The Adventure Continues!

It's been a crazy couple of weeks, but I have finally arrived in DC!

Last week was very busy with the arrangement for the move and going away get togethers. Thanks to everyone who stopped by to wish me well and a big thank you to my team for the beautiful necklace they gave me as a going away present. I've been afraid to let it out of my sight! Here's a picture of it:

Now I'll always have a little Hawaiian sun with me!

This week has flown by at warp speed. Monday my travel arrangements were finally made. Tuesday the relocation company finally decided how my stuff was going to be shipped. Tuesday was also my last day at the Maui Ocean Club. Wednesday my movers came and packed and loaded all of my stuff and took my car. The pack and load went much more smoothly than I anticipated. The movers arrived just before 8am and were done around 1:30 in the afternoon. Thank goodness they sent 4 people this time. When I moved to Maui from Minneapolis they only sent 2 people and it took ALL day. Wednesday night a friend from work came to clean my carpets. A big thanks to Dave for that (and to Aaron for telling me that Dave has a carpet cleaning business) since I only found out last Thursday from the property management company that I needed to have the carpets cleaned to get my deposit back. I spent Wednesday night at the Wailea Marriott, then flew out Thursday afternoon (A big THANK YOU to Brandi for driving me down to Wailea on Wednesday and then picking me up and driving me to the airport yesterday). Nope, no Thanksgiving for me this year :( And finally, this morning I landed in DC.

After picking up my rental car this morning, I was supposed to swing by the Marriott right by the airport to pick up my air mattress from Jackie. Lucky for me she came out here to visit her family for Thanksgiving and brought my air mattress in a spare suitcase (I might have to move into my apartment before my stuff gets here if it takes too long). Since she is a premier member they don't charge her for her bags (unlike me!). I managed to get lost right away after leaving the car rental place and spent the first twenty minutes trying to get back on the right highway headed in the correct direction. Sadly, the airport is surrounded by toll roads and it cost me $7 in tolls before I got on the correct road headed in the correct direction. Finally, I got over to the Marriott and retrieved the air mattress.

After that, I headed over to Gaithersburg, Maryland where I am staying and checked into my hotel and had a little breakfast. After that my first order of business was to drive down the road to the shopping complex near the hotel and buy a GPS for my car. That was the first thing Jackie told me I had to get when she saw me, and after all of the highways just getting from the airport to here and my fun experience getting lost on toll roads, I figured it was a good idea. Luckily for me today is Black Friday so I got a really good deal ($100 off!). The other lucky thing- there is a Super Target just down the road! The two story kind just like the one in downtown Minneapolis, with the cart escalator and everything! So much fun to just walk around in there and marvel at the selection and the prices! Hello- everything is super cheap here!

Once I finished my little shopping expedition, I came back and unpacked then took a nice 5 hour nap. When I woke up I went back down the road to the shopping complex again and had dinner at Macaroni Grill. Can you believe my seafood pasta, salad and drink came to $20 exactly! Can I just mention how cheap everything is again! Brandi- I'm going to eat the Fettuccine Alfredo for you soon- and it only costs $12 ($1.50 more if you want a salad with it). Craziness!!!!

And for everyone who thought I was going to go into shock from the cold and sent me weather reports on DC over the past couple of weeks - I am not in shock and yes, it finally feels like winter and Christmas! I stand by my previous claim that once you have experienced winter in Minneapolis, nothing will ever seem as cold (heck, it's only 30 degrees here. That's about 60 degrees warmer than the coldest temperature I experienced in Minneapolis). For everyone who has been concerned that I did not have proper clothing anymore- My ski coat is working just as well as it did in Minneapolis and in the mountains skiing. My gloves work just fine and I was able to break out all of my scarves again (although I only brought one with me in my suitcase).

Life is good!

A Capitol Plan

The time has come for me to say farewell to Maui. I have accepted a position at Marriott Internationals corporate headquarters in Washington DC and I'll be making the move Thanksgiving week. So here are a few things I am looking forward to about DC:

1. All those museums
2. The zoo
3. Lots of stores and restaurants
4. Fewer bugs
5. Changing seasons
6. Lots of parks
7. Getting a pet
8. Having central heat and A/C
9. Having a commute of less than 1 hour each way
10. And it almost goes without saying- Being close to the White House in case Barack needs my advice!

All Things Centipede

So, some of you have wondered about the horrible centipedes that I tell you about. I was reminded of my intention to post pictures when I encountered one outside tonight. I tried to provide some sense of scale for you with a quarter and a Bic pen (couldn't find a quarter tonight).

Here's a shot of the one that was on the ceiling above my bed one morning when I woke up.



This was the one that was outside my building tonight. The liquid is the poison I poured on him before getting near.



So, how would you like to be bitten/stung by one of these? They are venemous, but unless you're allergic it probably won't kill you. As a side note, neither of these is the largest I have seen. Unfortunately, I did not have my camera with me, but it was about twice as long as these guys.

Quirky Things Meme

If you thought I disappeared, I did. Under a mountain of schoolwork and research. I'm almost halfway through this class, my last one, so you may not hear from me again for another couple of weeks. My every spare moment seems to be devoted to research and writing papers.

But anyways, on to the point at hand. It seems I have been tagged by Brandi in the Quirky Things Meme. So here it is, six quirky things about me:

1. I don't like mail and I don't open it. I usually only get it out of my mailbox once a week unless I'm expecting something. Actually- I love personal mail, but 98% of what I receive is junk and I hate having to open all of it. Thus, everything clearly non-essential that cannot go straight into the trash (like catalogues), sits on my table for several months until I finally sit down and open it all and shred it.

2. I don't eat beans. Not at all. Not in chili, not in soup, not in anything. Not even if the recipe was handed down to you from your great-great-grandmother and everyone who has ever eaten it swears it is manna from heaven. Some people seem to think this is strange. Personally, I think bean eaters are the strange ones. (And if you ever want to be cured of eating refried beans that you did not make yourself, ask me to tell you a Food Safety story about them).

3. I hate it when people type in all caps. It is the equivalent of yelling at people and it is rude. If you intend to yell at the person, then that's a different matter, but I don't need you to "yell" your Out of Office email auto response at me. It makes me want to pick-up my phone and yell a message into your voicemail.

4. I hate it when people who have issues with spelling and grammar clearly do not use spell and grammar check. I'm not talking about the one offs where you used "their" instead of "there" or some other simple mistake. I make plenty of mistakes myself. I'm talking every single sentence has a spelling or grammar issue. Spelling and grammar check are there for a reason, use it. You just look like a dumb ass when you don't- especially if it is a business email.

5. I love Excel. There is almost no problem that cannot be solved more easily or made more clear using Excel. Okay- I exaggerate (a little), but I still love Excel. You would too if you had my job.

6. I love all sorts of animals and critters, including snails. I feel bad when I see a snail on the sidewalk or in the road because I know they'll probably get squished before they get anywhere, so I always pick them up and move them to safety.

I'm supposed to tag someone else, but I don't like to play by the rules. If you want something to blog about or you have some funny quirks, then please consider yourself tagged.

Polipoli State Park

Last Sunday I went hiking at Polipoli State Park. Several people had told me I should check it out. I had tried to go earlier this year, but the road in is a dirt track (you're supposed to have 4WD, but I managed in my car) and part of it had been washed out in the flash floods this past past "winter." I was able to get in this time and go hiking. I had not realized that the area where the hiking trail is is also where we had a large fire about a year and a half ago. The park is a hardwood forest in the Kula Forest Reserve, high on the side of Haleakala.

Here's some shots of the hike. You'll see a lot of evidence of the fire, but I mostly didn't take pictures of the really dead and burned parts of the forest.