I've decided I'm not working today

Oh yes, I'm at work. But I'm more or less taking the day off and just sitting at my desk. It's been a busy week and I'm boycotting it today. Besides, it will leave with me enough to do tomorrow to hopefully make Friday fly by.

It's been, oh my!! over two weeks since I posted. Sorry about that.

Funny things:

• I saw a bum peeing in an alleyway. When he saw me, he said, 'I's sorry, I just had to go!'

• I was walking down the street carrying a Scrabble board and a guy yelled at me, "Scrabble?? I can't even SPELL!"

Other things:

• I'm taking up tennis again.
• I've become addicted to Naked smoothies (very similar to Innocent smoothies in the UK) which is a slight problem because they're a bit expensive
• I've stopped reading political things and started reading a lot about fashion

Everyone in my office gave me really weird looks for the intensity on my face

"Unsettling" puts this mildly

Oops!

Something amazing just happened.

A group of 5 people from the South African parliament walked into my office looking for a room for a meeting. It wasn't one of the rooms in my office, so I looked them up in our room reservation system, but didn't see anything. The group had a phone number, so I called it to try and help them out.

Me: Hello, this is Kat from ***. I'm calling because I have a group from South Africa in my office that is looking for a meeting in X room at 1:30. They have your phone number as a contact. Do you know anything about this?

Woman: Oh yes, they're expected by Mr. Z at 1:30.

Me: Ok, where should I send them for the meeting? I don't know where this room is...

Woman: The meeting isn't till 1:30. They have loads of time. Don't send them over yet!

Me: ....It's 1:30 now.

Woman: No it isn't!! It's 10:30!!!

Me: No..it's 1:30. (pause) Wait, where are you?

Woman: Where are you? I'm in the Washington State legislature.

Me: I'm in Washington, DC.

Together: oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Man, that really sucks.

FASHION DISASTER!!!

Oh no I just read in Elle that the 'wet look' is coming back in!!!!!!!!!!!

YUM Caffeine

I very heartily apologize for being such a wet blanket in that last post.

Moving on....

I sent a dish of mussels back to the kitchen at a restaurant I went to last night. It was a turning point in my life, I feel. I was polite, but firm. And they were taken off my bill without me even asking.

I saw a random punk band last night that was pretty entertaining. AWESOME.

These two Australians came to hang out with me in my office because they think I'm gorgeous. Ok I'm lying. Actually they had a meeting with me regarding an event they're planning. But they were really lovely. And the one was quite cute--and wearing a green polka-dot tie!!! Adorable!! They 'invited' me to an embassy party-we'll see if that happens. Here's hoping. They DID hang out for like a half hour AFTER the meeting was over, so I'm going to keep thinking they liked me. And that the cute one was sporting a little crush.

I got a little drunk and made fun of my roommate's current victim. I use the word victim in the truest sense possible. To be fair--the poor girl has had a rough time with relationships and an even rougher time getting over them. So she dates boys that will make her the complete center of attention and patronize her every need. Then she chews them up and spits them out, thus far before any 'I love yous' are spoken.

Eh, its better than sleeping with a different guy every night and getting some funky disease, I guess.

Don't read this next sentence if you're the type who will vomit over sappiness.

My boyfriend is great, and here's why: last night I went to be a little earlier than him, but was still half awake when he crawled in. He leans over, cuddles me, gives me a kiss and says "Cute! Yum!" before firmly tucking my head into his shoulder and passing out.

*blissful sigh*

Now if I could just stop having the nightmares where he calls me an awful person and says he never wants to speak to me again.

jk.

not really.

All I want is to be thin and have nice clothes

Good LORD has it been boring. boring boring boring boring boring.

Last weekend I went home for Easter. Ate lots of food, got a book, a new steamer pot, some new knives, two new pairs of shoes and two skirts for work.

In case it isn't ridiculously obvious I have a thing for shopping.

This week, despite being in session, work is boring boring boring and there's nothing to do. A project that I'm supposed to be working on is on hold because the person I'm working on it with doesn't have his act together (and yes, he gets a harassing phone call EVERY DAY). My coworker doesn't need any help because his responsibilities are also boring boring boring. I'm tired of obsessing over new-relationship because frankly everything is dandy. I keep looking for jobs but then balk at applying for them because I've only been in my current one for 5 months and maybe I don't really WANT a job that's going to require things like actually earning my paycheck and working overtime. Which leads me to the point of this rant:

I think I want to get married. To someone rich. Who will finance my shopping and traveling needs and not be a pain in the ass to be around. I'm not looking for love here. Just some freedom from working boring jobs. And we all know that money=freedom=happiness=lots of shopping=personal trainer=gorgeous body so I can attract men who are amazing in bed, thereby reducing the need for said rich man to be attractive or virile (I think I spelled that wrong).

Sorry, current awesome boyfriend who is also fabulous in bed BUT doesn't make 7 figures a year: you're out. Maybe we can work something and you can be my man-on-the-side.

WHY IS IT ONLY THURSDAY.

Call me well-adjusted

I'm doomed. Completely, totally and UTTERLY doomed.

He said, glowingly, "You must be the most well-adjusted person I've ever met."

Uh-oh.

At first, I was pleased. This means 1) He's dated weirdos with psychological problems and while I CAN be a bit weird there is nothing psychologically wrong with me in the needs-medication-hospitalization sense which leads us to 2) I just became a lot more awesome in his eyes. Less hassle, not in a I-can-ignore-you-now way but more along the lines of I-don't-need-to-second-guess-everything-I-saw-because-you're-crazy-neurotic way. No lose situation here. Take the compliment, Kat, and just love it.

But now, in the past week, I think I've hit a snag: yes, I'm well-adjusted. Generally a stable, logical person. There's a GIANT GIANT flaw in where I DO act neurotic:
1) When I start to really care for someone leading to...
2) I'm...um..how shall we say? I like the word POSSESSIVE

NOT JEALOUS. I don't throw fits of weeping and worry every second that he's going to cheat on me or that's I'm inferior because I'm jealous of someone else no no no. NOTHING like that. But goddmanit when your 4-year-long-relationship-ex who you've been broken up with for a year but kept sleeping with AFTER you broke up with her AND you still consider her to be one of your closest friends comes into town for an extended weekend....

HOW'S A GIRL SUPPOSED TO REACT?!?!?!

But I didn't. I kept it subdued, minimal, said nearly nothing, in fact. It's not that I think he's going to cheat on me (she's here this weekend and I'm not grrrrr), I fully trust he won't. I've seen pictures; I know I'm more attractive. I'm DEFINATELY less pyscho. But I'm still annoyed about it. Annoyed that I got the impression that he wouldn't have told me if I didn't end up naked in his bed yesterday and as a not-so-subtle way of saying I can't spend the night he says he's going out for drinks with her (to be fair, it was only 6pm and I had plans anyway but STILL). Add to that she's probably staying through the weekend and I'm not here. Add to THAT since I'm going out of town till Tuesday silly me ASSUMED he would want to hang out Thursday night before I left but since SHE'S in town that's probably not going to happen and he actually had the AUDACITY to say "well, if you want to hang out I guess you could give me a call"

That was my moment. My moment, as I'm re-clothing myself, of great anger where I turned around, laughed at him, and said, "No. I'm not calling you tomorrow. Don't be an idiot. You have 'someone' in town."

After all, its only been two months I BARELY have room to claim him for my own yet LET ALONE pull the flip-out my brain my mentally doing.

I need to go for a run.

The weather is gorgeous; here's what I'd rather be doing than sitting in my office...

Next week is recess. Thank god. I still have to come to work (of course) but I doubt I'll have to stay past 5:30 any of the days and it will be slow. I plan on doing a lot more GRE studying, an action that has quickly approached zero in the past month.

This week it got gorgeous. It's not muggy yet, its sunny (I miss my sunglasses) and its hovering around the 60s. Woooooo. Here is a list of things I'd rather be doing than sitting in my office:

1) Running
2) Playing tennis
3) Going on a picnic
4) Drinking margaritas outside
5) Playing on swings
6) Having sex

I'm hoping to be able to do all of these things this weekend. While racking up a credit card bill because I realized today I have $50 to get me until April 5th and no food in my house. Oh well.

Pornography

As part of my brief journalism training, I was required to take a class in mass media ethics. We spent a week discussing pornography and the different interpretations of the word. I was reading the NYTimes today and saw this

..which immediately brought to mind my professor's accusation that pornography really isn't about nudity or sex, its about something that is unslightly and exploitative. It's about crossing the line between telling a story that needs to be told and sensationalizing a catastrophic event to emphasize the theatrics and entertainment value. It is, sadly, a line which is more often crossed in journalism than in porn.

I understand the need to tell this story, in fact, I find it an incredibly important story to tell. However, the photograph of someone shooting up in a ruined building on the front page of World section of the New York Times is shocking and sickening. Opening the article with a man crying over the 'youngest Afghan known to have H.I.V.' is disgusting. I won't even go on about the tragedy of the 'normal' person with H.I.V., the woman who was raped but can't go to a clinic for help because she will be killed for being 'promiscuous', or the hundreds of young men who just didn't know any better. All are equally as tragic--perhaps even more so--than this young boy. But they aren't as sensational, or sickening. This isn't news--its a ridiculous Hallmarkian piece of shit. It's not telling the real story; it's selling the newspaper.

New underwear=personality changes?

Soooo back by demand, I'm posting. It's been insanely busy in the KatWorld so the moments where I get free time I'm spending it shopping or hanging out with flavor-of-the-month (who--wait a second--has actually been around for a while month as of yesterday!).

The shopping is getting out of control. This happens when I'm bored and don't have the motivation to do something constructive. Note to those who knew me in England: this didn't happen nearly the ENTIRE TIME I was there. However, 6 months back in the U.S., I'm back into this nasty habit. In the past three weeks I've bought:

1) 3 rugs
2) a coffee table
3) a chair
4) a new button-down
5) 7 new pairs of underwear
6) 1 bra
7) 2 new pilates DVDs
8) a new cookbook

In my defense, the chair and coffee table were presents for my birthday, the rug I'd been eying up for months and it FINALLY went on sale, my pilates DVD got scratched, and I only have those shitty Country Cookbooks my mom gave me when I moved. The underwear--while on the surface looks excessive--is in the face of:

1) new boy
2) new anti-thong/G-string resolution
3) anything I have that isn't a thong/G-string is over a year old

Why buy the non-sexy underwear when I have a new boy, you ask? It's part of my new resolution. As I reported a few weeks ago, I've decided not to speak to my ex anymore. It was a painful conversation, but I did make the break and I'm very proud of myself. Underwear enters this equation because anything I bought for myself over the past two years was with him in mind--I've never been much of a practical lingerie type of gal. So now I've decided to buy only underwear I like that hugs my butt ever-so-nicely. Because I like butt-hugging. I'm over the butt-cracking phase. While I don't really care if the new boy likes this change or not, it was encouraging to hear him say while he doesn't DISLIKE fancy lingerie, he's more of a girl-in-my-old-T-shirt-is-sexy kinda guy.

Yayayay. So that's the personal end. I'll post the professional later. Stupid work.

Ickity ick week..but with some nice icing

I can't decide what I think of this week; it's been so full of ups and downs.

At work I become more convinced of the ridiculous wretchness which is my job. I've even stopped being entertained by it. This feeling was furthered by the fact that I DIDN'T GET OFF FOR THE SNOW. I was so ticked. I thought it was going to be like an extra vacation. But no. Back to admin bullshit. On the entertaining side, I had a Crazy in my office that I got to pawn off on the office across the hall (hahaha...suckers) and there appears to be a power war going on between some of the high-ups around here...enough of a war that some people have come to me and asked me to do slightly suspicious things. Ha. I am more adept at manipulation that you fools and therefore can recognize it miles away. Go bother the interns. They're more susceptible.

On the upside there's a silly boy who I think I finally (subtly) convinced that I'm not interested in him as more than a friend...which I think has made him more relaxed and open around me. And it means I have a friend. I'm also becoming better friends with one of the girls I work with. She likes to tell me funny stories about ridiculous politicians. It lends more hilarity to my life.

But the big upside--surprisingly--is that a boy called me. A nice boy. A smart, funny, cute, weird, dorky adorable boy. We did fun things like look at cartoons and play in mazes. And I feel like I've actually been through this initial crush-smitten phase enough in my life that I'm not diving in too quickly. He's nice. And funny. And I like the way he kisses me. Yay. So we'll see.

Don't I Work for the Government?

How is it that the Federal Government has shut down, yet no one (including me!!!) that I know who works for it gets to go home?!?!

It's a sham, I tell you, and absolute farce.

Sufjan Stevens

That's right. I got tickets. My roommate and I woke up at 5:15am, hopped on the second bus of the morning and waited in line until 9:30 only to be told that we weren't getting tickets. We were roughly 100 people away from getting tickets. Close, but yet so far.

But wait, Meo, didn't you say you got tickets?

YES. That night my roommate went out with one of her friends. While out, she met a guy. As a course of their conversation she mentioned our earlier ticket-fiasco. The guy mentions he might be able to get a hold of extras. My lovely roommate gives him her number, figuring this is never going to work out. Way too random--he would never call.

BUT HE DOES. And we get tickets. 10 rows away from the stage. The concert was amazing and might be my best memory of a concert yet. In addition to the fabulous music, there were chocolate fountains, candy and free champagne because Target was sponsoring the event (I know, I know I shouldn't love it as much as I did...but free cake and Swedish fish? Come on).

As a good sidenote, the guy and his friends seemed cool. So I might have some new friends out of the whole deal :-). Although I feel like that could be taking a good thing a little too far.

Doesn't this feel good??

Hello blog! It's been a while!! And frankly, I've been a little depressed without you. Work has been difficult. Not for me, really, but everyone else in my office has been running around like maniacs and being stressed out so me, the lowest peon in the room, gets snipped at a lot. Not to mention there was a brief spurt of my favorite coworker going on a job interview so he might be leaving me :-(. I know our relationship has to end, being that we're both in a boring job doing admin crap we don't like but it had only just begun. Thankfully, it looks like he's sticking around for a little bit.

I've come to the 100%-total conclusion that I cannot cannot cannot cannot be friends with my ex. We talked last week (on AIM wooo) and it still wasn't a fun experience. It left me feeling overall hollow and wondering why were we ever together, what was wrong with me that I would be with such a shallow person who seems to have so little to offer me in terms of interesting conversation. Of course, its because we're not close anymore, we don't have intimacy anymore, we don't talk about anything. It's all a ridiculous CNN tickertape THE WORLD TODAY. In light of that, after now being broken up for over 8 months, I'm going to get the balls up to do the unthinkable: ask him to take the pictures of us off his website.

That's right. They're still there. They haven't been updated in over a year, and the vast majority of them include me-him-dating. They're a bit of a documentary of our romantic career, in fact. I haven't had the courage to bring this up thinking he would just respond with just-stop-looking or that the girl he dumped me for would get ticked enough about them to make him take them down. But no. It hasn't happened yet. So I'm going to say something. And then I'm going to tell him we're not friends. We're not going to be. It's impossible. As a friend counseled me this weekend: I need to stop beating myself over the fact I can't forgive him for hurting me. Sometimes its just not worth the effort to work at trusting someone again. There are better things to do with your time.

And that, my dear blog, will be how I will wash the remnants of this man out of my hair.

SCARY

Why do people get shot near my house????

HA WE JUST KICKED PROTESTORS OUT OF THE BUILDING

rock. and that's my power trip for the week.

National Security referred to as Alice in Wonderland

The New York Times has a hilarious yet frightening article about the case involving government wiretaps. It's really nice to see these judges call the Justice Department out on the carpet.

More Strange Happenings on H Street

As mentioned previously, I live just off H Street. H Street isn't a BAD neighborhood, per se, but it isn't a GREAT neighborhood either. There are a lot of bums and smelly people that hang out on street corners and general harassment for little white girls such as my roommate and myself is pretty common. On the plus side, I am constantly reading about things the long-time residents are doing to promote the area and make it safer. Go H Street!

The most recent push is to ban 'singles'. For the uninitiated, such as myself, this is confusing: only couples can live on H Street? What is someone gets divorced? If there's a nasty break-up, who gets to stay--the one who finds a new mate the fastest? But no, no, these singles refer to ALCOHOL. Single beers and 40s and banning the sale of them at grocery/convenience stores. Here's the link. While I am a general fan of reducing the number of smelly bums on the street, and have never been a fan of buying 'singles', I'm not entirely convinced that this is a productive way to combat the problem.

But the BEST PART of that article is at the end--the Red and Black is trying to offer haircuts+a shot for $12!!!! Wooohooo!!! I'm all over it.

Birthday dilemna

My parents are coming to visit for my birthday which is in a little less than a month. They are going to take me shopping for a day as my birthday present. They figured out a few years ago that this is preferable for all parties involved over buying me presents on my own. However, for the past few years I haven't had the opportunity to really go shopping, so I would figure out one of two things for them to get me. But this year they're coming, and I'm working on narrowing down my list.

This is much harder than it seems. I just moved and just started a new job. This means I'm in need of suits (since the job requires suits and I only own 2) but also in need of furniture. I'm also in need of quality shoes because I spend large parts of my day walking around. The best shoes I've ever found are Campers...and they're really expensive. My last pair died about a year ago and I've been itching to get a new pair ever since...and this birthday seems like the perfect time to do it. But they're really expensive. And I could really use a rug...and a coffee table...and a new suit. All of which I could get for much less than two pairs of shoes.

What to do what to do?!?!?!?!

Confessions of a Bonifide Politico

I get a thrill out of working in the Senate every day. It doesn't matter what's going on, it doesn't matter that the reality of my job is exceedingly dull and unexciting, I still get a kick out of walking down the hallway of the Russell building with its high ceilings, dark woodwork and lush carpeting. I gawk out the door every time John Kerry and Ted Kennedy walk down the hallway, sit in on any hearing I can get to, and giggle when I hear Trent Lott whistling. I've developed crushes on Joe Biden, Chuck Hagel and Amy Klobuchar. It's not that I see anyone as important, really, the entire Congress is a shame, but I still love it. A lot.

So last night I did something I've always wanted--I hosted a State of the Union party. And it was great. Many snickers from all parties involved, very little talking OVER Bush (which is REALLY annoying and has always happened at other SOTU parties I've been too). I was really excited. I feel as though I've fully embraced my politico self and its wonderful. When I was in York I loved being surrounded by others who got excited by the political process and by political research. I didn't think I would be able to find it once I left. And while I have yet to really feel as thought I have, I know I'm making progress. And it's pretty awesome.