This may turn into my "bitching blog"

Ok, so I often write in this thing when something annoys me, as you may or may not have noticed. The topic for today: IN-OFFICE NAIL CLIPPERS!

I have a coworker who clips his nails EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. At work! At his desk! Do you undertand how insanely annoying it is to go about your work and hear "pingk. pingk. PINGK." First of all, ew. Really, ew. Clipping your nails should be an "at-home" or "in the restroom" activity. When you clip your nails, no one knows where they fly to. Granted, the likelihood of the nail clippings flying farther then the realms of his desk aren't very high, but still.

And really, everyday? Are you freaking Wolverine that your nails grow THAT much that this becomes a daily habit? Do you clip at home also? If not, WHY NOT?!?

So what can I do about this? Any suggestions? How do I let him know, without coming off bitchy?

I DID just let my officer manager know what was going on... and she couldn't believe it, but let me know they would talk to him about it. So, is this guy going to hate me now? I mean, I don't want to make enemies, but this craziness has got to end!

I admit it...

I'm not very consistent with my blogs. I never claimed to be, but for some reason there are people who really like to read my blog. Call me a hypocrite because I get "angry" if the blogs I follow aren't being updated, but they are being updated way more than mine.

Truth be told, I don't blog that often because I don't feel like there is anything going on in my life that is of particular interest to write about. I'm not saying my life is dull and unexciting, because it's far from that. I guess I find it hard to be interesting here if I don't have kids to write about (because really, that's what people most like to read about.)

But I will try and do better because I love having some followers and I'd like to keep them around. Again, this is not a guarantee that I will be better about blogging, but I have an idea in mind that may enable more frequent, interesting posts. Stayed tuned.

Let me tell you about my morning...

The Fairfax Connector was finally running, despite the lack of plowing that has happened on only our street. The bus usually comes around 7:07 or so, and I got out to the stop around 7:04. Of course, Bruno has been awesome enough to give me a ride to the metro this week because I haven't even cleaned my car out from under the snow of the weekend and the bus hasn't been running. So when I saw that it was back in service, I decided to take it. So I wait, and wait, and wait for the bus and by 7:20 it still hasn't arrived.

"Crap," I think to myself. "It must have come early today."

So I decide I may as well walk to the metro. As soon as I turn to start walking, I look back and see the bus coming. I of course am on the opposite side of the street as the stop since that side isn't cleared at all. So I start waving my hands as the bus comes and he almost passes me by!! I can't run, since the street is still covered in ice, but I start yelling and he stops. Sheesh!

So I get to the metro and a man gets on near me and decides that he's deaf. By this I mean his headphones were so loud that I could literally hear every word of the song that he was listening to. Really? Then at the Dunn Loring stop a man sits behind me and reaks of smoke. I had to cover my nose and mouth with my scarf because I felt I would become sick because the smell was so strong.

Finlly, I get off at my stop. Kinda. As I'm exiting the train, which is a mere 3 secs after the doors open, the doors start to close on my hands. Luckily, I got my hands out of the way but my newspaper dropped on the platform. WTF?!? So the doors open and I turn and glare at the metro driver (I was on the first train.)

Now I'm at work, with the few people in my office. My coworker has brought his son in and he is sitting in our work area playing his DS. Not a big deal, one would think. Except apparently this kid likes to eat ice. And by eat ice I mean suck and slurp on it as he twirls on the stool. Awesome. Thankfully I have my iPod headphones today, but I have the broke-ass ones where only one side works. So I put that side in my left ear so has to block out as much slurping as possible. Seriously, what kind of day is today?? Luckily I'm only here for 4 hours...

Merry Christmas Eve!

I don't know what came over me...

But I decided a few weeks ago that I would run a 10k. Yeah. The girl who doesn't like running, hates it really, has decided to run a 10k. Like I said, I don't know what came over me and why I decided, "Hey, 6.2 miles would be AWESOME to run!"

It started on the ride to Neocon. Juli brought up some Jingle All the Way 10K, taking place Dec 13th in DC. Actually, when she brought it up, she did NOT mention the 10k part... she thought it was 5k. "Hmm... I could run 3 miles," I thought to myself. Again, I do not know what came over me. I have NEVER in my life heard about a race and actually thought about even attempting to run. Normally, I make a face and say, "I hate running." But this time it was different.

So I look into this race, and find out it is in fact a 10k, not a 5k. I've just doubled my mileage. I mean, 6.2 mi is a lot! I would be running OVER AN HOUR! In the time I could watch a Gilmore Girls episode, I would be running instead. Why would I even want to do that? But for some reason, I wanted to.

I don't know if it's because I've always had a hatred for running, but really no reason to dislike it so much. I've never really ran... I mean come on, softball doesn't count. I usually only run 60 feet, so the thought of running 6.2 mi has never ever crossed my mind of somethingI would want to do. But I'm doing it.

I started training 2 weeks ago. My first run was 1.5 mi; today I ran 5.5 mi. Yeah... 5.5! I couldn't believe it. Maybe it's because I thought my circuit was .75 mi when in fact is was .9 mi, but who cares. Maybe I really CAN do this 10k thing. It has helped that my friend Andrea is training for a marathon, so I've been able to train with her. Running with a partner is way better than running alone.

I think I can get one more run in this week before taking a probable week-long break while in Seattle. Then only a few more weeks until go time. Wish me luck!

It's going to be a really tough day...

Back in March, the local news highlighted a devastating and tragic news story. Two people, a husband and wife, were jogging early on a Sunday morning and were randomly attacked by a group of what is suspected to be about 4 guys in a white van. The husband was brutally beaten to death and the wife was left clinging to her life on the other side of the path. By the time authorities came, the suspects had fled the scene. The man beaten was my old softball coach. Needless to say, this story hit me pretty hard as I couldn't even believe something like this could happen, especially to someone, both of them, that I knew so well growing up.

My mom and I attended a vigil walk, down the same path they took, at 5am the following Sunday. Most of those in attendance were neighbors of the victims, most not actually knowing these wonderful people at all. But they still came out and together we walked, somberly. It was a very sad morning.

Weeks passed and I searched endlessly on Google to find out how the wife was doing, even calling the local hospitals to try and send flowers; to offer my condolences. I came up empty. I searched for weeks, trying to find word of when my old softball coach would be remembered and laid to rest. I came up empty. Through the wonders of Facebook, I found my friend, their daughter, whom I had also played softball with, and reached out to her.

"How are you doing? How is your mom? How is your sister?"

Since not having heard or seen any updates on her mom, I didn't know what to think. Was she still in the hospital? Was she still alive?

Thankfully, my friend responded and filled me in. Her mom was ok, though still in the hospital. But she was going to make it. A rush of relief swept over me, and tears of joy and pain came to my eyes. I still couldn't believe that this had happened, but I was so thankful to hear that she had made it through.

Yesterday, I received an email from my friend, filling me in on the details for her father's service and memorial. She asked that we spread the word to anyone else who knew them and would want to attend. I fowarded the message to a dozen people, most of whom had been coached by this wonderful man.

My mom and I are going to the service. I've heard word of so many other people, old teammates and friends, who we haven't seen in years, who will also be in attendance. This man was more than a coach, he was a teacher and such an incredible influence. His military background may have made his words a little louder, and his shorts a little shorter (come on, you all know his shorts were sometimes a little on the short side!), but through his commanding voice, there was a man who truly cared about every girl he coached and wanted all of us to succeed.

The memorial service is going to be so emotional... I teared up just reading the details of it. But I know that every single person there was influenced by this man in one way or another and his service will truly pay homage to his life.

A Follow-Up

We are homeowners!!! Not completely officially, but pretty much. We found a great condo in Oakton (yay!), in our price range (yay!), that will also give us cheaper payments every month then where we live now (SUPER YAY!) This condo is 2 bdr/2 ba, about 1140 SF. We've been eying this property for a while, but it was always overpriced, and at the beginning, out of our price range anyhow. But it was meant to be because we put down an offer (less then what they asked for) and they accepted it!

We had our inspection yesterday and everything is in tip-top shape. The place was kept in really good condition by the sellers and has a recently renovated kitchen, with glass door cabinets that will show off our colorful new dishes VERY nicely! What we love about the space is that it has defined areas, including a nice dining room, breakfast nook, and sun porch. We figured our current eating set-up will work better in the breakfast nook, so for a while, we will have an empty space in the dining area. No worries. The bedrooms are smaller, but the closets are bigger, so in the end, it evens out.

We hope to settle around mid-September so we would then have 2 weeks to paint and move-in before our lease runs out at our current place. We are just very excited and can't wait to move into our first home AND have our first visitors!!!! Contact me if you'd like to see pictures of the place.

Yay!

Can I sign up for Property Virgins to get the free gift? Oh, and a place to live?

Bruno and I have been house hunting since the beginning of the year. Yes, before our wedding. Obviously we didn't get too serious about the searching initially because we had a wedding to plan! But after all the fun and merriment, it was time to crack down.

We put an offer on a condo in Fairfax City a week after we returned from our honeymoon. It was a quick decision, but it needed to be. The condo was a short sale and had been on the market for less then a week. If we didn't jump on it, someone else would. So we threw our offer on the table and proceeded to wait... and wait... and wait some more. Funny thing about a short sale - it's not short at all! Our realtor told us to expect to wait 30-45 days to even hear anything. So of course I made a countdown on my calendar. While we waited, we scouted out other places, but none seemed as great as this place. Sure the layout may be a little small for our stuff and the storage may be lacking, but you really can't beat the location.

On day 54, the bank rejected our offer. It was too low. Devastated, we hung our heads and asked our realtor what we could do. We couldn't offer anymore money, we were at our limit. Or were we? Our relator looked into another bank for a loan and low and behold, we were approved for more money! Hot dog, that condo is ours! But wait, if we are approved for more... couldn't we find a NICER place, or even a townhouse or single family home? Hmm... this opened a whole new realm of possibilities.

This is where we are now. We counter-offered on the condo with a slightly higher price, but in the meantime, are checking out other options. We've basically ruled out single family homes because although we can afford a little more, those we can afford still need a lot of work and we really aren't the fixer-upper types. So we are focusing on condos and townhomes. Our relator tells us a townhome is a better investment and of course it has more space. Dilemna? We can't afford townhomes where we WANT to live (Oakton, Vienna) but where we can afford them, is a bit too far (Reston).

We just don't know what to do. Our relator tells us it's a lifestyle choice - condo close in or townhouse further out. Well I don't know! We looked at 2 townhomes in Reston yesterday. One had a great downstairs and patio, but the upstairs sucked (small master suite, huge guestroom). The second one had a great upstairs (good size master suite, 3 bedrooms) but a terrible downstairs (useless and undefined space). We refuse to settle on anything, so we'll keep looking.

The idea of Reston is very appealing. The town Center is really nice, and has a lot going on. The neighborhood of the townhomes looked so nice and friendly AND we could have a grill. BUT I work and play softball in Arlington. The thought of driving 30-45 minutes home after an 11pm softball game in Pentagon City really doesn't appeal to me at all. I can do Reston, but about as east of Reston as we can get, and still be on the toll road.

So that's all we have to find... by October (to close by Nov 30). A nice townhouse in East Reston off the toll road. No biggie, right? Right...... this will really put our realtor to the test!