It’s finally spring in DC!

This has been a BUSY month. During Passover I went through a few rounds of interviews for a new job, which I was only at for about two and a half weeks. It wasn’t a good fit. Tax law was too passive for me, I really like getting to do legal research and helping support aggressive arguments, and tax law was more about actuarial calculations and data entry; not enough law for me in the long term. Oh well. At least I hadn’t gotten too settled yet. It was never meant to be, I was just too optimistic to realize that at the time. The entire time I was there, I felt a bit like this:

 

That is NOT how one should feel at work when the job and the employee are a good fit.

In cheerier news, we went downtown as the cherry blossoms were starting to bud (but before most had blossomed) 2 weeks ago.

Now, I’m back to where I was a month ago, looking for a NEW new job, but at least I have a slightly better idea of what to look for and what I should have seen as warning flags earlier in the interview process.

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I’ve been busy!

Around the high holidays (Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and for some people Sukkot too), I found out that the office I had been working at over the summer was closing. DOH! Laid off again!

I bummed around the house for a bit, getting REALLY into my yoga practice but still generally bored and baking too much. Then, about a month ago, the executive director at my synagogue contacted me and asked if I would work there until I moved and they hired a real office administrator. I said yes and I’ve been busy since then.

Between working 30 hours/week, going to yoga twice a week, and trying to get to at least one WeightWatchers meet per week I’ve kept myself busy. I wish I could say I’ve been skiing, but the weather has been unusually warm and I don’t have plans to go up until next week. Plus, I’ve been trying to make a big deal of shabbat so that Ben gets a real break in his week. About a week ago he successfully defended his thesis! Not that anyone ever doubted him, but it was nice to see a little note from his advisor and his approval of 72 credit hours of ‘A’ for his thesis work.

Now, we’re trying to get the house ready for Ben’s birthday party next week and then we’ll start packing. We’ve already been slowly purging things, a few paper bags full at a time, and dropping them at the Goodwill truck that parks behind the grocery store. After Ben’s party we’ll start unloading our storage closet and really packing.

For now, other than Ben’s thesis defense (all my photos came out HORRIBLY), the only fun photos I have to share are from Shabbat Hodu, our made-up name for the shabbat following Thanksgiving.

Happy thanksgiving, everyone! I could list a million things I’m thankful for, but I’m going to be lazy and just give everyone a virtual hug >______☺_______<

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Eclipse Party!

Eclipse viewing glasses. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Yesterday, CU’s Fiske Planetarium hosted a big eclipse watching party at Folsom Field to watch the partial solar eclipse. Admission was by proving that you had solar viewing paper safety glasses (like old-school 3-D movie glasses) that were given away for free at local schools and at the university OR if you bought a pair for $2 at the concession stand before entering the stadium.

Those paper glasses work! You can’t see anything but the sun, and then it’s a weird orange color. I tried taking a photo through them and failed, here’s Becca’s photo instead, taken right before the sun sunk behind the mountains.

the orange double is just a reflection between the camera lens and the solar viewing glasses

Ben also brought his binoculars, which we used every few minutes (clouds permitting), to project the sun onto the risers of the bleachers between our legs. Not the most comfortable, but definitely an awesome view! You can just make out the outline of the mountains as the sun is setting in this projection. Amazing!

projecting the eclipse with binoculars

I’m looking forward to using my solar viewing glasses again in a week to see the transit of Venus in front of the sun!

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weather, and last weekends time change

I’m sad. I was supposed to go skiing this morning, but my friends had to cancel on me and I hate driving up/down by myself. OH well, it’s probably better that we didn’t go since Colorado is still getting pelted with the leftovers of the wind storm that slammed into Alaska earlier this week. Thankfully, Boulder is not getting the 100 mph winds that Alaska and the continental divide got/are getting, just 60 mph gusts in Boulder. Skiing in this weather doesn’t sound fun at all. They even delayed opening this morning (they can’t run the lifts when the winds are over 60 mph).

So, today, I’m still in my PJs, cleaning the kitchen, watching Harry Potter movies on TV, and wearing my PJs at 1 PM.

Oh, and about last week’s time change: I’m not sure that I would be able to get on the 7:18 AM bus into Denver for work if the time had’t change last week. Seriously. Instead of going to bed at midnight, I now find myself passing out at 10:30 or 11 PM, even on the weekends. Thank goodness the time change lined up with my new position!

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Shana Tova!!!

Happy New Year!!!!

I’ve spent the past 3 days totally unplugged from my laptop, and it was AWESOME. Two days of Rosh Hashana praying, eating, and hanging out, and a bonus day of Shabbat (AKA 3rd day Rosh Hashana to some of my friends) today. We did take a tiny break from from doing nothing this afternoon and went for a drive in the mountains. It’s cool, we’re Conservative and it’s OK to drive on Shabbat. I especially think it’s OK if that’s what you do to feel more relaxed, spiritual, etc. Whatever, we wanted to go leaf peeping (Boulder to Estes Park, Estes Park to Nederland via Peak to Peak Scenic Biway), so we did. It was AWESOME!

Other cool things going on: I learned that it’s OK to cook on a chag (holiday), which is awesome because I DO cook on holidays and on Shabbat (I’m not a chef, so I don’t consider it to be working).

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FLOWERS, a pretty ceremony view

Like I said earlier, I was in denial of the weather and no one bothered to correct me. I guess they expected me to be bridezilla or something. I’m glad we had the wedding outside, umbrellas are much better looking than a glowing exit sign behind the chuppah! No one complained more than I did though, so that’s a good thing. I may have had more skin exposed than anyone else too…. As cute as my little sweater was, it was silk and cotton, not very warm at all.

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it’s like raaaaaaain [beat] on your wedding day

Yeah, it rained. I was in denial too. It wasn’t supposed to! It was supposed to be sunny and cool, like at our walk-though (because you can’t rehearse getting married, you only get to do it once).

I got a voice mail from the hotel’s coordinator at 7:30 in the morning, it had too many words for me to listen to so I sleepily called her back and asked her to sum up what her voicemail said. Basically, she reminded me that it rained over night (which I hadn’t know, I was bottled up in the hotel’s hot tub and then a king size bed with my good friend, Andrea) the predictions for the weather were that it would drizzle off and on until 1 PM, and that we could risk setting up the outdoor ceremony, or I could choose to have everything setup indoors. If it was just going to drizzle and that the sky wouldn’t open up on us, I wanted to be outside! A big part of the reason we chose the St. Julien was the view of the Flatirons from the lawn; I wasn’t about to give that up if I didn’t have to!

4 hours later, when I was walking down the isle I kinda regretted my decision, but everything looked so beautiful! It was 50 F outside (according to my frozen feet and Weather Underground), and I was COLD. Like goosebumps and trying not to shiver or chatter my teeth cold. I’m glad that I didn’t let my cousin talk me out of wearing my cute little sweater. BTW, said sweater was purchased with the idea that it would be 55-60 and sunny, not 50 and damp.

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sunshine! but no lollypops (too sticky)

It looks like the ceremony is going to be outside at this point. WOOHOO!

 

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BUBBLES! bubbles, bubbles, bubbles, bubbles, BUBBLES!

If the weather forecast for our wedding looks favorable, I am SO ordering this. Maybe two. Maybe I’ll order them anyway, according to the Target website you can return online purchases in stores. Is there a shipping fee? Can I have it shipped to the store to avoid them?

Anyway, it makes BUBBLES! Lots and lots of bubbles!

Party Bubble Machine : Target

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SO glad we booked the St. Julien

18" of the 23" inches we got over 48 hours

If it snows like this, I know for sure that we can get married inside without messing up any plans or schedules.

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