What Should I Be Doing? Oh, right, running.

Whatever. I don't feel like it, but I know its what I'll end up doing as soon as I'm done here, so hey, its all good. Hi! Right now I'm listening to the Mumford & Sons album, eating pumpkin fluff, and putting my feet up after a mega long day on the job. Like, woah, today was a total Monday. That said, I have a job and for that I am tres thankful.

So, Thanksgiving in the G&G High-rise was a quiet affair. Madeline took off the Friday before, so for a WHOLE WEEK I had the house to myself. It was kind of amazing. Yes, of course I wish that I could have jet away back home, up to Michigan, or even to some sunshine filled island but, truth be told, it just wasn't in the budget this year. So instead I filled my (almost work-free) weekend with adventures like a bike ride around the city, black Friday shopping, and lots of Netflix. I should probably have taken pictures, and promise I'll try and be better about adding photos to the bloggy-blog, but for now, you're stuck with just a few here and there. Also, its still ridiculously warm here. Chilly at night, but daylight hours top out between fifty-five and sixty degrees. One, I'm in for a rude awakening when I go home for Christmas and two, I miss the snow but I'm very happy about not having to walk through it just yet. Everyone keeps telling me their nightmare stories about last year's "Snowmageddon," and while it sounds like a royal pain...back home we just whip out the tractor and go to work.

Speaking of home and tractors, I put a phone call into my brother the other day. He's good. At this point, I suppose it shouldn't shock me that my parents are still going along with whatever charade he's up to, but seriously! How the hell he is getting away with this, I'll never know. Anyway, this was not the highlight of our conversation, no no. That would be when he told me he wanted to have kids by the time he is ... wait for it ... TWENTY FIVE!! This, this from my brother who turns 21 in just over one month. He want children. Sweet Jesus. I was am shocked. The good news is he plans on finding a wife first.

Moving on, I haven't found a church here that I like, and that bothers me. There is one near my house, but the few times I've been there, it (stop the presses...I switched to Christmas music around paragraph no. two, and now Big Bad Voodoo Daddy's "Last Night [I Went Out with Santa Claus]" is playing. One of my faves. Yay.) just seriously hasn't been what I want out of a mass. The choir has an old-school vibe, but adds these new-age chants to Mass and Sunday's homily was legitimately five minutes long. No good. Several times, I've just trekked up to the Basilica, because, seriously, having the opportunity to worship there is unreal. I could do it every Sunday, but that has its own shortcomings. Church is a communal place, and though beautiful, the Basilica doesn't have the community vibe. Prayers in that department would be much appreciated.

After church this week, Madeline and I showed great restraint in not purchasing a live Christmas tree for our apartment. So tempting! Instead, we let ourselves indulge in some Ethiopian food at a local place on our way home. Everywhere you look around here, there are these amazing little kitchy restaurants with every type of fare you can imagine, and being a creature of habit (read: Chipotle) I don't venture off into the land of the unknown nearly as often as I should. Lucky for me, Madeline is a total foodie. Now, the idea of eating at a restaurant that serves food from a country where a large percentage of the population is starving seems slightly off to me, but I love capitalism, so we went inside. (Note: If I ever write a book, that last sentence is totally going in.) As an appetizer, we ordered veggie sambussas, a deep-fried lentil and spice mixture, and for our main course beef & lamb tibs. For all I know, tibs may be the parts of a cow that they only eat in Ethiopia, but never mind that, it was delicious. They served the dish family style, mixing the beef and lamb and surrounding it with a variety of condiments: the red sauce was a spicy, curry-esque sauce, then potatoes, followed by a lentil chili and yellow smash thing, and finally salted tomatoes. To eat this concoction, pictured above, you tear a strip of injera (picture a sponge-cake shaped like a tortilla and then make it the color of a gray Crayola crayon) and use your hot little hands to pick up everything you'd like to stuff in your mouth. It was soooooo good, and the perfect post-church outing for Miss Madeline and I.

Oh, but before I leave you pretties for the gym, (I'm 99% positive she doesn't read this, but if she does, oh, hey Jess! Congratulations on the kid!) I picked up Jessie's baby gift this weekend. Omg. Love. And seriously, I may be the only of of us that can outfit this tiny being in said outfit. Behold, the prepster child:

Obsessed.

So Miss Madeline and I are

perusing Petfinder.com. This will NOT end well. Seriously, how on EARTH am I supposed to say no!

Ooooo, my heart hurts. I miss my dog.

Secrets, secrets are SO MUCH FUN!

Since the March on Washington (September 12) ... ie practically the last time I blogged, there has been about 198475298475298745 interesting things have been happening in life. Heres to recording some of them.

For the last two months, our focus has pretty much been on one thing -- the election. There was one tiny little date squeezed in there, but he hasn't called, so I'm going to run with the idea that I've been given the boot. This doesn't bother me. He was cute, yes, and had the body of a guy who rowed crew in college (because, oh wait, HE DID) but seriously, short. And yeah, this is mega vain, but most recently I've learned that I don't really want to compromise on the height front. There really aren't many things I like more than my shoes, most of which just happen to add a considerable height to my frame.

Dear God, please send me a tall future husband. Pretty please. Love, me.
PS-- My life is awesome. Thank you for that. Mad props.

It makes me uncomfortable to be taller than everyone else, but particularly, boys. Anyway moving on, Halloween! Its probably in my top-two holidays, and while I was pretty convinced that the shenanigans would end after college, I'm quite pleased that they haven't. It helps that nearly all of my collegiate influences are out here -- something which I am exceedingly thankful for every time I see them. They're amazing. Together, for Halloween, we were -- hipsters, Harry & Hermione, Uncle Sam & Lady Liberty, Snookie, Rufio (from Hook!), and 80s work-out gurus. There was no trick-or-treating, just a low-key house party with plenty of candy, booze, and laughs.

Two days later, it was game time. Our Washington DC offices served as our foremost headquarters, but we had victory centers scattered all across the US -- Las Vegas, Colorado, West Virginia, Philadelphia, Florida, and South Carolina. Throughout the day, staff and volunteers made thousands of last-minute get-out-the-vote phone-calls and around 5pm the press started to filter in. Then catering arrived. Then booze arrived. Then Mr. & Mrs. Armey arrived. It was a madhouse in the best way possible. Although east-coast polls started to close around 7pm, most of the staff stuck around until well after midnight (when Alaska closed). The last of the press left at 3am...then wrote a rather amazing article about how awesome we are. It was very cool. We got a lot of great press that night, which is always nice, but my favorite aspect of all the stories that came out about us that night was that they really seemed to capture how freaking-awesome our staff really is. This wasn't a sit-around-watch-tv kind of affair, it was a rambunctious, confetti-filled, party that happened to have a focal point. We all work hard, we all play hard, and we all generally like each other. I realize exactly how few other people can say that within their profession. Time Magazine got a pretty good video of the event: http://www.time.com/time/video/player/0,32068,660683925001_2029545,00.html. Note the blue "Chops You Can Believe In" shirts. Haha, yeah, our President has lamb chops -- yeah, we put his face on a shirt. The election was a smashing success, we took back the House and knocked out some key incumbents in the process, but now the work begins.

Part of what we've been planning since September was a post-election retreat that, since its initial planning stages, has been a highly secretive endeavor. Now, event planning has always been one of my very favorite things, so needless to say I was beyond thrilled when our policy analyst tapped me to help organize the retreat.  Our main objective was to bring people together to learn about Austrian economics (free-market), the DC inside-outside game, and other crucial aspects of life on Capitol Hill. The reason for the secrecy? Because all of our invitees were newly-elect members of Congress. I know, I know, that sounds like nothing that needs to be kept under wraps, but we couldn't risk getting scooped or undermined.

Anyway, the retreat took place Thursday-Friday and was nothing short of awesome. Having the opportunity to spend time with newly elect members and get to know them outside of the campaign trail and Capitol was so cool. They're so completely genuine and excited about the opportunities that lay before them. (Please note that I'm refraining from going on political blah blah here and just saying that I'm super pumped.) I'm watching the new 30 Rock as I write this, ironically enough, its a hilarious take on tea-party candidates in Congress.

I got into Baltimore for the retreat on Wednesday, and I gotta say, you know you're dropping a dump-truck full of cash somewhere when you check-in to the hotel and theres a cheese and fruit plate in your hotel room with a signed, personalized, note from the general manager. Woah.

But thats not the most awesome thing that happened this weekend.

Once Thursday morning rolled around, our entire office and most of the newly-elect members were fielding phone calls from the press about what we were doing in Baltimore, who was there, what our agenda was, why we'd kept it secret, etc. By that point, there was no reason for the secrecy anymore, so our communications director decided to handpick his favorite journalists and invite them to a press junket featuring the new members and staff on Friday.

After going through the morning program, I escorted all the new members down to the conference where CNN, FoxNews, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and the New York Times were all waiting. They chat, they woo, they do their thing -- and the next thing I know, communications director is standing in front of me being like...uhhh, are you okay with being in the NYT?

-Why?
-Well, you know how you were standing with the guy in the bowtie and Julia (the girl in the patterned wrap dress?
-Yeah...
-Well, the NYT guy leaned over to me and mentioned something about how the three of you look like you just popped out of the Kennedy administration. Then he laughed and said that the young GOP is bringing style back to the party and he wants to publish the photo.

My life is perfect.