Baumholder Ball

I was invited to attend a Battalion Ball on USAG Baumholder this Saturday. I actually had a little bit of reverse culture shock being on base. I was picked up at the Idar-Oberstein train station by my soldier friends, and then I was whisked away to... Taco Bell! Mmmmm! It's just as yucky and glorious as it is in the States, I'm happy to report. And I had tucked $20 into my wallet before I left Mainz because I really wasn't sure what kind of currency was happening there. And then I got to use it! I paid with American money. It felt weird, actually. But oh my Lanta, it was so nice. It's the little things that are such a treat sometimes, you know?

The ball was lovely. My date actually decided that he didn't feel like being my date, which is fine. I mean, it was weird of him, but it was just fine. All of the soldiers looked really nice in their Blues, and I had a great time dancing, drinking, chatting, and then having some after-party fun "out on the town" in Baumholder. A big thanks to the men and women for whom this Ball was given, and a thank you to Scott and Tyler for hosting me. It was a lovely evening.



picture taken by Heather K.



The rare 29th of February

This last week, my mind has continued to jump back to thoughts of, "This time last year...". I guess that's because my life, in the course of one year, has taken on such a different look yet really is still very much the same as it always was, and it's kind of fun to compare.

And you know what, today I can't think about how much more will be changed one year from today because today is LEAP DAY! I can only ponder what my life will be like 4 years from today. Or what I was up to 4 years ago, which was when I was a senior in college and so I was probably freezing cold in Wyoming and watching Bloomberg  and depending on what day of the week it was I likely attended a hockey game that night or baked a cake or had a Top Model marathon with my roommates. Hard to say.

We (world) are currently making up for the fact that we neglect a quarter of a day each year that should really exist. Good for us for being semi-responsible keepers of time. Also, aren't we clever in America to have Presidential elections during leap years? It makes it really easy to remember either that it's a leap year or that it's an election year, depending on which you tend to better remember.

I hope you do something fun and kinda quirky today and enjoy the extra 24 hours of 2012 :)

Mainzer Ladybug

Guess who I just found hanging out in my room... Mr. Ladybug! I don't even want to know how he got in here or why, but at least he's not a spider. I rescued him from being squashed into my floor, put him on the drying little yellow wildflowers that I picked the other day, and put him outside on my window sill, a place much more proper for a ladybug. The carpet in my room just didn't suit this dignified little fellow. Does this mean I have good luck now? I think I already have droves of it, so I'm sharing the luck with you all  :)

Bubble Dishes

Have I ever told you why this blog is called Bubble Dishes? No? Well, circle 'round and listen up. When I started this blog in August 2010 (shucks, I totally didn't do a "happy one year blog-iversary to myself" post in August!) I was in serious need of some sort of creative outlet. I had gotten so swept up in the events of my life that summer, and I realized that I was in dire need of a place to think out loud. Yes, yes, I know... that's what friends are for. But that's not the only thing friends are for, and friends deserve some respite from their roles as listeners sometimes. It's important to me to be able, as best I can, to lift myself up by my own boot straps and not wear down the people in my life... having fun is of utmost importance, always! (Though it must be noted that my friends and family are spectacular listeners and fun-havers, and I appreciate them MUCHO!) So, after a particularly lovely day in my life (see blog post numero uno), I started this here little blog. But what to call it?!

Maybe the hardest thing a person will ever do online is name a blog. All the good names are taken! Seriously, you have to get pretty stinkin' creative. Unless you have been blessed with an incredibly abnormal name (did you get beat up as a kid for it?) or you have a particular mastery of words, your chosen blog name will most assuredly already be taken. It didn't take long for me to realize that any name that made any sense to anyone else was going to be nearly impossible to obtain. So, I thought about what in my life is a sweet memory. What are things I do that make me smile, even though they're really nothing to smile about? I strive to see the small things in life from which I can derive happiness... and then it hit me.

Bubble dishes!

When I was small, I would help my mom with bubble dishes. You know, after a home cooked meal, the pots and pans haven't washed themselves. So what do you do? You put a stopper in the sink, pour in some soap, and turn on the warm water. And what do you get? That's right! A sink full of bubbles! And what do you put in that sink? This dishes! My mom calling them "bubble dishes" was so much more alluring and fun than what they actually were: dirty dishes that needed the grime scrubbed off of them. But wouldn't it be great if we always tried to look at things that way? Even the grimiest days can have a little spark of fun in them. So I went with it. "Bubble Dishes it shall be!", I thought. And it was so.

And last night after dinner when I was staring at my stack of dishes to be washed (like always because I don't have a dishwasher), I had to smile and plunge straight into that sink full of bubble dishes.

love always <3

A German Language bit of awesomeness

Balletttanzerin

(Ballet dancer)

Schifffahrt

(A travel by ship)

Rollläden

(A type of window blinds)

Fitnessstudio

(Fitness Studio)

Nussschnecken

(Pastry, rolled like a cinnamon roll or "snail")

German is not my mother tongue; therefore, as I learn it, I can find many things about the language that make no sense and that frustrate me to no end. Perhaps my favorite thing about the German language however, nay, perhaps the BEST thing that happens in this language is the triple letter. The Germans tend to combine many words into one very long word that means something else. Very rarely, the combined words are such that 3 of the same letter get put next to each other. So far as I can tell, this phenomenon does not occur in the English language. But it's the greatest, and, English Language, I have a recommendation for you. Be more like German, and put a silly amount of the same letter together in your words! It's so fun! I always keep my eyes out for these word delicacies. Fitnessstudio is the most recent find, and the collection of awesome words is growing, slowly but surrrely (see, wouldn't it be more fun if that were really spelled with 3 r's?!).

love always.

Gebrunching

There are so many funny things happening in my life right now. The thing is, they're not really funny things like roll-on-the-floor-and-die-laughing funny but more like "what the WHAT is going on right now" funny. My program here has a saying: "It's not good, it's not bad, it's just different." Yeah. Hit the nail on the head with that one. I like to sit and think of it's-not-good-it's-not-bad's. Like, it's not good, it's not bad, it's just that the lack of time given to a shopper to pack up their food at the grocery store after a purchase before the next person's food starts getting shmooshed into yours... is just different. For me, it gives me a heart attack. I have not yet aquired German efficiency with things like paying for and packing up my groceries.

One of my funnies is some new vocab from my language class. I hope particularly that this appeals to my DC people because that city is particularly fond of having brunch. In German, you have "der Brunch". This is a noun. Ok. However, this is also a verb. "ich brunche" is the act of presently brunching. "I'm brunching", bascially. You can also have already brunched, past tense. "ich habe gebruncht". Gebruncht? Did you gebrunch today? I didn't gebrunch today. I might brunch tomorrow. I don't know why this entertains me so, but it really, really does.

I'm finding that I learn best when laughing or singing. I think this is not a widely accepted way to learn in Germany. When I'm being really serious and trying really hard all day long to improve, it seems like I learn 2 words and then immediately lose one I had already known. COME ON ALREADY. Can't I just skip straight to the fluency part? I'm going to start throwing up articles, prepositions, and pronouns here soon, probably.

The bees here are really aggressive. Like, REALLY aggressive. It's disconcerting at best. I think they could be like Hitchcock's "The Birds" if they really wanted to. Don't tell them though because with their level of aggression and their German bee efficiency, I think we'd be conquered quickly over here.

That is all. Have a wunderschoen weekend!

Attention Doughnut Luvahs

Today is Friday. I love Fridays. Today is also, I just learned, National Doughnut Day. Does this make it the greatest Friday of the year? No, because I was in Hawaii on a Friday this year, but still, today is in the running.

I went for a swim this morning and do you know, I hadn't been in the pool in two and a half weeks. I have been so stinkin' busy that I have put that at the bottom of my to-do list. I'm not going to let it slip that far down my list of priorities ever again. It just makes me feel so  g o o d. And so happy. And sometimes inadequate, which I must admit I don't hate entirely because it gives me motivation to improve.

I am quickly running out of DC days. Panic that I won't have enough time to do everything is setting in. I will probably just accept sleep as a my lowest priority and be as busy with fun shenanigans as I can possibly be.

And can I just say, to the hobo who resides mainly outside of the Exxon on 2nd and Mass... Thank you for always keeping me up to date on what day of the week it is and for reminding me to not go skinny dipping. You're right, today is Friday and I probably shouldn't go skinny dipping. After all, this is an urban area, not a secluded beach. I'm pretty sure that skinny dipping in the whirlpool next to the workout pool would get me promptly kicked out and asked to please not come back. And you know, I will enjoy the weekend. Hopefully you enjoy yours, too. You always look so footloose when on your neighborhood bike rides with your hair blowing in the breeze.

the little things i love about dc #1

there are so many reasons that i love dc. there are a few reasons why i really don't like dc either, and at some point before i leave, i'll touch on those too. but i have a bit of a crush on so many of the quirky, unique things about this city. my time here is coming to an end, so from time to time between now and the soggy, tearful, heart-wrenching day that i drive out of the city, i'll explain to you just what it is about dc that has won my heart. here are just 5 out of the many...

• the old man who lives across the street from me who, on every warm night in the city, walks his little old dog (of which i am not a fan-- it's small and kind of hates other people and especially hates people on longboards). they walk very slowly down the sidewalk together while the little old man sips on what i can only assume is a glass of scotch and smokes a cigar. i can't recall ever not seeing him out on a warm evening, really.

• the small ratio of pigeons to human population of dc. most cities have an absurd number of these winged creatures. birds put me on edge, and i consider pigeons to be city rats in the sky (or circling the sidewalk cafe table and hoping for a croissant crumb to scavenge- not happening, ya filthy bird!). in venice, italy, i about died of a heart attack in the piazza san marco where the world's pigeon to human ratio must be about 100:1. but dc has a really manageable amount of pigeons, and i really appreciate it for that.

• speaking of sidewalk cafes, in dc you can get food from anywhere in the world. seriously, name a country! name a region! name a continent or city! and i bet you can find the cuisine to match. maybe it's like this in all cities. i don't know. but as someone who adores traveling- nay, craves traveling, i like being able to know that at least my taste buds can go on a trip even if i'm stuck in this concrete jungle (except it is more like a marble or granite jungle, and not so much a jungle because of the building ordinances but more like a thicket or shrubbery).

• the capitol. i love the capitol. i love that i can go wander around the capitol and soak in its beauty on a tough work day. i love everything about that building. and my very favorite? the mint green corridor outside of the senate chamber. it's just so dang pretty. natural light enters through a window, and no tours go through there. it's generally empty save for the capitol police stationed there or the occasional hurried staffer, milling member of the press, or senator. ooo-ie! if only i could pocket it up and take it with me when i go. it breaks my little dc heart thinking about the fact that i will not be invited (and would be probably tackled or something if i tried) to be back there once i am no longer an employee. oh, frown. 

the delectable minty green-ness of the corridor

• my address. my cute, little, old, classic capitol hill rowhouse. it used to be a carriage house. horses used to ride right into the first floor of my home (we're talking over a hundred years ago here people)! i love the house number. i love that it's blue. i love each roommate i've ever had there (george, noor, courtney, jenny... that means you!). i love that i have good landlords. i love that it is impossible to combat the abundance of mint that takes over my garden in the backyard. i love that i even have a backyard (err... back patio, actually). i love the neighbor man who sometimes brings our trash and recycling bins back up to our fence. i love the winery tiles as the backsplash in our kitchen by the stove. i just lurve it all, and chances are good that i'll cry like a small child when i have to leave it.

my little house during snowmaggedon 2010!

i could go on and on about what makes life here so good. i will go on and on about all of it but only in installments of 5 at a time so that i don't overwhelm you with feelings on things. does my lack of capitalization today overwhelm you? i'm really enjoying not using my 'shift' key.

love always <3

noun \ˈblis\ 1 : complete happiness

Yesterday I came home from an after-work swim, and my roommate's girlfriend looked at me and said that I seemed just completely

b l i s s f u l

And you know what? I am.

I have had a series of wonderful trips and adventures this Spring. I was in Hawaii, took a rejuvenating trip to Phoenix, and this past Sunday Emma and I drove out to Assateague Island to spend the day on the beach. My skin looks like it's been kissed by the sun. The ocean puts my soul at ease, and the sand I had stuck to my toes all the way back to DC was like a cherry on top. I believe to my very core that I was made for sun and sand and salty oceans. Nothing seems to really bring peace to my mind quite like the ocean on a sunny day can. Here are some pictures of our Zen day...

Assateague Island National Seashore

Zen Zone

Sebastian the ladybug kept us company all day

Ballet on the beach

Run like the wind!

"This is why we're friends"

Someone left their mother's day rose outside the outhouse...
sometimes it's the little things.

Wild horses met us at the exit to bid adieu to a lovely day

I hope you find yourself feeling blissful today, too. Love always.

**sorry for the re-post of this. I messed up the labels, and it was driving me crazy. Now it'll probably drive me crazy that my posts are out-of-order by date. Ah well...

3.14 elves enjoying life

As I walked home from work last night, I passed a car parked along the side of the road that had the license plate "NJOY LF". Don't mind if I do. Thanks for the reminder, car! It was parked next to a tree that, during the Christmas season, had a little Christmas elf-type-thing on it that cracked me up.

Then, walking down the same street on my way to work this morning, I realized that one of the houses, 314, has a symbol of pi above their door instead of using the typical Western Arabic numerals "314". Nerdy but also awesome. Look, I drew pi for you!

Although, I think technically if they want to use Greek, the number should look more like this:

I like silly little things like the license plate, elf, and house number. Hopefully you're able to "NJOY" the little things, too. Love always.