Close Encounters of the Me Kind

So after a long weekend at home in Richmond, I made the dubious decision to drive back on Labor Day. “But Carrie”, I can hear you thinking, “why is that a dubious decision? Doesn’t that give you a whole extra day at home?” That it does, but it also puts me on 95 north with approximately twice the number of idiots that are usually on 95-North between Richmond and Alexandria.

After multiple loud curses, almost accidents, and unnecessarily held up traffic, I decided to come up with a list to help those attempting to navigate the 100 miles between Richmond and Alexandria without a migraine. I call it “Signs You May Be in the Wrong Lane.”

1. Are you not passing anyone? Are you in any lane but the far right hand lane? You may be in the wrong lane.
2. Have more than 2 people passed you on the right? You may be in the wrong lane.
3. Are multiple people passing you on both sides? You may be in the wrong lane.
4. Have you just changed lanes for no apparent reason? You may be in the wrong lane.
5. Are you going the speed limit and have no lanes between you and the median? You may be in the wrong lane.

There are only 5. That should be easy for anyone to remember. So the next time you find yourself on that 100 mile stretch going north between Richmond and Alexandria, keep these in mind and you’ll save yourself, and many others, a migraine or two hundred.

In less than two hours, I will officially be 26 years old. If I could talk to the 10-year old me, I would call me “old.” I know better now. I am no where near “old,” although I truly do believe that to be a state of mind. However, I have officially lived for a quarter of a century. And, looking back over the past year, I can honestly say that I’m not sad to see it end.

25 wasn’t a bad year; it wasn’t a good year, but it wasn’t a bad year. But it was, arguably, the hardest year of my life. It was the year I moved out, moved away, lived on my own. Sure, I’ve had my own place before, but it was shared with 3 other girls. Now, I live alone for all intents and purposes.
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Since I no longer really use my car (thank you Metro), I no longer really listen to the radio. I do use, and adore, Pandora but never at home and only use it as background sound at work. All of this means that I rarely hear new music anymore. But you know where I’ve started hearing new, good music? The grocery store. Who knew?

The two songs that I can’t get out of my head that I heard while grocery shopping are Ben Lee’s “Catch My Disease” (a title that makes me cringe, by the way) and Parachute’s “She is Love.”

“She is Love” is a very sweet song and it’s my new go-to when I’m in a girly, romantic mood — and the band is easy on the eyes, which is nice. But the video looks like every other video I’ve seen lately, so this is a song I listen to rather than watch.

“Catch My Disease,” however, is amazing. I can’t stop watching it. It looks like the most fun video every made for what has to be a budget of $5. There are children’s toys, including a hula hoop and tiny piano. The big dance number is the electric slide. Lee double dutches with his guitar at one point. I can’t get enough of this video actually.

So now that I’ve discovered the grocery store as a place to hear new music, maybe I won’t dread that weekly chore so much anymore.

This is it. This is the week I get excited for all year. Next week is Beach Week. Not your normal, raucous, drink your face off beach week such as many college students experience over Spring Break. No no no no no. This is my yearly family reunion with my dad’s side of the family.

There’s  20 members of my dad’s family and I think that there will be 15 of us in attendance throughout the week. There will be lots of games as there will be 2 under the age of 6. There will be a good amount of drinking, especially since my Uncle will most definitely be bringing the blender for his world-famous margaritas.

I will be using this week to take many walks on the beach, hopefully taking some bike rides (if I can find a rental place since I love mine too much to expose it to the sea air), and reading as much as I can. In preparation, I’ve picked up a few books to bring along. Three to be specific.

• The Battle for America 2008
• A Little History of the World
• My Life in France

Now I just have to not finish them before I get there.

Disclaimer: This will be a long post as it was a particularly adventurous weekend. I would also like to point out that it will sound like I’m whining. I am not. I had a fabulous time with fabulous people, even if a series of misadventures occured. And, honestly, I can’t wait to do it again. Enjoy!

This weekend I went on a 2-day, 25 mile canoe and camping trip with my friends Mike, Rick, Susan, James, Trystan, and Catherine. I have not been canoeing or camping in 8 years. Just as an FYI.

Friday night we spent at Mike’s house in Winchester, VA because it was closer to where we were putting in. Problem was that no one had seen each other in a while and we didn’t get there til like 9 or 10 at night. So that’s when everyone started drinking. I went slow and ended up having a beer and a small rum and coke (which is important cause most everyone else had at least twice that amount, plus shots) during the 2 games of kings we played. Literally we didn’t go to bed til 2:30 or so. I would have gone to bed earlier but my bed was a couch that you could see from the dining room table where we were playing so it would have been pointless.

We go to bed at 2:30 and get up at 7:30. I am almost dead especially since the only coffee they have is half-caf. For shame. We get up, get packed, and get on the road. We stop at Target to get last minute supplies (where we lost Mike and James for a good 20 minutes) and McDonalds to get breakfast (where they almost lost us when the drive through was slow with our order) (side note: when did McDs start putting nutritional information on their sandwich wrappers. Yay for full disclosure but I really didn’t need to know the fat content of my sausage and egg McMuffin thank you very much) before we get to the river. (more…)

The title sounds incredibly new-agey and kind of silly, but, for me, finding a little zen in my day to day life is the only thing that keeps me sane. Those of you who know me may take issue with that statement, but just think how crazy I *could* be. Scary no?

Let’s be clear what I mean by zen. It’s not sitting on an open patch of grass in Franklin Square park, legs crossed, chanting. It’s not praying. For you, it could be those things. For me, though, it’s a feeling I get in my chest that reassures me that, no matter what, whatever is stressing me out is only temporary. It’s a feeling that there’s something bigger going on here that I really have no control over and, here’s the important part, that’s OK.

Now, as a 25 year old professional woman, it’s really hard to not get caught up in my world every day. But there are some things that I go to again and again to get this feeling, fleeting though it may be.

Today seems to be a stress inducing day for everyone I know so I thought now would be a good time to share. In no particular order:

1. I got this video from a tweet from ABC’s Ann Curry and, with or without sound, it has a soothing effect on everyone I’ve sent it to.
2. My friend Hunter is spending some time teaching in English in Burkina Faso. He has a great blog about faith and life that inspires me every time I read it.
3. Cooking. Just the act of creating something coherent out of completely disparate ingredients is enough to get me out of any stress mode that I am in. In the absence of a stove, such as when I’m at work, I like to peruse Simply Recipes. The photography, stories, and recipes are amazing.

Well, there’s my midday take on zen and the art of being 25. I promise the snark will return next time.

*Disclaimer* I pick on Republicans in this post and apologize for that. I know the Democrats have their fair share of “experts” as well, but none came easily to mind and this was an off the cuff rant. Please feel free to leave your examples in the comments section! Also, links to come later.

Mainly it boils down to this, it makes “experts” out of people that really aren’t. Remember Joe the Plumber? The plumber, without a license, who made national news with his “analysis” of then Candidate Obama’s tax plan? Well, he’s now saying he won’t run for elected office because “God told [him] not to.” Does that sound like the kind of person we need tax plan analysis from? No? I didn’t think so.

Then there’s the propensity of 24-hour news channels to think that the heads of the Democratic and Republican parties are knowledgeable “experts” on every topic under the sun. Take Michael Steele (side note: here I am trying to resist the old “No, really, take him” joke, and obviously failing miserably). His speech at the National Press Club drew directly, word for word from a prepared messaging memo. Does this sound like an “expert” to you?

Finally, there’s what I just witnessed on CNN. Wolf Blitzer interviewing Rudy Giuliani about health care reform with the crawl “Health care reform bill terrifying.” No specification on screen about WHICH health care reform bill, which would have been helpful. And I didn’t realize Rudy Giuliani was an elected member of Congress and had any influence over the process. Oh, wait, he’s not? Oh, then he must have some sort of intense background in health care that I didn’t know about. Wait, he doesn’t? He’s also just regurgitating GOP talking points? Ooooooh. I get it now. He’s an “expert.”

Why aren’t we talking to Orrin Hatch, who walked out on the Senate Finance Committee negotiations due to concerns? Why don’t we talk to him about what he finds “terrifying” about reform? Or could we talk to the health care reform expert at the Heritage Foundation about their concerns? They must have more in-depth knowledge than Mr. Giuliani; it’s what they do all day!

All I’m saying is there are REAL experts you could talk to; not just people who will tell you the same thing that’s been said elsewhere, sometimes in the same words! Or, and here’s an even better idea, you could use your 24 hour format to cover ALL the news, not just one subject on an endless loop. Then, maybe, we’ll never again end up seeing 24 hour coverage of the deaths of Michael Jackson or Anna Nicole Smith type celebrities again.

After stumbling across a post on The Frisky (aka the best site ever) dedicated to what we miss about childhood summers, I was inspired to come up with my own list on this slow Friday afternoon. So, in the theme of elementary school essays, I present you with “What I Miss About Summer.”

1. Day long trips to the neighborhood pool that involved games such as Marco Polo and “Who can swim the farthest underwater.”
2. Riding your bike super fast down the huge hill in the middle of the day.
3. Amusement parks. Need I say more?
4. The sense that things would change at the end of those three magical months. (Yep, blantantly ripping off one of the commentors on the original article, but this is the thought that inspired this post.)
5. Flip-flops. Oh, wait, I’m wearing those now. Nevermind.
6. Getting your entire face sticky from trying to eat popsicles before they melted.
7. Camp.
8. Having absolutely nothing to do in the middle of the day and not caring because it was so hot.

What about you? What do you miss most about summer?

Yes, I’ve blogged about the various wonders of Twitter but it never ceases to amaze me. For instance, did you know that political journalists could have *gasp* a sense of humor?  Some of the priceless gems that I’ve learned:

• News of protestors during the second day of the Sotomayor hearing via Mike Madden (@mikemadden) of Salon.com through the tweet “When old white guys attack: #Sotomayor hearings, day two”
• “Things I learned today: Teddy Roosevelt knew jujitsu and once detached a retina while wrestling” from Christina Bellantoni (@cbellantoni) of the Washington Times
• Technical difficulties plague even the White House from Mark Knoller (@markknoller) of CBS News “The plunge of the TelePrompTer screen confirmed the presence of gravity in the Eisenhower Executive Office Bldg adjacent to the WH.” Also, “the TelePrompTer screen actually broke into a number of pieces when it hit the floor. no injuries, except WH communications agency’s pride.”
• How to be antisocial at public events from Air America’s Ana Marie Cox (@anamariecox): “At a fancy media event at the new DC, W, trying to avoid talking to people. Twitter remarkably effective for this.”
• Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) of ABC News clued me in to the #draftfirstmovies First Rule of Fight Club: “The first rule of Fight Club is: please turn off your cell phones and blackberries, or at least put them on vibrate.” #firstdraftmovies (for Twitter newbies — the # before a phrase lets people easily search for different topics. So with the #firstdraftmovies, Twitter users were coming up with what they thought were humorous, potential first drafts of famous movie lines) (more…)

So lately I’ve been feeling disconnected, which is strange because I have amazing friends. But I figured out what the problem is. While I have this amazing amalgamation of friends, I no longer have a group of friends.

I have dispersed groups of friends. There is a group of about 8-10 close friends that I have from high school but they live in Richmond, Norfolk, Blacksburg, Manassas, Chicago. I have a group of even more friends from college but they live in Massachusetts, West Virginia, Reston, Pennsylvania, Virginia Beach. Needless to say, getting the gang together is a bit of a feat and only really happens over the holidays or at weddings.

I have yet to find a group, emphasis on group, to hang out with in DC. Don’t get me wrong. I have amazing friends, but they’re all individuals. Many of them don’t really know each other and I rarely hang out with more than one person at a time.

This is a new phenomenon for me. I’m not saying it’s good or bad; it’s just different. And I think it’s illustrative of a common fact of growing up: friendships are harder to come by.

When you’re young, something so small as having the same favorite color or the same pencil or a shared enemy in the playground bully is enough to inspire people to become BFFs, complete with sleepovers, hours long phone conversations, and necklace exchanges. When you’re in your mid-20’s, things seem to get a little more difficult.

Someone once told me that your boundaries are beginning to harden at that age. Routines are setting in and you’re much less likely to reach out to new people if you have no other connection to them. Sure, there are exceptions to this rule, as there are to all rules, but unless there is a strong connection or a true shared passion, making new friends at 25 is one of the most difficult things I think you can attempt.

All things considered, I think I’m doing quite well. Amber and Carolyn, Chrissy and Sarah, Melanie and James have all become good friends and are all amazing people, but only 2 or 3 of them hang out with each other as well.

Maybe my expectations are too high. Maybe I’m trying to fit a circle situation into a square mentality. Maybe the fact that this realization hit me at 10 PM on the downslope of an amazing weekend with my college group of friends means I shouldn’t give it as much weight as I am. Whatever it is, making friends at 25 is a completely different experience than making friends at 10, 15, or 20. And I’m just learning the ropes.