Pumpkin & Sweaters & Boots, OH MY.

Warning: Today is the first day of Fall. Prior to today I had to carefully control and moderate my use of the following: sweaters, boots, drape-y scarves, molasses, pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice, and an autumnal color palette, getting my hopes up about the Redskins. (Thank you, Davia for appreciating the restraint that went into my "transition to Fall" outfit. last night. But TODAY I am officially allowed to go crazy on all of the above (and I WILL believe in you Redskins!). Yes, for the next 3 months (or however long until it snows in DC), I plan on jumping in leaves, wearing sweaters and scarves, curling up with books in coffee shops that graciously feed my pumpkin spice latte addiction, listening to harry potter soundtracks, and spending every second possible outside running, walking, skipping, etc. (I already warned some that Fall Kelsey can be a little MPDG, so consider yourselves fairly warned too.)

See. I even had to take a picture this morning. No. Restraint.

To kick off the season, I would like to offer a list of some of my go-to favorite ways to cook with pumpkin! Besides the pancakes, I already shared, these recipes are a lot better because they are actual recipes written and tested by other people (many from my favorite blogger, Angela at Oh She Glows). These are some healthy and easy ways to start off with. We may get a little more advanced later in the season.

• Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal (Oatmeal does not get more comforting than this.)

• Homemade Pumpkin Butter (I want to put it on everything!)

• Pumpkin Pudding Parfait with Gingerbread Cookies (Who can resist a parfait?)

• Pumpkin Gingerbread Smoothie (This smoothie is as delicious as it is healthy! Love molasses in smoothies.)

• Pumpkin Peanut Butter Dip (Two of my favorite things married together. Apple optional. Spoon not.)

Thanks to Oh She Glows and Cookin' Cowgirl for making it easier for me to get my pumpkin fix. 

Have a great weekend all!

Fridays!

It's Friday! We wait the entire week for this day! I'm so excited I can't wait to get off work at 6pm and do all of the things I can't do during the week when I'm working! There's just a little problem. By 6pm, I am absolutely exhausted from working all week. Too exhausted to really take advantage of the first night of the weekend. This isn't how it works in the movies!

In the movies, young, hip working women get off work on a Friday only to make a flawless and instantaneous transition to happy hour. Really? Seriously? At the end of any workday I am in no condition to be seen by other people. All I want to do is drive a traffic-less commute back home, put on some pj's (the ugly, comfy ones) and have no one talk to me for about two hours (because that was all I did at work).

Oh Friday, what am I going to do with you? A mocha latte would fix this, but I am not about to pay $5.00 for that fix. Enter: my favorite mocha knockoff = hot chocolate packet + coffee. And if your office has coffee and you can find a hot chocolate packet in a lobby or cafeteria somewhere, it is free. Yay!

So I will ride this caffeine and sugar wave until I get off off work with (hopefully) enough energy leftover to run home to do the adult things of laundry and dishes, and then put myself together enough for a happy hour. And then I will get home and in bed in time to get a reasonable amount of sleep because guess who has her first Saturday office hours tomorrow? This girl. Oh, yes.

But my youngest sister will be visiting tomorrow after I get off work so that will get me through the 7am wakeup:)

Have a great weekend!

Hello Fall!

Okay so maybe Fall still technically isn't here quite yet, but DC's weather definitely did the switch last week. Just the slight change in weather is an instant boost to my mood. My youngest sister started to make fun of me for my excitement last week saying "Are you one of those girls who won't stop talking about pumpkin in the fall?" Um, yes. That's me. And that's why I was forced to make pumpkin pancakes this weekend.

Easy Pumpkin Pancakes: 

• one batch of pancake mix  prepared according to the box (I used TJ's multigrain)
• mix in some pumpkin puree from a can until the mixture is pretty orange-y in color (I used 1/2 a can per 2 cups of dry mix that went into the recipe)
• add pumpkin pie spice or just cinnamon if you don't have any 

Pluses: chocolate chips mixed in the batter before cooking and REAL maple syrup

I also celebrated Fall with two runs this weekend! Because when the weather is this nice, I can't not run. It's really good for my workout routine. Besides the awesome weather, this weekend also just rocked in general.

Friday Night: I've not yet adjusted to how exhausted I am on Friday evenings. I just have zero energy after the work week and it's so hard for me to motivate myself to hang out and not immediately go to sleep. Welcome to adulthood. However, Selena was in town! So wimping out was not allowed. Mike and I met up with Will and Selena on H Street for a late dinner at a Moroccan restaurant called Souk. Conclusion: over-priced, not enough food, they did the falafel wrong. But I was so hungry it didn't matter. Afterwards, Will took us back to his brand-new super trendy apartment building. It's like one of those buildings you see in movies. The most important feature of this complex was the free espresso machine in the lobby. Just what I needed! That cappuccino saved the night.

See, I told you!

Saturday: The 10k running group (Mike, Kelly, Alex, and I) went for a run and Mike found an office chair for free that he proceeded to run with all the way back to his apartment. Incentives for running! Then Mike, Jeff, and I got burritos from Chinito's Burritos on Florida Avenue.....my new favorite Mexican spot in DC! It's actually Mexican-Asian fusion, but, when you go (because you must), you have to try to Tex-Mex egg rolls and the Szechuan slaw. Mike and I also hit up the H Street festival for a little while (we really shouldn't have eaten before going there) where there were tons of artists, shows, and ample opportunities for dog watching.

Sunday: After another morning run, the pumpkin pancakes happened, and I saw the Redskins lose a sad sad game. Well RG3 did what he could. Then Kelly came over to see my new place and have me some new place decorating tips which I have summarized here: ( Tip 1: Ikea, Tip 2: Pinterest).

I was supposed to head to the Bon Iver concert with my sister on Saturday night (she found out Friday night that she had an extra ticket), but I have been fighting off some virus for the past couple of days and wasn't feeling well. This was bound to happen at the start of the school year since I work with students, but I'm drinking tea and taking vitamins like it's my job so I'm not giving up without a fight. 

This Saturday is my first weekend shift at work (8am-2pm) so I'm hoping it's an easy coffee-drinking and catching up on paperwork kind of day. I think it's worth it to have next Monday off of work!

"You Can Be Where Your Feet Are"

I am starting to feel like I belong here.

Not too long ago, I recall a time of nothing short of terror about my future. While there are still certainly things I'm anxious about, particularly taking on all of the 'adult' things that come with being out of school and on your own, I finally feel like the overwhelming things are of a manageable size. I can take them as they come. Even in my new job, I can feel my Type A self starting to creep towards "But what do I do after this job? How is this going to further my overall career? Do I want to be here forever?" A mentor of mine who knows how much difficulty I have living in the present once told me, "Kelsey, just be where your feet are."I would argue back, "But, I don't know how to be where my feet are. Don't you know me? I can't walk anywhere....I have to run."

It's true I do run a lot. But yesterday was the first day of Fall-like weather in DC. You can't miss the day when it actually turns from Summer to Fall. The sky is bright blue and the air has an exhilarating crispness about it. I decided for my lunch break I was going for a WALK. About a mile each way to Catholic University for a Pumpkin Spice Latte. (It took me less than an hour into the first day of my job to find out where the closest Starbucks to campus was located, but this was my first venture there.) While walking, I was reminded of what my mentor told me and what it for me at the point I'm at in my life. It is not necessary to have every single step figured out. Or every single path. Sometimes we just need to know the very next step or to be comfortable with being still and finding our feet.

There are so many great things that have happened in the midst of the craziness of the past couple of weeks: celebrations, transitions, lessons. I want to be able to really experience them in the present. Here's a recount anyway:

• The Weekend of Birthdays! 
• I went to Ben's "Paris in the 40's" surprise birthday party on a Friday night (I tried brandy for the first time), played a role in a scavenger hunt for Goo's fiancee Emmanuel's birthday (reminiscent of sorority clue weeks a little bit), and celebrated Alex's birthday on Saturday night (a little Barrett reunion!). 

The GGSS kids are so great at costume parties.


• That Sunday, I accidentally almost signed a contract for a really expensive gym in the city (actually it's just a normal rate, but everything is twice as expensive in the city as I am used to or can afford). The salesperson pushed me into it very sneakily (he told me I had toned arms!), but promised me I could cancel after 2 weeks. I met up with Mike afterwards who had been in a meeting and couldn't even make eye contact because I was so ashamed. However, I'm grateful that when I showed Mike the contract he made me march straight back to the dude and demand an immediate refund giving me things I could cite as ground that the contract was void already. (Sometimes there are perks to dating a future lawyer.)

• Moving/Labor Day Weekend
• First, I had plans to see the UMD-WM game with friends at College Park! (Hello football season!) The Tribe always plays a division above us for the first game of the season so we were definitely the underdogs in this game, but we played really well! Unfortunately we led the entire game until the last half, but I have high hopes for Tribe Football this season.

My Person (Kelly) and I cheering on the Tribe in our old cheer gear.
 View from the stands.


• The next day was moving day and Mike (being the awesome boyfriend that he is) braved animal allergies and took some time away from law school work to help me move in. He made an instant friend in Gilbert who took no time before crawling up into Mike's lap. We finally got on the road and I got to spend most of Labor Day unpacking and organizing my apartment.

Gil, you are such a ham.

Cupcakes my landlords left me as a welcome present! Well, Mike and I ate the first two.

• This Past Week(end)....
• Dan Snow had a going away party. I will always remember Mike introducing him to me as the guy who sounded like Mufasa (because he has SUCH a great voice). It was nice to celebrate with all the lawyerly folk. Steph helped to provide much of the food, of course, and I am constantly in awe of her ability to feed the masses with the tastiest of noms. I mean there were pretzel rolls, c'mon!
• I have started to run again. I was really nervous about this when I moved to the city, but once you've accidentally taken a 4 mile off-roading loop on an interstate and had to sprint home to make it to work, you kind of stop being afraid. It is also pretty cool to live in a city where your favorite routes are notated by "To the Capitol and Back", "To the Washington Monument and Back", and "The Soldier's Home Loop Around Lincoln's Cottage". #thankful

I will leave you with some pictures I took yesterday and today of the pretty Fall weather!

(Yesterday) Cross on top of Trinity's steeple. Sky was SO blue.

(Yesterday) Picture of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception on 

The Catholic University of America's campus. 

Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception

Where I took my lunch break today. One of Trinity's lounges for faculty that is decorated like an English parlor. It's one of my new favorite nooks.

Have a great week!

LIFE UPDATE: Operation #GetKelsToDC a Success!

In the past two weeks, I have:

• Received and accepted a job offer a university in the Disctrict of Columbia for an academic advising position.

• Started said job the day after I found out I had gotten it.

• Lived with Mike while he moved from one location to the city in the other. So I moved with him.

• Searched LIKE CRAZY for a place to live on my own and went to visit like 5 different places after my days at work.

• Found a place to live near Fort Totten and signed a 9-month lease! I made this decision completely by myself (okay I may have impulsively emailed a Fort Totten blogger and asked him if I would die if I lived in the area). 

Due to the fact that I am notoriously bad at transitions and change, I'm going to go ahead and give myself an A- for the past two weeks. The minus is for minor mood swings (my reaction towards uncertainty about the future and instability in a routine) which Mike dealt with and handled with class. But I need to mention that I overcame all of this without working out once! Hopefully I will find a gym soon and be able to cope through the change a little bit better.

This is the video Mike sent me when he learned I had my own office. It is sort of relevant.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYcqToQzzGY

Too much other stuff has happened and I will definitely add details later, but for now I'll link to one of my favorite blog posts on surviving change:

How To Survive A Major Life Change by one of my favorite bloggers, Ashley!

http://fitnessista.com/2011/03/how-to-survive-a-major-life-change/

Here she is guestblogging, but she posts on her own blog here: http://www.edibleperspective.com/

Until later! 

How To: Not Look Like A Hot Mess For Summer Interviews

Because I have spent a lot of my time interviewing in D.C. this summer, I've wondered how people pull off dressing professionally for work each day and commuting to the office during rush hour on the metro when it is sweltering out. (Today was the first day I was on a metro so packed that I almost lost my bag to the doors.) The humidity of D.C. summers is miserable and I just can't imagine having to wear a suit most days or button downs and pants for guys. Thankfully, women have a little bit more flexibility when it comes to professional dress. I think it's a bit more complicated to find the balance of conservative and comfortable, but we definitely have some options to work with. Each time I've had to wear a suit for an interview this summer, I've learned something new that makes my next interview a little bit easier.

Some things I've learned to keep in mind:

• Sleeveless Shirts Are Your Best Friend
• You can't tell it a button-down is sleeveless or a tank when you are wearing a cardigan or blazer. This is where layering comes into play.  Carry your blazer or cardigan for the commute and put it on when you get to the air-conditioned office.

Sleeveless white blouse layer piece.

• Stick with Skirts/Sheath Dresses
• I'm normally a skirt person when it comes to professional dress anyway, but it makes much more sense in the summer to stick with skirts and dresses depending on your personal preference: always to right above the knee. Depending on the workplace you may still have to wear pantyhose, but, for me that is always preferable to pants.

Because I am loving coral right now.

• Invest in Lightweight Fabrics/Pops of Color
• Cotton or lightweight silk tops can be your best layering pieces. Steer away from polyester. Definitely no wool. Keep things light and airy. A little color can transition any outfit into something summery. Think a touch of coral or pastels shades. Cap sleeves or short sleeves are preferable to sleeveless for more conservative office environments, but remember a cardigan or blazer can transition any sleeveless top into office appropriate.

Lightweight tie-neck blouse.

Coral lightweight cardigan.

Pastel pink summer blazer.

• Consider Walking Flats or Flip Flops
• I found that when walking long distances, it can be really helpful to utilize some lightweight shoes before you get to the office and change into your heels or less comfortable footwear when you get there. I love crocs because they actually have some really cute flat styles out that would not look weird with soem outfits on the commute in and I could walk in them forever. Seriously, sometimes I feel like I could run faster in them than sneakers.

Huge proponent of Crocs flats for commutes or everyday, just not for most workplaces. Also, I may get these for Fall.




• Wear Hair Pulled Back
• For women with longer or thicker hair (like me), I just think this is a must. There are so many tutorials and options for cute buns and ponytails out there, but really you just need to get it out of your face and off your neck. It makes a huge difference in hotter weather. Headbands are a good option to make buns look a little more stylish or you can always let your hair down after you get to work. I think hair pulled back is also a more professional look and helps me to look a little more experienced (older) for interviews. An anti-humidity hairspray doesn't hurt either.

For work purposes, I think the simpler the better, but here is the basic idea.




• Wear Light/Waterproof Makeup
• Simple makeup is always key for the office, but you can get away with wearing a little more in the winter months. Bronzer instead of blush and gloss instead of lipstick are some suggested substitutions, but waterproof eyeliner and mascara can be your best friends in humidity.

Neutral is best.


• Lighten Your Fragrance
• You don't want to be that person who announces your presence on the metro by your perfume. Lighten your fragrance in the summertime by opting for body splashes or Eau de Toilettes which offer a less concentrated fragrance. Choosing lighter, fruitier scents for the new season helps as well.

• Give Yourself Plenty of Commute Time
• I normally plan to arrive to any interviews or meetings at least 20 minutes early. That way I have 10-15 min to run to the bathroom and add on my blazer or switch my shoes and make sure my makeup is still in place. I also know if something in my commute doesn't go as planned, I most likely won't have to be that person who ran to their interview in 90 degree weather and showed up huffing and puffing. 15 minutes to transition to office wear and you still have 5 minutes to announce yourself early and park yourself near an air conditioner to cool off.

Any other suggestions/tips? Add them as comments! 

(Don't worry, this won't turn into a fashion blog. I don't think.)

My Weekends (and Posts) Seem to Be Getting Longer

Due to some interviewing in DC this past week, I ended up staying in the city from Thursday afternoon to Monday afternoon.....bookends to a fantastic and long weekend.

Thursday, Emily Goo invited Mike and I for a dinner out to Bertucci's which happens to be a legit version of Olive Garden. Little did I know what Bertucci's had in store besides the excellent food. I was introduced to a red wine that I actually liked, I'm pretty sure we met Bertucci himself, and Goo had me cracking up the entire time. I have decided she is someone who can do absolutely anything she wants and no one will ever question it, they will start to question themselves.

It's a dark picture, but Goo and I had a moment and it needed to be recorded.

She disappeared for a second and was found taking a headstand break.

Right after we discovered every member of the kitchen staff was watching her do this.

Goo was enticed to spend the night in a DoubleTree hotel room in Foggy Bottom which was conveniently discovered to be a suite. On the walk there, Goo blasted her song of the moment "Everybody's Got Their Somethin" from her laptop while we walk-bopped and got everyone around us to walk to the beat too. There is power in that song. Things I discovered about DoubleTree Hotels: if you ask them, they have warm cookies baking. We each got a free warm cookie even though Mike and I were not staying there. Unfortunately, we were too full from the 4 different desserts we split at Bertucci's to eat them, nonetheless, I am now loyal to DoubleTree for this perk. Discovering that there were two beds, naturally we had to jump and have pillow fights on them.

Goo and Mike with (I'm sure) "Everybody's Got Their Somethin" playing in the background. There is also a video of Goo and I performing an 8-count routine to the only song we played that night.

Friday I went to a Bodypump class at Rosslyn's Gold's Gym. I ended up lifting more weight because the instructor was a beast and I got excited to take the class at another location. I was also working off stress from my interviews and ended up having a really good class! It makes me excited to teach! After that, I went to see Mike and Jeff and Noah's new house near Eastern Market for the first time. The patio is one of my favorite parts and the inside looks really awesome even though there is still stuff under construction. I hung out at Goo's with Davia and Sara and was grateful for Davia to fix me pasta salad (with extra vinagerette) since I get cranky when not fed at regular intervals. Then I left to voyage across the city for my sorority Little's birthday party in Arlington.

While trying to find her apartment, I found a leashed cat! And had to take a picture.

I hung out at a bar while waiting for Jenny and the bartender handed me a shot so I would smile. Sometimes there are perks to what is known as "Resting Bitchface Syndrome". It was great to reunite with my Little and some WM people for her birthday, but I was too tired and scared to travel across the city by myself that late so I took a 20 dollar cab ride instead:/ I had to make it all the way back to Eastern Market for Jake and Marilyn's Going Away party. Boom was played, new friends were made, and it was great to reunite with old friends as well.

Saturday, Mike and I went to a movie at Courthouse Square and decided to walk our way back to the city from there. We stopped for Pinkberry sustenance in the middle of our journey of course:-) When we finally made it back to Foggy Bottom, we realized we had been walking for about two hours and that it was time to leave for dinner at Davia and Sara's already. I was so exhausted that I ended up curling up with Davia's Snuggie soon after dinner, but I was haunted by intrusive thoughts of Poker Mike aka Settlers of Catan Mike taking advantage of teams without any brick. Thank goodness Josh gave us a ride back and Mike was forced to withdraw.

Sunday, Mike, David, and I walked to our crepe place at McPherson and each had a savory crepe and a dessert crepe. For the dessert crepe, we got the most expensive crepe on the menu with ALL the berries, banana, and nutella. It was awesome. Then, because it was such a beautiful and cool day outside, we decided to see some museums and go to the botanical gardens. We went to the Freer Museum where the highlight was the Peacock room which has been transferred from London. The other highlight was the delicious water from their water fountains. The boys thought I only liked the water because it was from a shiny golden water fountain. No. It tasted better than any other water.

I am sure you can read more about this room online.

This is the only thing in the museum that I think is worth taking pictures of. There's also a nice courtyard though.

Mike took me and David to the Hirshorne too which is full of super modern-but-sometime-scary art. The best part was the blue stringy thing you could walk through. The worst part was a video of a man getting covered up with bees. There was also a scary dark room with some tiger/lion glowy eyes. I refused to go in, but apparently I made a scene, and a guard decided he would escort me in to show me it wasn't scary. Fine. (I closed my eyes pretty much the entire time).

This is the exhibit of zodiac signs outside of the Hirshorne. To me, this demonstrates one of my favorite parts of modern art viewing: watching David view modern art.

Afterwards, we headed to the botanical gardens and Mike and I took a picture in front of a cactus because there was some joke about Mike being a cactus and being a survivor and not needing water (but David was a bonsai tree?) I forget.

Mike tried to pick the biggest cactus.

The Botanical Gardens.

After the Botanical Gardens, Mike and I went to view The Last Starfighter with Dan, Josh, Steph, and crew. Steph made awesome food as always and I loved the movie. My favorite quote was "If that's what you think, then that's all you'll ever be." We also watched Community and I figured out why I was fantasy-casted as Annie.

Monday (today), I had another interview in DC and am thoroughly exhausted from the weekend. I tried to make it to Bodypump this evening since I took two days off from working out, but ended up staying home since the walking muscles in my legs are aching. I ended up passing out for about half an hour before rallying for long enough to write this post. 

This is what you get when I write a post immediately after things happen. Too many details, too many pictures. But a great weekend overall:)