Puppies!!!

This picture makes me smile every time I see it so I decided to share it with the world!

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!

XOXO, Gossip Girl

EEEEEKKKKK I'm so excited! Gossip Girl will be back for their 5th season on tonight!!!!! I can't wait to see what craziness the characters can get into this season!!! I even started reading the book by Cecily von Ziegesar. The books has some differences already and I'm only in the 2nd chapter but I'm excited to read it and the other books in the series...who doesn't love a little trash reading?!?! My mailbox full of glossy mags proves that I do.

Here's the Fall preview:
The season will begin in Los Angeles when a re-energized Chuck and Nate decide to pay Serena a visit. Back home, Blair learns that planning a royal wedding can be a royal pain, and Dan discovers the ramifications of writing candidly about his closest friends. Finally, the surprise return of cousin Charlie will threaten to destroy the Van der Woodsen family from within.

OMGeeeeeeeeee Hot Stuff

When I'm a big girl one day I'm totally going to rock these shoes:
OMGeeeeeeeeee aren't these FANTASTIC?!?!?! One day I can afford $325 Kate Spade shoes just for the hell of it. Until then........ *sigh*

Motivation

I needed some motivation this morning and I found this! It was pretty amazing and just the pick me up I needed!

Capital City Bikeshare

The one year anniversary of the Capital City Bikeshare is upon us! Well, on September 20th that is. It hit half a million rides earlier this summer (June 1st) and with 32 additional bike stations across the city and VA adding another 30, a million should be easy-peasy!

For those of you who don't live in the DMV (DC, Maryland, Virginia) area, here's a little bit of a background:

Capital Bikeshare puts 1,100 bicycles at your fingertips. You can choose from over 110 stations across Washington, D.C. and Arlington, VA and return it to any station near your destination. Check out a bike for your trip to work, Metro, run errands, go shopping, or visit friends and family. Join Capital Bikeshare for 24 hours, 5 days, 30 days, or a year, and have access to our fleet of bikes 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The first 30 minutes of each trip are free. Each additional 30 minutes incurs an additional fee.

Its was kind of fashioned after the bike share program out in Europe. While I haven't used it yet, it offers an incredible additional option when you consider the OUTRAGEOUS costs of the metro or metro buses.

They are even having a party to celebrate! Complete with a moonbounce!!!!!! Here are the details:

I came across this quote and thought it was pretty awesome. It kind of goes along with my week next week. You see, next week I am going to this Consultant training since I was promoted last month. My company has invested millions of dollars into a university out on 107 acres of land in Texas. I'm very curious to see what it looks like! There's a full gym, 5 different places to eat, and a king size bed in every room. They definitely don't scrimp and save on educating their employees! So basically I will have a 3 1/2 days in a world class facility...too bad there's all this training taking up my time...fooey.

Graffitti Art

Panel of current artists, art dealers, graffiti teachers, and one lonely lady from the DC program that cleans up graffiti

I found a really interesting event that was coming up and I knew JUST the person to ask to attend with me.....Hannah! (Duh), she is artsy fartsy and can explain just about anything art related to me when I think its just a bunch of swirly patterns on canvas.

The panel was made up of:

• Cory Stowers, Co-Owner of Art Under Pressure, WBL Art Director, Writer
• Nancee Lyons, Department of Public Work
• Philippa P.B. Hughes, Chief Creative Contrarian, The Pink Line Project, www.pinklineproject.com
• Tim Conlon, Writer, http://www.conoperative.co​m
• Saaret Yoseph, Director/ Producer of The Red Line D.C. Project, redlinedc.wordpress.co​m

It was a fantastic mesh of people and I enjoyed learning about different graffiti artists and the history when stems back to pioneer times when people would travel great distances and leave their names places in hopes their family members would one day come across it and have some connection. It was interesting to think that graffiti started off as just someone writing their name down. Now its emerged into colorful art that captures so much more than that. From defying authority to creating their brand, graffiti is more than just anarchy and gang symbols.

We had a great time listening to the panel and audience discuss their thoughts on graffiti, art, and the DC political environment. THe only part that sucked was the ghetto table directly across from us who thought it was okay to TALK.THROUGH.THE.ENTIRE.2.HOURS. Seriously?!?! Not only are you being ghetto triffe but you're ruining it for the rest of us. Not cool!

The discussion took place in the U Street Bus Boys and Poets location. They had a separate room for us where you could listen to the discussion and even purchase dinner and drinks! SCORE! According to Wikipedia.org:

Busboys and Poets is a restaurant, bookstore, lounge, and theater in DC, founded in 2005 by Andy Shallal. It has been described as a haven for writers, thinkers and performers from America's progressive social and political movements.

The name refers to American poet Langston Hughes, who worked as a busboy at the Wardman Park Hotel in the 1930s, prior to gaining recognition as a poet. Rejected ideas for the restaurant's name include Writers Block Cafe, Broken Bread Cafe and White Rabbit Cafe, the latter inspired by The Matrix.

Shallal painted the giant civil rights movement-themed mural covering one wall of the restauarant, titled Peace in Struggle Wall. He refuses to sign the mural, saying this would be a "final gesture" that would preclude him from making revisions later. The collage depicts civil rights icons including the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Nelson Mandela. It features the words of Langston Hughes, "Let America be America again / Let it be the dream it used to be."

My awesome date

The room in Bus Boys and Poets they had the discussion.

An interesting video about the red line project

Dirty tap water drink....fabulous!!!!! That drink was sweet but VERY strong!

One of the speakers for the event.

Navy - Merchant Marines Memorial

Much like my post here, I motivate myself to run by visiting things in VA/DC. Well today's 7 mile run was to the Navy-Merchant Marines Memorial. While driving by (and by driving, I mean being a passenger) I noticed all the construction was cleared on a portion of the Mount Vernon trail and I figured I should give it a shot and run over there since I couldn't get there with all of the construction. I used to often run past this memorial but since it was behind orange construction gates, I couldn't get there. On my run I realized this is the Navy-Merchant Marine memorial and its actually very pretty. Could be because they had recently cleaned/repaired the memorial due to construction. Anyways, here it is in all of its glory:


Quite pretty actually.

A bit about it:

The Navy-Merchant Marine Memorial, located in Lady Bird Johnson Park on Columbia Island in Washington, D.C., is a monument honoring sailors of the United States Navy and the United States Merchant Marine who died at sea during World War I. It was designed in 1922 by Harvey Wiley Corbett and sculpted by Ernesto Begni del Piatta. It was dedicated on October 18, 1934.

Nicknamed "Waves and Gulls," the memorial depicts seven seagulls above the crest of a wave. It is cast from aluminum and the base is made of green granite (the base was originally concrete but replaced by the Works Progress Administration in 1940). It stands 35 feet (10.6 m) tall and 30 feet (9.1 m) wide.

The memorial reads:

"To the strong souls and ready valor of those men of the United States who in the Navy, the Merchant Marine and other paths of Activity upon the waters of the world have given life or still offer it in the performance of heroic deeds this monument is dedicated by a grateful people."

Someone had (recently) laid flowers here.

And what a beautiful view from the memorial!

Sorority Fun!

Betsy and I with our alcohol stash

Some of my sorority sisters and I got together recently for a wine and cheese night where we all brought a different bottle of wine to share and let me tell you it was SO much fun! It was nice to be able to sample different kinds of stuff and let's not forget about the food! The only thing I like more than drinking is eating. We had lots of different cheeses, dips, and a few pink confectionery things as well to sample! I'm getting hungry just thinking about the food! We did have a reason to get together besides boozing, which was to create back to school goodie bags filled with candy for our two heart to heart chapters. I loved getting goodies when I was in college and it was nice to know someone out there was thinking about us :)

The girls stuffing bags.

Giselle and I were on ribbon duty. I can handle that.

Operation stuff bags in full force.

Our beautiful goodie bags for the chapters. Thankfully Sarah is very into details because these turned out so freaking cute!!!

New Kicks

Got these sweet new kicks from my boyfriend for Bonnaroo and at first I was like "yeah yeah yeah kid, I'll wear them." Doesn't he know I don't wear tennis shoes? Not to mention...Converse?!?! Ick. Then a miracle happened and I decided I actually like them. Shhh don't tell him! I think its just because they're SUCH an obnoxious color pink (the iPhone picture doesn't do them justice...stupid iPhone 3...need to upgrade!) that I actually like them. Weird, I know. See, miracles DO happen.

Not a bad look

Spotted on the Metro v. 5

I had the pleasure of sitting next to this older gentleman on the metro as he drew this picture. He had about half of it done when I sat next to him. He wasn't drawing at the time but reading a newspaper. Next thing I know, he's pulling out this beauty and putting the finishing touches on it. I wasn't able to snap a picture right before I got off (he filled in the top portion of the picture in the 5 stops or so) because he turned his body a certain way. But at least I can say I got to sit next to a really interesting person!