Adopting in Ashburn

dorkus heatherulus (door-kus hea-thra-lus) n. a being of a heather-ish nature who does dorky things. The twenty-something, dorkus heatherulus created a definition of herself using her own name as if she was a latin-based species. So, tonight I wrote out this whole explanation/solution with all of the available side effects/repercussions/consequences outlined. A means of deciding on a plan. No better way then to read this to a trusted friend and advisor and have them praise you for your brilliant writing style and well-thought out arguments. Yeah. Or, they could take that nice flat manifesto (or whatever you want to call it), roll it up and whop you about the head with it. Now, being that I read it on the phone, there wasn't much actual beating about the head. Also, because my masochism typically stops at a line far before physical abuse, I was not literally beating myself about the head. But I ought to have been. Because when your life is basically on track and you have 97.65% ...

Just a quick weekend update: Last night was Paula's birthday party. Although we didn't get to Pictionary while I was there, just hanging out and meeting/talking to everyone was awesome. I ducked out a little early so i could get home to let Dana in, as she is staying with me this weekend. I slept in exceptionally late this morning (wake-ups at 7:30 and 8:52, but not rolling out until 10:07) and then vegged on the couch with Dana, Brendan and Dave for awhile (the guys just coming in from a run). Now, we're prepping for a day out - lunch with Mason and Bill, a trip to Ross (our fave discount store) and then the game and cookie-bakeoff. Shower's free. See you later! Love always, ~Heather

I've had some personal craziness going on in my life lately and have been asking many of my friends and family for advice. My family is always incredibly encouraging and their advice is predictable, but I need to hear it nonetheless. It's always the same thing: be yourself. My friends have varying advice from playing games to having patience to hoping for a change to this last bit: empower. To empower someone is to give them strength to do something. At HOBY, I spend a lot of time empowering high school sophomores to become leaders. Now, since the best form of leadership is leadership by example (I think), it can be a challenge to empower others to lead while you yourself are leading. However, there is a way to do it that comes pretty naturally after awhile - you lead from behind. You are the cruise control as it were (if this was a car analogy, which it is) and you let them take the wheel. You have steady control over the speed of the situation - the velocity and accelera...

Je demande, en avance, votre pardon parce que je sais que le temps entre mes posts en francais est inexcuseable. Et aussi, parce que je vais me cache un peu en francais. (Pardon encore si mon francais est mal.) La patience. Tout ma vie j'ai cherche, j'ai attende mais je n'arrive pas a la patience. Comme prof, je pense que j'ai un peu plus de patience. Comme ami, bien sur. Mais comme humain ou femme, jamais. Moi, je sais que je veux et je fais quelque chose. C'est mon personalite, et je ne le regrette jamais. Maintenant que je commencais, je comprendre que c'est pas un probleme. Je commence les phrases encore et encore mais la verite, la verite a mon ame, est que quand je n'ai pas la patience, je suis souvent mieux si je sais ou si j'avais fais quelque chose que si j'avais attendu. L'histoire arriere ces penses ... Il etait une fois ... un festival de vin. Moi et un jeune homme qui on va appeller Cag (un acronyme) passait le soir ensemble ...

I want to tell you about my absolutely fabulous week. The wine festival at Mt. Vernon on Sunday evening was absolutely splendid. I'm not sure if I have already posted about this, or just talked about it enough to feel like I did. I'll check back and post about it later if I haven't. It can definitely fill its own post. Monday started a busy week at work where everything that could go right did, and everything that could go wrong was able to be avoided or immediately counteracted. I got my whole to-do list finished and wasn't stressed about the occasional later evenings. I figured out how to do podcasting for our event on Tuesday with the help of two of my colleagues. Monday night I made pie and ate it with my two neighbors Steve and Mike. I love that my neighbors and I get along and are able to hang out either on the front walk or around a pretty decent apple pie I baked from apples Steve and his family picked over the weekend. Tuesday brought the pleasant surpris...

No, it's Iowa. And I'll be heading there to visit one of the greatest friends I've ever had, Caroline in a just a couple of weeks. Caroline has been to visit me in basically* every place I have lived since we've known each other. Considering how frequently I move, that's a pretty big deal. (*She missed a place I lived in for less than 6 months, so it doesn't really count.) We've hung out in plenty of states and countries: North & South Carolina, Virginia, Florida, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, Indiana, France, Spain, Belgium, and Germany - to name a few. So, to have a chance to visit her in Iowa, her home state, is pretty exciting. Plus, this gets me out of having to do something outrageous for Halloween - I can only travel with a carry-on. More than getting to see her and get out of DC for a little bit, I'm totally pumped about having the freedom to just book a trip to the Midwest. I mean, financially I've had this money put away for two ...