tuesdays tune

meet manish alimchandani

This past weekend GovLoop put on this huge training event for those involved in government. I am no government official or way tech saavy but luckily I had Manish Alimchandani in the back with me to get things up and working. We spent literally all day Thursday and Friday together. 

The weekend consisted of lots of running around, eating good food, making sure people were happy, had their powerpoint slides up, working microphones but their was some down time. And down time meant Manish and I time.

He was a nice Indian man and in just the 2 short days we were with each other I heard his life story. This wasn't anything unusual. Generally when I meet someone they tend to open up and divulge their deepest darkest secrets, their passions and fears.  I found his story to be rather interesting. He told me about his parents arranged marriage, his lack of finding love here in the United States and his trip to India next week in hope to find and marry that special someone in just 2 weeks! His plan if he doesn't achieve this? Come back to his job here in the United States. But he is pretty determined and told me that in India, 

"that's where the magic happens." 

Throughout the conference I kept teasing him about my hopes in him finding this magic. If he doesn't come back to the United States in 2 weeks, I can now say that the magic does happen in India. He made sure to give me his business card at the end and now I have my way of finding out. Maybe I should go to India?

the pants

I just bought some colored pants. I would say they are more a mustard yellow? But to the guy who told me he thought I didn't have pants on, moments after I opened the door to use the restroom (and keep in mind I have never met/seen this guy before in my life) I think he would call the pant color nude. Who would really say that?! Ok, I get the fact that he could instantly think-that girl doesn't have pants on but to blurt that out to a complete stranger? I was so paranoid afterwards, I asked some coworkers if they thought the same thing. The confirmed that it does indeed look like I have pants on.

So my response to the random guy in the hall who doesn't seem to have a filter? Yes, I have more than just a blouse on. Can you say awkward? But since then, I have gotten more compliments on the pants which completely outweighs that one crazy one. I would say I am safe to wear them some more.

help...i'm locked out!

My sister and best friend came out to visit me this past weekend. She told me that she needed a break from her 5 kids and I was happy to step in. Her list for the weekend-shop and eat. I would say, mission accomplished.

ate in Georgetown

Of course we went to Cheesecake Factory.

After a nice night spent in the hotel we were ready for a full day of shopping!

matching pjs

But the highlight was our Nordstroms rack dressing room experience. I have tons of memories with Brandy and I in dressing rooms for hours at a time. This was no different, after all she was kidless. We love bargains, we love to shop, we love to show each other everything we try on and if we are lucky we share the same big-sized handicapped dressing room.

Laughter is always involved. This time the laughing outburst wasn't just because of the tight Hudson jeans that after a long attempted effort, just couldn't go over her butt or because a Juicy dress made me look like a hootie mama but Brandy locked herself out and this was the result.

Vanessa to the rescue.

Luckily we were next door to each other and I could slip under and open the door from the inside. Maybe she found this to be so funny she purposely locked herself out again (notice the change in outfit).

Due to our laughing attacks I am pretty sure these are the only photos that came out clear. But after 4 hours in Nordtroms Rack our experience was successful, funny and one to always remember. I love my sister. I just don't love the blisters my new shoes are giving me. 

tuesdays tune

love.

a little present...

Remember when my roommate got mad at me because I didn't know how to recycle? Well, now I have no excuse because look what she gave me today. A trash and recycle collection guideline. How thoughtful right?!

Last week we had a nice conversation in our own house. Yes, that's right. We talked inside our own home and that was only cause it was necessary. After more than a couple things, I had had enough. I told her I would appreciate it if she doesn't throw away my food or touch my things without asking. Her response? She would appreciate it if I would learn how to recycle better. And this was the same week I took out the trash and even remembered to put it out on the street for trash day. But with this trash and recycling booklet I think I might be able to study and master the art of recycling just before I move out. Oh darn.

tuesdays tune

I have been listening to him a lot lately and fell in love with this song. Fell more in love when I actually read the title You've Got Growing Up to Do and really listened to the lyrics. Some parts like the line..."the best thing I can give to you is for me to go, leave you alone, cause you've got growing up to do" may or may not have personal meaning....

what did you do to your hair??

Well lets just say that my hair has been through quite the rollercoaster over the past 2 years. Brasil wasn't too good to it and it's still trying to recover. I told myself 6 months before the mission that I wasn't going to touch my hair for the next year and a half. Too hard to up keep, too hard to find a good stylist, too hard to find time, and who even cares? I wasn't trying to impress anyone.

After I hit  the 9 month mark, I needed a change. The fact that the bishops wife offered to cut and color my hiar for only $20 was also really enticing. So there begins the rough journey...

1. Started off with highlights. Something simple. Nothing too drastic.

2. Wanted to take advantage of the fact that I didn't get trasnfered and still had the cheap hair stylist down the street so I asked for just a little more highlights. And what happened? She turned me blonde!

I saw this picture on my camera one day after I dyed my hair
and didn't even recognize myself!

3. So as my roots began to grow I needed to fix the problem. This was the first time I ever used a box and the lady was doing it out of her home. No legit in-house salon like the first time around. Should've known this was leading to a major disaster.

Farias was smart in going dark.

All I see in this picture is orange roots!

4. The orange roots weren't working out to well so what did I do? I went to some near by salon and a stylist tried to weave in more blonde to cover up the orange. Helped, but didn't quite do the trick.

Way better than before but the orange is still present.

5. Summer is approaching in Brasil, once again my roots are growing out so why not go dark and hide up all the mess ups from before? But not only dark, dark with a hint of red. Real smart when you already have blonde and orange in your hair. So this looked good until a week later after being in the sun, the color had faded!

6. I finally get back to the states and the 2nd day I got home I went to a salon. I needed major help. When I got there the first thing my hair stylist said was...what did you do to your hair? More like what didn't I do with my hair. So proceeded to tell me I couldn't dye it or do anything to it for another 6 months.

Well it has been exactly 6 months and what did I do? Went to get my hair done. Didn't know who to go to or where to go seeing as I am new to the city but can I just say I was thoroughly pleased with my male Nicaraguan hairstylist. Never have I had a guy cut my hair but after 4 long hours in the salon he made me a happy woman.

What we call the melt

I wasn't trying to take a myspace photo, I promise.

One good thing about the dye job is I wont have to dye it for quite some time. I can give the hair some rest, that is until I get bored and want to try something new again...

tuesdays tune

what a weekend

This weekend has been a rather eventful one and one I'll always remember.
9:30 pm
A group of my friends and I decided to head and go salsa dancing. I opened the front door of the house and said..."dang. It's hot." Looked at the weather and it was 95 degrees!

10:00pm
Driving on the freeway and we can't see hardly anything in front of us because of the winds.  Everyone was driving under 25 mph.  Cones from all the construction were rolling through the 4 lanes of traffic. 

Even a sign managed to fly right in the middle of our lane. 

10:20pm

Luckily with Carrie's good driving skills we were able to maneuver around this sign. After sheets and sheets of rain, thunder and lighting literally every minute.. we followed all the other smart cars ebhind us and pulled over. 

Cars were honking at us from behind because technically we were stopped in
the far left lane of the freeway but we weren't about to drive any further in this.

10:50pm 

After much discussion we think it's better to head back home in fear that all the roads with be bocked off.  And within driving 5 minutes off the freeway we run into this...

a huge and I mean huge tree in the middle of the road. 

Seconds later there was a car completely smashed in on the hood from the tree. 

Lots of debris in the road.

10:50-11:50pm

We drove over power lines (real smart I know), take random detours because cops had shut down some roads and continue to maneuver around more and more trees. In the beginning we would say, "oh wow, look at that! Looks at that tree in the road! It's huge! and by the end of our journey it was nothing. Carrie's maneuvering skills were pretty impressive. 

Random signs had fallen over and took this beauty. Looks like the daylight right?!
Only because I took the photo right when the lightning was struck.

12:00am
We get home and there's no power. While we had been in for an adventure I was a little bummed we couldn't go salsa dancing.

I had gotten all dressed up for nothing.

12:30am

Due to my scared roommate we had a slumber party.

Due to pure darkness and lack of light the flash made our eyes looks a little funny. 

 10:00am the next day...

 Didn't want to even attempt at staying in our house without the AC so off to union station we went. 

Made a few phone calls, charged my phone and escaped the heat
while sitting on the dirty metro station floors. So worth it.

12:00pm 

Headed over to the Capitol to get a tour. One our way over we saw millions of trees like this

\

4:30pm 

We pray we have the power back on and head back to our house. Walked in and...nothing! We then prayed that at least one place would be open. All i wanted was the AC and something cold to drink. Thanks to McDonalds and their working AC and real fruit smoothies I became a happier woman and the 100 degrree weather didn't seem to be effecting me as much. 

5:00pm 

Head over to Walmart to get food for our ward party and saw this. 

A majority of the shelves were empty or covered in tarps!

11:00pm 

After the ward party and going to a friends to watch a movie and escape the heat in our house we stop y a gas station and they were all out of regular gas! Can you just imagine how many people were trying to get gas on Saturday? Never seen that before.

12:00pm

Drivin up to our house. The street lights near our house are working. 7-11 across the street has their lights on. Praying we do too and low and behold we pull up to our house and see our kitchen light on. Opened the door and our cold AC was now working. I think i might have screamed and jumped a little.  So while that was only 24 hours...that was the longest 24 hours of my life. I can safely say I have taken things for granted, power being one of them. I don't know how the Amish people do it.