Recent Favorites and some Anne Lamott

• Two weekends ago, I played my first role of bridesmaid in the wedding of my little sister from my college sorority. It was an all-around great weekend and we got to stay with Brian and Kay at their place which was mere blocks away from the hotel and church!

The gorgeous cathedral I snuck a picture of.

DGs at the rehearsal dinner

All DGs at the reception! (minus the bride!)

Mike and I at the reception!

                                 

• I've also had some pretty scenic running adventures lately. I'm trying to get back into the swing of things post-move and weekends out of town!

New running path at our new place! It's right near a nature trail and river and is a pretty scenic substitution for the monuments I miss running by.

Saturday, I walked past the Capitol to meet Mike at the law school for a study break lunch and had to play tourist for just a second!

Today, I treated myself to a morning run past the monuments (after dropping MJ off int he city to leave for Baltimore) and this is the closest I've ever been to the Washington monument! So close I couldn't get it all until I had run a little further away!

There it is:) At this point, I had to turn around or I was going to be late for work. Not my fastest day;)

• This guy in his overalls.........the MOST adorable....

• Mike sent me a Bar Eve text of the dragonboats in Inner Harbor because he knows I love them. At first I thought it was a picture of the trash cans and I had just had a trash can gifted to me by a neighbor (ours was accidentally stolen because we didn't put our house number on it...which apparently happens a lot). It was such a kind and welcoming gesture and now I don't have to go through the hassle of contacting the city.

• Mike will be done with the bar by Wednesday evening! I realize I've taken many of his projects for granted, just because after so many exam periods and interviews and mock trials and shows....it feels routine for things to be intense every so often, but I've seen and heard that bar study is the kind of intensity that is meant to unhinge you. I don't know if I believe in the necessity of the mind games, but I DO know what a blessing it will be to get past it! GO MIKE GO<3

• This post from Anne Lamott. The news has had me feeling kind of down lately and she always finds a way to put words to it and to also help me focus on the hopeful and positive beauty of life. I posted a shortened version below.

"Many mornings I check out the news as soon as I wake up, because if it turns out that the world is coming to an end that day, I am going to eat the frosting off an entire carrot cake; just for a start. Then I will move onto vats of clam dip, pots of crime brûlée, nachos, M & M's etc. Then I will max out both my credit cards...

The last two weeks have been about as grim and hopeless as any of us can remember, and yet, I have not gotten out the lobster bib and fork...

Hasn't your mind just been blown lately, even if you try not to watch the news? Does it surprise you that a pretty girl's mind turns to thoughts of entire carrot cakes, and credit cards?...

It's not that I don't trust God or grace or good orderly direction anymore. I do, more than ever. I trust in divine intelligence, in love energy, more than ever, no matter what things look like, or how long they take. It's just that right now cute little platitudes are not helpful.

I'm not depressed. I'm overwhelmed by It All. I don't think I'm a drag. I kind of know what to do. I know that if I want to have loving feelings, I need to do loving things. It begins by putting your own oxygen mask on first: I try to keep the patient comfortable. I do the next right thing: left foot, right foot, left foot, breathe. I think Jesus had a handle on times like these: get thirsty people water. Feed the hungry. Try not to kill anyone today. Pick up some litter in your neighborhood. Lie with your old dog under the bed and tell her what a good job she is doing with the ruptured ear drum.

I try to quiet the drunken Russian separatists of my own mind, with their good ideas. I pray. I meditate. I rest, as a spiritual act. I spring for organic cherries. I return phone calls.

I remember the poor. I remember an image of Koko the sign-language gorilla, with the caption, "Law of the American Jungle: remain calm. Share your bananas." I remember Hushpuppy at the end of Beasts of the Southern Wild, just trying to take some food home to her daddy Wink, finally turning to face the hideous beast on the bridge, facing it down and saying, "I take care care of my own."

I take care of my own. You are my own, and I am yours--I think this is what God is saying, or trying to, over the din. We are each other's. Thee are many forms of thirst, many kinds of water."

-Anne Lamott

Fourth, Wimbledon, Happy Hours, & Baby Showers

Fourth

Mike and I spent our Fourth of July at our friend Josh's (and Steph and Ross and Dan) much-anticipated 4th of July Roof Party. We watched the downtown fireworks not-to-be-overshadowed by the fireworks just from the block party on a street two blocks from the roof. Unfortunately, my allergies (or cold? because I can't tell the difference) went crazy right before the fireworks and so we left shortly after. However, I tried to snag a few pictures in between sneezes.

Bad picture, but it helps give you the idea.

Sick Independence Day selfie!

I like this one:) See the tiny monument on the left!

Wimbledon

On Sunday after the Fourth, we had our annual Wimbledon Breakfast. Absi, Carlos, and Alicia helped us eat some of our spread which included the usual cucumber sandwiches with herbed goat cheese spread (delicious!), pitcher of Pimm's Cup cocktail, hot tea, muffins, meat and cheese platter, and strawberries with angel food cake and fresh whipped-cream! Mike did a great job making the whipped cream:) Unfortunately (GAH), Roger lost in 5 sets, BUT you can never really complain when you get to watch 5 sets of tennis awesomeness. Looking forward to the US Open already!

Roger and our foodsss.

Refuse to Lose! & Goodbye Happy Hour

Because we are very much in a tennis mood now, Kelly and I went to see the Kastles Wednesday night. There were no real current big names, but some past big names definitely, including Martina Hingis! It was so nice to see live tennis in a different style. They really try to make this tennis league spicier than the Grand Slams, including getting the crowd to cheer on the local team. One chant was "Refuse to Lose" and I brought Mike back a free sign they gave out with that slogan on it. I told him it was to hang up for when he studies the rest of this month.

The next night Mike and I went to a happy hour to say goodbye to Matt and Cori who are moving to California while Cori starts her MBA:( So excited for them, but sad to say goodbye. We snapped a picture with Kellex while being goofy...

I missed the open mouth memo.

Tiff's Baby Shower

My stepsister, Tiffany, is expecting a baby girl at the end of August and she had her baby shower today at my mom and stepdad's house in Virginia. Because my sister was busy that morning and my mom had to help set up for the shower, I arrived early to take care of my favorite little man. Of course, I took a good number of pictures.

This face.

THIS face.

Chilling in the pool<3

I was basically a personal lazy river for him.

#hardcoreauntiemode

Tomorrow, I might get to hang out with Ashton on his first trip to the zoo! And this upcoming weekend I'll be in Philadelphia at my Little's wedding (my first as a bridesmaid!). Next week's post will be a doozy, for sure.

The Rest of June in Review

I know Mike and I have not posted in a while. How could we have predicted that the summer would have been this crazy? Law school is over and my students are out of school, but somehow (with the help of bar studying and summer programming at my job) our stress level has increased significantly in June. Besides work and studying, we've had lots of other things to take up the rest of our time:

June 14th: GoRuck Light!

• Sometime in May, Mike signed up for a challenge event with his friend from Woodberry, Taylor. I has just asked Mike to sign up for a race with me this summer and he said he was too busy! But I later found out that the draw of this challenge was that it was military-style and would help prepare him for ODS in the Fall. I normally only like familiar, but I impulsively decided to sign up with Mike and Taylor out of solidarity. We ended up doing the race the weekend after we got engaged and it was such a good shared experience to have in that moment. Mike carried me....on his back...at many points throughout the challenge. I carried a 125 pound girl for a little ways up a hill. Our entire team was working/lifting/running for about 5 hours total. And then, at the very end, our cadre called "the future bride and groom" up in front of the group. Who...me? Taylor had told our cadre about us getting engaged and our team ended up carrying us on their shoulders together while humming "Here comes the Bride...". It was an incredible event. I was sore for about a week after, but I already can't wait to find another one to do.
• A story Mike's friend, Taylor, wrote about the organization that does these challenges: http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/dont-quit-why-a-post-writer-signed-up-for-12-hours-of-hell-twice/2013/08/22/4194305c-eeed-11e2-bed3-b9b6fe264871_story.html



Pre-race....when we still had the energy to smile:)

• This is a video of the team carrying Mike and I on their shoulders: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152618403725769. It says it is a public video, but if you can't see it, I don't know how to fix that:)
• The  website for more information about the event: https://www.goruck.com/light

Our whole group for the GoRuck Light! If you can't spot me, I'm the only one who is doing the 'sorority squat'.

June 15th: Cafe Berlin Brunch

• I need to write about Cafe Berlin because it's one of my first experience with authentic German food. Mike and I met up with Patrick and Justine and Justine lovingly offered to help us move some furniture later (that we were acquiring from Steph W.'s home in Maryland)...don't we have amazing friends? Anyway, while re-discovering my love of authentic sauerkraut and strong mustards, I also re-discovered how glorious french press coffee is.

June 16th: Private Lives

• We saw the last production of our Shakespeare Theater Company subscription for this year. This particular play asked deep questions about love, relationships, hate, and divorce, but did so in an often hilarious way. STC really did a great job with their subscriptions for young professionals and I hope we can take advantage of a similar opportunity in whatever cities we end up in.

June 21st: HOME

An adorable Ashton picture!

• I went home to see the family and Baby Ashton. I also wanted to hunt around for some supplies for the new apartment. (Our new place is basically just full of free stuff we've accumulated over the past couple of months. Thanks to all who donated to us!) Baby Ashton has gotten SO BIG. He is almost 8 months old now (I can't believe it) and has gotten way more active. He is such a happy baby, smiling all the time and laughing easily. I cannot wait until Courtney comes to the city and I get to babysit him for a whole evening!

June 28th-29th: Independence Run 5-miler and Moving

• At 7:15am the Saturday morning of our first day of REAL moving, I has a 5-mile race to run in Leesburg, VA. I must have signed up for it when I was feeling particularly motivated and impulsive, because Past Kels was not looking out for Future Kels. I also did not realize that Leesburg, VA was an hour away from DC and that I would have to wake up at 5am. Nonetheless, I had comittted to running it with Kelly and Alex and, by the time 8am rolled around, I'd completed 5 miles at about an 8:30 pace....not bad for the amount of training I had done which was nothing different my usual workouts. The race was actually super nice! The course was hilly, but in the countryside, and it felt nice to be that productive that early in the morning. At my best, I actually am a morning person....just not on moving weekends.
• Mike and I ended up moving everything in 4 trips with my car....and we did it all ourselves. I'm actually really impressed with us. I would describe the experience of moving with your partner as.....an exercise in character-building and trust-building. Because we both value efficiency, I did a lot of organizing/packing/sorting (my strengths) and Mike did a lot of heavy lifting and logistics (his strengths). Yesterday, we found a bug in our apartment and I told Mike that I'd identified bug-killing as one of his strengths so I'd let him handle that one;) I don't think he bought that compliment.

Rupert is settling in nicely! He is happier than we've ever seen him:)

June 30th: "Top Gun"

• Seeing a movie outdoors was one of the items on my DC summer bucket list. I decided on Top Gun in Crystal City because Kelly said it was the best venue and because I though Top Gun had something to do with the Navy. (I had never seen it before.) Kelly, Alex, Mike, and I ate We the Pizza and ice cream on blankets and then were treated to an epic movie (awesome soundtrack!) featuring Tom Cruise at his best. It was really hard to tear ourselves away from all of the organizing and nesting in our new place, but it was totally worth it!

Pizza and Screen on the Green in Crystal City! Blurry is arts

I can't believe that today is the first day of July and that, in the first 6 months of the year, the following happened:

• I started a new job
• We went to Disney!
• Mike finalized his acceptance into the Navy and commissioned!
• Mike graduated from law school!
• We got engaged:)
• We moved into a new place together:)

Things to look forward to during the rest of 2014!

• our Breakfast at Wimbledon brunch this Sunday!
• Jenny's wedding in less than 2 weeks! (We'll be staying with Brian and Kay in Philly)
• Mike finishing the Bar and us celebrating with a trip to Cumberland!
• 10K in August that hopefully Mike and I will actually have time to train for!
• Sending Mike off to ODS! Then welcoming him back!
• Getting married!