Hello, World!

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I received a few complaints: (1) you don't tell us enough and/or you tell different people different parts of the story; (2) we have no idea what's going on in your life; and (3) you need to entertain us. Here's a try.

I am not the most communicative person in my family. Compound that with my living the furthest away (besides Uncle Tim, who has lived far away for years), and you get an uniformed family and a disconnected daughter. My family complained about me telling one person about my house warming party, one person of my renting a parking spot, and about buying my ticket for Christmas, but no one knows the entire story of my life. While I am not promising to post as consistently as I when traveling, I will try to be a bit more regular than the recent trend of two months.

Much time has passed since my last post. Then I was in the middle of training, having spent two weeks in Baton Rouge, returning to DC for two weeks, shooting down to Houston for two weeks, and concluding training once back in DC.

During my time in DC between Baton Rouge and Houston, Alex and I found our dream apartment. (Praise the Lord!) Our place is great, and (miraculously) it meets all of our criteria: it is located between Logan and Dupont Circles; is a five minute walk from the metro, four minutes from Alex's work, five minutes to my yoga studio, eight minutes from Uncle Tim's. It is a beautiful two-bed, one bath with hardwood floors and a few exposed brick walls. It is amazingly quiet to be in the middle of the city. Our building's view is one of the top ten in the city - you can see the Washington Monument, the White House, the National Basilica and the National Cathedral, the Air Force Memorial.. basically the entire city.

A brief history of our building, the Cairo. Built in 1894, the Cairo is the tallest residential building in DC and was the catalyst for the 1899 Heights of Buildings Act, which limits building heights within the city to this day. Around 1900, the building was named the Cairo Hotel and became the center of DC society for social and political gatherings with many high-profile guests as visitors. Per Wikipedia, the building had a bowling alley and a coffee shop, and in the 1940s hosted a party with 500 canaries singing from chandeliers in the main ballroom. Quite a show, I'm sure. However, the building was sold as a 267-room hotel in 1957 and began to decline in the 1960s. After becoming a haven for squatters, the building was sold, restored and converted to condominiums in 1979. Thank goodness. Now the condos are individually owned and rented.

the Cairo.

Our landlord bought this unit in 2003 and had it completely remodeled. It is great! Alex and I are fairly sure that it is a gem in the building. While the building is continually undergoing renovations (they are trying to restore the original terrazzo floor and our water system is being updated next week), our apartment is beautiful, and neighbors expressed surprise at ours relative to others they have seen (or live in). Drum roll, please! Here is the grand tour!!

living room. [hallway and front door are behind the camera.]

living room. [front door is at left edge of photo.]

photo wall close up.

 

housewarming gift from mom and dad and desi and jason.

our faux-fireplace.

close-up.

 

dining area. [we bought and hung these lights - ikea.]

kitchen. cooking together is interesting.. like a dance.

perfect spice rack.

hi mom and dad; hi ms. chica and mr. cornel.

great window desk.

 

our bathroom.

alex's room!

dos.

my room.

dos.

We could not ask or hope for a better place to live. Parking is not included, however, but (as mentioned above) I decided to rent a spot in a nearby garage for the winter months. As a Mississippi girl, I am VERY intimidated by all of this snow talk and think it best to completely avoid scraping ice off of my windshield for this first winter in the city. I rented the spot last weekend, and the stress of finding a spot has faded away. aaah.

In other news, I graduated from training. Finally!!!!! I cannot believe it. Have I described training, my new group and my position? If not, here is my best explanation. As a preface, my degree is in chemical engineering; I took a couple business classes (micro-econ, marketing, accounting). I trained from July 19 until October 20 to be a lubricant salesperson. :-) Yes, lubricants. As in engine oils, transmission oils, and greases. You know, that stuff you have to get changed every 3,000 miles or so? Now that I have successfully graduated from the sales training, I have entered a completely different function - marketing. So why train in sales? Sales is critical to marketing as every bit of material that marketing creates is seen, touched and used by the sales force. Without completely understanding what our customers want and expect, I cannot adequately market. The training class also exposed me to different areas of the company that I may not have seen by entering straight into the marketing function.

Okay, now that I've tried to explain that, let's cover my new job: digital advisor. Within the marketing group, I am in the communications team. Communications is responsible for everything that is released to the consumer public, whether that be TV or radio commercials, magazine advertisements, or even NASCAR sponsorships. Further, within communications, digital encompasses internet advertisements, websites, and social media such as YouTube and Facebook. Basically, I have the fun job - the unchartered territory, the experimental area. I am SO excited to finally have a desk and a function. Although my list of responsibilities is somewhat blurry around the edges, I am learning more and more each day. Yay for communications. And, yes, I have a lot of training to do - remember: I have only taken one marketing class. Ever.

That's the brief on my new apartment and new job. That is not all that has transpired in the last two months - but it's a start. Perhaps I will fill in the spaces sooner this time..