of course it was cold in florida

So I was in Florida two weeks ago for work and ending my four conferences in four weeks. So I was tired and just couldn't wait to be home! But I was looking forward to some sunshine as I was going to Florida after my cold cities in Indiana, Ohio and New York, but noooope, mother nature had other plans in store. When I was there (the last week of March) it was COLD. Tuesday was a high of 61 and it was windy, the low on Wednesday was in the 30s - it was technically warmers in the morning in DC.  But I took advantage on Tuesday to travel to a National Park! I went to Canaveral National Seashore which is about an hour from Orlando. And despite the chilly weather I did take a walk on the beach and enjoyed the sunshine!

National Park # 66! Woooooooo :)

Walking down onto the beach!

Nothing I love more!

So then I had a few fun filled days of conference life. Orlando was a bit crazy - so it made for a long few days. I just kept counting down until Sunday! So since the spring set of conferences is ending soon we celebrated Easter with a staff lunch out! All decked out in our Easter gear - we had a staff Easter egg hunt before we left!

Ladies lunch in Orlando - the whole staff this week was female!

Heather - my PC partner and I in our Easter bonnets!

So I flew back home on Monday morning and it was SO nice to be home! I relaxed and cleaned, laundry/all the fun things after being gone for 4 weeks. And then on Tuesday the boy and I went for a hike - it was a bit chilly but just great to get outside.

Gorgeous views of Virginia - the Shenandoah mountains are in the background

The rest of the week was uneventful - I was in the office 3 days this week. It was kinda crazy, but so nice to know that at 5pm I was done for the day! I'm looking forward to the next few months of just being in the office prepping for the summer. I enjoyed catching up on tv and just enjoying some quiet nights in. Friday night though I headed into the district to get my Cherry Blossom 10 miler bib for race day on Sunday! It was a gorgeous evening to be out and about and walking along the mall. 

This morning Patricia and I went on an adventure to MD so I could add a few more National Parks to my list. We went to Catocin Mountain Park and Monocacy Battlefield.

My trademark photo with signs! National Park # 67!

Patricia and I after a little frolic through the woods!

Pretty views!

Catocin has a neat history - FDR originally had the CCC and other WPA projects done here during the Depression and created a presidential retreat here. So somewhere in the park is Camp David! And then we drove a few miles away to Monocacy and learned all about this important battle in 1864!

July 1864 - Battle of Monocacy in MD

So now I'm off to bed, getting up super early tomorrow for the Cherry Blossom 10 miler! Wooo! I'm excited, though I haven't been running much. Hoping the Cherry Blossom's have bloomed more since I saw them on Friday - the cold weather has kept them from blooming! How have your last few weeks been?

bracket time!

So one of my favorite times of the year is upon us! MARCH MADNESS! This year has been hard as I haven't followed college basketball as much as I usually do with the last few weeks being crazy with work. And the fact that my beloved Tarheels aren't doing too hot this year doesn't help. The few games I've watched have made me cringe - though we did have a decent run in the ACC tournament. 

But the hardest thing was having my boys loose to Kansas in the second round. I really hope they win and completely screw up my bracket but a girl has got to be realistic when there is a year long bet with your dad riding on your bracket! So my final 4 are Louisville, Kansas, Ohio State & Indiana.

Here's to a great month of sports! And to of course working 60+ hours during the opening weekend of March Madness!

Do you do a bracket? 

march so far

march has been great so far. but it is a crazy month. i'll be in my office for 2 days this month (both have already happened) and i'm traveling for work for 26 days with 20 of them in a row, and then 3 days of fun travel. i'm currently on day 2 of 20 of travel for work. so here are my adventures so far. 

yup - double knee brace skiing! i went with the boy to central pennsylvania and went skiing for a weekend. it was great to get out skiing again! and while the first few runs were rocky as i was rocking double knee braces by the last runs on sunday i was tearing it up down blacks. 

 

a little bit of ZTA pride for International Badge Day. I love my Zeta Badge and everything it stands for. 

  my day at o'hare last week. last tuesday i spent 6 hours in the airport hoping my flight would still be taking off so i could get to ohio. i found out monday morning that my original flight from chicago to columbus was cancelled so i was prepped to spend 5 hours in o'hare. luckily i had a united club pass and well i couldn't think of a better place to use it. 

so i spent 5 hours doing work in my office ---- while i waited for my flight and had snacks and did work and caught up on tv while doing it. so i had a pretty good day! my flight was slightly delayed but considering 80% of flights from o'hare were cancelled i couldn't complain! though i was exhausted when i finally got to the hotel!

woke up to this view outside my window of the ohio capitol building covered in snow! and then kicked off a fun conference in columbus!

a fun teambuilder - using  rolled up paper as light sabers and beating each other up! here i am beating up ali and then a program coordinator love picture after!

so then sunday after we finished work we went on a little adventure. so another co-worker paul mentioned the world's largest basket and he has some story about it and why his friends will never let him go. so because of that i was like i am getting to that basket. so jean and ali came with me and we had a fun 45 minute drive to newark, ohio and had a fun photo shoot with the basket. it is 7 stories tall and it the headquarters of longaberger baskets. and a fun way to spend the afternoon!   sunday evening i headed back to virginia for 36 hours. where i saw the boy and had a day in the office doing a million things and catching up with coworkers who weren't traveling that week. and then monday night was the end of an era. 

a kinda short era but one nevertheless. as we know friendships evolve and change as we get older and mj, patricia and i all met summer 2009 when we were coworkers at all of our first conferences. at the end of the summer mj stayed in dc, i moved to nj and patricia went back to kansas. i saw each of them separately a few times but it wasn't until fall 2010 we were back together in dc working conferences again. and now patricia had moved to dc as well and we were all in dc for a few months summer 2011 when i lived there for a bit and when i was in charleston we saw each other whenever i was in dc. and then for 7 glorious months we were all living in dc after i moved here and had almost weekly dinner dates if not bi-weekly. and in december mj got engaged and is getting married in may and while there was talk of moving i didn't expect it so soon - i was guessing summer. but last week mj's fiancee got a job in utah. and they are moving in mid-april. while i am so happy for them it just sucks that one of my closest friends is moving across the country. (and it is weird my friends are moving and i'm not the one bouncing around!) and also patricia moved in with her boyfriend last week too. so a lot of big news. so the crazy part is with my redic schedule and mj's the only day we had with all 3 of us in town before the wedding in may was monday night. so we did a quick plan for dinner and had a great night catching up over the last few weeks since we last got together. and got to see patricia's new place! so i'me excited for the new adventures and friendships to grow and hey, trips to utah! 

so tuesday morning i was back on the road. headed to westchester, ny for my next conference. and it was a gross rainy tuesday. my flight from dca to philly was delayed and i just barely (seriously 30 seconds) made my flight to westchester. after i landed in westchester i had calls from us air letting me know i was booked on the 4:20 flight and then letting me know the 4:20 flight was cancelled. sooooo glad i made that flight! but it was the worst flight ever. 45 minutes of turbulence in a propeller plane. and looking out the window you only saw white from the clouds - it was rough. i had such a headache from it. 

so now kicks off a weekend of fun in westchester for a conference and then i can't wait for sunday! i'm headed into the city to see suz for a few days and to play in nyc! including a little bit of st. patrick's fun on sunday! which i'll need! and i can't wait to hit a few of the manhattan national park sites on monday! then tuesday i'm headed to albany for another conference and then the next week to orlando! i won't be back in dc until april 1st! crazy crazy crazy. but i wouldn't have it any other way!

how has your march been?

february is over!

Seriously February flew by! I don't know how it is the end of the month already! The last two weeks have been busy busy busy! I went home for a long weekend for Presidents' Day and enjoyed seeing my twin on Friday night - I stopped by her & Andy's house and caught up with them, as the last time I saw them was their wedding in August! Then I enjoyed my weekend at home seeing my family and just enjoying Jersey! There is just something about it! My sister and I saw Safe Harbor - gotta love a Nicholas Sparks movie! And then my gramma was over for dinner. Monday I headed back to Jersey kinda early as I was leaving Tuesday morning to head to Indy and I needed to do laundry and re-pack!

nothing like cliff's ice cream - even when it is 15 degrees outside!

So Tuesday was my first State travel of the spring! It was weird flying since I haven't been on a plane since July! I was flying almost every week from February to July last year and then nothing for 6+ months! But I was off to Indianapolis and looking forward to it. I'd been to Indiana two years ago for work - and loved it! So I flew in Tuesday and went out with my coworker and her friend and watched the end of the Indiana-MSU game and it was fun being in a bar in Indiana watching the #1 team play in a very close game! Wednesday we headed out on an adventure downtown - I wanted to explore the State Capital which you know I love!

woooo for another capital!

So after walking around downtown we headed to this great burger place and then headed back to the hotel to get things set up. It was a good conference - overall. A few hiccups but nothing crazy and it was fun. MJ was working this weekend too so it was nice to have her around! I survived my first session as a State PC - so yay for that! I'm off to Columbus, Ohio on Tuesday for round two!

The fun was Sunday night - I met Amy's parents for dinner and had a great time with them! I haven't seen them in a little over a year so it was nice to catch up! I can't wait to see them in May in Charleston for Amy's graduation! And Sunday night was glorious to lounge around in my lovely hotel room and king size bed and just relax and catch up on tv I've missed! Monday morning I flew back to DC and I've enjoyed my week in the office getting ready for the next few sessions! Especially that I'm gone the month of March for work! Wooo - Columbus, Westchester, Albany and Orlando! Especially Orlando! I'm heading there early (sadly the flights for Austin didn't work out) but I going to go to a National Park site and the beach since I get there early! 

And in other news... there is a new boy in my life. I've been seeing him since mid-January and he is pretty awesome. I went on a really interesting string of first dates from December-January and this one was a pleasant surprise! Since the first date I've seen him about twice a week and it has been hard with my crazy schedule but he has one that is just as crazy as mine. So in a way it is kinda good as he understand when I'm like yeaaa - so I'm home for 4 days in March. So the details - he is 30, from Texas and works in government (as does everyone in this area), was in the Navy and enjoys backpacking & camping/the outdoors and I really enjoy spending time with him! 

So how was the end of your February?

last two weekends

so i somehow never posted about my adventures in new jersey last weekend. so the last two weekends have been busy, busy, busy!

last week i took off friday for a long weekend in jersey. my parents try to go up to west point for an army football game every fall (2009, 2010)and so i went home so we could do that and also on sunday was think pink with the giants for zta! so a great weekend of football! and i also got my haircut, which was badly needed! lots of fun pictures from my football weekend in jersey!

got there early for the parade

pretty day up in west point - looking over the hudson

little football action - army won!

momma and i

so sunday was the giants think pink game and i had a great time with my nnj zta sisters helping to raise money and getting to work with the 9 collegiate chapters that came to help! and we got tickets to the game too!

love my nnj zta ladies!

in all my giants think pink gear! - don't worry i still love my JETS!

most of last week was pretty quiet - i did do something pretty cool though with work. i moderated a panel for one of our conferences, so that was a lot of fun.  it was on the latin american drug trade and i pretty much just introduced it and then moderated the questions from students. so the cutest thing was i was standing by the speakers at the end of the event and a girl came up to me to talk and says hi, and i want to be you! totally made my day! she saw my bio with teaching and living in ireland and that's what she wants to do. so cute! i love working with hs students!

so friday night i went to see zac brown band with mj & kaley! soooo funn! i absolutely LOVE zac live. last fall i saw him twice in one weekend - and i'm super sad i can't go to charleston this weekend for the southern ground festival again. especially this year because john mayer will also be there! but seeing zbb again was great! but OMG was it cold - it was a open venue with lawn seats - and we were under the pavilion in seats but it still got down into the 40s. COLD! but it is worth it to see zac!

love him

:) 

 little video of my favorite zbb song - colder weather

and then on saturday i went up to baltimore for kspice's bachelorette party. it was a lot of fun and we went out to dinner and then out for some drinks. so low key but fun! i hadn't seen kspice or my little in so long! i can't wait until her wedding! especially because their group of college friends - a lot of their friends guest list will be similar to little's wedding two years ago! yay!

little, kspice & me

little and i 

little war of 1812 action at fort mc henry! 

sunday was a little rough - i'm not a fan of getting old. after a morning of chatting and watching friends dvds - (this is always what little and i do!) i headed to ft. mchenry on my way home. i went for the first time two years ago on the way to dc from little's bachelorette. the real reason for my re-visit to the fort was my passport stamps! haha - i'm such a dork!

then it is a busy week! today is the only day this week i don't have plan after work! so i've taken advantage of the doing nothing!

i'd also like to say happy founders' day to zeta tau alpha! we were founded today back in 1898! 114 years of sisterhood! joining zta was one of the best decisions i've ever made. i am so proud to be associated with such an amazing organization and love all the friendships i've made and amazing women i've met through zeta. <3 nbsp="nbsp" p="p">

what i wore

so now that i have a place to live and my clothes again i've had a lot of fun getting to mix new clothes in with old and also now that it is getting chilly and all fall i've been able to start wearing different clothes! so here is the most recent edition of what i wore

top: gap fall 2012
pants: gap cords winter 2011
shoes: sperry's

top: gap spring 2010
pants: ann taylor spring 2010
shoes: target fall 2009

sweater: gap fall 2012
pants: fall 2012 - omg i am in love with these pants!
shoes: black pumps nine west fall 2010

top: tank h&m winter 2010
sweater: ann taylor loft summer 2011
skirt: h&m pencil skirt winter 2010
shoes: bandalino winter 2012

shirt: gap winter 2010
cardigan: macy's spring 2010
pants: ann taylor spring 2010
shoes: nine west summer 2011

top: old navy tshirt summer 2012
blazer: ann taylor summer 2011
pants: ann taylor loft summer 2012
shoes: target summer 2011

we have a pretty lax dress code at work - jeans are fine, but i try to only wear them once a week and if i do dress them up with heels or a blazer. but it is great because i can mix and match so many things! i want to try taking these photos with a timer - the lighting isn't the best and they are all coming out blurry!

hope you are having a good week! what is your favorite turning fall clothing?

disconnected

so a few of my friends have commented on the lack of blogging the last 10 days but due to moving i didn't have internet at home until saturday - so i was a week without it and i don't blog at work. but we finally are connected! woooo! so nice to have tv again too! 

my cube at work! - just got more pictures printed! can't wait to add more!

empty apartment! the living room/dining room and hidden kitchen

moving! 

leaning tower of boxes!

so a busy busy few days with moving and work. so last saturday i moved into the apartment! yay having a home again and the fun of decorating! and then sunday was part of the 150th anniversary of the battle of antietam, so i was happy with my unpacking efforts so i decided to go! i was really happy i decided to go because i had a blast! i went to antietam last year for the first time and really enjoyed it, and the national park did an amazing job with the 150th - i just wish i was there on monday for the actual anniversary!                

my building!

bathroom

bedroom - not totally finished. i need my dresser and to hang things on the walls. 

more bedroom


went to antietam for the 150th anniversary weekend of the bloodiest day in american history. 23,000 casualties.

great artillery demo - this was the confederate one near the visitors center - so loud!

 the cornfields - 12,000 casualties in 3 hours. i had a wonderful guided talk on this aspect of the battle

along the bloody road at antietam

the rest of the week was fun! tuesday i went on an ikea adventure with my roommate and a coworker! and wednesday night i went to my first northern virginia zeta event - which was a blast and i met some really nice people and i'm really excited to get involved with the chapter! and then friday night i went out into the district for ellie's birthday!

my first ikea experience - got some end tables & coffee tables!

living room! couches and tv! woooo! and yes my tv is a little old - whatever it works!

saturday we got connected and i met one of the zetas to get our nails done and then the couches were delivered! woooo! so excited about them! i feel like such an adult now that i own couches! and then i was invited by the same zeta to a small bbq with some of her friends. so that was fun to get to meet some people and just have a relaxing night! annnd it was pretty cool - i ended up getting a ticket to the redskins football game today! zeta teams up with the nfl teams to help raise awareness for breast cancer for our think pink games and the game is in a few weeks but we ended up getting tickets for this weekends game and getting invited by the owners wife - who is also a zeta to a pregame event. so changed my sunday plans of going to the national book festival on the mall, but it was great to get to go to a nfl game! and my dad was so jealous! he is a HUGE skins fan! it was a crazy game - they ended up loosing, but it was still fun to go to! and an absolutely gorgeous day! 

with the nova zetas and tanya snyder at the pregame event!

at the redskins game!

hail to the redskins!

and my jets managed to pull off a win! i couldn't watch the game but i kept checking the score - but my fav revis is out with a knee injury, just hoping it isn't my least favorite knee injury. and it was a crazy day in the nfl - it is crazy how the standings are this year! a lot of surprises! 

so things are going well! i'm excited about everything and it is crazy how fast time is flying! i can't wait to finish getting the apartment set up and decorated and make it feel like home! how was your weekend?