Adopting in Ashburn

Another late night after another long day. If I'm not careful, this is going to turn into a Les Miserables song. Suffice it to say that the most productive components of my day involved writing a three paragraph letter (again and again and again) and eliminating as many weeds as possible from the backyard. I am slowly becoming an expert at running my landlord's ridiculously tempestuous lawnmower, which is evident in the buzz cut my grass got today. In other news, I still really love ordering wings at the end of a long day (college, how you spoiled me), my phone charger is going to need some kind of St. Anthony intercession, and the algae blocker seems to have saved my fish tank from ruin. This coming week is going to be the definition of an agonizing workload as one of the three people on my team is leaving on vacation for a week and I am her back-up. The House and Senate are going to mark up the appropriations bill, a new round of primaries are going to cause a round of mailin...

Things in Heather-land are changing. Big changes, small changes, the sorts of things you sit up and take notice of and the sorts of things you forget ten minutes later. Let's start at the beginning: I am dating someone. As in, using the boy/girlfriend titles and sharing secrets and sneaking kisses in elevators; dating someone. I'm in a Relationship. I promised myself I would never become one of those girls who disappeared into a relationship, so my schedule has become even more insanely full than it was before. I don't mind even one, minuscule bit though, because he makes me ecstatically, emphatically happy. (It occurs to me I should ask his permission to use his name or a derivation thereof, so I'm holding on further boyfriend storytelling for the moment.) This has been a big change. Other big changes are going on at work, where people are dropping like flies. Not literally, but including interns and fellows, at least six of my colleagues will have left the organizatio...