Thanksgiving= Food, Family, Fun, and traffic

You never think you'll see Christmas lights on the freeway, that is unless you live in DC. The highway blockage started on Tuesday afternoon, and our highway turned into a parking lot for 32 solid hours. Getting around town was not possible on Tuesday by any means. People were everywhere, for two days, trying to get out of the city. Airports were backed up, the Metro was packed like sardines, and the streets were, like I said, a parking lot. I guess not a lot of people spend Thanksgiving in DC. Matt and I headed out on Wednesday for Virginia Beach to spend the Day of Giving Thanks with my new family. Knowing the previous days situation, we waited until a little later to make our way into the swirling pool of tail lights. I meant to take a picture of the situation, to prove to you that I'm far from making this up. Traffic was backed up for days, so we pulled over for about 5 minutes to wait for the HOV lane to open up to all cars. With this idea, the greatest that Matt has ever thought of on his own, we made it to VA Beach without a hitch.
I won't bore you with turkey details, but we had a great time at the Hooker house. They welcomed me as if I had been a part of their family my whole life. I put up momma hooker's Christmas decorations as if it were my own home. We had such a fantastic visit. I can't wait to go back.
When we headed back to DC, knowing that the traffic would be worse, we took the scenic route back. It took a little longer, but we avoided soooo much traffic. The trees are changing beautifully in this part of the country, in case you were wondering. We knew we were getting closer to DC as traffic picked up, but we made it home in no time flat. Now, it's time to put up my own Christmas decorations!!!

Garage meet Opal, Opal, meet Garage

Well, I would have to say that this weekend was one for the books as well. I seem to be having those A LOT lately! I'm a mess, in case you didn't know.
So, here's what happened...
Jennifer and I went to the church for the church "work day" then I dropped her off in Georgetown. I was heading home and was pulling into my garage, when (oops) the door doesn't open. So me being the genius that I am thought to back up and try it again, to see if the sensor would pick up my puck to open the door. Well, I tried twice and no can do. The door isn't going to open. Since I am on a downward slope, putting it in reverse, you have to gun it in order to not hit the door...Well, third time was sort of the charm. I gunned it, but the car wasn't in reverse, and into the door I went. Knowing that there was a car behind me trying to get into the building as well, I knew I was not in a great position. Not only would the door not go up, but it was in a "V" formation now. I slowly backed my car out of the metal wreckage, and pulled over to the side of the road. I think the car behind me was just as stunned as I was, but glad it wasn't them that had to call their insurance, or the condo association to make the claim. After hightailing it into the building to report the situation, I parked the car around the corner, and was going to wait for Matt to come home. When Matt came home, and I finally broke down, weeping in his arms. I took him out to show him the damages, and I bet you can't guess what was waiting for us on my windshield. YOU GOT IT!! I got a $25 parking ticket for not feeding the meter. It just wasn't my day.
Today is Monday, it's a new week and a short one at that. Although, this morning, I plugged our Ipod and it synced and all of the music was deleted from the Ipod. So...I'm sure I have no place to go but up...right?

New York City here we went...

So, Matt and I went up to New York for the weekend. We saw everything from the Met, the Moma, to the Manolo Blahnik boutique (I try to educate). We took a tour of the New York Life building, seeing my dad's name on a plaque in their hallways, all sorts of things. It was pretty cool! We did the Today show to Broadway shows. We did it all. We saw it all! But for me, the most memorable part of this trip wasn't the NYC experience. Don't get me wrong, if you know me at all, you know that I will take NYC in any way it may come. However, on this particular trip, Matt and I thought we would try something new...the "Chinatown Express".
If you don't know what exactly the "Chinatown Express" is, it's an experience, that's what it is. It's a bus that takes you from DC to Boston, Chinatown to Chinatown. We took the DC to NYC bus (naturally). It's a 3-4 hour bus ride, which isn't bad, unless you take the 2AMer. I don't think our bus had shocks.
Okay, let me back up a bit...finding the place to even catch this bus both ways was an adventure within itself. We found the one taking us there, and when we arrived at this place they call a "bus station", everyone in this basement operation was watching what seemed to be "Asian Idol", and it seemed to be good, as everyone was chatting and laughing it up at 1:30am. As I was thirsty, I wanted to see if they sold bottled water. They had a fridge for drinks and what not, but the only thing in this "fridge" was a half gallon of curled milk, a tub of yogurt, and a half empty bottle of water. I opted to swallow my own spit. We FINALLY get on the bus. Matt and I take our seats to settle in for a long winters nap, that is until the bus left the station. IT WAS AWFUL! It was almost like Chorale tour only 100 times WORSE as far as sleeping goes. I won't bore you with more details, but we arrived in NYC around 5:30AM. It was just enough time for us to take the 2, which was hard to find in the ghetto of Chinatown in NYC, up to Rockefeller Center to be front and center on the Today Show. Boy were we tired. However, all we could do was laugh about what we had just endured. I'm glad we did this together. The ride home was much much better, minus the guy in front of us talking loudly on his cell the ENTIRE 3 1/2 hours home, and that I got us lost trying to find the bus station. It was a very memorable trip to NYC. Definitely one for the books.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY OKLAHOMA!!

100 years ago today, families rushed the land of the Indian Territory, now called Oklahoma. I wish I could be there to celebrate such a great state!

It has been a while...

...Okay, so it's been 1 year, 6 months and 12 days since you last heard from me. A lot has happened, so try to keep up with this update.
First of all, I don't think that I ever mentioned having a boyfriend in the previous posts, but I did and now I have a husband. I was married 2 months ago and all is GREAT! I'm officially a Hooker, and I wear the name proudly, as only I should.
I am still with Roll Call. I was promoted in February of 2007 to Retail Advertising Sales. So far so good...and that covers my career in a nutshell.
I wanted to start this back up again, because I really miss my friends and I miss you guys knowing what is going on in my life here in DC. Sooo much has happened and is happening around here. I wanted to be able to share with you all what life is like here in DC. It's a little crazy at times, but a whole lot of fun. Just to give you an idea of what I'm talking about let me tell you, I saw first hand, a fight on the metro when I was headed home from work. It was AWESOME!!! I was freaked out in the midst of the brawl, but now I can say...it was a good one. It was between this tiny man and larger woman (I'm trying to be nice here) and boy were they mad. She had her feet in the seat he wanted to sit, and she wasn't moving, and he wasn't having it. Did I mention that they were complete strangers??? Yeah. I'll tell you it was good without going into details, bore you, and you stop reading.
However, it is stories like this that I feel people need to know, and I plan to share...I hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading...