DISCLAIMER: This week was rough. No fun pictures, just banter of a frustrated girl.

Conveniently this week my laptop’s wireless decided to die. I will keep the name of the maker of said laptop anonymous, for their protection, but I was VERY upset. So, on President’s Day, I had the pleasure of going to the Apple store in Pentagon City. Now I’ve gone MAC and probably... will never go back. MacBooks are pretty nifty so I am glad to own one. They come with a slew of programs for all kinds of different things, which is pretty convenient.

The aftermath of PANDASNOWDIUM (Ha...ha) 2010 is seemingly finally settled. Metro Rail and Bus seems to be running back to normal. I went back to work for a whole full week, except for President’s Day. This week has been all about catching up at work: because the government was closed and we couldn’t do any work, we were subsequently pushed back an entire week with the projects we are working on. The scope of my responsibilities at USMS has grown larger, which is fine with me! I really am enjoying administrative work, but at the same time, I know that it’s something that I could not possibly do for the rest of my life. My campus liaison from my college came on Friday and we just went over what’s been going on, how I’ve been doing, and the usual line of questioning concerning my internship and time down here in general.

This week, we also went back to classes for the second time. My class, Essentials for Aspiring Leaders, is great! Professor Keaton is extremely knowledgeable, and pleasant, and is one of the few professors who I have encountered in my college experience that really loves and is passionate about what he teaches. Our class has two main components: a midterm and a final project about a prospective leadership project. The two don’t seem too bad. I would rather complete projects or papers than take any sort of test, so I was relieved we don’t have a “final.”

I feel like the mailman from the Hey Arnold episode who says “I hate the snow, I hate the snow, man I sure do hate the snow.” Day 6 is in full swing of being snowed in. I actually miss working! Leaving early Friday was cool and all, but my roommates and I are definitely falling victim to cabin fever. You can only watch so many movies before your brain turns into soup. This is probably the most uneventful blog entry I have posted yet.

On Wednesday, one of my roommates, Melissa, and I decided to take a taxi across the bridge to the shopping center is that houses Target, Best Buy, and more. We went relatively early and managed to do all we needed to do in about an hour. We bought and rented some movies, and stocked up on some delicious junk food. The shelves were bare in Target, with only a small amount of groceries, milk, and bread remaining. In Best Buy, there was fortunately a bunch of movies that were still there. We managed to pick up a few, and caught our taxi back here. The rest of my day consisted of sitting around, watching movies, and twiddling my thumbs. Last night we watched The Stepfather, which just came out on DVD, courtesy of RedBox. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it, and it was only PG-13.

During the movie the miraculous men of Peapod, our grocery delivery finally arrived! I had been waiting for them since Thursday so I was EXTREMELY pleased to receive all of my food! I almost forgot what real chicken tastes like. They were super nice and brought all of my groceries up to my room. They do this service in a few states, so if you ever have a chance, check it out! It’s really convenient (when there isn’t a blizzard ruining your delivery time).

Also, during our cabin fever induced week/weekend/week, my roommate Natalie baked us all a Valentine’s cake. It was delicious and super cute!

Today (Thursday) the four of us went to see Dear John. While I liked it, it was of course different than the book, which was written by Nicholas Sparks. Afterwards, we did a Target run and ended up back at our apartment. Tomorrow we actually get to go to work! I never thought I would be so excited to do such a thing.

…My apologies for such a dry entry. I wanted to do some sightseeing but Mother Nature planned otherwise. Hopefully this weekend the Metro will be in full swing, just in time for Valentine’s Day and Presidents Day!

Week 2...

At times, I find myself forgetting to breathe. That would be the best way to describe my second week here in the nation’s capital. The sights, the sounds, the smells (good and bad) and the like have been like an overload on my senses and my head. This week in particular has been pretty hectic. At my internship I have started working on a project which really involves people all over the US. It’s interesting to contact people and places all over, most that I haven’t even heard of. I really enjoy my department, Human Resources, and all of the people I work with and my fellow interns on the floor. It really feels like we have some sort of weird family formation going on.

This past weekend it snowed down here in Alexandria and all over the Metro area. It was extremely pretty to see, as the whole area seems to practically hush and become silent instantly. It made our night out a little bit slushier (and messier), but it was definitely nice!

A group of us managed to make it out to Hawk N Dove on Pennsylvania Ave in the city. It’s an 18+ place that caters to everyone. They have a bar, restaurant, and even a dance floor upstairs. On the particular night that we went, the upstairs was rented out by a local school’s fraternity party... So needless to say, we came back downstairs pretty quickly. No offense to any who may have been there, but we all just kind of felt a little “old” for the scene.

Sunday, our RA’s here decided to sponsor a trip to the Melting Pot. Of course, me being the dummy I am, I forgot my camera!!! We just did the appetizer fondue and dessert fondue, but that was enough food to fill me for three days. For appetizer, we chose spinach and artichoke fondue, cheddar with bacon, and a fiesta fondue. We received bread, vegetables, apples, and tortilla chips to dip in the pots. It was so good, and I guess if I had to choose a favorite I would go with the fiesta. It was almost like a hot queso dip, mmm! For dessert, we chose the plain milk chocolate, a chocolate with caramel and pecans, and a bananas foster fondue. The bananas foster was easily the best. For dipping, we got cheesecake, fruit, marshmallows, cake, etc. All in all it was really awesome to see our food “cooked” before us and was good to go out and see some of the city.

This week we had a special speaker from the Secret Service as part of our Law and Criminal Justice programming. He was really a nice guy, and from what he talked to us about it seems like he has really seen a lot of the world. I had never considered Secret Service as a possible career, but from what he said it really seems like a possibility. He even took questions from us, and I had a chance to ask him one. All in all, it was pretty informative and awesome to hear from someone who has actually lived some of the history we have read about. Kudos to TWC for selecting him!

We also had classes cancelled for TWC on Tuesday because of the potential snow. We did get more snow, and it was even more gorgeous the second time around. Now we are all anticipating anywhere from 5-36 inches this weekend, YIKES! It seems pretty convenient that all of this snow just happens to come every weekend. Hopefully it doesn’t interfere too much this weekend...