Wednesday, January 28, 2009

let's hit the highlights

i made it thirteen months in the district of colombia. tuesday i had dinner with a friend who asked me what i had learned during the last year. he asked me if i had been scared at the beginning of it all. really, i wasn't. partly because i didn't know for sure if it was going to be a full year. and partly because i was learning so much about trusting god i didn't have much time to be scared.
in high school a young life leader told me the two most important things about your relationship with christ is being teaching and trusting. i lack a lot of trust a lot of the time. and i'm not very teachable sometimes. but dc was filled with moments of being trusting and teachable, and it was definitely a challenging and fun year.

besides hitting the snooze button for over an hour every morning, during the four days that i've been home i've been unpacking and adjusting to A LOT of changes. i've got a pile of stuff that i want to put in a shadowbox or scrapbook so that i can bore the heck out of my grandchildren someday.

"now, see here. this is from our tour of the pentagon. this is a picture from when we met the supreme court chief justice john roberts. these are all my crazy fun friends. this is before your grandmother lost all of her teeth and had no wrinkles. oh! and this is a picture of jeremiah. you don't want to know what he does in his free time."
here's my online year in review, so that if my scrapbook burns in a fire or the grandkids only communicate through computer screens, i'll have proof that dc wasn't a dream. it actually did happen. first night out in d.c. mary alice in middle. lj on right. i had no idea how much fun i was about to have with them for the next few months.
stephanie came in march!
"we got chillins up in here. you gotta chill out or roll out. 911? i love 911!!"
Paige came the same weekend. we jumped on the beds like monkeys, delivered cookies to firemen, and i ate the cherry out of her drink before she went ballistic.

February brought Caitlin & Sara Dub. Beauties on the Potomac River.
We took almost 300 pictures in the metro.
Oh gosh, never would have dreamed she'd move to the district.
Renza Round 2! In St. Michaels Mom in February, Portrait Gallery
Hiking with BonBon & HodgePodge
Wine Tour in Virginia
New State Department Friends & Birdie
P Conn & Cait!
Rock Me Mama - Old Crow Medicine Show
"i like your shimmys."
NYC for the day... i recall, central park in fall!
Renza in February, we conquered Eastern Market
Picnics on Teddy Roosevelt Island with the Lauren Johnson
VP Residence with my favorite interns
South Lawn Spring Garden Tours
Roadtrip to Scranton and Gettysburg with Sweet Julie!
(we met dwight k schrute)
GAP in times square in october, it was as almost as good as seeing paige jarvis herself. ALMOST
a view from my office
NORM!! norm from cheers when we saw hairspray on broadway, jan 08
i was assigned to be pat the bunny's escort for the easter egg roll. and i met the jonas brothers. best day ever.
u street, duke ellington
marine one arrival. worst haircut of my life. pretend you didn't notice.
i could look at this for hours. mary alice's middle name is FUN.
4th of july!! at the white house!! fireworks with dad, mom, george dub, and bluebell.
hide the women and the silver, here comes joe caulkins.
i don't know how he puts up with me but i'll miss that kid.
friday night jazz. wine, good friends, no work, fountains, good music, people watching...
probably my very favorite part of living in the district.



1 comment:

The Neelys said...

I'm so jealous you went to Scranton :) Did you really see Dwight??

Looks like it was a wonderful year in DC! I'm sure the district will miss you along with Timothy, but as for me, I am glad you're back!