Thanksgiving New York Minute

Thanksgiving weekend was spent in New York City with my sister Kacey and our fabulous hosts Catherine and Preston Wallis. Catherine and Preston got married in September and have been living in NYC and since I am so close we decided that it would be a great place to spend Thanksgiving. The only time I have been to New York is for the US Open and I wasn't able to see any of the city so this was a whole new experience for me. Catherine made sure I got the full New York experience.

We started Thanksgiving Day with the Macey's Parade. Lucky for us Preston works on 6th ave and 34th street so we got to watch from his office. We were up on the 11th floor and sat on the window seals, it was the perfect view. Our sweet family friends the Matheson's invited us over for Thanksgiving dinner. We love this family. They have the cutest kids and really made it feel like we were with family.

Friday we needed to regroup a little bit. We slept in and then took a nice walk through Riverside Park where You've Got Mail is filmed. We showered and went out for a day of attempting to shop, sightseeing, and then seeing the Rockette's Spectacular Christmas show that night. The perfect way to start off the Christmas season. We walked all around 5th Ave and Rockefeller Center before heading home.

Saturday was more sight seeing with Central Park, Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, more shopping and of course Serendipity for some lovely Frozen Hot Chocolate.

We had such a great weekend! We missed being with our family but Catherine is about as close to family as you can get for us. Thanks for such a great weekend Preston and Catherine! Thanksgiving in New York City can now be checked off the bucket list!

Go Hoya's!

Since the NBA won't be playing games anytime soon we decided to take the matter of seeing a basketball game into our own hands. Lucky for us, Georgetown's season just started and they are pretty good. We headed to the Verizon Center for the Georgetown Hoya game against North Carolina. It wasn't much of a game. The Hoya's doubled the other teams score but we made it a good time.

The Crew

Run Forest Run!

This weekend I accomplished something I had been working towards for the past 2 months. I ran the Richmond Half-Marathon! A big group of us headed down to Richmond on Friday to spend the night. There were 8 of us running the marathon and then 3 people came to be our cheerleaders. We carbo-loaded on Friday night with pasta and were up at 6:00 am to get to the race.

Pre-Race

At the starting line

I have been working hard for this. I gave up all junk food and sweets about a month ago, was drinking one diet coke a day (a major sacrifice) and running between 3 and 10 miles every day. I was as ready as I was ever going to be. I had a goal to finish by 2 hours and 15 minutes and I ended up finishing in 2 hours 4 minutes. I thought that mile 8 and 9 were never going to end but they did and I made it to the finish without ever stopping.

Post-Race

The real adventure didn't start until after the marathon though. We split up into 3 different groups. One of the guys Jordan, that had come to watch, and I were in a car together. We got stuck in traffic for about 2 hours and by this time I was starving. It was a really frustrating situation but luckily nothing was going to put me in a bad mood after that run so we were laughing the whole time. We finally made it to a restaurant and met up with another group. I ordered a nice big cheeseburger and sweet potato fries with a diet coke of course.

Cheerleaders!

From the left: Kristen, Jordan, Me, Janae (we stayed at her apartment) and Nicole

Our three cheerleaders: Kristen, Nicole, and Jordan wanted to do a little sight seeing so the four of us plus another runner Jen went off to see the sights of Richmond. Let's just say I was not in the greatest condition for much sight seeing and therefore can't really tell you what we saw but I have to say the scenery was beautiful.

The Confederate Fish

Maymont Mansion

We finally made it back to DC around 7:00 but then Jordan and I had to return the car we had borrowed and we also had to drop another runners things off at her house. After getting lost multiple times through out the day we were ready to be done and get home. But of course that wasn't going to happen. We ended up getting lost on the way to her house and then after finally finding it both our phones died leaving us with no GPS to get to the person's house to drop off the car. After realizing another girl had left her phone in the car we made some calls and finally made it to the house. Let's just say it made for a very very long day.

My Sweet Roommate

I finally made it home and took a nice LONG shower before cozying up in sweats and climbing into bed. I had slept on the floor the night before the race so this bed of mine felt mighty good! To top it all off I came home to some beautiful flowers from my family.

Richmond

Thank you to everyone who texted and called through out the day. It made it so much better when I knew how proud people were of me. I can't wait till I can run another one!

Days Go By

Tonight was a night that needed to be spent away from the Barlow Center. It is very easy to catch cabin fever around here and sometimes you just need to get out. Sean and I headed to Urban Outfitters for a little shopping. Walking around Georgetown is something I will never tire of. After that we met up with some others and headed to the GW campus for Foto Week. They had all of these National Geographic pictures projecting on the side of a building. It was pretty sweet.

I haven't really been on the George Washington campus yet and it is beautiful. It cured me of my cabin fever and it was a great fall night. I am not ready for the warm nights to be over.

Can't Get Enough of Fall

It has been the perfect fall weekend. The weather was just crisp enough for a chill but then the sun was out making it perfect. Definitely scarf and boot weather which is always my favorite combo! We spent as much time as we could outside. Friday we had class at the Capitol where my fabulous boss Congressman Matheson spoke to us. He rocked it. Then we went to the Tax Court and had a mock trial where I totally won my case for an appeal.

(Pictures curtesy of Sean Mearns)

Saturday I took a group on a tour of the Capitol and then we headed to Good Stuff for lunch, one of my favorites! We met up with some others and walked towards the Botanical Gardens where we explored the jungle, desert, Hawaii, and medicine plants. The night was spent on a roommate date walking the streets of Georgetown.

Daylight Savings was heaven sent on Sunday morning. That extra hour really helped me out. Sunday's can get really long sometimes and by 9:00 I was having serious cabin fever. Morgan and I went for a nice Sunday stroll.

Overall I would have to say it was a pretty great weekend. Now there is another busy work week ahead of me and a half marathon to run!

Ronald Reagan started the tradition of President's returning the salute to US Soldiers.

Top of the World

The other intern Tara and I had the chance to go to the top of the Capitol dome this week. It is very special tour and only people that are with a member of congress are allowed to go. Luckily another office had a couple of spots open and we were able to go with them. We climbed 300 steps and ended up outside right underneath Lady Freedom. It was one of the coolest things I have ever done. Here are some of the many pictures I got...

What a beautiful city I am able to live in! 

The Capitol dome was completed during the Civil War as a sign that America would stay one country and not divide.

Witches, Ghosts, and Ghouls...Oh My!

I love Halloween. I always feel like I am revisiting my childhood getting all dressed up except now instead of Trick or Treating we have to find other fun things to celebrate. Our stake had a Halloween Dance on Friday night to kick off the weekend. I felt like I was back in high school when I first entered the dance but as always it turned out to be one of the funnest things. We had some great costumes going on. Tron girls, Occupy Wall Streeters, Fantastic Mr. Fox, James Bond, and I was the Morton Salt Girl. We danced the night away and by the end we were exhausted!

We were waiting in the cold for a half hour before the shuttle came for the dance!

Saturday was a little break from the Halloween festivities. I slept in long and hard. Friday had been the longest day so I thought I deserved it. And then I went to the Holocaust museum. I now been to the London Holocaust museum, Dachau Concentration Camp, and the DC Holocaust museum. But I still get emotional walking through these exhibits. DC has a great museum and I am glad that I went alone so I could really absorb and take it all in. I definitely needed a pick me up after that which ended up being me watching football with the guys. It was way to cold to venture outside so I was just fine cozying up and watching sports.

It was snowing.

Halloween finally came on Monday and we still had no plans. I had to cook dinner for my dinner group and I decided to make it a little Halloweenish. We decided to dress up and head over to Georgetown. It was crazy how many people were there and all of the costumes. I felt like I was back in Waikiki for Halloween. A huge group dressed up as farmer's because there was some deal at Chipotle so while they went to get food Sean and I walked the streets. People watching is one of my favorite things and I never stopped being entertained by the people that walk these streets. After our walk we all headed back home and watched the best Halloween movie ever...Hocus Pocus! Such a classic.

I hope everyone had a great Hallows Eve!

 November 1st was made "All Hallow's Day" by Irish Immigrants making October 31st "Hallow's Eve"