Physical feats

You know the potential feline/human crushing piece of furniture I mentioned? After a trip to the hardware aisle at Lowe's and some very determined screwdriver work by yours truly, it is now firmly anchored to the wall. Hopefully Harry and I are good to go with our daily activities that involve walking past the 134 pound behemoth. Actually, I suppose it weighs quite a bit more now that it's loaded down with glassware. Thank you, helpful Ikea boxes, for telling me exactly how much you weigh as I heave you into my vehicle and proceed to figure out the most practical way to get you up to the apartment without damage to self and/or surroundings. Oh, and if you're curious, 18-pound glass doors came up one at a time in their own boxes. Cardboard containing 88-pound shelving unit was ripped apart in vehicle, and pieces were carried up (thank you, elevator!) in varying weight loads. I think that took three trips. Possibly four. The sides are extraordinarily tall and awkward to handle.

Take that, little kitchen! I will assemble furniture and create my own shelving space!

Assembling that thing and shifting it into place did take a little muscle power. I wouldn't say that I've been working out in the sense of logging miles on the treadmill or busting out triceps curls, but I have been dealing with moving. My beast of a couch didn't end up quite where I wanted it, so I decided I could scoot it down about two feet or so. Ha. Scoot. Scoot mammoth couch on carpet. It doesn't appear that menacing, but this thing is hiding a sofa-bed. Are you aware that sofa-beds add a rather immense amount of weight to an otherwise innocent-looking couch? After some ineffective shoves and expletives, an infomercial from years past happened to pop into my head. Moving men furniture sliders!! Since better judgment had a good hold on me whenever I'd channel-flipped past this one, I didn't actually have any of these little doo-dads on hand. However, a couple of large pieces of cardboard will do in a pinch, provided you have the strength and foot dexterity to lift the couch while kicking the cardboard into place under said sofa's wooden feet. The couch is now where it belongs...phew.

There have been a few other physically demanding tasks over the last week or so. Due to my remarkable indeciciveness and inability to decide where to put things, I move the same heavy box/object over and over and over again. Just make up your mind, Erin. A laptop also gets a little heavy when carried to and from work on a 0.8 mile journey. That one's not terrible, mind you, but I'm afraid I might need to become a backpacker in order to prevent the right side of my body from developing a slight droop. Several Metro stops have deceptively long escalator/stair trips. You find yourself at the top of one...only to go up another. And possibly another. I'm trying to engage my heart in some healthy activity by taking the stairs or actually walking up the escalators (stand to the right, people!) instead of placidly standing, but in one instance I had to pull myself over and take a breather. Dang. Oh, I walked to the grocery store the other night! Didn't buy too much, really, and did put one of those cute Central Market bags to use, and it's only about a ten minute walk, but again...worried about the right side of my body. Must learn to put things on left shoulder. Did I mention the size of my cat? Actually, he may have slimmed down a little bit in the past couple of weeks, but he's still a bit of a chunk to pick up.

I'm aware that I could ask for help with some of these things. There's something prideful and somewhat foolish in doing it all myself, though. I can do this, I know I can! Obviously I can carry my laptop and groceries and make my legs take the stairs, but this furniture business...sometimes I wish Harrison was a slightly more helpful roommate. Hey, at least I'm engaging my body in something physical! Better than sitting like a blob in front of the TV! Which I'm also quite capable of, I should mention...there's this DVR business going on...yeah, more to come on that. Maybe I should get to know the treadmill a little bit better.

I'm saved!!

As excited as I am about trying all things new and having amazing new experiences and new this and new that during my time in DC....sometimes I just want what I know. Especially if that happens to be....Tex-Mex!! I no longer need to write to my Texas representatives because I have my very own ambassadors to all things Texas right here with me (for a few more months, anyway!), and they have shown me the way. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Jon & Erin Drucker, for leading me to Rio Grande. No, not the actual Rio Grande, but a fantastic restaurant owned by the Uncle Julio's folks that is only a hop, skip, and a Metro ride away in Arlington. As I emerged from the Metro entrance and headed down the block, I was greeting with the faint smell of....could it be??....yes, smoking fajitas! As the familiar and delicious waves of smoky goodness wafted my way, I think I may have teared up a little bit. Fortunately, the sidewalks weren't too crowded and I could gather my emotions before actually entering the restaurant.

It was everything I hoped it would be. First and foremost, it was fantastic to see a familiar face - one person there has actually known me for more than a few weeks! So great to see Erin and catch up a little bit. And then....the food. Oh, the food. Chips and salsa in abundance, and of course we got a bowl of queso. I think I could have stopped right there. Actually, given the massive quantities of food I continued to consume, it probably would have been in the best interest of my health to stop there. Unable to choose between this and that, I opted for...well, pretty much all of it. Juanita's Platter.

I should have taken a picture of my actual plate, because it contained substantially more cheese and sauce than is reflected above. Chicken enchilada. Cheese enchilada. Pork tamale. Crispy beef taco. Rice. Charro beans. Truer words of love were never spoken....maybe I'm feeling a little mushy since it is Valentine's Day and all, so forgive me if the food-love statements are a little over the top.

I'm proud to say that I did exercise a very tiny amount of self-control and manage to leave some tasty morsels on the plate. Yes, kind waiter, please take this away immediately before I inflict serious pain on myself. It's unfortunate that we stuffed ourselves into oblivion and couldn't manage dessert, especially when Dana asked "what's a sopapilla?" Oh, kind friend from Queens, NY, I have so much to teach you. We will be back. Chile relleno, I'm coming for you.

And so it continues

Let me just start with the fact that the vast majority of my possessions made the journey from Dallas to DC without suffering any major damage. The couch barely fit on the elevator and through the front door, but it's in and in one piece. I feel terrible having people hoist that sofa-bed beast around, but that's what they're paid to do, right? There was the incident involving the base to the LCD TV being left in a box, loaded back on the truck, and driven away to a warehouse. Fortunately, otherwise-extremely-conscientious moving man discovered said base after a somewhat frantic phone call from me, and it was promptly wrapped to within an inch of its inanimate "life" and shipped right back to me. This has delayed the installation of cable since I don't actually have a functional television (I'm getting DVR!! Finally, Erin!) and consequently internet service, but I've managed to survive thus far. In fact, when I go home at night and have nothing mindless to entertain me, I've tried to do actual productive things with my time. You know, organize the apartment and...build stuff. Stuff that could crush Harry and/or me at a moment's notice until I manage to get it anchored to the wall. It all looks so innocent crammed into my car, though, doesn't it?

Oh, Ikea, how you suck me in with your bargains and vast, vast selection of merchandise. I could spend an obscene amount of time in there. And you've provided me with a storage solution that happily reconciles the combination of smallish kitchen and largish amounts of kitchen paraphernalia! Massive shelving unit with glass-front doors! And I only had to switch the hinges on one door due to my lack of engineering skills! If I can put together anything wooden while only taking out six screws I've already muscled in and switch them around, it's pretty much a success in my book. I know, it's shameful.

Hey, you know that crated TV I mentioned? Check it out:

That thing is SOLID! Oh, and allow me to demonstrate what "unpack" means in a corporate move sense - they bust that stuff out of boxes and place it on any available flat surface, then I get the pleasure of figuring out where the heck to put it all.

The bottom of the bathtub would qualify as a flat surface, I suppose. Disaster!! I do have a functional home right now, but there are still plenty of piles everywhere driving me bonkers.

Oh, and just so you know, the following items have the ability to freeze while in transit from Dallas to DC during winter months: olive oil (solid as a rock!), Swiffer Wet cleaning pads, and Dawn dish soap (not totally solid, just odd frozen bubbles drifting through it...it looked really nasty). And everything coming off that truck was COLD. It felt like my apartment would never be warm again with waves of cold emanating from every object inside it. Not to worry, though - it's actually warmer in DC than it is in Dallas right now! Crazy weather! I'm going to enjoy it while I can.

I spy

I spy all kinds of new things these days, but this time I mean it in a quite literal sense - Spy at Night at the International Spy Museum, one unique D.C. experience of many to come. I spent an hour as a member of a special ops team! I mean, how many people really get to do that in their lives? Ok, pretty much anyone who can handle low light levels, sound effects, motion simulators, elevators and other confining spaces, a set of stairs, and physical and mental challenges after ponying up their $22 (hey, it buys you a drink, too). In this particular instance, I became a covert op with my new buddy Dana (we started our work rotation at the same time - she's from New York and is pretty much awesome and up for all kinds of fun adventures) and a couple of her friends, along with ten other random people. What exactly did this adventure consist of? Well, I'm not going to give too much away in the event that anyone actually wants to do it in the future, but basically you have a team leader who helps you navigate through the depths of a suspicious, slightly-Middle-Eastern-slanted scandal involving a missing nuclear trigger. There's scanning of documents, deciphering of messages, tracking of agents, disabling of security cameras, and enduring of a seriously cramped, seriously dark elevator. Ooh, and a helipad! Complete with..."wind!" It was a touch cheesy, but really a pretty entertaining way to spend the evening.

You know what else I spy? My neighborhood! I spent some time on Sunday morning walking around, coffee in hand, taking in the sights within a pretty short walking distance from my apartment. I ate my Bruegger's bagel sandwich at the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden across from the National Archives. How awesome is that? Check out the art...and the benches and the trees.

There's also an ice skating rink there in the winter - I'll go attempt it, but I need to do my ankle-strengthening exercises beforehand. Me + blades and/or wheels attached to my feet typically = disaster. Probably no photos from that particular excursion to come.

Oh, and I was hoping I would find these somewhere close! Anyone who heard my Paris stories probably remembers my fascination with the bikes for rent all over the city that I ended up riding vicariously. I'm going to ride these for reals, even if it does make me look all touristy!

Here, check out my street - my apartment's in there somewhere on the left!

You can see actual apartment pictures, too, just not now - it's still quite a disaster area, but I'm working on it! Anyway, time to go spy my way through D.C., putting those newly acquired clandestine skills to work. Maybe the CIA will take me.

Write, right, rite

I haven't posted anything in a week, and I feel a little disconnected. I am getting a chance to write oodles and oodles of exciting tax words at the new work gig, which is maybe taking some of the writing out of me. I've also been composing email after email (albeit brief emails) to keep up with my scattered friends and Texas home base members. More writing. Writing with liberal use of hyphens and disjointed sentences. There's also this magical instant messenger known as 'sametime' that enables me to keep in touch with my work friends when I should really be applying my brain to things like the intricacies of Stewart Title v. State Tax Assessor of Maine (sorry, Bluebook, I probably didn't cite that correctly - apparently law school would be a big boost for the eight months I'll be spending in tax knowledge management). Hope I come to the right conclusion in my write-up of that case that will constitute at least a portion of my rite of passage through this senior associate tour business I've decided to embark on (there, I used the write/right/rite combo in one sentence!).

Needless to say, I'm a little drained after the moving-across-the-country-starting-a-new-job-living-in-a-hotel-for-ten-days adventure. Rather than writing anything remotely profound tonight, I spent a couple of hours on the phone with some quality friend time. It was much needed. I'll be more descriptive here soon, I promise. For the moment, a small collection of random thoughts/observations:

1. My stuff AND my car get here tomorrow!! I CAN'T WAIT to be at least somewhat settled in my home here in D.C....and see my stuff again. I hope nothing exploded/shattered/crumbled on the way from Dallas.
2. I miss my dear friends in Dallas tremendously. Making some new buddies in D.C., which does help quite a bit, but you know it's just not the same until you've known someone a little bit longer.
3. There are so many things that PwC does that I never knew about. I want to share resources with my Dallas peeps to hopefully make their lives easier. As long as they inter-office me pens. The pen supply in D.C. is inferior to the pen supply in Dallas.
4. I'm afraid that certain national landmarks will lose significance to me when I see them a million times. Last Sunday I probably drove by the U.S. Capitol five times. "Oh, hi Capitol, nice to see you again" vs. "WOW, THAT'S SO COOL!!"
5. My brilliant "walk to work" plan may seem less brilliant when the wind cuts through me like a knife and demands that I surrender my soul when hopelessly stuck at an intersection that happens to simulate the wind power of an F-3 tornado. Ok, ok, it's really not that bad. My 180s help quite a bit. I might invest in the ones that come with built-in headphones - awesome! Geez, what do I do when the stifling summer temperatures hit??

More to come soon...adventures in organizing (probably only fascinating to me and possibly Kami), my Saturday night plans to be a spy, and loads more headed your way from our nation's capital. Oh, I had an awesome dinner tonight! Tapas at Jaleo, only a few blocks from my new digs. A tad overpriced for small plates of food, but delicous enough that I'll probably forgive them and go back many times in the future. Oh, food, I love you, and I can't wait to enjoy more of you in your many D.C. variations.