My Week in Review

A special Memorial Day edition:

Highs:

• Hung out with one of my favorite bartenders and friend back home from Austin
  
• Jazz in the Sculpture Garden started this week!!! One of my fave parts of summer in DC! Went with my crew from last year and a bunch of new friends...so fun!
  
• Dogsat for Mr. Big's new lady friend
  
• Arranged for several different friends (who were all strangers) to meet and party in Austin
  
• Started watching The Wire--blew through Season 1 in two days...LOVE IT!
  
• Went to a fab Memorial Day BBQ...and kept KB out way past her bedtime!
  
• Listened to the new DMB album before it's released...can't wait to see them this summer at The Gorge!
  
• Made some amazing Poulet a la Basquaise...WJB would be so proud! 
  

Lows:

• Spent the week without my PIC who was on vacay in Ithaca
  
• Wine+gin+sweet tea vodka=drunk dialing 
  
• After filling up my cart, I had to evacuate Target due to a fire drill 
  
• All those episodes of The Wire have me hyper-aware of crime in DC...and I did see a kid shooting at someone else on my way to the grocery store Saturday...scary!
  

Random thoughts on men, dating, and Richard Schiff characters

Lately I can't escape happy couples. They seem to be everywhere. In line at Giant, kissing on street corners, cuddling on the metro. I'm not bitter, I just feel like everywhere I look I see them and for a split second it reminds me that I am not in one. No one is holding my hand as I walk down 17th street. No one can't get me out of their head.

Don't get me wrong, in terms of men and dating, this is like no other time in my life and I am having so much fun being single. I didn't date much in high school or college and then I was in one major six-year relationship that ended about a year and a half ago. I really didn't think I'd date much when that relationship ended; however, it's been quite interesting. I go out pretty often and I meet guys. I even get asked out more than I ever imagined would happen. I know I shouldn't be complaining...and I'm not. But like everything else, when the phone rings, it's usually not the right guy...not the one you were hoping for and then you feel like a bitch because you know there could be no guys calling. Unfortunately, I always seem to want the guy I can't have: the one who is phobic of commitment, just not that into me, geographically undesirable, or all of the above.

Oh well, here are more random thoughts on men and dating that have been spinning through my mind and I feel like just posting them and not expanding upon them at this time:

• Apparently it is quite obvious that I am absolutely terrified of a relationship--several men have told me this lately--men that actually have a little knowledge about me.
• I think I have lost my ability to decipher if a man is hitting on me or just being a nice guy--I attribute this to dealing with so many jerks that the mere fact that a man is being attentive and kind throws me for a loop and I assume he must want something else.
• I wish everyone had my sense of urgency when it comes to replying to texts/emails/phone calls. Apparently, this is a lot to ask. I'm sorry, but getting a response to a text days later like it's in real time is annoying.
  
• For years the idea of a commitment-phobic man seemed a myth to me. Almost all of my guy friends from college are married (that's how we roll in the South); however, in the past year I have met more men than I can count that are incapable of committing and completely averse to marriage.
• And even some of those that do get married are still a problem--I seem to be a magnet for married men and have been asked out by a couple of them lately.
  
• According to facebook, I too can be confusing--in fact I caused a man last night to post that he was questioning the entire female species...oops! I blame the sweet tea vodka!
  
• I was recently paid one of the best compliments I have received in awhile: a man told me I have a sexy-Toby Ziegler-thing going on! That's hot for a West Wing lover like me!
  

It's Been Awhile

So it's been a long time since I posted. So much has happened:

I gave my first LIVE radio interview for work!/headed to Portland for business/my co-workers and I snuck into the 23rd floor of the hotel with some beers and a stuffed goat to check out the amazing view of the city/dropped my personal cell phone in a toilet/fixed phone by jamming a paperclip into it/flew to San Francisco to meet my new nephew/went on a ride-along with my best friend's police officer brother/helped get Kinsey and baby Jackson home from the hospital/ate amazing homemade jambalaya with the Lechugas/traveled back home to DC/convinced my boss to host a Cinco de Mayo party at work/went to a new music venue to see KB's friend play/pulled an all-nighter with said friend, KB, and the rugby guy...on a Tuesday!/issued a statement of disappointment about the President's budget/had the most painful bikini wax of my life/flew to Houston and drove over 1,000 miles in four days on my Tour O'Texas: went to a BBQ on my dad's farm/drove to DFW for a wedding/drove back to Houston for Mother's Day brunch/went to Half Price Books and bought way too many books I had to lug back on the plane/hung out with my mom and brother/drove to Austin to booze with friends/drove back to Houston just in time to get on a plane/found a cool new bar in Adams Morgan with Tom, Reed, Erin, and Lauren/had a fabulous performance evaluation at work/had my first happy hour on a patio of the season/almost got into a bar fight to backup my friend D/roadtripped to Brooklyn for a party and found a great afterhours spot/almost bought a massive Rice Krispies Treats Sheet from a 7-11 at 5:30am/went back to The Mug for the first time in almost a year.

Whew! Now I'm home for a bit. I still haven't unpacked from my travels, but that's on my to-do list for this three-day weekend. 

My Week in Review

Highs

• Last Sunday, KB and I hosted a fabulous Easter lunch
• I made it back to the gym more than once this week
• Got an overwhelmingly great response to the launch of my fetus blog
• Fun nights with my DC boys Reed and Tom--even ended up at a strip club (hilarious story for another time)
• Three nights of boozing in a row and no drunk texting...or at least no texts I regret
• Finally got to meet KB's gay husband
• I found $20 on the ground at the liquor store

Lows

• Sunday's festivities led to a nasty hangover Monday morning
• My washer flooded part of my apartment Tuesday night

Follow Fowler's Fetus

I work in a very unique environment. It’s the kind of place where everyone knows what type of birth control everyone else is taking; there are diagrams of the female reproductive system all around; and it’s not uncommon to see pregnancy tests or contraceptive sponges on the table in the lunchroom free for the taking. I have a plastic (unused) speculum in my office (from a session I attended on how to do your own cervical exam) and there are condoms and lube I gathered at coalition events in my desk organizer.

We tend to get a variety of interesting materials in the course of our work, and there are a number of small plastic fetus models floating around the office. We got them during our research on Crisis Pregnancy Centers. One of my former co-workers used to hide her plastic fetuses for others to find; my fetus usually rests in a tray of jumbo paperclips on my desk. Sometimes when I’m deep in thought or reading, I play with it like a little stress ball.

I was watching this AT&T commercial the other day where the father goes on a business trip and sends his daughter back at home pictures of her stuffed monkey around NYC. I decided to put my own little twist on the commercial and started taking pictures of my fetus model all around and posting them to a new blog. At first I kept it pretty quiet, made the page private, and invited just a few people who I knew would be entertained. I wasn’t sure if everyone that reads this blog in its various forms (blogger, myspace, facebook) would appreciate the fetus humor. Hell, I’m still not sure, but I have shared it with enough people who have found it hilarious that I thought I would share. If you don’t like it, don’t look. It’s fairly new, but the Easter pics are pretty humorous. Check them out.

Who Needs Cadbury Eggs When You Have Champagne?

Easter lunch was fantastic! Great food, tons of champagne (next time we are getting a case), and some of the most amazing and delightful people I know. Hands down the *best* Easter I have ever had! I've been thinking a lot lately about the concept of "urban family," and I really want to embrace it more this year. DC really is home and it's the home of my choosing, and yesterday I spent a holiday with the "family" of my choosing.

In addition to a nasty hangover (thanks, Easter Bunny!), I woke up to this email from one of the attendees:

I want to thank you for probably the best Easter I have had since I was a kid. I had so much fun. Too much in fact. I definitely blacked out last night, forgot to walk my dog last night and woke up in my clothes at 6am. Disaster! Please let me know if I did anything stupid or if I need to apologize for anything. And thanks again for an awesome time.

P.S. I definitely almost puked on the bus on the way to work this morning.

Totally made my day. And being "urban family" means never having to apologize for any stupid thing you might have done or said after too much champagne.

Bring on the advil and H2O...

Reason #103 why it's great to be single...

One of the things I enjoy most about being single is being able to do whatever I want and not answer to anyone. No one is annoyed if I sleep all day; no one is waiting on me to make plans; no one is upset if I am late or difficult.

Today, I slept most of the daylight hours and spent the rest of the day grocery shopping for tomorrow’s Easter feast.

It’s incredible to have this freedom. If I want to aimlessly roam around three different grocery stores (which I did) looking for the perfect ham, I can! I’ve always been a ridiculous shopper. I’m exhausting. I know this about myself, and have always preferred to shop alone—even in high school when going to the mall with your girlfriends is customary.

Now I’m baking a ham and prepping for a fabulous Easter lunch with KB and DC friends. I can’t wait til tomorrow—I’m so excited!