Randomness of May - July

I have no idea what photos are in here - just randomness of what I have found on my phone over the last couple of months.. 

I work hard - haha - feet on the desk, shoes off, "listening" to a webinar. 

 

I'm a highly organized person and my office doesn't normally look like this: 

 

 But it was all because of this - I welcomed 42 interns in May and June - 42! That is 10 more than last year and while I love this program it is a tremendous lift for the entire summer.

 

And through this catch up phase the 12 week intern program will be over by the time this blog posts. On July 25 we celebrated National Intern Day so we took our HR Intern out for bubble tea! 

A card the interns gave me at our last intern event :) 

New dress, new earrings (thanks cousin) and high bun - I'm ready for this intern event! 

  I am very much addicted to bubble tea - it is amazing and Gong Cha is my favorite.

This wouldn't be complete without my favorite, quotes.

#truthbutsadtruth

 

#EveryoneNeedsToLearnThis

 In May we went to Jazz in the Garden - this is an annual event that we do - it's like our unofficial kickoff of the summer. After Jazz in the Garden - Stephanie, Anton and I got o Hyattsville, Maryland for Bonchon - I love Bonchon - soooo good!

First Row Left to Right: Kiara and Brittany 

Top Row Left to Right: Me, Neville, Martha and Stephanie

Anytime I am on the mall, I need to take photos of the Washington Monument and US Capitol - I won't always be able to see these things everyday, so I need to take advantage of it now.

In June, Gina and I went and say Secret Life of Pets 2 - it was adorable! And it was fun to hang out with Gina - she is such a good friend and I am so thankful for her in my life.

One weekend in June we decided to go to the a festival at the Wharf, Taste of the Philippians. But we were not prepared and did not get tickets and there were so many people that we sadly didn't get to go - but that's okay because we went to a burger place and had wonderful conversation. Then we meet up with Anton and Stephanie's friends and went to the summer solstice at the Smithsonian's where they stay open late. What a great idea and there were no lines! So we wen to the American History Museum and the the National Museum of African American History and Culture (as we didn't finish the museum when we went earlier this year). There was a talk going on and then a dance party - that is so cool!

A couple photos of my adorable niece, Raelynn Nicole - she is adorable!

Beautiful huge butterfly chillin in the flowerbed at work. 

It's summer here and hot and that means air conditioning and pools and blog catching up phase - which is now done! August is going to be fun with trips to North and South Carolina (bucket list items checked off for me - thank you Karen) and then to San Diego for work and then a short trip to Boise and in September a trip to Columbus, Ohio. 

I ask for prays for the rest of 2019 as I am going to make some hard choices coming up.

My Baby

And now I am finally at the catch up phase of this month long blog catch up phase and this entire post is just about my baby, Princess. Princess is now 15 years old and she is beginning to look old :( She is skinny and is a little lazier than she has been in the past, but I have faith that Princess will be here for another few years. I will be a mess when I Princess passes and for now I just have to enjoy all that she brings into my life. 

Princess is addicted and I mean addicted to the laptop and it is all my fault. She loves YouTube videos on birds, cockroaches and just string - there is seriously a market for videos for cats on YouTube. The first three photos were taken over a span of one hour...

 Video chatting with Marie and Princess is the creeper that listens when she isn't invited to the conversation. 

Stretching is good!

Princess got a new toy - that I found in the trash, my grandma would be so proud of me and Princess loves this little "S" track, especially in the middle of the night.

 

Professional photos :)

She is perfect and I love her so much!

Year 5

And just like that, I have officially made it to the 5 year anniversary of moving to the east coast. 5 years! Seriously, wow! I have blogged for so long that while I don't really enjoy it, I enjoy the end result of getting my blog book every year and also I am able to look back over the years. I blogged at the 6 months where I was still trying to get over the homesickness and learn to love my new normal. At 1 year I felt like I had a stronger foundation, made the decision to stay at least 3 years, still had homesickness but was settling into east coast living. At 2 years I had made the decision to to stay until the end of 2019 or beginning of 2020. Then 3 years in I was adjusting to a new normal of life in DC but still okay with the end of 2019 deadline. Then at the 4 years I was living a lone in DC. If I'm honest, year 4 was the hardest but through struggles there are rewards. And now here we are at year 5! I still can't believe it has been 5 years since I moved to the east coast. I was talking to my best friend on the east coast on Friday evening as we were on the rooftop of a fun bar with a great view of the Washington Monument and we were talking about how DC is our home, but it isn't. I'm comfortable in DC - I can maneuver through the city pretty well, I have officially lived in DC longer than the places I lived in Virginia and Maryland. But I don't feel at home in DC. DC has always been temporary for me and so maybe that is why I don't have those deep connections that I have in Idaho or with friends from my childhood. And even though I am ready to leave, I know it will be hard. I know that I will be that annoying person that says "when I lived in DC we did it this way" or "you don't know traffic until you have driven on the beltway" or an array of other conversations I am sure I will have. But what I do know is, I feel proud of my time here. I feel like I accomplished so much. I will not regret anything when I do finally leave DC. I will miss DC and I will visit and when I do visit I will be able to walk around and remember what it was like when I lived here. Thank you DC for welcoming me with open arms. Thank you for spoiling me on not having to drive (even if I hate metro - I haven't driven in over 4 months and not like I could, my car is in Texas). Thank you for jading me to any museum that wants to charge me to enter - Smithsonian's are the best and free! Thank you DC for teaching me more about myself and allowing me to make mistakes and grow. Thank you DC for introducing me to really good friends. I am blessed. This experience has been nothing like I ever thought it would be but it's my life and I am proud of it!  

Donating Blood

On Wednesday, July 17, I was scheduled to donate blood through the Red Cross event at my work. I have never donated blood before. I tried to donate blood last year and was turned away because of my tattoo (if you get tattooed in certain states it's a 12 month waiting period, compared to six months in most states). So, this time around I didn't have any new piercings or tattoos so I should be good! After answering the billion highly inappropriate question questions, they prick your finger to test your iron levels. She first tested my middle finger on my right had and it was .1 away from passing, so she offered to test my middle finger on my left arm and it was three points above (weird). So I was allowed to give blood! 

I get in the chair and the lady asks me which arm, remember I have never done this before, so I saw my right arm because when I go to the doctor and they take blood that is the arm the guy takes it from. He also says I have really good veins so I was pretty confident that I was going to rock at donating blood...Yeah epic fail. 

So, the lady stuck my arm and that hurt a little and then she twisted the needle ouch! But the needle is in, let's do it! About 10ish minutes later another person comes over and starts to take the needles out...but first she realizes that the arm cuff is still on my arm and I told her my arm felt really cold and tingly...yeah, lack of blood flow does that. Okay, needle out - hold pressure. As I was holding pressure on the wound, I felt something warm and moist under my arm and so I lifted my arm and it was covered in blood! There was an intern next to me and she looked over and said she gasped so then a person come over and apparently I was bleeding everywhere. I wish I could have seen the floor, but I did see them clean up my blood using a few paper towels. So, after all of that I was told that my blood was starting to clot and they couldn't get all the blood they needed for the vials - because they didn't tell me I had to keep squeezing the stress ball - my first time people! Give directions! So another person told me that they couldn't use my blood unless they got the vials of blood...great, so another needle poke in my left arm. 

Two hours later I walked out with 4 needles pokes. 

 

 A few hours later I took off the bandage and I was not expecting to see a bruise! 

 Wow! look at this bruise the next day, Thursday, July 18. I was not expecting this impressive bruise and the distinct needle whole...totally looks like I did heroin the wrong way - joking! haha!  

 Friday, July 19 - still looking impressive. 

 Saturday, July 20 -  this made my friend a little nauseous when I showed it to her. 

 Loving this bruise and sad to see the yellow coming, that means healing - Sunday, July 21. 

 Yes, I took pictures each day for an entire two weeks... I know I am sick, but this bruise was amazing! Monday July 22: 

 One week later, Thursday, July 25. 

 Going into week two it was getting smaller and smaller, Friday, July 26. 

 Saturday, July 27: 

 Sunday, July 28: 

 Monday, July 29: 

 One bruise is gone :( Tuesday, July 30:

 Two weeks, July 31 - pretty much gone :( 

 Officially gone two and half weeks later - Sunday, August 4: 

I know it is weird - but it was fun experiment to watch the evolution of my massive bruise for two and a half weeks.