Snowmageddon: Return of the snow

Remember December 19th’s Snowpacolypse and the whopping 19 inches of snow that accumulated in the DC region? We thought that was crazy, and had our fair share of fun. But 19 inches is nothing really, just a pittance.

Nothing compared to the 28 inches that fell today.

And yes, you read that correctly . . . 28 inches!

It started Friday morning, and we were able to leave work early to avoid the mess.  But a little snow isn’t going to keep me down.  My roommate and I decided that an historic snowstorm was the perfect backdrop for our first Wii party.  We had good food and good friends; what more can you ask for? And hey, Metro will get you home safe, right.

We woke up this morning to another winter wonderland and bundled up to trek out in the mess.  This time around, I was not missing out on all the action!  As a city full of young adults with no real responsibilities on a snow day, snowball fights have become a hit this winter.  This time around, Dupont Circle was the hot spot, and Emily and I were right in the thick of it!  Honestly, this was the most fun I’ve had in such a long time.  There were probably around 1,000 people out there pelting each other with snowballs.  I’m sure I’ll be bruised in the morning, but it was definitely worth it!  I took a short video to capture the madness:

Now, my real hope for the rest of the weekend is that church is not canceled tomorrow night and that work is on Monday!  And, well, that we don’t get any more snow for the next five years.  I think we’ve earned it this winter!

Check out pics from the day after the jump.

Turning 28

All cliches aside, I think I left my heart in San Francisco!

There is no better way to spend your birthday than on vacation.  You tend to forget it’s even your big day because you’re just enjoying being where you are.  This year I decided that I was not going to spend my birthday in a cold and snowy climate, so I jetted off to San Francisco to visit my dear friend Jess and her husband Nate.  Jess and Nate got married in April and moved to San Francisco right afterward.  This works great for me because San Francisco happens to be one of my favorite cities in the United States.  How could I pass up this opportunity?

We spent Friday, my actual birthday, roaming around the city.  But first, Jess made me the best breakfast of gingerbread pancakes. AMAZING!  In the city , we went to the Ferry Building, rode a cable car, got some sourdough bread and made a pit stop at Ghiradelli Square for some chocolate.  After a great Italian dinner and dessert in North Beach, we hopped back on BART for the trip back to Jess’s.  We ended the day by taking in You’ve Got Mail.  Best. Birthday. Ever. !!

On Saturday we headed out to Santa Cruz for a little shopping and then we drove up Highway 1 to hit up the beach.  Honestly, I pray daily that God leads me to live near the ocean.  I could sit on the beach for hours and just stare out into the vast ocean void.  My heart swells and I find so much peace just listening to the waves roll in. For me, it’s pure bliss.

Northern California beaches are by far the best!

Click through to take a peak into my trip.

Lock box

I am always saving things that are important to me.  I’ll save concert ticket stubs, wedding programs, notes from friends, etc.  I store them away in a box for safe keeping.  When I graduated from college, I had asked my grandfather to make me a little keepsake box, and ever since I’ve been filling it with little glimpses of my life.

I didn’t trust myself to take care of these memories without a special place.  The problem is that I never open the box to look at my mementos of life.  And I certainly don’t share them with others.  What good does it do me to save these items if I never open the box to reflect on them and let others take a peek at who I am?

Events in my life during the past several months have made me aware that I do the same thing with my heart.  I’ve been hurt in the past, have forgotten how to trust people, so I’ve put my heart in a box, locked it and won’t give anyone the key.

I’ve come to realize that this is definitely not the life God wants me to live.  God created us to be in relationship with each other; to share our lives.  Why was He not satisfied after he created Adam?  Because it’s not good for man to be alone (Genesis 2:18).

But, I have happily lived most of my life not letting people in to see the real Jenny.  Or was I just fooling myself into thinking I was happy?  I’ve given some people just enough of a peek to give the illusion of deeper intimacy, but it’s never been the real thing.  I would say that up until the past year, most of my closest friends and family haven’t really known what was going on . . . you know, deep down inside my heart.

As I’ve started to accept this reality that we are meant to be in deep community, God has blessed me by opening the door to deeper relationship with others.  He’s placed some Godly women in my life who have reinforced this truth to me.  And as I’ve craved deeper intimacy with them – or from them – I still hesitated in giving up the stronghold I had on my heart.  It took a stressful, emotional event over the holidays for me to finally be vulnerable and let some people in.  Let me tell you; it wasn’t easy!

Yet, I’m still a work in progress; I fail and I fail big time.  I continue to put people and my relationship with them in a box; I have a need to define it – mostly so I can control it.  This weekend was a perfect example.  When uncertainty arose in a friendship, I pulled away.  If I’m the one who walks away, I won’t get hurt, right?

Wrong! And it will probably hurt even more, because I’ll still be alone and I’ll have hurt a friend’s feelings in the process.

God has shown me his grace and love through these deeper relationships.  It’s not easy, it’s messy, but I’m learning that in the end, it’s a wonderful and beautiful thing!

Caught off guard

SURPRISE!!!

Not the words you always expect to hear when you walk in the door of your home.  Unexpected, but not unwelcome.  Apparently, my friends wished to celebrate my birthday even though I tried to dodge that bullet by going on a little birthday vacation this year.  Not to be deterred, they planned a surprise party for me two weeks ahead of time.  And boy was I surprised!

See the look of surprise (some would say disgust!) as I walked through the door!

Quickly followed by a smile, as I realized what was going down!

I had had plans with my friend Bindu for several weeks to have coffee before going to a concert later that night.  Coffee still happened, and I was under the impression we were going back to my place to pick up my roommate Emily and Tressa for dinner. Nope, not exactly, but this was way more fun than our dinner plans.  They managed to get a whole host of friends over, many of whom I don’t see very often (Burma team, you know who you are!!).

Yes, we had party hats, but that didn't last long before I was annoyed by the elastic.

I think the best part was the food.  Emily went to town with the spread.  But it was the cake that she and Justin baked that I loved the most.  My regular readers will know all about the drool-worthy books.  Well, my friends know about them as well, because I’m always talking about them.  So, guess what – that’s what my birthday cake was! (I need to find a better picture so you can see the books better, but you get the idea.)

Justin, Emily - you guys are the best!!!

And to top that off, Emily bought me a stack of Trader Joe’s Salsa Authentica, which is my absolute favorite salsa (not saying much, because I wasn’t much of a salsa eater until I discovered this stuff)!!  Just sayin’, this might be the best birthday gift ever!

Helloooooo, SALSA!!!

So, while I’m not technically another year older yet, maybe I’m a little wiser . . . in that I won’t trust my friends to forget about my birthday ever again!

(more on the wiser part to come in my next post . . . .)

Zen Master

We have a new toy in our apartment!

Last week my roommate finally broke down and bought a Nintendo Wii.  I should note that she’d already owned the Wii Fit game for about a month before this.

My parent have a Wii, so I’m familiar with Wii Sports and Mario Kart.  Tennis is my favorite, and I get a little too into it.  However, Wii Fit was new to me, but I wanted to give it a shot.

Turns out, it’s a little more difficult than I anticipated.  Once you understand what the games want you to do, you can pick up on them.  But, I’m sure I look absolutely ridiculous doing the Hula Hoop!  And don’t get me started on the soccer ball game because I get so mad at it!

However, it appears that I am a master at one game, which I find hilarious.  I am, apparently a Zen Master!  Out of all the games on the Wii, the only one I can master (on the first try, no less) is the game that requires absolutely no movement!  My roommate gets frustrated because she only lasts for about 30 seconds before the game ends.  I lasted all three minutes to the end.  This is all it takes:

Sit on this board with your legs crossed and don't move.

Stare at the candle and ignore all the distractions that come through.

I don’t know what this says about me, but I’ll revel in my Zen Master status for a bit.  Although I will master the soccer ball challenge if it kills me!

Trash bags

Does anyone have $700 they are willing to donate to my new bag fund?

I seriously need to develop less expensive tastes. From the beautiful books I’ve been drooling over (the first shipment of the second set has just arrived at my apartment!) to this fabulous new travel bag by TravelTeq I discovered off the Design*Sponge blog, I will be broke if I don’t control myself.  I love they named the bag Trash!  Click on the links to see more pictures.  It’s a beauty!

*Photo Credit: Design*Sponge

It’s classic, timelss, fashionable and useful.  And I wouldn’t mind having that scarf either.

In 2010, I will . . .

try to think like Jesus
try to speak like Jesus
try to act like Jesus

try to be like Jesus

I saw a lot of changes come my way in 2009.  I made a lot of decisions, and I’m still faced with some.  Sometimes I got it right, but a handful of times, I wish I had said or done things differently.  I only need one resolution for 2010 . . . I want to be more like Jesus.

Happy New Year to all my readers.  I wish you all the best in the coming year!

Snow day – Round 2

Yep, I just couldn’t get enough of the snow and made the trek to the National mall yesterday to check out the sights.  Luckily, the federal government was nice to me this year and gave me a snow day today as an early Christmas gift . . . too bad I have to go in tomorrow!

First stop right outside the Smithsonian Metro stop where we find the USDA Headquarters. I try to do important things when I'm in this building.

The Washington Monument surrounded by snow.

Brrrr!

Good perspective of how much snow we got. I believe, all said and done, Arlington got 19 inches!

The reflecting pool looking toward the Lincoln Memorial.

Emily and I took the scenic route instead of the nicely shoveled walks.

Korean War Memorial

Jenny was here!

Snowpocalypse 2009

From the looks of the empty store shelves, the deserted streets and the gloom and doom coming from the radio broadcasters, one would have thought the world was going to end.

No, it wasn’t the end of the world, just Snowpocalypse 2009 or DC’s biggest snow storm in at least six years.  It’s been snowing for 24 hours, and isn’t expected to let up for another 12 hours or so, tapering off through the rest of the night.  But, being the hardy Iowan that I am, I wasn’t about to let a little (or 17 inches) of snow get in my way.  Braving the snow, we made our way to the movie theater in Courthouse, but the real fun began after that.  My roommate and I decided to eat our way back to Ballston.  The only place open in Courthouse seemed to be Ireland’s Four Courts.  But, why stop there?  We were in need of dessert, so we walked over to Whitlows in Clarendon, playing in the snow on our way over.  There were snow drifts to jump over or through.  Snow angels to be made.  And, we even got in a little game of football with a couple crazy guys on the street.  Snow has a way of breaking down the famous DC resolve to not interact with others.  The only other thing I wish I could have done was participate in the massive snowball fight on U Street. (click here to see the YouTube video.)

I don’t normally like snow.  It has a way of disrupting everything, and always happens to fall on the weekends, not during the week when I could get a day off from work.  But, when faced with a situation you cannot change, you have to make the most of it.  And we did; see for yourself:

The start of our journey at the Ballston Metro. So glad I live at an underground station, as Metro stopped above ground service.

Our balcony was full of snow, and this was early in the day!

Cosi was definitely not open for business, in fact it closed as we were in line to order. Booo!

Emily vs. the Snow Mountain

The snow came up to the bottom of the benches, in some cases it completely covered the benches.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies on the big screen (ugh!)

I hope 2009 was the year that finally made Jane Austen roll over in her grave.  If it didn’t happen in 2006 with the release of Pride and Prejudice with Keira Knightly butchering the role of Elizabeth Bennet, then I’m sure the 2009 release of the book Pride and Prejudice and Zombies could have done it.  But, in the off-chance she could stomach that (and not to mention Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters), then the film release of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies HAS to be the last straw.

Oh, the horror!

Becaus I haven’t read the book, I cannot critique it, but the title alone is enough to make me weep for what has happened to Austen’s work.  Really, we had to introduce zombies into my favorite story of all time?  It’s really no wonder that children (and adults) today won’t pick up a classic – or even a respectable book.  Instead we get books like Twilight, which you really don’t want to get me started on.  I certainly have my theories on the dumbing down of the American public thanks to pop culture, and these types of books and movies play right into them. 

The popularity of this book overwhelms me; it currntly ranks #67 in book sales on Amazon.  Some will say that Austen’s book is so powerful that nothing can spoil it.  However, I am a purist at heart, and the only way I want my future daughters to be introduced to this book is through the original.  Not by a zombie.

I think I’m going to force my sister to read some decent literature and turn the tide one kid at a time.  So, Erin, if you are reading this – get ready!