October Catch-Up

I have been very remiss in posting lately, because, well, life has gotten pretty hectic.  I did get the chance, though to escape the frenetic pace of the city the past two weekends, so wanted to write about those.

My grandpa's 80th birthday was over Columbus Day weekend, so, despite, some unexpected health issues for Grampsy, the majority of the family gathered at their house for part of the long weekend.  It was wonderful to see my mom's side of the family (as well as spend the weekend with my little family of four).  We hadn't all gotten together in a while, so I was happy as a clam to catch up with everyone, especially my uncle Kevin, who lives in Colorado and who I don't see very often.  My dad, two of my uncles, one of my cousins and I went on a great 7-mile hike near Grammy and Grampsy's house, and God knows I'm a total sucker for a nice hike and some pretty foliage.  It's the New Englander in me :)

This weekend was Dan's and my much-anticipated getaway, making this my second straight weekend in the Shenandoahs.  Luckily, Dan had given in to my nagging agreed to go hiking (his first time!) with me. I had kept my fingers crossed all week for decent weather, since one of our objectives was hiking Old Rag.  We braved the traffic and, not two hours from the city, arrived at our home for the weekend, the charming Mayneview B&B.  We quickly headed down to Main St. to find something to eat, as one of the owners of the B&B told us, "this is a small town, so things close early."

We woke up bright and early (6:45- good thing we're both morning people!) to leave for Old Rag, since it was about a 40-minute drive from the B&B and we were told that the parking lot fills up early.  It was a fantastic 9-mile hike (including the walk to and from the parking lot).  I was puzzled at first that it had been described as a "very difficult" hike, since the uphill wasn't overly strenuous.  But then we came to the rock scaramble part of the hike, which looks something like this person's photo at times.  It was quite challenging, especially considering that it had rained for three days prior to our hike.  There was one particular rock that we had to take one-at-a-time, meaning that there was a bit of a traffic jam.  However, the fact that other people were around worked in our favor, considering the fact that, due to the presence of only one foothold to grab onto with your hand and no traction on the slippery rock, you really needed another person to hoist you up.  Thank God for Dan being able to drag me up the rock, because I certainly would not have been able to do it on my own, what with my two-year-old-esque arm strength.

Luckily, after a difficult climb up (the rock scramble had to have lasted at least an hour), the downhill was relatively uneventful.  Whereas one false step could have resulted in serious injury on the rock scramble, we had a leisurely trek down the mountain.  In fact, the last 2.5 miles were easy breezy, as they were along a road.  All in all, the hike took us about 4.5 hours, including stoppage time, so we made excellent time!  Yay us!  I think that hiking, particularly difficult hikes like that one, is terrific for couples, and we definitely felt a sense of shared accomplishment afterward.

After grabbing a quick bite to eat, we went to the B&B and crashed for a few hours because we were EXHAUSTED!  After exploring Luray, which took about a half-hour, we decided that we might as well have a light early dinner and go back to the B&B, because we were both still relatively lethargic at that point.  After some more lounge time, we decided that a dip in the hot tub (with our Virginia red wine that we had bought) would be the perfect remedy for our aching muscles, which it did turn out to be.  Then, we played a heated game of Monopoly (go figure, with two uber-competitive people), and relaxed in our room some more.  In case you hadn't guessed, the theme of Saturday (post-hike, that is) was relaxation.

On Sunday, after enjoying a delicious breakfast at the B&B, we toured the Luray Caverns, which were really spectacular (although I'm still not convinced that they were worth the $23 entrance fee).  We then drove up to see my grandparents, and had lunch with Grammy, my uncle Kevin and my cousin Amy.  I was excited to introduce Dan to that side of the family, and have really felt so fortunate throughout our relationship that he has been so open to spending time with my family and friends (as I am open to spending time with HIS family and friends, by extension).  From there, we drove home, and so ended our wonderful weekend away.  It was the first time we had gone away together for the weekend, and hopefully there will be many more trips like that in the future!

Here are some pictures from our hike:

 Are you jealous? :)

 There is NO question that fall is my favorite season

We survived!  At this point, it was really windy, so we really should have taken a picture at the base of the mountain to celebrate not having been blown off the peak!

Post-Weekend Reflections

This weekend, it truly started to feel like fall (yay!) in the District, and, I'll admit it, I wore my puffer coat to Whole Foods yesterday.  Even though this weekend was certainly exhausting, I came away from it feeling like it had been one of the better weekends I've had in recent memory.

On Friday night, Dan and I went to dinner at Grillfish, where I had been for happy hour but had never eaten.  I was blown away by the amazing grilled fish (get it? HAHA) that we each got.  That is definitely on my list to go back to in the future, especially since I am trying to incorporate more fish into my diet (I also had a mind-blowingly fantastic Branzino (Mediterranean Sea Bass) dish last weekend when my parents and I went out to dinner in Old Town).  Anyway, then we spent some time with his friends...which led to potentially the worst hangover I think I've ever had the next day.  Oh well, at least we had fun...

On Saturday, some friends came over to celebrate Molly's birthday, and then we went out to Brass Monkey, our old mainstay.  Shockingly (and, for those of you who know us, this truly IS shocking), we did not sing a SINGLE karaoke song.  We just danced.  And several of us, who had all had a rough night the night before, didn't drink, so sobriety certainly made us see Admo through a different lens.  One thing I just have to rant about is the following: so, for those of you who know me, I am a tall girl (6'0", to be exact), which I am, for the most part, secure with.  However, I don't like to be defined by my height, and can be self-conscious about it at times, so it's not an attribute that I need to have pointed out to me on a consistent basis.  So there I was, dancing with my little insular group of friends, when this guy, who had been eyeing our group creepily for about 20 minutes, approached me and said, "I just wanted to let you know that I appreciate the height." I stopped listening for a few seconds, so don't know what he said in the interim, but then he finished by saying, "I hope you have a good time." 

Okay, if there are any guys reading, I'm about to do you a big favor by giving you some insider advice: if a girl has a physical attribute that she would EVER have a chance of being self-conscious about, DO NOT comment on it.  If a girl is tall, chances are she's heard it before, and, frankly, does not need to be reminded of that fact.  Oh, and I should mention that this girl is also (very happily) in a relationship, so, even if she had been flattered by your misguided remark, your pickup line would not have worked anyway.  There it is.  HOWEVER, one thing I will give him credit for is that he broke into a group of about 10 people (I was under the impression that guys didn't attempt to break into groups of more than three.  I guess I underestimated this guy).  IF I were not happily in a relationship and IF he hadn't blown his chance with that pathetic excuse for a pickup line, I MIGHT have appreciated his courage...maybe.

Anyway, after a nice night of dancing, I woke up bright and early to get on the first Metro train to go watch a 10K Dan was running downtown.  When I got to Metro Center, the Blue/Orange line boards were blank, which was not a good sign, so I opted to run from there to East/West Potomac Park to the race's start.  I luckily made it a few minutes before the start and, since it was a relatively small race, I easily found Dan (and he was able to spot me before he sped off).  It could not have been more than 50 degrees, but, since I had planned to run home afterward, I was at least semi-appropriately dressed in running pants, and a tee, my half-marathon long-sleeved tee and an 80s throwback Georgetown Crew sweatshirt, so it really could have been worse.  Dan finished 22nd overall with a great time of 38:12 and won second place in his age group!  I was so overwhelmingly proud of him, and, despite the sleep lost in getting there for the start, I was so glad that I had been able to share that with him.  I told him that maybe, one day, I'll be fast enough so I can run with him, because it would be fun to be one of those couples that runs together :)

After we went back to Dan's apartment for a little bit (we needed to get inside and warm up after immediately after the race, because we were huddling together for warmth and shaking like leaves as the age bracked winners' names were read off), I ran home.  It was my first time running up Wisconsin, and let's just say that that hill kicked my ASS!  As in sore abs and legs for the rest of teh day.  Once you get past the Russian Embassy, it completely evens out, but until then, I felt like I was barely moving faster than a walk.  Nonetheless, I always feel, when I run outside, that I am so fortunate to live in a city that is so active.  In fact, DC is the second most active city in the country (WOOOO!!!!!), so you will always see people outside walking, running, biking and the like.  Add to that the fact that there are a ton of races every weekend and you have a recipe for an amazing city to call home.

And so, I am announcing right here and now (so that I can be held accountable for this decision) that next year, I would like to run the Marine Corps Marathon (barring any serious injury haha).  It's something I've been thinking seriously about for a while now, but I really think it would be such a wonderful thing for me to do.  Since I ran my half-marathon, I have felt antsy and have wanted to find another fitness goal to work towards.  So I figure that, while I'm still young and am in reasonably good shape, I should take advantage of all of the endorphins that are bringing me to this crazy conclusion and just do it.  Please remind me of that when I complain next summer of the 20-milers I will be running over the weekends :)

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend, and thanks to all of you who made this such a special weekend for me!  This weekend, I have a family party to look forward to in Virginia, and the following weekend, Dan and I are going on our weekend trip!!!!!!  Then, Homecoming is the weekend after that, and then Halloween is rounding out this busy month.  Sheesh, October is already booked solid, but I could not be more excited for this month!

Okay, maybe guys have it tough too (plus new blogs!!!)

So yesterday, after much heavy hinting on my part, Dan asked if I wanted to go shoe shopping with him.  DID I EVER!!!!!!  I envisioned us perusing the aisles of some cute little shoe store (errr, department store.  This is Pentagon City we're talking about) and agreeing on the same shoe choice for him.  One of my coworkers and I promptly enlisted the help of the interwebs to learn more about the options that guys have for dress shoes, and were horrified by the search results that Google Images provided us with.  This sad set of images, along with shoe scanning, one of my favorite Metro activities, has led me to believe that guys really do have terrible dress shoe options.  I am FULLY in support of Oxfords (and, in fact, badly want a pair of the female version), and loafers (for men my dad's age), but other than that, you would be hard-pressed to find a pair of men's dress shoes that did not make me cringe.

Fortunately, for all parties involved, it turned out that Dan just wanted a pair of new running shoes, so I was able to put my fears of any potential shoe disagreements aside.  I wholeheartedly approved of the pair he chose (the neon ones we both thought were awesome unfortunately did not come in his size, so he settled for a pair of blue and gray ones...which I obviously would never complain about).  Crisis averted.

But this got me to thinking about men's clothing in general.  My friends and I spend a lot of time bemoaning the fact that there is no such thing as size standardization in women's clothing.  You could be a size 2 in one store and a size 6 in another (or even a different size within the SAME store!).  I thought that men had it easy.  However, from talking to Dan and a guy friend of mine, I learned that it might not be as easy as I once thought.  Dan complained that dress shirts are often "billowy" on him, which would certainly frustrate me, and the friend complained that his shoulders are too wide to find a shirt that he's not either swimming in or having his circulation be cut off by.  I give men very little sympathy for what they have to "go through" compared to what they do.  Please, we'll always have childbirth and periods.  Game over.  But I did find myself feeling a little bit bad for guys.  No one's body, male or female, is ever going to perfectly fit in the same size clothing in every store, so shopping will forever be a frustrating venture.

In other news, this week has been a good one for me because I have found some new blogs to follow!!!! I am really starting to love lifestyle blogs, because, even if I don't know the blogger personally, there is almost always something that they write that resonates with me.  One that I've quickly gotten obsessed with is A Single Girl Doing Single Things.  I have been looking for entertaining DC bloggers, and Kate and her friends, who also blog, are fantastic.  Kate, a 30 year-old singleton originally from New England (yay!) blogs mostly about the at-times frustrating plight of dating in DC.  I related to so much of what she said, because, even though I am happily in a relationship now, I have certainly had my moments of frustration in my lifetime.  Kate's conversations with her girlfriends about dating, hookups, relationships and breakups so closely resemble conversations that any group of girlfriends, mine included, have.  She is very honest and real, and that's part of what I love about the blog.  She also names the places she and her girlfriends go out to, as well as where she goes on dates, so that has given me some good ideas of places to try myself! She had a particularly funny guest blogger post that I just had to share with all of you, because it left me in stitches!

Anyway, I hope you all have a marvelous weekend, and enjoy this more fall-like weather!
Kristen

Me, A-Z!!!!!!

I found this cute little A - Z quiz on Katie's Pencil Box, a blog that I just discovered today and am officially obsessed with.  I would highly encourage you all to check it out, because she has some beautiful pictures and fun posts.  As I'm trying to blog more frequently, as a nice little outlet for myself, as well as to make this more of a lifestyle blog than a personal update blog, I decided to incorporate the quiz into today's post.  Anyway, here are my quiz answers!

A. Age: 23
B. Bed size: Full!  I have finally graduated from, as Lauren calls it, the Twin Bed of my Youth!  I hardly know what to do with all of this extra space!
C. Chore that you hate: Is it weird to say that I don't hate doing chores?
D. Dogs: Unfortunately, I am allergic, but love dogs, as long as they don't jump on me or get in my way when I'm trying to walk
E. Essential start to your day: A nice, long 5 a.m. run
F. Favorite color: Any shade of purple or seafoam green
G. Gold or Silver: Gold all the way (white gold for the engagement ring that I will hopefully someday have).  However, my most prized possession is a silver charm bracelet.
H. Height: 6’0″
I. Instruments you play: I took piano lessons for years as a child, but have always played best by ear
J. Job title: Marketing and Events Coordinator, Georgetown Full-Time MBA Admissions Office
K. Kids: Not yet, but I can’t wait to be a mom (hopefully of four!) someday.
L. Live: The fabulous Washington, DC
M. Mother’s name: Nancy
N. Nicknames: My dad calls me Sweet Pea and Boo Boo, my mom calls me Lass, and my grandpa calls me PC (for pin cushion; I had such severe jaundice when I was born that I was carted back and forth to the hospital for lots of tests, hence the pins- or more aptly, needles)
O. Overnight hospital stays: None.
P. Pet peeves: Bad grammar, people who do not clean up after themselves, Metro delays, people who make no effort to do their jobs well (ahem, Comcast, health insurance, leasing office, I'm talking to you), closed-minded people (particularly common in DC, especially as it relates to politics)
Q. Quote from a movie: "I love that after I spend day with you, I can still smell your perfume on my clothes. And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night. And it’s not because I’m lonely, and it’s not because it’s New Year’s Eve. I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible." ~When Harry Met Sally
R. Right or left handed: Lefty (WOO! Unique 10%)
S. Siblings: 1 younger brother (although I always tell people that I have 3 brothers and a sister, because I consider Jack, Caki and Patrick to be my siblings as well)
U. Underwear: I have recently been finding really cute lacy pairs from Anthropologie and VS
V. Vegetable you hate: Mushrooms (technically a fungus, though)
W. What makes you run late: I don't run late.  EVER (unless the Metro is experiencing delays, which it often is).  Although my boyfriend might tell you that, on our first date, I was two or three minutes late because my bus was running behind.  Needless to say,  I arrived very dissheveled, red-faced from a power walk and extremely apologetic.
X. X-Rays you’ve had: Sinus (I got sinus infections a fair amount as a teenager), ankle (once when I broke it as a child and once this summer when I sprained it)
Y. Yummy food that you make: Anything baked (cookies are my specialty, but I've also made Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes, fruit crumbles, pies, cakes from scrats, etc.)
Z. Zoo animal: Pandas.  So freaking cute, not to mention playful

Happy Hump Day!!!
Kristen

Perfect for Fall

I am currently lusting after these Tory Burch boots, which I will not be buying anytime soon.  Also, for whatever reason, a camel cowl neck sweater with lots of chunky gold jewelry sounds divine right now.  I started using Polyvore to piece together outfits, which is a lot of fun!  Hopefully my boards will start looking more sophisticated as I get the hang of it! 

Perfect for Fall by kristenbautz featuring long sleeve sweaters

Wait, you thought this would be easy?!?!?

I am in the midst of a particularly nasty Comcast issue that has dragged on for weeks and weeks, and yesterday, after my mom and I drove 45 minutes (in DC rush hour traffic-apparently the worst in the US, by the way, with 3 days spent in traffic annually) each way to get to the Comcast service center very far out in Montgomery County, I got to thinking about all of the things they don't tell you about adulthood.

Overall, I have been content with my general easing in to adulthood (not that I proclaim to be there just yet), but there are certain hassles that I was certainly not anticipating. I would be interetsed to hear some other frustrations (as well as victories!) that you have experienced, should you be of the same age bracket as myself. Health insurance. A necessary evil, in my opinion, one of those things that is really useful to have should you get sick, but, let's face it, a pain in the ass otherwise. Some things I love about insurance: only having to pay a $15 copay for a doctor's visit; getting most procedures (including a recent X-ray that ruled out broken bones when I broke my ankle over the summer. Due to a hospital mixup, I received a $282 bill and nearly had a heart attack, but after a quick call to the hospital, got everything sorted out and learned that insurance will pay in full...phew!) covered, if not entirely then at a very high percentage; getting prescriptions for a very reasonable amount of money. Just the simple fact of being insured makes me feel a whole lot better about life, because, if something were to happen, I would be covered. Of course, there are some things that I hate about health insurance. In between graduating college and finding a full-time job, I was on a COBRA plan under my parents' old insurance. During that time, I had regular (and rather pricey) appointments for which I had to file a claim for partial reimbursement. I filed the claim in October, and let's just say that it took me until this past April to see that money, after many phone calls and an incredible amount of confusion over which service (Aetna or Cigna) covered the visits. Claims are not fun, I'll just put it that way. That gave me more than my fair share of headaches, so I was more than happy to close the book on that nightmare.

Another source of frustration has been the leasing office for my new apartment. It took me about a month-and-a-half to get my lease, and that was only after sending the leasing agent, who I had not actually spoken to because she does not return phone calls and is apparently never in the office, an angry email in which I chastised her for handling this unprofessionally, that I got a lease (it was in my inbox not 20 minutes later). I still have an issue that I have been following up with her on, but I'm hoping to get that resolved soon, and, compared to not having a lease to sign, it is a less pressing issue.

The Comcast fiasco has been going on for five or six weeks, and essentially involves problems with equipment that is unaccounted for (mostly because the technician was so moronic that he could not recognize Comcast equipment and because they are charging us- or, more specifically, me- for equipment that I do not believe I was ever in possession of. Needless to say, it has been a frustrating back-and-forth that has involved me calling them nearly every morning before work and wanting to bash my head into a wall because I cannot get a consistent answer from these people. I cannot wait to put this behind me and go back to being my usual cheerful self!!!

Believe it or not, there ARE some positives to being a semi-adult. Financial independence is a huge one for me, particularly considering that, throughout college, I was financially dependent on my parents. Being able to make my own money is such a fulfilling feeling (although, when you consider that much of it goes to taxes and the Metro, you can't help but cringe a little bit). Having free time on the weekends to do whatever I want, as opposed to studying, is wonderful, and is also a major reason why I am postponing going to grad school for at least a couple of years. I like having free time to spend with my friends, family and boyfriend and not feel guilty for having spent that time with them rather than doing homework. And honestly, I try to tell myself, after all of these phone calls and emails with Comcast, my insurance company and the leasing office, that this is just an indoctrination into the world of adults, and that I'm learning life skills in the process.

Grammar Police

Given the omnipresence of social media (blogs, Facebook and the like) in my life, I have begun to take note of some common grammatical errors. Now, I certainly don't proclaim to know all that there is to know about grammar, but there are certain things that get under my skin. For many of these errors, I think, 'Shouldn't you have learned this in middle school?!?'

But I digress. I thought I would give a little list of some common errors that I have seen, and also share an interesting site called Grammar Girl, a blog about grammar that I think I, and the rest of America, could learn a good deal from.

Here are my "favorite" (I can't really say that they are my favorites, because they make me cringe whenever I see or hear them, but you get my point):
1) Your/you're: Okay, people, I can guarantee that we ALL learned this in elementary school. The eternal question of whether to contract or not contract...It annoys me to no end when I see "I hope your having a good day" (which I do, with alarming frequency, on Facebook in particular). Okay, "your" is a possessive pronoun or adjective, depending on how it is being used. "You're," obviously the more appropriate choice in this situation, is a contraction of "you are". Done.
2) There/they're/their: Sort of along the same lines as the previous entry. "There" is an adverb (a.k.a. modifies a verb), "they're" is a contraction for "they are" and "their" is a possessive pronoun. To say, "Their going to the beach today" is incorrect.
3) Using apostrophes to make words plural makes me want to cry. When I read, "two medium pizza's" on a menu, I tense up a little bit. Adding an apostrophe makes a word POSSESSIVE, NOT PLURAL(also, if a word ends in a -z, which my last name happens to, or an -s you add -es to make it plural).
4) The dreaded double conditional: This probably bothers me mostly because of how hard the tenses were drilled into my mind in my Spanish and French classes. Certain tenses may be paired together, and others may not. Something that I have recently noticed people saying is, "If I would have known______, I would have done ______". This is called using a double conditional. If the speaker used the past perfect tense in the first verb clause, the sentence would be correct, and would read something like, "If I HAD known ______, I would have done ______".
5) A funny/sad? anecdote: I received an email from a teaching agency that read, "We want to insure that you have all of the information you need...," or something to that effect. Ensure, people, ENSURE. INSURE is for insurance. And this was from a teaching agency...sheesh!

How about all of you? Are there grammatical errors that make your blood boil? Or am I just neurotic? (I acknowledge that the latter is quite probable.)