D4D

Carly is still going strong with her non-profit dance group, Dance for a Difference. I have to admit that my attendance has waned because I just can't keep up with all those mooooooves sometimes.

This group is gaining so much popularity that a local TV station did a story on Carly and the group during one of her classes (of course I attended this class).

Here's the YouTube link. Can you pick out all of the roomies?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdHwqNLPpjQ

Rubins

Congrats to the newlyweds Rubin and Steph! What a fun wedding. They threw an amazing celebration. It made me sort of want to be Jewish to do that whole chair dance thing.

The most energizing and enthusiastic dancing award goes to Justin. That guy is non-stop swing.

Matt and I barely made it to the service on time (shocker), but luckily Dtox was ready to pinch hit for Matt's reading.

The Rubins got married in Philly, so we did a little sightseeing after the big bash. The Rocky Steps and Rocky statue were a must..the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall..not so much.

We also got to see Sunil's new pad and had a great dinner together in his new neighborhood.

Timesheet

My timesheet this week looks something like this:

Sunday - 6 hours
Monday - 19 hours
Tuesday - 13 hours
Wednesday - 17 hours
Thursday - 14 and still counting....

I'm heading to Budapest on Monday for work. I'm beginning to think that all of these hours weren't worth it...I just should have sprung for the airline ticket myself.

I'll be in the 'Fatherland' through Labor Day and then on to Tbilisi, Georgia for another week (the country, not the state Carly).

Thanks to Matt for making me dinner on Monday and delivering my favorite kabob & chick peas dish tonight at the office.

Scarlett

My 1992 red Toyota Celica has been like part of the family. I've had her since my junior year of high school, but she was not in fact my first car. My dad bought me an old Mercury Capri with a hole in the dashboard. I'm not sure what he was thinking, but out of 30 something cars he owned during his lifetime, it was his biggest regret. The Capri was a lemon and he had to rebuild the engine soon after he bought it. I don't think I even had my license at that point and we had some fun together in the garage getting my car ready.

To sidetrack a bit more, I can't ever remember my Dad taking cars to the shop. He did all the maintenance and major repairs on all of our cars. I remember as a kid always having to help him in the garage holding a light or stepping on the brake. We took field trips in the summer to the junk yard to look for spare parts. I loved running around and searching for 'treasure' in the glove boxes of cars. My mom and I were so spoiled with him as our car man and we felt like big targets for the mechanics after he passed away. I know my anxiety level increases every time I need service.

Anyway, I don't think my parents ever felt comfortable with me driving the Capri, so they did all the research and settled on a Toyota Celica. It happened to be a little red sports car, complete with CD player and sunroof (let me remind you this was 1994). I was ecstatic! The next challenge was teaching me how to drive stick. My Dad tried a few times in the Gar-Field High School parking lot, but my gum chewing, loud cd playing, flip flop wearing teeny-bopper attitude drove him crazy. Luckily, Brian stepped in and was more successful.

I thought Scarlett was a goner in college when I got hit by a Harrisonburg transit bus. Good old cousin Jared happened to be passing through town that weekend, so I drove the roommates (Murphy and Megan) and Jared across town to a party on a cold winter night. We got run off Port Republic Road by the bus and I spent a good part of the evening in the cop car explaining what happened, while Murphy recruited witnesses (i.e. drunk college students walking by). After Scarlett was towed away, we proceeded on with the partying. Of course I was upset and the next morning I had to make the hard phone call to my Dad. Jared begged me not to mention he was in town but I let it slip. Jared didn't want to be associated with the event in any way because he knew there would be lots of teasing, jabs, and sarcasm in his future from my Dad. Scarlett was pretty banged up and my Dad made a special trip to JMU to personally work with all of the insurance and auto body people to get her back to new. He badgered the paint guy and even talked him into painting the whole car instead of just the damaged area...he had a way with car negotiating. Scarlett did end up making a full recovery, and I felt even closer with her since she kept me so safe during the bus incident.

I have held on to Scarlett through thick and thin and even though Dixie (my Mom's Toyota Highlander) is now my primary car, I still LOVE to drive Scarlett. Yeah, I get crap that I have two cars and maybe I just spent $500 to fix the radiator, but I just can't part with her yet!

Ray's

Matt and I had a double date tonight with our friends from the suburbs, Dtox and Tracy. Matt was upset that they beat us to the restaurant, coming from the Cascades. Our commute to Rossyln was about 1.5 miles. Let me clarify that this was my fault because I HAD to get in a run before ingesting so much beef.

We finally checked out Ray's the Steaks and it did live up to all of the hype!

Procrastination

So, I have a deliverable due tomorrow at work and I've been trying to get into it since about 3pm. I have found maybe a million other things to do between 3pm and now....12:30am. I just couldn't get into a good rhythm with writing the document. But, now that the hour has crossed over into that late night time frame, I'm in the groove! Ok, let me point out that I did take time out of my 'groove' to write this blog, but it's almost finished and I could stay up all night and produce any number of other brilliant pieces of work. There is something about the midnight hour that focuses my mind. This has been my MO for as long as I can remember.

Ok, back to work.

Wait, my sock drawer is looking a bit messy...maybe it's time for some reorganization!

Summer in Chicago Really IS Something Else

After the big Asia trip cancellation, I assumed I had the whole summer to visit Rachel and Will before they move to Colorado in September. A couple of weeks ago, however, we realized that there was only one free weekend available for a Chicago visit, so I jumped on it!

I have been hearing how great Chicago is in the summer ever since I met Matt and Rachel. I do love the city but always poo poo the winter factor. But after this weekend, I am really convinced it's like a beach town in the middle of a cool city.

As with any visit to Chicago, Home of the Bears and Boyles, I was given the golden treatment. I arrived at 7am on Friday morning and since Rach was working, Sal picked me up from the airport and I borrowed Rach's Mom for the day. We had many planning e-mails about heading downtown to museums and how would we coordinate keeping my suitcase downtown for Rach to pick me up etc etc. Well, Sal and I were having such a lovely and relaxing time at their house, we just chilled. It was absolutely perfect. Although we did manage slip in a beach trip before we met up with Rach.

Even though I really want to get to know Will better, I didn't mind getting Rachel all to myself this weekend. We biked everywhere (see pic below and please note Rach's heavy duty lock), beached, went to a street festival, drank wine and most importantly, just talked. I got to see the regular cast of Chicago characters, Joe, Nana, Church friends, a cousin, and her sis Laura.

I'm really looking forward to our next visit when she and Will are settled in Denver. By then, she'll probably be outfitted in hiking boots and hemp clothes ;)