Pumpkins!

So it’s not quite Halloween, but Josh is going to be out of town on Wednesday, so we decided to carve our pumpkins a few days early. It’s been a while since I’ve done this, and I first carved my pumpkin’s features way too small, so you couldn’t really see any light through the pumpkin. The candle even went out when I put the top on! So, back to the drawing board... but after gouging my pumpkin a little more, success!

While we were getting the camera set up so that we could sit behind our pumpkins, Josh’s pumpkin started to get a little asthmatic, so he had to resuscitate it while I fiddled with the camera.


But finally we got everything together.

A few pictures to go along with the previous entry

I took a few pictures at the Library of Congress last weekend, but the ones with flash looked pretty dark on my camera’s tiny screen, so I tried to take the next couple without the flash, which turned out to be a bad idea. Anyway, here’s the ceiling in one of the main rooms:


Here’s the floor of that same room, although a little blurrier...


I only took one picture outside while we were wandering around the mall—this was taken the steps in front of the Capitol, looking down the mall toward the Washington Monument.


Going downtown, especially to Capitol Hill, the White House, or the monuments, always makes me appreciate living here, even though I don’t actually live in the District. It’s easy to get cynical about politics and the politicians in particular, but walking around those buildings and getting to do things like read the actual Declaration of Independence at the National Archives always gives me a renewed sense of appreciation for the way our country was founded and what our current leaders do here.

And last, Josh’s dad took a picture of Josh and me at Cosi, enjoying our s’mores. :)

Ahh, Friday night... that magical time where you bask in the glow of your computer screen, wander the deserted hallways on the way to the bathroom, and savor the peace and quiet in your office that only comes when everyone else has left for the weekend.

Or not. UGH, I can’t believe I'm still here. The worst part is that the guy who asked me for the data left hours ago—must be nice.

In other news, Josh and I finally got together for lunch today. For months I put that on my list of “won’t it be great to be able to do _____ together once we finally live in the same place?” things to do with Josh, and it was nice today. It was pouring, of course, but we managed to find a mostly-equidistant place to have lunch and catch up in the middle of the day. We probably won’t do it very often though, since our offices are relatively far apart.

Last weekend Josh’s parents came to visit, so we had dinner together on Friday, went to the Library of Congress on Saturday, and lounged around my apartment on Sunday watching football. If you haven’t visited the Library of Congress before and are planning a trip, my advice is to lower your expectations. The architecture and paintings/sculptures were nice, and I’m not quite sure what I was expecting, but the Library didn’t quite live up to it. Our tour guide was pretty good though, and I was tempted to get a library card just so that I could say that I have one. You know, so I can whip it out at parties and impress all my friends... In any case, we had perfect fall weather last weekend, so the four of us spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the National Mall. Later that evening we took the metro to Old Town Alexandria and did some more wandering and eating. We went to Cosi for dinner, which wasn’t all that remarkable except for the fact that you can get s’mores for dessert. Mmm...

In other, other news, my former thesis advisor is trying to get me to write a paper and submit it to an AIAA conference (or journal). He’s mentioned this to me before, and when he would try to bring it up while I was still trying to graduate, I did the “la, la, la, I can’t hear you!” routine because I literally couldn’t imagine a time when my thesis would be done and I could concentrate on other things. But I guess now enough time has passed and my memory has gotten foggy enough that I’m actually considering it. Well, that, and the fact that my advisor casually mentioned that the next GN&C conference will be in Honolulu.

!!!

So maybe I’ll dust off the ol’ thesis and see if I can’t put a paper together. Hawaii definitely provides some incentive.

Happy birthday, Laura!

Happy belated birthday to my little sister Laura, who turned 22 yesterday! My gift to her is a trip to visit me in Washington, D.C. in a couple of weeks. Laura’s already picked out a Spanish restaurant that she wants to go to, and we’ll probably hit up at least one of the (free!) Smithsonian museums, but the rest of the weekend is still up for grabs. I’m looking forward to doing some touristy stuff that weekend, partly because I don’t make it downtown very often, and partly because I’m hoping most of the summer crowds have left. Somehow, Laura getting older doesn’t phase me all that much, but when I think about the fact that my next birthday will bring me closer to age 30 than to age 20, I get a little weirded out. And sometimes I can barely believe that my older sister Katherine is already 28...

Anyway, speaking of playing tourist, Josh’s parents are coming into town this weekend, so I’m looking forward to spending time with them, although I’m not sure what they’ll want to do while they’re here. If nothing else, they’ll have to play the Wii if they come over to my apartment. :)

Oh, and I almost forgot—my mom is leaving for China tomorrow! She’s spending about 10 days over there visiting Katherine. I think my mom’s a bit apprehensive about spending that many hours on a plane (who wouldn’t be??), but she’s really looking forward to seeing my sister. I don’t usually think of my mom as a big traveler, but she’s got all sorts of cool trips lined up—China, a mission trip to the Gulf Coast this winter, and a potential month-long stint in Brussels! The Brussels thing would be for work, and admittedly, it sounds like it’s in the early maybe/maybe not stage right now, but I’m definitely pulling for it. I mean, come on—someone’s got to go along to help her look for an apartment and get to know the area, right? ;)

I’d say it’s about time for an update...

First off, my sincere apologies to my grandma for not updating in basically forever. :) There was the thesis, graduation, the summer of glorious unemployment, the trip to Europe, the time at home, the move, the new job, and the being in a relationship in which the people involved can finally talk to each other in person each night instead of on the phone. Amazing! What will they think of next??

My new job has been going fine. It’s not spectacular, but it’s not bad, and there are some nice perks that come with working for a relatively small space company. Tonight, however, is not one of them—it’s nearly 7 pm and leaving work is still a ways away. The schedule for this program is very tight, and that combined with my general lack of knowledge about what I’m doing can make for some long days at work.

The most important change that’s happened over the past several months is that my parents, married for 31 years, are now divorced. The past several years have been rocky for them, so my sisters and I shouldn’t have been shocked when we found out, but it’s been a struggle to deal with. My parents told us their intentions to split up back in December, but the divorce wasn’t finalized until about a month ago. I seem to oscillate between these overwhelming pangs of despair because it feels like my family is disintigrating, and periods of calm where I realize that although a lot’s changing—my parents are separating, they’re selling our house, my dad’s getting remarried—everyone’s still alive and healthy and polite to each other. Since December, my periods of calm are now outnumbering the times of despair, so it’s seems that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.