Happy Birthday to Me!

Last week I turned 24. That sounds so much older than I feel. It seems like I just got out of college and now suddenly I have a "real" job. I was able to leave work a little early on my birthday which was nice. Corey came over to our house and he cooked up a delicious meal. It was a strange meal, but very good. We had: homemade mozzarella sticks, pot roast, mashed potatoes, and homemade mini donuts for dessert. Some friends of ours also came over to eat with us, Aaron and Acsa. (Aaron works with Corey) Over the weekend I relaxed and took it easy for the most part. On Saturday Corey and I went to Taste of DC. It is a street festival on Pennsylvania Ave where there are tons of food vendors and food trucks set up and also a rather extensive selection of beer and wine. The vendors all had $2 or $3 sample plates and also regular portions for sale. We ate a ton! Including a funnel cake and flash fried cheese cake.

Last night I went out to dinner/drinks for the birthday of a friend from church. She has been here working for the last year and a half, is in my small group, and is the leader of week 2 hospitality at church which I serve on. She has a job she really seems to enjoy and appears to have her life together in general. Turns out she is turning 23. I know I shouldn't be comparing myself to her, but it just seems like she is much more mature in some respects and that in comparison my life is not at all together. This is me being over dramatic, but it was very shocking to realize I am a year older than her. Not that I think my life is a disaster, but I am still living in the VS house which makes me feel not completely independent and while I don't dislike my job, I just know that I don't want to do this forever and I don't know what it is that I want to do.

Speaking of the house though, Cara has moved back in and Keith was going to move out today, but he has decided that he wants to stay. He found a place, but didn't know the people he was going to be living with and only chose the place because he could afford it and he felt like he needed to move out.  He hasn't been able to clear staying with our local mvs leadership because they are at a church conference or something. That said, I am pretty positive he will be allowed to stay. I am excited and it should be fun having a completely full house. With him staying, we have seven people in seven bedrooms. This also means that everyone from the house last year, except for Alisha Bender, is staying on as an associate or 2nd year MVSer.

Trying to Relax

The last week has been rather stressful here in DC. A large percentage of the population of DC and the surrounding area is affected by the government shut down. On top of the 800,000 federal employees forced to take unpaid leave there are many contract companies here that are facing layoffs due to a lack of work. If you don't believe that people are feeling rather on edge, just look at the news. On Thursday there was the incident with the lady who was shot near the capital and then on Friday while walking from work I saw that part of the mall was taped off and there were police everywhere. Turns out a guy set himself on fire. I don't know why this is all happening, but it seems that many people are feeling more stress than normal. One of my coworkers has a husband who works at the White House. On Wednesday he was trying to figure out how long they can afford their mortgage. He is going to have to start looking for other work even though he really likes his job. I don't know what the solution to the government stalemate is, but those who are making the decisions don't appear to be affected by the consequences of their inaction which is the most frustrating. 

I spent this weekend hanging out at home for the most part which was nice. I cleaned some, though not as much as I should have, made puppy chow, and spinach and artichoke dip. It was nice to lay around and not feel busy or rushed for a few days. Corey wasn't around because once he heard the government was closed and therefore he wasn't going to be working for awhile he flew out to Minnesota to see family. He came back today. I am a bit jealous that he was able to go home, especially since it is really cheap for him since his mother works for Delta, but it also nice to know that I am still earning money since I now pay rent. Yesterday Cara Smith moved back into our house. She was in MVS last year and moved out at the beginning of September. Turns out she didn't really like the neighborhood she was in and missed the MVS house. After consulting the new house members, the support committee decided to let her move back in since we have an empty bedroom and we are all excited to have her join us. Keith is still looking for a place to live but for two weeks he is house-sitting for a couple so for now he isn't at the house. 

Work has been going well. Starting tomorrow all of our sites except for one will have started. We have our federal work study starting as well so I am no longer going to be filling in for site associates every day. I will still be going to sites a few days a week, but now it will change up and wont be the same all the time. I am interested to see how the different sites run. Also this Tuesday we are having a happy hour fundraiser. It should be fun, but I am wondering how many people will show up since there are a lot of people not working right now. If nothing else I will get to chill out with the few people who come and count it as a work function. 

Work, Retreat, Work, Hockey, Flug Tag, Work

It has been brought to my attention that I have not updated this in some time. I do apologize to those of you who actually read this. I have been pretty busy with work the last few weeks. We have started up at four of our sites and unfortunately we do not yet have all our Federal Work Study students hired. This means that I have been filling in at these sites as needed. So far it is three middle schools and one elementary. I have been working at one of the middle schools in SE at least twice a week so far. This means I have around an hour to an hour and a half commute home those evenings. I am beginning to feel like I am constantly working because when I get home I don't do anything but eat, possibly read or watch some TV and then go to bed and start it all over.

A few weeks ago was our house retreat. I meant to post about it earlier, but I got a lot busier than I expected. We went to West Virginia and had a lot of fun staying in a remote cabin. It was a nice break from the city and we were able to get to know one another a lot better. Here are some pictures from our retreat:

 Mariah and Anne chilling in the cabin

 Mariah, Anne, and Miriam 

For some reason they thought crossing this stream on a narrow branch was a good idea. 

Grace and Miriam enjoying the rock chairs we found. 

I was also able to go to a few preseason hockey games with Corey. We got to see the Blackhawks on the 20th and the Fliers on the 27th. There were five fights at the Caps, Fliers game! It was pretty ridiculous, but we won and it was still a lot of fun.

Corey and Ellen (a friend from Calvin) at the Blackhawks game.

On the 21st Corey and I went to Flug Tag (fly day) with a friend of Corey's from work and his wife. We had lots of fun until it started to pour and the announcers kept getting more and more annoying. There was a lot of down time between flights which drug on a lot. We ended up leaving early because we were tired and didn't want to get caught in a second downpour.

The team that designed this "air craft" said their goal was a make a flying machine that can sail the farthest.

On Saturday I had to run a farmer's market for work. I had help from two volunteers and also a student. I had to get up early, but it was a nice day and the market was fun. We didn't sell too much, but our table looked nice at least.