My bad for being such a sucky poster. I can blame it on: a) my legal basis paper, and b) my obsession with Harry Potter. Luckily, I am done with Harry Potter and am about 97% done with my paper.

As for HP, I really enjoyed the last book, I mean, I finished it in a week with a 10 page paper to write, but now I don't know what I want to read. Ha, I actually have piles of books that I want to get through, but not waiting for another HP is different.

I am trying to remember worthy events from the last ten days. Here goes:

-9,999 someone pulling/fire alarm going off in my apartment last Sunday night. It went off for a full 45 minutes. The fire department, located LITERALLY across the street, never came. I am assuming this becuase if they came, they would have turned it off faster!
+/- Getting new back brakes on Halo. Good (love my car), bad (money).
+99999999999 HARRY POTTER
+77 Writing 70% of my paper at work
-5 Ms. Vigoren's flight being all screwed up. Once, again, no DC reunion. Ugh!
+9 Getting Reef sandals for $12.99 at TJMaxx. It was worth having the humanly most annoying and incompetent cashier. My collection of the best flip flops in the world now = 3.
+6 Trader Joe's Salsa...I had to buy it in the party size (TJ, can you please make more salsa in smaller sizes?), but I am almost done with it. I love me some Trader Joe's deliciousness. Don't try the pita chips, you will love them LOTS and maybe eat 1/2 the bag in one sitting.... not good
+776 NO CLASS FOR THE PAST TWO WEEKENDS. What a luxury. I have my last summer class next weekend. The summer of nine credits plus a full time job is almost over. I survived.
+34 Seeing my excise tax article layed out. It is a real article, wow!
-88686 My severe and increasing distaste for my job. I can't wait until my promotion in October so I can apply for other WAY better federal/private sector jobs.
+10 My produce from Farmer Randy in PA. It only drove 100 miles to get to me, plue the three miles I drove to get it. Take that produce from South America! Now it is time that I learned how to cook squash, and stat.

It is so hot here, I can't wait to get back to MN in August. I have been promoted to wedding singer for Teeps' wedding, so now I have a good excuse to get into good vocal shape. Singing with Darcie will be stellar. Dr. M would be so proud (and also have a good chuckle considering how different our voices are, but we will make it work!).

Off to make my usual assembly line of lunch food for the week. Me loves turket samiches.

I always say I don't like these, but I like reading other peeps'. Here goes:

1. What is the soundtrack for this post? Headlock by Imogen Heap
2. What's bothering you right now? Trying to decide what classes to take
3. Do you close the door when you are sleeping?Yes
4. What is in your wallet? Holy bajesus...so many cards, my work badge (which is worth it's own wallet), spare key to my car
5. Wallpaper on your computer's desktop? It used to be Raghav, now it's motivational fruit.
6. Background on your cell phone? Orchids.
7. Next time you will kiss someone? Hopefully very soon.
8. Where was your default picture taken? I only have music notes.
9. Eyes:Blue and sand a lot of pigment, hence I really need to wear shades all the time.
10. Life: Uncertain at times, but generally very good.
11. House: My sweet apt in 'thesdie
12. Doing this weekend? Party in Glover Park, BUYING HARRY POTTER, getting new brakes on the car, writing a paper on executive privilege
13. Wearing? Blue Shorts, Blue Tanktop (it's TA hot here)
14. Who was the last person to send you a text message? Toby
15. If you could have one thing right now what would it be? To own a condo
16. Listening to?Tarkan, BABY!
17. Ever kissed someone named John? Nay
18. What do you smell like? Hopefully D&G Light Blue
19. Eating? A Fiber One peanut butter bar. OM NOM NOM NOM (thanks YER!)
20. Favorite thing on your bed:My 600 thread count sheets.
21. Do you believe in a soul mate? Yes.
22. What do you wear to bed? Pj's
23. Do you remember your dreams? Sometimes. They are the ones where I am preggers. IT IS STRANGE!
24. Do you burn easily in the sun? Not really. I am a sunscreen girl, though.
25. Have you ever been gambling? I was at a casino once for circa 30 minutes. I think I gambles $3. I can't waste money like that
26. What's something you wish you could understand better? What type of professional career I want
27. What did you do last weekend? Legal Basis of Public Administration Class, ate at Guapos, yes!
28. Who do you miss? Family (Grandpa, Mom, Michelle), Erin, Claire, et al in MN!
29. Who is the last girl you hugged? I don't remember...
30. Orange or apple juice? OJ FO SHO
31. Who was the last person you went somewhere with? Emily, Toby, Catherine, Todd, Sarah for happy hour
32. What was the last text message you sent? "Thanks for coming, have a good night"
33. Have you kissed anyone on your friendslist? This is BLOGGER, NOT LJ BIATCH!
34. Last time you ate a homegrown tomato? I've never grown one, but I ate a lot of them in India (Thanks Mahadeviah!, sorry I can't spell your name)
36. What was the last thing you drank? Water
37. Whose house did you go to last night?My own
38. Who was the last person you visited in the hospital? Man, I don't even remember.
39. Do you like someone right now? Obviously.
40. What do you wear more, slacks, jeans, or sweatpants? Skirts.
41. What is the last movie you watched? With who? Angela's Ashes, with myself =)
42. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink:Water, diet cola products, some form of crystal light
43. What are you excited about? Getting my MPA
44. Do you want someone you can't have? I'll let you know the answer when I figure that one out.
45. Who was last to slap your butt? I don't recall...
46. Where was the last place you went? RFD (a bar in Chinatown)
47. What's on your mind right now? The weekend, Akon, my professional future
48. Have you cried recently?Probably when I watched some show on TV, but I can't remember.
49. When you think of your crush, who is it? I think we all know.
50. Is taking a shower a daily habit? Without a doubt.

I was a culinary champion tonight. In my never ending quest to conquer the world of delicious and healthy eating, I was feeling like I needed a little kick in my diet. I was getting sick of turkey sandwiches, Smartones, and popcorn.

My latest culinary adventure was making the Marshall Field's Blueberry Chicken salad which involved 14 ingredients: minced shallots, olive oil, fresh minced rosemary, honey, dijon mustard, freshly ground pepper, salt, chicken, fresh blueberries, fresh lime juice, granny smith apple, green grapes, toasted hazelnuts, and crumbled blue cheese. For someone who doesn't usually cook something from scratch, this is quite the list. I skipped off to my local Giant and purchased all the ingredients (of which I am now left with lots of rosemary which I will probably never use) and came back to assemble. Luckily this is a perfect summer salad and the only really hard part about making it is all the chopping, especially considering I only have one good knife that is very small. I even toasted the hazelnuts (a little too long, but if that is the only thing that goes wrong, I have no complaints!). It ended up to be delicious, so I am quite happy I made it.

The other recent thing I have been into lately is making my own yogurt parfaits. I take the Dannon Light N' Fit Vanilla Yogurt and pour it into a small serving dish (by that I mean gladware, ha!), add some frozen strawberries. Right before you eat it, I jsut add 1/2 c of Kashi Honey and Flax cereal. So delicious!!! I was getting sick of eating oatmeal every single morning...

It is good to go on a culinary adventure; I reccomend it. You might suprise yourself that you can actually follow directions and make something that you actually want to eat. :)

One more day (7.5 hours) more of law class tomorrow, then I will be free (well, after the final). I am then going to ONLY READ HARRY POTTER starting next Saturday!!!

In talking to Yerin the other day, I realized that, in life, I always seem to be counting down the time until something ends or something begins. I am trying to figure out if that means I am discontent with what I am doing, or if it means I am just one of those people who likes to have something new happen to on a frequent basis. I have a hard time believeing either, because my time here in Washington is going well. Sure, there are challenges, but I am glad I came out here, but on the other hand, I feel like I am a person pretty resistant to major changes, so wanting something significantly new to begin on a regular basis is also interesting for me as well. I am thinking the "new thing" is mostly work related, i.e. I mean I like to switch work assignments and have new challenges on a more regular basis. This means I should be a consultant. Hmm...

I am two of six days into my Legal Basis class, and despite the fact that the class is all day Friday-Sunday two weekends in a row, the professor (an attorney) is great and we have fun debates on hot topics such as: employment law, privacy law, abortion law, gay-rights law, and the right to die. There is no way a weekend class like this would be nearly as fun if we weren't discussing these types of topics. Being surrounded by such smart people makes me really enjoy the fact that I am in school. I LOVE SCHOOL!

Post-class I walked over to the gym where I allow myself to watch whatever trashy television I want. This time it was a Vh1 special on all the drama in Lindsey Lohan's life. Let's just say there is a lot, because after 30 minutes of exercise, they had only gotten through barely 13 months of her life. Does anyone else find that funny?

Congratulations to all my pals who are: graduating, moving out, moving on, and moving up. It is a tough time in life, but there are obviously rewarding challenges in doing these things. When one door shuts, another will open, hopefully to a better place!

This deserves its very own post.