End of Summer - Ed, Camping, Birthday

The end of the summer was a whirlwind.  Of course, for most of us, life is a whirlwind, but it usually consists of days upon days packed with minutiae and before you know it, it's practically November and you have no idea where the year has gone.  Fortunately, my end of summer was the kind of whirlwind full of lots of good times with people, times which I can point to for many seasons to come and remember fondly.   (And also minutiae.)

Ed

I wrapped up the summer concert series with an Ed Sheeran concert in D.C., accompanied by Elaine Crossfit.  Ed was fantastic.  

Opening act was Christina Perri, who has huge musical guns.  Her enviable vocal talents are some of the strongest I have ever seen.  

Our seats were not so bad...

But even still, in typical Veronica fashion, I talked to some people and so we were upgraded to like the fourth row from the stage.

We got out of there and decided to hang back from the crowds for a bit, and it was a good thing we did, because the Metro line broke, and we would have had to walk through the tunnels to get out of there.  We didn't even know about it till we were already on a train, about 30 minutes later, when one of the Metro workers happened to tell us that we were on "the test train" but that we were probably safe at that point.  

Camping

Kake got married at the end of September, and she looked beautiful.

Before that, we went to Shenendoah to fit in some camping before married life began.  It was actually awesome weather - the warmest I have ever experienced in Shenendoah.  

We didn't even need a fire for survival purposes - just for recreation.  That's not to say that we didn't need our survival instincts. 

We spent the day at the apple butter festival, which was lovely. 

Then we set up camp, and then drove around until we found a good perch for sunset, and (later) for sunrise.

We did find a good perch for the sunset... and an even better one was off the side of the road and down a cliff.  Realizing that there was no safe way to walk down the hill, I found one way particularly effective.

Thus, the invention of Mountain Slide.

After sunset, we made our way back to our campsite.  

Within moments of arriving and starting to set up our fire, the campsite next to us caught on fire.  I mean.... caught... on.... fire. 

There's a phrase folks use often: "Adding fuel to the fire..."

PEOPLE.  THIS IS A VERY DECEPTIVE PHRASE.  Please, under The Laws of Science and Physics, do not, under any circumstance, ever ADD FUEL TO A FIRE.

The kids at the campsite next to us decided that it would be a good idea to enhance their campfire using fuel.  This, of course, resulted in literally everything catching on fire.  The fuel can immediately caught fire, and then the kid holding it started flinging fuel everywhere, which caught evverything on fire.  Within seconds, it was so lit up that it seemed like daylight.  

Fortunately, folks from all around came running out from the woods to assist.  Of course, pouring water on fuel only made it worse, so all anyone could do was stand around and watch and wait.  God bless the guy behind us, who had a gigantic cooler of water, and soaked the ground all around the flames so that the fire didn't spread any further.  For a good 20 minutes, all we could do was wait for queue of fleeing whilst their campsite burned.  

Accurate representation of the camping fire scene.

Other than the few moments of absolute terror, the trip was rather lovely.  We spent the next day touring several vineyards and vast spaces.

A bear!

Cows!

Sheep!

Birthday

I had a rather quiet birthday, with a few small but wonderful surprises and gifts.  Some colleagues were really sweet, and Kake sent me a fruit thing!!

Also popped up to NYC for a weekend to celebrate my great-aunt's 80th birthday.  Before we did that, we did some tourist-y stuff and saw a show. 

 I want to take another trip up soon, because I always feel rushed when I am there.  Being given 45 minutes in Macy's is nothing... it takes 45 minutes just to make it to the department I want.

It was noted that it's somewhat of a talent that I can go up 9 flights of elevators without touching the handrails.  

One of the best parts of Macy's is the old wooden escalators.

Also around my birthday, Sara and I got VIP tickets to the Maryland Million race.  It was my first time at the horse races... and I had so much fun!  I really loved it.

VIP tickets allowed us all-you-can-eat and open bar.  Yeah, I'm spoiled, I know.  But let me just set the record straight on one thing:  I am all set on the oyster consumption front.  I do not need to eat oysters ever again. 

PSA: Do not ever serve me an oyster.  Thank you.

Prepare your house and your life - I think we are in for a brutal winter.

Not-So-Great American Tragedy

You wouldn't know from first glance, but I'm actually a really healthy person.  Kake has said on several occasions that it is one of the Great American Tragedies that I eat the way I do and am active as much as I am and am still not a size 6.

Eating 

First of all, when you are above a size 16, anything you eat is judged by those around you.  

I stopped caring about this years ago.  The truth is that I genuinely crave foods which are clean and from the earth.  This is my lunch from one day at work, which inspired me to be on this topic today:

It's great to have some people in your life who share your love for healthy things, whether it is running or other kinds of exercise, or eating clean foods.  I am fortunate to have a few people who care about what they eat, including my colleague Sara, and we share food all of the time.  

Me, every time Sara is working at the Baltimore office.  Or anytime I spot someone with brought-from-home lunch.  

It makes life a little easier for me to having someone who shares my passion for hummus or cheese.  I'll buy a whole family sized thing of hummus at Costco and not give one care about what others think.  Then I get to share with Sara and anyone else around me.

I just stopped by Target on my way home from work today to purchase some caulk and other things, and I wish I had the security footage of when I made eye contact with some hummus across the room. 

Me and hummus

I am pretty sure I was in a full gallop, then looked like I ran into an invisible wall because I had to self-talk and say, "Veronica! Control yourself!!" I was not there for hummus, but it's on my to-do list now.

Those who actually hang around me or have lived with me know that my eating preferences/intentions are clean.  When Melissa lived here, a few weeks after she first moved in, one night we were sitting to dinner, and she looked up at me, and with the most pathetic face, said, "Can we please stop eating vegetables?" I could not stop laughing. 

Melissa came to visit last week.  She came into the house, went to the kitchen, put her hand on the fridge door, and accurately predicted all that was in there - "Green, green, seeds, plants, what is that... hummus?  Why do you need a giant thing of hummus??  Gross!"

Typical Taco Tuesday with Melissa

Of course, Melissa and others also know that I'm normal and won't say no to other foods as well, but the point is that I know that I eat pretty balanced, so I'm not worried about the sideways glances. 

To this day, I still will send Melissa random text messages that say, "Why is there never any junk food in this house!!"  I get so frustrated at myself.  Just another thing I miss about having Melissa living there.  She sends me a bag of Doritos or gummies here and there, just to make up for it, I think.

I will say that my main problem is eating (in general) consistently.  I might eat one meal a day.  I've never been great at remembering to eat, and when I am traveling with someone, that is always something I have to keep in mind... that other people eat all day long.  

This is something which Kate has become used to reminding me about when we travel, and I am all-to-used to getting a fair reaction from her when I throw her a side-eyeing Chloe for when her food choices seem questionable to me, or when I find myself saying,"OMG you have to eat AGAIN?? We just ate like 6 hours ago!!" 

Actual video of Kake eating carbs

Physical

Running a house by myself is in and of itself an incredible amount of work, and I was just telling my friend the other day (she's into lifting) that I bet I could giver her gym-rat self a run for her money, seeing as how I have to carry a 250+ lb lawn mower up and down my porch stairs once or twice per week.

Add to that 1-2 days a week of just hiking all day through the woods whilst archerying, and the occasional additional hike or bike ride, and I'm actually pretty physical.  

One of my colleagues always says to me, "Do you ever just go home and watch Netflix and do nothing?"  This question comes after him asking me daily what I did after work the day before, and me responding with the inevitable, "Oh, I painted my ceilings and scrubbed the house."  Or, "I mowed the lawn and weed-whacked and then scrubbed the house."  Or, "I went to Lowes and bought half dozen bags of mulch... whist wearing business attire and heels..."

I am one of those people (TVW) who can't just do nothing on a weekend - not only would I be filled with guilt, but my body would actually go stir crazy. 

Friends (YOU)

I do want to give a shout-out to my friends who are healthy, and conscious that we are only given one body in which to vessel our souls.

I've watched a few of my friends make some very healthy life changes over the past few years, whether physically, emotionally, or circumstantially, and I want to just say that I get so proud of people for owning their lives.

I have a friend who has produced a whole little happy family in the past few years, and even with very little, she has made a very healthy lifestyle.  I have known her since we were in high school, and I have seen her go through some absolutely awful times, physically, emotionally, and environmentally.  I look at her now, and I am honestly, from the bottom of my heart of steel, filled with such joy and happiness and pride for her.  

I look at her and I see strength.  I see her taking care of her body by eating well and doing her exercise classes, and it's not about fitting into a bathing suit for a few months or anything - it's because she feels good and strong when she puts in the effort.  I see her making good choices for her and her kids.  In fact, I feel comfortable enough to just share what she said to me in an e-mail after I mentioned this to her:

"I do feel so much healthier and stronger these days. I love going to the gym when I can and being active with the kids. And it sounds super cheesy but I finally truly love and appreciate my body, and just want to be reasonably kind to it. Swore to myself that I wouldn’t expose my girls to the kind of self-loathing and weight obsession I witnessed from the women in my family growing up. "

So own your body. Do what you need to do to take care of yourself and feel healthy and strong.  Our bodies are amazing machines, and no one is going to take care of your body except you.  Listen to your body... listen to doctors, and peers, and people who know what they are talking about... but also listen to your own self living in there.    

Feel like a rock star.

Slight Humor, and Side-Eyeing Chloe

There's bad news and good news.  Actually, lots of good news and bad news.

Bad news: Haven't blogged in weeks.
Good news: No one reads the blog in April, I've noticed.  I probably could have gone till May till someone said something to me.

Bad news: Baltimore is self-destructing.
Good news: Lots of time with Smidgen.

Good news: My sister is coming to visit this summer!
Bad news: So much to do to my house before she and her wife come.  I finally talked to her today and found myself saying, "Listen, you're just going to have to deal with the fact that I have a toilet that occasionally rocks!! I can't afford a new toilet right now, okay!?"  

Sooooo if you wanted to come over and help me paint or do yard work, I would not object.

Good news: my colleagues are really used to my shenanigans.  

I was mad at one of my colleagues, but it wasn't for a few days after whatever initially upset me that I actually saw him again, and by then, I couldn't remember why I was mad, just that I was supposed to be mad.  This is my attempt at holding a grudge.

So something was wrong in one of our systems, so I went to call in my folks to help, when...

From: Scotty

To:  Veronica

Subject: All fixed...

From: Veronica 

To: Scotty

Subject: RE: All fixed...

Oh.  Okay I’ll call off the troops.  Thanks and sorry a little.

From: Scotty

To: Veronica

Subject: RE: All fixed...

Just a little?

From: Veronica 

To: Scotty

Subject: RE: All fixed...

Yes because I was mad at you but this might have cancelled it out just now.  Maybe.

From: Scotty

To: Veronica

Subject: RE: All fixed...

You can't even remember why you were mad?

From: Veronica 

To: Scotty

Subject: RE: All fixed...

Not really but it’s one of those things like women and childbirth – you block out the really painful part, but you know that you still mad, bro

From: Scotty

To: Veronica

Subject: RE: All fixed...

I love how you mentioned women and childbirth but still finished strong with “bro”

It's good.

I love other people telling me about funny things I've done, because I can never remember them.  I'm even chuckling at that email convo I had, and I'm glad I remembered to write about it.  

The other day, Sara came up to me asking me to elaborate a Post-It note I had written.  I had given her a mug, because I take my tea very seriously, and she doesn't keep a real mug at work.  How am I supposed to share my passion for tea with someone who is ill-prepared? Seriously, check out my tea department: 

All sorts of teas, loose and bagged and in sachets.  Herbal, fruit, black, British, you name it.

Then there is my honey collection, which is not pictured.

So I got her a birdy mug like she likes, and apparently wrote this post it note:

She came over and said, "Excuse me - could you please elaborate which feelings, exactly, were implied here?"  I thought it was very funny.  I had totally forgotten about the entire thing, so it really cracked me up.  

I spend about 2 hours of each day just laughing, and about 80% of that is at myself, or things I forgot that I did.   Or my Timehops.

The other day, a meeting reminder went off on my computer.  When I opened it, it said that the (actually important) meeting was taking place on the 16th floor, and then below, in the appointment, I wrote to everyone, "Unless you are afraid of heights, in which case we'll just meet in John's office."  

That may seem not funny to you right now, but when I'm  really focused, and in work-mode, things like that just totally throw me off and make me laugh.

Side-Eyeing Chloe

If I have not held an entire conversation with you via meme, then you do not hang out with me enough.  Anyone who actually knows me knows that most of my day-to-day life can be illustrated via a series of memes.  Kake and I will hold entire wordless conversation with just memes.

Side-Eyeing Chloe is one of my spirit animals.  Click here to get the full story.  

I use Chloe for so many situations.  Just this evening, I received a text message telling me that I was being impatient (because I did not receive an immediate response to my question) and that I was "just going to have to wait," which received a big Chloe in response.

The funny thing is, two out of three people who don't know Chloe actually think that it is a picture of me as a kid.  That's how similar we look.  

It cracks me up when people call out Chloe, either by giving me a good one, or calling me out on one.  When Sue was telling me that Larry is planning a road trip to Oklahoma, apparently I gave her a perfect Chloe.

This whole week's Baltimore situation has just been one big Side-Eyeing Chloe. 

Wishing Away Time and Interviews

I thought this was very clever.

Wishing Away Time

As you probably know by now, small talk rubs me the wrong way.  I'm sorry, but yes, I am one of those people who can only take about 3.5 seconds of small talk.  

This is enough for "Hello, how's it going? Good..."  Past that, I do not want to small talk, unless you really want to go get a beer or take me out to dinner or go on a long walk and talk about it.  

The WORST are people (strangers) who actually start with "Oh, well, I'm here," or, "I've been better."  Okay, either we are going to get coffee and actually talk about this, or please just don't even open the can of worms.  I can't stand humoring people.

Small talk also includes when I am sitting at my desk (newsflash: I do not have time to talk to anyone at work) and someone comes up and asks or talks about the weather.  DUDE.  I KNOW WHAT YOU KNOW; WE BOTH SIT HERE.  WE HAVE THE SAME INFORMATION.  It drives me crazy, however I have to suppress those maniacal feelings and be a normal person.  It's awful.

But these things are just part of life.

What I really do not understand, and I try to divert, is when people say things like, "Well, pretty good for a Monday."   Or, "Well, it's Wednesday!  Week's halfway over!"   I know that it seems simple and fun and normal for people to live for the weekend, but to me, I just hear people wishing time away.  

This goes for lots of things, including when people count down to spring or summer, and can't wait for winter to be over. Embrace all the seasons, people!

What's wrong with Tuesday?  Nothing.  I love Mondays. January has its perks, too. Every day above dirt is a good day.  If you catch yourself saying stuff like this, think of other ways to make small talk.  Better yet - find ways to find the miracles in your days.

There is someone who swings by my desk almost every day and says, "Happy Monday!"  or whatever day it is - and to me, that is more of a celebration of the day, and much better than "UGH it's a Monday!"  

Again, this is one of those silly things that you probably think I'm just being picky and ridiculous and wasting your life about, but I guess I am someone who over-charishes each day.  It's part of the red-white-and-blue that runs through me that remembers that people have died, still die, and are otherwise fighting for my right to wake up, take a shower, drive to work, run around my job like a crazy person, laugh all day, giggle unapologetically, eat fresh food which is abudant, drink all of the clean water I can possibly handle, breathe fresh air, drive home, and go to sleep (or whatever) feeling safe every single day of my American life.  Or not - I could just lay in bed all day, or watch Netflix all day, or go run around the forest all day, or whatever I want, because the price has been paid and continues to be paid by The Brave.

It's our human duty to enjoy the days we are gifted.  If you are saying to yourself, "life is not a gift when __insert hardship__" then either you and I are going to go head to head, or never talk about it.

Annnny wayyyy... 

Interviews

My colleague/friend and I have been interviewing some folks for an admin position to support my team and me.  I don't know if you have ever had the chance to read David Thorne's blog about interviewing, but it is HILARIOUS.  I love him.  Click here to go check out his hilarious blog about interviewing.  It's really been inspirational.

Sara and I have to prep days ahead of the interviews to make sure that we get all of our awful questions out of our systems so that we can appear to be professional on our first impression.  

So we brainstorm awful things like, "What is your religion or political affiliation?"  "How many children do you have, and are they all legitimate?"  

"What is your ancestery?" "What's your favorite color?"  "What are you going to be for Halloween?"  (This shows... planning.. forcasting... anticipating future needs... right?)

Veronica [2:01 PM]:

"How old are you?  How much do you weigh?  Do you like Yanni/Celine/Bryan Adams?  

Do you like Fleetwood Mac (Ew)?  

Do you like fishing?  

At what age did you get married?  Was it cuz you were pregnant?"

we are tvw

Sara [2:03 PM]:

are your arms the same length? 

are both of your eyes motivated? 

what drugs have you done/are currently doing? 

when asked at a restaurant whether you want tap or seltzer what do you say? 

why would you not hire yourself?

 Veronica [2:05 PM]:

What are the things that keep you up at night? 

What regrets do you have?  
How is your relationship with your parents? 

Do you have siblings?  Are they legitimate?  

What are your biggest pet peeves? 

Are you as excited as I am for shoulder pads to come back in style? 

What do you hate about yourself? 

Do you plan on calling out of work a lot?  Are your kids going to make you call out a lot? 

Where do you live? Are you going to be "working from home" a lot because you live in the boonies?

 Veronica [2:08 PM]:

We'll be taking her to lunch for her interview

 Sara [2:08 PM]:

I am going to order ALLL OF THE FOOD

Veronica [2:08 PM]:

AND we will answer the water question

 Sara [2:08 PM]:

water question?

 Veronica [2:08 PM]:

tap vs seltzer

Sara [2:08 PM]:

oh yes!

Did you like my eye question?

 Veronica [2:08 PM]:

Yeah, I was thinking, "Ummm I don't know what that means, but you had better answer it correctly.

I would totally back you on that question.

Sara [2:08 PM]:

lazy eye = not motivated eye

Veronica [2:08 PM]:

Wow. Wow, Sara.

 Sara [2:09 PM]:

It is a joke I heard somewhere once and it still makes me laugh

Veronica [2:26 PM]:

"Are you a total girl when it comes to bugs?"

Sara [2:27 PM]:

well I would need someone who can kill any potential bugs 

[in case I am not at work to take care of it for Sara.]

We've actually had so many funny questions, but I forget to make note of them at the time.  But at least we get it out of our system long enough for the interview.  However, come their first day of work, all bets are off.  Please reference the temp's account of his first day here, in this post. (Click here)

But yeah, probably you should feel some compassion for people who actually volunteer to sit across from us and subject themselves to our interrogations.

  

  

Sara

Veronica

  Want to apply?