be brief. be brilliant. be seated.

"be brief, be brilliant, be seated"  this was the message I got from my husband when he asked me to read over his most recent blog post before publishing it.  he asked for feedback (I think. . . even if he didn't say it out loud, I'm confident that my opinion was very important to him).  i gave it to him.  he shook his head at my multiple suggestions to improve his grammar and mechanics. and my suggestions at how to say things in a more interesting way (economy of words has never been and will never be my strong point).  i had to admit the man has a point. . . the problem is i never have been/will be brief.  i only make vain attempts at brilliance.  and i'm not really good at sitting still.

c'est la vie

During my tenure as a resident of the Commonwealth of Virginia, I have now survived three natural disasters:  two hurricanes and one earthquake.  Wow.  Washington D.C. is a wild place.  I had a difficult time summoning the time and energy to prepare for Sandy given that our preparations for Irene (though quite modest) were above and beyond what was needed.  However, better safe than sorry, right?  On Sunday afternoon I felt like I could take a quick breath from internship apps and told Philip that we really needed to go out and get ice.  and soda.  and apples.  (I had already popped about 10 bags of microwave popcorn and was confident that those final amenities could get us through multiple days without power).  So we went out and got ice and soda and apples.  I was PLEASANTLY surprised.  Apparently we waited long enough to go out to prepare for the looming meteorological apocalypse that all of our high-strung Northern Virginian counterparts (it's an interesting culture here --- and I think "high-strung" is the most efficacious, succinct way to capture the population in this region of the country. . .  yes, I fit in quite well.  it's true.) had already frantically swarmed and overwhelmed the stores on Saturday.  I was very pleasantly surprised that I did not have to fight hoards of people filling their carts with tuna fish and Dasani water like they were competing for the grand prize on Supermarket Sweep.  So we got home and settled in for a little hurricane party (read:  internship applications, reading, watching lots of BBC's Sherlock).  We were VERY thankful that the power and internet STAYED on.  The wind gusted pretty well and rain picked up at various points on Monday, but we bore witness to nothing that would have qualified as extraordinary weather.  My heart is with the thousands of people who had a very different experience and are starting to slowly pick up the painful pieces of loss and destruction.

Saturday night we celebrated the 29th birthday of one of my dear dear classmates.  You know those people who come into your life who will be you friends forever, who leave an indelible impact on your heart and life?  Leslie is one of those people.  We laughed about there being a caterpillar on her cake.  Given that we've all had a pretty rough year (okay, hideously horrific in many respects), here's to hoping that 29 is the year of a beautiful butterfly emerging and soaring.

 w/ the sweet birthday girl

 spouses support club. 

lovelovelovelove these girls.   we're surviving. (mostly)

 mad gabs.  never a dull moment in the company of leslie and joy.

you know it's marathon season on the east coast when cheerleader Leslie proudly shows off

 her latest cowbell purchases . . .  if i ever lost my mind and ran a marathon, Leslie is who I would need at mile 25.