Adopting in Ashburn

It goes by too fast when you're having fun. It goes by too slowly when you're not. It can be counted in positions, on clocks, through years, and many other ways. People remember time passed in different ways. One way time can be remembered is apparently in files. Ancient, non-existent files. May I give you a hint, dearest wisher of time past: if it happened here when I was in the first grade I do not remember it; as I was living in Florida at that time and learning how to write in complete sentences. Therefore, if you cannot remember any details except, "It happened" and there are no records to indicate said happening, I cannot, in any reliable way, make a list of it for you. But thanks for asking. Wasting my time was definitely on today's to-do list.

I just got a new assignment to create trend data from the public opinion polling I manage at work. As our in-house expert, I get the pleasure of generating questions and analyzing the results of surveys that thousands of American's respond to for us. I also sometimes get the pleasure of explaining significant differences to folks who have questions. It feels a lot like this: Comic credit: xkcd.com

I wrote this post today for something related to my job, but after review, it was determined it was too close to partisan/patronizing about someone we want to build a relationship with to be a good idea to post there. It seemed like a perfectly good waste of writing to not share though, and luckily, I have a space here that is (fingers crossed) completely unattached to work. Rep. Paul Ryan (WI-1) has particularly appropriate initials for today's discussion, PR. Public relations is a critical component for businesses, celebrities, and especially elected officials trying to make sure they can pass major legislation and keep their jobs. As House Budget Committee Chairman, Rep. Ryan has a difficult task ahead - lowering our national debt in bad economic times. Here's how he makes his case for the " Path to Prosperity " budget plan released this morning. As someone with a background in communications, I can objectively say this is a good messaging strategy. He was calm, t...

I cannot focus today. My brain is going in a million different directions and none of them are the path to productivity. The to-do list is post-it-noted to the bottom of my monitor. I have had breakfast (and soon will have lunch) and require basically nothing more than what I already have at my desk to really get going. And yet, I'm writing this note here instead of the 10 some-odd letters and multiple work blog posts. Because the truth is, none of it is challenging or intellectually stimulating. All of it is work. I know that every job has paperwork and inane tasks that need doing. I know I should just knock it all out and be done with the stupid list on the little, square paper with extremely easily removable glue backing. But I can't freaking focus. Oh please just let me get this stupid stuff done so I can get out of here at a reasonable time today. I miss my passionate self. I hope she comes into the office soon.

Anyone who ever visited my room in college probably noticed I'm a bit of a collage fanatic. There is just something so relaxing about cutting out fun things from print publications and then rearranging them, laying them out, and gluing them together to make art. Something that is perfectly me, perfectly creative and fun to look at, perfectly smart and put-together, perfectly perfect. That urge to take something I find useful and wonderful on its own and then make it greater by simply rearranging sneaks into other parts of my life. It is how I schedule, edit my writing, decorate my house, frame pictures, make dinner ... you name it. Today at work I had one of those moments - the ones you always hope for at work - where you know you actually got something done and were really able to help someone. A colleague had been working on a multi-page document that looked really text heavy and lacked cohesiveness. I took a pair of scissors and a glue stick and got started. I cut about 2 inches...

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...

Today I had a chance to go through a bunch of old boxes of my stuff, culling out the things I cannot even remember why I bothered to save in the first place. I found journals, poems, stories, school papers, newspaper clippings, stickers, paintings, and a horrifying amount of tediously penned notes. From 15 gallons worth of plastic tubs and a shoebox, I now have about 3 gallons worth of papers and another 2 of empty binders and folders I'm hoping to donate to a school somewhere. Most of my life, I've thought it might be cool to go back one day and create a book of all of my old work. Incorporate my journals and short stories and random school assignments into something I could keep forever (and if I got famous, edit and sell). Realistically (after about 5 hours of this treasure hunting), I'm not sure it would be worth anything to anyone - perhaps not even to me. One thing about looking back is that it gives you a chance to see how far you've come; and how far you have le...

The following things have (really and truly) happened to me in the last week (in no particular order and a little vague to protect everyone involved): The button in the middle of my chest fell off my shirt ten minutes before the first of three in-person interviews with potential new staff at work. My car got towed. While I was parked in a perfectly legal spot. $115 later, my car was NOT returned in the same condition I left it in. I did an amazing job on a project and was even quoted for my quality work in a popular online source and was then belittled for the same work by someone who could have me fired. My cheesecake flavored Jello pudding strangely grew MORE cheesecake flavored in just 48 hours. While next in line at Walgreens, the store alarm went off (for no reason) which prevented the staff from helping me for ten minutes - exactly enough time to make me late for an appointment across the street. To prevent an unfortunate circumstance for a friend, I had to get help from my lan...

Things I now know about doing my taxes: All those property taxes on my car count as deductions! I will be taking at least one course at a community college a year (Intro to Spanish, Intro to Sign Language, Science and the Cinema, etc.) so I never have this exclusion issue again. The schedules aren't too painful to fill out if you know what you're doing. Having all the papers and receipts in one box doesn't actually decrease the amount of time it takes to locate one, as many receipts look the same and take time to dig through. My dad is awesome and I am glad I learned how to fill out the forms myself from him. It goes well with sympathetic friends, swing dancing in the dining room, and Manichevitz. That is all. Onto the first volleyball game of the Alexandria league season, filling out HOBY paperwork, deciding between Sportsplex volleyball and USC softball, acquiring a new roommate, planning excursions for the upcoming family cruise, planting vegetable seeds for the summer g...

...work is certainly giving me the type of cardiac workout I usually associate with running 3 miles. Outside. Mid-afternoon. On a Florida blacktop in late July. (If you've never lived there, think: 110% humidity before the afternoon storms roll in to block out the 100 degree sunshine.) Thank goodness it's Friday. Love always, ~Heather

Lately I've been busy with a gajillion things and haven't blogged a single one of them. I understand that this makes me kind of a goober. I apologize for my goober-dom. I have been writing though, including on a daily blog for work. After spending a decent portion of the day on blogger or reading blogs and online journalism, my brain does not want to blog at night. In fact, every part of me wants to be doing something that does not involve my poor little typing fingers. This, however, does not help my loyal readers. It doesn't tell you what I'm doing, how I'm doing, or give you the pleasure of the ridiculous tangential storytelling technique I so often apply here. So, as a short favor (since it is late and I'm exhausted), I'll give you some bullets on me and where I am. Five minutes of them in fact. OKay, go. Everyday my Gchat message is a new movie quote that is somehow relevant to the day. I am keeping track of them (and why I chose them) in a spr...

I am currently living in a series of countdowns. These can be seen in two ways: 1. Impending explosions 2. Launching new and exciting things My current countdowns vary from work stuff (upcoming events, one single full work week until January, projects to be completed before 2009, etc.) to house stuff (two guests coming, multiple party/events, necessary winter cleaning/decorating, etc.) to personal stuff (travel, doctors appointments, choir rehearsals, etc.). All in all, my life is about to become junior-year-at-USC-busy (when I was: coaching two volleyball teams, president of the Honors College student body, RA for the CMC, working in Columbia Hall, taking 18+ hours a semester, planning my senior thesis, teaching Sunday school and occasionally attempting to have a life - among other, regular college things). I'm a little nervous about the impending schedule. There is so much going on in the next two months (which you'll be hearing about AFTER it happens for the most part) and...

Well, it seems that like most things you can't have one without the other. So before I could have an incredibly fun weekend I had to have a Friday that pretty much ranked in my worst 25 days ever. It started out with work making me - actually, let's skip that and just know that this was certainly the dark tunnel. Now the thing about dark tunnels that make them SO different from, say, caves, is that there is bound to be light on the other end. My light came as I scrambled out of work 25 minutes late. You know how you can see the glimmer before the good part ... that's where we are (or so I thought). I was on my way to see a movie with Cag, now assuredly going to be late as I had stopped home to grab an apple for dinner and change into jeans. Half way there I realize I have forgotten my phone - so I can't even call to say I am running late. An idiot decides to stop short on Glebe Road and I hydroplane through an intersection (lots of prayers of thanksgiving on the s...

I'm hanging out in a pretty cool room, looking out the windows at a blue sky with lots of Florida sunshine. I came down to visit with my grandparents during my Pop Pop's surgery. He is doing well - snoring like a champ in his bed down the hall. Grandma and I are in the family waiting area so she can take a nap. It seems like this whole ordeal has been harder on her than on the poor guy who had the surgery. Luckily she's resting now though. I'm working from here for a couple of days, which is interesting since there isn't much wireless access in their retirement condo complex. Being at the hospital has helped that though, since they have a really good connection here. So, I'm trying to get as much work in as I can now. To that effect, I'm signing off. But, before I do, a really happy anniversary wish to my grandparents who were married 60 years on Friday at 4:30 pm. We had a nice little shindig for them (pictures coming soon) Friday night and I'm...

As I sit here watching Sweet Home Alabama I'm thinking about life as I currently know it. I'll be heading back to the place where I did most of my growing up at the end of the month. My grandfather is having heart surgery (prayers please) so I'm going down to be with him and my grandma during the pre-surgery work-up and then through the surgery. My mother and uncle may or may not be joining me down there before the actual surgery, but we're not sure yet. I am surprisingly calm (though full of butterflies). I work better in emergency situations, or ones that need direct leadership. Also, I like that I am in a place in my life where I can be there for my family - as they have been there for me so often. Best of all, I'll get to be there before and after to spend time with him and pep him up before and to help him recover after. Most of that is going to be taking care of my grandma who is already stressed (understandably). Today I also helped celebrate the reti...

I apologize (as I keep doing) about my hiatus. I do not have the same wonderful excuses as some of my blogging pals (newborns, new jobs, vacations, etc.), but I do have an explanation. It appears as if my computer took a little too much stress while I was living in France. I always had a power converter on it when it was plugged in, but alas, those were some big jolts. So over the past couple weeks I had to go and figure out what was wrong (the battery and the power source died simultaneously, which made the computer rather difficult to turn on) and then acquire the pieces I needed for a solution (which resulted in a rather long call relayed to India where the respondent seemed to only hear one or two words of my response at a time and was reading off a sheet of paper). But, I have my computer again. And yes, I know I could have blogged from some place else like a borrowed computer or work, but I feel like I am inconveniencing someone or else creating a mighty big window of opportun...

Joyeux Paques! Happy Easter (for the next 48 days) I had an amazing holy week/weekend. Palm Sunday was relaxing and I got a bunch done around the house. Then Monday was St. Patrick's Day (I know, it was really the 15th, but whatever) and I fixed corned beef and cabbage for Dana, Bill and I. Then Tuesday we had four of our annual events at work. If I ever complain about my job, please just remind me that I got to spend five minutes talking to Andrew Von Eschenbach, director of the FDA at work on Tuesday. Not to mention all the other cool people who served as panelists on the forum (heads of CDC, NIH, AHRQ, AARP; a corporate VP of Johnson&Johnson; and the director of research for Veteran's Affairs), Susan Dentzer as moderator, and then the sundry other notables (former members of Congress, major non-profit heads, director of PARADE magazine, etc.). It was an amazing (and very long) day. In true Heather-sense, I managed to have an adventure even under the most structured ...

My blogging tonight is reminiscent of my year in France, when I blogged at night to fill time, because I had nothing else to do.  Tonight I have plenty of other things I could be doing, but am unfortunately restricted to a location that prevents me from doing them. So, in this interlude of internet access and spare time, I thought I would share with you a few stories from the past couple of weeks.  And, in true late night fashion, ramble a bit about what is going on between my ears. First, I have moved in with two fabulous roommates.  As I have not confirmed their being okay with me using their identities, I shall call them roomie 1 and roomie 2.  I've known one of them since graduate school and the other we met online in our search for roommates.  I was, admittedly, nervous about having a "random" roommate (do roommate counseling enough times and roommates will scare anybody!).  However, the two of us get along famously already.  We have a number of things in common, eve...

I woke up this morning fully aware that my cold was here to stay. I have probably used an entire box of tissues today. But, cold or not, today was going to be a busy day. I went to Ash Wednesday services at St. Mary's. I have to say that I am a little confused about the timing of today's gospel. It's the letter to the Corinthians (I think) that talks about not being a hypocrite, praying for ourselves, giving charitably in quiet, etc. And we read it on a day when they put ashes on our foreheads as an outward expression of our faith. It just seems a bit ill-timed. I understand it is the beginning of Lent, and we don't want our days of abstinence and fasting to appear to be so. Our spiritual journey is internal. I get that. But how is wearing ashes all day not "showing off" your prayer? Doesn't everyone in my office now know I went to church this morning before work? I know I'm not prostrating myself on the street, but it is pretty obvious when...

For those of you who didn't know, I am moving again. The last move I made was a pretty good choice at the time, but after just a few months my apartment complex is raising my rent, so I'm moving on. My first brilliant plan was to move in with a friend from high school. All was well until she accepted an internship instead of a job (better career wise, oddly) and found a place in her new price range much closer to AU, where she'll be doing her grad coursework. As her friend, there was no way I could frown on this, except this now left me roommate-less. If you've never been on a serious budget in an urban housing market, you might not realize that having roommates is one of the best ways to defray costs. Sharing cable, phone, internet, heating and cooling alone can save someone in the ballpark of $120/month or $1,440/year - which is the equivalent of a months rent and two months utilities here. So, roommates are a must. Plus, there is something nice about coming home...