Video of our Romania trip

I am so thankful to have a talented husband who comes up with all these amazing videos of our trips. Every time I watch one of them, that particular vacation comes back to my mind so vividly and all I can do while I sit and watch is relive the wonderful times and get inspired for the next one:))

Meantime, here is Romania:

Still alive and still kicking

You know when you keep putting something off, the more you wait to do it, the harder it gets. I often think of my 'muse', how quiet I've been lately... And it's not that I don't have things to say, experiences to share, photos to display, trips to brag about... Oh man, if I only had the time to do it!! That's my enemy as always and it looks like it's winning, BIG time.

A temporary solution for me was the micro-blogging on Twitter. I have more updates there that I have emails written down and sent and it's all because it's fast and convenient. These two words are so incredibly appealing with this 21st century lifestyles, that my only solution was to resume to my daily and randomly twitters.

Maybe these few lines will spark something in me and I will have a grande come back... but I don't want to give hope anyone. I am realistic by nature and optimist by choice so I hope the choice will win over my nature this time!

Until then... au revoir, take care, eat your veggies and carpe diem! What else??

But for this one I wrote an essay... and I WON!

My dear friend Kathy was the winner last year of an ice cream block party when her essay submitted to Edy's ice cream was chosen and rewarded! This year I tried my luck as well, and somehow my words convinced them that I, actually better said, my neighborhood is worthy of such a treat!:)

I received a thick envelope in the mail last night with all the details of the party- the date, the ice cream delivery, the ridiculous amount of it etc. I think it will be such a great opportunity for our street to bond and enjoy a fun afternoon together.

Because I won the ice cream party, I want to extend the invitation to all those who want to stop by and mingle. Feel free to come out of town, we'll make room for you (Kathy... what do you say?:).

PS. This is the website if anyone else wants to apply for next time. Good luck!:)
http://edys.slowchurned.com/neighborhoodsalute/english/Default.aspx

And I didn't even pray for this...

I so love this feature of our God- He can see in the future and He knows when we run out of patience and we might just do something stupid. And sometimes, just like in this example below, He does something out of the blue and totally smart about it.

I think I was almost at that point regarding my right-next-door-cubicle neighbor. She is not the most quiet person so besides loud chatting on the phone, loud comments yelled over the cubicle to her co-workers, loud singing along with her load overplayed music... yeah, all these added up can make my angelic face turn into a monster. This monster totally dissapeared at the great news she just gave me: she is moving to another cubicle, close to the window and... far away from me.

One thing I will not miss for sure is hearing "We Are The Champions'' song four, five times a day. I've never heard that song played so many times in my entire life added up together. I am not a champion anymore, but I feel like a winner... I gained my peace and silence back!

'Just because'

I came in at work this Monday morning and I couldn't help it but have a BIG smile on my face. There was this amazing multi-color rose arrangement waiting for me on my desk. I knew about it because last Thursday I got a phone call from the inter-office mail center to go and pick up a flower delivery I received. On the way there, I started thinking of the day... June 5th, first Thursday of month of June, etc but nothing came to mind that might be worth celebrated with a flower arrangement. Am I missing out something??

I thought it was my dear hubby surprising me with something. He did ask for my work address a couple of months ago, after all. I signed up for the box, and curiously opened the card. It touched my heart to read this: "We love you! Thank you for being such a wonderful daughter-in-law. Wendy and Barry." I knew this already, but I truly have the best in-laws I could have asked for.

I want to think of myself as being a giver more than a receiver but my in-laws gesture made me realize two things: once in a while it's great to be at the other end and receive and secondly it's even better to receive (or give) when there is no particular reason. That one simple explanation 'just because' is so refreshing to hear sometimes.

I am on a look-out for a 'just because' good deed to do!

My first race

Michael asked me last night if I wrote in my blog about my thing on Sunday. When I said no, he was surprised so I figured I should mention my little achievement.

Well, I finally signed up for a race (thanks to my good friend's Kate request- thanks girl for initiating this!). It was a 10K ZOOMA run in Annapolis, MD and now that I did it, I understand why some become addicted to racing. There is an adrenaline rush going, a high that keeps you going and makes you give your best. 10K is only 6.241 miles to be exactly, and that's a distance that I often run on my regular work outs. I figured I can do it without too much effort.

The results came in yesterday and in my age group of 25-29, I finished on the 8th spot, with the time of 51:47. I was also on the 25th place overall, out of 609 female runners for the 10k race.

Philadelphia Video

http://youtube.com/watch?v=kZ0jrgEovMs

I was writing some time ago very enthusiastically about going to Philadelphia for a short trip. Here is the video clip my talented and wonderful husband put together. It totally captures the essence of the trip!

Pope Benedict XVI

( This photo was taken by the IMF Photographer)

I am not Catholic, but it was pretty cool seeing the Pope. He is visiting the US and for a few days he's creating quite a stir in DC: he just visited the White House, on Sunday he will perform a Mass Service at the new Nationals stadium opened recently in DC and for those who want to find out more, there is plenty of info here

I work on Pennsylvania Ave, three blocks away from the White House, so it was convenient for me to go up on the roof and see the street wide open and the entourage driving slowly up from the WH. The Popemobile was covered so from the top I could only see the arm resting on the rail. It was cool to hear the crowds singing 'Hallelujahs', playing guitars and all sorts of instruments, and dancing. The Catholics sure know how to show adoration to their Pope. I wonder if they were yelling and clapping as much knowing that the Pope didn't come to DC empty-handed. It turns out that recently the Vatican has officially came up with seven brand new sins:

1. 'Bioethical' violations such as birth control
2. 'Morally dubious' experiments such as stem cell research
3. Drug abuse
4. Polluting the environment
5. Contributing to widening divide between rich and poor
6. Excessive wealth
7. Creating poverty
(My 'strong' source was this article on DCist.com)

While he was passing by, all I could do was pray for him. I had a genuine prayer going up to heaven for him and his ministry on Earth.

Philadelphia, here I come!

It’s almost Friday noon and I can hardly contain my excitement. It’s been a looong week- I was super busy at work (I will be like this until the end of the fiscal year), I was home alone this week (Michael was off to a sunny California while he left me behind to deal with clouds, rain and not so nice spring weather… until today!!).

The reason I want to get up and do some jumps around is that in about four hours I will catch the train to Philadelphia! I am going there for a baby shower for one of the girls I went to school with, but usually a bridal or baby shower is the best excuse for a bunch of us to get together and catch up with life. They are all dear friends from University and seeing them will be a highlight in my Washingtonian existence.

I absolutely love DC but once in a while I need an excuse (any excuse) to go up to Philly and chill there. Tomorrow will be MY day in the city and I already have some things on the agenda: I will start with a massage at Philadelphia School of Massage (they know me there as the girl who comes from DC for a massage), then will stop at TBar for a nice cup of tea, moving on to CapoGiro (the best gelato I’ve had in US so far). Not far from the gelateria is this new chocolateria in town (was not there when I lived downtown, but I did stopped by a few times and drooled at their creations), I mean, how can I pass by a place like Naked Chocolate without going in?! After indulging in so many great calories, I will go and try to fit my expanded derrière by now into some trendy clothes at DAFFY’S… Ohhh… this will be a very therapeutic week-end!

About a month ago...

My birthday was almost a month ago, on March 6th exactly and contrary to my usual nonchalant attitude towards this kind of milestone, this year I decided to make a BIG deal about it. It's not because I turned 30 or something (I am only 29 in case you are curious), but I just felt the impulse to go a bit out of my way and celebrate it with style. And I did exactly that for an entire week long!

I had a 'project' going on where I took pictures of myself during the week- I documented what I wore each day, gifts and cards I received in the mail, people I met up with at lunch time, places I've been for dinner etc. The result was this photo album . Then week-end came and I threw myself a wonderful party, then the party continued as four dear friends of mine visited me all the way from Ohio and Indiana. Three of them were high school classmates from Romania so we considered this week-end a semi-reunion as well.

Michael asked me what to get me for my birthday but thinking of what I needed (I like practical gifts), I realized I was fine, I didn't need/want anything. I told him to let's just throw a party and enjoy the week and weekend and that will be enough for me. He gave me something better than anything I could have come up with and ask him for: he made this video clip of my birthday and the memories that come back watching this, are the BEST souvenir that I could have! Thanks love, you did well.

Cherry Blossom

Saturday, March 29th was the Opening Day for the National Cherry Blossom Festival. It's a big event in DC and big events like this, brings in crowds of people.

Michael and I walked over to the Mall on Saturday and mingled with the tourists, watching pros and amateurs handling kites, guessing all kinds of nationalities, taking pictures of the cherry trees (I was actually taking pictures of people posing in front of the trees, behind, in the trees even). We asked a couple to take a picture of us and just to be kind we offered to do the same in the return. "Oh, no, that's OK, we are locals"... Well, so are we but for that we still wanted to capture the moment.

Being part of T.H.E brings me here!

I already have a blog, not on blogspot.com though but in order to be part of The Hope Experiment, I needed to be 'enrolled' here... so here I am, gladly singing up for this in order to do this

I wasn't inspired enough so I named this blog the same as the other one I have. In a way it's accurate... the same muse will inspire me to write here, on T.H.E or my original blog. The same muse is the one who tells me that I can do more, I can create better, I can express and bring out my originality and imagination. As far as I am concerned, I am trying to keep this muse alive because without this aspect of life which involves conveying what cannot be seen inside me to something visible, inventive and beautiful, I will dry inside and become a dull, mediocre human being. That is more frightening to me than any other phobias in life (and there are 'only' 530 of them...)

So let the blogging begin...