What?!!! Tornado warning???

Yep, that's right. Severe thunderstorm warning and a Tornado watch. How crazy is that??!!! I think we ARE in Kansas.

According to the Weather Channel: "A severe thunderstorm warning remains in effect until 0415. Doppler radar continues to indicate a line of sever thunderstorms capable of producing destructive winds in excess of 70 mph. The storms were moving rapidly east at 60 mph. These storms will produce strong, damaging winds that will come on quickly. Also expect near zero visibility with rain and numerous lighting strikes. Also a tornado watch is in effect for the warned area. Tornadoes can develop suddenly from severe thunderstorms. Be alert for rapidly changing weather conditions as storms approach."

It's pretty crazy out there. Wouldn't want to be the poor fool who was out there when the skies opened up and the rain just pounded down...

Office Awesomeness

So two of our district staffers were in town towards the end of April. Penny and Teresa came in for a district fly-in and both gals are such a hoot to hang out with. We met up with them Tuesday night, and had an interesting convo. Thanks T!

A couple of us went to the Hawk and Dove Wednesday night for a light dinner. Penny, T, and I were walking towards the direction of Union Station and as we were walking, some person starts honking at us. It's our old CoS Patty. She's now working for a VA member. I told her to let me know how the election is going and if she needs help because I desperately miss the campaign trail.

Thursday was scheduled to be the big office get-together at Cantina Marina so everyone could chill and chat. Prior to that, a couple of us took an office field trip to the Library of Congress. Two of the DC guys had never been. For crying out loud, it’s across from where we work and they’ve never been. The shame!!!

The Library of Congress is probably my favorite building in DC. The murals are painted with such vibrant colors. There are so many books and so much history. It’s Congress’ library – it’s my library!

Anywho, Thomas Jefferson donated most, if not all, of his private collection of books to the Library of Congress. His books are on display and they are old, and super awesome. It’s amazing the diverse collection he had.

Cantina was fun. Super crowded, but it’s always good to hang with the office peeps.

I guess the point of this story is if you come to DC, you have to see the Library of Congress.

The Places I Go, The People I Meet

This trip took place April 25-28

After three months away from a place you've lived your whole life, you start missing some things. So after three months in DC, I headed back west to get a dose of western awesomeness. I was on a soccer team in Flagstaff before I moved, and they encouraged me to meet them in Vegas for a soccer tournament. I didn't need much encouraging. It would be prime opportunity to get out of the district, play some quality soccer, hang with some good friends, and meet up w/ my padres.

So off I went on a trip that turned out to be pretty awesome. I met a new friend on the plane. I had a layover in Atlanta, and this girl I was sitting next to had been coming to DC with her company to work for a couple of weeks. She was scheduled to come back a few weeks later, so I gave her my email and told her to let me know when she got back in town.

It was great to see all the Flagstaff girls again. We didn't do so well in the tournament, but it was still a lot of fun, which after all is the most important thing. The team is loaded with a good group of girls, and I was bummed to have left them after finding them just this past summer.

Mom came up to Vegas that afternoon. My wardrobe was desperately lacking in some areas, so we did some power shopping. We met a pretty nice lady in the JC Penny dressing room. She gave some pretty good input on the clothes I picked out and picked up a few things for me to try on even though she was off of work. We chatted a bit, so I’m going to take this opportunity to wish her and her son well.

Father rode the Harley up and met us for dinner. Rather enjoyable I must say. Although, he kept pestering (get it – pest) me about the mouse. Definitely not a rat.

After dinner, mom and I did a bit more shopping and headed over to Barnes and Noble so I could pick up a book for the plane ride home. Standing in line, this lady sparked up a conversation with me. We covered everything from where I worked, what I was doing out here, the presidential election (this always makes me nervous – never know if you’re talking to friend or foe), outgoing personalities, Arbonne, etc.

Apparently this lady was drawn to my outgoing personality and the ease at which I was able to hold a conversation with her. She thought I was the perfect match for reaching out to others with a product that she endorses. I was dead tired, yet managed to discuss all of these things for well over thirty minutes. I gave her my blog address, so if she’s reading, here’s my shout out to you: HELLO! :)

After our losing streak ended with a win on Sunday, madre and I finished up some shopping and she dropped me off at Misty’s house. Misty is a talker. So we talked. For a very long time. And I was tired. But I listened. Because she had a lot to say. And I hadn’t seen her in forever. Misty is such an awesome, energetic person. It was a great opportunity to sit and visit with her. She took me to the airport early Monday morning and I came back to DC.
What I miss about Arizona and the west: the sunsets, good friends, friendly people, open skies, dry heat, cars, family…

It never gets old.

True that, Discovery Channel, true that!! The world IS just awesome!

Probably the greatest one minute committed to film ever. Just makes you glad to be living on this planet.

I'm not the only one

So one of my favorite places to visit on the web is the dcist website (www.dcist.com). There's always info on what's happening in the district accompanied with great shots of the city.

I have a mouse problem (which I'm hoping is resovled), but Tenelytown has a rat problem. Click on the story and read it and the comments. People here are funny!

http://dcist.com/2008/05/22/tenleytown_is_i.php#comments

Urban Dare: BECAUSE WE CAN

Melanie and I do a lot of things just because we can. So we decided to do the Urban Dare, and when we couldn’t think of anything clever for our team name, we decided to be BECAUSE WE CAN. Well, because we can. If you’ll recall, the Urban Dare is a mini Amazing Race with clues taking you all over a city. What is about to unfold is our journey around the district doing weird and cool things, because we can. I’ll give you the clue and answer and show you the picture we had to take.

1) Start – The Ellipse (White House) for the Guinness World Record attempt 3-legged race. Mel and I bound our legs together and practiced a strategy. It worked pretty well because we were one of the top ten teams to cross the finish line. And then the dare started.

We got our sheet of clues and called up two buddies for Google help. Shout out to the SB and Trey for mad googling skillz. I was able to answer a few of the questions, but would have no idea where to find them in the district. So we answered all the questions and located them on our handy dandy map and set out on our way.

I would just like to say that there were some pro looking teams that were in pretty good shape. I hadn’t played soccer since January so I had lost a bit of speed and my crap ankle was giving me problems. Mel and I agreed to just do our best and try to finish under three hours.

2) Get your picture with five different statues of persons known as the liberator.
I don’t remember their names, but they were all along Constitution Ave from 18th-25th streets. Most of them were up on a horse. We ran a lot. Also talked to a few people who were wondering what we were up to.

Did I mention we ran a lot? Plus it was a bit warm. And I kinda had to use the restroom. So we stopped at this gas station to grab some Gatorade – gotta replenish those electrolytes – made a quick pit stop, and had a dude take our picture of refueling at the gas tank (do you get that pun?).

3) He was first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen. Go to his circle for your spellbound dare.
So it’s Washington Circle. I got that it was Washington, but had no idea where it was. When we got there, we had to find the corresponding numbers to the letters that spelled out CONFIDENTIAL. It took us awhile to find one of the letters, and when I heard someone shout out “10 for T” I ran back to Mel and we submitted our number.

4) When Pinochet took power in Chile, Orlando Letelier went into exile in the US. Pinochet’s henchmen killed him here in DC with a car bomb. Get your picture with the memorial to this incident.
There’s a little plaque at Sheridan Circle on Embassy Row, Massachusetts and 23rd NW.

On the way to our next clue, we saw a statue of Ghandi. Some other Urban Dare-ites were getting their picture taken, and I told Mel we should to. You never know when we’d be back up in this neck of the woods, so might as well get a snap shot with Ghandi while you can. Plus, we ended up getting five minutes taken off our time with this pic. Don’t ask me how, but Mel finagled it out of the judge.

5) Remember a famous duo singing I Got You Babe? Get your picture with the plaque honoring the part of the duo who died in a skiing accident. That’s too easy – Sonny Bono of Sonny and Cher fame. The plaque was located in Dupont on New Hampshire and 20th street. A little tidbit for all you readers: did you know that Sonny was a US Congressman representing the Palm Spring, CA area? And his wife, Mary Bono know holds his seat since he died in the skiing accident? See, I know some stuff.

6) Across from the District of Columbia Courthouse, get your picture with the woman who is clearly gilty.
We didn’t really have an answer for a specific statue and just assumed we’d head over to the courthouse and look for the “gilty woman.” We metro’ed over from Dupont and had time to contemplate the clue. Obviously “gilty” is spelled wrong, and right as we approached the statue, I exclaimed, “she’s gonna be gold.” Sure enough she was.

I wanted to get really close, so Mel and I hopped into the empty fountain.

7) Go to the outdoor rotunda that lies on sovereign territory of our neighbor to the north. Let out a yell and check out the amazing acoustics, and take your picture to show you were there.
It’s the Canadian Embassy (forget the cross streets, but I can see it from the Capitol). We didn’t give a shout out – just took the picture.

Don't know what this is except for us being awesome???8) He is the only person to serve as the US president and as Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court. Go there for the next dare.
It’s Taft, and although I knew there was a president who became a chief justice after leaving the White House, I could not, for the life of me, think of his name. Anyways, once we got to his statue, we had to answer three trivial pursuit questions. They weren’t too hard, but it was definitely an outdated version.

Tired Still going strong


9) Do the words Pass and Stow ring a bell? Get your picture with a replica of a famous American icon with these words.
Ummm, yes they ring a bell! Thank you National Treasure. Pass and Stow – the Liberty Bell! I totally got that one. So we ran over to the replica that’s outside of Union Station.

10) When Andrew Jackson tried to fire this Secretary of War, he barricaded himself in his office and Congress began impeachment proceedings against the president. Go to this Secretary’s park for your next dare.
So it turned out to be John Henry Eaton and it was at Cleveland Park. Mel was a human wheelbarrow. After running all over the district, it’s hard to do a proper rendition of one, so we kinda struggled with this. Sadly, there is no video or photo documentation of this ridiculous stunt.

11) Go to the avenue where Barack and Hillary are currently doing battle and the intersection of the avenue where John Edwards is from for your connect four dare.
Mel got to this question before me and answered Pennsylvania and South Carolina. I thought about it for a second, and said, “that ain’t right.” John Edwards is not from SC. He’s from the same state as Elizabeth Dole and I always thought it was cool that Sam was represented by Dole in the Senate and Sam lived in NC. So we needed to head to Penn and NC. Where Mel played two games of connect four before moving on to the last clue.

Finish – There is only one amendment to the US Constitution that has been repealed. Go there for the finish and give thanks for the repeal.
Seriously??? Too easy!! The 18th Amendment established Prohibition of alcohol. It was later repealed. There’s a bar named the 18th Amendment and I knew exactly where it was. On Penn Ave near Eastern Market. We made a mad dash to the 18th. I turned on the turbo jets and kept my mind on that celebratory beer awaiting me.

Victory Face, which I guess is the same as tired and exhausted face. And the I really need a beer face.We made it in and our official time (with time bonuses) was 2:26:04 and we were 17th place out of 120+ teams. Ah-flippin-MAZING!!! I chugged a glass of water and threw back a glass of beer in no time. Then I hit the chips and salsa and two more cups of water and fell back into the couch in the corner of the bar. I was spent, but totally rocked the Urban Dare.

Oh man! Because we can, for sure! Sometimes I can't get over how cool I am and all the cool stuff Mel and I do. We're totally awesome. Next year, we're totally going balls to the wall and taking first place. Just you watch...

Neptune's Fountain says spring is here.

I walk past the Library of Congress to and from work everyday, and since I moved out here back in January, the fountain in front of the library has remained dormant. Even around Easter time when the water began springing forth from the majority of fountains throughout the district, the Library of Congress fountain stayed dry.

That was until one bright and cheery morning in April. Victory was mine! The fountain was flowing and to me it signified the beginning of spring. The last fountain to bubble forth water was finally bubbling with glee.

I see a lot of fountains in DC, and I thought it would be cool if I took pictures and then gave you all a little background of them. Sort of a way for me to show you the city.

So here’s a blurb on the Library of Congress Fountain found on the loc.gov website:

The Neptune Fountain is a lavishly ornamental fountain created by sculptor Roland Hinton Perry. It represents a scene in the court of Neptune, the Roman god of the sea. The muscular and majestic Neptune, with his long flowing beard, is seated on a bank of rocks. The figure is of colossal size, and on each side of Neptune lolls a figure of Triton, one of the minor sea gods, blowing a conch shell to summon water deities to Neptune’s throne. Sea nymphs, sea horses, sea monsters, gigantic frogs, and huge turtles are part of this extraordinary and splendid grotto of the sea.

The Neptune Fountain is quite the draw for tourists in DC, especially pre-pubescent boys oogling over the naked water nymphs. But to me, it's a constant reminder that nothing but glorious summer days are ahead!

Back...?

So I stepped back from the blog for three weeks because life just got busy, and apparently I've left some of you wondering about the whole mouse situation. You're all asking, "is it back? Is it dead? Has Chelsea been eaten by a pack of mice?"

The answers to these questions are maybe, we thought so at one point, and not yet.

With the poison laid and the dryer sheets protecting my doorway, I finally slept peacefully in my own bed for the first time in two weeks. For all intent and purposes, I assumed the mouse dead. I showed a little too much glee when three of the roommates tore the felt off the bottom of the couch looking for what they thought was the body of the dead mouse. Alas, the mouse was not there. I went to bed thinking that the weird odor was of the rotting mouse body from behind the wall and I slept well knowing that.

Fast forward to this past Friday evening: It had been several weeks since I had seen or heard any trace of Peebs (my affectionate nickname for PB&J) so I decided that I could probably toss out the dryer sheets that were guarding my threshold. Big mistake. (PS Did I also mention that we had purchased these highly sensitive sonar nosemaker things that are suposed to drive mice away? Well we did, and one is in my room and the other in the kitchen.)

I don't know what I heard or what shadow I saw, but my imagination led me to believe that Peebs was back. So at 12:30am I'm wide awake and freaking out again. I cursed myself for throwing away the dryer sheets. I don't know if they really helped, but they were the crutch that helped me sleep peacefully at night thinking that the strong smell drove the mouse away, keeping it from crossing into my room. An hour and a half later, I turn the volume up on my copy of Fleming's Thais and drift asleep to the intoxicating melodies, hoping that a pack of mice don't come and take me away.

I could've sworn that I saw a little critter scurry into my room and back out again that night. The next day, I placed the dryer sheets back across my doorway. I've been sleeping peacefully since. So who knows if the mouse is dead. But there sure is a funky smell that could certainly be a dead mouse behind the walls rotting away. And only time will tell if I'll be carried away by a pack of mice demanding to be served peanut butter...

So there's the update on the mouse. The last three weeks of events will slowly trickle onto the blog. Stay tuned.

This weekend

I promise, promise, promise to update the blog on Sunday.

***UPDATE*** So I totally lied - it'll be tomorrow before I start updating the blog. Continue to hold tight....

A semi-huge freak out!

I live in DC.
I enjoy opera.
I love Renee Fleming (duh!).
Renee Fleming is coming to DC in November to sing an opera.

How perfect is that? Just a few metro stops from my house is Renee Fleming instead of a 3 hour train ride to New York. I want tickets in a really bad way.

So my new opera buddy and I have been planning out our opera season for 08/09. We have two options: a full season subscription of seven operas (I can live without seeing three of them) or a mini-subscription. Mini-subscription all the way! But the people at the KC are geniuses and block off all of RF's peformances unless we get a minimum of five operas. Okay, fine whatever. Sign me up. So opera buddy waits on the phone for a really long time to sign us up for the mini-sub. Like ten hours later (maybe 45 minutes) she makes it through only to be told that renewing mini-subers can only place their orders at this time and new comers have to wait until a future unnamed date.

Excuse me?!!!! You don't understand. I HAVE to see RF in Lucrezia Borgia!!! I've missed too much already to miss this. So Lord only knows how many tickets are left to the four peformances in November and please remember that RF is kind of a super big deal and I'm a really big fan! REALLY BIG!!!

So now I wait. Impatiently. If I miss Renee, then I'm going postal on someone. Ah, breath Chelsea... There's alway Thais in December...

/end semi-huge freak out.

With that out of my system, I hope to get caught up on the last two exciting weeks of my life. Stay tuned. I'll definitely let you know when I get my Renee tickets. Because it's when, not if.