July 18th. I will be flying back from Convention that day and fingers crossed I don't have any delays because I really really want to get to the game on time!!!! I will probably have to take a cab from the airport to the staduim...wonder if I can take my suitcase in hahaha :) I'm super sad that I am going to miss Hannah's Peter Pan party this year because I will be in Convention. So its kind of like a mini celebration by going to the game. Its actually a 2 for 1 game and we get to see two games for the price of one. Double score! We will be seeing DC go against LA Galaxy (eeeeekkkkk David Beckham and Landon Donovan) and DC against FC Dallas in August. I can't wait!!!!!!! This will be my first real sporting event...I've never cared to see anything else before. I could kick myself now for not going to a football match when I lived in England. Oh well, one more thing to add to my Life Long Bucket List! Stay tuned for pictures :)

Gravely Point Park

I finally found Gravelly Point Park on my run today! Gravelly Point is a park in Arlington and its located north of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. Its along the George Washington Parkway and across the Potomac from DC. When I'm not running I will eventually walk down there and take a picture. Perhaps I will ride my bike down there!

A little history lesson for you:

Originally, the area known as Gravelly Point was where Captain John Alexander built a home called Abingdon in 1746. Abingdon was purchased in 1778 by John Parke Curtis, the adopted stepson of President George Washington. It was the birthplace of Washington’s beloved granddaughter, Elanor Parke Custis. Abingdon was destroyed by fire in 1930 and the ruins stabilized. In 1998, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority preserved the site and created an exhibit of artifacts found there in the Exhibit Hall, located in Terminal A of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

It was kind of amazing to run around the corner from my house and see the Capitol building and the Washington Monument. Side note, running in 90 degree weather IS NOT FUN!!!! I've signed up to run two half marathons with my dad. One in Richmond in November and one up here in DC next March! A bit ridiculous but I needed something to kick me in the butt and get me back into shape! Stay tuned for my progress!!!!!

Georgetown Cupcake

Three words...FAT KID HEAVEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nikki (who was in town for the weekend...YAY!) and I treked out to Georgetown Cupcake for a tastie one before I sent her off on Monday. Click on the link to view the AMAZING menu choices! Wow, how different M street is during the week! Well, then again it was like 10am....give it a few and I bet it would have been crazy. We got right in and only waited for like 5 minutes for our treat, but thankfully we got there when we did because the line started to expand out the door (it was before 11am). Guess there are other crazies who also want a sugar fix in the morning. Or, like us, just wanted to beat the massive amount of people. I've seen the line pretty damn long and I bet people were waiting in line for at least an hour. Some people have dedication...and I'm one of them! There is also a new TLC show premiering next week called DC Cupcakes and its all about Georgetown Cupcake. Click here to learn more about the show. Not sure if they are tring to compete with Carlos' Bakery (Cake Boss show on TLC) which, coicidentally, I've also been to. Guess I'm a fat kid at heart! I can't see any big shennanigans happening...they aren't a big crazy Italian family! Who knows, maybe it will be good?

Red Velvet (my personal fave!) and Mint Chocolate.

Yes, I ordered two...one is at home waiting for me to get home tonight!

Nom Nom Nom!!!!

A New Found Love

My personal fave Landon Donovan...you might even convert me into routing for America!

Now that my favourite team(s) are out of the World Cup, I'm going through a bit of withdrawl. England was playing crap; as individuals and not a team. Guess that's what happens when you have a bunch of good players with really big heads. Oh well. I was suprised at how well the Americans played this year and perhaps they will get their act even better in 4 years. I can't wait until the middle of July because I am going to a DC United game with Hannah to watch them vs. LA Galaxy...HELLO DAVID BECKHAM AND LANDON DONOVAN!!!!!!!!!!! EEEEKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!

Here's a few pictures to get me through the long days and nights until the next world cup....

Team England:

Steven Gerrard

Frank Lampard

Team USA:

Landon Donovan

Carlos Bocanegra

Benny Feilhaber

SIGH............... If you want to look at more beautiful men, check out this site.