Urban Gardener-to-be

This weekend was one of the most fun in quite some time. The parents and brother were in town so there was lots of delicious food, the weather was gorgeous, and generally I actually felt rested at the end of it. Might also have had something to do with the fact that I worked from home on Friday. Because the office can be a bit of a toxic environment.

With Dad around, I started thinking about projects, and he helped me design a raised bed in which I will grow vegetables. I'm going to enlist the help of some friends this weekend and build it myself. I will grow lettuce and some root vegetables for the next month or so (until the first freeze) and then I'll get ready for spring. In mid-February I'll start seedlings in our front window and then plant them as soon as possible. Lettuce, eggplants, and beans are my major goals. Since I eat a lot of those. I'm also going to start composting. I will fully document what promises to be a hilarious undertaking.

Unsubscribe

I went on an unsubscribing tour through my e-mail today. It was awesome. Hopefully the 10 fewer emails I get every day will lighten the load a bit. And make the few that are actually substantive that much more awesome. I also "unsubscribed" to something else.... work drama. I've grown to know several dysfunctional organizations in my life, and the one of my current employ is one of the most severe cases of high-schoolesque antics I've known. Serious people doing serious work with seriously too much ego. I guess the difference between this and high school is the first two seriouses. Anyway, it's above my pay grade. Nose to the grindstone and try not to get trampled in the meantime. If anything, the experience will be worth its weight in gold the next time I have to interview for a job. This also makes me think that I might think about investing in an effort to veil my own identity a little less thinly...

On Moodswings

Yesterday turned out to be a good day. Information came into my world via the 5th of an undefined number of forums my project is hosting. These forums end up providing me a route by which to go forward on actual work for a while, and now I have 8 work days of Mr. One Percent in a communications black hole while traveling to an unnamed populous communist nation. These days will include work from home, reading and writing, and generally doing less admin stuff than happens when he's around and having tons of meetings. I'm actually excited again to be doing this work.

Tumblr Love.

I discovered this blog today. And I'm in love--one of the great things about the rise of the Tumblr (or at least the rise of me knowing about them) is the way people use them to put all the beautiful things/thoughts/people/images they observe together in one place. It's like a mobile reminder that there's beauty in the world. Thanks Sarah, for sharing. Below, some favorite quotes.

"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free."

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (via friedarose)

"Pour yourself a drink, put on some lipstick, and pull yourself together." 

Elizabeth Taylor

 

"The problem with the world is that everyone is a few drinks behind."

  Humphrey Bogart (via getawaywithit)

Drivers

Mr. One Percent (the name I've now given my boss) just got picked up by a driver to go to a meeting that is literally two blocks away. I can't tell you how much I wish I had Rob Lowe's Chris from Parks and Rec standing next to me to narrate this episode. To be a little bit fair, I think he hopped into the car of his former colleague who was being driven to said meeting from Baltimore. But...come. on. It's two blocks. TWO BLOCKS. There's some upheaval happening with the project I'm working on right now, and it's small comfort to see him coming a little bit unglued about how non-corporate America works. As in, we think about things, make decisions based on consensus and critical thought processes, etc. The end goal is not just profits--it's trying to provide good information and analysis based on a variety of factors. Hence the term think tank.

Wink-a-thon

Match has a feature called "winking". It's awkward and weird, but it's basically how you give eyes at someone through the interwebs. At least it's better than "poking". I am obviously a novice at this but was able to get some sage advice this weekend from an experienced (male) Match dater who also happens to be my cousin. His advice was this: as a female, get yourself set up with a good profile, some good pictures, and then wink at people you think are attractive/interesting. So, that's what I did today. A good half dozen winks went out--and I returned some emails. And we'll see what comes of it.

In other dating news, previously mentioned single lady friend of mine has a date set up with her cop dude. She, like me, is a notorious self-saboteur and so we are considering working out a plan in which I stalk her on her date. To provide mid-date pep talks and a possible mid-date shot. I would hang out at the bar (or the bar next door) and be available should my assistance become necessary. And yes, we get that we're slipping closer and closer to the not cute side of crazy.

Weekend of Weekends

Simply put, my family is awesome. This weekend was cousins/bridesmaids weekend and boy was it epic. Friday the bride (my cousin) arrived and we had a relaxing and fun evening at my 'hood's newest bar with the third lady cousin who lives in DC. Saturday morning we trekked to J.Crew in Georgetown to get our bridesmaids dresses and had a great experience. Next came mimosas with brunch, several hours of roof-sitting and beer-drinking during which the bride's big brother arrived and really got things started. Margaritas and dinner at Lauriol Plaza followed by a pit stop at my apartment led us eventually to H Street where we hit the Pug, played Skee-ball, Buck Hunter, and golf at the Country Club and danced in the laser lights at Rock and Roll. It was a fantastic day.

Sunday, we had brunch and walked around more--stopping again at Anthropologie. Which got me to thinking about a possible second job there--I love their clothes enough for sure. It also got me to thinking about if there's a market for independent personal shopping services that include closet consultations. Because I would be awesome at that.