old friend and old town

taking an assistant teacher position for the remainder of the school year has meant a couple things. a) i spend my days with five year olds b) i get to live in an extremely beautiful brand new apartment with a pool and c) i get to continue to explore dc for a few more weeks until i move back to the great state of massachusetts. 

so, needless to say, i have decided to take advantage of all the wonders the district of crazy has to offer me and see some sites i have missed over the course of my undergraduate career. yesterday, i journeyed outside the bounds of the district over the potomac to old town alexandria to hang out with my dear friend colleen who i had not seen in ageeessss so she could show me around the little town she has made home in her post grad life. as you can see with my crappy phone documentation, it was absolutely adorable. i kept telling her that it felt like i was in a town where people vacation, not in a town where people live.

 we spent some time dining by the waterfront. i had the most delicious sandwich from the waterfront market that contained all my favorite things (avocado, bacon, pepper jack cheese, honey mustard #seriouslydelicious) and colleen kept it healthy with some caesar salad. there's half her face with some throwback opus hall sunnies. 

  mmm doesn't the potomac just look delectable #eww. anyways, we decided to walk down a little ways to colleen's favorite spot and just catch up on life lately. it was wonderful getting re-aquainted with some greenery.

 what a beautiful tree, am i right?

enter colleens favorite spot and usual running destination. if you look really closely, you can see the dome of the basilica just to the left of the capitol dome. being a cua grad is the best. 

after we made our way back to king street, we figured we had earned ourselves some ice cream and some shopping so we had some cone's from pop's old fashioned and then moseyed our way through the shops trying on all the wonderful yet out of budget items for a pbs marketing rep and a kindergarten teacher. sigh. such as this adorable sun hat from anthropologie that is perfectly perfect.

 

finally, pooped out, i metroed back to northeast dc and back to real life.  but many thanks to colleen for showing me around her neck of the woods! it was totally drool worthy. i promise i'll be back soon. xoxo. 

opus

as i've mentioned before, i have had the awesome privilege of being an ra this year in opus hall. and in a few posts, i'll get to my residents, but now, my staff.

my staff in opus has been such a gift this year, from the brunches, to the support, to the commiserating. they truly are like a second family. we have consistently killed it on events, on calls, and on four on the couch.

this past sunday, we had our little residence life banquet and it was so exciting to celebrate a year of successes as a team decked out in our best derby gear. i will never forget what an amazing experience being an ra has been because of my staff and i am sure to recommend the position to any college student. for realz.

this morning, i turned in the page for the last time and i'm not going to lie. it felt awesome. because i had been page 6 times between 1:09 am and 9:22 am for check outs. but maybe it tasted an itty bit bittersweet.

also, i have been super awful at documenting life via iPhone lately. my most sincere apologies for the boring text.

tom and sean came to support the ladies spa night in february and decided to exfoliate.

check inn

res life cooking competition. best taste winners. #theonlycategorythatmatters

kevin trying to start his car that there were definitely only five people in, steph.

bros and butts.

and brunch. oh my.  

thanks for the kisses, e

have i mentioned i have a thing for bulletin boards. it kinda drove my co mad. whoops. 

#QUINNING

so a little bit ago, i blogged about the awesome opportunity i had last year to serve as a resident minister. i was so lucky to be placed in the best community, in the best building, but most importantly, with the best best best residents. (i swear, i'm not biased, it's fact).

last year i was so lucky to grow close with these #quinncredible 70 girls through coming to their doors with low-cal cupcakes…then high cal cupcakes because come on, through night prayer, renew, and quintessential questions. the 70 sophomores in quinn house last year are no joke, some of the best you will ever ever ever ever ever meet. once again fact.

to all the quinnions, you guys still make my day oh so very bright whenever i see you and we can catch up. even if you just waved hello, it makes my days oodles and poodles better. so thanks for an awesome year last year, you guys were da bomb-dot-com.

also, bulletins were, are and always will be my love language. sorry, i'm not sorry.

oh, and puns

and cupcakes.

my dad

sometimes, after a rough day, it helps to remember just how lucky i am.

one way in which i am oh so very lucky is obviously in my amazingly wonderful family. but, i call myself especially lucky to have the father i have.

first of all, he raised my brothers and i as a single parent from '97 on and if i do say so myself, he did a wonderful job.

but mostly, i am lucky to have such a supportive parent in my life. growing up, i was taught that i could do anything but i had to work for it. i was always told that i could do and be anything i wanted because i was a girl. mostly that meant i didn't get a pass on shoveling the driveway, but the point was, i can and need to do things for myself.

it has always been clear that i get to make the important decisions. there were no ultimatums about college majors (even when i was convinced i was going to major in musical theatre), or bribes to go to different schools (that were significantly less costly), or what i need to do after college. it was clear i would need to make a lot of things happen on my own, but it was also clear that the choice was mine. my dad has always offered his advice, but has never influenced.  i always laugh because whenever my dad provides future helpful hints about marriage, family, home owning, children, cars, etc. the "when you have (insert life choice here)" statement is always quickly followed by an "if that's what you decide" statement.

also, when i call my dad and tell him i have accepted a substitute teacher position in DC startin the week after my graduation, he doesn't skip a beat. even though it means he will be driving in a minivan full of all my college stuff back to massachusetts all by himself for 8 hours, he tells me that it is wonderful and talks me through where i am going to live.

so basically, i have the best, most supportive, and wonderful dad in the world. and i am a really, really lucky girl.

what sound does a cardinal make?

in about thirty minutes, i will be heading off to my last class ever as an undergraduate at the catholic university of america. its hard to believe that this long tumultuous journey is almost over. i have honestly loved every single minute of it, even the minutes i hated (haha)

what makes being a student at cua so incredible is the community, the family of catholic university students, faculty and staff that make sure this place is a home for four years. i have met some of he greatest people in the world while a student at cua, from my favorite professors, to my community, my staff, my friends and my supervisors. each and everyone of them is what has made cua so much more tun a college but a total formative experience, shaping me into the person i am supposed to be. so, as i roll on out to my last class and my last luau, heres to the last four years, the home that campus has become, and the people who have made it like a family for me!

you know, just off to the hawk n dove #rip

vom-laugh

yougottaregatta

#fouryearfriendship

first bats game

nicolettes birthday freshman year

freshman retreatt

those classic metro pics

whats freshman year without trailers?

gingerbread

christmas cookies of '010

engy chillen'

those crew days

fourth on 4th

cookies in bed

family meals

summer in dc

friends and bowls

#policeweek

 happy luaupalooza everybody!